The ARM megathread

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

To make the wait for the ARM release a bit shorter I thought it might be good idea to offer a makeshift challenge to anyone interested in how 3000 ton payload handles in free space. Of course I cannot provide any new parts or improved maneuver nodes but if you manage to finish this challenge, you should be comfortable doing actual ARM missions

Um, yeah, I've already tried that in the sandbox game I made just for doing challenges, subbing the claw for a shielded docking port and 4 standard landing legs until the patch comes out... and I can now see why they have the NASA parts in the patch! the drag alone was hard enough to try and compensate for >.<

[FlexGunship]

Aww. Part of me is actually disappointed. I liked the idea of kerbals considering four rotations of their planet one calendar day.

Four simultaneous days in the TimeKube?

[Goatgas]

Is the ARM update part of the career path with tech tree?( I would hope so!) also can we mine for resources from asteroids? I have not seen anything that states so. From what I have found or read, is that all you can do is redirect the asteroids. Fun at first.. but then quickly boring after the first few captures and redirects.

[Sandworm]

The asteroids seem to be nothing more than procedurally-generated parts spawned floating in space. They likely use standard cfg descriptions. So adding resources to them, be it kethane, liquidfuel, or gatorade should be very simple. Making each unique or random might be tricky, but setting amounts for each class shouldn't. For the mission controller mod, I would add a unique "roid dirt" resource to be retrieved and returned for science/cash. Any mission writer could do that.

What would be extremely difficult, impossible imho, would be kethane-style resources physically located in specific areas of a particular rock. Unlike the planets, they seem to be procedurally generated. (Muns craters are procedural, but its shape is not).

[NovaSilisko]

Note the distinction between "procedurally generated" and "randomly generated". One does not imply the other - random generation is procedural generation with a random seed. The planets are procedural (or in most cases, a heightmap with procedurally generated detail on top), but always have the same generation seed, and always are the same for all players.

[Kasuha]

subbing the claw for a shielded docking port and 4 standard landing legs until the patch comes out...

The problem is, you can use either claw/docking port or landing legs. Not both. As soon as you dock, your landing legs will go right through the asteroid as it became part of your ship.

[Sandworm]

More activity on steam. It looks like three packages to the experimentals have been updated twice this afternoon. I've been looking at the file sizes and they seem to correspond to the relative mac/win/linux packages (linux is slightly bigger). So someone at squad is working through the weekend and is pushing material to the experimentals.

[MKI]

Is the ARM update part of the career path with tech tree?( I would hope so!) also can we mine for resources from asteroids? I have not seen anything that states so. From what I have found or read, is that all you can do is redirect the asteroids. Fun at first.. but then quickly boring after the first few captures and redirects.

Yes the ARM update is part of career as far as i know. It is HIGHLY implied, as the Dev's have said the new parts are designed to be better and plain replacements of earlier parts in the Tech tree. As the current parts are balanced against each other, the NASA parts are bigger and better, and will replace much larger launch systems easily.

And no resources for asteroids, there's already talk about how asteroids should be easy to mod, so it shouldn't take long for a mod for that.

I do have to admit i also think after a while the Capturing of an asteroid may lose its luster. But its is a pretty challenging mission in a few aspects, and is very much a step between Mun/Minimus and planetary missions. Regardless of the Asteroids or not, the new parts are very VERY interesting, the Claw offers many interesting opportunities, and game play changes. If the claw isn't your thing, we have gigantic parts that will finally give players the ability to make Saturn rockets, and massive launch stages without super high part counts.

You also must not forget the Unity changes, and how it will remove a large amount of Ship wobble, which i feel is the BEST part of the update by far.

[problemecium]

So someone at squad is working through the weekend and is pushing material to the experimentals.

Did I mention I predicted Tuesday? Okay, to be fair I didn't know it'd happen to be April Fool's Day, so probably Monday or Wednesday realistically. Or maybe Tuesday after all? I'd like to see what SQUAD comes up with, if anything, for April Fool's.

...come to think of it, given that my birthday's this week, a new KSP would make a sweet birthday present ^^

[KvickFlygarn87]

What if... They dropped it April 1st and people would go like "lulz, nice try nubs" and only some would download to check, reducing server loads?

IT'S A MASTERPLAN!

[r4pt0r]

i cant play tuesday, goat simulator comes out that day

[KvickFlygarn87]

Here's what we can say: If they pull an April's fool prank on us, it'll most likely be ARM related.

[Koolkei]

Yes the ARM update is part of career as far as i know. It is HIGHLY implied, as the Dev's have said the new parts are designed to be better and plain replacements of earlier parts in the Tech tree. As the current parts are balanced against each other, the NASA parts are bigger and better, and will replace much larger launch systems easily.

And no resources for asteroids, there's already talk about how asteroids should be easy to mod, so it shouldn't take long for a mod for that.

I do have to admit i also think after a while the Capturing of an asteroid may lose its luster. But its is a pretty challenging mission in a few aspects, and is very much a step between Mun/Minimus and planetary missions. Regardless of the Asteroids or not, the new parts are very VERY interesting, the Claw offers many interesting opportunities, and game play changes. If the claw isn't your thing, we have gigantic parts that will finally give players the ability to make Saturn rockets, and massive launch stages without super high part counts.

You also must not forget the Unity changes, and how it will remove a large amount of Ship wobble, which i feel is the BEST part of the update by far.

wait"

i've never heard of any game engine changes....

so it's game engine optimization now? are they updating to a much newer unity or even the latest version when the update happens??

when if it is so.... (especially if unity could take advantage of more than 2 cores)

it would be heaven....

im an AMD laptop user. a lower thread performance compared to intel yet lower in clock speed but double the number of cores, tottally doesnt help to run KSP smooth at all.

(i couldnt fly a ship/rocket/plane with more than 120parts without dropping the FPS to 15 or under)

Here's what we can say: If they pull an April's fool prank on us, it'll most likely be ARM related.

almost forgot about this one..... damn

[CalculusWarrior]

If it is released on April 1st, I can just see this scenario playing out:

"Hey Gene, April Fools!"

"What are you talking about, Jeb? You haven't pulled any of your usual pranks."

"Look up!"

"What the--? Jeb, is that a Class E asteroid?"

"Yup"

"Headed straight towards the KSC?"

"Yup"

"And is that you hanging off the back, attached to The Claw?"

"Yup!"

"Sigh..."

[KvickFlygarn87]

so it's game engine optimization now? are they updating to a much newer unity or even the latest version when the update happens??

Well, they are. But the latest isn't Unity 5. The latest is Unity 4.3.5.

Edited March 30, 2014 by KvickFlygarn87
Fixed version

[NovaSilisko]

Well, they are. But the latest isn't Unity 5. The latest is (IIRC) Unity 4.3.2. Do not quote me on this, that's just a rough number from memory.

Latest is 4.3.4.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Latest is 4.3.4.

Ah, thanks!

[MKI]

wait"

i've never heard of any game engine changes....

so it's game engine optimization now? are they updating to a much newer unity or even the latest version when the update happens??

when if it is so.... (especially if unity could take advantage of more than 2 cores)

it would be heaven....

im an AMD laptop user. a lower thread performance compared to intel yet lower in clock speed but double the number of cores, tottally doesnt help to run KSP smooth at all.

(i couldnt fly a ship/rocket/plane with more than 120parts without dropping the FPS to 15 or under)

Because of some changes with the patch conic (i think thats it) the game will actually run a little slower (in theory) because of the maneuver-node changes among other things.

You probably wont be able to tell the difference, but the Dev's have stated this patch will run slower in some areas and have done their best to minimize the increase.

[Magion]

What if... They dropped it April 1st and people would go like "lulz, nice try nubs" and only some would download to check, reducing server loads?

IT'S A MASTERPLAN!

People are so much looking forward to this update, so I think, that they would be checking steam/store nevertheless.

[The Destroyer]

Or...

Jeb: Hey Gene, april fools!

Gene: What?

*Extreme Vibrations*

Gene: How did you get hold of THOSE parts?

Jeb: Magic.

Gene: And what's it carrying?

Jeb: Oh, just a 3000 ton asteroid, nothing to be worried about. Just gonna visit Bill and Bob at the space station.

Gene: You don't pla-

Jeb: Yes, I do.

[Koolkei]

Because of some changes with the patch conic (i think thats it) the game will actually run a little slower (in theory) because of the maneuver-node changes among other things.

You probably wont be able to tell the difference, but the Dev's have stated this patch will run slower in some areas and have done their best to minimize the increase.

well that's just great.... an update that slows down the game instead of speed it up....

yes i know you said it's minimal... but for someone who is already suffers from extreme case of chronic lag

i dont need to say it do i?

update:

just looked about unity5

their claim

out this year

has newer physX (3.3)

better threaded performance (but doesnt say how? is it better utilization or more cores/thread able to be utilized?)

and better graphics (not that it matters much to the cartoon-like art of the kerbal world)

and the one everyone is waiting for

64-bit program which mean more memory could be allocated for KSP to be used( i dont, only have 4gigs of ram)

if it is better, unless KSP is updated again to use unity5. i prefer to wait for the engine until after unity5 is available....

well if it is as fast/slow as it is now or even slower, i guess i just need to try updating my driver then. to minimize the GPU bottleneck a bit

Edited March 30, 2014 by Koolkei

[NovaSilisko]

I wouldn't expect U5 out until very late in the year, not worth holding your breath for yet. Plus it'd likely be a massive undertaking reworking everything in KSP to work with the new features...

[KvickFlygarn87]

64-bit program which mean more memory could be allocated for KSP to be used

No, 64 bit editor. There is already 64 bit engine support, but on Windows and mac it is very crashy. The editor is what the devs use to create content.

[Koolkei]

I wouldn't expect U5 out until very late in the year, not worth holding your breath for yet. Plus it'd likely be a massive undertaking reworking everything in KSP to work with the new features...

that's why i said that.

if the engine would be updated then that means KSP will be pretty much going under major reworking...

which also means would be another looooooong time for another engine update..... especially update to 64-bit

[NecroBones]

i've never heard of any game engine changes....

so it's game engine optimization now? are they updating to a much newer unity or even the latest version when the update happens??

The main engine update that will be taken advantage of is an improved joint-physics model. Between that, and some other tweaks, the ARM update will have massively improved joint stability. We won't need 100+ struts on a heavy lifter, anymore.