TOTM Mar 2023 Threads of the month: March 2023

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The KSP forum moderator's team presents the
Threads of the Month

March 2023 Edition

February proved to be an exciting month with the early access release of Kerbal Space Program 2! The early release has brought back a lot of memories for me, back when the latest version of Kerbal Space Program was 0.22, the game was still in Steam's Green Light Release Games (this is what Steam once called EA released games). There were a lot of strange things that happened in those early days - things like spaghetti rockets and the ability to have Jebediah deorbit from 75Km and safely land on Kerbin - with only his EVA pack! It's funny to see some of those old "features" in KSP2 and as I have seen some of your shared videos on the forum, I am reminded of the early days of when I found one of greatest PC games that I've ever owned.

No, KSP2 is not a finished game and when I heard the game was going to be EA last month, I knew what to expect. I was not expecting a finished game with all the polish and glitz, but a game "in the rough." I was expecting what I call in my vocation as a university professor, a rough draft. And I am quite pleased with what I see. KSP2 has a lot of potential - but it has to. It has to have a lot of potential if it is going to compete with the original KSP. It has to do more than capture our imagination, than to give us a sandbox with parts, destinations, and be a hotbed of ideas. It has to do more than to reach down into our souls and pull out the engineer, the scientist, the pilot, and the explorer in all of us. See, the original Kerbal Space Program did all of that. So, naturally, Kerbal Space Program 2 must do all of that - and it must do even more. And I believe, in time, it will deliver the promised dream.

I've put a lot of thought into how the Threads of the Month will work from this point forward. When I volunteered to do it, I wanted to help celebrate the accomplishments of our gaming community. Now that we have two games in our franchise, I think it is even more important than ever to preserve the one forum community -two games concept. There will not be a separate Threads of the Month for either game, but one that focuses on the community - for both games. I realize there are certain areas where we will have to be version focused, such as challenges and mods. Where applicable, you will know which version the entry features because the version logo will precede the introduction. You'll see this beginning this month.

And as I do in each of these threads, I am asking a favor - if you see an interesting thread - NOMINATE IT! The instructions for nominating a thread are at the bottom of this post.

Instructions on using the TOTM images: If your thread has been selected as a TOTM, you can copy the image's link above, go to the area of the forum you want to place it, then paste the link. When the image appears, press the <CONTROL> button and right click on your mouse. A menu will drop down and offer you the option to edit the picture. You can resize it - the first number can be changed as large or small as you want it. Eventually I will be adding these images to the thread I've created as a repository.

For those out there who like the nerdy parts of the TOTM:

To continue what I started in May 2021, I began keeping some forum statistics to respond to those claiming the forum was dying. In February, there were 1607 new forum accounts (an increase of 832, or up 207% from January). Out of the new forum members that joined last month, there were 129 who were active and participating in the forum. This conversion means 8.02% of the new users who registered their accounts are now contributing members of our community! (This is a decrease from last month; 13.21% of the new members became active and contributing members). If you’re interested in seeing the new members of our forum, you can click here!

Now, without further delay, I present to you the threads of the month for March:

Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works:

This category features a thread (or threads) that, while not directly Kerbal Space Program related, may be a creative work, fan-fiction, or other presentation related to the game.

It's Lego! It's Jebediah! What's not to love! In this thread by @Zweistein, the love of both Kerbal Space Program and Lego comes through! @Zweistein introduces the thread by asking those who support the efforts to have this made into an actual Lego building set:

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You can support the project on LEGO Ideas at this adress: https://ideas.lego.com/s/p:21e23e6a07f94ffe883898574331de90

If it reaches 10k supporters, it might become an official LEGO set!

I can tell you right now, as a subscriber to the updates from Lego's official website, if I see this as a set or even in the "unofficial" creator sets they sell, I am definitely going to get one. You can visit the thread and see the other KSP theme inspired Lego creations shared by @Zweistein here:

And please, if you have KSP-inspired Lego creations, or maybe you've painted, carved, welded, or crocheted (or whatever art medium you may do), don't hesitate to create a thread and share it with the community. We'd love to see it.

Forum Member Created Challenges and Missions:

This category contains missions and challenges created by you, the members of our gaming community. Many excellent missions and challenges threads are created that expand our fun with the game and press our skills, creativity, and sometimes, luck beyond what we get accustomed to. Let’s face it, we all have our go-to design basics and even our go-to vehicles we like to use. So sometimes, a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals.

There were no nominations for this category.

Game Support/Game Mod of the Month:

This category features either help with the game (stock or modded) or mods that add quality-of-life gameplay improvements to Kerbal Space Program.

There are mods out there that can best be described as quality of life (QOL) mods - they do not necessarily add anything new to the basics of the game. No, they are not life support mods. They do not add additional planets nor do they add life support or anything else that affects the game mechanics. But what they do add are "quality of life" - some detail we thought the game should have to make the KSP experience more enjoyable.

This month, we want to feature a mod that's been around for a while that a lot of us use. The mod's creator, @Judicator81, introduces the mod:

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Universal, simple and lightweight parts recoloring.

Each part in the game has one or more 3D-models with materials, shaders and textures tied to them. There is "basic" stock shader (KSP/Bumped Specular) that majority of parts use. SimpleRepaint alters color modifier for materials with this shader, changing overall part color as a result.

Yes, this mod does something we've all wanted to do for quite some time - it allows you to add color to your favorite craft without much effort!

This mod will not work in KSP2. It was specifically created to work in KSP only.

So, if you are looking for a way to make your favorite craft files more personalized, then why not download this mod and give it a try?

General community threads of the month:

This category features a thread that adds to the community and doesn’t fit the game support/game mod categories.

Sure, we all know there are extra bugs "features" we weren't expecting when Early Access - Kerbal Space Program 2 rolled out on February 24th. I've been playing KSP since October 2012, and when I purchased it as one of Steam's "Green Light" games, I knew it was unfinished. But I had a lot of fun with it. Many of you I have come to know over the years through this forum, we laughed at some of the "features" of the original. We shared crazy screenshots. We posted wild YouTube videos (and some of us put them to music and were threatened with lawsuits because of the music we used ). Uh, Um. Yeah. Well, ahem *cough* But in the end, KSP eventually became the game we were promised and more. No, it wasn't a perfect game, but no game ever is. 

Anyway, for those of you new to this process, KSP2 will mature into the game you expect it to be - trust me. This post by @Vl3d, is one we can all get behind and share with the forum community and the developers of the game what we see that we really like so far. Believe me, they do see the complaints on the forum, Discord, and Steam. They are aware of the gripes, grumbles, and rumblings. But they do need to hear what they did get right, too. It is an encouragement to them - and that's the real currency that keeps them doing the great things they do.

If you want to really make a difference in the community and have a positive impact on the development of KSP2, then why not visit this thread and let the developers and those within the community know what you enjoy about KSP2!

Cinematic-based Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works:

This category features a video or other form of cinematic of a Kerbal mission report using in-game video recorded game play.  Note: This has changed. Instead of awarding this to a thread, this is a *post of the month* since most new cinematic works are being posted in a single thread. We have a lot of great content creators but because they've been posting their mission reports as videos in a single thread, most of their work goes unnoticed by the general forum audience. Hopefully, with this change in the category to a Post of the Month (POTM), this will highlight the great work done by these deserving content creators. Other threads that contain cinematic posts will also be featured in this category, too.

Yes, folks, that's right. An overhauled image just for the cinematic posts! There's a lot of great content creators who are deserving of this recognition since we were made aware of the thread, Post Your Cinematics Here! (Cinematic Enthusiasts) by @HatBat. Although the thread did receive TOTM previously, it was felt that it wasn't enough for those of you who have shared your great creations featuring our favorite Kerbalnauts. Instead of of it being a TOTM, I've changed it into a CPOTM - a Cinematic Post of the Month.

This month's cinematic was released before KSP2's early access release and was described by @Vexillar as a tribute to the original Kerbal Space Program. For this month's CPOTM, we'd like to recognize the work of @Vexillar in this amazing cinematic found here:

Sometimes the forum software will get a little glitchy and an exact post may be a little hard to find, especially when it is buried in a longer thread. In case this happens, here's @Vexillar's cinematic presentation:

If you happen to encounter other cinematics you feel are worthy of being recognized as this category's post of the month, please nominate them! You can use the same instructions to nominate a post containing a video as you would use to nominate a thread.

Honorable mentions:

Sometimes it’s a challenge to choose which threads are going to receive the honor of being selected as the Thread of the Month for our five categories. We get so many good nominations each month to choose from, but we limit it to one for each type. Threads nominated but not selected as a thread of the month become honorable mentions. The honorable mentions for this month are:

• Cat's guide to interplanetary transfers by @CatWithAJetpack
• KSP2 is Art by @Vl3d
• So excited for KSP2 by @IU_R
• Stock ornithopter / entomopter by @salaminho

• Waiter, theres a _____________ in my soup! by @kenbobo

The honorable mentions for this month may not have made the Thread of The Month, but if you think they might be worthy of another opportunity, please renominate it!

Congratulations to all the winners of the Thread of the Month! We want to thank our forum members, @Abel Military Services, Klaupicus,  @LHACK4142,  @Poodmund,  and the members of the moderation team and staff who nominated this month’s contenders. Thank you so much for helping us identify noteworthy threads and bringing their awareness to our forum community. We’d appreciate your continued help in the future.

The odds and ends:

TO NOMINATE  A THREAD FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a thread you feel should be considered for next month’s thread of the month, then use the “report comment” feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the comment. Please put in the text field of the report post “Nomination for thread of the month,” and we will do the rest! You can always nominate more than one thread, too.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT GOES INTO THE DECISION WHEN CONSIDERING THE TOTM: Wonder no more! This helpful guide is to help you understand what we use to help determine what makes a thread a really good thread and one that becomes a thread of the month/cinematic post of the month winner. It's everything you want or didn't want to know and includes some helpful tips.

And the last word this post: I'd like to thank a few people who continue to trust me enough to continue to support and allow me to contribute to the forum. I'd like to thank the Lead Moderator, @Vanamonde for bringing me on as a moderator, a decision that I'm sure has had moments where he often wonders why he did it. I'd also like to thank @Ghostii_Space and @PD_Dakota , our community managers and @Nerdy_Mike, the KSP Franchise Community Lead, for tolerating me and allowing me to continue to serve our Kerbal Space Program forum community through the monthly Threads of the Month post.  

In case you missed last month’s threads of the month, you can click here.

[Vl3d]

I'm honored! I believe that KSP2 will be the greatest game ever made.

[Klapaucius]

I think tweaking the format as you have done is a great idea. May I suggest a "build of the month" and do it in a similar manner to the cinematics?  There are some amazing creations out there, and they can often be in one thread.

[Vexillar]

Oh wow! Thanks so much!

(Hope you all enjoy(ed), and btw don't miss the post-credit scene)