Moach

lolz! great thread! cheers!

i believe that buried rover is a reference to this: http://xkcd.com/695/ but then again, that camera does look as having been modeled after the one on curiosity - so well... there's that

according to the OP, whether or not this thing may give you cancer is the least of concerns for anyone brave/stupid enough to have anything to do with it what awesome substance! - it makes wet sand and test engineers catch on fire! - i feel my sense of humor just took another turn for the morbidly hilarious

that does imply it will not be a limitation in a time after the aforementioned "moment" i was just putting it out there, for clarity - if it were an actual request, i'd be posting it at the dev boards cheers!

i really believe scenario plugins found in the global folder should be automatically loaded for sandbox/career games - it's only a general inconvenience that they do not, stopping something very powerful from being far more accessible for no good reason a "global" scenario module - which i would prefer to call "Sim Module" would allow users to plug in nature-driven effects like solar wind or radiation, and have the effects of such be felt by all vessels and their parts one could also add custom planets, make adaptations of construction tools or UI to ones hearts content reentry heating is a clear example of a plugin that could be made much more comprehensive by having this functionality -- just add a sim module, and you've added a new thing to the whole game! it's too awesome to -not- do it

have you tried instead of lifting it to the Mun, first lift it into low orbit, then launch a booster stage and rendezvous? i imagine a rocket capable of hauling a 14-tonne mammoth like that would have a massive load of boosters - do you have the Kyle-Winston pack? it has a range of formidable solid boosters of which the larger ones pack so much punch it makes the Shuttle look like a birthday candle use the Mainsail engine too! - I just love that engine!

that might be one of the biggest questions known to man... together with "are we alone?" but then, scientists everywhere are more and more agreeing that most likely, we are not alone (tho why any other intelligent race would ever wanna play with us morons is another matter) define "conciousness" - is it just a matter of knowing one's ability to reflect and be a critic of one's own thought? or is there more to it? how would we ever know if it's safe to unplug an "intelligent machine" without "killing" it? there are books and books and bad movies^2 about this....

a scenario module, now that they are an option, can be used in two ways (or so i gather) -- - if placed on a scenario plugins folder, then it'll be active for that particular scenario only - this allows you to devise non-trivial events and challenges (asteroid impact stoppage mission, for example) - if placed on the root plugins folder, then it'll affect the game as a whole, being used on sandbox/career persistent saves neither of which require adding a part, so that's the answer to that problem cheers!

when not listening to the engines one-long-song, then i listen to whatever's playing on the background of my hyperactive head when all else fails, Metallica!

A purely logical method of thinking could be an infalible way of preventing any meaningful accomplishment whatsoever... If logic alone dictates that making no effort to develop new ideas has a lower "cost" than attempting futher optimization even if at minimal risk, then logic will stay put.... A man would not (most could, perhaps... But someone will have that urge to improve on the current affair of things) Let us consider a creature from a race such as vulcans, no emotions, just reason.... How would such species ever evolve past a minimum survival conditions era? - a logical being would consider death, even of a dear one a natural and necessary occurrence... Surviving until one is grown sufficiently to produce offspring should suffice, theres no reasoning to justify any further expense of "more useful" energy Intelligence is not about making logical decisions.... If we even know what it is at all.... That we can think about the fact that we're thinking and reflect as to how well we're interpreting the way we interpret stimulae.... It's extremely hard just to define goals to what could be understood as an "intelligent machine" A large problem with trying to replicate human intelligence would be the undeniable fact that more often that not, humans are NOT intelligent.... Not just by emotion clouding judgement, but frequently failing on the opposite side.... And of course, the fatal combination of failure to think properly in any of either way.... Then there are darwin awards.... I'm a game programmer by trade... AI is just a day at the office for me, but recurringly i find that what feels more human in machine decision-making is not that it acts intelligently, but that it simulates stupidity Once i inadvertedly produced a highly believable RTS opponent AI - you never knew what it would do next, it seemed to sometimes send out units to scout ahead or even to "spy" on you and turn back.... Or it would just attack violently in some manner that appeared either as a greatly considered plan, or at times as a poorly antecipated turn of events.... All this fantastically human strategic machination was brought up by a unique concept: it was built only for demonstration, so the decisions of where to send platoons were simply - random! AI is an illusion.... And sometimes i wonder of the natural type isn't one as well Cheers!

I think engines are defined in newtons, while mass is in metric tonnes.... But its not really set in stone... Your mileage may vary, specially when dealing with addons - although there is a comprehensive effort and guidelines for modders to produce well balanced parts, but every now and then you still get the errant "cheat part" sometimes.... Fuel mass is very poorly defined, still... The "capacity" scale dictates how much fuel there is for engies to burn in a given tank, but the relation of this value to the mass of the full tank is defined only by the full/empty mass properties, rather than accounting for the density of the fuel directly This makes it hard to know exactly what to expect from a novel combination of engine type and tankage.... I find it a rather major inconvenience, but not a dealbreaker anyhow... Remember, experimenting with trial and error is what this game is all about (however many kerbals you end up killing in the process) Cheers

this method of running interplanetary missions not only works, it's actually a little easier to do than trying to somehow cobble up a monstrous beast that do the whole thing all in one push.... perhaps that would work for a one-seat barebones mission, but it's extremely hard to do a more coherent 3-kerbal expedition and get them safely back without some sort of assist from a second (or maybe even a third ship) i had promised pictures! - i got them here now, so enjoy the view! (note - they're large) ok, i thought i had more pictures, really... i did manage to forget taking pictures of any of the launches - but nevertheless, both looked a little like this: cheers!

if a lift-generating attitude is only a matter of pulling the CG from the axis a notch, can't we achieve this by simply adding "ballast" to one side? no need to force those things, let them play out naturally from the physics, it's a lot more interesting too!

Moderators warning! Talk of having pirated the game might get you in a bad, bad spot.... Not advisable.... But even less so is to actually do it, that's just evil... KSP is made by a tiny company based on Mexico, they are just big enough to manage with what they have, and some of the crew isn't even hired as full time Piracy on KSP is basically robbing your brother or similar.... Squad is not a large corporation with millions to invest on risk.... This is actually their first and only title, and the no-DRM policy serves as a model of honest design and thoughtfulness What you did was honest, no doubt - in the spirit of not punishing honesty, i will not burn this thread down (just yet, still other mods might) Btw - there's no such thing as a pirated copy of the game... It has no DRM, so you could only download it legitimally by logging in with a valid store account.... After that, the game is delivered in .zip format, no installers, no messy what-did-i-just-put-in-my-pc nonsense... Unzip, play.... If you have an account with a proper purchase, then your installation is valid.... The problem here is not as much the pirated copy as it is the pirate distribution source Some users have been able to report these foul sources to whoever does the hosting and get them taken down... This is a very noble thing to do, if at all possible Please, spread the word - KSP is built on the philosophy of "make money to make games, don't make games to make money" And get better friends, really.... Cheers!

The mainsail has a very small vectoring range (if it even has any, i dont remember).... I often use radially mounted vernier jets higher up on the stack, such as on the second or third stages.... This makes taller craft much easier to control without requiring heavy rcs tanks that may not be used fully in the end... The NP pack verniers use the same fuel as the main bells, but offer a much larger deflection, to as much as 20 degreess even.... The stock LV-T series models, even clustered dont make such a responsive launchcraft as ths setup.... And the gimballed version has a very high mass overhead that makes it unsuitable for cluster use, afaik.... But then, if all else fails, just add moar boosters... If it's not working, then you've probably haven't booster'ed it up enough Cheers!

Desktops dont have to be bloated or unecessarily overbuilt in any way - mine is a purpose-built full powered 12-core 16gb beast of a rig intended to surmount a single age-old challenge -- it plays FSX with all the sliders put to the right! took me 5 years of waiting so hardware would even stand a chance of being put together as a generally "accessible" non-kludge solution to the massive lag of 25 years of spaghetti code creates by very backwards-compatibility enthusiastic makers... But it does the job... The liquid cooling also helps This is best accomplished by resisting the temptation to acquire ready-built gaming pc's.... No brand names, just choose your weapons, and jack it up (easier if you "know a guy" for the job like i do) You still have manufacturer warranties for each of the individual parts, no no losses there if anything goes south laptops ain't for gaming, imho... Just to begin with, there aren't enough usb plugs for my input hardware.... Plus, the whole concept isn't meant for heavyweight gaming... They overheat so easily, for another.... Laptop stays on the side linked via synergy (share mouse and keyboard) to the mothership... I use it for internet'ing and any other low-powered application one could abuse a "stanby computer" with - leave the big games to the big boys

Advent Gallivant Vagallux (roughy means "firefly") Firefly EonStar Epoch Fairlane EonSprite Galefax Dawn Morroway Altavia (means "high path") Streamcaster Flux Confluence Fulcrum Maxiom Saga Prudence Serendipity (means "the trait or ability to discover upon a fortunate accident") Chance Fortuity Providence Surmise Prophecy Magnitude Elicit Consequence Vagary Inkling Pointer Freeborne EonLight Evenlane Idealogue Integrity Intellection Scourer Squire Auspex Cynosure Precept Edifier more may follow

well, one must account for the added "complexity mass" from a multi-engine setup... while if having one large beast of a burner doesn't seem top add up against many itty bitty ones, remember that you're gonna need adaptors and other structural bits to get the cluster mounted, and more parts equal more wobble - which you'll have to beef up the airframe with struts to eliminate those adaptors and struts have their own mass, and drag - more parts will inevitably mean more drag losses than with a simpler design... i often find sleeker means more likely to succeed (or more liekly to get a longer run before the inevitable occurs) but then, i consider myself a great enthusiast of the Mainsail model - it's so mighty and wonderful, when it lights up it makes all your problems go away (more often by immediately replacing them with massively greater new ones)... i enjoy how it can lift a K-W 2x12 with little help from two enormous solid boosters on the side

worth pointing out -- Project Orion would actually use this to propel a vehicle across space (tho, how would they get it up there to begin with?) its' like that method of getting Kerbals to the mun without using engines, you get stuff to blow up behind you (quite easly done by both Kerbal and Man), then "surf the blast wave".... but then, you do it with nukes

well, this is something of a big deal -- you have found a bug! -- enjoy it as you'd like before this gets patched up using the Mun's gravity well to sling out into a further orbit is a real thing tho - and since it has no atmosphere, you can get pretty low (should be safe to go as far down as 1km PeA) at this altitude, your velocity should be quite high - this is good, grip that throttle handle and open up! -- for the faster you're moving through the gravity well, the more "bang" you get for your proverbial "buck" but going 'through' the Mün is as cheatful to me as using infinite fuel.... i mean, knock yourself out - but it's a cheat cheers!

well, this is impossible to figure out... if the OP doesn't come forth with some kind of clarification as to what he meant by this most undecipherable prompt, I might have to close down this thread before it erupts into uncertainty-driven mayhem any thoughts?

alright, i'm kinda proud of myself for pulling this off (albeit not without the expense of numerous victims valorous crew members) this morning i managed my first-ever successful Duna landing mission and safe return to Kerbin - unlike the previous attempts that always seemed to end up with somebody left in assorted orbits and/or smeared all over the red surface below... the mission consisted of not a single craft, but two separate vessels -- the first, was designed with the sole purpose of landing on Duna, then launching back into a low circular orbit (no parachutes or heatshields aboard, to save weight) the second ship had no landing features - but it did pack a set of three parachutes and an extended cabin (see crewtank mod) to ferry the lucky bastards returning heroes back home.... launching the two vessels had to be done in short sequence - lest we could lose the precious launch window which's next occurrence would be many months away -- once the lander was all set on course, the retrieval craft was sent to follow it less than 15 mins apart of course, arriving at Duna after 50~60 days of flight, the two encounters were offset by multiple days - this is normal, as can be expected from the minute differences in trajectory upon launch - inevitable they are, given the two craft are considerably distinct designs the lander arrived at Duna with almost 10 days advantage - so it was just a matter of putting it down... except that it wasn't.... the thing had so little delta-V to spare, a harshly considered (and poorly executed) aerobraking "dive" was the only way to get it to slow down enough for a non-fatal approach.... luckily due to very fine engineering, tho, the whole thing actually worked - and it was put down on Duna's surface with as much as 2 whole seconds of thrust to spare on the tanks the retrieval craft had no such problems setting up a stable orbit where it could wait out the surface mission in its progress when all errands had been ran down below, the lander vessel blasted furiously upwards (with the help of three little solid boosters) and established a circular orbit around 80km -- it was all outta fuel after this, so the second craft had to pull out the rendezvous all by itself (using precious return-home fuel) then i found that orbital sync'ing is quite a handful without that convenient MFD used for this in Orbiter... this was done by trial and error - and gladly was accomplished before need would arise to start planning out a very ambitious two-point rescue mission with the RCS jets, the crew was able to steady the ship about 30 meters off the lander -- the crew went EVA and boarded the return ship without much fuss... (not considering the fumble with the jetpack controls which required me to go out and rethink my axis assignments) after all were aboard - the moment of truth, to figure out if they'd have enough juice left to ferry back into Kerbin... gladly they did! them with a brief burn just short of Kerbin SoI entry, the periapsis was lowered to a reentry-bound 30km (it pays to do these corrections from far off, as you can save a considerable amount of fuel) whatever i had left on the tanks (not much) was used to slow down for a smoother reentry.... didn't do much tho.... still got just over 5 g's on the ride down (no heat was being simulated but the heatshield was there for good practice, nevertheless) the 3-chute config proved a little less than ideal with the mass of the extended capsule, and splashdown took place at over 20m/s of vertical speed - if it had been a "touchdown" instead, well... it would not have been a comfortable thing to sit through alas, i have no pictures to show for it at the moment - this fortunate series of lucky strikes thoroughly planned feat of glory was done at my home rig, in front of which i currently do not sit - perhaps due to reasons stemming from the fact that i'm at work i'll post pictures of the whole adventure when i get the chance... next up - doing it again -without- relying solely on sheer luck and seat-of-pants white-knuckle flying cheers!

ok - this is the same list i've posted on the Orbiter Forums upon a very similar thread... Journey Explorer Envoy Sovereign Ventura Magellan Evernaut Conquest Spirit of ... (insert thing you'd be proud of here) Farsight Firestar Emissary Quest Dauntless Forefront Endurance Paramount Valiant Horizon Frontier Constitution Ambassador Excelsior Steadfast Colony Triumph Athlon Accolade Principle Merit Infinity Virtue Imperium Primacy Edge Acclaim Eclat Providence Reason Reliant Advocate Champion Premiss Beacon Courage Overseer Mentor Lodestar Beckoner Marshall Herald Harbinger Conveyor Pursuivant Squire Intrepid Gallant Tenacity Purpose Resolve Prowess Fortitude Audacity Visionaire Bravura Dexter Mastery Promptitude Celerity Voyage Wayfarer Foray Campaign Pilgrim Apex Surmount Prodigy Intent Vehement Prevail Globetrotter Emigrant Starwalker Mirage Liberty Effort Armstrong Egress Threshold Pursuit Pinnacle i also find this thread could be stickied, as it is so relevant and offers such meaningful inspiration for everyone - so there, it's stickied.... * now spoiler'ed as requested

it has occurred to me.... but then, it'd be kinda tough to make it in any way where the parts aren't extremely specialized and restricted to that one configuration.... plus, without a proper atmospheric model, it just doesn't work (drag should ease off passing the sound barrier, KSP just keeps building it up until something breaks) speaking of which... some "light" reading down at wikipedia on the matter at hand here revealed quite a convenient mathematical coincidence turns out, the peak shock temperature a vehicle can expect during reentry is pretty much the same value (in Kelvin) as the velocity in m/s -- that could cut quite a corner in simulating this stuff for KSP (where scientific precision can be stretched a little to make ends meet) curious, huh?

well, once i ran a nuke-power mission to Jool -- and the craziest part of it was.... IT WORKED! when the assumed-dead crew got there, they tangled along with Jool's moons in such a way that after many a random course correction -- Laythe provided a slingshot that took the escape path further than any kerbal had ever gone - and most surprisingly of all - at the periapsis, it not only intersected Kerbin's orbit - it actually made an encounter!! imagine the surprise, after over a year of drifting precisely navigating through deep-space - they got back down onto kerbin orbit and actually found a planet there!! landing was a different affair, for which i thankfully remembered to use that quicksave feature before attempting.... but then, i had a highly experimental reentry heatshield aboard, and it bugged out on aerobrake and what followed was that fateful sound (and brief display of flashy colors) that lets you know that yes - that just happened but they got to die at the same planet they took of from! that's "victory" in Kerbal culture!