seanth

I've been looking at the QB64 code today. I'd not heard of QB64 before, but I cut my teeth on Basic way back on my C64 so I was able read and understand it for the most part. Is the plan to have the cluster galaxy centers and "interstellar space" be center points that the other stars orbit?

Is there a way to use module manager to add things to the ignore node in the database.cfg? Something like:

So...this is slightly embarrassing but I spent a fair amount of the night playing with To Boldly Go. At first I was trying to see if I could detect exoplanets transiting their primary using mods that add telescopes, but the game just isn't set up to allow for picking something like that up. Then I remembered Research Bodies and started messing around. Using Research Bodies, Tarsier Space Technology, and Hullcam VDS Continued I was able to use the discovery mechanics in Research Bodies to "discover" exoplanets without actually zooming in on them in the map view. I wish the way you discover things in Research Bodies was more automated and less clicky, but it was pretty fun to point a telescope at a distant star and find exoplanets orbiting it.

Did a quick search of the thread for "command center" related bugs and didn't see anything, so I'm posting. Sorry if this is a bug duplicate. When I start the game up with the galaxy.cfg provided, I don't see the command center at all. I can go into the tracking station, space plane hanger, etc fine. Just no initial view of the command center.

This is really pretty intriguing. I took a quick look at your code up on the pastebin and it seems like it'd be pretty straight forward to make a python script that would do the same thing (minus the gui). I might take a stab at it if I get some time in the coming week. Then you could have a headless way to generate things.

I visited that spot recently:

Too bad there couldn't be an altitude multiplier to reward people that stay very low

Might be necro, but what the hey. Ship name: The Pip. Voyage is described here Depth: -1387m on Kerbin Descent speed: 1.0m/s Mothership: yes Touch bottom: yes Planted a flag: !YES! Score: (1387+1)*1.5*1.5 = 3118.5

Just a heads up: This link will be dead in a week or so. If anyone is interested in grabbing it for the tiled maps, etc, you might want to do so soon.

Extended Voyage of Quarterway and the Pip is now up. Stock submarine(The Pip) onboard A small dockable hydrofoil (The Oceanbug) is carried in the hold (range of ~40km) A Kerbal places a flag in a bay ~1/4 of the way around Kerbin from the KSC No underwater flag Kraken problems.

Ship Name: Quarterway and the Pip (revised to allow the Oceanbug to dock in the cargo hold) Max fuel: 32355, but it carried only 32,195L. The extra space were tanks on the two daughter craft. Total crew: 11 (plus two spaces on daughter craft: The Pip and Oceanbug) Start location: KSC (-0.0435, -74.39) Number of flags placed: 5 Flag 1: Hanbert Cape (-24.635768, -141.749706) Flag 2: Maybe Island (-24.573792, -144.256099) Flag 3: Olmost Point (-21.270606, -153.289103) Flag 4: Olmost Beach (-17.335498, -156.71257) Flag 5: Quarterbay (-14.225317, -158.304707. ~918m under the water) Mission time: 1 day 4hrs 28min 52 sec (37,732s) Total distance: 1,768,563.22m on Kerbin Level 3 Score: (1,768,563.22m / 37,732s)*(5 flag/11 crew members) = 21.31 A few notes: I didn't think I was going to make it back on this trip. I hadn't fully tested the craft, and at the last minute I decided to include a second daughter ship in the hold. This meant the craft's weight was distributed differently than when it was just the Pip. It also had more mass, which meant more fuel was needed to get it up to cruising speed. About 1/2 through the trip The Oceanbug pera-docked with the Quarterway. It took quite a while of messing around to manage to get it to undock again. In the end, I managed to get back to the KSC with 200L of fuel to spare. Placing flags under the water might be my new favorite challenge in KSP. •The important thing is this craft has proven it can go 1/2 way around Kerbin (one-way trip) without refueling. Woooo!• I'll write up the trip next week, but here are the highpoints. Map points in kml, mechjeb, and waypoint manager files updated. Quarterway and Pip (and Oceanbug) craft file online for people to grab (see OP): Map of places visited: Hanbert Cape: Maybe Island: Olmost Point: Olmost Beach: Quarterbay (another flag placed under water): Record of distance vs fuel used. Note the drop in performance as the Quarterway is making stops to place flags (points in open circles)

Next entry in progress, but I'm trying to overcome a perma-locked port.

Yuup. Exactly how I feel.

Voyage of Quarterway and the Pip is now up. Stock submarine(The Pip) onboard A Kerbal places a flag in the deepest part of Kerbin's ocean The Kraken awakens and nearly destroys the ship

Ship Name: Quarterway and the Pip (props to the first person to catch the reference) Max fuel: 32,115L (includes 50L on daughter craft The Pip) Total crew: 11 (plus two spaces on daughter craft The Pip) Start location: KSC (-0.0435, -74.39) Number of flags placed: 1 Flag 1: "Emoji Deep" (-28.9055, -83.1116, ~1387 under the water) Mission time: 4 hrs 24 min 08 sec (15,848 sec) Total distance: 6,668,405m meters on Earth/10.64 = 626,730 m on Kerbin Level 3 Score: (626,730 m / 15,848s)*(1 flag/11 crew members) = 3.6 Too bad there's no score multiplier for flags placed under water A few notes: Unlike the previous craft I've made for this challenge, I had a few very specific design goals: More cargo space to hold daughter craft The main ship should be able to travel at least 1,884,956m. Put another way, the boat needs to be able to go 1/2 around Kerbin (one way) or a quarter way around (going there and back). Thus the name Quarterway Transport a stock submarine. Place a flag under the water. I wasn't sure this was possible initially. With other designs, I have done "off screen" shakedown tests to see what the range of the crafts were. With this design, I decided to gather the performance data (speed, lat/long (to calculate distance traveled), and fuel used) while heading out to place a flag. There was one problem with the mission: somehow the flag placed at the bottom got stuck on the submarine. It was't until the Quarterway was close to the KSC that the Kraken showed itself. Apparently moving flags is Not A Good Thing. Mission Report: Valentina's report to the Maritime Exploitation Institute(MEI) about the trip to Seanth's Landing was very well received, and the inclusion of the Oceanbug opened up new opportunities. Soon the word came down: the next craft design would ultimately need to be able to reach the bay to the west of Hanbert's Cape. It also needed to carry a working submarine. The MEI proposed a test of all systems in the deepest known part of Kerbin. Go big or go home. Before being recruited by the KSC, Orsen's original field of study had been carbon cycling in the deep ocean, so he was tapped to assist Bob in the submarine design. Ditrid, Val, and Bill reviewed previous ship designs and came up with what they thought would be a ship that could fulfill the mission parameters. "We're not completely sure whether it has the range it needs," admitted Ditrid when Quarterway was unveiled and the, submarine The Pip, was being stowed in the cargo area. "We're getting pretty good at estimating range of the hydrofoil designs, but we won't know without a shakedown cruise." To trip out into the open ocean was uneventful. As Bob and Orsen boarded The Pip and began the long descent to the bottom, tensions ran high, however. After almost 30 minutes descending over a kilometer to the bottom. Orsen prepared to do something many considered impossible: he braved the crushing pressures, exited the Pip, and placed a flag proudly naming the spot "Emoji Deep". Despite the fears of losing his grip and having a rapid, unplanned ascent to the surface, Orsen reboarded the craft and their ascent began. They redocked with the Quarterway without incident, but just as they started back to the KSC, Chadwin gasped, pointing at the sky. "The sky has a crack! The Kraken has awoken!" Most of the crew onboard knew that Chadwin was a devotee of the ancient belief in the maleficent Kraken, but his reaction startled everyone. Recording the phenomena, the crew went about their tasks while Chadwin tightly closed his eyes. With over 200km left to go before they returned to the KSC, Valentina finally admitted to herself that something was wrong with the Quarterway. The craft was performing well, but the entire craft was shaking. It had started after the Pip had docked and had gotten progressively worse over time. After conferring with Bill, Bob, and Detrid, Val brought the craft to a stop. With the engines off, the unnatural shaking of the craft was more noticeable. "Hey, Orsen, I need you to EVA and see if there is something wrong with The Pip or the cargo bay. We've got a wicked shimmy up here that started when you two docked and it's just getting worse." Chadwin mutted a prayer he hadn't thought of since childhood and rocked back and forth in his chair. "Negative, Val. My hatch is obstructed by something." "Ok, here's what we're going to do: Bob, undock The Pip. Let's see if that stops the shaking. If not, ease The Pip out. Bob, you'll EVA and see if you can figure out what is going on." Undocking The Pip didn't stop the shudders running through the Quarterway, however. And as Bob left The Pip, the crew observing through the windows cried out in horror! For a moment, Bob had phased through the "catcher's plate" on The Pip. Maybe the stories of the Kraken were true after all. Overcoming his terror, Bob entered the cargo bay and Orsen carefully maneuvered The Pip up the ramp. "Huh. Um, I think I see the problem. The flag we placed has somehow phased through the hull of The Pip." After a moment of silence, Val asked the only thing she could think of. "Can you free it?" "I've been trying, but when I get close to the flag, I don't feel so good." "Ok. forget it, get back in here and we'll try and get back." Val relinquished the controls to Bob as he re-boarded the craft through the bridge hatch, and the again set out for home. ------------- "We're not going to make it," Bob confided to Val. The ship was about 120km from the KSC, but was vibrating with such violence that it was only a matter of time before it broke to pieces. It was clear that the further they got from Emoji Deep, the greater the disturbance. "Chadwin, if you have any idea, now is the time to do them." "The Kraken wants the flag. We placed it, and it wants it back." "That's fine, but we can't go back. I don't know if the ship would stop shuttering as we got closer to Emoji Deep, but I don't know if we have the fuel to go back there and then return to KSC. Even if you could go back to Emoji Deep, The Pip doesn't have the ballast to make another dive. We dumped some of the ore to ascend." Chadwin shut his eyes and seemed to come to a decision. "Stop the boat. I'll go into the cargo bay. Alone." Bob reduced the throttle and brought the Quarterway to a halt, though it's vibrations made conspicuous splashing noises. Cadwin disappeared in the hold, and the rest of the crew gripped the seats rests. The violence of the craft's movements briefly increased, there was a sound, like a massive cork being released from a bottle, and the craft stopped moving. The crew looked at one another, everyone still holding their breath, waiting for the worst. Cadwin reentered the cabin area, looking confused. "What was I doing in the cargo bay?" Apparently, whatever had happened, Chadwin had no memory of it. The last thing he remembered was The Pip docking with the Quarterway after returning from its maiden dive. From that point, the Quarterway performed without problem, returning to the KSC smoothly. With the Bob and Bill quietly accumulated the data they had gathered to determine the range of the ship and quietly exited along with the rest of the confused and disturbed crew. ---------------------- Video of the trip to be uploaded soon.

Yup. Not my first rodeo, though it is harder since the changes to drag model and buoyancy.

Working my way up to a no-refueling, naval circumnavigation of Kerbin

Thx for the heads up. Miss ya @Claw

Part 4: Ship prototyping--Unnamed craft (Leaning toward Quarterway and the Pip) Design goals: Larger cargo area Larger dockable runabout hydrofoil (the Pip) with greater range 10 or more crew members target range of 1,884,956m estimated fuel: ~28,000 L

Update: Video of the 'Western Nosebleed' added. I have a new entry to put up: 'Quarterway and the Pip' This design was slightly different in that I had two design goals: Carry a special craft in the cargo hold (the 'Pip') Be able to travel 1,884,955.5m (half way around Kerbin) The estimated range of 'Quarterway and the Pip' is 2,024,567m, so good job me. An account of the shakedown cruise will happen soon. Props to anyone that catches the movie reference in the name.

This is probably old news* to the people that do this sort of thing everyday, but I did some digging through @saik0's github history for this project, and then looked closer at the javascript: the json elevation and biome files (that give info in the on-map key) are almost certainly utfgrid files. I'm not a GIS guy, so this is all new to me. Anyone know how to go from the elevation DEMs to the tiled json utfgrid format? I'll poke around tomorrow, but I suspect someone more familiar with gdal might just Know How To Do This. Edit: maybe use ogr2ogr gdal_contour to make a .shp file, https://github.com/Ecotrust/create-utfgrids, and then done? *Yup. I'm an idiot:

I never grabbed the rest of the json files because it's a bit tedious to get them all for all the planets and moons. If you are interested, I can start either dling them or explain how to get them from the internet archive. EDIT: I was just poking around on the internet archive version. I guess nothing but Kerbin had elevation data? It looks like the json elevation files for everything but Kerbin are MIA Yeah. Sorry about that, but I couldn't find high resolution biome maps to turn into tiles, so I didn't make new ones.

I'm in the middle of testing my next entry, and I thought it might be interesting to some to see what I do in the final stages of testing. The testing is particularly important for this craft because I want it to be able to travel 1,884,956m. This will give the craft a max range of 1/2 way around Kerbin, or 1/4 of the way if if need to return to its start point (which it does). Let's assume you have a craft you are relatively pleased with. You've worked hard to minimize drag, and you've found the sweet spot in terms of speed vs fuel usage. Just how far can your craft go? I've made a spreadsheet for myself that takes the latitude, longitude, speed, current amount of fuel, and maximum amount of fuel. It plugs the lat and long into a Great Circle equation to give me the distance between points (Delta distance) and then sums the deltas to give me total distance. That way I can snake a boat around corners and still keep an accurate record of distance traveled as long as I get the lat/long at each course change. The fuel present and total fuel possible gives the the % fuel used. Together, the "Total distance" and "% fuel used" lets me get a pretty good sense of how far a vessel might be able to travel. By the time I start testing things to get a sense for a ship's range, I have usually figured out the optimal angles for my hydroplanes that gives me a good balance between speed and fuel usage/sec. Normally, for large vessels, I'll pick a course, turn on SAS to hold the ship to it, and set a time for 10-15min. When the timer goes off I'll record the lat, long, speed, and remaining fuel, and set the timer again. The good thing about this is you can do pretty much anything else until the timer goes off: read, study, watch TV, whatever. I have found that after five data points, I have a large enough data set to pretty accurately guess how far the craft will go. Take for example: Every ship will have a different equation that fits the data, but they are probably going to end up being a polynomial. In this specific case, the equation to figure out how far the vessel will go is: Distance = -96391.91 + 15571.822*100 + 76.660171*(100-34.9646)^2 or 1,785,032.40 m My target distance for this craft is 1,884,956m (1/2 the circumference of Kerbin). The equation says I'll be 99,923.6m short. This is close enough that I decided I needed more data just to make sure. As with most things, the more data you get, the better your estimates become. No amount of wishful thinking saves me, though: The refinement to the equation doesn't help: predicted distance of 1,780,951.84m. About 104,000 m too short. Just sticking more fuel on won't necessarily solve the problem, though. It might, but it will depend on where the fuel is placed, how it changes the distribution of weight and lift, and how much additional thrust is needed to move that added mass and get it into a stable hydroplane, etc. Regardless, back to refining the design....

Sure. That would be "level 4" entry. In fact, I encourage you to give it a shot. I think the SAS powered engines are pretty cool

It took some work, but I was definitely able to see improvements in fuel usage with the tiny little jet engine. You are completely correct about needing a minimum TWR ratio, though. Once you can get up on planes, though, you can dial back the throttle (sometimes quite a bit). Feel free to download and look at the ships I put on github. Either use them as-is, or improve on them. The Skutaliepooper was put together just so I could have an entry using the Juno engines. I built it, got it up on planes, and went with it without trying to refine it other than learning how to pilot it (in the video, you can see I crash it into the surface a few times as I'm getting used to it). I'm positive there is a lot of room for improvement. ----Edit---- Huh. I just looked at the performance of the crappy little runabout I made for the Western Nosebleed. The Oceanbug has a range of ~40,000m and a cruising speed of ~26m/s. That comes out to a travel time of ~1500sec. If you threw 1 kerbal in, traveled 20km, planted a flag and came back, the score would be 26.67... which is much better than my Level 1 score. 40km isn't great--I'm not sure you could get to the runway island and back--but certainly hints that much better Level 1 craft are possible. 100km round trip puts you in range of all the islands near the KSC.