Planet Ribbons Redux

[PTNLemay]

New Version!

That all looks very... complicated. Do you have all of the ribbons hidden away in there somewhere? I was able to find the "grand tour shield" easily enough, but I'm having trouble locating all of the others.

I take it that "SigRibbon8" is the standard layout of your ribbon and you change the colors to match the different planets and moons? Since the ribbon generator's gone down we're all going to have to learn to make our ribbons manually...

[Ezriilc]

Just a little note to drop a shameless plug. I'm pleased to announce the rebirth of the KSP Ribbon Generator. Moustachauve helped a great deal in getting the web app back up and running. You'll need to re-register, but I hope to keep it in its current home for a very long time. Please let me know if you have any problems, questions or suggestions.

Big thanks go out to Unistrut and everyone involved with the ribbons and the generator!

I'm working hard to get every ribbon and device I can. Go get yours today!

http://Ribbons.Kerbaltek.com

[irigi]

Thanks for bringing the ribbons back! You are awesome!

Actually, I have two questions about the return chevron.

1] Does it mean return from the SOI of the body or return from the surface? It seems to me than many people use it for the return from the SOI, but then almost everyone should have the return chevron of Kerbol, but nobody does that..

2] Does it refer to the icon of spacecraft with which it overlaps, or generally any spacecraft that returned? (For example if I land at Eve, the most impresive achievement is the lander. But if I brought some other spacecraft back from Eve and it didn't land, should I really combine the lander icon with the return chevron?

Thanks a lot!

[Ezriilc]

Thanks for bringing the ribbons back! You are awesome!

Actually, I have two questions about the return chevron.

1] Does it mean return from the SOI of the body or return from the surface? It seems to me than many people use it for the return from the SOI, but then almost everyone should have the return chevron of Kerbol, but nobody does that..

2] Does it refer to the icon of spacecraft with which it overlaps, or generally any spacecraft that returned? (For example if I land at Eve, the most impresive achievement is the lander. But if I brought some other spacecraft back from Eve and it didn't land, should I really combine the lander icon with the return chevron?

Thanks a lot!

http://i.imgur.com/O5L6QW9.png

You're very welcome, of course. But all I did was resurrect the generator written by Moustachauve, that uses the ribbon images created by Unistrut - the OP here.

Those are some good questions. Perhaps I could coordinate with Unistrut to put these in our FAQ on the generator site.

I sure hope the answers are: 1: SOI, and 2: any spacecraft. That's how I've been counting my achievements.

[rhoark]

Any chance the flag generator could expand the palette of craft types to match what's available for ribbons?

[Ezriilc]

Any chance the flag generator could expand the palette of craft types to match what's available for ribbons?

I'm not sure if this is off-topic for this thread or not. Perhaps we should move to the generator thread here. Anyway...

---

[scooby Doo voice] Huhrrrrr?

Is the generator not showing all devices?

I haven't actually looked into the images themselves, or to see if the code is using all of them, and I haven't read through all of the related threads, so please forgive my ignorance.

Please, if there is anything that's not perfect or complete, yell until it gets fixed!

I'm currently busy building a whole new back-end for the Kerbaltek sites, with new user tools, new encryption, and other basic stuff; but if the generator needs attention, I'll shift to fixing that.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Ezriilc

[rhoark]

It's not a new issue, or a bug in the generator. There just seem to be fewer of the large white craft icons made for flags than there were the small gold icons for ribbons. Airplanes, multi-part crafts, rovers, armadas, and resource drills would be nice to make flags of.

[Ezriilc]

It's not a new issue, or a bug in the generator. There just seem to be fewer of the large white craft icons made for flags than there were the small gold icons for ribbons. Airplanes, multi-part crafts, rovers, armadas, and resource drills would be nice to make flags of.

Oh, FLAGS! lulz... I've been so obsessed with the ribbons that I completely forgot about the flags.

That's a great idea, and in fact I was toying with the idea of putting more content into the flag generator - like the Kerbaltek flags, and user submitted content - once I get the new system working and whatnot.

Thanks for the input, rhoark. Much appreciated. I will create a To-Do list and add that to it.

[Eddie Rod]

Ribbon Suggestion: Space SSTO SeaPlane to Laythe and Eve! I was the first to land a seaplane SSTO on Laythe on YouTube and have proof below!

[Sky_walker]

That's an "aircraft" category.

As for the SSTO part... that's Single Stage - To Duna Orbit - or - To Kerbal Orbit Then Duna Landing - or To Kerbal Orbit then multistage to Duna... and if we're on that - refueling in space is allowed or not?

[Fenris]

Love this idea (granted it's been around awhile and I'm just catching up). Well off to send probes to every planet for more ribbons

[nine_iron]

Recently updated mine.

NOTE: The black band on Ike is in memory of the fallen Kerbals who shall never be forgotten. An ill planned gravity assist out of Duna SOI impacted Ike with the loss of all 3 hands.

I used to have an impactor icon as I had yet to land on Duna (mission was a flyby and return after landing was aborted due to a staging error). Now I have flown multiple missions to the planet I will update the ribbon but never remove the black band.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

A question about people's thoughts on the Extreme EVA device. The lander landed on Minmus, and Bill got out and decided to see if the rumor that the jetpack was enough to get into orbit were true. It was -- and in fact, he turned out to have enough fuel to land afterwards as well. Even though he waited three days to let the landing site pass back under his orbit, he still landed about 8 km from the lander and, having spent all of his fuel, he had to walk all the way back to the lander. He was a bit miffed to learn that his hike wasn't enough to get the Surface Navigation device, but 8 km was easier on his legs than 30 would have been. Did he earn his Extreme EVA device, or did he take off and land in the wrong order?

(There was no attempt whatsoever to have the lander rendezvous with him in space, and if there was, the lander certainly didn't try to intercept him by making a low orbit that turned out to intersect with a cliff, and I most definitely didn't revert to an earlier quicksave after that, nor did I reload said quicksave after failing to slow Bill down enough on the landing, and this is absolutely not the reason that my Minmus ribbon will have a black stripe on it, no sir.)

Also, a couple of suggestions for challenge wreaths:

• Duna: Achieve a "Duna Cycler" trajectory akin to the "Mars Cycler" concept advanced by Buzz Aldrin (among others). The spacecraft should get "passed" between Kerbin and Duna using gravity slingshots only -- that is, it should not close its orbit around either planet. It may still require a hefty amount of fuel -- a pure "Aldrin cycler" would scream by Earth at 15,000 mph and Mars at 22,000 mph, which would require a great big rocket to catch up to it and connect, but at least the crew wouldn't need to bring their own radiation shielding on each trip. Aldrin suggests in this Popular Mechanics article that we could also use a "semi-cycler" that would aerobrake at Mars to slow down enough so that a rocket from Mars wouldn't need to be so big to catch the ride home, but the semi-cycler would have to be topped off more frequently.
  
  • Maybe this would be better implemented as an award on the Grand Tour shield, since a spacecraft can cycle between any two planets (or probably any number of planets, if you're willing to make a long enough cycle and/or burn enough fuel), perhaps as a band, loop, or arch linking the endpoints.
    

  [*]Laythe: I like the jet challenge from earlier in the thread, but maybe something related to landing and taking off again from/in a boat might work? It's certainly a fairly unique challenge, though I suppose doing an aquatic mission would be harder still on Eve.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Kerbas_ad_astra

[Thunderous Echo]

KerbalTek's ribbon generator website doesn't support Grand Tour shields, and I don't have Photoshop. Can you release the DIY kit as PNGs?

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Photoshop isn't necessary. Unistrut's file packages include .xcf files which can be edited using GIMP.

[Ezriilc]

KerbalTek's ribbon generator website doesn't support Grand Tour shields...

Very soon!

[Thunderous Echo]

Very soon!

Well, I have plenty of time. I still have over half the celestial planets to go.

You define a Grand Tour as "when a vessel has visited (entered the SOI of) more than two worlds."

If you took this literally, flying by the Mun and Minmus would give you a fabulous Grand Tour Shield.

In addition, visiting just two planets is not the generally accepted definition of what a Grand Tour is.

Popular Opinion defines a Grand Tour this way:

...a grand tour is any mission that lands on all the planets without refueling...

Single craft leaving Kerbin's orbit to enter orbit around each body in the system and landing (and returning) a probecore or kerbal on each of them excluding Jool and Kerbol (sun)...

In MY opinion, a grand tour is any mission that lands on all the planets...

Visiting every planet and moon with the same lander and mothership. Refueling is just fine.

Source: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48690-How-would-you-define-a-Grand-Tour

Also, the Grand Tour Shield seems like something recognizable, and it would be a shame for two people to have a very similar-looking badge when one of them has been to Mun and Minmus and the other one has been to the surface of all the celestial bodies in the Kerbol System in one mission.

What I'm suggesting is either raising the bar to attain a shield to the popular view of a Grand Tour, or maybe add a Kerbol Grand Tour 7-pointed Star. Or something.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Thunderous Echo

[Ezriilc]

Well, I have plenty of time. I still have over half the celestial planets to go.

You define a Grand Tour as "when a vessel has visited (entered the SOI of) more than two worlds."

If you took this literally, flying by the Mun and Minmus would give you a fabulous Grand Tour Shield.

In addition, visiting just two planets is not the generally accepted definition of what a Grand Tour is.

Popular Opinion defines a Grand Tour this way:

Source: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48690-How-would-you-define-a-Grand-Tour

Also, the Grand Tour Shield seems like something recognizable, and it would be a shame for two people to have a very similar-looking badge when one of them has been to Mun and Minmus and the other one has been to the surface of all the celestial bodies in the Kerbol System in one mission.

What I'm suggesting is either raising the bar to attain a shield to the popular view of a Grand Tour, or maybe add a Kerbol Grand Tour 7-pointed Star. Or something.

Remember, I don't make the images or the rules, I just program the app that uses them. I'm also pretty new to this discussion, so I'm in no position to make decisions. I do, however think that what Unistrut has told me about the new shield and it's requirements is reasonable and well scaled. There are many devices that can be added to the shield as one achieves more destinations and feats around the system, so the difference between just 2 bodies visited and all of them is quite dramatic in that sense, IMHO.

I hope to have Ribbons 2.0 ready for testing in the next week or so. Here's a sneak peak using the latest artwork by Unistrut.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Ezriilc

[Thunderous Echo]

Yeah, most of that post was actually aimed at Unistrut.

I thought he still watched this thread. I might have to message him with this.

But yeah, I will be using that shield creator if he doesn't like my reforms!

[Ezriilc]

Yeah, most of that post was actually aimed at Unistrut.

I thought he still watched this thread. I might have to message him with this.

But yeah, I will be using that shield creator if he doesn't like my reforms!

Just know that my plan is and has always been to build my generator in keeping with Unistrut's wishes - whatever they may be.

[Unistrut]

Sorry, I've been busier than a one legged gentleman in a bottom kicking contest recently (ask Ezriilc about my dropping off the face of the earth for something like two months while he was waiting for an answer)...

In general though I'm not too picky about the order of things, so if you've achieved orbit and then landed using only your MMU that's a pretty extreme EVA. I'm not going to quibble that you should have dropped from orbit first.

As for the shield I could see making the change to require a second, non-Kerbin planetary SOI. That was the whole point of the original grand tour anyway - visiting multiple planets. As for all the other details ... part of what I refuse to do is get involved in any "well you aren't really playing the game unless you do/do not X" discussions. If someone wants to just do flybys and another person wants to Land On Everything then that's great! Have fun! If you want to refuel a mission go for it! Anyone who says that mid-mission refuelings are "easy mode" hasn't really grasped how much fun it is to meet up with a ship in Joolian orbit and dodge a half dozen moons with a fuel barge.

The GTS is designed so that it is possible to get an idea of what you got up to while you were out there, be it landings or orbitings or whatever.

EDIT - WRONG BRACKETS

[Unistrut]

1] Does it mean return from the SOI of the body or return from the surface? It seems to me than many people use it for the return from the SOI, but then almost everyone should have the return chevron of Kerbol, but nobody does that..

2] Does it refer to the icon of spacecraft with which it overlaps, or generally any spacecraft that returned? (For example if I land at Eve, the most impresive achievement is the lander. But if I brought some other spacecraft back from Eve and it didn't land, should I really combine the lander icon with the return chevron?

http://i.imgur.com/O5L6QW9.png

1 - Yeah, most folks should have one for Kerbol. They just don't think about it since it wasn't the goal of the mission and I'm not going to waste my heartbeats wandering around shaking my fist at them.

2 - The return chevron is just a general "Hey, I managed to get here and get back!" Not necessarily linked to the craft you got back. Yes, it can be a little vague. For the really spectacular returns (Eve and Tylo) there are challenge wreaths.

[Unistrut]

NOTE: The black band on Ike is in memory of the fallen Kerbals who shall never be forgotten. An ill planned gravity assist out of Duna SOI impacted Ike with the loss of all 3 hands.

I used to have an impactor icon as I had yet to land on Duna (mission was a flyby and return after landing was aborted due to a staging error). Now I have flown multiple missions to the planet I will update the ribbon but never remove the black band.

That's what it's for. To remember. My band on Laythe is to remind me of a spaceplane pilot I lost while I wan't paying attention.

[Thunderous Echo]

Alright, thank you for considering my revisions. I expected that I didn't understand your dream as well as you.

[JenBurdoo]

Where can I find the asteroid ribbon? I don't see it on Kerbaltek.