Jeb's Life: A Kerbal Novel

[million_lights]

Here are the Livestream Highlights:

Playing Chapter 1:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/244645185

and Here is Chapter 2:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/244647335

REMINDER
I was playing older versions of the missions and encountered bugs have been fixed based on my feedback  

Edited March 30, 2018 by million_lights

[GluttonyReaper]

Just finished the second chapter, and I have to say... it was a lot of fun. This is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for when I found out about the Mission Builder

Great job  

[Disparia Books]

Quick update:

Chapter 3 will be done this week. Thanks to Easter and spring break I was busy throughout the weekend (not to mention I'm having trouble getting a certain part of the mission just right). It's taking a little longer than usual, but it will be done soon. Thanks to everyone who has helped with feedback or enjoyed the first two!

[Disparia Books]

Chapter 3 is available here:

Chapter 3 Download

As I just mentioned in my first post and thanks to the help and tips of people like @million_lights, chapters that have been played and fixed after input will be marked with DX and are considered finished. I don't want to get in the habit of going back and re-uploading on a regular basis and having to do X.1, X.2, X.3 editions and so on. There will be an initial release and the finished/fixed DX version later.

That being said, yes, I'm hoping they all release clean, but you know...things happen.

Enjoy!

[GluttonyReaper]

Finally got around to playing Chapter 3, was not disappointed.  SPOILER ALERT:

Spoiler

The twist during the rendezvous was genuinely unexpected - I honestly jumped a little when it happened  Definitely interesting, very curious to see how this story unfolds now  The propulsive landing was pretty hard to pull off timing-wise, but made an otherwise routine reentry a bit spicier

Had a slight issue at the end, same with Chapter 2, where I couldn't trigger the end node to officially finish the mission. Starting to think it might be an issue with my install or MH in general...

[Disparia Books]

23 hours ago, GluttonyReaper said:

Finally got around to playing Chapter 3, was not disappointed.  SPOILER ALERT:

  Reveal hidden contents

The twist during the rendezvous was genuinely unexpected - I honestly jumped a little when it happened  Definitely interesting, very curious to see how this story unfolds now  The propulsive landing was pretty hard to pull off timing-wise, but made an otherwise routine reentry a bit spicier

Had a slight issue at the end, same with Chapter 2, where I couldn't trigger the end node to officially finish the mission. Starting to think it might be an issue with my install or MH in general...

Hmmmm......

I've personally finished them and know others have (watched Million's stream). I will take another look and see if I can run through it and finish it. My only guess is that if you do or do not trigger a certain node in a certain way it could throw off the entire thing...but then again, why would the rest lead you to the end node? I don't understand programming logic well enough to troubleshoot everything perfectly, lol, but I will look again.

One thing to keep in mind with chapter 2 is that you need to land as close to where you took off as possible, as the back half of the runway is 'closed' for construction. So land before (from the usual takeoff perspective) you reach any of the buildings and you should be good (the score system should work there too!)

Glad you liked three. I'm curious how much trouble you had with the end, if any. That took some work to make just right!

Spoiler

Also, in the notes and dialogue I tried to hint at quicksaving as often as possible (in a roundabout way, of course)!

Edit:

Spoiler

Sorry, just noticed the last bit. If you had trouble triggering the ending for chapter 3, thats because you need to land near the KSC. If you look the bulls-eye is on the launch pad but the landing radius is 60k out, so you only need to be approximate. If you landed on, say, the other side of the planet, you won't have completed it. Jerk move? Maybe, but it makes sense that you would want to try and land near the center for a rescue

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Disparia Books

[million_lights]

@Disparia BooksI think he meant that chapter 3 didnt complete properly. did you set the last node as the end node?
I havent gotten around to play/livestream chapter 3 yet.

Expect a stream tomorrow starting somewhere around 1-4 pm (UTC)

[Disparia Books]

4 minutes ago, million_lights said:

@Disparia BooksI think he meant that chapter 3 didnt complete properly. did you set the last node as the end node?
I havent gotten around to play/livestream chapter 3 yet.

Expect a stream tomorrow starting somewhere around 1-4 pm (UTC)

Just answered that in the hidden bit now. i'm going to go in and look at it, but I'm pretty sure it's marked end (and I figured out why it didn't register). If not, expect the 'DX' version soon, lol! Thanks mate, I always appreciate your feedback and help.

Edit: Just checked, it IS marked end. So it must be that @GluttonyReaper

Spoiler

didn't land within the designated radius from the KSC.

I think I did mention that in the dialogue/notes and it should be listed on the objective node. My bad if not

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Disparia Books

[million_lights]

6 minutes ago, Disparia Books said:

I think I did mention that in the dialogue/notes

I dont read spoilers until I have played it myself

Edited April 7, 2018 by million_lights

[Disparia Books]

Just now, million_lights said:

I dont read spoilers until I have played it myself

Lol, smart, very smart  

Then pay CLOSE attention to what Jeb thinks you should do...it might just save your...spoiler.

[million_lights]

I'll check it out
maybe I'll find some tricks to make it more reliable and protect it against "user error" xD

[Disparia Books]

Hey all!

Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am currently working on chapter 4. However, the past week and the next two are really busy for me, so I won't have a lot of time to devote to Kerbaling. I'm not exactly certain when I will finish it, but I wanted to let you know it is indeed coming...eventually. Thanks for the support for the others. And if any of you have or will stream any of the others let me know, I always love to watch a good Kerbal stream!

[million_lights]

Hey @Disparia Books!

I've played Chapter 3 now and I really liked it.

I found 1 Bug (end node didnt trigger. reason unknown. maybe change the EVA node to ANY crew, ANY Vessel, ANY Body. There are no other possibilities anyways)

My only complaint would be that some texts ( top center screen) are not displayed long enough or even interrupt each other so I missed the majority of 3 or 4 texts. Make sure they are displayed long enough for slow readers like me xD.

I would also add a "Time since node >10 (or 15)" after every "Display message" Node (or some at least)

Here is my playthrough if you want to check it out and see where I couldnt keep up with the messages 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/249181331

*PS: I found a typo but that will stay our secret  ( in the "Countdown" node )

 

Edited April 11, 2018 by million_lights

[dazhat]

At the end of chapter 1 I had no idea I was supposed to go to the space centre to finish. Would be helpful to tell players that.

[Disparia Books]

6 hours ago, dazhat said:

At the end of chapter 1 I had no idea I was supposed to go to the space centre to finish. Would be helpful to tell players that.

Hmmm...should be an end node waypoint guiding you there. I will look into it and see what' up. Thanks for the input. Also, is there a waybtobchange go to waypoint colora?? Sometimes they are almost impossible to see 

EDIT: Tweaked the last node so it's more obvious and added some flavor text to help guide you. You can find the slightly updated DXX version here and on the original post. Thanks for pointing that out @dazhat!

Chapter 1 DXX

Edited April 16, 2018 by Disparia Books

[Elon Kerman Jr]

@Disparia BooksHow do I fly the plane in the beginning like its really hard to control when takeing of

[million_lights]

2 hours ago, Elon Kerman Jr said:

@Disparia BooksHow do I fly the plane in the beginning like its really hard to control when takeing of

What chapter?

I had no issues so far.

[Elon Kerman Jr]

@million_lightsThe first chapter where the plane is when I go full throttle I start to go to the side and crash

[million_lights]

Are the Brakes off?

I don't remember any issues with that plane.

[Disparia Books]

Maybe check that you didn't activate/reverse/deactivate a control surface, wheel, or anything like that.

Do you have any way of recording, either live or not, your attempts? If we had a quick YT video of what you're doing we could troubleshoot it 

[Tunny33]

hi, id just like to say I love the sound of this, I cant seem to get the hang of the creator so this is nice to see. 

do you think you would be able to shift this in to a mission pack (mod) for the career mode of the game?

[jclovis3]

Chapter 2 is bugged:

 

The mission doesn't always end. Taking a look at it in the editor, I noticed you have a condition that checks if the game time is less than 15 minutes. If that is false, the buck stops there. There is no path way to the Finish marker. If you add another connector from the last green Display Message node directly to the Finish location check, then the player can either get the quick time bonus, or finish when they land. Also, I recommend moving the Finish circle to the right a little bit as it doesn't quite go up to the construction block (which seems to float in the air on a quick load). Something like -74.684, -0.050 looks good, same radius.

[jclovis3]

Chapter 3 bugs:
From the launch pad, you prevent all engines from operating while supposedly loading oxidizer. It would make more sense to first drain all the oxidizer, and then load it slowly over time. Before the 45 second message, I was already trying to launch because all my oxidizer was full.

Also, the EVA node at the end did not trigger when I landed and went EVA. I've updated a reported bug on this submitted a couple months ago (https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/18027#change-97966) 

Give the video about ten minutes to finish loading.

Edited May 13, 2018 by jclovis3
Correct spelling, and add note about bug report

[Disparia Books]

@jclovis3

I will take a deeper look at the chapter later. The timer thing...I haven't looked at the mission for a bit, but I thought that was just an end score/trophy thing? I added that for a timing score option but I'm not sure if that actually changes mission parameters? I will look into it.

As for the oxidizer...I had it set to drain for the mission but no matter how often I tried it wouldn't actually do it. I don't know if it was a bug or not (most of these were made shortly after release, so many of the strange workarounds I did are likely fixed and no longer necessary). Many of the strange issues with how its setup is to workaround glitches I encountered, and yeah, I had SOOOOO many issues with EVA flags not working (not actual flag planting....you get what I mean). I'm not sure how to fix that, but I can go back and play around with things now that there have been a few updates.

Thanks for the tips.

And yes, I am still working on the series, it's just that my actual writing job has taken up a lot of time lately with some changes, so I've had to back-burner the missions until I get caught up.

Cheers!

[jclovis3]

7 hours ago, Disparia Books said:

@jclovis3

I will take a deeper look at the chapter later. The timer thing...I haven't looked at the mission for a bit, but I thought that was just an end score/trophy thing? I added that for a timing score option but I'm not sure if that actually changes mission parameters? I will look into it.

As for the oxidizer...I had it set to drain for the mission but no matter how often I tried it wouldn't actually do it. I don't know if it was a bug or not (most of these were made shortly after release, so many of the strange workarounds I did are likely fixed and no longer necessary). Many of the strange issues with how its setup is to workaround glitches I encountered, and yeah, I had SOOOOO many issues with EVA flags not working (not actual flag planting....you get what I mean). I'm not sure how to fix that, but I can go back and play around with things now that there have been a few updates.

Thanks for the tips.

And yes, I am still working on the series, it's just that my actual writing job has taken up a lot of time lately with some changes, so I've had to back-burner the missions until I get caught up.

Cheers!

The easiest fix for the timing is to create two paths after the last dialog. One that goes to the end node, and the other that goes to the timer. Since by this point you want to award if still less than 15 minutes, the award will go through and pass control on to the end node. If 15 minutes has already elapsed, then the other path straight to the end will be the one that is taken. The paths are both waiting for one of the nodes to be true, so you need two paths to make both enabled.

As for the fuel dump, I find that removing 9,999,999 of the fuel type works (without comas). If you ever enter a large enough number that gets converted to scientific notation, then it won't work as expected. 1E+30 evaluates to only 1 unit of fuel until they fix that bug. Adding more fuel than a vessel can hold won't cause an overflow either. It will just be filled up.

The fix for the EVA node is to replace the reference to UFO with just plain ANY because by this point, if the specified Kerbal goes EVA, he will already be exiting the UFO craft. This node only triggers as you exit the craft, so if you jump out and use personal parachutes instead and let the craft crash, the game will never end. You'll probably need to add a fail if the craft is destroyed (the controlling pod will determine that).