Squadcast Summary (2015-02-14) - The Valenti-nope Edition

[Wjolcz]

The landing gear looks sweEeEeEeEeEeEeEeeeeeeet!

Does it mean the inline 1-seat cockpit is getting reworked? It was kinda ridiculous and too smal to fit a kerbal head in it IIRC.

E: The gear looks medium to me. If theres a way for multiple wheels on landing gear im pretty sure the heavy one should have 6 of them at least.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Veeltch

[TheGuguz]

Did he said something about the pain of vessels with missing parts being deleted from the save... I just heard the end of the sentence...

[Renegrade]

Funny thing I noticed:

Squad feels like they can do better than some AAA releases with regards to releasing a game without bugs. Loads of oooooold bugs are being fixed.

Set the bar high, Squad, set the bar high! Kappa~

(I'm glad they're whacking bugs, but you can do a lot better than a AAA game - like say the typical first program written by an elementary school student~ I'd even say that KSP is ahead of the curve as AAA games go in terms of bugs.)

[Frozen_Heart]

The idea was to make female kerbals as disposable as the guys and Max thinks they kinda succeeded.

I did laugh upon hearing that. True equality is sending any kerbal up on a rocket that's not going to work and equally not caring!

(Though not me, I'm careful with my kerbals)

[klgraham1013]

the old 45@10k ascent will still likely work

I'm noticing a pattern with Squad and "almost, but not quite." If your keeping the bad aero, just go all the way with the good aero.

I mean, it's great we're going for equality here, but maybe we could go for something better than "equally disposable".

I think the word you (or MaxMaps) are looking for is 'interchangeable.'

Nope. I think he meant disposable. Squad again feeding into the "LoLKerbal" paradigm.

I had really hoped they'd move away from clone Kerbals with this update and add some Final Frontier functionality while they were at it.

They've spoken before about adding reasons to get attached to specific Kerbals (Classes and levels) , but, again, have stopped half way.

Look at how Engineer and VOID do it, unobtrusive additional information where needed. Hell, it'd be nice to have the Argument of Periapsis of your orbit, but when it comes down to it the most useful information on the flight screen is your inclination, periapsis, apoapsis, and the times to. I literally get around just fine in RSS with only that info and, with the addition of the node ejection angle, the delta-V of my craft. We really don't need that much more information... Add in the radar altitude and you're pretty much good to go. Yes, you can go for overload, but the problem with KSP is you don't even have the most vital information.

Anti-information advocates continue to spout the claims about a cluttered UI, when so many mods have proven it's not the case.

That, or HarvesteR slipped in the shower and hit his head.

It had to be this, right?

Kerbals are meant to be disposable. Isn't female kerbals being disposable more equal than anything else. I mean, would you like it if they were completely indisposable?

:sigh: Yes, I would very much like them to be indispensable (or close to). This is one of the things levels were meant to achieve. You want to use that level 5 pilot, but losing him would be a great loss to your space program. Doesn't seem to have worked out that way.

I will be having fun crushing kerbals under those landing gear...

LoL so Kerbal. - edit: My apologies for this. It was unnecessary and mean-spirited.

Edited February 14, 2015 by klgraham1013

[Nemrav]

Anti-information advocates continue to spout the claims about a cluttered UI, when so many mods have proven it's not the case.

I think its not so much that they dont want to give enough info, but they dont want KSP to become a spread sheet game (like eve online/other mmo s' did when they gave too many stats)

Also some people have pretty small screens....

side note: when I did FAR in the past, I used the old stock ascent profile just fine, every time too, so FAR is also "whine whine whine, unrealistic trash, whine" (stereo-typical KSP argument profile, not yours...)

[Caelib]

Thanks for compiling these every week, very informative!

[Jodo42]

LoL so Kerbal.

Oh no, someone's playing their game in a way you think it shouldn't be played! Call the priest! Burn the heretic!

Seriously, the rest of your post brought up some decent points/opinions but that final comment was completely irrelevant and unnecessary, and made the comment as a whole just seem pretentious and arrogant.

[LameLefty]

So why was the archived stream removed? Anyone figure that one out?

[CaptRobau]

I'm noticing a pattern with Squad and "almost, but not quite." If your keeping the bad aero, just go all the way with the good aero.

This works in FAR too. They said it's not the most efficient way to get to orbit, but that it still works. Which makes sense because the relative thickness of Kerbin's atmo is still the same, so rising about the densest part before making your gravity turn will simply work.

[r_rolo1]

I think its not so much that they dont want to give enough info, but they dont want KSP to become a spread sheet game (like eve online/other mmo s' did when they gave too many stats)

Also some people have pretty small screens....

Well, I always played ( with little exceptions ) in a 15 inches screen ( laptop ) and I don't see how adding a extra window with 5 lines would clutter the screen, especially if you can dismiss it like you can with the ship info window. In fact, why don't they put those more crucial numbers in there as well? The ship mass and part count is there already ... Or are the "anti-information" people just against putting useful numbers in the UI ?

Edited February 14, 2015 by r_rolo1

[7499275]

1.0 is shaping up to be pretty awesome! can't wait to see what the final product is like!

[Robotengineer]

My opinion of Squad has gone up a little. It's not positive yet, but it's not as negative. Glad to see Squad is working with Frizzank on IVA's. I like the look of the resource overlay, sort of a cross between Kethane and Karbonite. I think the old 'gravity turn' should not work, it is a terrible mockery of real life launch profiles. Glad to see bugfixing is the priority, I still would like them to have an RC before 1.0 though. I don't trust their internal testing methods.

[Amihan]

Speaking as someone who had no use for info mods until recently (and then I only check to see if I can theoretically get into orbit. Can orbit? WE'RE GOOD.) all of this dV business is super intimidating to someone who likes space but doesn't actually know anything about spaceflight.

That said, a spaceflight-literate friend of mine had to quit the game because she didn't have the energy to math by herself and is uncomfortable with modding, so perhaps there's a happy medium. Maybe a "if these numbers and terms intimidate you just hit this button BAM the window is gone" notice like the ones that pop up if you start a new game. XD As of right this second a green player does need to do a lot of Youtubing to figure out many aspects of the game, so if that sort of thing becomes stock there needs to be a way of telling new players to familiarize themselves with other aspects of the game before trying to understand those things.

...Or I guess they could just outright tell you "Hey you need this much of this thing called dV to get into orbit. HAVE FUN" which would have basically the same effect. This is why I'm not in the decision-making industry. I would definitely like to see a radar altitude somewhere other than IVA, though. I need to know when to stop time-accelerating!

Glad to see female kerbals will be treated exactly the same as male kerbals. Still crossing my fingers for basically agender kerbals across the board, even with the sexual dimorphism thing. "Are you a man or a woman?" "I'm an astronaut!" etc.

Thanks for this, OP. First time I've posted in one of these threads, but you're a real godsend.

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

I find it pretty annoying that Squad continues to add random features to the game, completely ignoring the insane amount of bugs, and awful loading system. I'm fine girbals and resources, but I'd rather optimization and bug fixes be the top priority. Most of the "features" that we've got from the past few updates haven't even changed the game that much. They're all completely minor, and unimportant to actually fixing the game.

[klgraham1013]

Oh no, someone's playing their game in a way you think it shouldn't be played! Call the priest! Burn the heretic!

Seriously, the rest of your post brought up some decent points/opinions but that final comment was completely irrelevant and unnecessary, and made the comment as a whole just seem pretentious and arrogant.

I agree. I let myself get carried away. It was unnecessary. The fun vs realism debate has negatively affected my posts. My apologies to worir4.

[Overfloater]

PorkJet is working on IVAs - frizzank and PJ are working together and should be able to deliver IVAs for literally every single crewable part in the game. No placeholdlers at all, you get an IVA, you get an IVA, IVAs for everything!

YESSS! thank you!!! :D

Finally it will feel like the astronauts are sitting in a ship rather than stored in it as data

[Maxmaps]

Hey guys, just to clarify. I said the ascent profile may work but would be horribly inefficient if it did. We're still tweaking aerodynamics so keep in mind all of this can change before the release version. Some things are set, though, like infiniglide being dead.

[bigbadben]

Looking at resource picture...is squad separating resource placement from biome locations?

I read the new karbonite put resource locations tied to biome locations, havent played it yet though. Anyone tried it both ways, procedural locations vs biome, and think one is better than the other?

[basic.syntax]

... but when it comes down to it the most useful information on the flight screen is your inclination, periapsis, apoapsis, and the times to. I literally get around just fine in RSS with only that info and, with the addition of the node ejection angle, the delta-V of my craft. We really don't need that much more information...

Thank you for this detailed reply. It does not sound as daunting as the alphabet-soup of mods, that some experienced players call essential for them to play the game. On launches, I'm always switching to the orbital view to see AP height and time-to, often completing the orbit there. KER's "hud 1" info is four fairly unobtrusive lines, fully configurable. Having that info on the main screen makes it possible to launch and complete the orbit, without missing any of Bill and Bob's expressions of impending disaster

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

Hey guys, just to clarify. I said the ascent profile may work but would be horribly inefficient if it did. We're still tweaking aerodynamics so keep in mind all of this can change before the release version. Some things are set, though, like infiniglide being dead.

Hey Max, the quote you gave us on twitter about the new aerodynamics having an off switch was a little vague. Did you mean you could completely disable aerodynamic calculations, or revert back to the old model?

[Maxmaps]

Hey Max, the quote you gave us on twitter about the new aerodynamics having an off switch was a little vague. Did you mean you could completely disable aerodynamic calculations, or revert back to the old model?

Sure, we simply added a toggle that modders can use that will allow to them completely overwrite the aerodynamic model if they want to do something different, instead of running an override or trying to bypass it.

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

Sure, we simply added a toggle that modders can use that will allow to them completely overwrite the aerodynamic model if they want to do something different, instead of running an override or trying to bypass it.

Sounds awesome, FAR already has a hard enough time getting around the stock calculations. Thanks for the clarification.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Hey Max, the quote you gave us on twitter about the new aerodynamics having an off switch was a little vague. Did you mean you could completely disable aerodynamic calculations, or revert back to the old model?

I'm not Max, but I'm pretty sure it's more of a 'Hack Gravity' switch for atmo, but only accessible to modders. As in, it turns the atmo off and it's like you're in a vacuum. This would mean that mods (FAR) would just have to flip that switch and add their own calcuations, rather than remove the existing ones first. Less computationally exhaustive, gives FAR more room to work. EDIT: Ninjad by SuperMax himself and I guess I'm almost right. It's more of a base 'remove aero calculations' to allow aero mods to work better. I imagine there'll soon be a mod that uses it to put on the old souposphere we have now.

Hey guys, just to clarify. I said the ascent profile may work but would be horribly inefficient if it did. We're still tweaking aerodynamics so keep in mind all of this can change before the release version. Some things are set, though, like infiniglide being dead.

Thanks for the clarification. I'd hoped people would see the red text saying things may change and the normal text saying it won't be the most efficient. My English sarcasm got the better of me - I meant it more of a 'well, it might work, but you'd need to be travelling around 100m/s when you turn'. It won't be efficient, it won't be pretty, it won't be fast and it may not work at all. But it's certainly possible, much like launching a football field with FAR now. Just need enough thrust to lift it and enough fuel to stay travelling straight up at 50m/s until you get above about 60km.

I'd rather optimization and bug fixes be the top priority

While I don't know about optimisation, bugfixing is very much present in 1.0. A lot of long-standing bugs are being fixed. While it may not be top priority, it's certainly part of the release and I doubt Squad would ship 1.0 without the fixes (looking at you, radial decouplers...).

Edited February 14, 2015 by ObsessedWithKSP

[klgraham1013]

Sure, we simply added a toggle that modders can use that will allow to them completely overwrite the aerodynamic model if they want to do something different, instead of running an override or trying to bypass it.

Wow. This sounds much better than what I thought you meant.