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10/10 It feel like age! Hoping you didn't see my little, hum, Rainbow factory talk...

Thanks for the clarifications! I was simply curious why I never saw talk of it on these forums before... that I can recall. ~Steve

Jebanon Kerman - "We prefer to call it a Rapid Unplanned Disassembly upon a High-speed Lithobraking manoeuvre, none of that Crashing talk..."

The only reason it is economically viable in GB is because it's sponsored by the government. It is being supported because there are favorable parties that make huge money that way. Don't fool yourself thinking you're saving the environment or the economy. You're doing exactly the opposite. Energy density of PV in London, with its moody weather is so pathetic it's laughable. London, clouds, rain, high latitude, come on. It's all that matters, actually. While you're thinking about how good PV in northern Europe is, there are factories in China that make it possible, puking out incredible amounts of greenhouse gases and carcinogenic chemicals. There are whole regions so contaminated they represent dystopias from SF novels. But as long as it happens on the other side of the planet, it's ok... Their lack of care is the first thing what makes the panels cheaper, and the second one is domestic governmental financial support. If GB was making its own PVs using environmentally friendly methods, their primary price would be huge, and if no government sponsorship was provided, citizens would not be able to afford them. Even now they're expensive, but with all the changes I've mentioned, they'd stay where they suit the best - space stations, buoys and calculators. When I first saw traffic lights in my town getting PVs, I was facepalming so hard. Someone made a huge money on that while they really could've leave them use the electrical grid. Anyway, talk to the people working in the energetics department, preferably someone without an agenda. I have with several of them and they all laughed when these things were mentioned. First they laugh, then they get serious and frustrated because they're sick of the "green" agenda that's gotten into the politics. Politicians are stupid and greedy. Make up a good story and offer money and you can do almost anything.

Prologue One day as K Emerson was strolling through a museum with his grandfather Jebediah Kerman, they came across an abnormal looking aircraft. “Grandfather†asked the young K, “What was this aircraft known for? I mean why is it in the record setting section of the museum? What was it used for? Who made it? Have you flown it before, Grandpa? And why is my name K Emerson instead of a normal name that ends in Kerman like yours?†The elderly Jeb sharply glances at his grandson in astonishment. “Why are you so inquisitive all of a sudden?†He replies. K looks down in embarrassment, replying “I don’t know Grandpa, I really don’t, just sometimes all sorts of questions pop into my head and they don’t stop bugging me until I find out the answer. Like for instance, were you really the first Kerbal to fly in space, grandpa?†Jeb chuckles quietly before answering. “Yes son, I was the first Kerbal to break the sound barrier, but to answer your question about your name. You will need to cast your mind back to the night you were born.†Chapter 1 “It was a chaotic night in the middle of the war against the Northern Alliance waged by the Elysium Empire and the Styx Empire. All that could be seen, heard and felt was chaos. The KSC had just been bombed and all was in disarray. So your father Lancott Kerman decided to call you K. I am not sure entirely why he insisted that your last name be Emerson, probably because it was close to the word empire. And to answer your questions about this airplane, we have to go further back to when Kerbal Space Program was not that much older then you are now. I want you to close your eyes and listen carefully as I tell you the story.†“Way back when the space program was young and inexperienced, I was a test pilot for it. There were many tragic deaths and I lost more than one close friend. Some crashed and died instantly, others died of injuries from crashing and a few of them vanished completely without a trace! Thankfully my closest and dearest friends Bill and Bob made it through in one piece. Bill managed to end up in charge of the recruitment center, and Bob ended up in charge of the operations center. Any way I digress, after a while I had managed to build up the reputation of an indestructible, unflappable and the entire best test pilot in the program. After awhile of testing, there was a ship that took the lives of several Kerbal’s who panicked and did the wrong thing. So I was picked as the next test pilot by a jealous boss who wanted to see me out of the picture, so to speak. My boss was sure that this would be the time I panicked and lost my cool. He was sure that I would not return. The test objectives were to analyze the handling characteristics and what it could do over all. The aircraft had been named by an engineer who walked in a group who were trying to name it and said “frak†when he saw the imposing aircraft. The next day as I sat on the runway in FRAK-1 as the aircraft had been named. I felt an overwhelming urge to do some crazy things, but I barely squelched that urge when I remembered what my boss said right as I was leaving his office. “Remember, you might not make it back alive.†Then with a determined look on my face, I started up the engines and called the tower and requested clearance to taxi to the runway and take off. After I received clearance, I throttled the two engines and reached my taxi speed of 20 m/s. As I neared the runway I pulled back the control stick to ease the bump of entering the runway. And too my surprise, the aircraft nearly took off on its own. I then activated the onboard flight recorder and made note of that fact. As I positioned myself on the runway in preparation to take off, I called the tower and received clearance to head up into the truly wild blue yonder. ATC: *static* permission is granted to ascend to 5 clicks up, over *static* FRAK-1: Willco ATC: Please report your velocity when you reach 5 clicks, ATC out. When I neared five clicks, I glanced at my speedometer, after a second or two; I looked back at the speedometer in disbelief. It was reading just over 350 m/s! FRAK-1: ATC, my speedometer is reading just over 350 m/s, can telemetry confirm? The disbelief was evident in my voice. ATC: FRAK-1, this is the ATC, yes we can confirm that your velocity is over 350 m/s. requesting that you head up and see how high and fast you can go. FRAK-1: Willco ATC: Understood FRAK-1, good luck. FRAK-1: Understood tower, talk to you when I get back into comm. range. Then I hauled back on the stick and put FRAK-1 into a 65 to 70 degree climb and as I neared 25,000 meters one of my engines flamed out and she started to spin. So I shut down the engines and coasted up to my apoapsis while trying to keep the aircraft entering a spin. When I felt my stomach start to rise, I risked a glance at my altimeter and gaped at it in shock when I realized it read just over 105 km in altitude.

In response to post #210 The problem does sound very similar to grandfather paradox.. which would be a huge problem. However wouldn't one simple solution be to make other player's ships/assets non-interactive while they are logged out. Later on in this thread they talk about permissions as well, which would help mitigate this. If you as player B choose to catch up and ram player As ship, that may be a problem. However I'm sure that the server stores player As final coordinates on sign out, so it would simply ignore the vehicles' history. You could ram other players all day long and the only one losing ships would be you. However you can still allow full interaction by allowing two logged in players to interact with each others' assets/ships. A potential problems? how will these be handled? A Troll logs onto the server, proceeds to timewarp at maximum for say 9 hrs real time. Troll logs off. Player gets disconnected while warping/on planetary transfer. I have an idea for this, allow players to 'log their position' sort of like an F5 in single player. This gets updated if they logout, but if disconnected the server leaves them at their last 'log position'.

Well, Jeb is releasing stress, so he couldn't talk?

Actually you're right about the source, I was thinking about hydro when I wrote that. Not many places can utilize it, though. There are some areas where the difference is sufficient. Yes, base load. I don't agree about the price. They're extremely expensive and take a great deal of time before they pay off even in the Mediterranean countries, for example. To use them in places like London would be close to a financial black hole. They're perfect when you have no connection to the grid, like if you have a small house by the lake in the middle of nowhere, but if you want a refrigerator and a TV and all other stuff, it won't work if you don't buy a lot of panels and batteries (which are so enviromentally friendly...). The energy put into making a panel is just terrible, as well as pollution it produces during the manufacture. Per kWh, of course. I doubt it will become that undesireable while we're still alive. In the end, money makes the world go around. When people talk about PVs, they use the latest breakthroughs. In real world, commercially available panels are much less efficient and not well made. They rarely reach their theoretical lifetime. Given the fact they're often installed in places without much insolation, cases where they actually produce enough energy to actually pay themselves off in the means of kWh are more often than we'd like to think. Solar thermal power is a much better option and pays off in the terms of money and energy in few years in places with high insolation. PVs are always worse than solar thermal. That's misleading. The fact it runs the biosphere doesn't mean it's suitable for humanity. We have much greater needs, and we need dense energy. It would be similar to saying the Pacific ocean contains more thermal energy than the entire year comsumption of USA and Russia. It does, but the distribution is very high so the density is very low.

It works, you need to download the power point presentation and then play the mp3 talk.

CHAPTER 35 GIANT *** THREE MONTHS LATER SID: Dear Kod… DANREY: This is the image you showed him, BERTY? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Yes. Chief Ned asked me specifically for a high quality photography of the Jool. “Proteus†visible light cameras can't achieve such resolution due to the still great distance between the ship and the planet. Here you can see the example image taken with the on-board instruments yesterday. BERTY v.2.0.8b: The quality was unsatisfactory. Thus chief Ned instructed me to use the Duna Space Telescope. The result is this highly detailed image on which one can see not only Jool but also all three of its kalilean moons. SID: Tylo, Vall… you can even see the reflection in the global ocean of Laythe… DANREY: It's very impressive. All right BERTY, so you showed him this and than he stormed out of the command module, right? BERTY v.2.0.8b: This is correct. DANREY: Is that everything you know what happened before he locked himself in the habitation module A? BERTY v.2.0.8b: No. I detected fasten heartbeat and other symptoms typical of reaction to a severe stress. I informed chief Ned about my analysis and advised him to take necessary steps to remain calm. I was concerned that he may suffer from an anxiety attack, which was indicated by the data I was receiving. DANREY: Are you sure? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Yes. By comparing the data from chief Ned's biosensors to data gathered during commander's attacks I got a very convincing argument for my analysis. The similarity was striking. DANREY: Crap. All right, thank you BERTY. We'll better go and – are you okay Sid? SID: Cosmically astounding… DANREY: Sid? Are you… are you shivering? SID: Hmm? DANREY: BERTY, is he okay? BERTY v.2.0.8b: All data from the biosensors is nominal. DANREY: Maybe you should take a stress pill? Seeing Jool after all these years, knowing what you've been through it must- SID: No, I'm okay. I'm fine. DANREY: Are you sure? SID: Yes. DANREY: Sid, I don't want to sound- SID: Fine, fine, I'm taking the pill. DANREY: I'm glad to hear that. Are we going to Ned then? SID: No. DANREY: No? SID: It's the commander's job to take care of his crew, not ours. Where is he, BERTY? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Commander is currently in the observatory module. SID: Thank you. Come on, Dan. DANREY: Wouldn't it be better if we don't involve him in this? You know how… fragile his mental state is recently. SID: No. It's about time he gets his sorry ass to work and start behaving like a true commander of this mission. Are you going with me or what? DANREY: :sigh: SID: Hey? JEB: … DANREY: Hello commander. Uhm. How are you doing? JEB: … SID: Listen, I know what you're dealing with. I mean, I think I do – most of us have some kind of a depression after all these months in space, you know? But we've a situation here – Ned has locked himself in the hab module A and refuses to let anyone in. We- I'm really worried. He has been behaving strangely in the last several weeks – it's probably the knowledge that the day of our encounter with Jool is closer and closer. And I get it, the last time we were here it was hell. Especially for you both, since I was knocked unconscious pretty soon after we've arrived – remember that? JEB: … SID: :sigh: We need you, right know. If Ned's is suffering from some kind of posttraumatic stress disorder, you are probably the only person who can calm him down. JEB: … SID: For Kod's sake, he can hurt himself! Snap out of this and act like you should. JEB: … SID: Jeb! JEB: … DANREY: I don't think this is worki- SID: Don't you even think about leaving this to me, Jeb! Coming here was your damn idea, so you should take responsibility, goddamit! JEB: … SID: Stop staring at the fraking stars and listen to me – we need you! Ned needs you, right now! JEB: … SID: I need you, you selfish piece of crap! JEB: … DANREY: Sid, don't – it's pointless. SID: Frak! JEB: … DANREY: Come on, we'll deal with this ourselves. SID: :sigh: DANREY: Come on, Sid. SID: Soon we will reach the Jool and there will be no more delaying it, Jeb. You'll have to face the reality. DANREY: Let's just go, shall we? JEB: … DANREY: Are you sure you are okay? You were impulsive while talking with him. It was quite extraordinary actually, usually you are much more temperate in such situations. SID: Ha! Extraordinary, you say – is there anything ordinary about this mission anymore? DANREY: What do you mean exactly? SID: What do I mean? Look around you, Dan – this crew is falling apart. Again, just like this tiny specs of mold floating around, which, by the way, may cause problems to the ventilator fans if nobody takes care of this. Who's turn is it to clean up this mess anyways? DANREY: Uh, Harsen's and Neilgas? SID: You see, you don't even know. That's what I'm talking about. After what we've experienced between Dres and Duna I thought that morale couldn't get lower but hey, as it turns out it can. Jeb has succumbed to this pathetic apathy of his and while he's getting worse and worse there's nobody to look after the “Proteusâ€Â. Not that he would be able to make a difference after his recent decisions. DANREY: That's not true –BERTY cares about us and the spacecraft. SID: Oh, well yes he do and that's probably the only reason we're still alive. But from the psychological standpoint, after Jeb ordered us to- DANREY: What? Oh crap… Err, hello there. ROZER: Well, well, lieutenant Danrey and professor Sidely. Long time no see. DANREY: Yes, indeed. Would you excuse us, we need to get to the habitation module A. ROZER: Alas, again our reunion was brief. I hope we may find some time to talk in the near future – it's not such a big spacecraft after all. DANREY: Err, yes, sure. ROZER: One can't help but to bump into other crew members, can you? Unless you decide to avoid them – am I right, professor? SID: I'm sorry captain, we're busy now. ROZER: Really? And what's the cause of this urgency? SID: It's not your business. ROZER: I see. DANREY: We're really sorry, but we have to go. ROZER: Of course you do. See you later than. DANREY: :sigh: (…) SID: Is he gone already? DANREY: Yup. SID: I still can't accept it – how come he thought releasing him would be a good idea? DANREY: He said he'll be needed during our operations in Jool's SOI. SID: Which is still few weeks from now. DANREY: I dunno, maybe he wanted us to, uh, get used to it? SID: Get used to him wandering around? No fraking way – have you forgot what he's done to Jeb and the rest of us? DANREY: You know, I would never suspect that Jeb is more forgiving than you. SID: It's not forgiveness, it's stupidity. I tell you Danrey, we need to do something so that he can snap out of this torpor. Well, here we are. DANREY: :knocking: Hello? Ned? SID: Hey ol'buddy! It's me and Danrey – would you let us in? DANREY: It's us, Ned. SID: Please, open up. We need to talk. BERTY showed us this photo, you know, the one you asked him to take with a DST? DANREY: Do you think he can hear us? SID: Of course he can, we're in space – there ain't much to hear but us.Ned? Ned, I'm worried about you. If you want to talk about Jool or our mission – this or the previous one – just let me know, okay? DANREY: I don't think this is working, Sid. SID: So what are we supposed to do, leave him in there? Kod only know what he's thinking of doing right n- DANREY: The hatch is opening! SID: Come on, help me with this. DANREY: Ugh! Here you go. SID: Ned? Ned, is everything all right? NED: If you want to talk, leave him outside. SID: Danrey, could you…? DANREY: No problem. SID: Okay Ned, I'm coming in alone. *** SID: You really scared me Ned, please don't ever do it ag- NED: We're not coming back, Sid. SID: Wha-what? Why are you saying this? NED: Don't you remember what happened to “Kadmosâ€Â? SID: Only too well – I still have nightmares about it. NED: Than you have your answer. SID: I, uhm, I'm sorry Ned but I don't follow. NED: You should. First there was aerobraking, two actually, which severely damaged the hull. Than we were bathed in deadly radiation, than there were malfunction of almost all vital subsystems, including comms and reactor. All of this when you were in comatose. And than it get worse. We barely made it out and that was before Eve. The journey to the planet was actually even worse than the aerobraking, which almost torn the ship apart. And all of this was before what happened in Kerbin's orbit. Before we lost Buzz. Hell, I almost died too. SID: I know, Ned. I was there. NED: Yes. Yes, you were. SID: Listen Ned, I know how hard this was. It was traumatic to all of us. But you remember the therapy, right? We can't focus on the past. NED: Oh, it's not the past that worries me. SID: :sigh: Both you and me know that this isn't going very well, but we're not going to repeat what happened to “Kadmosâ€Â. We've learnt on these experiences. We've grown, we're stronger. NED: Like Jeb? SID: … NED: After he decided to ignore the voting I still thought it's going to work out all right somehow, you know? Of course it took some time before I realized this – man, I was so mad at him for the first few weeks after the burn. But we've been through hell and survived, so why shouldn't we make it this time, right? I was thinking just like you are right now. SID: But? NED: But the time was passing and he was slowly being devoured by depression or whatever the hell is causing his panic attacks. It was getting worse. And then, when he released Rozer it hit me – this is it. We're not coming back. SID: I don't see logic in- NED: Do you know who is Jool, the mythological Jool? SID: Err, I think so. He was the leader of the First Kods who rebelled against his father Ouranus, creator of the heavens. NED: Go on. SID: Why should I- NED: Go on! SID: Uhm. Than his – mother, I think – Kaia told him that he was destined to be overcome by his own sons, just like he had overthrown his father. NED: Do you know how he tried to preempt the prophecy? SID: Actually, I don't rememb- NED: He ate them, Sid. He devoured his children. NED: And that's what's going to happen to us, Sid. I know it. He's going to devour us all. SID: For the love of Kod, what are you talking about?! It's just a stupid myth! Jool is no kod, it's just a gas giant. NED: That's not what I see when I'm looking at it. SID: Oh. That's why you were freaked out by this image? NED: Tell me I'm wrong, Sid. Just take a good look at it, than look me in the eyes and tell that this isn't something primordial, something eerie. Something eldritch. SID: Ned, you're talking- NED: Crazy, huh? That's what you wanted to say? Hell, maybe I do; but please, do as I asked. Look at him. SID: … NED: Look closely, Sid – and don't blink. *** MISSION STATUS ***

There is mod, that will allow you to see other connected people on map, talk to them via chat, share screenshots with them by press of a single button and even share crafts with them. Although, there is no mod that would allow you to see them in real world, dock together and other kind of stuff. Link to plugin: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24926-0-21-Kerbal-LiveFeed-Passive-Multiplayer-Plugin-Client-Server-v0-7-1

Tower: "Intakes?" Bill: "Check." Tower: "Tailplane?" Bill: "Check, tailgear lookin' good." Tower: "Engines?" Bill: "Check, gimbals in line." Bill: "I'm climbing back into the cockpit now, Tower." Tower: "We read you, switch to cockpit radio. Radio name V-K, Victor Kilo." Bob: "Copy that Tower. Radio switched, engines spooling up, brakes on." Tower: "Victor Kilo, you're good for takeoff. Are your passengers secure?" Jeb: "Yup, they're buckling up in the back right now, actually." Tower: "Well, you're good. MET starting now. Don't be late for dinner!" Bob: "Tower, we've cleared the groundspace. Altitude 150 meters and rising." Tower: "We copy you Victor-Kilo, we have a visual on you out the window." Jeb: "Bob, switch to intercom. I want to talk to our guests." Bill: "Jeb... This is their first flight in the Komet you know?" Jeb: "Aah, the Vomit Komet. V-K. How could we live without you?" Bob: "Tower, we're turning on the INCOM. You might hear our guests in the background." Tower: "Copy that Victor-Kilo. You are cleared out of KSC, proceed to the Desert Island Marker. You're cleared for up to four cycles until you pass the Marker. Also, remember that the crew in the back are going to be the candidates for the first Kerbal in space. Don't harm them." Jeb: "Don't worry. I'll personally make sure of that." Bill: "Yeah, right..." ???: "You know we can still hear you, right?" Jeb: "Uh, yeah, of course we knew that, uh-" Harbas: "Harbas. Alongside Wilnie and Elby." Wilnie: "That's me!" Elby: "And me!" Jeb: "Yes, we knew that, er, Harbas, Wilnie and Elby." Harbas: "Thank you. Also, why are we going up, it's quite the strain on the seats and harnesses." In the cockpit, Jeb looks to Bob. He turns his head and asks, "Can we?" Bob: "Oh, all right. Tower, we're starting the first cycle." Tower: "Copy that, Victor-Kilo. Logging first cycle at 2:31 MET." Bob then pressed a button on his console, activating Jeb's control yoke, and flipped a switch, disabling the autopilot. Jeb then pushed down on his yoke and he plane was sent into a deep dive. Jeb: "Hold onto your lunch!" Harbas: "Huh, what do you mean? Oh. This is the Vomit Komit, isn't it. I heard a lot abou-":HURRRK: Elby: "Oh, don't be silly. You know that only a small percentage of passengers get nau-" :BLORRGCH: Wilnie: "Ooh! This is zero-gravity! It's so cool! I wish we could do this every da-" :GLOORKCH: *wipes mouth* "Errk, on the other hand, maybe not.." Elby: "Gah! I hate that bit!" Harbas: "You've done this before?" Elby: "For the tests... For my role as science officer, of course..." Back in the cockpit, Bob turned off Jeb's controls and reactivated the autopilot. Meanwhile, Bill chucked up into a little disposable baggie that he then threw out of the window. It survived the landing in the water intact went on to be ingested by a certain barracuda that was later caught by a certain Danbree Kerman, who won the Booster Bay Fishing Competition for it, and used the fame from the prize-winning catch to enter a prestigious university, and then became mayor of his hometown and married his childhood sweetheart. But that's not relevant and so we shall go back to the Vomit Komet. Jeb: "Aww, but that was fun!" Bob: "No, Jeb, we're handing it back to the autopilot. It can do this better." Jeb: :sigh: Wilnie: "Here we go again..." Elby: "OKAY! I give up! Get us outta here!" :puke: Bob: "Oh, okay. Tower, we're turning around. Also, we're practicing the emergency landing." Tower: "Copy that Victor-Kilo. You're cleared through to the landing. Tell the boys to hold on tight!" Harbas: "Whew, we're finally getting off- wait, why did you stop the engines?!?" Jeb: "Tut tut tut Harbas, don't question the pilots." Harbas: "But the engines..." :WHUMP: Elby: "Gah! A little warning next time!?!" :KRASH: Jeb: "Well, you know what they say, any crash you can walk away from," Jeb: "Wasn't hard enough!" Bob: "Tower, we're going to need the bus to pick us up. Also, get the janitors in, we've got a bit-" *Sound of Elby puking, whatever it is. I think it's Splorrkch or Bluurggthk or something like that.* Bob: "-Can that, a lot of a mess in the back. And don't forget the air fresheners!"

Everything can be boiled down to greed, maybe with some hate on the side but mainly greed. Be it for power or resources greed drives nearly every real problem facing mankind today. You talk about the poor and the sick and the hungry? All of those things could easily be fixed if everyone cared more about each other than they do themselves. I have met some people who would help others but most that would have at one time have been hurt too many times too try anymore. On the other end I have met people who would pay any price in other people to gain the tiniest boon, sell mother into slavery for a nice car?

I gave up my job after three years having relocated twice, lost all my friends and had relationships fall apart because... Well, I don't know. I thought about making KSP videos for a while, but I can't commentate worth a damn and my video editing is distinctly average. I've got nowhere to go and no-one to talk to about a career, (I was an archaeologist before) I'm quite sick of people, what can I do with as little human interaction as possible? Any ideas?

Damn I thought Kragathea had returned(you should talk to them about that)

I can not talk about it objectively... my main computer has 32 Gb RAM:) there is a way to find out how much memory used by model in the game?

oh ok, I wasn't aware someone was working on our pack besides me and Sirkut. Might want to talk to Sirkut about the GUI, is he also aware you are playing with his code at the same time he is working on it?

Long-term Laythe - Part 16 Vall Venture - Part 3 Time to get all the new equipment landed on Vall and Laythe, or otherwise positioned where it's needed. I've been looking forward to breaking apart the lag-beast at Vall, so let's start there. The three Tugs have a little under 47% propellant remaining in their main tanks, so almost all of that propellant was removed from the right Tug (in the picture below) and moved it to the Tug of the main Vall ship (on the left). The right-Tug retained enough fuel to return to Kerbin. A little extra fuel from the middle-Tug, and the main ship was 100% full. The double Fido rover payload was separated, and then the middle Tug was separated. Emilynn Kerman then moved the main ship off to the side, and then the separated middle-Tug docked to the rovers. The rovers were then sent off into a slightly lower orbit (by about 3 km) to get them out of Lag City. Happily, things got much nicer after that -- those rovers seem to be the major cause of the lag with this ship. The next step, below, was to move the unoccupied Lander over to dock to the top of the main Vall ship (which is now on the right side, just to confuse the innocent). You know...I really love Romfarer's Lazor docking camera mod. After the Lander was docked to the top of the main ship, the main ship and its fully-fueled Tug were separated from the triple-tug adapter, and the remaining Tug attached to the adapter dragged it off tot he side. Then the main Vall ship was docked back to its Tug. Most of this docking ballet was easy because the ship parts were just kept aligned to North, and it was very easy to slide parts back together. Below, Jool comes over the horizon to greet the completed Vall Station. It has the Tug that will eventually return Emilynn and Hellou back to Kerbin. It also has the main Habitat, which will serve as living quarters for the return to Kerbin, but also is a fully capable emergency lander that could go down to Vall and back if needed -- or it could even land on Laythe, since it has some parachutes attached -- and it also has two single capsules with retro packs that could be used to land on Laythe (I love having lots of options in case of emergencies). And on top is the Vall Lander. This Lander doesn't drop any tanks, so it can be used to go down to Vall and back multiple times if it's refueled. That is, in fact, the plan: Emilynn and Hellou will explore from two different widely-spaced locations on Vall as part of their mission; and that's also why they brought two rovers. The last Tug attached to the triple-tug adapter was shifted to the middle docking port so that it could push the adapter into a higher orbit where it will be left behind. I don't plan to use it, but I decided to keep it where it might be handy if needed. Its three tanks are empty. I also took the time to put the remaining three comsats into high circular orbits where they could join the first one that was already there. These were still in the elliptical orbit that the Vall ship first came in on, and I just waited until one of the comsats reached apopasis at a time when the already-placed consats were not nearby, then did a circularization burn for that comsat. Time to start the Vall surface exploration mission! Vall Fido 1 with its lander stage on top was popped off of the stack, ready to make its descent to the surface. The other rover will stay with the Tug, which has a fair amount of fuel, so it could potentially be used to do a large plane-shift maneuver and drop the second Fido anywhere on Vall if Emilynn and Hellou crash their first rover and need an emergency replacement. But the second rover will hopefully not be needed for this...in which case it will be used later for a second exploration location on Vall. Two LV-909 engines will take care of the deorbiting and landing of the Fido 1 rover. It is being targeted a couple degrees south of the equator to the northern edge of a large basin. Below, the Vall Fido 1 descends to the airless surface of Vall. The landing location of the rover was on a long 12° slope, which was more of an incline than desired for setting up base operations, so the Fido drove down the slope, keeping its speed to less than 10 m/s because it was still carrying its lander stage on top. It eventually found a less-steep location to the south, and parked there to act as landing target for the Vall Lander with our intrepid crew on board. Below, Emilynn transfers over to the lander via EVA. Really, with all these hatches on all these docking ports and other parts, why hasn't Squad implemented internal transfer between docked modules yet? OK...Emilynn would probably use the transfer as an excuse to do an EVA, anyway...but I'm sure Hellou would prefer the docking tunnels. With Emilynn in the lander can, and Hellou in the (Hitchhiker) habitat module, the Vall Lander separated from Vall Station and headed for the surface. The lander has six of the small Rockomax 48-7S engines on the bottom of its six FL-T400 tanks. This should be plenty of fuel to land on Vall and return to the station in equatorial orbit later. In the right half of the picture, we see the lander with antennas and landing legs deployed, dropping toward the surface. Hellou: "Vall Lander calling Laythe Base." Kurt: "This is Laythe Base. Kurt here. I read you loud and clear." Hellou: "Hi, Kurt. We are descending to Vall. Retro burn went as planned." Kurt: "OK. We're monitoring. Is all going well?" Emilynn: "Oh, hell yes, Jaymak! The ship is handling like a dream. It might be nice if it had some more powerful motors than these little 7S toys, but I'll avoid trying to do any last-second kamikaze burns." Kurt: "Roger, Hawk. Put her down gently." Emilynn: "No worries! Time for the big braking burn. Talk to you later!" Below, the Lander slows using the very efficient, if not overly powerful, 48-7S engines... ...and touches down gently 2.3 kilometers from the Fido rover. Emilynn: "And we are DOWN! Attitude stable. Engine Arm circuit OFF. Fuel level at 44.8%. Greetings from Eve Basin, boys! Kerbals have returned to Vall!" Kurt: "Roger, Hawk. We copy you down. Eve Basin?" Hellou: "Yes. We are naming this basin after Eve, the goddess of love, the color purple, and telling male kerbals they are wrong." Kurt: "I'm sure the boys at KSC will love the name." Emilynn: "You're probably wrong about that, Jaymak. OK, I'm going to take care of wrangling that Fido over here, then maybe we'll go out for a little walk later. Can you check the video relay links back to KSC for me, Hellou?" Hellou: "Already on it, Emi. We want to look good for the primetime news." Below, the landing site of the Vall Lander, seen in the center of the picture, at 2° 23.7' South, 141° 20.5' East, at an elevation of 749 meters. The probe icon off to the right is the science package left behind where Bill Kerman landed the Vall Lewis Lander to become the first kerbal on Vall almost 12 years earlier. The probe icon near the bottom-left is where Bob Kerman left a science package by Vallhenge on that same expedition. Emilynn and Hellou's landing location was chosen because they intend to do an epic rover journey to Vallhenge, and it looks like there is a navigable route to get there. Emilynn remotely guided the Fido rover over to the Vall Lander, then separated the lander stage from the top of the Fido and hopped it to a landing a short distance away. Then Emilynn fired the two little decouplers, and the two engine pods separated from the lander stage. You may have noticed the command seats on top of those engine pods. During my "engineering simulations" when designing the Vall Fido lander stage, I always had those engine pod tanks end up over half full of fuel (because it's always nice to have a little extra fuel). So I figured with the added command seats and the decoupler mechanism, I now have two emergency return-to-orbit pods that give our intrepid explorers another option for getting off Vall in case something went wrong with their Lander (perhaps during landing). Anyway...waste not, want not. Be prepared. And other clichés. Somewhat disconcertingly, when I switched away to some other location (taking care of a different ship) and returned my focus to the landing site, the collection of empty fuel tanks exploded a little ways into the sky and fell back. But nothing important was damaged. In time for the primetime news hour back at KSC, our heroines disembark for their first EVA on Vall. Below we see Emilynn about to step onto the surface. Emilynn: "Greetings to everyone back home on Kerbin! That was a heck of a fun landing! Wish you all were here!" Hellou: "Nice words, Emi. Thanks for using 'heck'." Emilynn: "Hey, I said you could be first out if the words were important. Come on out, Chickadee... the water's fine. Hard as a rock, in fact." Hellou: "OK, I'm opening the hatch now." You'll notice in the image above that there are two lights angled inward on either side of the hatch to the lander can. This is because I found out during engineering testing that a single light located above the hatch (which seemed like a good idea) causes the kerbals to bump their heads upon exiting the hatch and getting rather violently thrown to the ground. Which never looks good on world-wide television. Unfortunately for the boys on Laythe, their new Base 2 has exactly that kind of arrangement. Very embarrassing. And I believe I've had this happen in the past on a ship in orbit around Kerbin...and the kick from the bumping the light caused the kerbals to go sailing off a considerable distance from the ship when they went out for EVA. So heed well my warning. Below, Hellou joins Emilynn on the surface. Hellou: "I'm on the surface. Hello to everybody on Kerbin! The view is beautiful! I'm going to take some contingency samples of the surface material now." Emilynn: "Looks like dirty ice to me." Hellou: "Yes, Emi. I'll handle the geological reports." Below, with the video transmission back to Kerbin completed, Emilynn and Hellou watch Kerbol set behind the mountains. Aldner: "Laythe Base calling Vall Lander. Aldner Kerman calling Vall Lander." Emilynn: "Hi there, Buzz! What's up?" Aldner: "We watched your show. Great work. I notice you didn't plant a flag." Emilynn: "Ah, you noticed that, did you? Planting flags is under Hellou's department. I handle the piloting, half the rover driving, and the repair of equipment and wheels. Hellou handles flags, the other half of the rover driving, science, and explosives." Hellou: "Umm...I forgot to bring out the flag." Aldner: "Wait...explosives? Why explosives? Is this some geology thing?" Hellou: "No. Well, I have some small charges for that as well. But the explosives are mainly for blasting a shelter into the ice if we need to hide from any radiation storms. I can blast us a nice bunker in 20 minutes flat...but I can do a much better job if I have longer. You see, we aren't lucky like you boys on Laythe with your nice atmosphere to hide under. If there's a kerbol-flare and Jool's radiation belts act up, all we have around us is vacuum." Aldner: "I thought Jools magnetic field would protect us from any kerbol-flares." Hellou: "Sure, it will deflect a lot of it. You wouldn't get blasted directly like you would if your ship was out between the planets. But a lot of those high energy particles will work their way in to add to Jool's radiation belts. And if the kerbol-flare is accompanied by a strong coronal mass ejection, it would compress Jool's magnetic field and the radiation belt intensity could spike by a few orders of magnitude. Best to be under several meters of ice if that happens." Emilynn: "My little Chickadee sure does that geek-speak real well. And it was a lot of fun watching her blast holes in the ice cap back on Kerbin for practice! Listen, Buzz, we're going to pack it in for the night. We have to check out the rover tomorrow and get ready for our big drive. We'll talk to you later." And so our heroines retired for the night in their comfy habitat module...where the bunks are located down low so the fuel remaining in the surrounding tanks acts as additional radiation shielding. Emilynn's Dream NOTE: The sequence below DID NOT HAPPEN. This is only one of Emilynn's dreams. Below, we see the Emilynn dreaming that she's out inspecting one of the engine pods from the Fido's lander stage. It only makes sense to check out the command seat to see if it's comfortable. Yes. Very comfy. Hmmm... the fuel tank is over half full. "Yeeeeeee-HA! Now that's a ship with decent thrust!" "And enough fuel to make it all the way to rendezvous with Vall Station! Hahahahahaha! That's fine! Fine! F-nine!" Hellou: "Umm...Emi?" Emilynn: "Zzz..Huh? Wassup?" Hellou: "Are you OK? You were making funny noises in your sleep." Emilynn: "Oh, sorry. Just having a little dream. Hmmm...I wonder how far I could fly one and land back on the surface?" Hellou: "What?" Emilyn: "Huh? Oh, nothing. Go back to sleep." Meanwhile, back at Laythe... Orbiting Laythe, the big triple-tug BirdDog transport was ready to be disassembled. It was still in its eccentric orbit, and I decided to leave it there until after disassembly in order to save fuel (rather than drop the ship to a low circulr orbit first -- the BirdDogs and GasStations would come in a little hotter this way, but they each had enough fuel to deorbit from there). First off was the BirdDog 3, which would be remotely piloted down by Nelemy. Below, the BirdDog fires its retro pack. I have a probe core between the retro pack tanks and the top docking port to give me a handy place to control the ship from during retro burn. The standard entry profile for landing at Fido Bay on Dansen island is shown: a small plane shift is required, and the trajectory is targeted to halfway between Dansen island and the tiny Mariliza island. Nelemy orients the BirdDog 3 for entry and the entry plasma flames begin to appear. Aldner: "Yo, Little Buddy...you still have the retro pack attached." Nelemy: "Huh? Oh! Yeah...hold on, Dude... OK...it's decoupled now!" Kurt: (at the hatch) "Wow...Great entry flames. Hey, you got nice Mach effects there for a couple seconds. Aldner: "It's through entry. Remember to jettison the wheel heat shields." Because of the lift, the BirdDog overshot the Fido Bay area, and Nelemy circled it back around, managing to pitch up violently a couple times...but the plane recovered quickly. But that did place the plane lower than expected. Rather than burn lots of jet fuel, Nelemy set the plane down about 5 km east of the base on steeper terrain than usual. Then Nelemy raised the nose gear to drop the rover wheels to the ground, and drove the plane over to the new base. Nelemy: "Allright, Dudes! Down and safe." Thompbles: "Try not to run it into the base or rover when you park it." Nelemy: "No problemo, Captain Thombples, Dude. Wheels stopped. OK, I'll go unload all the supply boxes from the cockpit!" Kurt: "Just don't eat all the new snacks, OK?" Then it was Kurt's turn at the remote-control panel. BirdDog 4 was separated from the big ship and Kurt fired the retros for a standard entry. Below, the retro pack drifts away from the BirdDog... and then the intense entry flames of the steep entry, and then Kurt popped off the wheel heat shields over Fido Bay. I've never seen these shields survive imapact... maybe they despawn first. Kurt made a more liesurely turn to bring the BirdDog back around to the base area, then landed it gently on the flats a little over a kilometer from the old base. Then he remotely drove it over to the new base in rover mode. Kurt: "BirdDog 4 is parked and powered down. I'll go unload the supplies from the cockpit." Thompbles: "It looks like Nelemy is alreay over there pulling out the boxes." Aldner: "Guys, we have quite a nice little air wing here." Kurt: "The famous Laythe Air Force!" Thompbles: "And now that we have several operational planes with lots of rescue options, you guys can finish off the island surveys." Next to be deorbited was the Double GasStation. This was separated from the big ship, and its twelve 24-77 engines were fired to send the station on its way down to the Fido Bay area. Below: the entry flames. Then it was a matter of waiting for the right moment to deploy the twelve parachutes. I was trying to land it by the previous GasStations, but it went a little long and actually ended up touching down closer to the new base (which you can see off in the distance wih the Laythe Air Force. The Big Question, of course, was "will the BirdDogs be able to dock to either of the two refueling booms on this ship?" ...since it would be annoying to have all that jet fuel unavailable. So Aldner drove his BirdDog on over and tried it out. The boom port looked to be a bit high... but with careful placement of the BirdDog, the ports clicked together after the nose gear was lowered to raise the front of the plane. Excellent! Up in orbit, GasStation 4 was separated from the increasingly-inappropriayely-named Big Ship. The gas station was targeted to Aldner Island to serve as a refuling base for the exploration of the remaining islands in the southeast section of the Big Ass Impact Feature on the far side of Laythe. Below, we see the six 24-77 engines deorbiting the station, and then see it passing over Bsalis Island on its way to the southeast corner of Aldner Island. The southeast corner of Aldner Island has a long, sloping landing area located at Laythe's equator, so it's a nice place for a reconnaissance base. GasStation 4 ended up at a 6° tilt. GasStation 5 is being left in the eccentric orbit so that it can be landed at some future time at a place where it will be needed. By keeping it in the high eccentric orbit, it will be easier to easily land it at a high latitude, if desired. Below, the GasStation and Tug are separated from the triple-adapter, which the other tugs pull out of the way, and then the Tug docks to the GasStation. The main tanks of these tugs all all still pretty full. As you may recall, a secondary Base + Fido rover payload came into the Jool system and was parked in Laythe orbit waiting for a decision about where to put it. I was originally thinking of putting it on Aldner Island, but the payload includes a rover, and Aldner Island (although nicely placed at the equator for a fine base location) is really not a very large island, and I thought the rover could be put to better use exploring a bigger island. So I decided to put this Base/rover combo onto the high basin area on Fredoly Island (the large island to the southwest of Dansen Island). It has a nice wide basin, easy for landing planes, and is located far from the oceans, so no danger of tsunamis. But it is located at over 13 degrees South latitude, so first I had to use the Tug (the recycled/upgraded Tug L5) to shift the orbital plane to reach 12 degrees South...and the Base's engines could handle it from there. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the right time when Fredoly Island would be lining up under the orbit, and the payload was separated from the Tug and deorbited with its four 24-77 engines. Below, we see the retro burn and then we see the payload heading in toward Fredoly. The payload came in from a relatively high elliptical orbit (I left it there so the plane change maneuver would take less fuel), so the entry flames were strong (they are just getting started below), and I popped out the drogue chutes as soon as possible after the plasma dissippated to slow down the ship fast. The heat shield was separated after the drogues deployed. I also got the main chutes out in reefed condition right after dropping the heat shield. Below we see the base/rover stack descending vertically under the fully-opened drogue chutes and the reefed main chutes. The landing legs of the base have also been deployed. Since the base was all set to land, I separated the rover at a couple thousand feet and let it freefall a bit to get it clear of the base (this whole operation has been controlled from the probe core on the top of the Fido rover), and then deployed the six parachutes on the Fido. You can see the Fido hanging from its fully-deployed parachutes with the base high above under its fully deployed chutes. Below, the Fido toucheed down, and I immediately ran it off to the side to get out from under the base, which we see descending from the Fido's viewpoint. The base landed on a slight slope, bounced a bit, and did a heart-stopping partial pirouette around on one leg before settling into place. Whew. The base landed a couple kilometers short of my intended target in the flat bottom of the sandy basin, but it's not tilted too badly. Now the base (Laythe Base 3) and Fido will sit and wait for me to assign a kerbal or two to use it as an exploration camp. Last came the drudgery of handling the Tugs. A thankless job, but one that had to be done. So Thompbles probably had to take care of it. There was stll a lot of fuel left in the Tugs from the BirdDog ship, but those Tugs only had Senior docking ports, and Laythe Space Station has no Senior docking ports (having been sent out before they were invented). BUT, the Tug L5 that just dropped off Base 3 has a standard port on the front, and has a Senior port on the rear that it acqired during its refurbishment back at Kerbin before it was sent back to Laythe again with the Base/Fido payload. So, Tug L5 was docked to the Space Station first, then the two Tugs from the BirdDog ship were docked (after coming down from their higher orbit and dropping off the triple-tug-adapter in a slightly higher circular orbit in case I have some use for it in the future. The fuel from all of these Tugs, except what they would need to return to Kerbin, was transferred to the tanks on Laythe Space Station. After the fuel transfer, I separated Tug L5 (WITHOUT its upgrade module that had added the Senior docking port and a bunch of probe cores that were for extra torque...but which are not needed now that the Tug's ASAS unit mysteriously started generating torque). Tug L5 scooted out of the way, and then the remaining Tugs re-docked the upgrade adapter to the Space Station...where it will serve as a Senior docking port for any future operations needing one. The two Tugs then backed off and moved to a higher orbit to await being sent back to Kerbin. I have them docked to each other, rotated at 90 degrees, just so I'll be able to send them back as one ship (much less bother that way). So that's all the new assets at Laythe. The high orbits have the four comsats wandering around; the ellipticl orbit is the Tug with GasStation 5 waiting to be placed somewhere in the future; then comes the ancient Clark lander from the original Laythe expedition; then comes the orbit of the possibly useless triple-tug-adapter; then the low circular orbits close together of the Laythe Space Station and the recently released Tugs awaiting return to Kerbin. And then all the goodies on the surface. It makes me happy to look at all my goodies in place at Laythe. And so ends this installment. Oh, OK... here's a last look at our girls on Laythe readying their rover for their Big Trip. The rover is my tried-and-true eight-wheel design that has done so well for me in the past, but this one has a control cockpit (good visibility, and very high impact tolerance) for the driver, and a single-kerbal lander can that has been refurbished into a living quarters module so that the off-duty kerbal can stretch out, wash up, and ride in comfort. There is also a "Granny Clampett" chair on top of the module that a kerbal could ride on to get a good view of the surrounding terrain as the rover travels along. The Fido has RCS for those unexpected moments when the rover might become airborne over a bump (but I expect the cockpit torque will be sufficient to keep the rover steady in such a case), a couple RTGs for power, and lots of bateries.

sorry, i meant don't bring gas core reactors into the discussion about making things 'in line' thats all, not suggesting not to include them. ANd yes, i've made a big spreadsheet with all your default values and such so I could play with them and bring them 'in line' in my game, so well aware of your values for core temp, etc. In any case, to the point of balancing, lets talk power generation too: If you alter the masses slightly (particularly of the jet mass) then i agree, in order to bring the 1.25 reactor + jet in your mod up to LV-N stock values, you need to increase the thermal power output by 10. Specifcally , if you made (this would be so much easier if I knew how to post a spreadsheet) the 1.25 part Reactor mass = 2, Jet mass = .25, and the thermal power 10x greater (move it from 25 to 250) then your NTR is directly in line with stock- you get a total mass of 2.25, a thrust of 55.7, and a T/M ratio of 24 (its T/w ratio is slightly worse than stock, but its ISP is better - its pretty close in any case). in general, across the board, if you modify jet mass per my previous post, and up the thermal power by about a factor of 10, everything lines up with stock for solid core reactors (and you can do the same with gas core to keep them in line). Which leaves you with your issue about generator power. the 3.5 meter reactor is producing 45GW. All I can say is this is essentially irreconcilable if you use 'our universe' values. I mean Kerbin has a density of tungsten and Kerbal is a yellow star thats about the size of Earth. Nothing in this universe lines up exactly with our values. If you want your NTR reactors to be comparable with stock, you need to address this somehow. Or you could hide the factor of 10 in a conversion from thermal power to thrust. Basically you need to use a different constant than what we use for our universe's constants. One last option would be to leave all the thrust values alone but make everything weigh 10 times less (but then people would need to put 10 reactors on a vessel to achieve the same thrust) - so you become a part hog. I dont' know what to tell you, other than I love what you are doing with your mod, but I'm going to use thermal powers that put the reactor in line with LV-N so I can play with your mod in a way thats compatible w/ stock. Seperate question: Whats your rationale for the values you use in your core temperatures of the AM reactors - why did you choose to make AM reactors have core temperatures that scale with size? I thought that was a wierd choice, because ISP is wildly dpendent on size as a result, rather than thrust. Since I was moding your stuff anyway, I altered those values so that the core temps of AM reactors were consistant, but reduced the thermal power to keep thrusts and weights 'reasonable' (if such a thing as reasonable exists for AM reactor outputs - honestly, my values are probably way to low). Just curious. -seyv PS - if somone could tell me the best way to link a spreadsheet, I could have a better time explaining some of these suggestions.

This raises another interesting one to think about: Autonomous weapons. Daniel Suarez did a TED talk about this topic this past June. His talk was titled "The kill decision shouldn't belong to a robot".

There was talk a little while back of a small town scale generator that'd get buried under a public building, encased in concrete. It'd have worked pretty much squarely in between a conventional reactor and an RTG, using a core with no moving parts but with a steam generator instead of a thermoelectric one, getting round the inefficiency.

I like your I like your female and family angle--most other tales principally concern fuel, steel, and testosterone--and I want to see you do it justice. Some recommended rules: --Put adverbs before verbs just as you put adjectives before nouns --Lists of any kind are are always x, y, ... and z --Ground your dialogue by surrounding it with descriptive language --Be more specific where possible to increase clarity --Show, don't tell, especially regarding emotion Below is a passage of your writing to which I have applied these rules: ---- Gerselle bent down and kissed the top of Joenie’s head. The kerblet sleepily rolled over, still clutching a stone in her small, pudgy, green fist, “Ummy, ‘one.†Gerselle smiled, “Yes beautiful girl – I can see you’ve still got your stone. Just you hold on to it, and you’ll still have it in the morning," and pulled the cover over Joenie, smiling as her daughter’s eyelids struggled to stay open. Gerselle quietly waited until Joenie’s eyes closed and breathing slowed; sure that her little one was asleep she kissed her forehead, turned away, and tiptoed out of the sleep room. Meleny was waiting for Gerselle on the porch in a chair, “Both asleep?â€Â. Gerselle nodded. Meleny softly chuckled, “As they should. I’ve never seen another pair get into so many places that it shouldn't. We’ll hardly keep up in a month or two.†Gerselle sank into a chair beside Meleny with a groan. “Another month or two? I can't keep up with her now, and she’s only barely walking! Although your Adbas seems to manage just fine.†Meleny laughed, then answered, “The trick with Adbas is to keep him distracted: he keeps still when playing with something new," she sighed, "at least for half a minute.†Gerselle rested her cheek on the heel of her hand and her elbow on the arm of the seat and sighed, “I should have married a geologist instead of a keeper: at least he'd provide a steady stream of new stones.†She continued with a sigh, “Speaking of keepers... I should go. Joenie will probably sleep through the night, but the quicker I get back, the better.†Meleny shook her head in mock seriousness, “Well I'm just as happy that you married a keeper. I don’t want to even think about the chaos that those inquisitive little hands could wreak with Daddy’s rock hammer.†Gerselle gazed at Meleny. A moment passed, and both Kerbals exhaled, sinking into their seats. Gerselle shrugged and rose to their feet. Meleny rose with her and with eyebrows peaked and smile spread wide walked to her and pulled her close. Gerselle whispered, “Thank you so much for looking after her tonight. I’ll really need your help in the next few months.†Meleny pulled her head back and looked at her curiously. “How much time does a growing Kerm actually need?†Gerselle rested her forehead against Meleny's, “I have no idea, and the Records aren’t much help either." She swallowed, eyes misty, "They give plenty of advice about how to talk to your Kerm, but when? How often? How much care do they need? I, I have no idea.†Meleny chuckled and pulled Gerselle close again, putting her warm hand on the back of her head. “So, like parenting books then, huh? Lots of detail but none for your own little bundle of joy.†Gerselle blinked and wryly nodded, “Probably. I hope that Kerms are like kerblets in needing less attention as they grow up," she added with a smile, "As far as I know, they can feed themselves too and don’t need cleaning – or at least I hope they don’t!†“Feeding and bathing a Kerm," Meleny laughed, "I wouldn’t know where to start.†Gerselle gave Meleny a squeeze and then gently pulled away, “I think I’m about to find out. Peaceful night Meleny.†Meleny answered, “Peaceful night, Gerselle" and watched Gerselle wordlessly walk to the village. Caring for and feeding kerblets is one thing; the care and… feeding... Kerm is quite another. “Good luck Gerselle," she whispered, “Good luck.†---- I would have added even more detail, but I skipped to the last entry because I am mostly interested in the beauty of language rather than the particular story. Consider me a roving copy editor. Consider rendering the emotional bonds and difficulties thereof in even greater scope and detail to ground Kerbalkind in hearth and home. I also recommend rewriting your first chapter lest readers misjudge the rest of your work. I rewrote your introductory sentence / invocation of the muse below: ---- Long before our blazing rockets roared up through the sky; long before intrepid rovers told geniuses, "For why?"; long before each probe core beeped in hopes that it would fly was a group of friends who in their slumber dreamed of orbits high. ---- To write something that is classically 'beautiful' (in your case, your introduction) write poetry: choose a rhythm and rhyme scheme and finagle with the language until your message is clear. You'll soon like the discipline and poetic license that you thereby gain--just remember to eventually write prose again! -Duxwing P.S. I hope that I've helped without seeming too arrogant.

I'm trying so hard to act all tough and talk smack, but it's just not in me to keep up. I am, however very competitive, and this is a great contest. Called it! Thanks! Momma and I had thought it quite ugly. But you've flattered me into agreeing with you. I have other ships that I find truly sexy, like "Water Beauty & Speed", and my next entry here is not bad either.Your ship looks very interesting - in a good way - and I'm hoping you'll share your craft files. I have most of my good ones available for download on my website, and I'm working on an upload page so others can easily share their stuff. I actually feel bad about this, but... you have good reason to be nervous. I've finished my first purpose-built craft for this challenge, and it's... pretty amazing. Should I wait for you to beat my current score, or just go ahead and submit my latest entry right away? Holy freakin' cow, is that on LAND?!

Work on more humorous newspaper articles and spokeman-quotes and such and get squad to implement them in one form another. Since this thread really isnt about anything specific, i´ll just rant away a bit: I really think KSP should stay with the jibberish language (backward spanish?). It should feature cut-scenes. And a number of those should feature a particular spokeman, who needs to be modeled very well, in appearance, style, gesture and the way he spins things. Sort of clumsy on all four accounts, probably. Maybe he should smirk and squint whenever he´s telling a lie, like a certain president in the past (dont want to spur political debate here, but i swear i could tell everytime he did that), or raise both thumbs, like another. I dunno. Anyways: He´ll need subtitles for various occassions. Since he´ll be the guy having to sell the failures as ´unexpected outcomes of experiments, which ended up yielding far more knowledge than had previously been expected of them´, those occassions will mostly include bad stuff. So, bringing this post back to its beginning: Work on those subtitles. Edit: Ranting on: The main thing about that spokesperson is, that he needs to be very ´see-through´, with nervous ticks and behaviour-patterns that are very easy to pick up, while he himself sees himself as very cunning and the pinnacle of smooth-talk. The fun part is, that he does a great job, since the kerbals buy it... You need to work suspension here: Say, at you news-conference cut-scene, an unpleasent question comes up. Mr. Spokesman hestitates for a bit. Puts on a thoughtful face, as the camera starts to move close up. Then he starts to squint - camera keeps closing up, guy keeps squinting harder and harder - almost as if he was trying to hypnotize his audience with closed eyes. Since you have picked up by now, that he squints everytime he´s about to present more-than-questionable facts, you are really out on suspense by now: What sort of frog-prince is he gonna pull out of his hat now. And then comes the most obvious and blatant BS, that just makes you snort or giggle or rofl or whatever, followed by a second of silence... the audience is shown as it stands there, frozen, digesting what the spokesman said. And when they are done with that, all unisono, they start to cheer and jubilee, cause, hey, you heard it! It will make you think wether the subs are translated correctly or wether you just misread what the guy said - cause remember they are all talking jibberish - you only get to read subs. EDIT2: The kerbals need to be like sheldon cooper when he gets told that ´it isnt what it looks like.´