totm feb 2024 Threads of the month: February 2024

[adsii1970]

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the

Threads of the Month

February 2024 Edition

 

February is here! And that means it's time for the thread of the month. This month, we have a lot of great threads to highlight for you. So, without my usual blathering, let's get to it!

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. 279 new forum accounts were created in January (a decrease of 241, or down 46.34% from December). Out of the new forum members who joined last month, there were 34 who transitioned from new accounts to being active and participating in the forum. This conversion means 12.18% of the new users who registered their accounts last month are now contributing members of our community! (This is an increase from December; 5.00% 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.

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, we had a lot of great nominees for this category - in fact, more than we have ever had since we began this category. Unfortunately, there can only be one CPOTM. The rest become honorable mentions and are carried over for consideration for next month's CPOTM. But for this month, there was a nomination that had the most nominations and received the most notice from the forum community - it was "Sending Steamboat Willie to Space" by @minerbat! You can find the cinematic 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 @minerbat's cinematic presentation:

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 timeline of the post-Apollo and Space Shuttle (STS) era, @Toaster355reimagines the progress of NASA.

Quote

Last year, a Space Launch System Block I took to the night sky of Florida. But... hat if a very similar vehicle flew much, much earlier? What if Orbital ATK didn't demand no less than 5 segments for Solid Rocket Boosters? What if Constellation was much less considered than another option? A proposal going by the name of...

DIRECT

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 a "what if" reimagined post-STS American space program, this thread is a good example of what KSP can do!

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.

There was no submission for this category this month.

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, some mods are nominated, and my gut reaction is, "Yeah, we've needed this for quite a while!" This is one of those mods, and so far, this mod from @CashnipLeaf is showing a lot of promise! Since the early days of KSP1, most of us have wanted four things - more planets, clouds, weather, and hoses! Well, this mod strives to give us a part of weather - WIND EFFECTS! As noted in the OP:

Quote

CPWE is a plugin designed to provide a framework for defining wind patterns for any celestial body, including custom/modded ones. These wind patterns will then affect any craft that fly through them.

In the time I spent on flight simulators, wind was always a persistent challenge element, and I've wanted something similar in KSP. However, none of the (admittedly very few) existing wind mods for KSP had what I wanted. Namely, I wanted to be able to configure the wind based on location to allow for interesting wind patterns. At the same time, while I loved the sheer depth that Kerbal Weather Project brought to the game, I felt that running a climate simulation for other celestial bodies might be a bridge too far (especially if we include custom bodies which may not necessarily be grounded in reality). 

So, if you want to add another layer of infuriation challenge and realism to your game, here's a mod you need to check out:

As always, we want to thank our family of mod contributors who continue to develop new and exciting mods that support our KSP1 community!

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, @Mister Spock, sought help from the forum community for an issue with something that, for many of us - docking - became pretty simple in KSP. But, as we all know, there's a bit of a learning curve in KSP2. And our forum community, known for its genuine helpfulness, did not fail to disappoint. The TOTM award is not just for the OP but for everyone who offered advice. So, a big thank you to the community for reaching out! Thank you, @Bej Kerman, @The Aziz, @Dakitess, @gluckez, @Kerbart, @steveman0, @Meecrob, @Scarecrow71, @HebaruSan, @boolybooly, @Bingmao, and @jmbailey2000 (the only ones at the time of the TOTM was posted) for lending a hand).

This thread is a great reminder of the vision of what our forum was always meant to be! The moderation team desires to thank everyone who extended their knowledge and assistance in the thread to help a fellow Keralnaut!

General space flight and space science threads of the month:

There was no submission for this category this month.

Honorable Mentions:

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 mentions for this month are:

• 10 Kerbals Eve Mission by @ww1612
• Happy New Year SSTO by @Madishmike
• How Chuck Yeager broke the Sound Barrier - The Complete Mission - KSP RSS/RO by @kurgut
• Minecraft space program by @minerbat
• Under Pressure KSP2 Mission, Land 10 Kerbals on Eve and back by @astrobond

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 @Mikki, @Poppa Wheelie, @Royalswissarmyknife, 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.

Edited February 11 by adsii1970
A goof on my part. >:/

[kurgut]

Grats to all !
I'd recommend watching minerbat's Minecraft Space Program recent video as well hehe   (NVM it's in the honorable mentions already^^)
Cheers  

Edited February 11 by kurgut

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, kurgut said:

Grats to all !
I'd recommend watching minerbat's Minecraft Space Program recent video as well hehe  
Cheers  

As I said, it was a tough one this month. We’ve never had so many cinematic posts nominated at one time! It’s a shame we couldn’t have a three-way-tie! 

[Toaster355]

Congrats to all you talented winners!

And THANK YOU all so much again!!! Very glad you all still care about and enjoy my work here! 

I'm aware I've been gone for over a month now. But don't worry, I've almost finished healing from my intense burnout and I will make a comeback soon.

Edited February 11 by Toaster355

[TwoCalories]

Congrats to all the winners, including @Toaster355! One of my favorite mission reports.

Also, I like the new profile picture, especially since it has an F/A-18 in it!

[AstroWolfie]

Wow, good job to the folks who were nominated!

[Toaster355]

2 hours ago, TwoCalories said:

Congrats to all the winners, including @Toaster355! One of my favorite mission reports.

Also, I like the new profile picture, especially since it has an F/A-18 in it!

Thank you again!

I knew you would, haha. You would LOVE the DCS F/A-18C module if you're willing to learn it.
Not sure if I'm gonna keep it though, as I'm still toying with a new profile picture.

[minerbat]

weird, for some reason it didnt notify me of this thread, despite @minerbat being used and i have set my settings to notify me of mentions...

[Toaster355]

19 hours ago, minerbat said:

weird, for some reason it didnt notify me of this thread, despite @minerbat being used and i have set my settings to notify me of mentions...

Yeah, that is pretty strange. It didn't notify me either when Freedom was nominated in December or DIRECT this month. I only discovered that I was nominated in December when @Kerbalsaurus and @TwoCalories congratulated me in both of my threads (thank you again, guys!), and now when I looked at my DIRECT thread and saw "totm feb 2024" near the top.

[TwoCalories]

12 hours ago, Toaster355 said:

Yeah, that is pretty strange. It didn't notify me either when Freedom was nominated in December or DIRECT this month. I only discovered that I was nominated in December when @Kerbalsaurus and @TwoCalories congratulated me in both of my threads (thank you again, guys!), and now when I looked at my DIRECT thread and saw "totm feb 2024" near the top.

That actually happened to me! I got notified for being tagged in an Honorable Mention in the November 2023 TOTM, but not for my Nomination in the December 2023 TOTM. But then I got tagged in Toaster's post, and I saw the notification. Kind of weird.

Edited February 16 by TwoCalories

[adsii1970]

On 2/14/2024 at 4:02 PM, minerbat said:

weird, for some reason it didnt notify me of this thread, despite @minerbat being used and i have set my settings to notify me of mentions...

 

On 2/15/2024 at 11:23 PM, Toaster355 said:

Yeah, that is pretty strange. It didn't notify me either when Freedom was nominated in December or DIRECT this month. I only discovered that I was nominated in December when @Kerbalsaurus and @TwoCalories congratulated me in both of my threads (thank you again, guys!), and now when I looked at my DIRECT thread and saw "totm feb 2024" near the top.

 

On 2/16/2024 at 11:30 AM, TwoCalories said:

That actually happened to me! I got notified for being tagged in an Honorable Mention in the November 2023 TOTM, but not for my Nomination in the December 2023 TOTM. But then I got tagged in Toaster's post, and I saw the notification. Kind of weird.

Hmmm. It's more strange forum behavior, but at least the tags are working on the thread itself. Lately, we have observed a lot of peculiar forum behavior.

[Kimera Industries]

On 2/20/2024 at 7:31 AM, adsii1970 said:

Hmmm. It's more strange forum behavior, but at least the tags are working on the thread itself. Lately, we have observed a lot of peculiar forum behavior.

Same things here. No notification for TOTM Jan 2024 when I got it.