I don't know for you guys, but I'm satisfied.

[stupid_chris]

I don't know what you guys think about today's release of the KSP Weekly, but I must admit I'm extremely satisfied to see what the developers have been working on. Let's go through it:

Set up progress-tracking system, also figured out how to set up vessel recovery with the new scene flow.

The end flight logic is something that was forwned upon by a lot of members, and when I learned they were re-doing it for the next update I was really pleased. Then seeing Harv posting this blog last week showing us a new pathway already planned out, I was impressed. Now we can pretty much confirm it's being fully implemented. Plus the progress-tracking system is one of the first steps towards career mode. I have nothing else to say but good work.

I’ve been working on new SAS / ASAS behavior for the last week. We’re aiming to reduce or eliminate the oscillations that happen in the current system. We’re also removing the automatic torque from command pods and replacing it with a reaction wheel system. The new reaction wheels will actually require power to operate.

GOD YES. A reworking of the ASAS and SAS has been long awaited and I think everyone was more than done with this overly sensitive ASAS we had. I nearly screamed at my screen when I saw that. Plus the reaction wheel idea is something I had already took the time to propose in the development thread and I must say I'm extremely happy to see it's going in the next update!

I’ve been implementing a whole new way of maintaining the solar system that makes the game persistent across all scenes. There is real game scenery, time-progression and a new camera system in the Space Centre. Tuned up the scene startup for all scenes, the transition from VAB to pad is now rather slick. Also crafted a number of new shaders for Artyom to work his magic with and made some tweaks to the planetary normal mapping shader.

Can't help but think this will be some of the most practical under the hood work done for the past two updates. VAB camera rehaul will be really appreciated by everyone

Working on a new vessel launch dialog to go in the space center. You will be able to assign crew members to the vessel from here

I think we've all been waiting for this haven't we. CrewManifest might become a bit obsolete but I'm glad to know this feature is coming to the vanilla game!

Reworking the space center buildings, which is a pretty refreshing stuff after making a hundred of spaceplane parts. Just finished a variety of prop sets for those new buildings. It's pretty similar to creating actual craft parts, dozens of them, except this time those are pieces that can be used to spice up architecture: HVAC systems, crates, lights, cute little service vehicles, doors, windows and so on. With those done, you can save massive amount of memory and time, getting nice crisp details on surfaces stretching hundreds of meters.

Sweet jesus. This is going to be eye candy I can feel it.

Added Sketchfab plugin to KSP Forums site and worked on CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

The first will be very practical on the forum, and for the later, well I guess it must be some important stuff and we'll have to wait

Made some new kinds of Kerbal, one of them is the kerbal recruit that will be used in Romfarer’s UI (will do a web blog post eventually, probably after 0.21 with more details). Making one big animation containing all the Kerbal Shorts.

New Kerbals??????? Woah this will be interesting! We'll finally see some diversity out of this sea of similar faces

I’m working on database schema designs for Kerbal Spaceport 2.0 (more on this later), also trying to play around with TokuDB for MariaDB on a testing server to see if it can speed up the spaceport/forums server a bit during the weekends. Didn’t get too far due to network problems on my end and buildkit issues (probably caused by trying to compile a 64-bit app on a 32-bit system). Trying again on an 64-bit TF2 server I host that also hosts a few databases, although I won’t be able to properly stress-test it. Have to reinstall that server, first, though. Oh yeah, also the usual security stuff on the current edition of spaceport. Fun.

Nexis, the guy who screams at the forums servers. No but seriously I think we can all see he's working really hard to make the servers work properly and it doesn't seem to be an easy job. Props to him. Glad to know there will be a Spaceport overhaul, it's beginning to be quite buggy :l

Anyway guys, I don't know for you, but I'm getting real pumped for this! Can't wait to see what the next week will bring

Edited June 18, 2013 by stupid_chris

[LaydeeDem]

Yeah. This week's KSP weekly was a HUGE improvement over the last one. I'm very excited by the dev updates too.

[technicalfool]

Improvements to ASAS? Can't come soon enough!

Shouldn't be all that mathematically difficult either, to make the amount of thruster force depending on some function of F(degrees_to_target) + F(current_rotation_speed) on each axis with say, a dead zone of some fraction of a degree/radian around the target orientation. That or do it the hardcoded way with a whole bunch of IFs or switch/case statements.

I'm going to love being able to hit "escape" on Gilly and be able to exit without destroying the rover.

Edited June 18, 2013 by technicalfool

[Uberick]

I'm personally very excited. . . the introduction of reaction wheels and the ASAS fixes are the most important to me at this point. I'm also very excited to see some of the groundwork for career mode being laid!

[Sir Nahme]

I am most certainly not satisfied.

Excited more like it

[Echostatic]

This all sounds really great

[stupid_chris]

I can't wait to see how Artyom is going to "work his magic" on the KSC scenery, this guy is a machine

[Bunsen]

Improvements to ASAS? Can't come soon enough!

Shouldn't be all that mathematically difficult either, to make the amount of thruster force depending on some function of F(degrees_to_target) + F(current_rotation_speed) on each axis with say, a dead zone of some fraction of a degree/radian around the target orientation.

That's what it's already doing (PID control based on angular momentum, I believe), but with no dead zone. The problem, as I understand it, is that flexing of the craft severely screws with that algorithm, and you can't change its target attitude without shutting it off. I was just discussing how the vibration problem happens in a thread about improving ASAS, and it sounds like Harv et al. are working on a solution for that now, as well as letting your manual control inputs move the set point. I hope my physicsing helped a bit; it would be pretty awesome to be able to claim that I contributed to KSP.

I will also be happy to have a reason for putting solar panels on all those ships that didn't really need them.

[stupid_chris]

I will also be happy to have a reason for putting solar panels on all those ships that didn't really need them.

Yes! Makes much more sense than simply having a force spawning from command pods. And now we will actually be able to add more reaction wheels to help control, I'm really happy of this addition.

[sanity]

new kerbals!!!!!, YES!!!, Ive always wanted to take the engineering kerbals and science kerbals from the VAB on flights with me, having inly pilot kerbals seems a bit strange

obviously theyll need red (engineering) and blue/green (science) space suits to go with the gold worn by jeb and co

Edited June 19, 2013 by sanity

[Merinsan]

I was not simply satisfied, and to keep it polite I'll say I was quite excited by what I read.

It's fantastic to hear what is going on, and things that are on the horizon (even though they may not be 0.21).

[Merinsan]

new kerbals!!!!!, YES!!!, Ive always wanted to take the engineering kerbals and science kerbals from the VAB on flights with me, having inly pilot kerbals seems a bit strange

obviously theyll need red (engineering) and blue/green (science) space suits to go with the gold worn by jeb and co

I wonder if you took science Kerbals up, if they could survive the crazy Gs and crazy piloting most of us subject them to...

[technicalfool]

That's what it's already doing (PID control based on angular momentum, I believe), but with no dead zone. The problem, as I understand it, is that flexing of the craft severely screws with that algorithm, and you can't change its target attitude without shutting it off. I was just discussing how the vibration problem happens in a thread about improving ASAS, and it sounds like Harv et al. are working on a solution for that now, as well as letting your manual control inputs move the set point. I hope my physicsing helped a bit; it would be pretty awesome to be able to claim that I contributed to KSP.

I will also be happy to have a reason for putting solar panels on all those ships that didn't really need them.

Now that's a pretty damend awesome (and pretty damned heavy) thread.

I'm wondering how much extra computational effort it would be, to measure part rotation at various points along the rocket? If the part is kiffed by more than a certain amount from the CoM rotation, then something's wobbling. It's gone 2am here and I really don't have the energy to think about how to calculate it, but there must be a way to moderate the amount of power going into each RCS thruster depending on the wobble magnitude/frequency of nearby parts? Of course if you put your RCS thrusters/reaction wheels/whatever in silly places, or if you try and build a rocket with the proportions of a straightened out cumberland sausage with few strengthening struts, then you're going to have problems no matter what algorithms you use. Hopefully the problems will be reduced from "shaking itself apart" to "turning really slowly" though.

"Wobble magnitude". Scientific term, that.