steve_v

FWIW, that list still makes no sense at all. Everything Harry said. I imagine it is, since KSP is CPU-bound by it's physics engine. As you didn't give any details on the actual hardware in this "good" computer, I guess we'll all just have to imagine what performance might be like as well.

Parts in KSP are unrealistically dense to make getting to orbit harder on a 1/10 scale planet, so aircraft tend to be heavier. In typical Squad fashion the fix for overweight aircraft was to just up the values on lifting parts. FAR uses a different calculation for lift, one based on shape (chord, sweep, etc.) rather than arbitrary "lift value" numbers, and hence throws off the balance. Things could probably be brought more in-line with stock, but then there's the expected (and correct IMO) pushback that FAR is actually doing things properly. Ed. For an alternate solution, there's a mod that fixes the depleted-uranium fuel-tanks

I hear you, I have a 1.5.1 and a 1.7.3 install here and they're equally infuriating when it comes to touching the ground in any way. Landing legs? Prepare to play hopscotch with a slinky, hope you packed plenty of reaction wheels. No landing legs? Slip 'n slide and spin on the spot time... Likewise. FAR exacerbates the problems due to the lower (read: more realistic) lift values and consequently higher landing speeds. Thing is you don't really have to any more, the legs are pretty much indestructible and the spring model tries to adjust to the load... then fails epically to behave like a spring, whether you did things right or not. I'd buy a DLC that had no new parts at all, one that just fixed the stuff we have so isn't a constant source of aggravation and save-scumming. I'd buy it in a heartbeat... If and only if it also fixed the year-old completely idiotic borkage of the input stack in the GNU/Linux build of course.

Breaking if abused I can dig, extreme forces if looked at funny not so much. This kind of thing (not mine, random examples) is still happening, 3 years after the wheel upgrade. It's better to be sure, but it's not fixed. Band-aids. Rushed patches. Autostruts. More adjustment sliders. Not fixed. Why has this been seen more often on the fixed gear than anything else? Shorter travel, that's why. Not that it's confined to only short-travel suspension or older versions of the game mind, the last few times I tried to do a Mun landing in 1.7.3 my landing legs did much the same thing, bouncing up and down and swaying from side-to side with no energy input whatsoever. Is it slower, sure. Is it gone, hell no. You know what the fix for this suspension-related SNAFU was? Not fixing the landing gear, oh no, it was disabling collisions between EVA kerbals and gear. Care to guess what happens with something that isn't a kerbal?* *Gear are now nearly indestructible, so they no longer explode. They still react with ludicrous violence though. Yeah, C# + modified mono/.NET 3.5 runtime IIRC.

Likewise. I'll even buy the DLCs as soon as I see some commitment to fixing these longstanding problems with the base game. Wheels act like near-zero-width adjustable-friction colliders perpendicular to the ground, with an overlaid round mesh that appears to turn... Because that's kinda what they are. Try driving over some I-beams placed closer together than the wheel diameter and watch the super-realistic physics model in action. My gripe with wheels isn't really the friction though, it's the "new and improved" auto-adjusting perpetual-motion machine springs and the way they freak out if the wheel collider isn't perpendicular to the ground or they experience a sudden change in loading... like another craft touching a wheel or the spring reaching end-of-travel. I really don't like my aircraft bouncing up and down on the spot for eternity or launching back into the sky like a demonic pogo-stick on touchdown, and I don't like the janky "nail it down if the brakes are on" fix for the janky friction behaviour either. As for alignment, the new wheels are actually somewhat less sensitive about it than the old "drives like it's on rails, but at least it's predictable" system. I think I'll just leave this here in case you don't mind mods, one of them should probably be stock.

Free and unlimited reaction mass, at a nice low (close to vehicle) velocity. Next to free oxidiser, 'tis the second reason you see few rocket-planes and many turboprops, and why high-bypass turbofans are more fuel-efficient than turbojets. For pure chemical to thermal/kinetic energy conversion a rocket is going to win hands-down, but effective propulsive efficiency in atmosphere is more complicated. On the OP, M2X has LFO lift-fans IIRC.

I have way more warning points than you, rep is for posers. Perhaps I should start a forum game...

It happens .¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm used to Gentoo GNU/Linux (daily-driver), pre-systemd Debian/Devuan (low-maintenence servers) and FreeBSD (almost as cool as Gentoo, but with more beards and a better logo). You can't not love this little guy: If I limit myself to comparing windoze to windoze, I stand by my comments on the horrid UI, the hiding of knobs and technical bits, and the advertising/spyware. Cortana (AKA the blatant Bungie ripoff ) in the installer is hilariously obnoxious as well. Serial-console compatible text-based installer with questions not designed for morons please, and no, I don't want to talk to it. It's better than it was, but single-vessel physics simulation is still strictly single-threaded, so the practically exponential relationship between part-count and lag remains. Single-threaded or not, I know of several expensive things being done every frame that don't need to be, and a couple of remaining examples of gratuitous heap-thrashing. So there's room for improvement without unity/physx advances... Assuming anyone at Squad can be bothered with such time-consuming and non-customer-snagging activities of course, DLC seems to rate far higher on the priority scale these days.

Every time I think I need a windows VM for something, I seem to find out a couple of hours after setting it up that I didn't need it to begin with. I'll have to take your word for it on the "good OS" bit, as I haven't used windoze extensively (or voluntarily) for quite some time. From what I can see though, Windows 10 still has many of the same issues that drove me to look for something better back in '98. Hand-holdy and obstructive UI, opaque error messages ("sad-face, please turn it off and on again or send this hex code to someone who cares" is not remotely useful), lack of bundled development and debugging tools, crippled CLI out of the box, over-reliance on (often paid) third-party applications for simple tasks, registry bloat, the fragility and general brokenness of microsoft installer/darwin (aptly named because it gets an award), install-bloat due to SXS, the inability of the OS to cleanly remove applications or police their activities, the ineffective and cumbersome shambles that is UAC, the list goes on. It's all still there, and since 8 I can add awful pancake-flat low-contrast "metro" theming, progressive removal of access to low-level settings, distracting and impractical "tiles" and other fat-finger UI elements on touchscreen-free machines, restricted-boot (why should I sign my bootloader with an MS-provided key again?), and advertising and spyware built right into the OS. That last one makes windows 10 utterly abhorrent to me all by itself. At least when FOSS projects do retarded things like this (I'm looking at you, GNOME) I can go grab the source and fix it to my taste or backport patches to a pre-insanity release. If things are beyond salvaging there are usually alternatives, even for core-components (systemd, you too get the stink-eye. We don't want no servicehost here.). To return to the worst things about KSP, I'll add "persistent lack of effort on engine bugs in the *nix builds. If KSP only ran on windows I wouldn't have bought it."

Many of those I love, a few make me recoil in horror. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention them. One of those love-or-hate groups, and Geddy's vocals in particular are an acquired taste. Can't deny the musicianship though.

VAB lag (I suspect this is related to the garbage-collector I so often whinge about), is a constant frustration. Even getting the part-list context menus to register clicks properly and stay open is a chore. IME this lag scales not only with vessel part count, but also with the number of available parts. If Squad want to add any more parts as DLC, this needs to be addressed. Hell, it needs to be addressed now. Likewise, even the notoriously sandboxy X series games have long-term plots and mission-chains. Not having a proper plot yet is actually one of my primary gripes with the new and not quite cooked X4. Even something as trivial as stringing the least stupid contracts together into some coherent near-term mission objectives would be a huge improvement. The science system though, that's beyond salvaging IMO. Honestly, I think the whole system needs ripped out and rethought. Random side-quests for eternity does not an engaging gameplay experience make, and unlocking the whole part-inventory is as silly an endgame goal as I've ever seen. The sandbox is great and all, but right now the only thing that's carrying the gameplay. So very glad I don't have to deal with this kind of nonsense any more, FOSS operating systems FTW.

Just as soon as someone invents an efficient beam-receiver and a way to keep the laser/microwave beam pointing at the right spot without creating KFC rain.

It's not the motor per-se that has a poor power-to-weight ratio, it's the chemical electricity storage system that powers it. We're better at storing energy in hydrocarbons than batteries is all. Fuel-cells kinda suck in this regard compared to a combustion engine too, and their gaseous fuels tend to be a pain to store. Unless you are actually on Laythe... in which case you haver atmospheric oxygen to play with. Ed. And I've been ninjad again

At times I'm not entirely convinced that the former isn't just a symptom of the latter.

They're not exactly top of my chart either, but I do enjoy the celtic-rock/punk sound from time to time, in much the same way I'll play a bit of folk-metal now and then. Opera is just weird. I find it rather difficult to listen to TBH, and rather difficult to understand why one would want to in the first place. Can't dance, won't dance. I will get rowdy in a mosh pit if the music warrants it though, since that requires zero coordination. I keep my hair appropriately metal-long just in case an opportunity for some headbanging turns up too, or I need to look like a Viking for... uh, reasons. Raves are awesome. I didn't get into the canonical "scene" you speak of, being too far away and likely too young at the time, but the outdoor "pick a random paddock/beach/cave in the middle of nowhere, bring sounds and generator" kind we still do are pretty mint. Especially when [REDACTED] are in season. I used to be a big fan of all of those, but I haven't listened to them in a long time. Not really sure why, just moved on I guess. I sure like gigs too, but I live in the cheeks-end of nowhere, and nobody "of note" comes here. Been to a few overseas, but that habit gets real expensive, real fast. So has mine, it's a boutique bacon shop (yes, sells only trendy and expensive bacon) now. The one I mentioned is a poor substitute for what used to be, by all practical measures, my living room most days of the week. Comfy old overstuffed couches, free issue please bring it back sometime library, excellent food, ridiculously cheap beer (cheap as-in buy as many jugs as I could carry at a time, then wander around giving them to random people) and a venue with not-terrible acoustics out back. Spiral staircase down to an old parking-garage for invite-only after-parties and dodgy-dealings. Full of weirdos of course, but interesting people are interesting. Those were the days. You lucky sod. I never pinched any music in the physical sense, but Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" CD was the first I sorta-nicked by copying, with a burner drive so expensive I had to go halvies with a mate. New Metallica is just naf. Never really dubbed anything prior to writeable CDs either, the sound quality of cassette tapes was terrible enough to make me just go and buy an original. Landies don't have tape decks anyway, and those walkman type things were evil pits of disappointment. As for W. A. S. P., that's not really worth lifting IMO, unless you're proper bored and want a laugh. Cliche perhaps, but true nonetheless. Should I be concerned that 13/16 of those also feature prominently in my library? Also, thanks for reminding me to cache some more Motorhead and Behemoth for playing in the car.

It's a bit hard to pick one for top spot, but it'd be from this pool, in roughly descending order of annoyance: Idiotic game engine related borkage with major releases, and the waiting for third-party engine updates to fix it. Poor performance, particularly poor performance of the garbage collector. The infuriating wheel and landing leg suspension model. Excessive memory consumption. "Cannot deploy while stowed". The progression system - boring and grindy science collection, nonsensical contracts, arbitrary tech tree, the uninspiring "grind clicks to get parts" career mode in general.

That's a question that is impossible to answer without extensive detail on the vehicle and engine design, it's operating velocity, and the density of the atmosphere. In general (and assuming an aircraft, not a ground vehicle), anything that uses atmosphere as it's reaction mass is going to be more efficient (in terms of fuel expended vs ΔV) than a system that must carry reaction mass with it... Provided the conversion of fuel-energy to work done on that reaction mass by the engine system is of equal efficiency. Read here for a start.

I've actually met people who don't know what The Clash sound like, or why they were important. I absolutely dig punk too, the more off-the-radar "come mash it up in my basement" the better. The only pub I'll go to in this town is also the cheapest, dirtiest, nastiest, messiest and noisiest one... And the only place that commonly hosts the local, fresh, experimental, and often slightly off-key punk and metal gigs. It also happens to be the only place you'll get away with smuggling in your own grog and smoking *cough "certain things" inside... Or with the bar staff after closing. You've got a bit more than a decade on me, and nabbing on or not, I'm enjoying the chat. Hell yes. I grew up on this stuff, my mother's music taste. Now that you're dropping names, I have heard most of those, and I did like it. As for Aretha Franklin being the best vocalist of all time... Not sure I'd agree with best, but she certainly was pretty incredible. Giving them a listen right now, they're trippy as. I like. Speaking of Irish, you like Flogging Molly? Yeah. I'm sure the intent of the technology wasn't to make crappier music and more of it, but that's what's happening for sure. Friends involved in recording tell me it's become so common in commercial music that "running the vocal track through the box" is just expected as standard process. It might have started out as a gimmick... Thankfully I haven't yet heard any metal infected by this lazy-ass fx compensating for lack of talent trend, probably because the bands I like actually have some integrity. For me, this was always the case. Sis has since been cured of mass-produced music disease, much to my delight. I refuse to listen to music on youtube, except when checking out recommendations or fishing for new stuff. The same goes for spotify and the like, I started digitising my now rather large collection from vinyl and CD around '99 or '00, and run my own streaming server (supysonic) at home for when I am not. I still buy CDs from time to time, but most of my recent purchases are from bandcamp. When I listen to music at home, it's from my audiophile soundcard by a long vanished niche manufacturer, through the prototype lynx audio power amplifier I found in someone's basement (yes, actual pre-production prototype from a local company, circa 1982), and out of my ridiculous 400w 15" cerwin-vega speakers. My neighbours love me.

Perhaps time to give it another spin then, I've been resisting the urge to try in in case it suffers the same problems and eats my cat again, but it sounds like this -Next incarnation is a somewhat different beast. Excellent. New features aren't the draw here, IR that works properly is. Thanks for tackling the bugs, whatever it is you found in there.

Indeed, so do I. Few things grind my gears like someone saying: "What's the big deal, it's only music." or replying "I dunno, whatever's on the radio" to the "What kind of music do you like" question. I mean, I get that people are into different things and all, but music is important. Like I'd probably be dead by now if it weren't for music important. By some peculiar mechanism I actually find I'm also more likely to get along with people personality-wise if they are also enthusiastically into music... Beats me why, but there it is. All pretty damn good, not my primary taste, but still. Good music is good music. So do I, never really got into QOTSA though for some reason, they just didn't grab me. I don't know why, they're very good technically, just... didn't click somehow. As for perms and leotards, glam-rock or '80s rock in general? (Is there a difference? ) Not really a fan of the former, but it's sometimes amusing for cheese-factor to be fair. Never really explored soul in any depth, being a meatalhead since I was 15 and all. Always open to new stuff though, any artist suggestions?

FARc is on CKAN:

I have a genetic predisposition to dumpster-diving and collecting interesting things, there just aren't enough interesting things in dumpsters around here. Most of what I have is from "investigating" disused storerooms in local factories and the like, and looking out for mis-categorised listings in the local buy-sell. Fortunately in the former case it seems most "normal" people don't mind giving away things that look too old to be useful. I don't have any calculators, but I do have a C128, an Apple IIe, various 286, 386 & 486 desktops and laptops, a few 'scopes and odd bits of radio gear, a sizeable pile of early '70s HiFi (the best era for integrated stuff IMO, before black-plastic everything), as well as far too many test meters (the oldest of which is a 1934 (AFAICT) Gossen pocket voltmeter) and random electrical and automation oddities, from times when safety wasn't a consideration and things lasted for centuries. I recently acquired a complete Allen-Bradley PLC2 rack from 1983 that I'm not entirely sure what to do with... Works perfectly, heavier than I am, not really usable at home, too well-designed to scrap... I need a bigger shed. Everything not in bits works perfectly. Uhh, mine too.

More of a death kind of guy myself, but I can certainly dig black metal, and dig it good. Differing taste, converging attitude. By "commercial noise" I assume you refer to that soulless sameness sappy autotuned pop garbage I keep involuntarily hearing on other people's radios... It's. Just. Boring.

Ahh, a kindred spirit. Yours is definitely bigger than mine, but I do have a small collection of vintage test equipment and audio gear. Not too serious and mostly just rescuing the things I find along the way TBH, but it's somewhat satisfying (and funny-look gathering) to fire up my '60s valve oscilloscope on a real job now and then. The boss man suggests I "get rid of that old junk" fairly regularly, but what I fix in my lunch break is my business, right? That box of new-old-stock tubes covered in dust in the back of the workshop? Never going to miss them, I'm the only one who knows they're there. Oh how I wish I had the time, money and space to start a proper collection. That and not living in the hind-end of nowhere would be nice, ebay shipping is pretty crippling.