totm jan 2024 Threads of the month: January 2024

[adsii1970]

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the

Threads of the Month

January 2024 Edition

With the new year and month upon us, it is time for a new Threads of the Month! With the various themes we now have for the forum, the moderation team decided to try something different with the TOTM and CPOTM images - they are full color and now have backgrounds! We want to thank the art department of @Intercept Games and our community manager, @Dakota, for supplying us with Kerbals used for these images.

Now that the old year is out and the new year is in, I like to start each year thinking of the new possibilities the new year brings with it. There are several things I am hoping to do this year; some involve the forum community, computer gaming, and other personal goals. I am sure you have some of those, too. I am also looking forward to seeing what we do within the community.

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 where you want to place it, and then paste the link. Press the <CONTROL> button when the image appears and right-click on your mouse. A menu will drop down and allow you to edit the picture. You can resize it - the first number can be changed as large or small as you want. Eventually, I will add 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 have kept some forum statistics to respond to those claiming the forum was dying, or interest in the Kerbal Space Program was declining. There were 520 new forum accounts created in December (an increase of 262, or up 101.55% from November). Out of the new forum members who joined last month, there were 26 who transitioned from new accounts to being active and participating in the forum. This conversion means 5.00% of the new users who registered their accounts last month are now contributing members of our community! (This is a decrease from November; 5.81% of the new members became active and contributing members). If you're interested in seeing the new members of our forum, click here!

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

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 gameplay. Note: This has changed. Instead of awarding this to a thread, this is a *post of the month* since most new cinematic works are 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, this change in the category to a Post of the Month (POTM) will highlight the great work done by these deserving content creators. Other threads containing cinematic posts will also be featured in this category.

Yes, folks, that's right. An overhauled image just for the cinematic posts! Many great content creators deserve this recognition since we were aware of the thread by @Halban: Post Your Cinematics Here! (Cinematic Enthusiasts) that serves as a repository for cinematic threads. The thread has received the TOTM previously, but it was felt that it wasn't enough for those who have shared your fabulous creations featuring our favorite Kerbalnauts. Instead of being a TOTM, I've changed it into a CPOTM - a Cinematic Post of the Month.

This month's nominee is not posted in the cenematics thread but as a stand-alone thread. For this month's CPOTM, we'd like to recognize the work of @Robossbomb in in the thread "SU-27 build Timelapse and cinematic," found here:

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

What is neat about this video is it begins with the construction process of the aircraft, test flights, and the obvious - tweaks that always happen when building any craft. The finished craft is stunning in appearance and performance. The cinematic is made using KSP2. 

If you 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 exact instructions to nominate a post containing a video as you would use to nominate a thread.

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 creative, fan-fiction, or other presentation related to the game.

Each month, I share how I love the mission reports section of the forum. I enjoy reading the various fan fiction stories because it gives me insight into how many of you play the game. The stories and mission reports range from the whimsical to the more serious alternate history and include historical recreation. In this alternate history-but-in-the-Kerbol-system, @Kimera Industries recreates the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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 Greetings fellow Kerbonauts and Space Program directors! You all know the story of the space race as it happened on Earth (and maybe as it happened on Kerbin) but what if Earth's space race happened in the Kerbol system? This is the story of how America beat the USSR to the Mun- but not to Minmus!

Here's where you'll find this thread:

So, if you're interested in seeing some great screenshots of what KSP1 looks like, a "what if" construction of vehicles inspired by Soviet design, some good storytelling, or how someone else imagines their Kerbiverse, why not try this mission report?

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 our go-to vehicles we like to use. Sometimes, a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals.

Challenges are always fun. Any game has three types of challenges- official, personal, and community challenges! This month, we have a forum member-created challenge that's fun, frustrating, and rewarding at the same time. This challenge, created by @Donmy Kerman, seems straightforward enough from the title - "minimalist planes." When you read the description of the challenge, it, too, seems simple: "Make a plane with as few parts as possible."  Seems simple enough, right? Oh, how wrong you are!

@Donmy Kerman adds even more levels of fun and frustration in the op:

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1. Your plane must be able to fly from KSC to the island runway, land there, take off, and land at the KSC without parts breaking, running out of fuel, and entirely under its own power.
2. Flying on other worlds is allowed, as long as that world has an atmosphere and you spend multiple minutes in the air.
3. No using the engineer's special abilities.
4. No exploits.
5. No mods that add parts, change physics, or change the stock solar system. Visual and informational mods are allowed.
6. The craft must have at least one kerbal for the entirety of the flight. The kerbal must be inside a pod, airlock, or sitting in a chair.

Ahah! So, now that you see the rules, it has you thinking - the island, runway? That's where the real fun begins! Anyone can build one that can zip around the KSC, but to fly way out there? Do you have what it takes?

If you need a great way to spend a few hours of design, incredible feats of engineering, and a few laughs, this challenge is for you!

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 the Kerbal Space Program.

Sometimes, a mod is nominated, and as I prepare the TOTM, I have to shake my head and laugh. This nomination is one of those. Many of you who have been forum members for a while may have remembered when the greatest KSP April Fool's joke since "Orange Jool" was pulled off by @Dakota, our community manager, and the staff at Intercept Games. Yes, in case you're wondering, the mod featured in the thread of the month for January is none other than this mod:

Just when we thought that the last Kerbal Space Program 2 update for the year was the best present ever, this mod by @Abelinoss, @cheese3660, Kapybara, and @Dakota for all the efforts put into making this a reality for those of us blown away by the concept of the Kapybara Space Program 2!

In the introduction to the mod, @Abelinoss states:

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Kerbals are no more. In this mod Kapybaras explore the stars!

For the mod developers, if there is anyone I did not acknowledge, please let me know so I can correct it. - adsii1970

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.

Sometimes, we get nominations that do not neatly fit into any of the categories we already have. This nomination is one of these. It's not a mission report but offers a downloadable craft file for Kerbal Space Program 2! The thread's OP, @Heretic391, tested his computer's hardware and created a ship capable of carrying 1,000 or more brave-ish Kerbals to some far-off-world destination. The vessel is described as:

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Colony Ship to transport over 1k Kerbals for your enjoyment. 

The OP of the thread contains various images of the craft orbiting most of the planets of the Kerbol stock system in KSP2, as well as the ship's specifications. As you can tell by the forum community members' responses in the thread, this has awed many about the potential of what Kerbal Space Program 2 can do. There's a bonus, too - @Heretic391 included a download link for the craft file!

If you come across a craft file in our forum you believe should be featured in a thread of the month, please nominate it. Follow the instructions listed below on how to nominate a thread. Include why you think the craft should be considered for the thread of the month with your nomination.

It doesn't matter if you nominate a KSP1 or KSP2 craft file, as we do not prioritize either game over the other. We take all nominations. When needed, we will award two TOTMs for a category when it is clear that the top two contenders equally represent both games. We intend to continue to foster the unity of the KSP community.

 

General space flight and space science threads of the month:

This category features a thread that adds to our forum community's STEM knowledge (science, space flight, and related fields) and doesn't fit the game support/game mod categories.

This thread, started by @tater, began as a thread to track Chinese commercial launches beginning in October 2017. The thread intends to highlight the development of the Chinese aerospace industry and the strides made in its efforts at space exploration. Threads like this help ensure that the achievements of nations newer to spaceflight do not get lost among the legacy nations, such as the United States and Russia (the former Soviet Union), and legacy multi-national agencies, such as the European Space Agency.

The OP of the thread states:

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What to do about non-CNSA launches going forward?

You can visit this thread to learn about recent commercial Chinese space industry developments, recent Chinese launches, or planned events.

Too funny not to share:

I do not intend to keep this as a long-term thread of the month category, but some threads get submitted that sometimes cause me to laugh. The bug-hunting team for KSP2 found this submitted bug report by @The Space Peacock, which is worth sharing with the forum community. I'm not going to spoil the fun, so click the link. Be sure to read the exchange between the bug hunters, the KSP2 staff, and other forum members exchanging their feedback.

 

Honorable Mentions:

All the submitted nominations were used for this month.

Sometimes, choosing which threads will be selected as the Thread of the Month for our five categories is challenging. We get many good nominations each month but limit it to one for each type. Threads nominated but not selected as a thread of the month become honorable mentions. The honorable mention for this month is:

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

Congratulations to all the winners of the Thread of the Month! We want to thank our forum members @Kerbalsaurus, @Socraticat, @TwoCalories, the moderation team members, and the 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.

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, use the "Report a comment" feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the thread. Please put in the text field of the port post "Nomination for the 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. It's everything you did or didn't want to know and includes helpful tips.

And the last word for this month's post: I'd like to thank a few people who trust me enough to continue supporting and allowing me to contribute to the forum. I want to thank the Lead Moderator, @Vanamonde, for bringing me on as a moderator, a decision I'm sure he has had moments where he often wonders why he did it. I'd also like to thank  @PD_Dakota, our community manager, 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.

[Kimera Industries]

Neat! Congratulations to anyone who worked on the mentioned threads or posts!  

Spoiler

I'm not hallucinating, right? Wrong Red Moon is January TOTM? 

[Jacob Kerman]

congrats!