Commander Zoom

Duna. I've been there once, in a "simulation" (test save); but I need to do it for real, preferably before the end of this year. To honor a friend.

Plaid will do it. In just thirteen seconds, too! Of course, this presents other problems...

New people are always coming into the game, and old ones often start fresh with new program versions; and from various threads I've seen, many players do care quite a bit about the safety of their kerbonauts - at least in "live" / "for serious" saves. Great work, sumghai. I've been following the development thread, and am glad to see this released.

Neat pod concept, sojourner. I hope to see it in game soon. And I'm glad to see this mod still going strong.

Loved this design when it was first posted elsethread. Looking forward to the craft.

IMO, it's not so much that HubMaxes are too heavy as that most probe parts are really, really light compared to anything that carries kerbals. You can build an entire functioning probe out of hardware that weighs less than a one-kerb lander can, by itself.

(Technically yesterday, but...) Spent the whole frickin' day assembling, strutting, and transporting my Mun base's new habitation module to the surface. It's got a central hub with a cupola, airlock/wardroom (Hitchhiker module), and four hab wings (3 Hitchikers each, horizontal) coming off it. Lucas Kerman, co-pilot of Mun Bus 2, got to play strut monkey on EVA after EVA (and quicksave after quicksave, as I soon found that a single spacewalking kerbal is somehow able to apply incredible force entirely by accident, leading to repeated unplanned disassemblies). But I finally got it down and placed with the rest of the base... only to discover that this had left Mun Bus 2 low on fuel and dry on monopropellant, which it would probably need to dock with the orbiting station. Fortunately, Mun Bus 1 was already on the surface, with full tanks... twenty minutes of pipe-laying later, both shuttles were half-full and Mun Bus 2 was able to lift off with confidence. (More fuel will be arriving from Kerbin - the beginnings of a tank farm for the base - soon, possibly today.) Speaking of fuel, several partially or almost completely full transfer stages were left in munar orbit during this whole operation. At some point, I'll be sending up a tug with the hardware to drain them mostly dry and crash them into the surface (well away from anything important).

I've been playing since the single digits, but this is the first time I've gotten "serious". My current save actually came through .21 okay, after starting in .20. I'm currently up to day 26, with no warping outside of individual missions - after my initial orbital shots, exploration of the moons, etc, I've been filling the Kerbin system with satellites, stations and a Mun base while waiting for transfer windows to open to the other planets. The first, Moho, has about a week to go (according to KAC) ... Once I've "broken the ice", as it were, by sending probes outside of Kerbin's SOI, I may start warping more. I've built almost everything I care to in the backyard by now, so the focus will shift to the longer interplanetary missions.

Can't believe I haven't seen this thread until now. Outstanding work, from impressive start to (now tantalizingly imminent) finish. Looking forward to the release.

Kod damn, Eric. You just won something, that's for sure.

"Well, that's what happens. Don't do that."

I understand, but urge you to reconsider; it can be a bit jarring when the only, and very obviously, unpainted part on the entire craft is the (one kerb) can or structural panel(s). Please at least give us a "paint the whole thing one flat color" option for such parts. Whatever your decision, thanks again for this remarkable mod.

You need to mount the fairing pieces (the bits that look like eggshells) to the side mounting points on the basis, at which point they will make fairings. The bases don't do that themselves. Nor do they act as decouplers.

Poked s'more at the design of my Mun base hub-and-habitat modules design. Rather than faff about with rovers on the surface, I think I'm going to try the daring alternative of assembling the whole thing in Mun orbit (with the aid of the new KAS struts) and skycraning it down to the surface. First, though, I'm going to send my new and improved Mun Bus to deliver a load of parts (ground pylons and pipe ends, to connect All The Things). Mounted it on a booster, resisting the urge to do a cheaty cheaty thing I saw in someone else's design - clip my nuke engines up through their fuel tanks, which would allow me to have a craft whose CG doesn't change at all as it burns fuel.

As others have said: "Live" game and "Test Sim" game. Even in the former, the boffins might "run the numbers" a couple of times on a tricky orbit, capture or landing. Rescue craft and/or CRVs for everyone.

"When you're running down the street on fire, people get out of your way." -- Richard Pryor

Practice your rendezvous, use MechJeb, or both. And just in case, quicksave first.

When it comes to the Mun, a nice flat area - conveniently on the equator, right under Kerbin and located between several anomalies - can be found in the vicinity of 0d N, 57d 30' E. There's another to the southwest, at roughly 0d - 2d S, 52d E. You might want to drop a rover there first to scout around for even more precise coordinates.

Bumping my question from yesterday:

I would like to open a discussion over whether it is appropriate to alter the content of a mod against its creator's express wishes, when the creator is both present and active, if such is allowed by the (possibly "too permissive") terms of their license.

I assure you, I am entirely serious. As a result of your conduct in this thread, I no longer wish to have anything to do with you or your work. Therefore, I have uninstalled your mod. (Thank you for the instructions on how to do so.) In closing, before you undertake any more actions "for the good of the community", I strongly urge you to reconsider how it is best served. I submit that defying the express wishes of another member and modder, asserting a right to do so under the terms of their current license, is not it.

The kerbs' expressions make me think, "ummm..." (Helicopters. Yeah, that's it.) Nice pic, especially the Mun right on the horizon. Don't forget to plant a flag while you're there.

Polecat. Dude. When a modder vanishes off the face of Kerbin and his work may thus go abandoned, that's one thing, IMO. When the modder is right here and telling you, don't do it (because they want to do it their way), the polite and respectful thing to do would be to follow their wishes. Even if it would be "so easy" and take "almost no time." I downloaded and installed your mod earlier, and fixed the small parachute issue myself by restoring that particular directory from backup (though that shows how sometimes simply applying a script across the board and/or tossing out part of the data set as "unimportant" can have unintended consequences). Now, however, I am strongly considering uninstalling it. I don't need a performance increase that badly, and "the community" does not need an attitude of "well, **** what you want, you can't stop me."

Question: were the standard, fixed attachment points (Radial Connector Ports) changed at all from the last version? I have a couple of rovers with winches, etc, but they're fairly easily deleted and replaced; but if a craft has nothing but one or more of the regular "sockets", will it be affected (fail to load, explode, etc)?

Great news! Got a source?