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Bigger issue is still the heat shield, IMO. For all the talk about the "right way" to test all the things, SLS/Orion people seem awful quiet about testing arguably the most critical component for crew safety with a crewed flight test.

Calling 911 to talk about your dogmas and invite them to your commune.

This is a pretty simple thread, you just talk about what you did today. It can be in games, but not ksp as there is a thread already for that. I went to our local mall because I have money from Christmas and wanted to see what I could get. I looked around, my indecisiveness led to me not getting anything. After that I looked for DnD books at a book store near us. I didn't do much else, a lot of sitting on youtube. I also have a bit of a sickness.

This is an entire speculative timeline of KSP2 development based on Investigative Journalism done by ShadowZone, extracted from this video. A thank you goes out to @ShadowZone for doing thorough research on KSP2’s development, while remaining neutral and preserving integrity in the reporting of his finding. Recurring names and important concepts or events are in bold. Abbreviations are noted between brackets in (cursive) next to full names. Problematic events are denoted with !. All markings are applied by me and represent my own personal opinion. A PDF version of this summary is available at the bottom of this page, for easier reading. Pre-production, 2017 – 2018 (Star Theory) Take Two (T2) chooses Uber Entertainment, Later renamed Star Theory (ST), to develop Kerbal Space Program 2 (KSP2) T2 allocates 2 years and 10 million $ to ST to develop KSP2 This was supposedly seen as doable by the Studio Manager Jeremy Able)and ST Owners Bob Berry & Jonathan Mavor (referred to as ‘ST Management’ from hereon) ST Management’s plan at this time was to do a Revision of KSP1, meaning; take the original code, polish it up to modern standards, add new graphics and content and sell it as new version The creative direction, Nate Simpson, has a broader vision: a Reimagining rather than the Revision planned by ST management This would have included Interstellar and Colonies. Nate was a long-standing fan of KSP at this point Nate Simpson is able to convince T2 to approve his Reimagining ! Despite this, the timeline and budget already allocated by T2 would not be sufficient for the studio to pull of this Reimagining This is regarded as the start of a cascade of problems for KSP2 development At this time, the only engineer on the project is Principal Engineer Chuck Noble, an experienced software engineer with a degree in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering ! T2 keeps development of KSP2 highly secretive This forces ST team members to do recruiting and hiring in addition to their normal duties, hindering development ST team members are not allowed to tell potential hires what game or even what type of game they will be working on ! Due to budgetary constraints, only a few junior engineers with little to no experience are hired (senior engineers are brought onboard eventually, but much later on) All but one of these engineers had never played KSP1 before ! The junior engineers were considering building KSP2 on Unreal Engine instead of Unity, but were ordered by ST management to stick to the original code and engine (Unity) used by KSP1 As a result of this, some early prototype builds of KSP2 were done on KSP1’s user interface and graphics Early Production, 2018-2019 (Star Theory) Scope Change: Colonies, Interstellar and Multiplayer now considered “must-deliver features” ! Spring 2020 release date is communicated to the development team, and is considered Non-Negotiable This causes stress within development team, which possibly contributed to some wrong and hastily made decisions ! The decision to cram all these features into KSP1’s code, as ordered by ST management, ends up costing the engineers a lot of time People working on the project during this time estimate this resulted in around one year of wasted development time, compared to if they had been allowed to rewrite the code Multiplayer especially turns out to be incompatible with this framework ! Contact with Squad, the developers of KSP1, is prohibited (possibly by Squad upper management) This leads to nobody being available to guide the KSP2 engineers through the KSP1 code they were ordered to work with, forcing them to work in the dark and figure it out themselves The KSP2 engineers at ST would have loved to talk with the engineers at Squad, but they fear for their jobs being terminated by T2 should they do so ! This fear turns out to be warranted: a developer from ST is let go after answering a community question AFTER the game was announced, with T2 claiming it was an “unlawful disclosure” and that “communication to the public was not star Theory's decision, but the Publishers” Ultimately, the two previous points prove insurmountable and the engineers realize a significant Refactor of the code is needed to support Nate’s Reimagining ! This decision does not go down well with ST management, who do not understand the reasons behind it From this point onward, it is assumed new code is being written from scratch T2 continues to give ST pass after pass in Milestone meetings, despite people familiar with these meetings believing they should not have passed ! The most likely reason for this is that ST management had convinced T2 that they were sitting on a potential goldmine, claiming they were working on a ‘cultural successor to Minecraft’ These claims drive T2 to see Kerbals as their version of ‘Minions’ (A.N. The yellow creatures from the ‘despicable me’ movies), even planning a collaboration with a toy manufacturer Nate Simpson tries to appease both T2 and the existing KSP community by aiming to have the game be more accessible to a new audience and expand its player base, while also sticking to the core mechanics of KSP1 ! ST Management meekly goes along with the secrecy ordered by T2; one of the reasons for this being the aim to keep people familiar with KSP1 away from ‘interfering’ in the sequel They explicitly did not want KSP1 Veteran and well-known Youtuber Scott Manley to have any input in development Another reason for staying silent was that Uber Entertainment (now ST) had a bad reputation for previous games ! T2’s reasoning for keeping the project silent so long was apparently driven by a desire to avoid conflict with the community until it was too late At this point, due to the complete lack of outsider input, Creative Director Nate Simpson is basically the only person making gameplay decisions espite developing his first game at the age of 13, Nate is not an engineer; he instead has a bachelors degree in Arts (people working on the game describe him as a ‘very visual person’) ! This in turn caused a lot of focus to be placed on the visuals of the game, sometimes resulting in fundamental design and gameplay decisions to take the back seat Nate sometimes had a tendency to micromanage (something he admitted to in an interview) single elements of the game; one of which was wobbly rockets. Even before the Refactoring of the code, it was discovered the original KSP1 code could support significantly reduced wobble while also maintaining the option for joints to break under high stress ! Nate however was convinced that the difficulty from wobble and breaking joints was necessary for a fun game and made executive decision to keep them in the game Despite these flaws, Nate is considered by everyone spoken to by ShadowZone (SZ), be it someone who worked on the project or other content creators who interacted with him, to be a KSP Superfan with nothing but the community’s best interests at heart in his decision-making. The occasional disagreements between him and the engineers are attributed by the latter to Nate’s inexperience with aerospace, not to any form of malice. ! This inexperience, combined with Nate’s desire to expand the audience of the game to new players, somewhat resulted in the opposite happening; it reduced the capability of the game to serve as a teaching tool for people going into aerospace engineering and spaceflight, and overall reduced the priority of realism during development KSP2 is officially announced to very warm reception, with a release date set for the next year (2020) Content creators like Scott Manley, Matt Lowne and SZ are also brought onboard for the first time Hostile Takeover, 2019-2020 ST finally bring some Senior Engineers onboard. The Refactoring of the code is still only halfway done at this point in time ! By this time is has become clear that the release date of Spring 2020 is not achievable; despite this, ST Management continues to communicate to the team that this deadline and key features like colonies, interstellar and multiplayer are non-negotiable Chuck Noble, the only senior engineer who had been with the project since the start, leaves the team ST Owners Bob Berry & Jonathan Mavor begin negotiations with T2 to sell the studio to them, which are well underway by late 2019 ! Late 2019: Negotiations with Take Two break down and Star Theory loses the project ! ST’s Owners, Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor, raised their price last-minute betting on T2 being willing to cash them out before finding another studio to work on KSP2, making them multi-millionaires in the process In response, T2 pulled the intellectual property from Star Theory and started a poaching attempt, offering everyone on the team to transition over to continue working on the project ! Partially due to the complete lack of emotional attachment to the KSP franchise on the part of most engineers(they still had not played ksp1 at this point) and partially due to T2’s refusal to budge when senior engineers tried to get better deals and compensation, the poaching attempt mostly failed, with only 4 engineers initially making the transition to the new studio that would become Intercept Games(IG) ! A total of around 20 people ended up making the transition eventually, but most of these were either junior engineers, artists or production people, resulting in a small and inexperienced team once again Star Theory continued to survive for a few more months, but ultimately failed to pitch new projects ideas (supposedly due to Covid cancelling an expo they were planning to attend) to publishers, resulting in their closure not much after. Technical Director Paul Furio is brought aboard the newly created IG with the mission of rebuilding the development team and setting processes in place to allow KSP2 to succeed Bumpy Road To Early Access, 2020-2023 (Intercept Games) ! T2 gives IG the stipulation to keep the old, broken code from Star Theory and work with it instead of starting again from scratch Apparently this was done because T2 management felt uneasy about ‘Refactoring’ the code yet again, so the decision was made to keep the existing code There is some debate as to the ‘broken-ness’ of the Star Theory Code; A person working on the project under Intercept Games said “they had 0% chance of releasing anything with that" about Star Theory code. A person working on the project under Star Theory, on the other hand, said with a little more time it would have worked. This person does however agree that it would have been better for IG to start again from scratch, not because of code quality but because of fresh team and still no contact to KSP1 devs. In general, everyone SZ spoke to agrees that not starting from scratch was the wrong move Not starting from scratch also meant Multiplayer remained one the biggest challenges to making the game feature-complete In an interview with Nate Simpson, it appeared that KSP2 already had working multiplayer when he said “as we've been testing it internally, I have never heard people laugh so hard”. Apparently, this ‘testing’ was actually done using a multiplayer mod in KSP1. It is however worth pointing out that KSP2 did have some form of rudimentary multiplayer by this time, inherited from ST, but it was incredibly buggy, unstable and nowhere near shippable. ! At this point, multiplayer remained a secondary objective while the main focus was still very much on art and visuals. This lack of baking multiplayer into the design remained a problem throughout this stage of development. They did however make progress during this period; later builds allowed multiple players to inhabit the same world and launch rockets together A few months after the game released into early access, the entire multiplayer team was let go. The developers claimed they were still designing the game with the thought that multiplayer would one day be a big part of it in the back of their minds, but it essentially was put on the backburner entirely Despite the old code hindering development and Covid hitting the globe, progress was finally being made and experts like Dr. Michael Dodd, a physics engineer, and Chris Adderly (also known as Nertea), a prominent KSP1 modder were brought onboard the project. ! It would still be until mid 2021 before KSP1 developers could finally join the KSP2 team. The ban on contact remained in place until then. Upon joining the team, apparently their reaction was “you should have asked us a year ago!” (which the KSP2 devs wanted to, but still weren’t allowed to) This ban may be explained by Squad not wanting KSP1 developers to be distracted from the final KSP1 updates This does not however explain why ex-Squad employees who had left years prior, like KSP1’s original creator Felipe Falange (known as HarvesteR), were never contacted ! Problems continue to become apparent as development goes on. Some of these are exacerbated or even caused by producers changing priorities for developers, often forcing them to switch between very different features This was later addressed withing IG when the ‘feature team structure’ (detailed here) was introduced. This structure was something Paul Furio has tried to establish before Early Access, but it was only established after his departure Take Two forces a release deadline of February 2023 by this time, the project is already over its allocated budget It immediately becomes apparent that all key features would not be ready in time for this deadline. It is believed there was a chance Colonies could have made it, but this was foregone a few months later In September 2022 the decision is made to go to Early Access with a stripped down sandbox version of the game ! This causes a massive upheaval of development, as the project was never intended to be released in parts. Product managers started pulling developers from their tasks and assigning them new ones, causing even more problems An example of this is an engineer who was weeks away from finishing a colony builder tool being pulled from the task and assigned to another item that had to be ticked off a project list, as colonies were shelved ! Yet another problem presents itself; software engineers, in high demand at the time, could make $200 to $250K a year at large companies like Microsoft or Amazon, but at IG their maximum yearly pay was kept at $150K due to budgetary constraints. Not only does this result in difficulties with recruiting, it also drives several people, such as Dr. Micheal Dodd, to leave the project The biggest blow comes from the departure of Eric De Feliz, a Graphics Specialist working on shaders. Nobody was present to pick up where he left off, resulting in the game being shipped with seriously unoptimized shaders GPU engineers especially were in high demand around this time, resulting in even worse optimization ! Despite being requisitioned multiple times, the IT team is not able to provide the necessary tools to test performance in time, further contributing to poor optimization and a late release of minimum and recommended specifications to the public Early Access, 2023-2024 (Intercept Games) Take Two and Private Division put their marketing into full gear, encouraging the ‘hype train’ even more An event is held in the Netherlands where content creators get their first chance to play the game. The first problems start to become apparent to the public as the creators give mixed reviews. Meanwhile, tensions are high at IG and PD. Some people are not happy with some of the decisions made, and they are aware the game is not at the level they wanted to deliver. Anxiety about community reception is large. In spite of this, steam sale numbers are put on a big screen in the conference room as they hope to breach 100K sales on day one. KSP2 Officially releases into Early Access. The game receives mixed to negative reviews, and it becomes clear the secrecy pushed by T2 has hurt the relation between developer and community A person working on the project later admits not getting community feedback was one of the biggest mistakes. They go on record to say “We wound up shipping the wrong product and not focusing on the right features” T2’s marketing campaign backfires as people start to realize the flaws of the game they bought for (nearly) full price ($50) and negative reviews start pouring in from angry and disappointed customers Sale numbers fall short of the numbers hoped for, only reaching 80K. This number does not account for the many refunds that happened ! A few weeks after the early access release, Studio Head Jeremy Ables and Technical Director Paul Furio were let go by higher-up management, which deemed them as the most expensive people in the studio. Furio left immediately while Ables stayed on a few more weeks. Michael Cook, previously Brand Manager at PD, took over the job of Studio Manager. It is also around this time the multiplayer developers were let go. Multiplayer was still janky and buggy at this point, but it was functional in some capacity. Despite this, there was a silent understanding that the layoff of the multiplayer team might have meant the feature was now shelved indefinitely. Focus shifts to bug fixing and working towards the first milestone update, later dubbed ‘For Science!’ (FS!) FS! came out in December 2023 to generally positive reviews, 10 months after the game entered early access. This was a significant delay from the internal estimate of 3 months, brought on by the shift in focus after community backlash about the state of the game. It is during this period that Furio’s cross functional feature team structure is finally implemented Studio Closure, 2024 (Intercept Games) In late April 2024, a WARN notice appeared indicating T2’s Seattle office, where Intercept Games is located, is being closed with 70 people (about the size of KSP2’s full dev team) being laid off starting June 28th. The studio went into near-complete radio silence, with the only statement made on @KerbalSpaceP’s X account “We’re still hard at work on KSP2. We’ll talk more when we can.”. This is a developing situation, and the impact of this on the future of the game is still unknown at this time. Conclusion (ShadowZone’s Opinions) KSP2 development has been plagued by a multitude of issues from the very beginning, ranging from diverging vision to corporate takeovers to mundane issues like tools not being ready in time The project was based on the wrong parameters from the start Technical decisions were made by people that had no business making them The developers were not paid accordingly There were a lot of assumptions about gameplay and mechanics that the community might have wanted that were not verified until it was basically too late The lack of open communication and extreme secrecy did severely harm to the trust of the already existing fanbase, especially after the game went into early access Speculative: the total cost of the project so far is assumed to be around 40 to 60 million dollars so far, compared to an estimated revenue from Steam of Only 30 to 40 million Notes (from ShadowZone, LinuxGuruGamer, Matt Lowne and Scott Manley) Nate Simpson should not take the blame; this was a passion project from him, and he genuinely appeared to want to deliver a great fun game for the existing KSP community, but he might have bit off more then he could chew, and made mistakes such as wobble. A big part of why he might not always have been able to deliver what he promised (despite wanting to do so) are technical and business constraints (example: modding API) Opinion from LinuxGuruGamer, Matt Lowne and Scott Manley: KSP2 can not reach completion under Take Two. The best way forward might be to focus on the modding API in the remaining time, but; mods have their limitations and they will not suffice to ‘save the game’ **PDF VERSION** KSP2 Development Timeline.pdf

Well, there is a playstyle called 'Caveman' where you can only play with the parts you can get with No facilities upgraded, no use of Mechjeb, Cheats and other Tools/Mods. So, any Craft is limited to 18 tons, 20 meters in height and 30 Parts. As there is the normal Caveman Challenge (getting all Science unlocked on different hardness levels) I, for myself, took this to another level in trying to Land on Celestial Bodies around the System where its not so easy to get to with this limitations. Landing on Mun ? No issue, landing on Minmus, either. Landing on Duna ? Thats a Task. I did that once and i may have regretted my last words, saying, i was currently building a Caveman Mission to land on Tylo and safely return. Do something, maybe noone has ever done before. Luckily, there is the Clamp-o-Tron Junior Docking Port. As other already Exercised, with this device you can Assemble Big Ships in Space (and even on Ground, you will need it!) to Get to destinations where others haven't gone before while being restricted to the limits of the Available parts, size, weight and number of Parts. As the Words, once they leave the Mouth, couldnt put back there again, i uttered it, so i had to Build it. I had to Fly it. And i did it. The Setup: I will not get into Details, but it can run 4-digit number of parts Craft. At least you need a Rig that can run a 500 Part Craft. The Software: KSP 12.5, both DLC installed, Plain install, no Mods. I have a Savegame here with all Craft Files linked and a ready-to-depart-Vessel, so you can REPLAY the Mission if you want.... Here is The Save File with all Crafts I had to Plan in advance a Long Time, had to design the Crafts, had to take into account to not exceed the Software and Hardware Limits, and had to create this Mission in a way that it stays into the boundaries where tha Risk of getting Krakened is marginal. I had to redesign the Ship several Times because i ran into the 'need too much FLT-400 Tanks' at all etc. So i ended up to get the overall Number of needed FLT-400 tanks down to 100 for the main Mission (really, 100 tanks docked to the Craft, Guess how much Time i wasted on that, Launching and Docking all that stuff ? I didnt took this as a Fulltime-Job but at least, with some creativity breaks where i had to think over the Concept, it took more than a Year. In total, somewhat between 200 and 300 Rocket launches where needed to Assemble everything together, with several complete restarts of the main Project. So in Total i may have had 1000+ Rocket Launches until i Found a suitable way for This Mission. All those failed iterations, we wont Talk About here, but the one Mission that Succeeded--- As there may be others that want to Torture themself, there is also a Savegame here added, so you can Replay the Mission without going thru the slog of Assembling the Craft in Space. The Craft has 500 Parts and is currently in Orbit, ready to Fly to Tylo. Dont forget to decouple the rescue ship after getting to a Higher Orbit for the endless Jool Burn. - i had to retry the Jool Burn 1 Time, the First Transfer was not useful due to Shifted Planes. so i had to wait for a Transfer window where Start and Arrival are on the same axis. But as the difficulty is normal, revert/retry is allowed. - i had to retry the Kerbin Burn 3 Times, the Tools Online for Eyeballing the Transfer from Jool to Kerbin does not take into account that Jool has a Tilted Plane and excentic orbit. - docking ports seem to fail using as decoupler somehow, anyhow. This led to some trouble with the Lander but i evaded it, by manually decoupling it. this led to a very hard ascent on Tylo, i barely made it back to 25km orbit with nearly zero fuel left. I will, nah, maybe may Try to Comment every Picture, that needs a comment, this will take Time... But at least, everything stands on its own. Now here is the Line of 342 Screenshots. Here we start with all the Scienca gathering because the Nodes needed to be unlocked. didnt wasted too much screenshots on them. The first part of the Tylo lander In Orbit Some FLT-400 Launches The Landing Part of The Lander. Too big to Start Alone On Ground Assembling needed Ready for Start Docking to the Main Lander Docking the Fuel tanks for Tylo Descent to the Lander Now the main Structure of the Spaceship to Tylo need to get into Orbit. I created another 2-Stage Rocket that can be docked to existing Rockets on Ground.... The Main Spaceship Structure. Rolling the External Rockets to Dock. second Rocket Docking I try to start the Main Ship with 2 Rockets. Hmm. Better, i misconstructed the External Rockets so i failed to dock them all 4. I Tried... Barely made it to Orbit... Reworking that Set would have taken a few days First, Docking some additional Fuel to the end and trashing the external engines. Adding the Lander to the Top, Facing Backwards Now the adding of the remaining 48 Fuel tanks started for the Main Ship. Asparus Staging, i knew the docking Port issue now, so the decoupling is done by the small decoupler This were 2 additional missions because i need 2 3-Star Pilots. Now the assembling continues Main Ship Ready with 8 sets of 3 FLT-400 in asparagus staging. For the Starting Burn to Jool, i had to add another 2 Stages of 24 FLT-400 each. Now we have 100 FLT-400 Docked Now the Rescue Ship needs to be constructed. It has 2 Purposes: - help to push the Main Ship to Higher Orbit and then stay at kerbal Orbit in case, its needed in Jool SOI for a Rescue I notices i had the 2nd Solar Module docked to the wrong end, so i have to swap it out to the other side. Ship Is completed. Main Ship has 100 Tanks, Secondary Ship (rescue ship for first Push) has 24 tanks. 500 Parts, 293 Tons Caveman Vessel I First lifted the Vessel up to 300Km Orbit Now the Push for a High AP starts. Goal is 5M Succeeded. remaining Weight of Ship is 205 Tons, all 100 Tanks still fully Loaded Starting the Transfer Burn to Jool 36 Tanks Left, Burn Complete That was the Perfect Burn But i had to waste a Bit Fuel because i came in directly hitting Jool. i had to Burn outwards to get 67M PE Planes need to be matched Getting near to Tylo to get a Catch Argl, again a direkt hit I had to get 27KM PE Slowly burning Down to 25 KM Orbit around Tylo Success. Orbit Around Tylo reached. Jeb has to Go. This Lander is Built to work from 25KM around Tylo. Yes, i simulated this. Prior coming all the way along, but This Burn was Real and it Worked. Erm. no small Step. Even some Fuel left, but i can not reuse it for the ascent due to the un-docking issues witch the docking ports. After Ascent you see, due to the issue of having to ditch the 4 Outer tanks on Ground, there is barely fuel left for docking. So i have to come around with the main vessel to pick the lander up. That was really sharp Coming in for Docking. I have to delete alot debris.... Docking to main Vessel Transfering Jeb and Ditching the Lander Now we have to leave Tylo SOI Unfortunately i had Chosen a very High Orbit around JOOL for the transfer. It Took Eons to find a suitable Window This'll Do Many Course corrections needed. Planes and retrograde Burn wasted much Fuel. But i had sme saved from the first Transfer that went Great A Hit. Having To Burn until i have an orbit. No way of trying to Aerobrake this and not Burn off. Now i can Aerobrake a good 1000KM of in several rotations. barely... but it worked around 60KM PE Until i got the PA small enough to stop aerobreaking and getting a stable orbit with the remaining Fuel. Rescue ship is coming for help. Some Tanks for the rescue ship needed. changing planes to match both ships Docking, Transfering all Crew Aand Deorbit Burn Only 2 Meters to Got :-)- Where is the watered screenshot ? Ermon had Orbit Around Tylo. He was the Guy in the Main Ship Jeb has the Landing on Tylo. So he is the One that Went to Tylo, landed and Returned on caveman Level. Hurray Pilots Summary. Facility Summary Science summary. I didnt bothered to take any science from Tylo. Its caveman. what for i need additional science ?

Hello guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! The purpose of this thread is to act as a place where we can brainstorm ideas for how we would want to see an eventual sequel to KSP be developed so that it can avoid the pitfalls the current KSP 2 fell into. That is to say, I want to try identifying what went wrong with KSP 2 development, and much more importantly, figure out a plan of attack for how a hypothetical future attempt to develop a KSP sequel could work. After all, there is an argument to be made that a lot of the issues that occurred with the KSP 2 development were from the people in charge not understanding the community and what it actually wanted, so by getting together as a community and brainstorming all of this now, if someone does try making a KSP sequel in the future they’ll already have this as a good jumping-off point for what they should do to make us happy. So, without further ado, to start us off with here are my thoughts: Based on the recent digging by ShadowZone along with trawling acorss the various threads on these fourms, I think it’s fair to say that KSP 2 failed for the following primary reasons, in rough decreasing order of importance; 1 - Company upper leadership not understanding how game design works, leading to such problems as a refusal to commit to changing engines or refactoring code despite the scope of the project requiring it 2 - An overcomittance to secrecy causing years of work being wasted on reverse-engineering KSP 1 code rather than just asking the KSP 1 devs, among other associated problems 3 - Improper management resulting in massive efficacy losses (e.g. developers being moved around constantly and not being given time to settle) 4 - An unwillingness to pay developers respectable amounts 5 - A lack of interest in community input resulting in prioritization of the wrong things When designing a KSP sequel, there are basically two options. The first is to use the unity engine, reuse much of the KSP 1 code, and essentially aim to run a short, cheap project that delivers a highly polished version of KSP 1 with a bunch of the best mods being incorporated into the stock game. This is, to put it mildly, a bad idea, given that the KSP 1 engine and code is almost completely incapable of properly handling that, as anyone who has played heavily modded KSP 1 will know. Implementing anything like interstellar, colonies, and especially multiplayer, would require so much work to update the existing code and systems, and work around the limitations of unity, that it would be cheaper and faster to go with option 2. Speaking of which, the second option is to start from scratch in a new engine, and develop a game that is a true successor to KSP 1 rather than a polished version. I think this is the objectively correct course of action to take, however it seems the upper leadership for KSP 2 disagreed. The original plan as I understand it was to do option 1, delivering a better version of KSP one with some mods made stock, using the same engine and code. However, scope creep then very rapidly increased the goals to include interstellar, colonies, and probably the thing that killed it; multiplayer. This would require a new engine and refactored code to work, but the upper leadership was made up of business executives that had never coded a game in their life and who decided to explicitly make that not an option. Thus, the KSP 2 team was forced to develop a game of impossible scale using old, outdated code, and a bad engine, and to make it worse, while they were handed all of the KSP 1 code to work from, they were not allowed to talk to the original KSP 1 devs. That decision alone probably cost them a year or more of development time. With all that out of the way, if a development project for KSP 3 was announced tomorrow (or if KSP 2 was restarted from scratch), and I was somehow placed in charge of setting the development goals and pacing, here’s what I’d do. Firstly, start from scratch in a new engine, probably Unreal. As far as I’m aware the only good alternative to this would be building a custom engine, but from how I understand it the development costs and amount of time required would be incredibly prohibitive, so Unreal it is. Secondly, don’t have any secrecy. Have all of the developers talking with the public, be very transparent about what people are working on, and what the roadmap is, and be prepared to listen to community feedback and change accordingly. Release to EA as early as physically possible, and while we would probably have to charge full price for it, make it exceedingly clear (and in legal writing) that if we don’t fulfill our roadmap goals within a certain amount of time we’ll refund all the copies sold regardless of playtime. Also set realistic goals, and prioritize getting code and core system mechanics working first, then optimisation, and only then user experience and graphics. Of course in reality all of these would have to be developed in parallel, but I would want there to be a heavy emphasis on leaving anything that's purely visual/graphical for as late as possible (though obviously you still have to develop your systems so the visual stuff is fully integrated when the time comes and isn’t just duct-taped on top like most KSP 1 graphics mods are). Design the game's code and systems from the start for modability. I’m not sure if we could do something quite as far as what, say, Hades and Hades 2 do, where literally all of the game's code is unencrypted and open for anyone to see and edit, but if that’s possible it would be great (I’m not aware of actual downsides to doing this, it’s just that there’s so much cultural momentum in the industry against it that it would be hard to the leadership to allow it even if it would make the game way better for no extra cost). Pay the developers properly, and don’t put people in management positions who don’t have the experience required to fulfill that role properly. In fact, if possible a worker-led development program, such as one done in a cooperative or other worker-led company, would be ideal. All empirical data collected to date indicates that worker-led companies are multiple times less likely to fail, are more stable, produce higher-quality products, have way better working conditions, and the workers enjoy their jobs orders of magnitudes more. Interestingly, the people in worker-led companies usually vote to reduce wages rather than lay people off in times of hardship, which is usually the right move because losing talent is really bad. The only downside is that the per-unit cost of their products is usually higher because they pay their workers more, so even if they never go out of business, they have trouble climbing up the ranks in the market as it were. Still, for developing a game like this a high amount of workplace democracy would seem to be key. Oh, and don’t implement multiplayer. From what I’ve seen, everyone on here who’s familiar with game design seems to agree that it’s a massive undertaking that would take an insane amount of effort to pull off even when starting from scratch, and it’s not super clear to me if the demand is even remotely high enough to justify that. I would love to hear all of your thoughts on that though. So, with all that being said, here’s a rough roadmap of what I would expect from release onwards. Of course, I’m not a software engineer, so I may be overly optimistic or pessimistic here. Also, keep in mind that while I lay it out in just a couple of major updates, I think in reality it would be better to do this with a much larger number of individually smaller updates, but I don't have the patience to write all of that out, sorry about that. Oh, and I would love to hear all your thoughts on the order I've put all of this in, especially the career mode release, since I'm not certian myself if it's the best. Initial full release (1.0) - Recoded from scratch in Unreal engine, utilizing 100% new code, and heavily optimized. - Graphics on par with KSP1, but using all-new systems and with allowances in place for them to be properly improved in the future without it just being a series of patchworks and band-aid fixes like it is in KSP1. - All new parts, most redesigned from the ground up to be more internally consistent and fill gaps, and with most stock KSP1 parts represented out of the box. - Complete UI revamp across the entire game to improve user experience as much as possible, including a redesigned parts window and filters in the VAB so that when thousands of parts are added in the future finding and sorting them doesn't become a pain. - New resources and resource systems, including new ISRU systems, for a more detailed and realistic experience while still being streamlined and easy to understand. - Systems in place to allow for easy integration of robotics parts and kerbal-deployable parts in the future, maybe with some limited number of them already implemented. - Very basic science mode implemented, but no career mode yet. First major update (1.1) - Graphics improvements. - More parts, think stuff from stockalike station expansion, planetside, the near future mods, etc, along with all the KSP1 DLCs and some of the stuff they planned for KSP2 (Orion etc). - Basic life support system, with 5-6 new resources, as well as simple crew habitable volume requirements, all togglable in options. - Interiors properly modeled and visible through windows, and going on EVA fully animated with the hatch opening and everything. - Kerbals now only carry small SAFER-style jetpacks in their inventory, and go on EVA by default using by fully modeled tethers and climb along the outside of vessels using a completely new set of climbing mechanics. MMUs are separate parts like command chairs that they can get in to fly around properly. Second major update (1.2) - More graphics improvements (now up to the standard of heavily modded KSP1). - More parts, mainly focusing on high-tech stuff. - Other star systems and interstellar gameplay mechanics. - More structures on Kerbin, including entire cities, along with new launch sites. Third major update (1.3) - More graphics improvements. - More parts. - Career mode, completely overhauled to use a better progression system that feels more like an actual space agency, with programs instead of contracts, and part unlocking based both on science collection and the programs you’re running. - Colony system similar to what was planned for KSP2. - FreeIVA polished and implemented into stock, maybe with VR support. Real History DLC - Basically Bluedog Design Bureau, Tantares, SOCK, KNES, and every other stockalike historical parts mod you can think of, but all put on several metric tonnes of steroids. - Virtually every spacecraft ever conceptualized or designed, let alone actually flown, in the history of the human race, all meticulously modeled to 99% accuracy (more accurate than BDB for example), while maintaining a stockalike style (though they would all be fully in scale to each other, not shifted to conform with KSP's 2.5m, 3.75m, etc diameters). - Plus all the launch stands and pads to go along with them. - And a revamped VAB parts list system to allow for you to actually navigate all that. - Would probably require a significant team of 3d modelers working around the clock for years to complete, hence why it’s a paid DLC. - Full compatibility with the RO DLC mentioned next if you have it installed. Realism Overhaul DLC - Pretty much RSS/RO, but with the polish one would expect if it was properly integrated into the game itself, and even more attention to detail and features, for example: - Procedural crewed pods and modules, with editable interior layouts and systems. - Procedural engines on top of a selection of most real ones. - Procedural tanks, with the internal bulkhead arrangements and all that being customizable. - Human rather than kerbal astronaut models (togglable if you don’t want that). - Improved structural simulation system, with internal part stresses properly modeled, so the weight of your tankage and structure now actually depends on what it’s supporting and how many gees it’s expected to endure, etc. - An aerodynamic simulation system that could make FAR blush, plus a thermodynamic simulation system to match (togglable). - Principia-level n-body physics (togglable). - The option to play in either RSS (plus real nearby star systems) or 10x stock. From what I can tell KSP 1 got developed to 1.0 in around 4 years, by about 12 people, and KSP 2 went from having all work on it restart to 0.2 in a little over 3 years with a team of 70 people, while also dealing with massive management inefficiencies and trying to work systems into the KSP engine and code that would be faster to just do from scratch. Therefore, I would optimistically estimate that we could probably get from development go-ahead to 1.0 on my roadmap here in about 3 years, assuming a development team of 70 people like KSP 2 and it’s properly managed and well-funded. From how I understand it the fully burdened cost (e.g. the entire cost the company pays, not just their salary alone) of a software development employee for this sort of role is typically about 200k per year, and the KSP 2 team had it capped at 150k by upper leadership that led to severe issues. For some margin of error, let’s say 250k then. That means, for 70 people for 3 years, the total dev cost to 1.0 will be about 52.5 million dollars. To get to 1.3 and then the DLCs is harder to estimate for me, but let’s assume 5 years, so 8 years total. That means the total dev cost from development go-ahead to DLC#2 will be 140 million dollars. KSP 1 has around 100,000 reviews on Steam. On average, games on Steam have 63 sales per review, and though this can be lower, it increases the older a game is so it’s probably actually higher. In any case, going by those figures that means KSP 1 sold 6.3 million copies. The price of it changed a bit over time, but was usually around 40-50 dollars. That means we have an existing playerbase of 6.3 million players to attract, not counting new players. If we price KSP 2 at 50 dollars, and only half of them transition over to KSP 2, that’s 157.5 million dollars. If the two DLCs each sell for 10 dollars and attract a total of 0.5 million players, that’s another 5 million dollars for a total of 162.5 million. That gives us a total profit margin of 22.5 million dollars, which is very tight, but might be just about doable. Keep in mind, that was assuming 70 people and a total dev time of 8 years. Given the DLCs are unlikely to be very profitable relative to the cost of making them, if we delete those and scale down to, say, 3 years to 1.0 and 2 years to 1.3, so 5 in total, and redo all the math, accounting for no sales from the DLCs, we get a total dev cost of 87. 5 million and a profit of 70 million dollars, which is much more workable. So, does anyone have any thoughts on these ideas? Am I being completely nonsensical and not understanding how game design works? I would love to hear some input on all that, and also if you have completely different ideas on how to go about redeveloping KSP 2 I would love to hear them as well! There was after all also that recent tweet after all from Jundroo, the Juno New Origins devs, about potentially getting some of the KSP devs onboard and reworking Juno into essentially a KSP sequel, I would love to talk about that but unfortunately I just don’t have the knowledge about Juno to be able to comment, especially given I’ve never played it or followed it’s development, but I'd be happy to hear others discuss it. EDIT: Okay, so, I wrote that post pretty late last night, and I’ve now had the chance to think about some stuff, and I want to expand a bit on my thoughts. Firstly, timescales. I’ve gone crawling across the forums once again for some more information, and I realized I misremembered some of the stuff relating to KSP 2’s development, specifically they didn’t restart development in 2020 but kept on using the old work they had, but started refactoring it. However, given the way people talk about how this decision cost them time, I think it’s fair to assume they could have restarted from scratch code-wise and still gotten to the point they did, or even further perhaps, in 3 years with their team of 70 people, so my estimates still seem reasonable. Also, apparently the KSP 2 devs were really close to having colonies and interstellar in the game for the initial EA release, and the fact they’re still not out even now was mostly due to them getting tied down fixing things and optimizing and whatnot, along with a lot of mismanagement. So it’s possible we could aim to have those in the base game for the initial release of this hypothetical reboot, though I still think it would be a better idea to build the game’s code ready to accept that, but not actually include it until a future update. Also, I must have been really tired yesterday because it seems I missed this, but there are actually already a couple of threads on here talking about pretty much exactly this. Sorry about that, if the mods deem that this one is redundant and close it I fully understand. Now, the key question. What do people actually want from a KSP game? There’s been some talk of a colony-designer game where you start out with something akin to cities skylines or something like that, and then start launching rockets later. I don’t agree with this idea personally, while I do like the idea of something city-builder style for the colonies I think that should be a late-game thing. However, one thing I am thinking about would be for the KSC upgrade system in career to be replaced with a city-builder style system where you get to actually build the KSC. So you start out with just, I don’t know, a small airfield and tiny pad for sounding rockets, and you get to, using a cities-skylines style system and interface perhaps, redesign and expand it over time until eventually you have an entire space center. Of course, unless you just want to be placing down upgraded versions of the same 8 buildings over and over, we would have to find new buildings to add and things for them to do. Maybe have it so that placing multiple launch pads could have an actual benefit, such as introducing a system like kerbal construction time where refurbishing pads take time? You could have that be togglable in settings as well - I know adding togglable stuff like that massively increases development costs but for stuff like construction time etc it doesn't seem like it would be a massive issue compared to some other ideas. And maybe we should make the players put a lot of thought into how they lay out their space center, with the way buildings are connected to each other and the distances involved all being important. For example, make your crawlerways too long, and it takes a while for the rockets to get to the pads. Make them too short, and if a rocket explodes not only does your pad get destroyed but your VAB might as well. While we’re talking about this, I may as well brainstorm other ideas for career mode as well. Instead of contracts, maybe we could have programs, which each contain several goals and milestones, and give you research benefits. And instead of like it is in KSP 1, we could lay the programs out on a tree. Selecting a program to do could give you research benefits to the parts that would be involved with it, like a lunar landing program reducing the unlock cost of the LM-style lander pod. And to stop the game from becoming linear, we could make it so that you can skip further down the tree and initiate a later program if you want to without doing the ones leading into it, but that would incur penalties like lower rewards or less research benefits. And we could make it so that if you landed on the moon without ever actually selecting the lunar landing program, it would autocomplete it but not give you any rewards for doing so. I think a good way of doing this would be for each program to have a set end goal, or maybe multiple, and also have several milestones along the way. For example, if you take the lunar landing program, it will give you individual missions for a crewed lunar flyby, orbital mission, and the landing, each with their own rewards and research benefits, on top of the rewards and benefits from the overall program, which could be set so that the more of the individual missions you complete in a program the higher the total bonus reward you get will be from the entire program itself when you complete it. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this though, given I’m pretty much just spitballing here. I’m also not sure if this would completely replace the contract system, or if we should still have some conventional one-off contracts as well to supplement it. In any case, to round all of this off, I think there should be three main difficulty settings for career mode. In easy mode, the city-builder elements of the KSC are disabled, and it just expands automatically over time or maybe it starts out really big. The core gameplay loop here would be similar to KSP 1. There would also be no life support, no commnet, and no construction time. On regular default difficulty, life support and commnet is enabled, as are the city-builder elements for the KSC, but construction time is still turned off. On hard difficulty, not only is construction time turned on, but life support now takes into account not just the resources you have, but also how much livable space there is, and also radiation becomes a factor. When starting a new game, after picking career mode large buttons would appear for these three difficulties, with description below them fully explaining all of this to avoid confusion, and of course there would still be the option to go into the advanced settings and mix and match all of this. Next, changes outside the space center part of the game. Going over to spacedock and looking at the most popular mods can give us an idea of what the community seems to want most, and so let’s go over that real quick. Firstly, visual improvements. Given we’re switching to a new engine and rewriting everything from scratch, building these into the base game to a level that even surpasses KSP 1 should be possible. I would prioritize getting the underlying systems needed for the visuals to work done first, and then actually adding all the visual stuff later though. Next, stockalike parts mods, especially the near future series along with some others. Adding a much larger selection of parts in a stockalike style should be possible, hell it’s probably one of the easiest parts of the entire development process, though if we’re redoing everything from scratch I think we should take the opportunity to completely redo the stock parts as well rather than just copy them. However, after doing some thinking I do believe the stock 1.25m, 2.5m, etc scales should stay, but with additions like 0.9375m, 1.5m, 2.1875m, 3.125m, 4.25m, and 6m, along with maybe even larger scales than that. We would need a new parts sorting system to deal with all that without it getting confusing, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near impossible to come up with one that would still be easy to use and beginner-friendly. I considered upscaling everything by 1.5 to 2 to be more or less actual scale (in terms of the spacecraft), but I think part of the kerbal charm as it were is that they’re slighter smaller than humans are. This decision may come back to bite us later with RO/RSS DLCs and mods though. Oh, and more spaceplane parts sizes would be nice, right now we just really have three. If we’re really clever with how we choose them and model the adapter pieces for them, we could even allow people to make unusually shaped vehicles like an X-33 by stacking various adapter pieces in front of each other. After that, we have interstellar extended, which again should be easy to implement compared to everything else. There are also a lot of quality-of-life things, better burn time and docking port alignment indicator for example, which again should be relatively easy. Kerbal attachment system, kerbal inventory system, and ground construction as well, we’re already close to that with the braking ground stuff anyway for the former and the latter would come with colonies. You have to keep going a while before finding any planet mods, even kerbalism seems to come before that, but nonetheless I think an overhaul and expansion to the stock kerbal system, along with more star systems for interstellar, would be nice. Actual asteroid belts, way more asteroids and comets, rings that have actual particles in them, all sound like amazing ideas if they could be properly implemented. Another gas giant as a Saturn analoge, and an ice giant or two, would also be really nice, and completely revamping all of their moons to be more realistic would be awesome. Jupiter has almost a hundred moons and thousands of smaller objects orbiting it, and Saturn has even more. Most of them would be very small, but even then, it would add a lot of interest to those systems I think, and I can’t imagine it would be hard to implement compared to all the other stuff we’re talking about. It would also be nice to see some more interesting features on the planetary bodies themselves, especially ones that require specially designed equipment, and effort and skill, to get to, like deep ravines that require kerbals to bring climbing equipment or winches to get to the bottom of. Also, stuff like FreeIVA and through the eyes of a kerbal are really cool, and it would be neat if we could get those fully implemented at some point, maybe even with VR support, though for all I know that might be as difficult as multiplayer would be. But in any case, fully modeling the interiors of spacecraft and having them be visible through windows also seems like an awesome idea, and since KSP 2 did it it probably is possible, though we might want it to be togglable for low-end computers. Also, I really like the idea of having kerbals go on EVA properly, by getting in an airlock, depressurizing it, and opening the hatch to step outside, all fully animated. We could have it so that kerbals can’t just exit from any random hatch, thus making having actual airlocks important on larger ships. Some smaller pods, Apollo-style ones for example, obviously could just have the entire thing depressurize as they did IRL. And once on EVA, it would be cool if we could have fully modeled tethers, and redo the climbing system from scratch so the kerbals have to clamber across the sides of the spacecraft until you unlock EVA jetpacks. I’m not sure whether the EVA packs should be modeled like they are in stock, or if they should be large, clunky things that have to be stored externally and entered like an external command seat, like the real ones are, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that. Of course, we could still give the kerbals smaller and less powerful SAFER-like packs that they can carry on them. Alright, that’s about all I can think of for now. I’m sure I’ll come up with more ideas in the future, and I might keep on posting them, but for now I’d love to hear some feedback on all this. I’m trying to figure out what the community wants most from a KSP sequel, not just what I do personally, so it’s important I don’t just ramble on about my own thoughts unchecked.

Please do, bring us back to the days when we had feature updates and content releases to talk about

WOW.... Talk about a Game Changing experience with this Mod Installed!! Haven't seen anything but Kerbin so far... but I Love what you did... Even the Ocean seems to sprout vegetation!!! Great Work!

Well, with all the exposition and koffee talk dialogue it's actually been a while since I tried to fly anything legit. I guess I've still got it? Though I did lose the starboard small monopropellant tank [ETA: and the docking port] on the Gumdrop in the crash. Ah well. You know what they say in the Air Service. The crash itself was a lot of fun, since I had Infinite Fuel hack running (cheaty-cheat cheat!) and I forgot to turn off the Kerbulan fighter's engine before the ship broke apart. So the tail end splashed around for a really, really long time. I was a bit worried it would slam into Dilsby before he could get the Gumdrop out of physics range. Good times! And RE: that infinite fuel--yeah, the plan was always (like, 8+ years always) to drop Evil Jeb in the ocean somewhere and get Dilsby on an island as far away as possible. I'm pretty sure I could have done that legit, e.g. by dropping Jeb really high up, orbiting, and then making a precisely targeted re-entry so that Dilsby could make his crash landing before running out of gas. But seeing as I want to finish this book sometime soon and in the limited time I have to spend on it, I just flew Dilsby here after the drop-off.

Yeah, but YouTube is where a lot of people will be looking. That makes them prime targets for scammers. I'm gonna bet that the stream Gargamel watched included a lot of talk about cryptocurrency investment and not a whole lot about rockets.

Honestly, I can see this point of view making sense. Rewriting all of KSP from scratch in a new engine, and focusing on just getting the same core mechanics in place, and expanding it later. The problem, of course, is that an enourmous amount of the new content you're going to be adding after the inital release would be way quicker and cheeper to impliment if it was developed in parallel rather than haphazardly duct-taped on top after the fact. Sorry! I've editied it now, so that should be fixed. That's not possible though? You can't reuse Unity scrips and settings in Unreal. You can resuse 3d meshes and some animations, but those are often some of the easiest parts of a development project like this to make anyway from how I understand it. Anything else has to be recoded from scratch. Of course, that's not to say you can't look at KSP 1/2 code to get insperation and for use as a guidebook, especially if you're able to talk to the actual KSP 1/2 devs, but a lot of the systems KSP 1 and 2 used aren't optimal anyway and we'd want to rework them when starting fresh in any case. I mention all of the budget related stuff later. But yeah, I basically agree with this assessment. Reusing code is literally impossible (you could maybe put some of it though converters? But you'd still end up spending more time doing that and patching the result into a workable state than it would take to redo it from scratch). Yeah, I think releasing stuff in smaller batches would be a better idea. I mostly just didn't want to type out a couple dozen update lists to be honest. Again, I agree, a higher number of smaller updates is better. Life support, yeah, okay I can see the arguments against it. I guess the modding community would have that covered anyway. I'm glad you like the idea with the tethers though! Other launch sites would be included earlier, I was talking about cites and things. I'm not sure if the demand for that is high enough though - it probably isn't, on second thought. Interstellar is basically non-negotiable in some form or another though, given how popular it is even in the buggy state that KSP 1 mods have it in. Yeah, I thought I might have made a mistake with the placement of that. I guess putting career mode closer to or on the inital release might not be that hard upon second thought. I'm not talking about mods here, so I don't really understand what you're asking? The real-life stuff is part of a DLC because it's a too much content for mods to make, but too niche for it to be in the base game. It would completly overwhelm like 70-80% of players and make them stop playing. When I say every real spacecraft, either flown or even just designed, would be in it, I wasn't kidding. Even just the command pods section of the parts list would have well over a thousand parts in it. I'm also super skeptical if this would ever actually happen, I mostly just included it as a whish-list item. It would be a lot of effort to make a DLC that not many people would buy. What? The second DLC package I proposed was the one with RO in it, the first didn't. I think it would be pretty cool if we had not just RSS, but also real-scale kerbal systems and various other real and fictional star systems as well. And I didn't get rid of kerbals in favor of humans, I explicity said it was a toggleable option, probably one that would be off by default. Again though, this would be a lot of development work for a niche product, so it's mostly a wish-list item. I guess given the modding support here will be much better than in KSP 1, we could just rely on community mods to do all of this for us anyway. Yeah, okay, that might be optemistic. I figured that the 4 year figure for KSP 1 could be improved with a larger team size and a clearly defined roadmap to start off with, and the 3-4 year timeframe for KSP 2 was while dealing with massive problems and inefficencies that we wouldn't have. But, yeah, it is possible if things go suboptimally that we could be looking at 4 years to 1.0 rather than 3. Keep in mind though, you say we would have to redo all the code from scratch as if that would make it harder this time around... but the KSP 1 devs had to do that as well. Obviously. Because they were making the game for the first time. So we know coding KSP from scratch takes 3 years with a team of 12, and the features I'm talking about adding to it here aren't substantial enugh that it would massively increase that time, especially given we'd have a team of like 70 people. And doing it in Unreal shouldn't make it automatically take longer than Unity. So it should be fine, but hey, I don't have much actual software engineering experiance (or any really) so I'm probably wrong. All of this makes a lot of sense, and I more or less agree. The one thing I really disagree on is procedural tanks - I think there should be an enormous amounts of varients avalable on every part, but I don't like true procedural tanks in the stock game because when you have too much free choice, it ironically feels very limiting. If we limit it so you can chose between the standard stock dimaters and a couple dozen length varients, then maybe I guess I could get behind it, but in general, while I like procedural wings (or more accurately, I can tolorate them in stockalike games), and stuff like radiators would probably be fine, I think the tanks should still be lego-like. That's just my opinion though, if the community disagrees as a whole then obviously their thoughts are more important than mine. That's fair! But given that any future KSP sequel that doesn't go to EA is guaranteed to fail, I guess that means you're just going to have to wait a few years longer than some others before getting it. Which is fine, EA isn't for everyone by definiton, it's for a small number of people who can act as playtesters while the rest of us wait to find out if it's any good.

Welcome to Kerbalism Hundreds of Kerbals were killed in the making of this mod. Kerbalism is a mod for Kerbal Space Program that alters the game to add life support, radiation, failures and an entirely new way of doing science. Go beyond the routine of orbital mechanics and experience the full set of engineering challenges that space has to offer. All mechanics can be configured to some degree, or even disabled if you don't like some of them. A big part of the mod is fully data-driven, so that you can create your own customized game play with only a text editor and a minimal amount of espresso. Or simply use a set of rules shared by other users. Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ Current version: 3.11 What's new: New and Noteworthy Download: Github - SpaceDock - CKAN Docs & support: Github wiki - Discord - Github issues License: Unlicense (unless stated otherwise, parts might be licensed differently) KSP version: 1.5.x - 1.10.x Requires: Module Manager, CommunityResourcePack See also: Mod compatibility - Change Log - Dev Builds Download and installation Download on Github releases or use CKAN Two packages are available: Kerbalism is the core plugin, always required. KerbalismConfig is the default configuration pack. It can be be replaced by other packs distributed elsewhere. Requirements - Module Manager: must be installed in GameData - CommunityResourcePack: must be installed in GameData Third-party configuration packs Make sure to install exactly one configuration pack only. Don't combine packs unless there is explicit instructions to do so. - ROKerbalism for Realism Overhaul / RP-1 by standecco - SIMPLEX Living by theJesuit - KerbalismScienceOnly for Kerbalism with the science feature only Installation checklist for the "GameData" folder required content : - CommunityResourcePack (folder) - Kerbalism (folder) - KerbalismConfig (folder, can be replaced by a third-party config pack) - ModuleManager.X.X.X.dll (file) Mod compatibility and support Checking the mod compatibility page is mandatory before installing Kerbalism on a heavily modded game. Kerbalism does very custom stuff. This can break other mods. For a lot of mods that breaks or need balancing, we provide support code and configuration patches. However some mods are incompatible because there is too much feature overlap or support is too complex to implement. Documentation, help and bug-reporting - Tutorials and documentation are available at the Github wiki - Need help? Ask on Discord or in the KSP forums thread - You found a bug? - Maybe it's related to another mod ? Check the Mod Compatibility page. - Maybe it's a known issue ? Check the GitHub issues and ask on Discord. - You want to report a bug? - Reproduce it consistently, provide us with screenshots and the KSP.log, modulemanager.configcache and persistent.sfs files. - Report it on Github issues (preferred) or in the KSP forums thread. - You want to contribute or add support for your mod? - Check the technical guide on the wiki - Pull requests are welcome, especially for mod support configs. For code contributions, it is recommended to talk to us on Discord before engaging anything. - Read the contributing documentation - To build the plugin from the source code, read the BuildSystem documentation Disclaimer and license This mod is released under the Unlicense, which mean it's in the public domain. Some parts are released under a different license, please refer to their respective LICENSE files. It includes MiniAVC. If you opt-in, it will use the Internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the Internet and no personal information is sent. For more control, download the full KSP-AVC Plugin. What does it do? Kerbalism is a mod for Kerbal Space Program that alters the game to add life support, radiation, failures and an entirely new way of doing science. Go beyond the routine of orbital mechanics and experience the full set of engineering challenges that space has to offer. All mechanics can be configured to some degree, or even disabled if you don't like some of them. A big part of the mod is fully data-driven, so that you can create your own customized game play with only a text editor and a minimal amount of espresso. Or simply use a set of rules shared by other users. All vessels, all the time Contrary to popular belief, the observable universe is not a sphere of a 3km radius centered around the active vessel. All mechanics are simulated for loaded and unloaded vessels alike, without exception. Acceptable performance was obtained by a mix of smart approximations and common sense. The performance impact on the game is by and large independent from the number of vessels. Resources This isn't your classic post-facto resource simulation. Consumption and production work is coherent regardless of warp speed or storage capacity. Complex chains of transformations that you build for long-term life support or mining bases just work. Environment The environment of space is modeled in a simple yet effective way. Temperature is calculated using the direct solar flux, the indirect solar flux bouncing off from celestial bodies, and the radiative infrared cooling off their surfaces. The simulation of the latter is especially interesting and able to reproduce good results for worlds with and without atmosphere. Radiation is implemented using an overlapping hierarchy of 3D zones, modeled and rendered using signed distance fields. These are used to simulate inner and outer belts, magnetosphere and even the heliopause. Solar weather is represented by Coronal Mass Ejection events, that happen sporadically, increase radiation and cause communication blackouts. Habitats The habitats of vessels are modeled in terms of internal volume, external surface, and a set of dedicated pseudo resources. These elements are then used to calculate such things as: living space per-capita, the pressure, CO2 and humidity levels of the internal atmosphere, and radiation shielding. Individual habitats can be enabled or disabled, in the editor and in flight, to reconfigure the internal space and everything associated with it during the mission. Inflatable habitats are driven directly by the part pressure. Life support Your crew need a constant intake of Food, Water and Oxygen. Failure to provide for these needs will result in unceremonious death. Configurable supply containers are provided. Kerbals evolved in particular conditions of temperature, and at a very low level of radiation. You should reproduce these conditions wherever your crew go, no matter the external temperature or radiation at that point. Or else death ensues. The vessel habitat can be climatized at the expense of ElectricCharge. Environment radiation can be shielded by applying material layers to the hull, with obvious longevity vs mass trade off. Psychological needs The era of tin can interplanetary travel is over. Your crew need some living space, however minimal. Failure to provide enough living space will result in unforeseen events in the vessel, the kind that happen when operators lose concentration. While not fatal directly, they often lead to fatal consequences later on. Some basic comforts can be provided to delay the inevitable mental breakdown. Nothing fancy, just things like windows to look out, antennas to call back home, or gravity rings to generate artificial gravity. Finally, recent research points out that living in a pressurized environment is vastly superior to living in a suit. So bring some Nitrogen to compensate for leaks and keep the internal atmosphere at an acceptable pressure. ECLSS, ISRU A set of ECLSS components is available for installation in any pod. The scrubber for example, that must be used to keep the level of CO2 in the internal atmosphere below a threshold. Or the pressure control system, that can be used to maintain a comfortable atmospheric pressure inside the vessel. In general, if you ever heard of some kind of apparatus used by space agencies to keep the crew alive, you will find it in this mod. The stock ISRU converters can host a set of reality-inspired chemical processes. The emerging chains provide a flexible and at the same time challenging system to keep your crew alive. The stock ISRU harvesters functionality has been replaced with an equivalent one that is easier to plan against, as it is now vital for long-term manned missions. The means to harvest from atmospheres and oceans is also present, given the importance of atmospheric resources in this regard. No life-support like mod would be complete without a greenhouse of some kind. The one included in this mod has a relatively complete set of input resources and by-products, and some more unique characteristics like a lamp that adapts consumption to natural lighting, emergency harvesting, pressure requirements and radiation tolerance. A planetary resource distribution that mimics the real solar system completes the package. Reliability Components don't last forever in the real world. This is modeled by a simple system that can trigger failures on arbitrary modules. Manufacturing quality can be chosen in the editor, per-component, and improve the MTBF but also requires extra cost and mass. The crew can inspect and repair malfunctioned components. Redundancy now becomes a key aspect of the design phase. Engines have their own failure system: limited ignitions, limited burn duration, and an overall ignition failure probability will even make your 100th moon landing feel like an achievement! Science Experiments don't return their science output instantly, they require some time to run. Some complete in minutes, others will take months. Not to worry, experiments can run on vessels in the background, you don't have to keep that vessel loaded. There are two different kinds of experiments: sensor readings and samples. Sensor readings are just plain data that can be transferred between vessels without extra vehicular activities, they also can be transmitted back directly. Samples however require the delicate handling by kerbals, and cannot be transmitted but have to be recovered instead. They also can be analyzed in a lab, which converts it to data that can be transmitted. Analyzing takes a long time, happens transparently to loaded and unloaded vessels alike, and can't be cheated to create science out of thin air. An interesting method is used to bridge existing stock and third-party experiments to the new science system, that works for most experiments without requiring ad-hoc support. Transmission rates are realistic, and scale with distance to the point that it may take a long time to transmit data from the outer solar system. Data transmission happens transparently in loaded and unloaded vessels. The resulting communication system is simple, yet it also results in more realistic vessel and mission designs. Automation Components can be automated using a minimalist scripting system, with a graphical editor. Scripts are triggered manually or by environmental conditions. You can create a script to turn on all the lights as soon as the Sun is not visible anymore, or retract all solar panels as soon as you enter an atmosphere etc. User Interface Kerbalism has a nice user interface. A planner UI is available in the editor, to help the user design around all the new mechanics introduced. The planner analysis include resource estimates, habitat informations, redundancy analysis, connectivity simulation, multi-environment radiation details and more. To monitor the status of vessels, the monitor UI is also provided. This looks like a simple list of vessels at first, but just click on it to discover an ingenuous little organizer that allow to watch vessel telemetry, control components, create scripts, manage your science data including transmission and analysis, and configure the alerts per-vessel. Modules Emulation Most stock modules and some third-party ones are emulated for what concerns the mechanics introduced by the mod. The level of support depends on the specific module, and may include: simulation of resource consumption and production in unloaded vessels, fixing of timewarp issues in loaded vessels, the ability to disable the module after malfunctions, and also the means to start and stop the module in an automation script. For Modders Kerbalism has a lot of interfaces ready for other mods to use. If you are a mod developer and want Kerbalism to play nice with your mod, please see the wiki or contact us on discord. Legalese

The "uni-body" Shuttle Agena or Big Agena would have been 1.875m KSP scale... +/- Most of the drawings I have of it show it at 10ft. BUT most of the drawings of it are.... um light on the details. Most of the documents that lead to the SOT tanks for Agena as well as the rear deflection "skirt" are the ones with the Uni-body shuttle Agena. Agena 2000... it is debatable. Some people talk about it as a 0.9375m dia tank inside an extended fairing. However, I do agree with you Agena 2K would likely have been 1.875m and IMHO would have used Centaur GCU for simplicity. But then again we will never know. Honestly though, that is so far into the future... oh Snap. I just thought of this as I was typing. Lo-MSC may have proposed Agena C for it. Agena C, which never got more than 3 steps down the "can we do this" decision tree, was to be 1.875m ksp scale (10ft IRL) Powered by 2 engines...

This challenge was continued with permission from the previous thread manager @sdj64 LINK to the old Jool-5 thread There are over forty-five pages of entries and discussion, so look and see what made it and what didn't LINK to the older Jool-5 thread. There are hundreds of pages of entries and discussion, so look at it to see what worked and what didn't! CHALLENGE RULES Given the scale of this challenge, everyone who completes the mission successfully gets a spot in the hall of fame. 1. No cheating, including the stock debug menu cheats, HyperEdit, kraken drives, or file editing. HyperEdit is allowed for testing but get rid of that H when you fly the real mission! 2. No part-clipping of functional parts (fuel tanks, batteries, crew pods, engines, science parts, SAS) into each other. It is okay to clip structural and non-functional parts, wings, and heat shields. 3. Any number of launches are allowed to assemble the ship in low Kerbin orbit (preferably below 100km, not a hard ceiling though, but do try to stay around or below 100km at most). All launches must be flown! 4. There's funding for one main ship only so all the crew, lander(s) and other stuff has to go to Jool as one big ship. Once the ship leaves LKO, it cannot obtain more parts or fuel unless it mines and refines the fuel itself. The ship can separate once in Jool's SOI. 5. Kerbals must be in a pod or cabin (no seats) for the interplanetary journey. Seats are okay for landing and flying within the Jool system. 6. One refueling mission is allowed in the Jool system if you run out of fuel, unless your ship uses ISRU. The refueling mission can only transfer resources, not parts, to your Jool 5 craft. This mission must actually be flown! 7. On all of the landings, the Kerbal must be able to get out and walk (or swim!) around on the surface. Make sure your ladders work! 8. Use Normal difficulty or harder, except, any ComNet settings are allowed including turning it off completely. 9. All the Kerbals have to arrive back to Kerbin surface at the end of the mission, happy and alive. You are allowed to optionally send up a craft to return them from LKO. 10. Mods / DLC: STOCK: only mods which do not add parts and do not change physics are allowed. This includes any informational, planning, visual, autopilot, or automatic functions. DLC: Any and all DLC made for Kerbal Space Program are allowed. MODDED: Use of most parts mods and certain game mechanics mods are allowed. You NO LONGER HAVE TO ASK if your favorite part pack is allowed! Some parts mods are prohibited. Please see below. Specific Mods: ENTRY SUBMISSION RULES 11. Submit your challenge as an imgur album, with good captions and descriptions, as a video or series of videos, or as a thread in Mission Reports. 12. Pictures or it didn't happen! Please keep the resources tab open, as well as show the informative windows from Mechjeb or KER if you use them. Take a picture of every important moment, including transfers, dockings, landings, stagings, and refuelings. For Jeb's Level, also take pictures of the science screen when you recover your craft. Alternatively, video submissions are a great way to show everyone your mission as well. These will help future participants to see exactly how you accomplished each part! CHALLENGE LEVELS 1ST LEVEL: one Kerbonaut lands on all the moons and come back safely. Low mass and low cost and low parts sub-challenges: with stock parts and physics, how low can you go and still accomplish the mission? NOTE: Low cost submissions may not utilize ISRU, or a negative cost would be possible. (Thanks @jinnantonix!) 2ND LEVEL: two or more Kerbonauts land together on all the moons together and come back safely. 3RD LEVEL: There's not enough time left for training one crew member to be an expert on all of the moons, so five Kerbonauts must go to the mission, with at least one unique Kerbonaut landing on each moon. JEBEDIAH'S LEVEL: collect as much Science as possible! Your score is the number of science points from the Jool system only, returned to Kerbin (not transmitted). Only stock experiments count for this! To score, take pictures of the science screen(s) when you recover the data. Otherwise, the rules are the same as 3rd Level. GATECRASHER / HONORARY MENTIONS: Missions completed the mission in spirit but didn't meet every requirement. ISRU: Use of ISRU will get a note ISRU on the entry description in the hall of fame. This includes stock ore harvesting and converting as well as mods such as Kethane and Karbonite. ISRU is allowed for any level of completion. GRAND TOUR: Not officially part of the challenge, but landing on all planets and moons in the Kerbol system in one mission will earn a GRAND TOUR note and the everlasting praise of all of Kerbal kind. Rule 4 is waived, but any Kerbals on the mission cannot return to Kerbin in between any landings and you still must follow the other rules. Additional optional information to help others see how the mission was accomplished: - Which game versions did you use? - What mods did you use, if any? - How many Kerbals are on the mission? - How many launches were needed to start your mission from Kerbin? - How much did your mission cost? - Did you needed a refueling mission? - Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc? - Share the delta-V information too, if you tracked it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, now this big announcement is in the Kerbal News, all the public is excited about this mission and even the Government is watching! Now it's up to you, to the engineers and to the bravest and craziest Kerbonauts of all time! Completion Badge: Anyone who has finished the challenge can add this badge to their signature. The Low Mass Feather badge is available for entries in the low mass sub challenge. Hall of Fame 1st Level- - @Laie Video here. Used a smaller-than-you'd-expect rocket with a dedicated Tylo lander and a spaceplane shell that encloses the Vall-Bop-Pol lander to make the Laythe lander. A very well done mission with a great video. - @Stratzenblitz75 Video here. Used a completely reusable mission involving a tiny mothership which orbited Tylo and tiny landers that explored the system. I should also point out that no nuclear engines or ions were used in the mission. Truly impressive. - @Ultimate Steve Videos here and here. Used a single launch in career mode sending Val to many places in the system including Vall. Very impressive how quickly the mission was thrown together and carried out. - @IncongruousGoat Album here. A simple, single launch Jool 5 mission that only uses 42 parts! Very well optimized and well done. Good job! - @chargan ISRU Gif here. Used an ISRU shuttle and hopped from Kerbin, to the Mün, to the Joolian moons, to Duna, and finished it off with a glorious vertical landing at the KSC. Excellent job! - @GRS Album here. Used a massive, creatively named mothersheep that carried landers for Laythe and Tylo, landing on Vall and Bop (AND DRES!) by itself. As an added bonus, the lonely Dres was even visited, that doesn't happen very often. Amazing job! - @Challyss Album here. Used a brute force 5 meter launch booster with two 5 meter side boosters. Once in LKO used a vector-power stage to boost to an elliptical orbit, then used a rhino powered mothership to go to Jool, where it completed the mission. - @5thHorseman Videos here. Used a single launch to send three Kerbals to the Jool system, where the ship parked in an elliptical Tylo orbit. From there a tug took the landers to their respective moons where they *wait for it* landed. The ship then fired all three Kerbals home safely. An amazing mission and equally amazing videos. - @Xurkitree Grand Tour Thread here. A surprisingly small mission that not only landed on all the Jool moons, but also every other planet and moon in the system. The mission sent a craft out to Eeloo, which landed and returned to Jool before heading home. Once in orbit Derton was picked up by a recovery rocket and landed safely back on Kerbin. Outstanding. ISRU Video here. I don't even know where to start, Xurkitree didn't just do a Jool 5 in this mission, they did it twice. A large SSTO ISRU craft launched and refueled on Minmus before gravity assisting its way to Jool where it completed the landings and then returned to Kerbin, WHERE IT RELAUNCHED and then detached a small non-ISRU craft which carried out the landings again. A fun note was when the Laythe lander landed by computer control while the Kerbal parachuted down. Great job on your fourth Jool 5 submission! - @dvader Album here. A single launch using only chemical engines. Used several gravity assists to make the trip to Jool cheaper in terms of delta-v. Used a small but capable plane for Laythe, and a donut lander for the other moons (with extra fuel for Tylo and Vall.) Overall a very optimized mission, complete with a near KSC landing. - @fulgur Album here. A very small and well optimized mission with a smaller-than-you'd-expect mothership. Ions were used to scoot Jeb and Vall about the system to the various moons, and then left as the small mothership made its way home, getting into Kerbin orbit with only forty m/s of delta-v remaining. (Talk about close margins!) The crew were returned safely by an Aether SSTO. - @Pro100kerbonaut ISRU Mission report here. Used an SSTO spaceplane to go to Minmus to refuel, then flew off to Jool. This mission is the most impressive in how it handled the Tylo landing. Not only was the landing done using the SSTO, but it came directly from Vall without refueling at Bop or Pol. The landings were all completed flawlessly, but was destroyed in a crash landing back on Kerbin. The pilot survived though, and any landing you can walk away from... - @dnbattley Album here. A direct ascent mission to all five moons, starting with Pol and Bop, then Vall, Tylo, and finally Laythe. The tensions on this mission were very high, as Jeb began his Tylo descent on a NERVA powered craft with a TWR of .9, managing to get it above 1 just in time to pull off the landing. From there Jeb flew to Laythe where he somehow missed the ocean (this might be a KSP first) and used the craft's jets to push it into the water for an ocean launch. After struggling back into orbit, Jeb flew by Tylo back to Kerbin, using a Duna aerogravity assist to get the right trajectory (ARE YOU SERIOUS?) Upon returning to Kerbin he was able to sneak in a Minmus landing. This mission is without a doubt one of the more Kerbal ones submitted, complete with Jeb gliding the final stage down to Kerbin with his EVA chute. - @EveMaster Grand Tour, ISRU Thread here. Additional album here. EveMaster managed to complete the Jool 5 challenge with an ISRU craft, utilizing the power of two mammoth engines and a detachable spaceplane. Also went the extra few million miles and completed a grand tour! Both Bob and Jeb were on this mission, however Bill stayed behind on Eve, so only Jeb is being considered for this entry. Regardless, an excellently executed mission. - @ManEatingApe, @Jacke, @dvader, @Muetdhiver, @Rakaydos, and @Pds314 Mission thread here. What these users have completed is the first community Jool 5 mission for this specific thread, possibly the first ever. Furthermore, this mission was done in a 'caveman' style approach, meaning no maneuver nodes, tier one buildings, and launch mass restrictions. These restraints meant the main ship was built over multiple launches. The landings were carried out by a plane and three identical landers, which carried Jeb to, around, and back to Kerbin from the Jool system with excruciating precision. I highly suggest checking out this mission's thread, it's one of a kind! - @Space Nerd Album here. Using a long nuclear mothership, Jeb and Malvis conquered the Jool system in a surprisingly easy manner. An off-center Bop/Pol lander was docked onto the side of the mothership, leading to one of the more interesting mothership designs. Jeb took Laythe, Tylo, and Vall, and Malvis handled Bop and Pol. Once all the landings were done, they flew back to Kerbin and used a 10 meter heat shield to slow down and splashed into the ocean. - @ralanboyle Video here. Using a single brute force launch, a main station of sorts was put into Jool orbit,. From there a Laythe-plane was released, and upon returning from Laythe, a lander/fuel tank combo (and an extra part for Tylo) took on Tylo, then Vall, then Bop, then Pol. They forgot to put a flag on Pol, but who cares. Also, the lander was able to return to Kerbin all by itself. Quite the capable craft I'd say. The mission is edited into a very nice video, and I suggest giving it a watch if you've got the time. - @Carbonjvd Album here. Using the incredibly stylish IPV Excelsior spacecraft, Tridous Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, where she picked up two more crew members in Minmus orbit. From there they flew to Jool, where they refueled at Bop. After the tanks were full, they hopped to Pol, then Tylo, then Bop again, then Vall. From Vall the crew hopped back to Bop for more refueling, then flew to Laythe. After converting stored ore into liquid fuel, the crew touched down on an island, then (you guessed it) flew back to Bop! (for more fuel) From this final Bop landing, the Excelsior returned to Minmus where it all began, then safely touched down on Kerbin. A stylish landing for a stylish craft. - @camacju Grand Tour. Album here. This mission is impressive as it not only visited the five moons of Jool, but also every other landable surface in the Kerbol System. The Jool portion of this mission was completed after the mothership completed the Eve portion, then used gravity assists to get to Jool. A Tylo assist put the ship on course to aerobrake at Laythe, and after landing on Laythe the lander was then reused for Tylo. The other moons were completed using a smaller lander, and the brave Kerbonaut landed back at Kerbin after quite an exciting trip. Video here. A very well edited video of a Jool 5 mission which used only liquid fuel! Launching from the runway as a spaceplane, the craft flew up before staging its rapier engines and continuing to orbit on nerva-power. The Laythe landing was done using a smaller spaceplane, and the rest of the landings were done using a very impressive lander which used only 1 nerv engine to land on all the other moons, including Tylo! The lander also served as a trip home and as a heat shield so that the brave kerbonaut could parachute to safety. This mission is beautifully summed up in the video link, and I highly suggest checking it out. A truly unique mission! Video here. Another liquid fuel only mission! This one utilized multiple relaunches of the same spaceplane to put multiple fuel tankers in orbit. From there, the craft departed for Jool after some gravity assists and once again demonstrated the unusual, difficult, and impressive use of a nerv-powered Tylo lander. The video this mission was edited into is nice and tidy as well, and I suggest watching so you can see all the work that went into it. Video here. And yet another Jool 5 mission, but this time with only one engine! A cargo spaceplane with a single rapier made multiple launches to place several fuel tankers into orbit before flying a gravity-assist-utilizing course to Jool. Once in Jool space, the Laythe landing was conducted first, and then the plane ditched its outer shell so that just the rapier engine and a few fuel tanks remained. The craft then docked to a fuel module in orbit and flew to Vall, landed, then went to Tylo where a dedicated fuel drop-tank was used with what I'll dub "backflip staging". From there the Pol and Bop landings were done, with fuel to spare. After a fiery return to Kerbin, the brave Kerbonaut, Wildard, paraglided safely into the ocean. I recommend giving this video a watch, because it's short, to the point, and an amazing display of Kerbal engineering. Grand Tour. Video here. This mission is truly a record breaker, as not only was it a Jool 5, but it is the lowest mass Grand Tour without ISRU record holder, with a take off mass of 14.447 tons, less than a Mammoth engine! To focus on the Jool 5 portion of the mission, a spaceplane made a bouncy, thrash-flippy landing, then a tiny tiny lander was used to tackle Tylo. Pol and Bop were handled by a small ion lander, and Vall was handled by a lander so small it looks like a pancake. You should definitely give this mission's video a watch, as words cannot truly describe just how insanely optimized this mission was. - @Goufalite Video here. This mission began with the assembly of a main mothership in LKO. Once complete, the ship cruised to Jool where it used gravity assists to achieve orbit. From there, the spaceplane was deployed to Laythe, but missed its target island. Never fear! The spaceplane had such high performance it was able to fly to a nearby island. Once back with the mothership, the SSTO was drained and detatched, and a capsule on its nose was undocked and docked to the Tylo lander. The Tylo lander used 2 aerospike engines to blow its way to the surface, and the final stage of the lander redocked to the mothership to be reused as the lander for Vall, Bop, and Pol. After visiting Vall and Pol, the lander flew by itself (and out of connectivity range) to Bop, where it landed and returned to Pol all on its own (Goufalite found this method was more fuel efficient). After returning to the mothership at Pol, a Tylo gravity assist sent the crew home, and both safely landed only 50 kilometers from the KSC. This mission made me nostalgic for my first Jool 5 mission, which in turn makes this mission special to me. Nice job, @Goufalite. - @king of nowhere Grand Tour. Mission thread here. This mission was done using Kerbalism, and an absolute UNIT of a mothership. Appropriately named the DREAM BIG, this ship conducted the Jool 5 challenge with dozens of farms, radiation shields, and drop ships to keep itself self-sufficient. Fighting food limitations, mod issues, solar storms, insanity and radiation damage, the crew of DREAM BIG flew throughout the entire Kerbol system planting flags on every world. The mission thread is an entertaining read, and has a video tour of the DREAM BIG spacecraft, which I highly recommend you check it out. I congratulate @king of nowhere on completing the mission, and for not losing their sanity in the process! Mission thread here. This mission was done with tremendous build constraints, and done entirely in a no-contract career mode save. Each launch was limited to 20-25 tons, meaning it took dozens of flights to finish the main ship, the Marco Polonium. The ship used many cost and weigh saving methods, including using the Laythe lander as a stage on Tylo, and by using claws instead of docking ports in some cases. The mission also visited Duna, Ike, Eeloo, Dres, and Eve (orbit) as well. This mission is one of the most entertaining ones I've reviewed (along with one of the most optimized) and I highly recommend giving it a read. Mission thread here. This mission was much like @king of nowhere's previous two in the sense that it involved Kerbalism and self-imposed building constraints. The result was a Jool 5 mission designed and flown to be as realistic as possible, and done with a maximum LKO mass of 140 tons. Bill and Bob took the Economic Downturn and its support craft to Jool and visited Tylo first, using the Seated Man lander, then made way for Laythe to deploy the Sole spaceplane, each accompanied by the space tug Right Answer. Sole's upper stage was reused as a Vall lander, while Seated Man's upper stage was used to land on Bop and Pol. For the inner three moons, great care was taken to limit the radiation damage incurred on the crew, with Bill being irradiated all the way to 95% upon his return to Economic Downturn. The return trajectory had to be tweaked a few times to prevent the capsule overheating, but Bill and Bob ultimately prevailed, and returned to Kerbin with nearly 500kg of samples. This mission is one of the few anxiety inducing submissions due to the challenges imposed by Jool's radiation belt. If you are a fan of gripping mission threads, I suggest giving this one a read. - @Lt_Duckweed Video here. This Jool 5 mission is notable for three reasons. Firstly, it is fully recoverable. Secondly, it only uses two engines, being the nerva and rapier. And thirdly, it was edited into a masterpiece of a video. This mission began with a launch just west of the KSC, and made a direct transfer to Jool. Upon Jool arrival, the elegently designed craft deployed a nerva-propelled lander, which performed the Tylo landing. After refueling at the main ship, the lander then visited Vall, Bop, and Pol with refueling trips to the main ship in between. The lander then returned to the main craft, which transfered to Laythe, completing the final landing. The craft then returned to Kerbin and came to a stop on the KSC runway, returning with it every part it launched with. I must repeat the high quality video the mission is edited into, and strongly suggest giving it a watch. - @bwest31415 Album here. This mission began with the launch of a long thin rocket which was followed by a normal transfer to Jool. Upon arrival to Jool however, inflatable heat shields were used to induce a Joolian aerobrake, a maneuver I've scarcely seen used since the addition of reentry heating to the game. The first landing to be done was Laythe, and the final stage of the lander was used to land on Vall and Tylo. The lander then left the main ship behind and traveled to Pol, then Bop, then back to Kerbin all without refueling. Jeb landed safely back on Kerbin after a toasty aerocapture, and exited the pod to take in a nice mountain view. - @18Watt ISRU, Thread here. This mission was done as both a Jool 5 and a Kerpollo submission. The mission began with a brute force launch and direct transfer to Jool. The mothership used wolfhound engines, which was good for TWR but slow when the ship was fully fueled. The ship flew first to Tylo, and after landing, the Tylo ascent stage would be reused for later landings. Next, the ship went to Bop to refuel, then to Laythe, where a staged spaceplane returned the brave Kerbonaut to the mothership. Next Val went to Vall, then the ship went to Pol and landed, before returning the crew to Kebrin, who parachuted to the surface of one of Kerbin's icecaps. - @OJT ISRU, Thread here. This mission was fully reusable* (apart from deployed fairings but we couldn't decide if that counted or not) and landed every component of the main ship back on Kerbin upon finishing the Jool system's exploration. The mission began with three launches, one for the mothership, one for the lander, and one for the SSTO spaceplane. Due to unfortunate moon placements, no gravity-assisted captures were possible and a retroburn was conducted. From there, a surprise Laythe aerocapture was conducted, saving much needed fuel. After the Laythe landing, the main ship flew to Vall, left the plane in orbit, and then landed with the lander beneath it and refueled on the surface. Next up was a Tylo landing with razor thin fuel margins, followed by Pol and Bop. It is worth noting that this mission did not repeat OJT's previous Jool 5 mission's Pol refueling process, in which the lander did numerous trips to the surface to bring tiny bits of fuel up to the main ship. With the landings complete and plenty of fuel to spare, the ship flew back to Kerbin where it landed piece by piece, with the lander being launched an SSTO parachute module. An excellent mission, and no doubt a fine achievement. - @kspfreak Video here. This mission not only visited the moons of Jool, Bop's Kraken, and in a rather small vehicle, but also visited every other moon in the entire Kerbol System! This mission's video is a fun watch, and ends with a fun paraglide back to the KSC. A mini grand tour of sorts, and very well done. - @JeDoesStuff ISRU, Video here. An SSTO submission! Coming in with a mass at just under 30 tons, JeDoesStuff showed off an incredibly refined ISRU SSTO by flaunting it around the Jool System. Included on the spaceplane are subtle but clever features to aid in launching horizontally, such as Vernier thrusters on the nose to raise attitude during takeoff, as well as a large landing gear that is only deployed to angle the craft. I haven't seen the latter of those additions on an SSTO before, so I applaud the ingenuity! The video this submission is contained within is also very well edited, resulting in a brief, yet concise viewing experience. If you're looking for a fun video to watch, or to see a razor-thin-margin Tylo landing, then this submission is for you. Low Mass - @EvermoreAlpaca Video here. Mass of 6.2 tons. Spaceplane launch, gravity assists off Kerbin and Eve to reach Jool. Landed on Laythe with the same rapier used in the launch stage, returned to orbit with an incredible TWR, scooted over to Tylo where the most bare-bones Tylo lander I've ever seen was used to land on and take off from Tylo (saved fuel by having Bill push it to the top of the mountain), flew over to Vall where the landing was done using staged batteries and a single ion engine. The Vall lander (which was also part of the Laythe lander) completed the last two landings on Bop and Pol and returned to Kerbin using many more gravity assists before preforming an aerobraking, with Bill parachuting to the space center and landing atop the RnD. - @Alpaca Z Video here. Mass of 5.8 tons (Current Record!). Vertical launch using a whiplash ramjet engine, which was staged prior to orbital insertion. Resonant orbits with Kerbin and Mun assists were used to set up a KEKKJ gravity assiste route to save fuel. Spider engines were used in a two-stage Laythe lander design to save weight, and EVA construction was used to rebuild craft to negate the need for decouplers or rebuild the craft (or get away with only bringing one chair). Landings were otherwise routine apart from an incident on Tylo where the lander fell on its side, requiring an intuitive solution to rebuild the craft in such a way it could use redundant engines as support pillars. The video is very well narrated and goes into much more detail regarding the craft's design and flight plan, I highly recommend watching it to get the full picture of this mission. - @camacju Video here. Mass of 5.2 tons (Current Record!). This mission not only shatters the previous record, but does so with an impeccably made video. Launch mass was saved in numerous ways, one of which involved using tiny flags in place of landing gear for the horizontal KSC Runway takeoff. EVA construction was used to reassemble the craft(s) into what was needed at any given point during the mission. The vessels flown and techniques used are difficult to describe, so I highly encourage a watch of this mission to see some of the best of Kerbal engineering. - @camacju and @Ultimate Steve Grand Tour, Video here. Mass of 7.6 tons. This is a meticulously crafted and borderline perfectly executed low mass mission. This was not only a Jool 5, but also an entire grand tour weighing not even 8 tons! The video's excellent editing allows it to speak for itself, and I highly recommend you watch this mission to see perhaps the greatest low mass mission in the history of KSP. Low Cost - @jinnantonix Video here. 34,663 funds. The thread's first low cost submission! Using a low cost launch vehicle and a K-E-K-K-J flyby route, the mission put Val and a fuel-tanker station in elliptical Laythe orbit. From there one lander tackled Laythe, and another tackled the other four moons, with an extra few stages for Tylo. It is worth mentioning that this mission used no electrical charge and relied entirely on engine gimbal and some RCS to steer. On the way back, a double Eve flyby helped slow down, so an aerocapture could be done at Kerbin, where Vall proceeded to parachute onto the VAB. - @camacju Mission here. 24,070 funds. This mission used a SRB powered launch stage and a terrier powered transfer vehicle to get the landers to Jool (after numerous gravity assists). A dedicated Laythe lander tackled the ocean-world, while a multi-stage Tylo lander tackled the rest of the moons, and returned the brave Kerbonaut Wildard Kerman to Kerbin. Before heading back however, the new space-construction method was utilized to steal a solar panel from the transfer stage, marking the first time this creative form of staging has been used. Mission here. 17,635 funds (Current Record!). This mission is a more stripped down version of @camacju's previous low cost mission. This mission featured a visit to Laythe's ocean floor, and utilized eva construction to manually remove empty fuel tanks from the mission. Additionally, eva fuel tanks were used to refill the brave kerbonaught's jetpack to enable fuel savings by extended jetpack use. Low Parts - @bayesian_acolyte ISRU, Album here. A small, single stage craft comprising of 31 parts. Bayesian_acolyte said there could have been some part count improvements, but even without it the mission still did so much with so little. This mission shows just how far ISRU can be stretched, especially with that Tylo landing. - @Majk Thread here. A simplistic Jool 5 mission consisting of only 30 parts . The mission began using a very basic launch stage, and flew to Jool using a long nuclear ship. Lander reuse enabled part count savings, and usage of the nuclear ship as an ablative heat-shield helped return Val to Kerbin's surface in one piece. - @Majk Video here. Easily the most simple Jool 5 mission completed to date, accomplished using only 9 parts (Current Record!). This mission started with the 9th part, an RTG, stowed inside the command pod before installing it in orbit. It is also worth recognizing that a clever method of timewarping in the tracking station enabled refueling to take place while utilizing only a single RTG. The submission takes the form of a short, concise, and wel narrated video, and I highly encourage giving it a watch. 2nd Level - @jinnantonix ISRU, Album here. Used a big launch with a self-refueling vector-powered lander that made multiple Laythe landings and mined ore from every moon. Two kerbals were landed on each moon and the lander was recovered at KSC. - @Kerbolitto ISRU, Album here. Excellent mission done using two space shuttles capable of refueling on moons. Absolutely amazing job. In all things I ever thought I would see happen in KSP, a space shuttle landing on Tylo was not one of them. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a mothership for the first part of the mission, then resorted to ions to get to Ike and Minmus, then safely back home. Also, this is the first 2nd level mission to not use ISRU. - @GRS: Album here. The highly anticipated Sheep v2 did not disappoint, and went above and beyond by visiting not just Jool's moons but also Kerbin's and Dres. Used massive nuclear boosters to get around the Jool system and the Tythe lander to get two Kerbals on every moon and Dres, before using the Sheep v2 to land the entire crew on Minmus and Mun. Spectacular! - @Xurkitree ISRU Video here. This modded mission utilized ISRU, a nuclear mothership, and eight aerospikes to land on all five of Jool's moons with Cerdrin and Lodous Kerman. Returned the lander and mothership to LKO where a separate rocket retrieved the crew. I highly encourage watching the video submitted, it is excellently edited and the music supports the awe of the mission. - @QF9E Thread here. This mission used a blunt-force approach by lifting off on a powerful launch stage, and made quick work of Jool's moons. The moons were all visited by one lander, which dropped various attachments that helped it land on some of the bigger moons. At the end of the mission, the three brave kerbonauts safely touched down in the ocean, and a BFR style spacecraft recovered the remains of the lander in Kerbin orbit for historical preservation. Truly an impressive mission indeed! - @Mars-Bound Hokie ISRU Mission here. Using the Anubis II SSTO, Tancan, Fernal, and Kenby Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, then blasted off for Jool. After touching down on Laythe to refuel, the crew went for Bop, then to Tylo. After landing with no liquid fuel to spare, the Anubis II was refueled, then launched for Pol. After a risky auto-piloted landing, the ship refuel before bounding to Vall, where the crew had a group picture. Heading back to Kerbin, a mix of brute force and aero-braking was used to get the trajectory needed to get back to the KSC, and then the crew refused to ditch the plane and pulled off the legendary runway landing. - @king of nowhere Mission here. "And so I completed the Jool 5 in day 383, 1 hour and 9 minutes of a new career" are the words typed by @king of nowhere at the end of the mission thread, and fundamentally capture the astronomical accomplishment documented within it. In a career save speedrun, it was decided to focus on a Jool 5, and the mission was optimized for time rather than mass or cost. The amounts of delta-v put into each maneuver to achieve bullet-like trajectories around the Kerbolar and Jool systems is simply jaw dropping. Over the course of the flight, the La coscienza di xenon and its landers managed to plant flags on all 5 moons within a 12 day window, which I don't believe has ever been done before. If you wish to see the chronicles of a one-of-a-kind, record setting Jool 5 mission, the flight of the La coscienza di xenon is the mission thread for you. Grand Tour Mission here. @king of nowhere's second Kerbalism Grand Tour, but with radiation shielding 3 times less effective, bugs, life support issues, frantic crew members smashing fuel cells and dumping food overboard, and so much more! This mission chronicles the Nail Bolt on its tour around the solar system, finding monoliths on every world and making it back in roughly two decades. This mission thread covers the begins, rebeginnings, redesigns, quick fixes, and compromises that took place during the Bolt's journey not just to Jool's 5 moons, but to every other surface as well. This is one of the most thorough submissions the challenge has seen, and is a great resource for those considering Kerbalism entries of their own. - @Lyra Mission here. A single launch mission! Using a spaceplane for Laythe, a notably slim Tylo lander (with a reusable upper stage for Vall), and an ion lander for Bop and Pol, this mission was a pleasant, self contained romp around the Jool System. One unique aspect of this mission I've seldom seen elsewhere was the use of claws on the nuclear mothership's outer hull. This allowed the landers to not need docking ports and attach to the hull like barnacles. A very clever, mass saving decision for the landers for sure! 3rd Level - @iAMtheWALRUS Grand Tour, ISRU, Album here. Used SSTOs to launch the mission and used moon hopping to get around the Kerbol system. Very nicely done. Also, first 1.4 submission - @sturmhauke Album here. To put it in the words of the pilot them self; "A mostly reusable mission to all 5 of Jool's moons. Single launch SSTO carrier drone, with a separable mothership and 5 landers." Very well done and efficient mission. Used fuel cells to power ion crafts for Bop and Pol, sent a plane to Laythe, and conquered Tylo with a rocket lander. - @mystifeid Album here, ISRU. Used two launches to put a mothership and a universal lander into orbit. Then used left over launch stage to boost to Jool and then around the system until it ran out and was staged at Tylo. Bob landed on every moon, accompanied with a different Kerbal for every moon. Very nice mission, and even had the added bonus of a near KSC landing. - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a single launch of pure rocketry, no jets, ions, or nukes used in the entire mission. This mission did the Jool 5 mission in style, with some of the most interesting landers I've ever seen, including an aerospike Laythe plane. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @jinnantonix ISRU, Video here. Of all the Jool 5 missions I have seen in this thread so far, none treat their Kerbals better than Jinnantonix has. The craft was modular in design and split into several different arrangements for various landings, and came with a gravity spin for deep space transit. Very considerate, and very awesome. - @Grogs Album here. Two launches to build the main ship in orbit, one crew launch for realism. Used a giant transfer stage to get the landers to Jool. Chemical engines pushed the landers about the Jool system, with nine Kerbals in total being involved in the mission. Once the landings were completed the mothership returned to Kerbin where a fourth launch collected the Kerbals and returned them safely to Kerbin. - @Pipcard ISRU Thread here. A well executed, eight Kerbal mission with one of the longest ships I've ever seen in this game. Excellent mission that toured the Jool System in an engaging thread. Mission was assembled in multiple parts, flew to Jool, landed on the moons (being sure to refuel on Bop and Pol when needed), EVA jetpacked off Tylo, and the crew was returned to Kerbin by a separately flown space plane. - @Kerbolitto ISRU Mission here, here, and here. Kerbolitto's second submission! Using a space shuttle with several surface experiments, a crew of eight explored the system. The Tylo landing was done with perfect margins, landing with no fuel left! This craft may also hold the record for lowest TWR launch of Bop in history, and an outpost on Laythe with a mini-plane was even constructed. Bob chose to stay behind and man the base while the crew returned home. Excellent end to an excellent mission! - @Ksp Slingshooter Album here. Assembled the main ship using multiple launches, then flew to Jool, settling in an elliptical Jool orbit with some help from a few gravity assists. From there the landers detached and flew to their moons, one by one and completed their landings. Due to some unexpected occurrences at Laythe, the Vall lander swooped in and rescued the Kerbal, taking both back to the mothership. Without enough room in the command pods for everyone, two brave Kerbals rode back to Kerbin on ladders, detaching and re-rendezvousing during timewarp. A rescue craft was launched, and met the mothership just in time, with only three minutes to transfer the Kerbals before a fiery re-entry. Truly a Kerbal mission! - @RoninFrog ISRU Thread here. Using the gloriously huge HMS Sauron, Jeb and 16 friends took to Jool in this massive SSTA. First they stopped at the Mun, then flew to Pol, then Tylo, then Vall, Laythe, and finally Bop. On the way back to Kerbin, time and fuel and the positions of the planets made a Duna landing prove itself most useful, before heading back to the Mun, and finally, back to Kerbin. This 1 stage mission has some amazing screenshots in its thread, as well as most amusing comments for each picture. If you're wanting to learn more about an ISRU approach, I suggest giving this mission a peak. - @OutInSpace Video here. Using a total of eight launches, this mission's mothership was constructed methodically, complete with an enormous pair of transfer boosters. After heading to Jool directly, the mothership flew to Tylo, Vall, and Laythe by itself, and sent an ion craft to Bop and Pol instead. After numerous attempts, the Laythe plane was finally able to show what it could do, and the 5 crew returned to Kerbin orbit, where they were picked up by a landing craft. If you want to see the nitty-gritty maneuvers used during a Jool 5 mission, I suggest you check out this mission's video. Its editing and methodicalness make it an unintentional flight-tutorial for getting to Jool. - @Entropian ISRU Mission here. Using a 5 meter tank with 5 meter tanks strapped on the side and a large cluster of mastodon engines, the craft rocketed off the pad to Minmus, where it refueled and went off to Jool. Landing on Laythe proved to a close call, with ZERO delta-v remaining upon touchdown. From there the ship bounced to Vall, Tylo, Pol, and Bop, before making a rough splashdown on Kerbin. It is worth noting that the crew did forget to put a flag on Bop. However since every other mission criteria was met and the craft was landed on Bop it is still being counted. - @GRS Grand Tour. Mission here. This time with the Sheep v4 the Jool moons were visited again, along with 60 other destinations! Relying heavily on ion power, landing after landing was accomplished visiting worlds close to the sun, around Jool, and even outer dwarf planets. So many worlds were mentioned that the Jool 5 portion is only a tiny fragment of the overall mission. There is genuinely too much in that mission to describe here, so I highly suggest you check out the most expansive sheep yet's thread! - @s_gamer101. Mission here. This mission began with the launch of an enormous reusable launch system that placed the main ship in orbit. A trip to Jool ended with a fiery aerocapture above Laythe, where two of the crew members took a small spaceplane to the surface. After a tricky fuel situation in which drop tanks were accidentally kept as huge pieces of ballasts, the Tylo tug was used as an extra stage to boost the main ship. This proved to be enough delta-v, as once the landings were completed the ship cruised back to Kerbin, where they parachuted safely to complete the mission. - @AlpacaMall Mission here. This mission began with the launch and orbital construction of the KSS-J "Orca". Engineer construction added fuel lines and removed unneeded RCS thrusters, and the craft departed for Jool with a reusable lander upper stage, with lander stages for Laythe and Tylo. The landings were completed in the following order: Laythe, Tylo, Vall, Pol, Bop. From Bop, the Orca was left to serve as a relay station while the crew module left for Kerbin. The vessel landed with all the crew and 23458 science. - @BeanThruster Album here. This mission began with the launch of Vapidity, the mothership used during the mission. Instead of going to Jool, Vapidity made its first flight to an E-class asteroid so it could refill all of its fuel tanks (it launched almost empty to save weight). After flying to Jool, the first landing took place on Tylo, before leaving the engine nacelles in case later refueling was needed. Next, the last stage of the Tylo lander was used to land on Vall, then the lander flew solo to Bop where it awaited the rest of the ship. Vapidity took the time to take a spaceplane to Laythe, then went back to low Tylo orbit to refuel. Vapidity met the Vapidlander at Bop, conducted the landing, then went to Pol to do the same. Vapidity returned to Kerbin before the crew landed using the Laythe spaceplane. In total, the crew collected 20113.6 science. - @RuBisCO ISRU Album here. This mission began with a lot of mainsail engines to push the main craft into orbit, and delivered not one, but seven Kerbals to the surface of each moon. The first visit was Pol, where cleverly built piston legs kept the refueling craft perfectly level. Next was Bop, then Vall, then Tylo, where a rover and lab were brought to the surface and returned to orbit (except Tylo where it got left behind). For the Laythe landing, the crew took down a spaceplane, as well as a helicopter and a floating lab with plane-refueling capabilities. The helicopter was used to collect science from the local area, and after being refueled, the plane returned to orbit. After the main ship was refueled on Pol, the crew returned home. - @18Watt ISRU , Mission here. This mission is nearly identical to 18Watt's previous submission, but now has accommodated a unique Kerbal for each moon, bumping it from a 1st to a 3rd level submission. Main ship refueled on Minmus before heading to Jool, refueled on small moons, and pilots Val and Billy Bobfurt flew each unique specialist to their respective moons. - @Krazy1 ISRU, Album here. This mission was done with the Principia mod, which makes gravity and orbits behave more realistically. The spacecraft used was the "2 by 4", named after its two mammoth engines and four nervs. First the craft launched to Minmus, then visited a passing asteroid, then went back to Minmus to refuel, then shot off to Jool. After the Laythe landing, there was some trouble getting to Vall due to orbital issues. After Vall came a very bouncy Tylo landing, which was followed by a Pol landing, and then a Bop landing. It is worth noting that Bop is orbiting retrograde in this mod for orbital stability. After completing the landings and experimenting with weird orbits, the 2 by 4 traveled home, refueled on Minmus to prep for landing, and then touched down safely on Kerbin with its crew of 5. ISRU, Album here. This mission utilized an orange and gray aesthetically pleasing spacecraft. Once launched into orbit, the craft refueled on Minmus, then shot off to Jool where it landed on Vall, then flew to Tylo where it performed this landing, before nearly burning on Laythe, then finished up with Bop and Pol. Upon returning to Kerbin, some excess ore was turned to fuel to save weight, and the crew splashed down 10km from the KSC. - @Kimera Industries. Mission here. This mission's mission thread chronicles the Avocado on its journey to Jool's moons and back, using appropriately named components and landers. Due to its nuclear propulsion, the escape burn was split in two, though did not go gently into that good night, and upon arriving to Jool, took use of a convenient Tylo assist to go almost directly to Laythe. From Laythe, a lander was dispatched to Vall and Pol, then the entire ship reunited and migrated to Tylo where the landing was achieved on the fifth try. Next came Gilly 2.0 Bop, where an interesting SPOILER was discovered. Upon returning to Kerbin with little to no time for caution, the cargo container and its draggy friends kept the craft from overheating during airbraking, and the crew landed to live another day. Jeb's Level - @Xurkitree Grand Tour, ISRU Album Here. Collected 19,711.3 science from Jool on a girl's night out mission with no lack of gravity assists. A note from the author said that the mission greatly improved their skills in KSP and proved that fact well with the insane gravity assists they pulled off. Also first Jeb's Level on the new thread yay! - @ManEatingApe Video here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. Collected 16,532.0 science from Jool. There isn't anything I can say about this mission except you need to see it for yourself. Exclusively low tech was used, and collected in space science from all biomes. This mission did the near-impossible, with primitive parts, and landed all Kerbals safely back on Kerbin. - @SolarAdmiral Video here. Collected 42,296 science from the Jool System. Single launch on a cluster of three meter parts, before heading off to Jool. Started with Laythe first, landing using a floating platform. Science was collected with a small jet-powered boat. Next stop was Tylo, where a rover was used to collect science from many biomes. On Vall one landing was done, and a hop added to it before heading to orbit again. Numerous biomes collected from Bop and Pol by hopping around in their low gravities. Direct shot home and landed all seven Kerbals to tell the tale. Absolutely astounding mission! - @jinnantonix ISRU Video here. Collected 82,510 science from the Jool System. Single launch, one much smaller than you might expect. Used a plane to gather large amounts of science from Laythe, dove into Jool's atmosphere, grabbed science from almost if not everywhere, and even managed to use the Laythe plane as the final stage on the Tylo landing. Had an artificial gravity system to facilitate the kerbals, and landed back at the KSC. Honestly jinnatonix managed to do so much in this video I can't describe it all here so I suggest you just watch the video. Amazing job. - @GRS Album here. Collected 28,643 science from the Jool System. The long awaited Sheep mission that satisfied both the Kerpollo and Jool 5 requirements led by Simone Kerman that explored the Jool system and returned home Apollo style. The mission had a heavy launch and went to, around, and from Jool using a massive nuclear stage. The usage of the Scifi visual pack gave the mission a unique look as it took science from every moon (including Jool's upper atmosphere!) in style. Incredible. - @Jim123 Video here. Collected 8780.9 science from the Jool System. Single giant launch put a large nuclear mothership in orbit. Flew straight to Laythe where the landing was completed with a dual stage to orbit (and Jeb's jetpack). From there the crew went to Vall and landed, before heading to Tylo and dropping one of the most Kerbal looking Tylo landers I've ever seen to the surface. After Tylo biome hopping was used on Bop and Tylo, before a pair of service modules detached and went back to Kerbin, boosting each other home where the crew landed. Nice video. - @jost ISRU Album here. Collected 16940.2 science from the Jool system. Flew to Jool using a long nuclear mothership. From there an ion ore probe helped find ore on every moon but Laythe for the rocket lander. Laythe used a three seat plane for the landing, and even found a geyser while on the surface. Landed on Tylo with 1m/s to spare before refueling, and landed everyone safely back on Kerbin after leaving the nukes in a graveyard orbit around Kerbin. Excellent! - @Beriev Album here. Collected 49430.1 science from the Jool system. This entire mission was done in a 6.4x solar system. Launched off the pad with an absolutely enourmous rocket, fittingly dubbed the 'Absolute Unit'. Used many kicks to get out to Jool, where the ship split up to tackle the moons. For Laythe and Tylo, ascent vehicles were landed separately, before the crew arrived on-surface. Later, both sets met up at Vall, then flew to Pol, then Bop, and then to Dres. After a fun journey, the Absolute Unit returned to Kerbin, and the crew landed safely. This mission has an incredible execution and design, as well as a well-captioned Imgur album. I highly suggest giving it a look. - @Pro100kerbonaut Video here. Collected 10238 science from the Jool system. This mission was done with a rather interesting, asymmetrically balanced ship, and had quite the bouncy ride. On Tylo parkour was done, on Laythe swimming. On Vall two landings were done, and on Pol and Bop the lander bounced around. This mission used a combination of a gravity assist off Tylo and a retro-burn to capture at Jool, and upon return to Kerbin parachutes were attached to the crew section using a klaw. A fun mission with great editing. - @king of nowhere ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 105136 science (Current Record!) from the Jool system. This mission was insane from its conception, with the goal to collect every single bit of science from the Jool system as possible. While this goal was not ultimately accomplished, the mission is still one of (if not) the greatest Jool 5 submissions I have ever seen. To collect science on each world, a durable lander known as the Dancing Porcupine was deployed and driven on all moons but Laythe. For Laythe, a spaceplane called Absolutely NOT Albatross was used to collect science from each biome. In fact, Absolutely NOT Albatross did even more than just Laythe. Using a multi-stage attachment, Absolutely NOT Albatross visited the lower atmosphere of Jool and returned to tell the tale. The craft's brave pilot even took an EVA report while in flight before ascending. The main ship dubbed the Flying Christmas Tree, and was capable of refueling on low gravity worlds. Upon returning to Kerbin, a craft launched to return the brave Kerbonauts to their home-world. Having visited every biome on every moon, it is no surprise that this mission amassed more science than any other Jool 5 mission before it. I highly recommend viewing this mission's main thread. Amazing job king of nowhere! Mission thread here. Collected 11395 science from the Jool System. This is my favorite submission to the Jool 5 Challenge I have ever reviewed. The sheer amount of effort put into this mission cannot be overstated. King of Nowhere started this mission as a nanocristalline diamond caveman mission, which in short meant no contracts, no facility upgrades, no quicksaving, on career mode, while starting the save with severe limitations. While the mission ended up needing quick-loading, it still is eye popping to see just how much work went into it. Each launch (in the VAB) was limited to 18 tons maximum, so a work around was used by having docking ports around the base of the rocket, to which separate boosters would be docked using a runway-launched rover. This meant that many launches required multiple launches of booster attachment vessels before the rocket itself could attempt to leave the pad. After over 100 launches, the Navis Sideralis Neanderthalensis and all its cargo were ready, and the ship departed for Jool, leaving a most amusing pattern of drop tanks in its wake. Upon reaching Jool, disaster struck when the Tylo lander suffered an anomoly, and quicksaves were needed to complete the Jool 5. While at Jool, science modules were discarded after use because a lack of KSC upgrades prevented their resetting, and every aspect of the mission, from flying between moons to the landings themselves, were executed with meticulous testing and prior calculation. I cannot possibly explain everything this mission did in this little blurb, so I highly encourage anyone who wants to see some of the best Kerbal engineering I've ever seen to check out the linked mission thread above. - @OJT ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 26871.3 science from the Jool System. This mission thread contains some of the most eye-catching, visually stunning KSP screenshots I have ever seen in a Jool 5 submission. The mission itself was tested and proofed in sandbox, and consisted of a long, skinny mothership, a spaceplane, and an ISRU lander for Tylo. With the lander and plane hanging from docking points on the main ship, the craft boosted to Jool and used a Tylo flyby to capture. Visiting Vall first, the lander took around 100 days to refuel. The ship then flew to Pol where the relatively tiny lander (in relation to the mothership) flew to Pol's surface and back numerous times to refuel the main ship before it could head to Bop. At Bop a kraken was discovered, and on Tylo the crew found it refreshingly eventless. The last destination was Laythe, where the plane and lander were left in orbit so the main ship could return to Kerbin. A return craft returned the crew and science, and crew XP was had by all. - @Robin Patenall Mission thread here. Collected 61174.6 science from the Jool System. This mission began with the construction of the Emerald Star, a large and reconfigurable interplanetary vessel that required 17 launches to complete. Once built, the Emerald Star used Eve and Kerbin gravity assists to efficiently sling itself to Jool and started with Tylo. Using one of the Emerald Star's 3 drive cores to send itself down to a lower Tylo orbit, the lander successfully brought the crew to and from the Tylic surface. When the mission reached Vall, a magical anomaly was discovered, one which would prove to be only one of many odd discoveries made on Jool's moons. An SSTO found one on Laythe as well, during one of its three total landings. A monolith was found on Pol, and a deceased kraken on Bop, one which caused a crew member to lament their inability to bury it. Once the landings had been complete, the remains of the Emerald Star returned home, where it was parked in Kerbin orbit awaiting future assignment. - @problemecium Mission thread here. Collected 8755.7 science from the Jool System. This mission thread covers the finally completed tale of the Aletheia, a massive, nearly 1.3 kiloton mothership. With numerous cargo bays, it brought landers, an SSTO, a deployable space station, numerous pieces of scientific equipment, and two ARKS to return the crew to Kerbin if needed. Upon construction, Aletheia and its seven crew members proceeded to Jool, using 46% of its total fuel. The transfer section was left behind in Laythe orbit while the rest of Aletheia continued on. After Laythe came Vall, where one of the ARKS was used to refuel the Tylo lander to enable it to tackle Vall (the ARK was then joined to the deployable station and left behind). The lander then tackled Tylo, and was left behind for future use. Bop saw the discovery of a hopefully deceased Kraken, and Pol marked landing number 5. This romp unfortunately depleted Aletheia of the fuel sufficient to return to Kerbin, so the second ARK spacecraft brought the crew home safely, using a Mun assist to tweak its final trajectory. This is one of the more aesthetically pleasing Jool 5 missions, and done in career mode in a very well typed out and necromanced thread, so if you are a fan of large stylish motherships, I would recommend giving this thread a view. Gatecrashers / Honorary Mentions - @JacobJHC Grand Tour, video here. Giant single launch craft, also visited every planet and moon from the OPM planet pack. Very big. Gatecrasher because crew hasn't landed yet. - @Fraus Mission here. There's nothing that can be said about this, other than that this mission definitely had more thought put into it than any other Jool 5 I've seen. - @cqIpb Mission here. This mission was flown on an Xbox, and pushed the console to its framerate limits! cqIpl was inspired to do a Jool 5 mission after finding this thread, and despite not being able to land on Laythe due to lander instability, still had a lot of fun finishing the rest of the mission, and took a few great screenshots along the way! As of writing this, cqIpb is still new to the KSP Forums. Welcome, we're glad you're here! - @Alpaca Z, using a craft built by @Lt_Duckweed (with permission) Grand Tour, ISRU . Video here. Using a rather simply built SSTA, this mission was a simple case of flying around the entire solar system and refueling everywhere. This craft utilized air-fans, ions, vectors, and nerv engines, allowing it to be not only capable of high efficiency maneuvers, but also those requiring high TWRs. A highlight of this mission was the strategy to use EVA construction to rebuild the back of the plane to enable it to land vertically on Tylo's surface. Why bring landing legs when you have wings that could do the job just as well? This mission's video submission is also of a high quality, so I recommend giving it a view. In all, the crew of three finished their grand tour in only 15 years and 117 days! Efficient and speedy Moved to Honorary Mentions due to the fact that the crew could not exit onto Tylo's surface.

I agree management has a much larger share of the blame than Nate (or T2. Everyone likes to talk about how easy it should be for large companies to throw away their money and be happy with delayed and over budget projects, until someone you are paying is behind schedule and wants more of your money. Now also imagine you just lost a billion dollars in the prior year and they want even more of your money.) Because he lied to us. We may differ in view in how much (some or not at all) of the blame is on him. Personally, the fact that much of this is still here say makes me less interested in playing the blame game. Thats hard when you were in the room, nearly impossible for outsiders. But the timeline of events in Shadowzone’s video seems pretty rock solid, parts being collaborated by ex employees who are willing to post publicly. Going by the timeline as presented and nearly universally accepted then we must agree Nate knowingly and purposefully lied to the community. Was he at fault for why the game was where it was at the end? To what degree we may never know. But we know he lied. These lies include: The state of multiplayer (it’s so fun! When in reality it was soft canceled shortly after launch) EA is for feedback! It’s the Kerbal way! (It was always about money and they never once actually wanted our feedback, look at wobble and font.) We don’t want to alienate old players! (They very much wanted the new audience more, things liked by the old fans were thrown away if they were obstacles to a wider audience. Like occlusion for satellites or progression metrics beyond science points.) And the big one, we’re fully funded! (They were on thin ice and knew it from before the EA launch.) As I’ve said in previous comments, this does not make you a bad person. I’m not wishing ill will on anyone. I’m in a financially secure enough position if I was asked to lie to a customer I would find new employment. Thats easy for me to say in my position but harder for others. I can’t judge others who can’t make the same decision and still be confident they can provide for their families. So him lying for his employer doesn’t make him a bad person, and doesn’t mean I wish him any ill will. I still hope he can provide for those he cares for. But it would be rather ill advised to buy any product being sold by the guy who now is known to be willing to lie to get you to buy products. As such, I’m not buying anything from him again, and nothing from T2 again as they have absolutely disrespected this community in the non communication following the closure. If that means you think I’m mad at him, then I hope you can follow my reasoning. I personally don’t think I’m mad at him, just not willing to give him any more of my money. These are wise words and apply to many industries. Thank you for sharing your insights, and I hope those entering new careers listen to what you have to say, whether they will be the ideas guy or the practical engineer, or wear both hats.

I don't understand why anyone in the community is mad at Nate. Did he make some bad decisions? Sure. But the bad decisions that he made were not the ones that effectively killed KSP, 2 it was the idiocy imposed on the devs by the higher-ups., all the secrecy, not letting the KSP1 devs talk to the KSP2 devs, etc. IMO the problem is that TTI has Management that regard coders as interchangeable office-workers rather than as skilled artists - and being a skilled coder really is an art, due to the complexities involved in coding. Anyway, from what Shadowzone said in his video, I can only shake my head in wonder at the level of incompetence in the TTI Management that they can take a much loved franchise like KSP, with a generally intelligent and well-informed community that nokws what it wants, and posts about it in these forums, then go and ignore the community, and make hiring, and working conditions guaranteed to result in failure and annoy/upset the community.. If anyone should be fired, it's the management above Nate for dooming the project to fail by their idiotic decisions. It's that management that lost TTI $70 million, not the devs.

Hello! It’s been a while! I know that many of you have been wondering about the status of KSP2, so I thought I’d give you an update on how things are going. We have an incremental update on the way! The v0.2.2.0 update will address a number of common user experience issues, some of which have been causing frustration for quite a while. In many cases, a thing that was reported as a single bug (Delta-V calculations being incorrect, or trajectory lines being broken) were actually half a dozen or more closely related bugs. We identified a series of issues that we believed were negatively impacting moment-to-moment gameplay and the first-time user experience, and we dug deep into those bug clusters to make meaningful improvements. Some of those issues include: Parachutes don’t deploy reliably (doubly true when fairings are in the mix) Fairings don’t protect their contents from heating Trajectory lines in the map view sometimes disappear (often related to erroneous designation of craft as “landed” when in flight) Landed vehicles fall through terrain during time warp Maneuver nodes refuse to allow the player to plan beyond the calculated Delta-V allowance, which in many cases is an incorrect value We’ve submitted changes to address a number of these issues – in the case of the last one, we’ll just be letting you plan beyond your current dV allowance while we continue to improve our Delta-V accuracy over the longer term (there’s a very challenging set of problems to solve in the pursuit of accurate Delta-V projections for every possible vehicle that a player can make, so this is something we’ll likely be refining for quite a while). For this update, we’ve also prioritized a new kind of issue: in some cases, the first-time user experience is undermined by a failure of the UI to clearly communicate how to progress between phases of gameplay – put simply, we sometimes put new players in a position where they don’t know what they’re supposed to do next. We’ve received a huge quantity of very helpful user feedback in this area since the For Science! Update. For example, since most of us are seasoned KSP veterans, it never occurred to us that we hadn’t fully communicated that “revert to VAB” is a very different thing from “return to VAB.” We received a rash of bug reports from people who were confused about having lost progress after completing their missions and reverting to VAB. Yikes! Similarly, the lack of a clear call to action when a vehicle can be recovered frequently left new players staring at a landed vehicle and not knowing there were more steps to follow. We’ve made some UI changes to address issues like this, and we think the flow has improved as a result. Another usability issue that even catches me out on occasion -- trying to do illegal actions (for example, parachute deployment) while in time warp states other than 1x. In fact, we believe quite a few bug reports we’ve gotten about actions being broken have actually been the result of people attempting to do things under time warp that weren’t allowed. This is an area of ongoing work for us – not only do we need to do a better job of communicating to the player when they’re warping, but we also need to make clear what actions are and are not allowed under both physics and on-rails time warp. We’ve made some small UI changes to increase the player’s awareness of their time warp state, and we’re looking forward to seeing if those changes feel good to you. I know we talk a lot about the value of Early Access, but this is a great example of how your reporting helps us target our efforts. We still haven’t nailed down the exact date for this update, but we’ll notify you here once we’re on final approach. Most of our team continues to be pointed squarely at the Colonies update. We’re making a lot of progress this month on colony founding, the colony assembly experience, and colony gameplay mechanics. There are lots of interesting problems to solve here – some are super obvious (colony parts exist at a wide range of scales, and the Base Assembly Editor – the colony version of a VAB - needs to feel equally good when you’re connecting a small truss or a giant hab module). Other issues – for example, how vehicles interact with colonies on both the systems and physics levels – come with a lot of edge cases that need to be satisfied. We remain very excited about the ways colony gameplay will move KSP2 into completely new territory, and we’re definitely eager to see what our legendarily creative players do with these new systems. In parallel with our colony work, we’re continuing to find significant opportunities to improve performance and stability. We just made a change to PQS decals that got us huge memory usage improvements – mostly VRAM (this one is still being tested, so it won’t go into the v0.2.2.0 update – but I was just so excited about the improvement that I had to share): And of course, while all this work is going on, Ghassen Lahmar (aka Blackrack) continues to make big strides with clouds. Here’s a peek at some of the improvements he’s working on today (yep, that’s multiple layers)! And because the VFX team can’t ever stop making things better, they’ve begun an overhaul of exhaust plumes to bring them more in line with reality (which thankfully is also quite beautiful): Thanks as always for sticking with us as we work through each challenge – we couldn’t be more grateful to have your support as we move toward the Colonies era! Nate

I am not in the gaming industry, just normal software dev. And I don't know much about how it works in the gaming industry. But let's say I have a company A which is interested in a contract from B. I pitch the stuff and get the project. And afterwards I am like: "I have no idea how to do any of this, can I talk to the people who did this before?". That is so braindead mismanagement I am unable to comprehend this. Maybe for some weird reason this is normal in gaming but they should have clarified that before. And then I go like "Hey, we will be doing the stuff you wanted and much more, like multiplayer. We don't even want more money". And after all of that stuff hits the fan I am like "booo, they didn't help us and didn't give us more money". How on earth does that work? Is gaming industry some magical place with other rules?

I've been out of the loop for a little bit. Thanks for the pages, @Mister Dilsby! It is deeply satisfying to see 'Evil' Bob coming to talk to Kerbfleet. It just seems so right somehow. Happy landings!

While I was walking through the National Museum of the United States Air Force last Saturday, I was reminded of all the KSP replicas of those same aircraft. Some of them looked like they can be done with pure stock parts and no DLCs, while others (mostly the older ones) need mods that come with more parts. So, I started this thread for everyone to showcase their replicas of the aircraft that the four large hangars (plus the Missile Gallery) have on display. The guidelines for this showcase thread are simple: You are free to use any and all parts necessary, including ones that come in DLCs and mods. Vehicle has to be functional. Which means pictures/video of the craft in action. Similar performance stats are a plus. EXCEPTION: if the craft in question could not move on its own (as in it needed to be attached to a larger assembly to go anywhere) then the functionality requirement may be waived. e.g. the Apollo 15 command module. You'll only need one picture of your best replica (or half-assed; it shouldn't make a difference in that case), since it's useless unless attached to the rest of the spacecraft. If you want to make the rest of the rocket assembly, fine. Only the capsule made it to the museum, and that's what I need. Vehicle has to look as close as possible to whatever real-life craft you're trying to copy. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you have photographs to reference. Build something not yet claimed on the checklist (link below) first. EXCEPTION: for craft that appear more than once in the museum (such as the Superfortress and the Twin Mustang), you may only sign off on one of your craft's variants. Leave the rest of them for others to claim. e.g. I only do one Twin Mustang; the one in the Korean War section in Hangar 2. I'll leave it to someone else to get the other Twin Mustang in Hangar 3 and claim it on the log. If you want to show something that's already been showcased on this thread, fine - but you don't get credit for it. I don't care if you built the craft 7 minutes or 7 years ago, so long as it's yours. If you have an old stash of aircraft replicas that you're willing to showcase (and can work), great. Weaponry (e.g. guns, bombs, missiles) not necessary, although I won't object to them either. If the original aircraft was manned, so is your replica. If the original aircraft was unmanned, so is your replica. I won't object to a probe core for your manned aircraft if it doesn't deviate too much from the aesthetic, so long as you include the appropriate crew module/s. You don't need to match the passenger/crew capacity of your original aircraft, so long as your replica comes close to looking like its real-life counterpart AND it's functional. e.g. if you use one or more Mk. 3 Passenger Modules for an Air Force One variant, as long as your aircraft makes a convincing replica I don't mind you exceeding or falling behind its real-life counterpart's passenger capacity. Those things weren't designed for carrying a lot of people anyway; just provide comfort for the president and his staff. (SIDE NOTE) Whoever builds the Douglas VC-54C "Skymaster," I'm not requiring you to install an elevator in the back to load polio-stricken passengers in and out. If you do and the plane still flies smoothly, even better. The one housed in the museum was designed specifically to transport then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who needed a wheelchair. Craft files a plus. Below is the link for the replica checklist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tA9IGsSCQIuTFjw9eNHYcgv8JboCxKiAy9ep5-nflR0/edit?usp=sharing Here are the instructions on how to use it: Pick an aircraft that has not already been built Like I said earlier, if you want to build something that's already been done here, don't steal credit from the original kerbalnaut. And for duplicates, you can only claim one of the type. Once you're done, write: Column D: Your KSP Forum name Column E: The link to the specific forum post showcasing your replica/s It is acceptable to put more than one craft in the same post. Just leave a link for everyone to find it. Column F: Whatever DLCs you used to make the replica If this doesn't apply to that specific craft, leave it blank Column G: Whatever (parts) mods you used to make the replica If this doesn't apply to that specific craft, leave it blank Column H: (IF YOU WANT TO) Additional notes that other readers may find interesting Please don't modify someone else's notes. If you want to debate/talk to someone about their craft, don't do it on the spreadsheet. Source for my list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_at_the_National_Museum_of_the_United_States_Air_Force Click here to see this thread's replicas assembled on KerbalX As a prize, if you make at least one replica from each of the four hangars (not counting the air park or missile silo since they're too small; specific hangar category (e.g. Early Years vs WWII, Experimental vs Space) doesn't matter), you'll earn this sweet badge: I made it myself. It's a representation of all four hangars by using a combination of the following four logos: U.S. Army Air Corps, whose planes dominate Hangar One. Classic U.S. Air Force, which became mainstream at the time period Hangar Two covers. Modern U.S. Air Force, which has a lot of planes in Hangar Three still in service. NASA, since the space gallery is in Hangar Four. Entries from the Missile Gallery can be used as "wild cards." They're ultra-rare, so get them while they last. Depending on what hangars you lack, it can be used as either a Hangar Three or Hangar Four entry. To make things fair for everyone, only one Missile Silo entry per person All Four Hangars Badge Recipients @Mars-Bound Hokie (Me, the OP) @swjr-swis I'll start us off with my favorite, the SR-71 Blackbird. The SR-71 Blackbird on display in the SPH Picture taken February 2020. Ted Kerman enjoying himself flying at high altitudes at a speed higher than the aircraft's real-life counterpart. There you have it, folks. Have fun, and I can't wait to see what you got. Build a plane from each of the four hangars, and you get the badge.

Felipe wanted to make something other than KSP, to grow his career as a game developer rather than being stuck on one project forever. Squad wasn't interested, so he left to make what is now KitHack. I don't think he ever made much off of KSP. We know now that the KSP2 team was forbidden to talk to anyone on the KSP1 team, so yeah, your points are entirely irrelephant. And yet new planes are still designed using many of the basic engineering principles the Wrights worked out. Wind tunnel testing to confirm engineering assumptions. Independent 3-axis controls. Lift/drag ratio, and optimizing wing shape for it. Their work still matters. And Kerbals are still central to KSP2. Felipe's childhood personification of little bits of tinfoil as Kerbals remains the reason the franchise works. He knows a thing or two about the ever-elusive "fun" part of games. I'm sure the team would have reached out to him had the Take2 corpos not lost their damn minds.

I've noticed a few people on this forum play Ace Combat games (like five lol) and I also noticed that you could make threads about specific games here. Seeing as there is no dedicated Ace Combat thread, I made this for Ace Combat players to talk about... well, Ace Combat and such. How do you do the campaign, what's your go-to fighter and special weapon, etc. Ace Combat is a series of games that take place in the alternate universe of Strangereal. Strangereal's Earth has different continents and countries. The player's character is a "silent protagonist" and is always a fighter pilot from one of the fictional countries. Common traits of Ace Combat and their campaign-based gameplay involve: a wide spread of aircraft and weapons, enemy ace pilots, and giant superweapons. Not to mention the excellent storytelling (usually), graphics and music. Also, fun fact: more players play KSP than Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown by monthly average from Steam, but roughly the same number of games have been sold for each. AC7 released five years later than KSP, however.

At least all the KSP players will know which was the original and which was the knockoff... *** "Radio silence" is a term I hate to describe KSP2's dev team, but there's really no other way to explain what's going on. As of when I'm writing this, it is May 24th, 2024. The last time Nate Simpson logged on the forums was April 26th. The last time Nerdy_Mike posted was April 25th. The last post by KSP2's Twitter was on May 1st. That tweet said "We're still hard at work on KSP2. We'll talk more when we can." The last Discord update from a dev was on May 1st as well, promising the Discord and Forums would remain active. The last post by any developer (as far as I know) was CM Dakota who said: "Creating that human connection has always been one of the biggest goals of mine as a CM. Fans of the game only become fans of the studio by developing that sort of connection with the team. In my opinion, too many CMs act as some kind of wizard behind the curtain, when really a CM should just feel like another community member. Glad to hear I left an impression and kept you engaged with the community. Thanks for playing our game" Nothing more since then. Take-Two is claiming to not have shuttered Intercept Games, but seeing as Take-Two has some much bigger games under its belt that are also much more profitable from a "big-shot corporation" standpoint, it's not unlikely that KSP2's devs took a big hit at best. Just look at the numbers comparing some of T2's games to KSP2: Per Steam Charts for April, GTA V had an average of 95,401 players. Read Dead Redemption 2 had an average of 17,732 players. And KSP2 had a peak count of 903. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. If Intercept Games is shuttered, there's not much chance T2's going to make a new studio, because that would be Studio #3 after Star Theory and Intercept. Not to mention that KSP2 is not even close to their more successful games. Even if Intercept Games wasn't shuttered, they had to have been hit hard by the layoffs. Hell, so of the Day 1 devs may even be gone now. KSP2 may never be what it would have. I feel like I've come off as one of the more optimistic about KSP2, but this is probably the darkest time of KSP2's development ever. It pains me, but KSP2 is probably over. This is backed up partially by speculation though, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

Including Iridium Next, New Horizons, Haven-1 and soon many more! (Check roadmap for what is coming) Join me on Discord! (DEV talk only) Tundra Exploration pics: Tundra Technologies pics: Planned features Roadmap Known issues "No tank type named 'RR_CryoMLOX' exists" means you have RR but not CRP, or you have RR, CRP, and WBI classic stock, and the WBI feature isn't working right. Make sure you have RR 1.16! Required Mods Kerbal Reusability Expansion (For the F9 legs and grid fins) B9 Part Switch (For part switching) Module manager (For all your module manager needs) Recommended Mods FreeIVA (So you can fly around inside Rodan and Gaira-1 parts! Modular Launch Pads (For those awesome towers) Waterfall (For those amazing plumes) Smokescreen (Realplume NOT required!) Flight Manager for Reusable Stages (For landing your F9 first stage) Omega482's Stockalike Structures NTR (For your Ghidorah landing needs) Basic DeltaV - Basic Orbit by DMagic (For better understanding of how much fuel you have to land all your crafts safely back) Tundra's Space Center (To launch from LC-40!) Near Future Solar (For the Solar Panel plugin if you want full 180 degree tracking) Not supported Mods Atmospheric autopilot FAR (Version 7.0 looks to perform a lot better) Beta versions on GitHub A very special thanks to @Beale, @CobaltWolf and @Nertea for the help and advise they gave me to make something awesome. And @DiscoSlelge for creating those awesome patches! And a massive thanks to @ValiZockt, @Rock3tman_, @Nessus_, @JadeOfMaar, @Starwaster, @neistridlar, @SofieBrink and @Infinite Monkeys for the help they gave me making this mod perfect! Changelog: Any of the configs are distributed under CC-NC-SA-4.0 License. All Textures/models/plugins are distributed under All Right Reserved License. SootyShaderLoader is based on the custom shader importer by shadowmage and modyfied by DMagic with custom modules and settings.

Those who only come on the forums to talk smack about KSP are cheating.