.24 Preview Vids are on Youtube

[Superfluous J]

Hey is it just me or is the grammar in those mission descriptions utterly horrific?!?!

Listen to the commentary instead of reading the descriptions In every video I've seen (except Danny's but he's an exception) they say that the mission texts are procedurally generated. It's hard to do that right. And frankly I'd rather they be like they are now than wait a week or to for them to fix it.

[Renegrade]

To pass the time, I've been playing 0.13.3.

http://i.imgur.com/Ty1xSpp.jpg

So far, I've been having fun!

I tried this out too after seeing this post - I've noticed that the throttle defaults to 50% in 0.13.3..... interesting. WHat was that about a full circle?

[Alshain]

Pun intended? Because a full circle is sometimes an orbit!

That is correct

[Whirligig Girl]

I've written up why there are orbiting Kerbals.

[Whirligig Girl]

I tried this out too after seeing this post - I've noticed that the throttle defaults to 50% in 0.13.3..... interesting. What was that about a full circle?

Yeah, that's why I was confused. It was, I believe, In 0.15 they made it default at 0% throttle, and now they're bringing it back.

[Amihan]

All this talk of procedurally generated flavor text makes me yearn for KSP Madlibs. I'm sure that would be easier to make... consistently coherent

[Renegrade]

Yeah, that's why I was confused. It was, I believe, In 0.15 they made it default at 0% throttle, and now they're bringing it back.

Yeah, kinda odd. I guess 50% is what the trendy astronauts are wearing this season?

Actually..speaking of throttles...how come there isn't a 100% throttle KEY? You know, like how 'X' cuts it to zero? You can simulate it by toggling the engines off, slowly shift-ing to full power, and then toggling them back on.. but why no key?

[cpast]

If I had to guess, it's because accidentally cutting the throttle is less likely to lead to disaster than accidentally turning it all the way up.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, kinda odd. I guess 50% is what the trendy astronauts are wearing this season?

I suspect this may come down to:

"We keep getting tech support requests from people saying their liquid engines aren't working".

"Ok, why don't we set the throttle to 100% by default?"

"Then we'll get tech support requests from people saying their engines keep blowing up"

"Ok, let's set it to 50%"

Granted, I think it would probably be better to instruct players that there is a throttle and how to use it (I'm not sure masking the problem by crippling the player's rocket at 50% thrust instead of emphasizing the problem by having the engines not work is wise), but I suspect the above was the reasoning behind it

Edited July 15, 2014 by FlowerChild

[Renegrade]

If I had to guess, it's because accidentally cutting the throttle is less likely to lead to disaster than accidentally turning it all the way up.

True, but then again premature staging is even more dangerous, and we have a key for that... I'd be all for an unbound key for 'max throttle', that experts could enable by binding it to something...

Dammit FC Ninja~

"We keep getting tech support requests from people saying their liquid engines aren't working".

Y'know, that does make a good deal of sense (and I totally agree with the "teach a man to fish" sentiment at the end)... although I wonder how many people were flying around prior to 0.15 at 50% thrust because they had no idea hehe...

Edited July 15, 2014 by Renegrade

[FleetAdmiralJ]

if people didn't notice, 4kb has a lengthy video about 0.24 up on youtube now:

edit:

Watching this, one thing was apparently answered by 4kb:

He says debris is not refunded money if recovered, so it would have to be attached to a probe core or capsule to get money back for it. In most instances where people might recover stages (say, re-entering an upper stage from orbit) they may have a probe core on it anyway, but just be aware that that is apparently the case.

edit 2:

See the post below this one as to why this may not actually be the case

Edited July 15, 2014 by FleetAdmiralJ

[Renegrade]

He says debris is not refunded money if recovered, so it would have to be attached to a probe core or capsule to get money back for it. In most instances where people might recover stages (say, re-entering an upper stage from orbit) they may have a probe core on it anyway, but just be aware that that is apparently the case.

It isn't clear if he was actually recovering the debris... not everybody is aware that you can show and recover debris from the Tracking Station...

Since you can recover science from debris (ex. goo pods that fell off), it would be very weird if you couldn't recover value as well... especially considering "Debris" is actually just a ship that's automatically garbage collected after the limit is hit.

Of course, KSP is full of weird, so you never know...

[Alshain]

if people didn't notice, 4kb has a lengthy video about 0.24 up on youtube now:

edit:

Watching this, one thing was apparently answered by 4kb:

He says debris is not refunded money if recovered, so it would have to be attached to a probe core or capsule to get money back for it. In most instances where people might recover stages (say, re-entering an upper stage from orbit) they may have a probe core on it anyway, but just be aware that that is apparently the case.

That one was really detailed.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

It isn't clear if he was actually recovering the debris... not everybody is aware that you can show and recover debris from the Tracking Station...

Since you can recover science from debris (ex. goo pods that fell off), it would be very weird if you couldn't recover value as well... especially considering "Debris" is actually just a ship that's automatically garbage collected after the limit is hit.

Of course, KSP is full of weird, so you never know...

That is true. And actually now that I remember, I think one of the devs or testers said one should be able to recover resources from "debris," which would seem to contradict what he said. (he also said there weren't any new parts, which we know there are).

We didn't actually see him try (and fail) to get money back from debris in the video so we kinda have to take his work on that, but yeah yo make a good point too

[boxman]

They did say via Twitch that there will be a "difficulty" tab added via the debug menu that should crank down/up the profitability.

That sounds like very good news to me.

[Kerano]

Now I'm curious whether you could recover the money from a debris part by using a rover with a claw...

[rodion_herrera]

*With the lifting of the embargo on early access vids (if it has in fact been lifted, they goofed the timing of the .23.5 embargo) and the statements made during the twitch stream, I think it safe to say that public release is something closer than soon. Too bad I have to go to work in a couple hours.

Perhaps SQUAD is timing the release with the 45th Anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11?

[FleetAdmiralJ]

Now I'm curious whether you could recover the money from a debris part by using a rover with a claw...

If the thing about not recovering debris is true (see follow-up discussion on that above), then clawing it SHOULD work as it would be considered the same craft at that point. If you're that desperate to recover it

That sounds like very good news to me.

I'm not sure increasing difficulty changes science/money/reputation things at this point. They may have said that could be done in the future, but I haven't seen anything saying that changing difficulty settings actually changes rewards for this release.

edit: BTW if anyone else noticed, but after 3 days of no changes, there have been about a dozen updates to the game on the steamdb this afternoon. Hopefully they didn't find some new major bug at the last minute again that they're trying to squash T_T

Edited July 15, 2014 by FleetAdmiralJ

[ArmchairGravy]

I feel like a kid heading to DisneyWorld in a car.

Are we there yet?

How much longer?

Are we getting close?

*bounces on seat*

[mythic_fci]

Usually before the release of a major update, the devs will go on radio silence. There haven't been dev posts on Monday CST Time so far. That probably means it'll be released Tuesday or Wednesday CST Time.

[biohazard15]

With all that recovery stuff, it saddens me that with current 2,5km limit, we won't be able to reasonably replicate past and current reusable designs. Boosters with chutes will just vanish, and trying to switch to 1st stage to land it may not (and will not) end well.

[Holyvision]

Usually before the release of a major update, the devs will go on radio silence. There haven't been dev posts on Monday CST Time so far. That probably means it'll be released Tuesday or Wednesday CST Time.

If that is the case, I hope we don't have to wait until later times CST (like right now) for it to release.

Would love to be surprised and have a reason to stay up late tonight though... ;.;

[cpast]

With all that recovery stuff, it saddens me that with current 2,5km limit, we won't be able to reasonably replicate past and current reusable designs. Boosters with chutes will just vanish, and trying to switch to 1st stage to land it may not (and will not) end well.

There are a total of two designs in the history of orbital spacecraft (one past, one current) that reused dropped stages - the Space Shuttle (SRBs) and Falcon 9 (still in testing, but they have made a successful test flight). It's not a major issue for recreating historical craft.

[Whirligig Girl]

With all that recovery stuff, it saddens me that with current 2,5km limit, we won't be able to reasonably replicate past and current reusable designs. Boosters with chutes will just vanish, and trying to switch to 1st stage to land it may not (and will not) end well.

I've managed a booster design which barely works, but it's got an 80% rate of success. The first stage launches vertically, the second stage continues firing to bring time-to Ap up. The Booster has to be switched to before it hits 30km, or it will unload. I switch to it and I fire backwards until the path leads to KSC. Then I switch to the second stage and circularize the orbit. I rarely end up with maneuvering fuel to spare, and sometimes I don't make orbit. I REALLY hate the "no switching vessels in atmosphere" part.

I wish they would add some kind of "autopilot" module which really just allows a vessel to be fully loaded during the whole time if it has the part attached. Not an actual Autopilot, but it sort of fills the purpose.

[biohazard15]

There are a total of two designs in the history of orbital spacecraft (one past, one current) that reused dropped stages - the Space Shuttle (SRBs) and Falcon 9 (still in testing, but they have made a successful test flight). It's not a major issue for recreating historical craft.

I don't want to recreate craft, I want to use ideas. And the only currently viable idea for reusable launch system in KSP is SSTO.

What we need here is a special mod, but that's for another thread.