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Kerbfleet: A Jool Odyssey-CHAPTER 22 pg 2: Yet >another< narrative device!


Mister Dilsby

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9 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Ah, I was wondering when someone would wonder that :) Generally, Kerbulan ships must unbloak to fire. Why? Great question. I'd like to think it has something to do with how a bloaked ship exists (or doesn't) in real space. Of course there is at least one ship out there that somehow can fire when bloaked. He wouldn't be much of a Ghost if he couldn't, right?

Actually, the Klingons had a prototype warbird that could fire while cloaked in the movie: The Undiscovered Country, so it would be completely canon, especially if it was one-of-a-kind.  :wink:

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2 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Actually, the Klingons had a prototype warbird that could fire while cloaked in the movie: The Undiscovered Country, so it would be completely canon, especially if it was one-of-a-kind.  :wink:

Correct. You don't know how much it hurts me to not be able to use the "a Bird of Prey can't fire when cloaked!" / "...this one can." exchange from that film. But given signal delay and the destruction of KSC's tracking station, there exist no Kerbals who know about both the Ghost's bloaking and the 'normal' kind.

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37 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Yeah, it is a pretty outlandish claim. Having fired off a lot of Kerbulan missiles myself, I can tell you that the only way to be absolutely sure of a hit...is to cheat. :wink: 

Maybe so, but if Bill Kerman cheated on his Kerbahashi Maru--not to mention his persistent persistomancy ....

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2 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

BTW, can somebody remind me if the kerbulan vessels have to be unbloaked to fire missiles?  And if so, why?

Because they flapping need to!! 

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OK, I'm just spitballing here but:

1. We've seen the Kerbulan vessel unbloak each time it fires a missile. Therefore it must be re-bloaking between shots.
2. Therefore it seems probable that Kerbulan missiles are autonomous and not actively steered by the mothership since any steering signal could presumably be detected by Intrepid, thus self-defeating the bloak. This would even apply to fancy non EM signals such as a modulated gravioli beam (don't forget to re-route it through the primary deflektor array. :) )
3. The Kerbulans mistook the Jooldiver probes for guided missiles. Query: how similar are they?
4. Specifically, how similar are Kerbfleet probe cores to Kerbulan missile control units?
5. Proposed test: Talk to the missiles.

Or, as Owen Kerman definitely did not say on a single-biome desert planet far far from here: "What we need is a kerbal who understands the binary language of probe cores."

If only Intrepid had such a kerbal on board... :)

 

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23 hours ago, KSK said:

OK, I'm just spitballing here but:

1. We've seen the Kerbulan vessel unbloak each time it fires a missile. Therefore it must be re-bloaking between shots.
2. Therefore it seems probable that Kerbulan missiles are autonomous and not actively steered by the mothership since any steering signal could presumably be detected by Intrepid, thus self-defeating the bloak. This would even apply to fancy non EM signals such as a modulated gravioli beam (don't forget to re-route it through the primary deflektor array. :) )
3. The Kerbulans mistook the Jooldiver probes for guided missiles. Query: how similar are they?
4. Specifically, how similar are Kerbfleet probe cores to Kerbulan missile control units?
5. Proposed test: Talk to the missiles.

Or, as Owen Kerman definitely did not say on a single-biome desert planet far far from here: "What we need is a kerbal who understands the binary language of probe cores."

If only Intrepid had such a kerbal on board... :)

 

Surely if they were self guided they would not require any communications, so you would not be able to communicate with them.

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6 hours ago, SR said:

Surely if they were self guided they would not require any communications, so you would not be able to communicate with them.

Well that's the real trick isn't it. Hopefully it won't cost Intrepid extra. :) 

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31 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Oh dear.

I can't wait until Kerbfleet changes their mean anomaly and just poofs halfway around the moon. Or tweaks the impact tolerance of Mk III so they're impervious to the missiles. Or the Kermulans screw up and miss a decimal, throwing them suborbital.

It's worse than that - it's tentacles, Jim. 

At least if that last panel is anything to go by.

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1 minute ago, Zhetaan said:

I'm just going to toss in here that if you pull one out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and conclude this story with KSP crashing to desktop because of rampant NaN Kraken, I'm going to be very cross with you.  Not that that amounts to much, but there it is.

What, and ruin my Jool-5 attempt? Never! (And for the record @sdj64--Kerbfleet Bill has not hyperedited! He only tweaked the Qwammer's radiator settings, I swear!)

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16 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Oh man, I hate to admit this, but I was sooooo wrapped up in the battle I forgot about that egg....  :0.0:

Yes! You were supposed to! :D 

9 minutes ago, Deddly said:

Kerbfleet have begun using the word "missile" instead of "probe". Is that because of Kenlie's Martystu stories?

So grateful you noticed that, I'm doing my best to stay mindful of what each side in each location knows and doesn't know :) Yes indeed, words like 'missile' and 'fighter' appear in the stories, though 'Kerbulus/Kerbulan' do not, nor do any first names. Kerbfleet personnel at Kerbin will not have heard those words unless they've been briefed by Wernher.

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8 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

So grateful you noticed that, I'm doing my best to stay mindful of what each side in each location knows and doesn't know

And you've been doing a such a bang-up job at it! I'll forgive the slower updates recently because of it- but just this once. :D

 

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1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Yes! You were supposed to! :D 

So grateful you noticed that, I'm doing my best to stay mindful of what each side in each location knows and doesn't know :) Yes indeed, words like 'missile' and 'fighter' appear in the stories, though 'Kerbulus/Kerbulan' do not, nor do any first names. Kerbfleet personnel at Kerbin will not have heard those words unless they've been briefed by Wernher.

"Missile" can also mean any thrown object.  Apparently from the latin, "mittere," to send.  Also, "steely-eyed missile man" wasn't in reference to any weapon system, was it?

Edited by Soda Popinski
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31 minutes ago, Soda Popinski said:

Also, "steely-eyed missile man" wasn't in reference to any weapon system, was it?

Maybe or maybe not--but in Kerbfleet we say "strutty-eyed booster kerb" :wink:

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Well, that was unexpected, although now that I think of it (and it's been stated above somewhat), the engineers playing with the laws of reality when they're as fragile as they are in KSP, not a good idea. Particularly when there's a stowaway being lurking around that is, by definition a blight on reality itself, this can only end badly for those involved. I can't wait to see how the juvenile Kraken responds to this, mere Kerbals playing with its toys. Also, anyone wondering if the save game transmission on Vall will have something to do with the end resolution. It was a backup of the save game file most likely from what I saw.

Aku

Edited by AkuAerospace
Polishing ending sentence, adding sign off
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