MiniMatt

You're very naughty Temeter

Yeah, that bit seemed really significant, so much so that I just went back to get the full transcript (oh, and corrected my earlier assertion that the conversation was between Kasper & Porkjet, was actually Kasper & DrT): Kasper: let's see "is 1.1 or console version going to have KER style deltav readout?". I don't think they do. Erm, KER style, at least no, because KER is of course a mod, it uses a few default unity UI elements which we don't use in 1.1, but if.... do you know this Joe? The deltav readouts are they in 1.1? DrT: sorry guys, can you repeat? Kasper: the deltav readouts, are they going to be in 1.1? Or is it further down the line? DrT: errr.... oh my god I don't know.... I think they'll be in... later.... hopefully. Kasper: yep.

This week's squadcast (last week's was cancelled) saw Kasper, DrTurkey & Porkjet explore national stereotypes whilst sending a crewed mission to Duna. Before I risk a forum wide flame war divided along national boundaries, let me confirm that this was the good natured poking of national stereotypes among friends and no reason to take offence. We find in the end that despite a Germanic predilection for perfection, the Mexican work ethic, and flat out Dutch weirdness, three nations can successfully put little green men on the red planet. This squadcast is not the source of hype fuel you may have been looking for. The archived stream can be viewed at https://www.twitch.tv/ksptv/profile/past_broadcasts and due to an early stream crash is split in two, the first part being ~5 minutes long, the second a more meaty ~45 minutes. As ever, this is just one person's interpretation of the stream and should not be taken as authoritative or even particularly accurate. Stream One 1m Joe/Dr Turkey is on via phone, in a car (as passenger) on way to super secret meeting 2m Porkjet is feeling perfect - DrTurkey: "when a german says he's perfect you've got to start feeling alarmed" 3m Confirmation we're playing v1.0.5, today we're going to Duna, large 3.5m rocket on launchpad 4m stream dies Stream Two 2m Chris/Porkjet has been working on the IVA masks that DasValdez revealed earlier to better get existing IVA assets working in 3D 3m Porkjet's german accent sees him encouraged to make a passable Terminator impression. His protestations that Germany & Austria are actually two different countries fall on deaf ears. 4m Fillipe/Harvester is working hard on wheels, some collider issues are persistent. Looks like pre-release shouldn't "be too long". 6m scrappy transfer to Duna arranged 7m Chris confirms working on refreshing all rocket part appearance whilst maintaining unique manufacturer design cues. 8m Duna mission is reverted as it transpires the crew are still back at base 9m Duna mission lander is 4 mk1 lander cans stapled together, a lot of drogues & full chutes, twitch radial engines. 10m NathanKell joins the chat stream 12m Kasper has been talking to NASA this week, nothing ready to be publicly revealed. Won't be about something in game though will be cool. Kerbal plushie freefall indicator is mooted in chat. 14m Relaunched Duna mission sees a shallow launch angle come very close to overheating the payload fairing 18m DrTurkey is on way to pick up his car after repair. Car doors are surprisingly expensive. Kasper sympathises, noting motorbike fairings similarly run into hundreds of euros for little bits of plastic - and they don't even have doors. Compulsory third party insurance, common across Europe, is evidence of "european weirdness". International relations take a hit as national stereotypes are played out in full: "is a mexican really going to lecture me about hard work?". During the motorbike fairing conversation, Porket disappointingly fails to demand "your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle". 21m confirmation the earlier teased "secret meeting" is DrTurkey picking up the TurkeyMobile after repairs necessitated by an earlier car crash. 25m chat about the benefits of "mundane" games, eurotruck simulator / farming simulator get a nod 27m Mission is captured around, and de-orbits Duna. Kasper briefly believes he's been hit by a bug as he's unable to retract solar panels before being informed that he's selected the lighter non-retractable solar panels for his mission rather than the retractable shielded variant. Quickly he reserves a couple of batteries to ensure some spare juice. 28m pre-release date is "still not here yet", some bugs they want to get nailed, sounds like "little less than a dozen" are serious enough that they'd be repeatedly reported. 29m nathankell & fillipe have been working on a couple of really annoying persistent bugs that evolve and seem possessed by cunning intelligence. 30m drogues deploy 31m landed on duna in one piece (sans solar panels). DrTurkey, as he's on the phone and can't see the stream, can't believe the successful landing (trust a european?!) and requests confirmation Porkjet (also european) that the landing hasn't been faked. 32m nod to exomars mission - europeans can do space! 35m confirmation that fairing lift bug is fixed (this was confirmed in the last squadcast too) 36m the only publicly available screenshots so far are the IVA ones DasValdez revealed a while back 37m rocket refresh visuals are confirmed for 1.2. Porkjet seemed very enthusiastic in his confirmation of this point, once he'd worked out his mute button. 37m comms network rework is slated for 1.2 (seemed, perhaps, a little less confident on this point) 38m Porkjet: "I don't think so" when asked if there were any new parts in 1.1 besides the already revealed inflatable heatshield and new landing wheels 39m plan is for console to have parity with PC moving forward whilst noting the certification process will likely add some lag to the console releases 40m no Kerbal Engineer Redux style deltav readouts in 1.1. "Is there any DV readout in 1.1?" asks Kasper of Porkjet DrTurkey? "Don't know, think later" - sounds like there are serious plans to get a dv readout of some sort in stock and relatively soon. 41m Porkjet clarifies the 1.1 new parts note (38 minutes) by noting some of the asteroid day stock mod parts are in 1.1 (but not the core asteroid scanning functionality) 43m fin Finally, a quick note about dates. I use Y/M/D format for squadcast summary dates. Largely because that's what 5thHorseman always used, secondly because I'm an IT bod by nature and that format makes most sense in code (the largest number is always the later date), thirdly because I'm a european, and hence weird, and finally because the american habit of M/D/Y confuses the hell out of the rest of the world who use D/M/Y (apart from China, Japan, a few others). Americans are weird. Anyway, Y/M/D seems least prone to international confusion, and as this squadcast has amply demonstrated, we're all about international cooperation in KSP. Even if all those other countries are weird. Oh, and the day may or may not be out by one because Thursday in Mexico may well be Friday in Europe. Timezones: also weird.

Curses! I was already kinda planning a grand tour colonisation effort to send off 1.0.5 in style whilst I've got all my shiny visual enhancement mods working. Now thanks to this thread - it's all your fault - I'm going to have to redesign for another dozen planets

And here I think we've reached the "agree to disagree" stage That's actually a damn good point though, and one I hadn't considered. Chapeau. On the wider points re Squad's ability to meet the feature set and reaction time of mod authors I do accept your argument but don't give it the same weight. I see it as largely similar to the aero/heat models pre v1 (or was it 0.9x? can't remember) - FAR/Deadly were significantly more extensive, objectively and subjectively better than the stock cold soup model, highly complex, accounting for infinite variety in craft design, and rapidly tweaked to suit player needs. FAR (and possibly Deadly, no recent experience) remains far more extensive, and to many is still subjectively better, but Squad were quite capable of coming up with a much better aero model than their initial placeholder. If Squad deploy a stock DV mod I will almost certainly continue to use Engineer or similar because those mods will undoubtedly be more extensive, more suited to my needs and react quicker to playerbase whims. But I think Squad have an opportunity to do better than their current placeholder, and I think they can do it. Because they have the opportunity to do something mods don't (currently) do - not just provide a basic model that's surpassed by Engineer or MJ, but demonstrate how and why those equations work. Not just provide a cut down Engineer, but bring to the underlying maths the accessibility that hallmarks KSP's approach to basic orbital mechanics.

Replace "good" with "extensive" and I definitely agree. Yep, broadly agree. Whilst I don't think adding a stock calc would take anything away from these options the status quo is acceptable. I just think there are possibilities to do more. Here I think you're on shakier ground. Firstly with regard to the focus and man-hours a paid 9-5 team can put in versus part-time unpaid hobby work honed and tweaked over years. But more importantly it kinda torpedoes the "you can always simply work this out on a calculator" argument - you can't simultaneously say that the player can simply use a calculator to interpret a simple equation and say these are complex optimised calculations beyond the wit of a professional software development house. Now I do get your point that whilst the underlying equations are relatively simple, the optimisation needed and bug potential comes from the horrendously plumbed multi-onion skinned asparagus Eve mission designs. But whilst you could calculate those by hand I think it's fair to say most people would rather throw that problem at computer function, whether mod or stock. Interesting thought experiment there: is a dv mod effectively compulsory for a crewed Kerbin-Eve return design? But hey, we agree on two out of three points. Which, I think, for stock/mod dv calc discussion might be an internet record

But a PC is just a calculator with prettier graphics Why work it out on a separate pocket computer when you can work it out on the same computer that's launching little green kerbonauts to a fiery doom? Don't get me wrong, there is great value in knowing and understanding Tsiolkovsky - knowledge of it informs construction, resulting in a more rapidly designed, more efficient craft. Knowledge of it also allows you to realise when the computer has got it wrong - if you've a rough idea in your head of the correct figure, the computer giving a wildly different result lets you know something's squiffy: perhaps a fuel line is incorrectly plumbed. Were I to work out each stage on a calculator I'd soon tire and resort to saving the equation as a stored function - and at that stage, I might as well have the function stored in KSP itself. I'd bet teaching contacts in the KSP Education edition would be great collaborators to come up with a method to teach the "how & why" of the equation within KSP. Present step by step instruction/experiment/result to build and demonstrate the formula from the ground up, and allow students to automate calculations as they grasp them and repeated practice becomes tedious rather than instructional. I'm not particularly forceful for stock dv calculators while the option through mods is available, but I do think KSP has an opportunity to do something better - something other than "here's the answer" that mods give you, or the "go read the equation on wikipedia" option left to those who don't know it by heart.

I feel a need to clarify that the line about DRM in this squadcast is merely the reporting of a question being asked, and an answer being given. If someone in the stream asked about the possibility of KSP implementing pay-to-win microtransactions I'd similarly write that question and answer up - but the existence of the question and the resounding negative answer* could not be taken as any kind of hint that such a thing was even remotely mooted. Any impression garnered to the effect of DRM implementation being extensively discussed in any context other than the negative would be incorrect. When writing these up, when not directly quoting, I try to paraphrase and find wording that conveys the tone of the conversation. It is rare that direct pronouncements of intent are made in Squadcast but the tone will often give clues as to possible development directions. Discerning between "that would be cool, but unlikely", "that's something we're looking at but not likely in the next build", "that's something we should be able to talk about very shortly", and "ewww, no", can be tricky. When writing up the DRM question (which I should perhaps stress was directed at the upcoming pre-release build only) I paraphrased the multiple negative responses, including three negative adverbs in my single sentence summary to hopefully convey that the tone of this segment was very much in the "ewww, no" category. All that said, I don't speak for Squad. The only dealing I have ever had with Squad is I bought their game three years ago. Nothing I say should ever be taken as a direct Squad communiqué. If something in a squadcast summary intrigues you I'd encourage you to check out the linked stream archive, jump to the rough timestamp, and get it from the horse's mouth. Finally, please remember that the unlawful practice which DRM is typically, correctly or incorrectly, justified in combating is a taboo subject on Squadcast chats and these forums. I'd hate to get a forum infraction for inadvertently sparking a conversation about it. * whilst I don't speak for Squad I feel reasonably confident in assuming their response to pay-to-win microtransactions would be negative

That was it! Yep, hopefully we'll see the obsession re-ignite as 1.1 launches

I did mention previously that I wouldn't get chance to do these very often - everyone else welcome to hop in at any stage. 5thHorseman & OWK (was it Owl or OWK? Might have been OWK) before him were much better custodians of this slot than me. I did actually get to see most of last week's squadcast too, but other than the news that SQUAD DOGGIE likes apples it was rather light on news. Anyway, with exciting developments coming thick and fast I figured this week's Squadcast would definitely be one to watch. This week's squadcast, with Kasper, Nathan, and Roverdude will be of great interest to modders and those who use mods with a lot of interesting chat. A good chunk of technical chat about new hooks and handles, from which mere mortals can discern the mods most likely to require significant work to make 1.1 compatible (tl;dr: anything with wheels, anything UI, anything at all really) and some new possibilities afforded by the new interfaces. As ever, this broadcast archive can be found at http://www.twitch.tv/ksptv/profile/past_broadcasts and twitch now archives the chat stream too (though still requires flash, so you know, be careful, update flash / run it in a VM / set flash to click-to-play etc). And as ever, this is just one person's interpretation of a stream and is in no way authoritative or even accurate. (1) We're running v1.0.5, setting up to launch a small dummy payload into orbit. (2) "it's quite a difference" responds Kasper when asked in chat what it's like going back to 1.0.5 after playing 1.1 (3) talk of extra event handles in the code* expanding on the interesting coolant talk going on in this weeks devnotes between Red Iron Crown & Nathan (fix to ensure heat is transferred with fuel when moved around a vessel opens up pumped coolant possibilities) (5) re existing mods anything with wheels will almost certainly need changing, UI mods will see significant changes, new asset bundles. After launch, talk of doing a special UI building KSP livestream. Meanwhile the craft on the launchpad jettisons it's fairing as it's first order of business, hasty revert to re-arrange staging. (6) not talking specific performance numbers until experimental data is in, "crap ton of optimisations" performing a lot better. Deep mods will need to change bindings as some old hooks are no longer there. OnGUI code should still be backwards compatible. (7) rocket has launched but is extra bendy, revert to VAB. (8) unity 5 setup is a lot easier to work with (9) sas/torque calculations have been reworked a little in 1.1 so can now ref new iTorque property rather than checking through reaction wheels. Should help with autopilot mods. (11) Re the KSP store v steam distribution for pre-release launch (after experimentals, before proper launch). Always looking at options, but rough calc at 70tb of traffic over two weeks would really stretch KSP servers / CDN costs so for now likely to be a steam exclusive. (15) Rocket redesign as still too bendy. MOAR STRUTS. (20) warning to steam pre-release, and some small compensation to KSP store owners - pre-release phase will almost certainly be buggy and save trashing. Bug finding power of thousands of steam customers dwarfs that achievable by even regimented QA/experimentals testing regimes. Steam customers are not "getting 1.1 early", they've the option of playing what will very likely be a buggy save trashing release. (21) No electric juice on rocket has now resulted in dead almost-orbital rocket. Redesign to add MOAR JUICE. (23) Innovative staging on launch is pretty but explosive - what happens if we fire ALL THE STAGES AT ONCE? Revert. (24) At least Max got into orbit, Kasper admits (26) stream/video NDA rights on pre-release likely to be pragmatic and open (27) no plans to DRM pre-release, we've never had DRM in KSP, no plans to add at this stage. Nod to the Spintires DRM-lite clustertruck. (30) Discussion on the KerbalStuff situation to nail some wilder revisionist theories. Status is, was, remains as officially communicated. (31) We have orbit! (35) Realism Overhaul (RP0) mod discussion (37) De-orbited payload, now launching the Blackbird-like atmospheric jet designed in last week's squadcast. (40) Unstable flight dynamics result in a water.... landing, let's call it a landing. Nathan knows his flight dynamics and educates the stream on Blackbird lift. (42) Roverdude talking about streaming the work on his colonisation mods (mods, we're not talking about integrating this into stock) (43) Now launching the Juno powered stock seaplane (45) Successful sea landing, Valentina goes out for a swim. But is swimming backwards. At speed. Curious drag coefficient differences between a kerbal and a seaplane. Relaunch. (48) Kasper talks about his mod making attempts. (52) Now "landing" on the island runway, well, any one you walk away from. (53) No plans for new parachutes in this update. Future is future. (57) confirmation that fairing lift bug in 1.0.5 has been fixed in 1.1 - lift will now be applied at the root of the fairing. (58) We leave Valentina at the top of the island control tower, and end the stream (59) Fin * whenever I hear "the code" I can't help but internally correct: "it's more what you'd call guidelines"

Perhaps a little soon to board the hype train. You may take a hype taxi to the train station if you like. Maybe buy yourself a nice cup of hype coffee* while you wait? *caution: hype coffee is hot! Like, really, really hot.

Suspect this may be only of limited help, my two cargo bay science + isru combined subassembly setup: Combines a couple of mini power cells, a couple of radial ore tanks, battery power, isru, mini drill, all science gear (including the all important surface scanner) and an antenna. Extra solar power and radiators I usually find room for elsewhere in the craft. A personal favourite of late has been incorporating an edge radiator into the tailfin/rudder assembly.

Re part malfunctions, the impression I got was a very firm "noooooo, no, ewww, no, definitely not". I think it's probably safe to say the idea has come nowhere near the possible list. Re weather, I think the question implied both visual and physical effects and the answer suggested neither would be a feature in 1.1. The rest of the stream certainly suggested visual effects are on the longer term radar (ie 1.2ish and beyond), and perhaps left open either way the even longer term possibility of weather having physical effects. That point for me was perhaps the most salient one of the stream. I'd encourage you to skip to that point in the video and double check the answer for yourself as to my mind it implied some serious consideration had been given already. This wasn't just an enthusiastic "oh yeah that would be cool" response but implied a "oh yeah we've got some great ideas lined up on that one but too early to say" - but as for whether that might be addressed in 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, or 15.7 is too early to say. OOOOOOH! Regex's reputation as being (adorably) grumpy*, coupled with a confident assertion that he'll be satisfied with efforts, suggests the rest of us should be ecstatic with the results of Porkjet's labours * love you really regex, just teasing!

Yep, again this is just confusion arising from my interpretation of a half heard off the cuff comment made at the end of an hour long stream, I'd encourage everyone to watch and listen to the stream for more clarity. But as I understood it - and please note I really only half heard this point - it was noting that "yes the thermal system will be multi-threaded, but modestly so, it's not just a case of pressing a button and hey-presto it's multi-threaded. What's more with the overhead of the the thermal system being relatively low to begin with, writing some ornate multi-thread handling code to spread that over 16 parallel processes is risking all manner of bugs for very little gain, better to lightly breathe some multi-threaded goodness over it and keep it simple, stable, and a bit faster".

Sorry, confusion is entirely down to my scrappy transcribing and affection for tautologies. Gist I got was that "the scope of 1.2 is already being discussed internally, and wide ranging graphical updates are at the forefront of those discussions" - but couch that with enough wiggle room to back out if unforseen problems or exciting new things to focus on emerge - ie. they're not yet ready to categorically state "these are our plans", at least not in a world where dev statements are taken as gospel and people throw a hissy if "promises" aren't kept.

Scrappy summary as this week I didn't get to watch it live but relied upon the archived stream at http://www.twitch.tv/ksptv/profile/past_broadcasts to cobble together a summary - as this doesn't include the chat history some nuance, and indeed some salient points, have likely been missed. This week saw Dr Turkey, Kasper & NathanKell being rather coy: lots of "not quite ready to talk about that" and "we've got lots on this but can't quite say anything about it yet". As such perhaps the only definite points which could be gleaned were things that won't be in 1.1 (tl;dr: weather, sonic booms, part malfunctions, 9th planet analog, wide ranging graphics update) but that sounds too negative a summary of what was an enjoyable hour's stream. Genuinely interesting diversions into NASA & the USAF's design choices for the shuttle, the stumbling blocks when developing for consoles, and much else besides. If you've an hour free I'd urge everyone to check it out - especially if you've ever struggled with designing a classic space shuttle. Without further ado, my notes as I watched - again I stress I didn't see the chat stream so have likely missed bits, misinterpreted bits, and over or under emphasised bits. (5 mins) launching a simple comm-sat into a geostationary kerbin orbit - looks a little low on dv (6 mins) this squadcast won't be played on an inhouse 1.1 but on production 1.0.5 (7 mins) comm-sat launch is looking very smooth, and - what do I know - has plenty of dv (9 mins) geostationary orbit changed slightly in 1.0.5. In 1.0 the solar day was a couple minutes too short, fixing this in 1.0.5 has necessarily changed geostationary orbit altitude (very slightly) (11 mins) Ion powered comm-sat delivered, the 2nd stage is returning to a kerbin burn-up orbit - very tidy! (13 mins) secret footage on it's way - the tab title is "SecretEnchantedGermanShorthairedPointer" - might it be SQUAD DOGGIE?? (14 mins) secret footage is not squad doggie , it's a unity themed meme-ified gif of a recent news story (16 mins) KSP might not be coming to XBOX360 any time soon (17 mins) hints at revisiting easter eggs, possibly a story chain (18 mins) now building a shuttle (18 mins) 1.1 will not have weather (18 mins) ksp is currently multithreaded but the physics is all singlethread, v1.1 is allowing some multithreading of physics (21 mins) "release date in 2016 for sure" (23 mins) 9th planet analog not in design plans yet (24 mins) definitely no plans for random part malfunction (26 mins) graphical update is in the plans (feeling this is 1.2+) (27 mins) shuttle build is hurting for lack of dv/twr mod, and missing a wing wheel (28 mins) collision boxes around scatter objects are being looked at (didn't get the feels this would be a 1.1 feature) (32 mins) - shuttle launch is.... unwieldy (34 mins) v1.2 is in internal discussions, graphical updates are mooted as being seriously considered (36 mins) shuttle seperation - during a spin - smashed off the rear engines and rudder (37 mins) going to try to bring it down unpowered, with two wheels & no rudder (39 mins) shuttle overheated and exploded, no survivors (42 mins) porkjet has been working on some engine models (regex, of this parish, was asking about titan models, so a possible hint, think it implied reskins of existing engines rather than additions see clarification posts by regex & nathankell below) (43 mins) relaunched shuttle is looking a teensy bit better (48 mins) shuttle orbit almost achieved but unwieldy in orbit, revert to redesign, adding more vernor engine RCS to brute force control issues (50 mins) stock delta-v indicator hasn't been shelved, the work previously done on it has not been scrapped (57 mins) shuttle orbit acheived (1h ish) something here I didn't pay enough attention to - NathanKell (I think) talking a bit about re-writing the thermal system for a bit more speed, warning that the thermal system wasn't that significant an overhead to begin with, and I think noting that multi-threading isn't in every case a simple panacea, here be dragons etc. (1h 4 mins) 1.1 will not have sonic booms, something to consider for future versions (1h 5 mins) Fin

Sorry to hear that, 5th, but understand your position and you've intimated as much in the past. As you've also noted, I suspect Squadcast is at a bit of a crossroads. To be fair to Squad, having both a weekly Devnotes and a weekly Squadcast packed with juicy development info is a tall ask; I'd be surprised if they're not considering shaking things up a bit and perhaps focusing on a less frequent but more polished and exclusive content heavy video feature. That said, Squadcast is quite a draw to KSPTV - and whilst Twitch streamers might not be everyone's cup of tea, they are undeniably a successful and talented bunch who deserve their place in modern culture and modern game marketing. The "market" for Squadcast summaries is..... perhaps not the Twitch audience - we're not hugely interested in watching someone play the game, we're more interested in the buried dev info - and having someone summarise this for us without us having to watch an hour of rocket flipping was perfect. So two different audiences, and as the "squadcast summary audience" it's important to remember we're not the only voice. My suggestion, for what it's worth, would be for Squad to tie these into the Devnotes. If a week's devnotes has some particularly juicy bits, or things they want to show off, state "to find out more, watch TwitchStreamerX's feed on Thursday where we'll be exclusively showcasing these features". Make Squadcast a 15 minute jump in with an established KSPTV streamer. It makes Squad's contribution more dense and less rambling, and acts as a marketing pull for streamers themselves - "tune in this week where I'll be joined by Squad and exclusively revealing new video of their upcoming release". Anyway, I'll keep an eye out, if I have time I'll do, if not, I won't. If everyone with an interest does the same, we're covered. By the looks of things, for those wondering, it appears there wasn't a Squadcast this (last) week.

Nuclear propulsion without nuclear weaponry is normal in the Kerbal mind in the same way that hydrocarbon propulsion is possible without invoking hydrocarbon weaponry. Think about it: humans didn't first use rocket fuel to explore the universe, we used it to shoot musket balls/rocket arrows at other humans. Kerbals are a far more advanced species. Their use of nuclear technology is no different. Now, Kerbals love a good explosion so the Orion drive would appeal to them - but the thought of using that as a weapon would be an anathema. At the risk of summoning an NRA press spokesperson: nuclear bombs don't kill people, people kill people. Kerbals, on the other hand, are far more civilised.

Ooops! First month of any new year I'm always writing duff cheques Corrected (hey, neat, I'm pretty sure we couldn't do that on the old forums).

Look forward to 5thHorseman (and Owl before him) writing up the Squadcasts each week but I think he's been busy the last couple. As this week I found myself uncharacteristically in possession of free time I thought I'd jump on in as a one time deal. This won't be as good as 5thHorseman's writeups, and I'm very unlikely to be able to writeup again in future. I'm a bit lax with timestamps, video can be found at http://www.twitch.tv/ksptv/profile/past_broadcasts Squadcast was an hour and fifteen minutes, hosted this week by DasValdez. Guests were Dr Turkey & Kasper. AND THE SQUAD DOG. DasValdez is making a Dreamchaser in stock KSP. Squad dog says hello in the background. Sounds bigger than a terrier, smaller than a retriever. Also sounds very happy. And sounds like someone hid his squeaky toy. DasValdez has a general appreciation for hinges and moving parts, think he's making some unsubtle hints to get more infernal robotics style bits in squad stock. Nasa can make hinges he notes. Squad reps note that Nasa budget has more zeros at the end. Dr Turkey notes that KSP got a bad steam review! The reviewer gave (I think) 4/20 score due to a lack of cats in the game. It's all about the dogs here mate. Roverdude apparently has plans on a cat(apult) powered craft propulsion mod. (24 mins) Unity 5 QA is ongoing and different to 1.1 QA Everybody's crunching (27 mins) 1.1 is running on Unity5 - they're just two different QA streams. Release version will be 1.1, running on U5 (29 mins) Significant boost to gamespeed is anticipated due to rewrite (30 mins) KSP development expected to continue, no plans otherwise, but clearly at somepoint before heat death of universe it will stop 1.1 will not be out next week "No VR plans yet, but would be cool, would be fantastic. Resource/benefit ratio not yet there to throw dev time at it." (33 mins) Extra localisation is planned, no ETA yet, working on a framework. (35 mins) System spec requirements not thought to change. Console work doesn't limit PC branch. Console work has helped PC branch by "forcing" better work practices & clean up/optimisation of code. Console & PC are two seperate builds, one won't limit the other. Dreamchaser build is looking *pretty* (clippy, but pretty). (40 mins) Multiplayer is coming, working on it, it's hard backend work (sounds like it's a way off, not 1.1) Hiring professionals for translations. Nod to Prison Architect, it's great. (it is) Dreamchaser made it to the runway without exploding. Balance is going to be a bit whacked. (45 mins) Squad do most builds. Edu & console builds are worked on by seperate companies. Hiring talented modders has been a success for Squad. Dreamchaser engine clipping on cargo bay prevented their firing. (48 mins) Question on PhysX support - unsure, if U5 runs PhysX then KSP 1.1 will have PhysX Dreamchaser now exploding out it's fairing. 1.1 will have auto invisible strutting inside fairings (think this was mentioned in devnotes) (52 mins) Steam achievments - developing an achievements system for console, arguments on either side as to whether to take this to Steam - sounds like no decision made either way yet (57 mins) Bug on fairing drag in 1.0.5 being applied in front of fairing - unsure if that's fixed in 1.1 There exist KSP bumper stickers. (1h 6mins) - back on acheivements, making the console ones as fun as possible (ie. not kill 1000 rats), still open either way on Steam implementation, welcoming feedback Dreamchaser booster stage took out the spaceplane hangar in spectacular fasion. (1h 10mins) Squad doggy barks goodbye. Doc Turkey & Kasper depart. (1h 15mins) Fin. No new screenshots or any particularly groundbreaking game news, but SQUAD DOG! Edit: Whilst we wait for the all important SQUAD DOG news, have my very own Kerbal Kitten:

I'd perhaps reconsider some of the life support mods - RoverDude's USI mods for example add complexity to the game for sure but do it in a friendly enough way that it doesn't seem harder as such, just different and gives more a purpose to space exploration. It's also safe in that Kerbals deprived of snacks don't die, they just go on a strop and refuse to work until they get their sugar fix. KSI/KAS offer new building opportunities which can quite dramatically change your approach to the game too. And I'm always a sucker for pretties. EVE has polished up and plays quite nice with 1.0.5 now, PlanetShine is another personal favourite. EDIT: As for goals - you've done the Jool 5 right? That's a real fun trip, a unique engineering challenge coupled with five very varied landings closely clustered together in one mission that takes place in a very pretty system. I last attempted back in 0.24 - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/79820-there-and-back-again-a-jool-5-tale/ - really need to do that one again.

Perhaps worth noting that tonight in the UK it's Guy Fawkes night - the airspace over the UK will be filled with explosions and the ground ablaze with thousands of burning fires. This is not unlike my KSP save.

That's dead good, well done folks - always been impressed with the attention Squad put towards education editions and the like. Katie Mack & Emily Lakdawalla are two astro-physics lady people off the top of my head who may prove inspirational / educational / worth approaching for advice / collaboration.

Well, Eeloo. An answer I suspect you'll get rather a lot of. Despite playing for hundreds of hours over the last couple of years I've still yet to visit Dres however. Or successfully return from Moho or Eve. Most satisfying destination is undoubtedly the Jool 5 trip, it encompases design challenges with very pretty, very varied destinations in one mission.

I *think* I'll probably start a career save with a life support mod from the outset. Usually I only start going mod heavy after splurging on a largely stock start. Probably RoverDude's USI.