vger

The U.S. is still bumming Russia for rides. I don't see the problem.

Those random "colored rainfalls" probably haven't helped any either. I'm typically pretty sensible and it takes a LOT to get me to consider extraordinary explanations, but if this had happened in my back yard, it would've scared the heck out of me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_in_Kerala

For the same reason people like Hollywood films. Bring your wallet, but leave your brain at home. Cater to the lowest common denominator and the world will beat a path to your door.

An Android is something that is not a phone. Which is actually an appropriate name, because nobody uses phones as phones anymore.

Repent now, or be consumed by the Great Black.... Berry.

Go figure, if we did it again, those same people would be saying, "You spent all that money to put a man on a dusty rock when there are problems right here that need dealing with."

People need to see things for themselves. It's that simple. There are two very sad facts about the modern world. #1. There is so much to 'know' that you either have to take someone else's word for it that it's real, or you have to spend an entire lifetime of learning to find out if you were being lied to (just imagine how much time and money it would take to prove to yourself that the LHC works the way we're told it does). #2. Everyone has something to gain by lying. Lies are the glue that keeps much of business alive, and a few other things as well that shouldn't be discussed on this forum. I don't believe in NASA conspiracies, but I can't say I blame the people who do. Just remember, for most people on the planet, the only "scientists" we ever have personal contact with are medical doctors; the "used car salesmen" for one of the most corrupt industries in the world. Can we really be surprised that some people don't trust science?

...that will never earn a drop of money.

Oh, I know they had it first. I've been watching that project since the very beginning. But, you know how it goes. NMS WILL be out first, and that will end up being treated by the court of popular opinion as the FIRST game to do it (even though KSP also did it first, but this feels like a much different animal). Think about how many people believe that Disney INVENTED Peter Pan. Random thought though, I can't understand how nobody ever came forward with the money to fully-develop this into a game years ago. Regardless, still holding out hope that the MMO happens someday. It feels like it could be everything that EVE should have been, but isn't. And just a random jab, this is what stock KSP SHOULD look like. I'm rather disappointed that they're starting out with a straight wargame though. These are the kind of graphics that make me just want to hang up a hammock next to the panoramic window of my little privateer craft, and just let it drift for a while.

Space sure has become an interesting place in the past couple of years. Well, it was always interesting. But lately... wow. Am I imagining this, or has the general public actually been getting excited by it lately?

Finally! Sheesh, I'd finally stopped going back to their site to look for updates. Might be too little too late though. They could've been out the gate before No Man's Sky was even announced.

Well, alright, here's a thing. Touching again on science being over-simplified. Right now, at the most we have biomes and now we have ore. Ore is a good starting point for a concept, but because it relies entire on sats, the post-landing mission is still pretty simple. What if gathering science on the surface of a body actually took TIME? We have Mars rovers that have logged years of exploration time. We should be able to figure out a way to make driving on a planet have a practical purpose for at least a few minutes. Hey, not everything can be detected from space. Some things on Mars have only been discovered by wandering the desert, taking a photo, and then picking a rock that looks interesting. So what we need is 'scanning' that requires something more than passive control. A level of resolution that wouldn't be practical except on the surface. Maybe there's something that the thinktanks suspect can be found in a certain biome, but it's too rare to scan for from space, or to just land on the ground and grab it with a single click. The only option is to get down there and actively hunt for it. That gives the driving of rovers something more interesting to do, and a use for more complex instrument packages. You can also take this a step further with drilling for science. A rover might be able to find a good spot, but accomplishing the entire drilling task could take months. Drill bits may wear out, gear boxes may need oil, etc, requiring Kerbals to be present to perform maintenance and replace parts. Now suddenly you have a practical reason for a base, and a little bit of EVA fun.

False-flag gamergate crisis averted?

And yeah, on topic, I HAVE to try catching a photo of this someday.

Heh, you hit a reply just when I realized I copied the wrong one. It's on the sourceforge link. Methinks someone didn't renew their domain and now it redirects to baaad mojo.

Don't click the photo at the top of that page. It leads to a site that contains trojans.

Do you have any idea how many games there were with the exact same gameplay as Angry Birds, before Angry Birds even existed?

How did this discussion go from being about planetary landings with interesting subgames to being about realism?

I don't mind complex functionality, but if life support wasn't all about "snacks," it just wouldn't feel Kerbally.

Has Geico ever done a space advert? They really should have by now, especially after that little hiccup with a Russian satellite full of geckos a couple years ago.

Emotes. Seriously. Like the ones typically used in MMO's. Especially by the time the multiplayer feature is implemented. I want to be able to make my Kerbals dance without having to build a disco tower with Infernal Robotics.

How did the author arrive at Porkahontas as a title choice? That just.. totally sounds like something else. I came into this thread anticipating use of the report button.

Oh, and about this. Preferably if it can give truly detailed information about a the topography of a given location. Preferably also allowing you to select an appropriate place to land. Maybe it's not a problem at super-high detail and stereovision, but one of my biggest pet peeves with the game right now is the following. From 20000m: That looks like a nice flat place to land. From 1000m: This is going to be sweet. From 100m: Oh great, I'm trying to land on a cliff.

If you don't like them, you can turn them off. I'm sure you wouldn't mind them being there once you reach orbit though. Sorry if this sounds abrasive, but "clouds" are just common sense a flight sim. Wind, rain, lightning, snow, dust storms... THAT is weather. Not clouds. You don't even need to be in the atmosphere to enjoy them.

"Last Days on Mars." THAT degraded into a space horror flick. I actually didn't even bother watching once I saw what it was turning into. I enjoyed Europa Report though. It's more like an investigation/mystery. And they don't reveal anything too quickly, which is a nice change of pace.