BagelRabbit

Now that it's been about six hours since I posted this, I'm strongly compelled to give some sort of moral to the story. So here we go. SQUAD isn't perfect, but they're doing the best that they can. Don't get me wrong: I disagree with some of SQUAD's choices too. I really don't think that they should be rushing into 1.0, for example. But they're trying to be the best people they can be to their community and to their game. Every single thing I mentioned has been done by multiple game developers before, from expensive upgrades to absolutely back-breaking DRMs. And, as absurd as it sounds, this sort of thing could have happened in Kerbal Space Program as well. But it didn't. Instead, SQUAD released astoundingly good updates. It cultivated an online community among the best in the world. It won awards, it became well-known, and it inspired thousands of people to become a little more interested in spaceflight. And, well, I don't think that everyone really appreciates SQUAD's efforts as much as they could. There have been loads of people who criticize SQUAD far more than they praise it, and I don't feel like that's really right. So, without being too mushy, I just wanted to say that creating this thread really helped me appreciate this, and I hope that you feel the same way. Anyways, I'll get off my little soap-box, now. Thanks for taking a moment to listen. Should I add this to the original post? -Upsilon [Oh, and now I'm beginning to feel bad because I didn't actually talk to HarvestR, and I have no idea whether he would approve of this post ]

I'm not mad, I'm just a little disappointed that I created a much more time-consuming April Fool's thread saying a very similar thing to yours, and you decided to post this anyways. I feel like one of the key things that makes April Fool's so great is its originality, and if that's taken away, these sorts of things get really old, really quick. I didn't mean any offence. I hope you can understand where I'm coming from. -Upsilon

That's entirely the point. Actually, it would be a much better joke to just put all of the font on there in Comic Sans. I think I'll do that now... give me a second.

Yep. I wanted to start at least semi-realistic before descending into total absurdity. You're right. DRM is something that a lot of people have commented on, so I'm adding it to the original post. And that's all for today. I promise*. *April Fool's Day Promises are worth nothing.

I added this, as well as stating that quicksaving requires a small fee as well. Thanks for the suggestion. I really should stop now.

I knew I was forgetting something else. Added to the OP.

Oh, that's right! Thanks for mentioning that, adding it now. [EDIT: I've also added 2001kraft's suggestion, as mentioned below...]

Whelp, it's time to change the color of everybody's name to green... Oh, SQUAD, you silly jokesters.

Hello everyone! I'm UpsilonAerospace. Recently, I was talking with HarvestR. He revealed that KSP is about to undergo a massive change in the development process. I thought that it would be good to share my questions and his answers about this upcoming change. KSP 1.2: Update Questions! ~~~ Below are some questions I had about the new update, followed by HarvestR's answers. "I thought you would release 1.0 next! Why did you decide to release 1.2 instead?" As you may well know, 1.0 is a critical update that shows that our game is polished and ready for a wide release. Instead of releasing this update now, or merely staying in beta (more on that later), we have decided to craftily release 1.2, 1.3, etc. until our game is ready for 1.0. This was a difficult decision, but hopefully it is understandable. ~~~ "What new features are being released for... erm... 1.2?" One of our hallmarks of this new update is our increased respect for the advertising industry. KSP will now implement pop-up ads after recovering or before launching a vessel. These will be tailored to each KSP player's individual wants and needs, based on their browser history, the documents on their computer, and by intermittently taking pictures of them through their webcams. Our team has been working on adding unpredictability to 1.2. We are introducing a 'random failure' and a 'Kraken' aspect to KSP. The former will cause various failures to intermittently occur on rockets and aircraft, just like in real life. The latter will introduce an exciting "jumpscare" layer to the game. Occasionally the screen will go black, followed by the Kraken loudly appearing and violently 'eating the camera.' Both of these features will be toggleable for a small fee. Other features can also be purchased form the KSP store or the game itself, such as more than one savegame, tutorials, customizable flags, Mk2 and Mk3 parts, planets besides Kerbin, VAB upgrades, or access to the game's mods. None of these are very expensive: it is possible to have a complete playing experience for less that $75.00 USD. Unfortunately, this payment must be renewed each update to maintain the features you have bought and the missions you have accomplished. Microtransactions will be encouraged. Did you run out of fuel or electricity halfway to the Mun? We're now offering you more for just pennies on the dollar. Quicksaving and quickloading will also be available at low cost. For a slightly greater fee, the game can automatically land your craft wherever you choose, or return it back home safely. KSP will now be programmed in Java. While this may break many mods, it will nonetheless yield better integration among all platforms. While this was one of the most debated moves for 1.2, we have agreed that this change must be made sooner or later. A rather aggressive DRM will be added to KSP. It is important that we regularly check to make sure that KSP was legally purchased and not copied from other computers or altered by users. Because the game could be altered or copied at any time, DRM will always be on and connected to the Internet. As you can probably tell, this update will take time to complete. Thus, to make the update available sooner, we are taking less time to tweak the game and fix bugs than we otherwise would. We are also temporarily scrapping a stable 64-bit version, ISRU, the planned aerodynamics overhaul, and really every feature we planned to implement for 1.0. These features will likely be available on a future version of KSP for another small fee. ~~~ "You seemed to be rushed in your release of 1.0 (now 1.2). Why?" We're extremely proud to announce that we've got a contract to merge with EA shortly after the release of our first non-early-access version. While we will still be the main force working on KSP, we will honor all of EA's decisions as well. This collaboration should hopefully result in a better and more complete game. ~~~ "Will everything continue in more-or-less the same way after this merger?" There will be some recognizable differences. For example, the Daily Kerbal, including Devnote Tuesdays, will not be continued. The number of moderators here on the Forum will also be reduced significantly. Flamewars, inappropriate arguments and the like will be tolerated, though not recommended. Hopefully this will not result in a significant amount of problems on the Forum. ~~~ "Anything else you would like to say?" This one was for you, KasperVld. ~~~ EDIT: Now that it's been about six hours since I posted this, I'm strongly compelled to give some sort of moral to the story. So here we go. SQUAD isn't perfect, but they're doing the best that they can. Don't get me wrong: I disagree with some of SQUAD's choices too. I really don't think that they should be rushing into 1.0, for example. But they're trying to be the best people they can be to their community and to their game. Every single thing I mentioned has been done by multiple game developers before, from expensive upgrades to absolutely back-breaking DRMs. And, as absurd as it sounds, this sort of thing could have happened in Kerbal Space Program as well. But it didn't. Instead, SQUAD released astoundingly good updates. It cultivated an online community among the best in the world. It won awards, it became well-known, and it inspired thousands of people to become a little more interested in spaceflight. And, well, I don't think that everyone really appreciates SQUAD's efforts as much as they could. There have been loads of people who criticize SQUAD far more than they praise it, and I don't feel like that's really right. So, without being too mushy, I just wanted to say that creating this thread really helped me appreciate this, and I hope that you feel the same way. Anyways, I'll get off my little soap-box, now. Thanks for taking a moment to listen. I've added this to the Original Post, now. I hope you don't mind... you probably figured out it was an April Fool's day joke long before now. -Upsilon [Oh, and now I'm beginning to feel bad because I didn't actually talk to HarvestR, and I have no idea whether he would approve of this post ]

I'm the closest you're going to get, at least for now. Because I have six light-green bars of Reputation (eleven total), I will never get another light-green pip. Which is actually kinda sad, when you think about it. The next major milestone to overcome is getting 2,000 points of Reputation, though I doubt I'll be there anytime soon. Oh, and while I'm here, I should probably point people to the "Say Hello to the Light-Green Group!" thread which I made, though I'm sure you've seen it already. -Upsilon

I love this thing that I found a long time ago. It still works, though it's a little more difficult now: It's also possible to create up to infinite-sided symmetry with this bug (I'll make an updated tutorial soon). This is a bug that looks really wonky, slightly breaks the game, and yet is actually useful! -Upsilon [EDIT: I haven't been able to embed videos for a while now. Sorry. Trust me, though, it's worth the watch...]

Alright, here's my entry. I could easily improve upon this, if I actually dropped this "submarine" off in a deep part of the ocean. Here's the craft on the surface, being kept positively buoyant by air intakes. Notice how low it sits in the water. The beginning of the descent. The Mk3 adapter descends at the steady speed of 0.9 m/s at 1x warp, though it drops to 0.7 m/s when running at 4x acceleration. After a bit more than ten minutes, the craft hits the bottom (I left KSP for a while and did other stuff while it was descending and didn't return until long after it had landed, which is why the MET clock says eighteen minutes). Final depth: 513m. Again, this could easily be improved if you dropped off the craft in a deep part of the ocean. The only limiting factor is the ocean's depth and the amount of time that you have. ...in the future, I would love to see someone make a manned (Kerballed?) version of this craft. I have a feeling that slapping an external command seat on there would still leave the craft with satisfactory negative buoyancy...

Attention, Sub-Builders! The Mk3-to-3.75m adapter is negatively buoyant when full of fuel. It will, when detached from a boat, slowly sink to the bottom of the ocean. You don't even need an asteroid! Or more than one part for your sub! Just be sure that the decoupler isn't attached to the adapter, as this will make it approximately neutrally buoyant (depending on the size of the coupler). If you want to use this negative buoyancy to assist your descent with a manned (or at least controllable) craft, that's also a good idea. Anyways, just wanted to throw that out there. I'll upload pictures tomorrow, if I have the time. -Upsilon

Fly an entire space drum kit! You could smash a pair of Space Drumsticks into the snare drum at 50 m/s! (Of course, neither drum nor sticks would survive, and it actually wouldn't make sound in space... but who cares?) I would very much like to see this, now. Oh, and I'll maybe start work on a Space Violin. Because why not.

Over my first several months on the Forum, I got very little +Rep. And then, things just seemed to snowball. I think it took more time to get to two bars of +Rep than it did to get from two bars to six light-green bars for me. In other words, if you have two bars of +Rep, you may already be more than halfway there. Just keep posting, and soon you may attract the attention of some well-known Forum-goers, who you become friends with... and then, all of a sudden, you're a well-known Forum-goer too. Simple as that. -Upsilon

Alright, I'll update the leaderboard. I know. What I'm looking for, however, is a machine that can multiply or divide or add or subtract two numbers by means of [First numerical action group] ["Multiplication," "Division," etc. action group(s)] [second numerical action group]. Your machine would require doing many separate adding or subtracting problems (and pressing many action groups in the process), so while it could technically multiply or divide numbers, it couldn't do so within the rules of this challenge. I wouldn't even say that doing an equation like 5+5+5+5+5+5 (5x6) would be practical in KSP... it would yield the answer, but it would likely take several minutes to complete and even then, the possibility of a mechanical malfunction could bugger the whole thing up. I know it's hard, but I also know that it's very possible to do in real life. It's almost certainly achievable in KSP too, barring variables like part count and mechanical variability. I personally am of the opinion that someone will be able to do it. Very neat idea! This wouldn't really be breaking the rules (nothing in there about making bits explode), though it would restrict the calculator to only one use, of course. Still, this is definitely worth pursuing... best of luck!

Well, I updated the leaderboard. Everyone made the cut except for Quirky. (Unfortunately, all numbers must be imputed with their corresponding action groups. "1" has to signify the number 1, "2" has to signify 2, and so on through the number nine. Hopefully, you can fix this and post another submission.) Let me just say that the creativity of the Forum is amazing. Two entries that really stood out for me were Yakky's very explosive multiplier and DJWizardCop's astounding machine for adding, subtraction, and multiplication. I'm going to give them some Reputation now, and I hope you do too. We've come a long way since the start of the project, but we still have a ways to go. I'm looking forward to all of the future entries to this thing. They're going to be fantastic. -Upsilon [EDIT: Though binary would be acceptable, I think that it may be possible to create a binary-to-base-ten converter. If this can be done, it would be really awesome...]

Oog. I volunteer at the local Science museum, and some of the people there were incredible. Let me reenact some short scenes. Setting: Me, in front of a picture of Mars. To the side of the picture, there are large block letters that say "Mars," along with a brief description. A mother walks by, tugging her young child. Mother: Look, Ben! This is the Moon! Me: Actually --- The mother walks away. ~~~ Setting: Me, next to a display of the Sun. A twenty-something woman stops in front of the display. Her: Hey! How's it going? Me: Fine. How are you? Her: Good. Now, I think I know about the Sun pretty well. I just have one question. Me: Yes...? Her: Why does the sun go across the sky? Y'know, why does it rise and set? I'm incredibly proud that I managed to keep a stiff upper lip and an even tone of voice as I gave her the explanation. ~~~ Setting: Me in front of a model of the International Space Station. A guy walks over. Me: How are you today? Guy: I'm doing alright. This is a satellite, right? Me: Yes. It's actually the biggest satellite we've ever put up there. It's called the International Space Station. Guy: Oh, right! I remember that from Gravity. Me: Yep. That's the one. Guy: Isn't it cool that there is no gravity up there? If you got even a little too far away from Earth, you would just keep going. You'd never come back! Me: Um... Setting: Same model of the ISS. Another guy walks up. Other Guy: Hey! How's it going? Me: Good, how about you? Other Guy: I'm doing great. ...So this is the International Space Station, right? Me: You're right! Very good. Other guy: The one with people on it. Me: Yes. The ISS has six people onboard right now! Other guy: ...and that's where all of the outer-space communications are made from, right? Me: Actually --- Other guy: And where we send the shuttles to the Moon from! (gestures to the station's modules) So which one of these is a Moon shuttle? Me: ... Setting: Me in front of a giant model of the Earth. A couple walks up. Me: How are you today? Her: I'm doing good. Him: Yeah, I'm doing alright, too. (I'm not making the next part up.) Him: Do you see that, there? (He points to the meteor crater lake in Canada. The large one.) Me: ...Yes? Him: Do you know what it's caused by? Me: A long time ago, there was an asteroid that got a little too close to Earth. It fell through the sky as a meteor -- Him: That's what they're telling you. But it's wrong. Me: ... Him: That spot has a strange disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field. It's actually a giant UFO that's hidden underground. Me: ... Him: This UFO may rise out of the ground in the next fifty years. There's already tectonic activity and stuff over there. Me:... Yep, that happened. It deeply troubles me that these people are the ones who are interested enough in science to actually visit a science museum. I'm probably dealing with a group that's smarter than average. Although it hasn't been all bad. I've met some really intelligent people, including one who worked on the Apollo spacecraft, two astronauts, and a few KSP players. Nobody who recognized the Forum handle UpsilonAerospace, though. -Upsilon

Done. Sorry about that ...and thanks for the support, y'all!

If you created a working transistor, then I would be incredibly impressed. It might be worth providing the .craft of as a subassembly, on its own, as long as it's fairly reliable. As for part count, I have no problem with a part-welding mod, as long as all of the parts on the machine itself are stock. Maybe that will help. This looks incredibly promising. I really like your use of landing-leg "logic gates." I won't put you on the Original Post just yet, but I'm sure that with some further tweaking, you'll have a reliable enough design to be up there. As for landing legs not working properly, I've had very good luck with using the mid-range communication antenna (the radially-mounted one) instead. When deployed, it provides a very nice barrier to prevent any parts from passing. When it's retracted, it's low-profile enough to not cause any interference. Best of all, it should work well with the action groups! (I've had problems with landing legs as well, but I've never had any trouble with the antennas yet.) It might be worth a try. Best of luck! -Upsilon

Well, you're officially in now. I finished updating the Group... welcome. My pleasure, Yukon0009. So, now that I've updated this thing completely, are there any pressing changes that must be made? (I hope not. This thing took about two and a half hours to update in total.) -Upsilon

Great job! My only concern (which is very minor) is the staging, but I'll definitely allow this as an entry. (My rule concerning the staging was primarily added so that people couldn't press the spacebar six times to yield the number six, for example.) Also, while your method of counting the lights isn't bad, I think that it might be a cool project for someone to actually try to create an "LCD" style display for the answer, using lights. You know, something like: ...only using stock KSP lights. That would be a neat project, though I have no idea how it would work. Adding you to the original post! Congrants.

Very nice job! I've updated the Leaderboard, and it looks as if you're the first viable entry! Thanks for the link! Hopefully it will provide some inspiration for KSP players. Because of the nature of this challenge, subtraction is actually very easy. I managed to create a machine capable of subtracting up to 8-8 with a mere 13 parts. Here's how it works. All of the lights are initially turned off. This is a very "stable state," no? You input your first number. The lights are wired to action groups so pressing that the number "7," for example, will either turn on or turn off seven lights. (This is achievable with the ToggleLight option.) Because all lights initially start in the "Off" position, seven lights turn on: ...and then it's time to input your second number, which is "4" in this case. Four lights turn off, leaving you with three lights for your answer. Seven minus four is three. (Note: This calculator will give you the absolute value of your answer. 4-7 would also give an answer of three, for example.) This thing can be reset by pressing the "Lights" action group. After this, you can perform another calculation with neither fuss nor muss. So that's my initial entry. I would provide the .craft file, but I made this thing in less than ten minutes. It would probably be quicker to create this thing than to download it... though you must place all lights separately and do some fiddling with the action groups. Now that we have a successful calculator that adds and a successful calculator that subtracts, it's time to innovate further! I would love to see a calculator capable of adding and subtracting... a calculator that can add more than two numbers... a reusable adding calculator... et cetera. I'm sure that there's more to be uncovered, here. -Upsilon

Hey guys! First of all, Starwhip, you did a great job... ...But you (involuntarily) found a loophole in the rules. When I first envisioned this project, I was imagining that pressing the "three" action group and then the "two" action group would give you "five." Or pressing the "three" action group twice giving you "six." That's a little more difficult, no? I still think it's possible. I have an idea involving landing legs and such. But it'll be a little more challenging... I still will add you to the "Successful Entries" board, as the rules weren't all that clear. However, future entries should abide by these rules. Sorry...! -Upsilon

Alright, time to end the speculation. Light-Green Group is about 75% updated. I'll do the rest tomorrow. I have literally no more time. Let me know if there's anything I need to add (besides the bunch of people who haven't been added yet ) -Upsilon