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Congratulations @JacobJHC on passing 500+ subscribers on your gameplay channel, ah the sweet smell of success! Its good of you to drop by and share your celebratory mission with the K-Prize challenge, so thanks and welcome back. Down to business, THICC BOI is the exceedingly large kerbal transporter you built and flew in a well documented and extensive mission to Laythe and Minmus making use of multiple flybys and aerobraking maneuvers to slingshot its way there and back earning the extraordinary kudos of double Astrokerbal Distinctions including one with the highly regarded Expeditionary~ prefix for landing on Laythe, as well as the much sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning safely to Kerbin complete with parachute assisted landing on KSC runway. In addition the K-Prize committee awarded a discretionary That's Entertainment award for services to showbusiness! So thanks for your mission report and welcome back to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

If it does not alter the flight characteristics of stock KSP its fine @JacobJHC, rigidity does not count towards lift etc so is deemed by the K-Prize committee to be within the spirit of the the K-Prize rules.

Congratulations @Krazy1 on earning a Utilitarial Commendation with the innovative and carefully designed Klaw Plane 8, by retrieving a salvage payload and landing safely with it on Kerbin, as documented in your report and at Kerbalx. https://kerbalx.com/Krazy1/Kerbin-klaw-plane-8 Thankyou for your mission report and welcome to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

In which case congratulations on achieving the K-Prize mission objectives and earning the sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning from orbit to land safely on the KSC runway. Thanks for your mission report and welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour. OK sure, I have amended the rules to recognise salvage for Utilitarial kudos. Revised rules as follow.

@CalmLlama , thanks for sharing your screenshots. That looks like a nice pilot friendly spaceplane and I would like to award the K-Prize but cannot because ... not wishing to sound pedantic ... it can only be awarded for a report of a specific mission not for a craft. Saying that a craft has these capabilities is not the same as saying it actually flew a mission and how it achieved the K-Prize challenge objectives. I hope that makes sense. Also a name for the craft would help, though I can make one up if you like! All you need to do is add a little text documenting a mission flown.

If you mean stock DLC from Squad then all stock parts for all the parts of the released game are OK. See rule #3 in the OP. Stock Wolfhounds are very useful. If you mean a mod part then its OK if it is a graphical mod. If the mod changes stock physics characteristics for lift or drag etc then any mission including it is not eligible for a K-Prize because one point of the K-Prize challenge is to encourage comparisons which are meaningless if you can use mod parts with exaggerated performance. Since clipping and widgit use are part of the stock build experience anything you can make using these is valid.

KSP was primarily designed a physics sim and not as a resource game. Its appeal lies in doing what NASA does. Resources are a good addition to the gameplay. You risk smothering the physics sim if you get carried away with additional mechanics but where they contribute to the feeling of being like NASA I think its worth doing. I think science is indispensable as a mission objective in KSP. The way that provides tangible results to the player is open for discussion. Though I suspect the mechanics for KSP2 are already specced, there is the potential for mods to adapt the gameplay and there is always KSP3 ! The nature of research in the real world which begat NASA is curiosity, which asks questions and experimentation, which answers them. People dont really do this because they are paid, but they get paid for it because it is valuable. Also you dont get better engines because you examined a moon rock in the real world and that is one of the shortcuts in the KSP model. When science first became part of KSP I have to admit I felt it was not what I was expecting. It takes a resource model and applies it directly to research points which is a fun gamification because it gives you mission objectives and encourages exploration. If we were going to be realists with KSP then IMHO you could set it up with a 4X style research directorate which uses funds to commission research which takes time to complete. You would use the mission test sytem to test less optimal prototype parts and accelerate the process of researching and perfecting them and personally I would also like to see iterative research as opposed to innovative research, where you can improve the specs of an existing part like improved engine ISP or lower weight or better thermal protection or even scale it up or down, which is what prototype testing would represent only to reach a preset design, thereafter you could improve a part spec with more iterative research. (EDIT you could even have an engine testing microgame where the player adjusts intermix to develope an engine with particular thrust/ISP attributes which can then be added to the engines tab in the VAB like a regular engine.) I also think the research tree could be structured with tech development in mind with lines of cockpits of different scales and crew capacity for example following on from each other in a distinct line of research as opposed to being bundled in with other parts. Each part type requiring iterative improvement to gain better attributes like thermal resistance or bigger batteries etc. It would also be nice to see technology research which would represent breakthroughs like lithium batteries or LED lights, applying across all relevant parts and improving charge capacity or reduce weight or reduce power use for parts which store charge or create light respectively. In that scenario, the current research resource model could be repurposed as location research for colonisation support and used to unlock the potential for establishing successful colonies in a given location, which in turn would allow the completion of more adventurous missions in that location which would earn money which could then be used on researching engineering parts. 2c

Congratulations @OutInSpace on completing the K-Prize challenge successfully with the Hope-class SSTO using a whiplash and twin LV-N nuclear engines with innovative strake arrangements and a closely attended ascent profile, which earned the praiseworthy Advanced Pilot Precision Award and the highly regarded Utilitarial Commendation for delivering a satellite to low Kerbin orbit with the Hope-class SSTO and returning safely to land on KSC runway. Thanks for your mission report video and welcome to the K-Prize roll of honour, aka the K-Prize party guest list.

You can legitimately show it if you complete the mission but you have to copy it into your sig manually. You can just copy/paste the jpeg into your signature box which is accessible in settings via the little triangle beside your forum name at the top right of the page. See first post for the link to the full set of badges by Waffles Too.

Looks great @Prat4545 Congratulations are in order for completing the K-Prize challenge with the capable looking heavy lifter spaceplane Sacure VII, with special kudos of the Astrokerbal Distinction for landing on Minmus and the Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing safely on KSC runway, second time lucky, well flown! Thanks for your mission report and welcome to the roll of honour, aka the K-Prize party guest list.

You dont need to land at KSC, Kerbin will do but you can earn special kudos for certain accomplishments. Challenge and rules are in the first post. See rule #2. Congratulations to @AllenLi on completing the K-Prize mission with the compact but effective Tiny SSTO. I haved linked your mission report on the front page roll of honour and the K-Prize committee have awarded a Pilot Proficiency Medal (PPM) as kudos based on your report that you did not land on the runway and the screenshots which show the craft on flat KSC terrain but not on the runway. Just so you know, taxiing to the runway would be considered OK for the runway award, if the craft is that close and still has the fuel to taxi then it is deserved. If the craft stops anywhere on KSC "tarmac" then it counts as runway. If you want to add further taxiing info to your report let me know (as you said you taxied over bumps) and I may be able to revise the kudos, though the PPM is a rare award for the reason that taxiing is allowed, so it has novelty value chic! Thanks for your mission report and welcome to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

Looks a very approachable and friendly art style and passing on key knowledge makes a lot of sense. There were a few concepts which took me a while to figure out and learn the coordination to do without too much thinking (thank goodness for pause and F5). After learning how to oversteer/sum vectors to allow corrective burns in Newtonian travel IMHO the most important key skill in KSP was how to reverse! By which I mean, how, just as with reversing a car you have to counter steer when approaching a target in retrograde orientation which is the key skill to enable rendezvous and docking and planet surface landings which has to be done with a retrograde orientation. If you can teach people how to do that using the navball in a tute (i.e. corrective burn in retrograde orientation pushes the retrograde vector marker away, hopefully towards the target, as opposed to prograde burns which pull the vector towards the craft orientation) then I think they will be over a major hump that is hard to fathom intuitively and I imagine will have been a stumbling block for many. Good luck!

Congratulations @Nantares on designing and building a powerful and compact SSTO spaceplane with a novel wing form and also on taking NA-SP 31A on a free return excursion around the Mün and surviving several aerobraking passes to land safely on Kerbin at KSC runway with fuel to spare. For which feat you have earned the highly regarded Kosmokerbal Commendation as well as the sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award, as noted and linked on the front page. Thanks for participating and sharing a comprehensive mission report in the form of a video. Please feel free to share any data, models, tips etc as you see fit . There is no requirement to do so as the K-Prize welcomes all participants and mission reports in whatever form they prefer, on the honour system. Welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

Congratulations @DRAG0Nmon on completing the K-Prize challenge and thankyou for sharing your mission report with the thread. I used the name ExSpace Vegas 2 from the imgur report for the front page link. If you want it shortened etc say so and it can be arranged. This capable looking passenger craft successfully reached orbit and returned to land safely at KSC runway, thereby commendably earning the kudos of an Advanced Pilot Precision Award and shortening the walk to the cafeteria for all kerbals on board. Welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour. Thanks again to @WafflesToo for creating the colourful K-Prize badge which all K-Prize achievers are entitled to display as they see fit.

Thanks for your well narrated edge-of-seat mission report video dramatically demonstrating the gravity assist and aerobraking techniques which took Long-Range Prototype Spaceplane to Minmus and safely back to KSC runway @Gaming Kraken earning the highly regarded and much sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award as well as the coveted Astrokerbal Distinction. Congratulations on completing the K-Prize and welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour! Thankyou especially for respecting the spirit and the rules of the K-Prize. I should state clearly for aspiring future participants that the intention has always been that all Kerbin space center runways are valid destinations for the Advanced Pilot Precision Award. Since the rules previously referred to KSC only and clarification was buried somewhere deep in the thread referring to the Island Site before alternatives were introduced, I have amended the rules for unambiguity and swapped KSC for the more inclusive descriptor "space center". So thanks for referring to that. My bad, should have done it ages ago!

Well then, congratulations are in order @arctangent on completing your ambition and the K-Prize mission with the useful and cost effective early tech rescue space-plane Johnny Five. Landing safely on KSC runway demonstrating skills worthy of the added kudos of an Advanced Pilot Precision Award. So thanks for your mission report and welcome back to the K-Prize. (I have linked this mission just below your previous mission with Aleph III).

Congratulations to @TheFlyingKerman and @KingDominoIII on completing the K-Prize challenge successfully. In TheFlyingKerman's case fifteen times, all deserving utilitarial commendations for lifting useful payloads to Kerbin orbit and APPAs for landing safely on the KSC runway while one mission involving orbital docking earned the sought after APPA 1st class for the effective working spaceplane lifter HKA-6C. In KingDominoIII's case an exemplary first K-Prize mission earned the coveted Astrokerbal Distinction and APPA for landing on the Mün and returning safely to the KSC runway. Well flown both, thankyou for your mission reports and welcome (back) to the K-Prize party guest list, aka the roll of honour. Hope you had fun

Some say it looks like a walnut, I think it looks like a sherbet fizz ball, probably cola and vanilla. Does it make your tongue tingly when you lick it?

can confirm this is happening to me as well just as described in OP

Oooh! welding sparks in the VAB on adding a capsule at 4:29. Nice touch, I like it.

I agree with the point about not throwing the baby out with the bath water regarding a progression dynamic in career mode. I always play career mode because it makes you think and provides a challenge which gives a sense of accomplishment when you overcome a difficulty and gives you a sense of purpose. Currently I am playing with 10% science which makes for interesting dilemmas. That said I have long felt the key elements of career mode progression are at a pre-alpha level of refinement in KSP. The mission system is full of RND repetition instead of a structured and crafted progression. It needs to respond more to player accomplishments. The next big offender is the tech tree organisation. The unlocking mechanic is a good one but the arbitrary way parts are bundled together is a lost opportunity for a progression aesthetic. Most 4X games provide a better example of how to do this. The tech tree should tantalise the player. One part should lead to another, one engine to another engine etc and key abstract techs like composite materials or monocrystalline vapour deposition or high velocity heat exchangers etc should provide unlocks across multiple part progression trees. Lastly KSC buildings development progression is clunky. This could be refined to provide more meaningful choices about what to add to buildings in return for functionality, such as craft weight and part counts for example. I have been waiting a long time to say alll that, glad I finally got it off my chest!

I dont feel I know enough about the circumstances of the poaching to decide it was unacceptable. The facts I think I know (correct me if I am wrong) suggest Star Theory ran out of money and failed to live up to their promises, which in any other situation would be seen as breach of contract. In theory contracts exist to provide justice to the participants and Star Theory breaching is unfair on Private Division who invested an unknown large amount of money in the game which Star Theory took saying they would make the game and then came back saying they ran out of money and hadn't made it. They discussed royalties and a buy out, apparently looking for ways to fund Star Theory some more to complete the job. The talks broke down and reading between the lines I am of the opinion this was because Star Theory wanted more than Private Division were offering. As for ethics, if the Star Theory owners had given top priority to their employees' wellbeing and the game and their moral obligation to do their best for both and fulfill the contract as best they could, they would have sold the studio for a dollar and hoped for some consultation/admin work during the handover . IMHO it sounds like Berry and Mavor wanted more but were they justified? Star Theory did not invent KSP, it was dropped in their lap, though they did find KSP enthusiasts to do the work, who are the bone of contention. In the employment business finding the right people is worth money commensurate with the task of finding them and their salaries. For example head hunting and also temping agencies have stringent contracts which prevent temps being poached without a payout to the agency. So for this reason common sense justice would allow that Private Division did owe Berry and Mavor something for the studio because it was full of the right people and that didnt happen by chance but I doubt it balances the sums involved in hiring the studio in the first place. It sounds like Private Division had decided they would not reward failure and TBH I can see their point because there are examples of developers who waste huge amounts of money with little to show for it like Chris Roberts and Star Citizen. The point being it is too easy, even for experienced developers, to waste money in game development. TTI are a big company with a lot of affiliated developers via Private Division. If "indy" devs breaking contracts start to get more money not less, then you can imagine what Private Division imagine will happen, more developers will ask for more money beyond their contract terms. This suggests that the decision by Private Division to axe Star Theory was probably not just about the one game but about Private Division's entire portfolio and keeping fiscal discipline. IMHO that is understandable in the uncertain circumstances of the pandemic related recession and one wonders whether panic was a factor in these stressful times. While games production is likely to make more money not less during lockdown the question is what happens next in the wider economy. Its not the time for Private Division to be blowing wads of money on profligate producers. So it looks like they need to have rules and I can understand why they said no. If you say its not OK to rehire the KSP2 devs, it is effectively saying its OK for Star theory owners to gamble their employees job security to get a bigger slice of pie and use the game they were trusted with as leverage to do that, again using their employees as leverage because they are the best people to do the job right now. At this point I dont know which side, if any, was taking it too far, it depends on the sums involved and the conditions attached in the negotiations. Given they had just been in talks about how Star Theory was running on fumes Private Division could predict the subsequent dissolution of Star Theory reliably. It may seem like indecent haste but it made sense for the sake of rescuing KSP2 ASAP to contact the key people who were enthusiastic for KSP2 to let them know they could keep working on it before they found jobs somewhere else. Neither side come out of this looking good. It is our misfortune that the studio Private Division hired to make the game did not get their ducks in a row but its not reasonable to blame and stigmatise Private Division when it was Star Theory's mistake. Ethical decision making is full of fine lines. For example IMHO it was ethical to remove a statue of a slave trader during the BLM protests in Bristol UK. Its illegal, but IMHO it is ethical, the perps will have to face the law but they knew that when they did it and they are heroes in my eyes because they did not hurt anyone else or do it to cause criminal damage spitefully or loot from retail businesses or private premises greedily, they did it to right a wrong. Likewise I dont see offering the KSP2 devs jobs as entirely wrong, it was motivated by a desire to get the game back in production and mitigate a disciplinary necessity in deciding against funding Star Theory some more. It was not an act of theft against Star Theory, it was a necessity because Star Theory messed up and Private Division were trying to prevent Star Theory leeching money from Private Division to cover their own mistake. Not knowing the details, in my book the only thing Private Division are guilty of is being decisive and quick off the mark and they are paying a price for it on the PR front because people are transferring past grievances against Electronic Arts on to them without justification. Its a murky business but while I admit I dont know the whole story and vital details, on the whole I am glad they did it and if the key KSP2 devs are backing Private Division, I trust their judgement and wish them luck.

Congratulations @RoninFrog on completing the K-Prize mission once again, with the new and improved Pandemunium II, earning the kudos of an Advanced Pilot Precision Award and the highly regarded Astrokerbal Distinction for landing on the Mün and returning safely to KSC runway for refuelling. Thankyou for your mission report and welcome back to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list

Corporations are the new manifestation of tribal instincts, relatively speaking, corporate conflict is very civil, considering war and organised crime. The way anyone fights companies is with the law and if the law is unjust then you lobby to change the law until it is just, which is a WIP. The law allows what Private Division decided to do. I feel sorry though for the devs caught in between having to decide between their loyalty to their bosses of years and the game KSP2 and its legal owner. I feel very sorry for those who stuck with Star Theory only for it to be dissolved, that really sucks but I am grateful for those who moved and are ready and willing to carry on developing the game. I know some feel what PD did was unnecessarily aggressive. I think what troubles some gamers is the idea of financial priorities making the decisions behind games development, which inevitably has an impact on gameplay and usually ends up with the tail trying to wag the dog one way or another and microtransactions are just a kind of lightening rod for this distrust but not the only way things can go wrong. The market is the dog but some marketers will try to tell you what to like and gamers rightly wont be told, they will decide for themselves.

The good news is the development project is still intact and not being run by psychotics, probably. Unlike the fiasco of Sword of the Stars II where the developer Kerberos hypocritically sold out to Paradox for a bunch of development money (after saying how much they hated publishers) and then failed to deliver a completed game (the broken version they did ship frankly had tedious player punishing gameplay) in what appeared to be self destructive madness. Paradox owned the rights and refused to fund further development due to Kerberos deceiving them and the fan base and left Kerberos high and dry. Everybody lost. Indy developers are not always on the side of the angels. Goodness only knows what happened at Star Theory but it sounds like an attempt to leverage the nearly complete game in exchange for a nice exit strategy aka golden parachute for the studio owners and someone at Take Two said "screw that its ours & we dont do blackmail" and kicked them in the nuts. I kinda hope the game succeeds tbh. I will probably buy it but warn TTI PD and Intercept, its my duty and my interest to review honestly and I expect Scott Manley will do likewise. Like he said in one of his vids a while back, dont "mess" up.