I am full of grief and coffee

[EvilotionCR2]

Well,Kathryn Janeway would approve on your use of coffee.

[Ifandbut]

I love how you are getting the atmospheric reentry effect while LEAVING the atmosphere.

[technicalfool]

Small bit of advice: If you're causing plasma trails going up, you're going too fast. Slow down, your fuel consumption will probably go down too!

Admittedly though, that is all kinds of awesome.

Admittedly also, after eighty boosters, it probably doesn't matter how inefficient the launch is. Remember the most important principle of flight:

Anything, anything can fly. You just need to throw it hard enough.

[Whackjob]

I love how you are getting the atmospheric reentry effect while LEAVING the atmosphere.

That's my favorite too!

Small bit of advice: If you're causing plasma trails going up, you're going too fast. Slow down, your fuel consumption will probably go down too!

Admittedly though, that is all kinds of awesome.

Admittedly also, after eighty boosters, it probably doesn't matter how inefficient the launch is. Remember the most important principle of flight:

Anything, anything can fly. You just need to throw it hard enough.

That liftoff was with no boosters at all. That's all the machine. I think tonight, though, I'm going to keep it to 130m/s until 13,000 meters, then goose it to maybe only 500m/s to get a good arc, then burn from there into orbit. I'll try it again sans boosters, and see if I make it.

HRM! Given that I can get atmospheric ramming from a takeoff, I'm am SORELY tempted to put a command chair on top and see how well Jebediah takes high temperature atmospheric ablation.

... nah, I'm not that cruel.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Aphox
Merged multiposts

[Razor235]

Finally got around to testing the first ship (Arkingthaad). Things went as expected.

View the album here.

The fins at the end infiniglided until they hit the 2.5km hard kill boundary.

[Whackjob]

Hrm. I might do something else tonight... it occurs to me that I still have a lot of room to work with. Why don't I pad the innards out a bit? Living quarters, machine shop, cafeteria? Put a lower carriage on it with wheels, turn it into a behemoth rover? Maybe a landing deck on top for incoming landers and VTOL craft?

[Whackjob]

Finally got around to testing the first ship (Arkingthaad). Things went as expected.

View the album here.

The fins at the end infiniglided until they hit the 2.5km hard kill boundary.

Hehe! Oh, man. That ship seems so simple and archaic compared to with what I'm working on now I've come a long way in a few short days.

[Razor235]

Hehe! Oh, man. That ship seems so simple and archaic compared to with what I'm working on now I've come a long way in a few short days.

Indeed you have!

[Whackjob]

Indeed you have!

Aye. One way or another, tonight, I'm putting that Monstrosity on the Mun. Though I admit, I am seriously tempted to rover-out that flying pancake. If done right, it'd be amazing. Though the FPS would probably be crazy slow.

[msyblade]

I must admit your passion and dedication to improving, is inspiring whackjob. You've really taken to this game and community, Kudos!

[Spatzimaus]

That ship seems so simple and archaic compared to with what I'm working on now

It's an inevitable consequence of KSP addiction. You're designing things, and they seem really awesome at the time, but once you get on a building binge you start evolving the designs so fast it's hard to believe. Then you look back at your old designs and they just seem so primitive; they might still work just fine, but so much has changed since you first made them that you can easily spot all the inefficiencies and such.

One thing that'll change in the near future is this: once you mothball this design and start traveling to other planets, you won't have the luxury of constant design tweaking. You'll have to get it right before you go, and that means test runs. For instance, my Grand Tour vessel did three test flights, consisting of docking with a space station in LKO, landing on Mun and drilling for Kethane, meeting up with a tanker vessel in Minmus orbit, and returning to Kerbin. On those flights, I was able to spot pretty much everything wrong with the design, so that when it was time to travel to Duna, Jool, etc. I wouldn't have any major surprises.

[Whackjob]

Hehe! This morning's flight was my eleventh thus far with the AEIA Mk2 And I'm nowhere near done, especially with the Rover-izing I'm planning for tonight. Now THAT is going to be interesting. A four deck living area in the central carousel, ladders, and the wheeled carriage system... that's gonna be a real tough adaptation. That, and it'll raise the part count real high on something with an already absurd part count. I might succeed in the design, succeed in the launch, and land on the mun successfully, but driving? At 0.3 fps estimated? Gonna roll that thing.

[Aragosnat]

HRM! Given that I can get atmospheric ramming from a takeoff, I'm am SORELY tempted to put a command chair on top and see how well Jebediah takes high temperature atmospheric ablation.

... nah, I'm not that cruel.

They can live through re-entry and he is even smilling too.

[Whackjob]

Haha! Nice.

Anyone know how I can get the part count off my machine? I'm just curious how many bits and bolts I've put into it.

[arq]

If you save it, then click 'Load' in the VAB/SPH it will tell you the part count of every saved vessel. Or, in flight, go to the map view, focus your vessel, and look at the info tabs on the right side of the screen.

[Whackjob]

Ok! Thank you. I will go home from work shortly. I will dig up the part count of my beloved monster, then get to work adding on to it.

[tfm]

KSP is an Entertainment Engine that runs on the Resource "free time" it's ISP is lousy but it's got a hell of alot of thrust

Wow, that is so bloody true!

[Whackjob]

Good god. Ok, here's the deal. The Mk2, which I had so many plans for, is actually getting mothballed. I just had a "!" moment in the manner of Dwarf Fortress. The Mk3 is under construction now. I've got a much better plan for both the engine layout and how to handle the fuel cells so they don't wreck my structure.

Wish me luck.

[Spatzimaus]

I just had a "!" moment in the manner of Dwarf Fortress.

As long as it doesn't end up like Boatmurdered, you'll be fine. I mean, KSP has a lot of explosions, but it's not like you see one kerbonaut killing another while on fire...

[KSP orbiter]

Ok, here's where I got to tonight. I didn't do a Mk3 yet. I decided to finish this one. Still needs some tweaking... I still can't steer well.

I'm not surprised that it doesn't steer well. I'm surprised that it steers at all.

[el_coyoto]

Good god. Ok, here's the deal. The Mk2, which I had so many plans for, is actually getting mothballed. I just had a "!" moment in the manner of Dwarf Fortress. The Mk3 is under construction now. I've got a much better plan for both the engine layout and how to handle the fuel cells so they don't wreck my structure.

Wish me luck.

Ah ah, you need to build ‼bigger‼ and with MOAR MAGMA!

Can't wait to see your MK3 iteration tough!

It's really fun to see the evolution of your designs and skill over the last 2 weeks.

Have a nice flight and beware of the Space Kraken!

Edited June 25, 2013 by el_coyoto
grammar

[Nao]

As long as it doesn't end up like Boatmurdered, you'll be fine. I mean, KSP has a lot of explosions, but it's not like you see one kerbonaut killing another while on fire...

We need to find space mermaids and get the merbone/mersoap/merwhatnot industry going! (a reference thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25967.0)

Edited June 25, 2013 by Nao

[Whackjob]

The Mk3 is not coming along nicely. I've gone through about seven different permutations and they all don't work in the way I want. I'm putting it aside for the moment. I need to spend some time mulling it over.

[Aragosnat]

Put up a picture and maybe we will be able to help. Or send you down dark paths.

[Devo]

It's one thing to be wrong. It's something altogether different when you're wrong because you know you did something stupid.

I've seen KSP on Steam. I even watched the one video that was up there for it. You know the one... the guy takes his helmet off on the Mun. I saw it, I considered it, and I discarded it out of hand. I'd been burned by shallow, boring indie games before on Steam, you see. Not that that is any kind of acceptable excuse. And so I carried along, sans rocketry.

Then yesterday I run afoul of a certain JREF thread. Specifically, this one: JREF

The name recognition got me, I clicked the link to see what about this game had managed to entrall enough JREF posters to merit a multipage thread. And I saw those pictures. I read the enthusiasm people have for this game. And I reconsidered.

I went home that day, downloaded the demo for KSP, and took it for a spin. Specifically, a flat spin from about four kilometers up that ended in a fireball, a handful of crushed field mice, and a topsoil depth crater sufficient enough to give all the world's landscapers nightmares. I was enthused; the Kerban was dead. What I had initially took for a goofy, non-complexity based game completely devoid of realism or challenge actually concealed large measures of both.

So then the grief strikes. If I'd only been around a few months earlier, I could've been there, at the launch pad, with the rest of you, as this strange machine was fueling up. Instead, I have to cling meekly from the outside. Peering in through a tiny window. Wondering if you guys have coffee in there.

I bet it's great coffee.

So, that's it. That's my failure. I relapsed to the whole judging/book/cover combo fallacy, and my lapse is now revealed to all. I am sorry. I will make amends by buying this game. I will enjoy it. I know I will; I got three hours of sleep last night because I spent my usual scheduled coma time towards building a reliable heavy lift booster system. And now I post here, full of grief and coffee. I look on it as a learning mechanism; Even the finest of brews can come from the strangest looking grounds. You do a disservice only to yourself by opting out and not at least trying it out with a bit of half and half and sugar.

~Whackjob

It's never too late, some coffee strains are an acquired taste, but you got there in the end