Cydonian Monk

I've been in, out, and all around that corner of the District and never once noticed that setup. Next time I'm in town I'll have to remember to check out the Mall-side of the museum. Neat find!

https://github.com/sarbian/ModuleManager/blob/master/moduleManager.cs#L114 It shows up in MM from now until Nov 1st, 2016 or every April 1st. Or if you use the -nyan-nyan argument. Just wait 18 days and it'll be gone. Or, if you can't put up with it for that long, just remove the offending code and recompile. (Just don't run off to the MM thread to complain if you break something.)

Helmet lights never worked for me in 1.1.3, and I'm not sure they worked all that well in 1.0.5. Little things...... I like that I can change all of the per-save game settings from the escape menu (except the obvious ones like starting funds/science/&c). Made it so much easier to activate the CommNet in Forgotten Space Program.

V8jester said it quite well, but I wanted to echo the sentiment. @blackrack you do quite a bit of work, not just with keeping scatterer going, but with helping out others with their mods. And you make KSP look simply stunning. Thanks for everything you've done for the game and the community.

Sneak preview, since I'm running waaaaaaaaaaay behind on getting the next part written up. (Seriously - I flew the first part of the next update 2 months ago.)

Sunset on Laythe.....

Cydonia Labyrinthus and Cydonia Mensae are both remarkably rugged, much more so than Acidalia Planitia. Though I doubt the [lack of] precision in RSS/RO is enough for them to look as rugged as they actually are. Mensae, perhaps. That's one of the things that bugged me about the setting of the film version of "The Martian" - it actually made sense for some of the neighboring territory, but not so much for Acidalia. At least Weir got it right in his book. Enjoy Mars. I'll get there eventually. Free Mars!

Bweep bweep bweep bweep bweep..... Only 4 days behind schedule, but I've finally got my 1.1.3 RSS/RO install up and mostly running. It's pulling in more than 62,000 module manager configs, takes 10-15 minutes or more to load up, and clocks in at 9 gigs of RAM, give or take. Still fighting with some graphical glitches, as evidenced by the reflection plugin weirdness seen above on ye-olde-Sputnik, but those don't bother me too much. Mostly have the RVE clouds working on Earth, and Scatterer is behaving nicely. It's been more than a year since I set up an RSS/RO install, and it's good to be back. Now to go update my kOS scripts (and write some new ones). Expect some more ramblings in the future. I'm going to take a stab at an RP-0 career. I won't document it in exceeding detail, but will pull out some of the high and low lights from time to time. I might even stream it randomly over on Twitch.... We'll see.

Spent the evening getting an RSS/RO install set up in 1.1.3. 42,286 module manager patches and 8.4 gigs of RAM later and it's mostly working. Still haven't managed to get RVE working, but that shouldn't be too terribly difficult.

Continuing From Where We Started A day later and Jonbald was back at the Cape. Had it been years? Decades? He could barely remember. What was its name? That other program? All those years ago, when it had become Jonbald's duty to be hired on as the radar and telemetry expert. In that position he would hide everything that was already in orbit, keeping the kerbals outside their group none the wiser. Letting them carry on in ignorance of their true purpose: To provide the means to rescue and recover the stranded and forgotten from space. Yet plans change, worlds change, programs fail and disappear. It was bickering and infighting that led to the end of that experiment. Two groups formed from the survivors, one that wanted to keep to The Plan, the other that had a far more radical approach to rescuing their friends. Little did any of them realize how much damage their disagreements would cause. It was almost a relief when the splinter groups didn't reemerge after the inevitable collapse, though Jonbald had often wondered what happened to them. What had happened to his friends? Now one of them was returning home: Rosuki. The Boss. Her last trip to space was against her will, at the behest of madkerbs and maniacs, yet it allowed her to escape the horrors that had befallen Kerbin afterwards. She had found her own horrors of course, first at the hands of The Party Boss, and later as a "guest" of Queen Sieta and her lapdog pirate, Captain Hallock. The former having threatened the lives of Rosuki and her workers, her friends, her self; the latter having forced upon her the sounds and visions of the death of Kerbin, the death of the Universe, the dark whispers from dark places. And as always, things changed. Plans changed. Somehow Rosuki had escaped from Sieta in the queen's own Nitrogen capsule, Nitrogen TC-8, which she was now using to land at the Cape. To escape from her orbiting prison. He knew what to watch for, he'd seen it a hundred times or more. It would start as a speck against the western sky. And then another speck. And another. Small specks of fire, streaking through the air. Some would explode. One would spit out parachutes and land. Hopefully with a kerbal inside. Fires in the sky, The Boss come home from her work. He would be forever amazed by the automated pilots. Back in his day..., great powers he sounded like one of the really old kerbals.... Back in his day they were lucky if they landed on Kerbin. Luckier still if they were on land. More than one of the missions had ended on the sides of K-2, rolling endlessly down the mountainside, or way out in the ocean, bobbing helplessly so very far from the shore. Had Harler been right? Should they have replaced all of their pilots with these cold machines? Shadows in a box? Hard to say, but he couldn't argue the results. He wished Harler was here now, alive, happy, just so he could ask what had changed his mind. His thoughts were interrupted by the Nitrogen, drifting down to the exact spot where it had been programmed to land. Flawless. What would they do with the pilots? And so The Boss was back on solid Kerbin. He climbed into his jet and taxied over to her capsule. No reason to wait until the new recovery crews showed up. He laughed as he realized it must seem insane to these new kerbals. They thought they were setting up a space program. Thought they would be the first to explore the great black beyond the sky. And then this old, bald, crazy kerbal shows up, claiming one of his own will descend from the heavens and land on their lawn. They were taking it well, all things being equal. How would he have reacted? Probably not like them. Rosuki was already out of the capsule and pacing around it, waiting. She seemed to be ok with the gravity, no obvious signs of adaptation sickness. It was good to have her back, another of the forgotten who knew who he was and where he came from. Too many lost over the years. Too many had slipped through the cracks of time. Was he the oldest now? Hard to say. The two old friends spent the better part of an hour at her landing site, talking about everything that had happened. How The Party Boss had forced her into space, had followed her there to finish the job she had failed to fail at. How they spent the next several munths living in the fear The First Citizen would send more goons to finish them off. Little did they know the bugs had already taken over. She then talked about how she had fallen into the clutches of Sieta and Hallock. They weren't insane she insisted, not exactly, but there was definitely something off about them. They wanted to know about fuel, about other stations, about other kerbals in space. Rosuki mentioned something about the Chlorine tugs and their fuel reserves, a subject both of her captors seemed rather interested in. And so she woke one morning to find the Memory of Tomorrow gone, the station empty, and every drop of fuel drained. And that's how she came into possession of the Nitrogen. The shuttle was useless without fuel, but the Nitrogen had enough monoprop to push her into a rendezvous with Kelgee. Just as she was about to leave, Jonbald radioed up from the new tracking station at The Cape, and so plans changed again. And that's when she noticed the monolith. "Has it always been that... large?" "No. Something has changed both this one and the monolith at North Mountain. Shall we take a look? The council meeting can wait." "Sure." It was perhaps a bit undignified, but The Boss dangled off of the jet's ladder as Jonbald taxied to their new distraction. He wondered if she was happy to be back, if the wind blowing through her hair made her feel alive again, but Rosuki was such a hard kerbal to read. It was one of the many reasons Elite had singled her out to be the head of their secret upstart space agency. Stoic, to the last. Indeed, this monolith was much larger than before, just like the one at North Mountain. Was it perhaps even larger? Maybe. He kept his distance, too afraid of it to walk up and touch it. Who knew what would happen. He had no idea what any of the changes meant, if they meant anything, and he wondered if perhaps any of the Bobs had something to say about it. Surely at least one knew its secrets. Somewhere. Somehow. Maybe he could ask the new Bob. There was inevitably one on this Kerbin, likely already recruited by this new agency. There was always a Bob. Always a Bill. Always a Jeb. He had never understood why, and likely never would. The Sun was now low in the sky, just a few grains of sand above the peaks of K-2. No doubt their new council was waiting to meet them, wondering where these two enigmas had wandered off to. The grounds crews had already gathered around the capsule, a strange, alien sight to these kerbals who had never even known the skies, let alone the stars. They would shortly drag it off to the VAB and dismantle it piece by piece, studying, recording, learning. "We should get going. You'll like this new Boss. Quite the character." "I bet." "You might even recognize her." -- The conference room was filled with the warm glow of the setting sun. It was a new room in a new building, having been hastily constructed in the corner of the Research and Development park. So many new buildings were going up that Wernher was having a hard time keeping them straight. The space center was just a dirt mound and some trailers a few munths ago, now it was a bustling and sprawling complex. For hours they had been here, waiting for the newcomer to return with his friend. The conversation had devolved into the usual sports, snacks and social noise, so Wernher escaped to the windows to watch the sunset. He was joined a few moments later by Gene. "What a sight, I tell ya. It's a nice spot Wernher. Good view of the mountains. Good view of the plains." Gene waved his hand past the window, undulating up and down as he moved from left to right. "Peaceful scene, trees on the horizon, calm beaches, beautiful sunsets." "Ja." Wernher nodded and smiled, not really sure how to respond. His was a world of physics and math, perfection and measurements. Yes, it was a beautiful sunset. Beautiful how the light diffused into so many wavelengths as it refracted through the atmosphere. Pure, scientific beauty. And a very nice spot, this cape. At the equator, good for slinging things into orbit with maximum efficiency. Lots of water to dump things into when they failed. Easy access to beach sand for when they needed to make glass or put out fires. "I could live my entire life here and be a happy kerbal." Gene folded his arms and leaned against the window. "You?" Wernher shook his head, pointed towards the sky. "Up there. That's where we belong. Not here." "Hmm, maybe." Gene absentmindedly banged his helmet collar on the window and then tugged at his fingers. "Say, why are we wearing these mittens again?" A ruckus at the far end of the room interrupted them, the newcomers having finally arrived. The strange little monk was bowing to one of them, who returned the gesture in kind. Odd lot, these. Wernher moved to rejoin the crowd and motioned for Gene to follow. Might as well finish the introductions. The bald newcomer seemed to be in charge, and garnered the most respect from his group. He had arrived a few days previous before leaving again, held aloft on wings of metal, propelled by fire. Concepts not out of reach of science nor the dreams of kerbals, but his machine was unlike anything Wernher had ever seen. This bald one was speaking as Wernher and Gene rejoined the party. "Munlin, it's good to see you again, even if you weren't expected for a couple days. How'd you get here so fast? I just left North Mountain a few hours ago and I didn't think Archibald had called yet." The monk smiled back, just as peculiar as ever. "Oh, I have my ways." Truth be told he had been at the Cape for nearly a munth now, helping out here and there, but hadn't bothered to explain why. Quiet and strange little kerbal. The bald newcomer motioned towards his companion, introducing her to all as Rosuki Kerman. She had just fallen from the sky in a tin can. A can Wernher was excited to start digging around in. He drifted off in thought of what secrets it might hold, what wonders it could reveal. His short daydream was interrupted by the same bald one, who suggested they take their seats and get the meeting started. "Ladies and gentlekerbs, I'd like to thank you all for meeting on such short notice. I know it must seem a bit strange to some of you. Hopefully after tonight your questions will have answers and things will start to make sense. "We have a few items to cover before I turn the meeting over to Rosuki. First, the existence of this council must remain secret, at least for now. Officially we'll each hold an administrative position in the agency, which will hopefully quell any suspicions. Second, this is your space program. It's why you have the majority of the positions on the council. If at any time you feel we're moving too fast, please speak up." They first went around the table introducing themselves, going over each of their histories, strengths, weaknesses, et cetera. This Rosuki character had been an astronaut many years ago before her own space program had fallen apart, she then went on to start her own. As it turned out their own boss, Cartina, had a similar story. She had thought to hide her past, but Rosuki and the bald one had seen through it, and somehow knew she was an old space tourist. "There can be no secrets here," the bald one warned. After that came their own first astronaut, Zeldrien, head of the astronaut corps, who had yet to fly. As the winner of the 28th Annual "Stale Snack Shack Stale Snack Struggle," she was judged the most likely to survive for years on end without fresh snack supplies. Perfect trait for a spacekerb. Then Wernher himself, who had just completed his undergraduate physics work and was deep in the Masters of Applied Physics program when Cartina called to recruit him. "Wait," the bald one asked, "You don't have a PhD yet?" Wernher shook his head. "Nein." "So you're not the Doctor Wernher von Kerman?" "Nein." "Interesting." Knowing looks were exchanged between the bald one and his boss. They continued to Gene, who had almost completed his associates degree in team management. That brought more inquisitions and strange looks from the newcomers, who had apparently expected more. The monk, the strange kerbal who had appeared unannounced, had apparently been responsible for climbing into rockets left assembled outside of an old launch facility and firing himself and other monks into space. This garnered the attention of some other agency, who then proceeded to strand him on The Mün. Finally, the bald one introduced himself again, Jonbald Kerman, possibly the oldest kerbal still on Kerbin. He had been to The Mün with two of his friends, Harler and Geofsy, before being assigned to the first work crew for their space station, Baile Speir. Space Station. Mün Landings. Kerbals in Space. Wernher was never more certain he was in over his head. The meeting dragged on long into the night. The bald one and his team wanted help reestablishing communications with their crews, and suggested they needed to build a large ship to rescue them from Jool. Their own boss, Cartina, wanted to conduct research on the space-worthiness of kerbals. The bald one protested, saying they had known of kerbals who were in microgravity for decades without _too_ much damage, but in the end they agreed to the research anyway. Wernher asked what he thought was a good question, "How do kerbals get to space?" A question that was answered with laughter. He hadn't meant it as a joke. Snacks and drinks were brought in at one point when they took an intermission, and once consumed the council went back to work. So much of what they talked about seemed pure fantasy to Wernher, ships orbiting The Mün, Duna, even Jool; crews having landed on most of the worlds in the solar system. Five days before he was blissfully unaware of all of this, now he was expected to design things that would take kerbals safely into space. To the stars. Finally they had exhausted their list of things to discuss, and the bald one moved to end the meeting. "Ok then, we have our goals. Construction will continue here at the Cape. We'll have our crews recover our designs, research, and technical documents from storage and bring them to us. Doc, uh, Wernher, once we have the plans I'll have our engineers walk you through them. After that our two main goals are to build out our communications systems, and to conduct space survivability studies on living kerbals. Any questions?" He looked to each of the six others. "Ok then, we have our missions. Good luck. Meeting adjourned." They all stood and started stretching, have sat for entirely too long. The bald one had been walking towards the door when he stopped, turned, and addressed them again. "One last thing. Welcome to Continuum." Navigation: Next Page

Interesting. A bit easier than I thought. Must admit I've not read through the EVE source since volumetrics were added. Agree on GPUs. Regular old demon boxes that have some sort of connection to black magic. (Well, not really, but they're quite good at what they do.)

I actually think cloud generation could be procedural, and possibly even shoe-horned into the existing EVE code. The clouds, both volumetric and not, are just rendered from the textures provided for them. So having some side process that renders cloud textures over time could achieve this, though it would obviously need to ping EVE to reload the texture. Could even go a step further and use the altitude data available from the game to generate semi-believable weather patterns. (If you happen to have a spare super computer.....) It may not be very nice from a CPU standpoint. And Unity might not like it much either. Also not how I'd choose do it if starting from a greenfield. Having worked with the libnoise samples similar to those used to originally generate Kerbin, I'd also wonder if it'd be able to "keep up" with the game, especially in time warp. (Above a certain warp level all bets are off.) Generating a texture large enough and coherent enough to look good without causing noticeable lag takes time. As cool as it would look, I'm not sure it'd be worth the dev effort or the clock cycles, aside from the gratifaction of completing the obvious programming challenge. Anyway, I want to thank the lot of you that have been keeping EVE going, especially @blackrack, @RangeMachine and @Waz (and any others I've missed - I really haven't been paying much attention to this thread of late), and of course @rbray89 for starting it all. KSP wouldn't be KSP to me without it.

To be fair, it's what I do for a living. I have a couple decades of experience (both in and out of school) with dev tools of all stripes. Most of the source code for KSP mods are shipped in a "ready to build" state, especially those on github, and the few that I've come across that aren't are generally easy to clean up. Having access to a real version of Visual Studio helps too. The save hacking, well, let's just say some really nasty bugs several years ago with a few mods made a complete mess out of one of my saves (the one where I launched Kelgee), so I had a choice of abandoning that save or learning how the world was stiched together, ships and such are stored, et cetera.

Given today's announcements and departures, I suppose I should revisit an earlier statement. Will this continue? Yes, provided Squad keeps the forums up and running and doesn't turn community-hostile or something crazy. I will however say that I'll likely be trimming back on the mods I'm using once 1.2 is released, something I was already considering before the fan was hit by various foul projectiles. There were quite a few new mods I wanted to get to in 1.1.3, but I ended up taking a vacation in the middle of it.... At least one of those will see use in 1.2 (spoilers: small story-point). If certain mods look to never be updated again I'll just find an easy way to stop using them like I did with TAC-LS. Or I'll find a replacement. Basically: If I can't recompile and maintain the sources myself, I'll likely not use it. There are only a few plugin-based mods I really rely on anyway, and I already recompile/patch most of those on my own at new releases. (And I've never kept that a secret, either.) Things like Scatterer and EVE are a bit beyond my expertise (shaders? huh?), so I'll have to rely on the community there when things break. Or just play without clouds or decent atmospheres. RemoteTech is off my list, and was always going to be given how nicely the comms stuff has turned out. If any of the thirty or so RT/RT2/RT-G devs read this: I really appreciate your work over the many years, even if we disagreed about how to fix certain bugs. I'll keep using the RT2 antennas I already have on ships. Sort of. The small static antenna coming with 1.2 will replace all of the like antennas from RemoteTech, and the Communicatron-32s will just revert back to being 16s. And if any of the larger dishes have decent equivalents in stock they'll get swapped out too. The others will be updated to use the new stock system. So I'll have a bit of save hacking to do. And maybe I'll get around to writing that speed-of-light delay plugin sometime real soon now you betcha don't ya know something something. And maybe a simple Δv readout/calculation mod. (Not that I expect Engineer to disappear, but it's really starting to do far more than I need from it at the cost of serious computation cycles.) We'll need to wait and see though. KSP 1.2 allegedly hits next week, and I'm already hyped up; dev staff departures, franchise plans, sports teams sponsorships, convention plans or whatever else not withstanding.

Thank you. Sadly there is always an end to everything. Not for some time though, if I have anything to do with it. Thanks! Now I know there's 93 posts or so in this story so far. Totally me just being coy, but it's hard to say if I picked it up from somewhere else or not.

Definitely not just you. Sometimes I intentionally avoid reading other threads for a few weeks just to avoid potential concept spill-over. I've got enough stuff to keep sorted out at work that sometimes keeping the forum stories separated is an impossible task.

Thanks. It's tough to keep up with all the good stuff on this forum - I know I struggle with it. As much as I wish I could stay read up on everything everybody posts, I know that's just not realistic.... If only we could live life in parallel with multiple versions of ourselves handling all the side tasks.

Why not. I'm cydonian.monk. Maybe we can finally move beyond IRC and into the 21st Century.

That tanker is old-ish, designed and launched in a test save some time back, 1.0.2 or 1.0.4 (don't recall where it started exactly as I kept the same saves for all of 1.0.0-1.0.4). I retouched it a bit to add more RCS thrusters and radiators (curse you LV-N overheat!!!), and to rebalance it for post-1.0.5 KSP, but story-wise it was already in orbit. (Along with four others of a similar build from when I was testing the design.) The design of the Potassium tugs are very much descendants of that tanker, which itself evolved from the drive section of the Kraken's Harvest. The mining rig on the other hand was completely rebuilt and launched (in a different test save on my MacBook) while I was on vacation. True, I had tested an older and similar design whenever ISRU was first introduced, but so much of that has changed and been nerfed that it just didn't work anymore. And solar power was no longer viable at Dres, so.... RTGs.

I just wish I could change previous ratings. Threads change and evolve. Something I rated 5-star might turn into a toad while some other thing I 1-stared might be the next Macbeth. Half the time I fat finger the forum while I'm dragging the old iPad screen and accidentally 3-star or 2-star or something a something. Or we could just do away with it entirely. Public rep on the first post serves the same vain purpose.

Somewhere In the Dark.... Shadows drift over a solemn rock, stars bright in the endless black beyond. A flicker jets into the void, clouds scattering the distant sunlight, glittering briefly like the many lights that grace the night. Steadily a glow of green overtakes the tranquil scene, faintly at first then overpowering the cold light. Claws reach out, clutching, grasping, digging for purchase on this broken shore. Clouds spray forth once more, green and white, disparate as the battling light. And then seen again no more. "Ok Shellan, let's bring it in." "Aye. Moving the rig forward." A flick of the wrist in the cabin of the Dres Shadow and the mining rig in the void beyond its windows moved towards the spinning pebble in front of it. "20 meters." Its operator, one Engineer by the name of Shellan Kerman, watched his monitors patiently as the large rig lumbered towards the slowly spinning rock. "What'd we do to be condemned to this gig cap'n?" "Condemned? Ha!" Gregory Kerman, Captain of the Dres Shadow and former commander of Pioneer Mün Base laughed at the comment. "Would you rather be stuck orbiting that noxious ball of water, just a hair's breadth above an atmosphere you could never breathe? Or be here at an under-appreciated planet making fuel for the common good?" "That ball of water sounds right nice just now. Better than slogging this mess of tin about." A tap on the stick and the rig shifted laterally. "10 meters. Y'know I was joking when I said I'd rather face the quarry with a spoon than watch the lab rats run around that whirligig wheel, right?" Gregory clapped their pilot on the arm, waking him from a nap. "You hear this guy, Z? Condemned he says. Tin can he calls it." Shelzan Kerman, more affectionately known as Z, who had spent most of their years at Dres asleep, head buried inside his headphones. He snorted a response and twisted sleepily away, returning to his slumber. "See, Z's not complaining so it can't be that bad. We just gotta finish this tanker, program it to fly to Jool, and the we head back to Kerbin. That's it." "Ok, ok, fine, whatever, final approach, call the pressers. Looks like we've a good flat-like spot coming round, praying the claw holds and the stones don't scatter." Their chosen asteroid was one of the many orbiting high above the dark world of Dres, in a ring better known as the Dresteroid Belt. Most believed the rubble cloud to be fragments of a small moon, as the debris was in a very clean 20,000km orbit, though a few others suggested it was kicked out when the scar was gouged across Dres' surface. All Shellan knew was these rocks were full of ice and ores, and perfect for being chewed up and turned into propellent. Propellent desperately needed by their Forgotten Space Program. Propellent they themselves would need to get back home. The Dres Shadow was an old ship, built and launched in the earliest days of interplanetary exploration. As its name implied, it was built to travel to the tiny speck it now orbited, though its original crew had never taken it beyond Kerbin. Meanwhile its larger sister ship, the Jool Jester, had been the first to take kerbals to the like-named jolly green gas giant. Two slightly smaller ships, the Eve Gambit and the Duna Dragon, had also been to their respective targets. Only the Dres Shadow had remained unused, forgotten, moored to its fueling depot high above Kerbin until some stranded kerbal had stumbled upon it. Many years later and all four ships had been rebuilt and reconditioned by the Forgotten Space Program. New control electronics were installed, including flight computers. Some of the fuel tanks were retrofitted to hold only liquid fuel (the preferred beverage of the LV-N), while the larger assemblies had their oxidizer tanks sealed until a heavier rebuild could be completed. Simply swapping out the smaller tanks and adding thermal control systems was enough to return the four to their desired delta-v capabilities. The mining rig they were presently attaching to an asteroid was likewise a lucky find. Launched some decades previous as a piece of test equipment, one of their scouts had stumbled on it in Kerbin orbit and immediately realized its importance. A tug was hastily rigged to fire it out to Dres, and there it had scratched out its living ever since. When fuel reserves in the greater fleet were running low a crew would be dispatched on a decade-long mission to refuel tankers and send them to Duna or Jool. This time Gregory, Shellan, and Z were the lucky three, and had scored an extra-long thirteen year mission. Their promised reward was a return to Kerbin, a home none had seen for many, many years. "Five meters. Drill areas ahead of the target lights look good. Bringing it in for a hard clawing." The rig shuddered as its Claw bit into the rubble. "Contact, firm grasp, using RCS to stabilize. Whoah there, big spinny thing. We didn't mean it, we swear." "Hmm. Tiny rock." Gregory ran some quick numbers as the jets on the rig fired to stop the spinning. "Must be hollow, or mostly rubble. Still, I think it'll be enough. At least enough to fill this last tanker." Gregory pushed at his pilot again, shaking him awake. "Z, move the Shadow in to dock with the rig. Shellan, get suited up. You'll need to inspect the anchor site before we bring the tanker in and start drilling." Their new quarry was between the ship and the Sun, making for a dark and foreboding scene. Z grumbled something about "Evil tings that sleep in the dark," but Gregory was having none of it. A few minutes later and the Dres Shadow was safely docked, despite all the doom and gloom coming from the rest of the crew. Doom and gloom and a bit of laziness, a bad trait they had all picked up from this miserable planet. Shellan was already outside and inspecting the drill site, Z had dozed off almost as soon as the ship was docked. It was cold and dark in the void, and Shellan could feel his very skin crawling. Or was it the MAG he was wearing inside the suit? Why was he always the one that had to go out? 'Shellan, inspect this spooky-looking wreck,' or 'Shellan, crawl into this dangerous looking hole.' Well, when they got back to Kerbin he'd never crawl into any dark places ever again, so help him. And then something glinted in the dark, and shadows moved across nothingness. "Say, cap'n, you picking any other ships up on radar? Or... things?" "No. Why?" "I could've sworn I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye, big nasty thing." "Probably just the tanker." "No, I'm looking right at that beastie. This was something else." Shellan finished his inspection in silence, turning around occasionally to check over his shoulder. Wasting precious fuel. There was something out there, he knew it. They should find another rock. Or just go home or.... "Dres be a cursed place!" Suddenly Z was cursing and spitting into the radio. Shellan was really about to freak out when Gregory interrupted his tirade against the night. "Oh ho! Z speaks at last!" "Dis no joke, bossman. Darkness be here. Dark moves in dark places. Mark I words." "Marked. Words spoken by Shelzan Kerman at 4 hours, 13 minutes, 29 seconds on the 23rd day of the 100th year." Gregory grinned at his pilot, who glared back angrily. Their strangely imbalanced staring match was broken up a few seconds later by Shellan. "It's really a bit dark out here you know. The anchor is set and all, but I think we should scurry off and find another rock." "No way. Nothing wrong with this one, and if we delay too much we miss the window for Kerbin. Back off and let me test the drills." "Fine, fine. Sink the drills. Let's see how solid this thing is." "Drilling. Watch yourself. Don't want you too close when we poke the monster with two giant needles of death." The rock shuddered as the mining rig sank its two teeth into it. Small bits of debris were kicked up, forming an ever-spreading cloud around the drill site. Shellan pulled back and watched as the drills went to work. This asteroid was definitely a rubble pile, but didn't seem to be anything the mining equipment couldn't handle. Still, it was unusual for so much junk to be kicked up just by inserting the drills. "Ok, you're drilling right through the rock now. Shut off the drills. Have Z move the tanker in, I'm headed back.... Wait." Shellan spun around quickly and scanned the sky. A few pieces of debris were silhouetted against the Sun. Just small black dots, likely nothing more than rocks kicked free of the far side of the asteroid. Such a strange rock. "Cap'n. Are... are you sure there's nothing else out here?" "It's just your mind playing tricks on you. Get back in here already so we can get this job over with." "Fine, fine. I'm headed to the lower airlock." Dres was a dark place, darker than Jool for some reason. Dark places played dark tricks on the mind. He noticed the tanker was looming ever larger, and made his way hastily to the Dres Shadow's lower cabin and its airlock. He was inside and out of his EVA suit faster than he could ever remember a kerbal doing so. He almost wished his old instructor was there with a stopwatch. Surely he'd just set a record. The ship had picked up a nasty vibration from their quarry, the ghosts of its rather persistent rotation kicking at the metal beasts that had halted it. Shellan had just slipped out of his EVA suit when Z brought the tanker in, bumping it roughly into place. The added mass helped to dampen the vibrations, or perhaps it was the added vibrations from the hard docking, but a quiet moment descended on the ship. Life at Dres was peaceful once more. And then the drills fired up, the refinery was running full blast, and Shellan was wishing he had a set of headphones like Z. Big, heavy, thick, enough to drown out the universe. A universe that had suddenly become rather loud, shaky, and bumpy. And loud. How could it be so loud in space? Thud. Bump. Thud. Ding. Bing. Thud. Occasionally a heavy bump. Rocks kicked off from the drills, rejecting their bite. A stronger shake. Noise. Cascading through the ship. Through the rig. Through the rock. Through the vacuum. Not loud, but constant. And unnerving. Rhythmic. Low. A buzz, a hum, a distracting presence at the back of one's mind. Screams. Shrieks. Silence. Whispers in the dark. Whispers in the dark. -- Forgotten Space Program Volume Two: Continuum It's happened again. Those well meaning kerbals ran off and completely forgot about their space program. There was a global crisis. The planet was consumed by some extra-universal event. Jeb and the Bs ran off to Jool and left the stove on. It was snack time for the Kraken and the kerbal ships were really, really tasty. Unfortunately nobody remembers exactly what went wrong because nobody that was there to see it go south was still alive. Or were they? Years pass. Eventually a young kerbal stumbles on the ruins of the long-forgotten space program. Trailers. Sheds. Run-down labs. A dirt runway. Factories scattered here and there in the nearby countryside. Exploding barrels of fleas. Sharp metal bits. Gumball machines. Nuclear waste. The usual rust of a long forgotten industry. A few quick phone calls to her young friends Wernher and Gene and this entrepreneur became the co-owner of her very own start-up space program. At least she was until the real owners showed up.... And that's when the fun began. -- Kerbin: North Mountain The mountains were unchanged, their permanence as guaranteed as the stars in the sky. A storm was moving in from the northeast, its rain falling peacefully on Green Plains. Life was always so tranquil here in the north, the land seemingly untouched by the hands of kerbals or the hands of time. Life continued here as it always had, peacefully and quietly. The same could not be said for the eyes observing from on high, as the years had done nothing but change Jonbald. So many worlds had flashed before these eyes since they had seen this simple beauty. So many horrors since he fled the serenity of the Monastery at North Mountain. Eyes ever changing until the day they would close forever. How different would his life be today had he stayed at the mountain? Had he not gotten involved? When he arrived he was just another forgotten kerbal. When he left, he was ready to change the world. And yet there was a nagging sensation that, had he stayed, nothing would be different. He would still be just another spacekerb, cast aside and forgotten. Many of his friends would still be missing. Still be dead. No, the quiet life was never meant for him. He would ever fix the world or die trying. And that's what brought him back to North Mountain. Well, not literally. It was really an old research jet that had brought him back to North Mountain. He was pleased to find it was still working after so many years buried in the snow and covered by a tarp. It had died those many munths, so many years ago, engines starved of oxygen as Jebediah foolishly flew it to the North Pole, only to be resurrected and then buried by Jonbald and a few of his friends. This simple aircraft had outlived most of them despite having died twice. And for that he was happy. The approach to North Mountain from the air was not easy, but he knew it well. Fly in from the east towards the twin mountains. Turn slowly south until you're flying towards the gap in the wall. Drop into the valley, dive, flare, brake, pray. He'd only landed here twice before, the other times, the first time, he had walked in. As the monks preferred. Flying was faster, walking was easier. Walking was safer. It was a good place to build a monastery. It would've been a good place to build a fortress, too, had kerbals been the warlike types. A pleasant valley, buried deep within a seemingly impassible circle of mountains. Peaceful, quiet, far from the life most kerbals would choose to live. Ample farmlands and pure water, enough to sustain a small population of kerbals indefinitely. A pleasant wind blew into the valley, a secret valley that hid in plain sight. And oh what a secret it held. Jonbald brought the jet down roughly, bouncing off of the uneven terrain. Thump. Bump. Ding. Noises scratched across the bottom of his cabin, grasses and small pebbles kicked up by his violent arrival. He hit the thrust reverser on the jet and laid on the brakes, hoping the plane would stop in time. It did. Now safely at a coasting speed, he taxied around the landing green and moved towards the monastery's hidden entrance. An old friend was already waiting for him, snacks and drinks in hand. Archibald Kerman. One of the few kerbals left who was nearly as old as himself. "My friend! Welcome! Here! Drink up! There's no Rule G here in the safety of the North." "Archibald, you old space dog you. How'd you survive the bugs? And the crazies?" "Oh, I have my ways. We have our ways. You have your ways. Here, have some bread. Remind me to tell you about the Mun crabs sometime. Anyway, enough about the horrors, you've come to see the monolith, yes?" "Well, no. Not really. I've come to ask a favor." Jonbald motioned towards a nondescript rock on the green. "Should we head inside and talk?" "Please. Lead the way. You know it as well as I do." Some time later, after the snacks had been snuck and the fizzy drinks drank, Jonbald got to the point of his trip. A new space program had sprung up down at the Cape, and he was organizing a council to run it. Seven kerbals, three of their own and four from this new agency. He laid out Rosuki's plans, The Plan, his own thoughts on moving kerbals off-world, and how this new council needed a level-headed kerbal such as Archibald to help guide it. His old friend was agreeing with everything he said, every step of the way. And so he was a bit surprised when Archibald suggested a better candidate. Munlin. "Munlin? The simpleton?" "Yes, Munlin, though he is no simpleton. Munlin sees the universe as a wonder to be explored, not an object to be conquered and controlled. He knows what it is to be stranded out there," Archibald pointed upwards randomly, "alone with no idea or hope of rescue. He's exactly the type of kerbal your council needs. Look to the failures of Buring and Harler. Or to Enwise, and the tremendous damage he caused and may still be causing. The more you try to control this mess the worse it gets." "Except Harler was right. The autonomous spacecraft have saved lives and saved resources. There's no way we'd have made it as far as we did in the last cycle if...." Archibald raised his hands to stop Jonbald. "Just talk to Munlin. He's at Sky's Reach, not far from the place the new locals call Baikerbanur. I'll have him come to the Cape. Anyway, night is coming and fast. You're welcome as always to stay, wash up, change your flight suit. Everything of ours is yours. Yet you must visit the monolith. It's just a short hike. Then you can see what's happened." "Something bad?" "Something wonderful. Come along and see." Something wonderful indeed. Navigation: Next Page

Thank you! More soon (I hope).

Probably sometime this weekend. I've spent most of my KSP time of late in the 1.2 pre-release and have done little to move the FSP forward. (I must say the 1.2-pre is the first version of KSP I've played that felt like release-quality software. Really changes and improves the game.)

Short answer: No. Long answer: No. Sorry. Maybe someday, but not until most of the story has been milked out of it, piece by piece, juicy ship by juicy ship. Crunch, crunch, crunch, as the kraken chews its way through everything I've ever launched. Of course by then there may not be much to salvage. It's a full time job somedays just getting this save to load. I do wonder though if there isn't some way to force the stock "rescue this stranded craft" logic into overdrive, and also force it to use some randomly-built ships or stations. I once considered building such a mod, but never found the time to figure out how to get it to work.

I'm a big fan of Henry Petroski's engineering books, but particularly "To Engineer is Human." https://www.amazon.com/To-Engineer-Is-Human-Successful/dp/0679734163 He does a very nice job of taking basic engineering mistakes and drilling down into them in ways that ye lesser mortals average folk can understand. Very good introduction to a few engineering principles without reading like a textbook. It's not entirely aerospace, but the mindset the book covers is very much cross-discipline. I also really like Gene Kranz's "Failure is Not an Option," which is an excellent recollection of his experiences in mission control. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1439148813