Forgotten Space Program

[Thatguywholikesionengines]

On 1/21/2016 at 11:18 PM, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Landing hoaxes aside, aybe the insane kerbals could go to Eve instead, moar water, gravity, and air!

How about Jupiter?

[el_coyoto]

Wow, thank TOTM for making me discover this, it is awesome!

Awesome work @Cydonian Monk : I love the scenario (keeping ships from your older saves and finding a way to integrate them into a new campaign is an amazing idea), the storytelling is top notch and I love how you include geeky references/puns in your writing without making it too "gimmicky".

Love it, thanks for all the hard work you've put into writing this awesome story!

[Cydonian Monk]

2 hours ago, el_coyoto said:

Wow, thank TOTM for making me discover this, it is awesome!

Awesome work @Cydonian Monk : I love the scenario (keeping ships from your older saves and finding a way to integrate them into a new campaign is an amazing idea), the storytelling is top notch and I love how you include geeky references/puns in your writing without making it too "gimmicky".

Love it, thanks for all the hard work you've put into writing this awesome story!

Thank you. I'm glad folks enjoy this peculiar little hobby of mine.  

 

Not sure yet when I'll get the next update posted. "Hearts of Iron IV" has eaten the last two evenings whole (I've now fought WWII twice in the span of two days, losing miserably in 1949/50 as Socialist Mexico yet beating Germany early in 1941 as Allied Brazil), and I've got sleep and other things to catch up on tonight. I'm planning on Thursday, and then we'll get back to the Jool mission this weekend. (Paradox is evil for releasing two huge strategy games within a month of each other.....)

[Cydonian Monk]

Took a stab at this again in 1.1.2 last night, and while the performance boost is nice, and mostly everything works, there are a couple bugs that make what I need to do next painful and/or non-deterministic. So we're going to take a short Forgotten vacation until 1.1.3 is completely released and any mods that need updated get so. The good news? 1.1.3 is in Experimentals, so it hopefully won't be a long delay. 

Also: Tried to fly an airplane or two in 1.1.1 because it was there and just to say I'd done it, and in all cases the wheels exploded shortly after take off. Wow. At least that got fixed with 1.1.2.

[Geschosskopf]

3 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Took a stab at this again in 1.1.2 last night, and while the performance boost is nice, and mostly everything works, there are a couple bugs that make what I need to do next painful and/or non-deterministic. So we're going to take a short Forgotten vacation until 1.1.3 is completely released and any mods that need updated get so. The good news? 1.1.3 is in Experimentals, so it hopefully won't be a long delay. 

Also: Tried to fly an airplane or two in 1.1.1 because it was there and just to say I'd done it, and in all cases the wheels exploded shortly after take off. Wow. At least that got fixed with 1.1.2.

Hmm, I've been doing 1.1.x since the initial pre-release public beta and have never yet had aircraft wheels explode unless the entire vehicle is destroyed by hypersonic terrain encounters or falling into the sun.  Now, I have had them go flat on spawning from carrying too much weight but that's only to be expected because the MGW of all axles got rescaled in 1.1.x due to the introduction of a 5th size of landing gear and tweaking the previous 4 to scale.

Where 1.1.2 differs most from previous pre- and post-release 1.1.x versions is that it unintentionally introduced orbital decay regardless of underlying atmosphere or orbital altitude, which is why I do nothing serious in it.  It would have rather drastic effects on your various orbital junkyards.  This will be rolled back to the previous situation in 1.1.3 but, due to the correction of another bug, might still be rather problematic.  I have chosen a wait-and-see approach and don't expectd to do anything serious until 1.2, when the stock comms system comes out.

IMHO, so far 1.1.x is nice for 64-bit and mods out the wazzoo but not much else.  However, 32-bit is fast receding astern and will soon be completely below the horizon, so there's no going back or even maintenance there.  And I"m sure the various issues with wheels and legs will get sorted fairly soon.  But the orbital decay problem seems a bit more problematic.  You might ask @NathanKell how things are going there.

 

[NathanKell]

Per last week dev notes: solved.

[Geschosskopf]

8 minutes ago, NathanKell said:

Per last week dev notes: solved.

Great to hear

 

[DMSP]

@Cydonian Monk, how did you get Scatterer to make that low-atmospheric haze? I may use it later.

Thanks!

[Cydonian Monk]

8 hours ago, DMSP said:

@Cydonian Monk, how did you get Scatterer to make that low-atmospheric haze? I may use it later.

Thanks!

Short answer: I didn't. That's a layer I added using EVE, not Scatterer. Basically just a copy of one of the Eve cloud layers with the RGBA adjusted so it was yellowish instead of purplish. If you like I can grab a copy of the exact node and post it, but it's almost easier to just grab the ones already in the file (or add new ones using the Alt+0 menu).

[Kiwa]

@Cydonian Monk: something I wanted to ask for a while now: In the early parts of the story you used the Tantares docking ports, but then stopped. Was this some conscious decision, or just a side-effect of the Things and other relics all having stock docking ports and the need to interact with them? I always thought it was an interesting feature to have incompatible docking port standards and a need to bring adapters when planning/expecting to interact with infrastructure built by previous generations/incarnations.

[Cydonian Monk]

1 minute ago, Kiwa said:

In the early parts of the story you used the Tantares docking ports, but then stopped. Was this some conscious decision, or just a side-effect of the Things and other relics all having stock docking ports and the need to interact with them?

A mix of both. When I started into this save, the Tantares docking ports weren't handled by the Engineering Tech Tree, and so were available at a really early stage. Meanwhile the full-size stock docking ports were in a 550 science node (I think), meaning I'd have to upgrade the R&D Building all the way to unlock them. 

Also, now that I've moved into heavier craft, using the smaller Tantares docking ports would be asking for structural problems. 

 

We'll see what the weekend brings as to whether I use them again. Might just.

[KAL 9000]

Any updates?

[Geschosskopf]

31 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

Any updates?

No, it's all been forgotten.  Didn't you read the title?

 

[Cydonian Monk]

2 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Any updates?

Not Forgotten.  

Just now downloaded the latest updates for all of my mods, and a few are still pending updates. (Two more of them seem to be abandoned now... Texture Replacer a critical one. I'm going to download its source and rebuild it sometime in the next few hours and see if there are any issues. It probably works as-is, though there is one report of it not working.... Guess I'll find out.)

Beale keeps changing part names in Tantares, so I'll need to give the save file an edit once I figure out what parts moved where. I also need to make sure the handful of forgotten nods I've been dragging along with me for 3 years now still work.

Otherwise, will probably have an update tomorrow. It'll be good to get back to KSP - I've spent entirely too much time in Hearts of Iron IV in the interrim. 

[Geschosskopf]

12 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Just now downloaded the latest updates for all of my mods, and a few are still pending updates. (Two more of them seem to be abandoned now... Texture Replacer a critical one. I'm going to download its source and rebuild it sometime in the next few hours and see if there are any issues. It probably works as-is, though there is one report of it not working.... Guess I'll find out.)

Be sure to post up your working version.  I'm kinda addicted to that one, too.

 

 

 

[cubinator]

@Cydonian Monk wait...Texture Replacer abandoned? I'm pretty sure KSPRC uses that, and I haven't had any trouble with it in 1.1.3.

[StickyScissors]

32 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Not Forgotten.  

Just now downloaded the latest updates for all of my mods, and a few are still pending updates. (Two more of them seem to be abandoned now... Texture Replacer a critical one. I'm going to download its source and rebuild it sometime in the next few hours and see if there are any issues. It probably works as-is, though there is one report of it not working.... Guess I'll find out.)

Beale keeps changing part names in Tantares, so I'll need to give the save file an edit once I figure out what parts moved where. I also need to make sure the handful of forgotten nods I've been dragging along with me for 3 years now still work.

Otherwise, will probably have an update tomorrow. It'll be good to get back to KSP - I've spent entirely too much time in Hearts of Iron IV in the interrim. 

Can confirm, Texture Replacer is good to go. What makes you think it got abandoned, did i miss something? O_o

As for Tantares. I gave up on using that a long time ago, with rampant part additions, name changes, and deletions for no reason other than "i didn't want to work on that pod anymore" (even though he starts new parts all the time???) i got frustrated and kicked them all to the curb. The SSTU mod (shameless plug incoming) replaced pretty much all other parts mods that i have used. SO MANY configurable parts to do so much with

Edit: might've mis-read a bit there.

Edited June 26, 2016 by StickyScissors

[Cydonian Monk]

2 minutes ago, cubinator said:

@Cydonian Monk wait...Texture Replacer abandoned? I'm pretty sure KSPRC uses that, and I haven't had any trouble with it in 1.1.3.

Abandoned? No. Just seems that way. Hasn't been updated since April/1.1.1 though.... I see now that Shaw's posted in the thread (Monday), so at least it's not completely dead. If it works for you in 1.1.3 I should be fine. Only the reflection module was broken for me in 1.1.0/1.1.2, and I don't expect much has changed underneath to make it worse.

2 minutes ago, StickyScissors said:

What makes you think it got abandoned, did i miss something? O_o

I've no idea. Might've confused myself while I was digging through all the threads. I think when I checked three weeks ago (when updating to 1.1.2), the forum said Shaw hadn't been online for two months? Either way I had it marked as such in my notes, obviously erroneously. 

I suppose even HullCam isn't "abandoned," though I've no clue what it's status is or even what it'd take to fix it. (It's the other ot the two I said "seem to be abandoned.")

[Cydonian Monk]

17 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Be sure to post up your working version.  I'm kinda addicted to that one, too.

Can confirm what the others say - Texture Replacer works as adevertised on the tin. Everything except the reflections, but that might be an issue on my end.

Turned out I was only missing 1 more part from Tantares, which was either renamed or moved to some other mod.... but nearly every new ship in space uses it. I copied the part from the older release into my personal GameData folder and "disabled" it, but if I find its replacement I'll likely just edit the save and delete it. 

Only other nod issue I noticed eere with the city lights being obnoxious and Z-fighty. Might be an EVE bug, might be a Scatterer thing, might be neither, but I just went ahead and removed the city lights for now. I'll try them again once both are updated again.

In other news, I tried to resurrect my old mish-mash of NovaSilisco's Muffler and Pizza Overhead's Atmospheric Sound Enhancement. Turns out half of the code for ASE is useless now (the visual effects are well handled by KSP), while the rest is seemingly alien to Unity 5. Even the method used by Nova's Muffler no longer works, and just leaves all of the sound muffled at all times.... Which likely means I'm reading the wrong values from the wrong random API field. Still, that's a very minor thing, and once I figure out which values are properly reporting temperature and air pressure I should be good to go.

[cubinator]

18 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

In other news, I tried to resurrect my old mish-mash of NovaSilisco's Muffler and Pizza Overhead's Atmospheric Sound Enhancement. Turns out half of the code for ASE is useless now (the visual effects are well handled by KSP), while the rest is seemingly alien to Unity 5. Even the method used by Nova's Muffler no longer works, and just leaves all of the sound muffled at all times.... Which likely means I'm reading the wrong values from the wrong random API field. Still, that's a very minor thing, and once I figure out which values are properly reporting temperature and air pressure I should be good to go.

If you manage to get that working, it'd be great to post it. I really liked ASE, although it had a few quirks with engine ignitions after launch. It sounded really cool at liftoff but when igniting further stages it would play the stock sound.

[Cydonian Monk]

Begin Kerbal Space Program Version 1.1.1*

--
 

Forgotten Space Program

It's happened again. Those extinct kerbals have gone and forgotten their space program. There was a global crisis. The Great Powers took notice. A biosciences experiment went horribly wrong. The Sun was blotted out by thick clouds of their ill-wrought creation. Nobody remembers because everybody is dead. The world has been devoid of kerbals for dozens of years.

--

"Bugs."

"Bugs?"

"Bugs. Giant, kerbal-eating bugs." 

"Kerbal-eating?"

It was good to hear Jonbald's voice after all this time, old and scratchy as it was, but Rosuki would've preferred good news. It hadn't been easy reaching him; she'd had to put the shuttlecraft into an eccentric twenty-plus-some-odd degree orbit just to have line-of-sight with NP-TAS or the North Pole. An expensive move but one that bought them mostly unlimited conversation time. And what a dark conversation it was.

"Yes, kerbal-eating. Sadly. It all started when I realized the radio station in North Point had been quiet for weeks. That used to be one of the best college radio stations around. Blizzard Radio. Good stuff. Then your Worker Party friends took over and started polluting the airwaves with their propaganda. Well, I figured if it was quiet then things must be getting better. So I went for a drive."

"And you found bugs?"

"Never seen any like em before. Completely docile during the day, hiding on rooftops, in trees, just everywhere. I wandered around North Point for at least an hour before I noticed them. Not that I was looking for bugs, mind you, I was trying to find someone. Anyone. Yet not a kerbal anywhere. And then I saw them, the bugs, it was just moments before the sun went down. If I hadn't made it back to my rover when I did, well....

"They were worked up in a frenzy at just the sight of me. I may be old, but I'm still faster than those pricks. And when they couldn't get their dinner they started eating each other. I'll not describe it. Once the sun came up they all went limp again. Dozed off. Sun barely sets up here at Ten-North, likely the only reason I'm alive." 

"What," Rosuki wasn't sure she should ask. Or needed to ask. "What happened to our friends? There were at least a hundred of us from the previous...." No. Not like this. "Please tell me someone made it out."

"No news from anyone. Not since your Worker Party compadres wrecked the place anyway. And with the bugs.... Maybe a few found a way to survive. We're a crafty lot, us forgotten. Still, I figure after those madkerbs ruined the planet there weren't many of us left for the bugs to take.

"I've considered digging out one of the R-1s we buried in the snow to fly south and look for signs of life, but if something wen't wrong I'd be stuck out in the dark. Think it's best to just wait it out. Hope for a better world. And soon. I've got infinite air and water, but food's another story. Still, this isn't the first time I've lost friends. It never gets easier." 

The line was open for a few moments, Jonbald's whispers trailing off into the static. "Speaking of friends, how's the prisoner doing?"

"Quiet. Refuses to talk to anyone. We keep him locked in that old Nitrogen module, bring him food when he runs out. Ask questions that are only answered with angry stares. He still doesn't look familiar. I was hoping you or Elite would know who he was. Or maybe Sieta's pirate Lord, seeing as he's been around for some time."

"Ah, Sieta. Poor girl. Not doing so well, despite being Queen. Increasingly agitated when I call her up." Jonbald's voice scratched away again. For a moment Rosuki could almost hear other whispers, her ears playing tricks with the static. Sieta's ghosts. "Some minds can only take so much. I'll have a word with her about your commsats and radios. For now you best get back to your flock. Might be all that's left, sad as that sounds. Hard to believe there used to be three hundred of us." 

"Three hundred?" She couldn't remember that many. Was it really three hundred? So many working behind the scenes to make The Plan work. The Plan had failed spectacularly. Rosuki checked the flight map and dialed in a rendezvous with Kelgee. The Plan. The one Elite and Jonbald had worked up with several of the others. "About that. In light of recent events I've decided Kerbin is no longer safe. The Plan had merit, but it's useless if we're all gassed by warlords or end up as beetle-chow."

"The Girl's got a better idea?"

"We're moving. To space. We're going to build a station. A big one. Someplace to live and work free from the madness and instability of Kerbin. Everything's moving up here. To orbit. Research, Development, Operations. All of it."

"You might be all of it already."

"You know what I mean." Did he? Did she? Not yet. Yet she knew where to start. "The data caches on The Mün have our records and designs. If they don't work the Memory of Tomorrow still has the hard copies. We keep kickstarting the space program until we've built enough up here to survive without Kerbin."

"And if Kerbin doesn't play along?"

"Then we take over."

"Because that worked so well the last time someone tried it. Go ask Harler. Or Buring. Or your new Worker friend. Revolutions never achieve the ideals of the visions that birth them." The long silence made Rosuki wonder if she hadn't drifted out of line-of-sight. Not yet. Then Jonbald's voice scratched back as loud as she'd ever heard it. "You should've gone to Jool."

"What's at Jool that I couldn't do here?"

"Ghosts. Whispers in the dark. Friends that never were. Safety, perhaps. If the teams we've sent are successful, then we may finally have an answer. And a way out. But that'll take years. Go home to your sheep. Go commune with Kelgee and his ghosts. I'll call once I've reigned in Sieta."

The Plan. Jool. Too much. Too little. She spent the flight back to Kelgee deep in thought. Her new plan would work. She would make it work. The more kerbals they had in orbit and away from Kerbin the less time it'd take to rebuild. Shipyards in orbit. Refineries on The Mün. Anchors from which to refuel their fleets. Yes, fleets. Science stations. Everywhere. Constantly diging, exploring every option. Greenhouses to grow crops and raise food. Nurseries to raise their young. Life in space.

Notes upon notes of this grand design were sketched out in her books on the descent. Notebooks were a curious thing to find in space, surrounded by all this advanced technology. All of them were empty, of course, their lab notes having been sent back to Kerbin generations ago by their optimistic authors. Better to start this new plan on a blank page than on the backs of so many failed attempts. Three hundred? They couldn't all be dead, could they?

She wrote for hours on long hours after the shuttle's computer finished the first alignment burn, and hardly noticed the final one. So she was more than a bit startled when she caught a vision of the wrong ship anchored to the wrong rock at the wrong station. Memories. A cross. Ghosts of Kelgee. Panic. 

A small tin can detached from the mass and docked to her shuttle a few moments later, its pilot somehow overriding the locks on the forward docking port. 

Captain Hallock drifted in, helmeted yet sporting a Navy-blue uniform like only an image-conscious space pirate could. He had a shiny new short-handled trench shovel in hand but was otherwise unarmed. She had to admit he didn't seem particularly insane or murderous in person, easy to let your guard down. The uniform lent an air of authority and he carried himself like the veteran spacekerb he was. Who was he, before Pioneer Base, she wondered. What family did he leave behind to the Madness of Kerbin?

He strapped into the chair across from The Boss after confirming they were indeed alone. Helmet off now that he apparently felt safe. (And why shouldn't he feel safe? What could she do, blow the airlock?)

"Terribly sorry about leading your ship astray like this. These pilotless flight computers are so easy to reprogram remotely, as we've come to find. Some nice young naïve kerbal no doubt thought it was a good idea." A smiled at no one in particular, shovel floating menacingly in the aisle. 

Rosuki calmly put her notes away and glanced into the craft that had commandeered hers. Just a small lander can from the looks of it, old. Very old. Perhaps one of the first. She thought to ask where he found it, but decided small talk was pointless. "Well? What's this about?"

"Apologies ma'am, I should've started with the invitation. Her Majesty of The Starside Chair, Whisperer of Ghosts, Fair Lady of the Cosmic Waves, Queen of Outer Space and the Colonies of Kerbin, Sieta Kerman, First of Her Name and Last of Her Kind would like to have a word with you."

"Not a fan of brevity, is she?"

"No miss, it would seem not."

The docking ports closed automatically as the lander can detached, drifting off to dock at some more appropriate mooring. Their shuttle continued directly to Baile Speir, docking at the mains. Hard-seal confirmed, Captain Hallock opened the hatch and motioned for her to enter first. 

"Best not keep our Queen waiting."

The throne room had once been a cupola module, the throne a command chair anchored in place. It now faced inwards towards the main habitat of Baile Speir instead of outwards. Meant to look directly on Kerbin from its low orbit, it now presented its occupant with a view of her court. Small as it was. Its occupant watched as Rosuki and Hallock drifted towards her, the bulkheads from the entire length of the station having been removed to create one long, open chamber.

As was only right and proper for the throne of a Queen. 

They floated in her court silently, awaiting some recognition from she who would rule. A radio headset rested loosely atop he head, its arms serving as a crude crown, its speakers hissing silently. Connected directly to the background noise, it would seem. Listening to the Universe and its ghosts. Stars, slowly dying. Fading away into nothingness, their long wails heard by all who would choose to listen.

Sieta looked directly at her, eyes distant yet present. 

"Whispers." 

She raised her arms to include the entire station. 

"Whispers. Whispers and then screams. Screams. Radio drowned by noise but for a moment, then silenced. Whispers once more." Sieta looked to something beside Rosuki where nothing was nowhere to be found. 

"Whispers. And lies. So many lies. The world in pain. And then again the screams. In an instant, silence." This time she looked directly at Rosuki, appearing to have just noticed her. "Welcome to Sky Home, Lady Boss, she who sent me here to be forgotten. I would ask you to kneel, but space hosts no kneelers. No kings. No queens. Only peers." A smile. "The whispers said you would come, and so you have. Come to beg."

"What's this about, Sieta?"

"A negotiation. I have something you want. You have something we need. As Queen I could take it, but would prefer not to use such force. It takes time to rebuild my network after the screams shatter it, so many of my children in so much pain. The animal needs must be met. Food, water, air. Fuel. The usual. If you want to whisper to my ghosts a toll must be levied." 

Madness. Rosuki had heard tales of space madness, and had even seen it herself. Yet until she had heard Sieta speak she hadn't known for sure. 

Madness.

The world outside was growing darker, ever darker. She hadn't noticed it at first, as such things happen when you're in a 40-minute orbit. Every 20 minutes the planet goes dark. Yet this was strange. Different. An eclipse? No, she'd seen hundreds of those before. This was different.

Madness. 

She was looking into the heart of madness itself. Shapes danced on the surface. Sieta said something she didn't hear. Kept talking, but word's didn't register. Rosuki was consumed by the sight of Kerbin. Dark shapes. Hundreds or thousands of them, drifting across the surface. Yet not. Shadows. Rectangles. Perfect rectangles. 

Sieta's headset screamed. A screech as loud as existence itself, hitting all the painful frequencies at once. Rosuki reached up to cover her ears as Sieta joined in on the screaming, losing her grip on the station walls and on sanity itself. The world below drifted into blackness, the rectangles growing larger and larger still. Larger until the world was totally enveloped. And then was gone. Nothingness. Screaming nothingness.

End Kerbal Space Program Version 1.1.1*.
*(Filmed on location in KSP v1.1.2)

Silence. Whispers in the dark. Ghosts.

A Kerbin appeared.

The screaming subsided. 

The Madness remained.

 

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited August 8, 2018 by Cydonian Monk
R-1 != R-3.

[NotAgain]

1 hour ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Nobody remembers because everybody is dead.

That escalated quickly.

[AviosAdku]

Wow ...

Now it's starting to come out, what was going on behind the scenes, why "the boss" was so interested in the lost material. However, now there is the issue of the nutbar Kerbals littering orbit, you know I didn't see Sieta's sanity loss as going this far, did you plan this kind of twist?

Edited July 5, 2016 by AkuAerospace
Removed "sign off"

[Geschosskopf]

7 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Silence. Whispers in the dark. Ghosts.

A Kerbin appeared.

The screaming subsided. 

The Madness remained.

Very nicely done.  And still 2 rapid flummoxes to go before the next major upheaval.  Certainly there will be Madness......

Anyway, I hadn't recalled meeting Jonbald yet but sure enough, there he is on page 17 in "Operation Ice Castle".  He apparently lives at what the then-current regime called "Site A.1",  Interestingly, however, the pic in today's episode shows an apparently broken airplane at Jonbald's house, which wasn't there on page 17.  What's the story with that?

 

[Cydonian Monk]

17 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Interestingly, however, the pic in today's episode shows an apparently broken airplane at Jonbald's house, which wasn't there on page 17.  What's the story with that?

That bit of debris is demon-possesed. If it's not in a particular screenshot, it's because it's in the process of floating off to space. Weird docking port glitch that seems fixed as-of 1.1.x. It was used to deliver a fuel truck that's up at that station.