Kerbal Space Program

[Rikadyn]

I thought we had a thread for this?

But anyway, decided to get back into it after watching Alex and Graham from LoadingReadyRun (http://loadingreadyrun.com) blunder their way through it on stream (http://twitch.tv/loadingreadyrun)

and on that note, i've been doing one of the hardest things in sandbox, building airplanes

http://i.imgur.com/sFbUNpC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7U11vjr.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/MOaf7hJ.jpg

[The359]

I got Steam gift card for Christmas so I picked it up as part of their Holiday sale. So far so good, haven't unlocked the planes yet.

[Alan P]

http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e2/orbital_mechanics.png

[Rikadyn]

I got Steam gift card for Christmas so I picked it up as part of their Holiday sale. So far so good, haven't unlocked the planes yet.

Yea I started a career on this PC, but mostly playing in the sandbox because I'd already had a career mode on my home PC that I was to the point of getting Satellites around Eve and Duna.

edit:

in career mode, this is as close to an airplane i can get right now >.>

http://i.imgur.com/GNXAHlS.jpg?1

[Rare White Ape]

Suffice to say, I'm fucking addicted to this game.

And what madness is this? I want to achieve this level of mastery one day.


http://youtu.be/ONP9jS14toE

[Phil_SS]

If only it was that easy.

And the rockets seem to be a bit of a dream. Just stuck to each other without the hardware that it would take to achieve what you have built. Having 15 rockets mounted around another set of rockets seems to be a structural nightmare.

Yes I know its a "game". Damn cool nonetheless.

[Random]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2YdTeHqnPY
HAVE SOME DEMOCRACY MOTHERFUCKERS!

:lol:

[The359]

Suffice to say, I'm fucking addicted to this game.

And what madness is this? I want to achieve this level of mastery one day.


http://youtu.be/ONP9jS14toE

I love the aerobraking using the atmosphere while in Venus orbit!

[Rare White Ape]

This game is great. I tried the demo months ago and found it too hard to get into even a basic orbit (I, naturally, bypassed all the tutorials because I'm so good at everything).

It was only this week that I looked at it again. I did the tutorials and now I'm hooked. Now it's experiment, experiment, experiment. Keep going until my laptop overheats and crashes!

It's like Lego Digital Designer, except better because you can send your Kerbals on a mission to doom and certain death, or just fill LKO (low Kerbin orbit) with so much random space junk that it'll soon be impossible to fly.

I've left a few Kerbals in free orbit too, while accidentally letting them drift off the capsule on an EVA. Poor fellas. One day I'll learn how to track and dock with floating debris and bring them home.

[Rikadyn]

Suffice to say, I'm fucking addicted to this game.

And what madness is this? I want to achieve this level of mastery one day.


http://youtu.be/ONP9jS14toE

wonder what modpacks their running...

[Rare White Ape]

Musk does a Kerbal...

https://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK

[Rikadyn]

Actually they were more successful in kerbal...

anyway building moon camp:

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

[Rikadyn]

http://i.imgur.com/hnnbSBj.jpg?1

[Rare White Ape]

lolololo

http://www.gfycat.com/ExemplaryBeneficialAmericanlobster

[Rare White Ape]

I had a fun and very involving day yesterday. I saw this video and decided I'd copy it, and built something very similar.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw_EmpGACT4

After a few false starts (i.e. explosions) I had a very rough mun lander and command module in orbit, which I used to practice docking for the first time. I witnessed an eclipse on one of the early test launches! That other smoke trail is my first stage which I set free during a testing mishap.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8643/16384379711_6ed99bf79c_b.jpg

Same flight, but without the burden of atmosphere to dim the view. Pretty cool.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7425/16198485458_9e7805ea9d_b.jpg

As soon as I learned to dock, I got to building a proper mun lander, and did something about some solar panels because my docking test vehicle ran out of power. Interestingly, the RCS thrusters still work without electricity, so I could do a retro burn to de-orbit the capsule. The stack on the munbound rocket featured a very wobbly top half, where the lander is mounted to the 2nd stage. It made it after adding more support struts (not boosters - although I had to add boosters to the first stage. I love boosters).

So I made it safely to Mun, couldn't help myself as I planned to do a docking test flight with the lander without actually landing. And yeah made it to the surface in tip-top condition. Here's one Kerbal on the precipice of a big-arse huge gnarly crater. What a spectacular game!

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8641/16360135906_14a7b22469_b.jpg

It's not the first time I've made it to Mun. Here's an impromptu munbase that I 'built', because really if you're there for a long time it's a base isn't it?

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8654/15763797674_333cd8ceec_b.jpg

This is the first time I plan to make it back from Mun. The only reason I stopped playing last night was after I quicksaved my place on the surface just before I was to teach myself how to rendezvous with a spacecraft in-orbit, then my laptop overheated and crashed. Hah!

So as soon as I get this post over with, I'll be firing up KSP again and learning to not die because I ran out of fuel in space over Mun's lowlands. Literally all I know about orbital rendezvous is that you must be pointing in the same direction and that the inbound vehicle should be orbiting lower than the target vehicle, presumably to a) not waste fuel and b) have a faster orbit so that you can catch up to the target vehicle at some stage. Godspeed kerbins!

[KillerB]

OMG... I'm afraid to download this as I think I might just disappear from society for a few weeks if I do.

[Rare White Ape]

Yeah. It's a time sink. The Kerbal Wiki has actual mathematics and rocket science.
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Terminology

I spent hours last night just figuring out how to rendezvous with the command module which I left in orbit. It's really hard. Good thing you can F5/F9 to reload on the fly.

I built a really good but simple rocket a few days ago and sent a one-man mission to Minmus, which has fuck all gravity. I figured the low gravity would suit a simple single stage land-and-return (not including staging during take-off from T-0) except the legs of the final stage are a few feet shorter than the rocket nozzle on the bottom.

Ho-ho!

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8587/16385328382_69a1fa42d3_b.jpg

It landed OK, but on an angle, and then fell over while my guy was on EVA. I was also 2.4km from the lander, because I overshot big time on one of those fun jetpack powered trips but I ran out of propellant, so I spent a few minutes trudging back only to find that the lander fell over on it's crew hatch and I couldn't get back in.

Rescue mission time!

I've sent a slightly modified version of the Mun rocket, this time with better bracing around the top half to stop the dodgy oscillations while under acceleration, and some parachutes on the lander body, just in case I could get enough velocity on leaving the small moon to not have to worry about another pesky rendezvous. As it turns out, I learned enough about orbital manoeuvres last night to get my landing site to within just 335m of the stricken crew member.

Now it's just a matter of planting some flags and walking the whole way to safety.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8664/16206270907_5d324d166a_b.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8613/16391248652_605ef8fac4_b.jpg

[Rikadyn]

yea...fuck rendezvous. Get Mechjeb and have it do the actual docking...

[Rare White Ape]

I haven't watched all of this yet, but....

Fuck me.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXzMDkKhO5g

[Random]

I like how the lil dude rides out re-entry with no protection. :lol:

[Rare White Ape]

I've successfully built an ION-powered in-atmosphere orbiter. It's based on this, and I wanted to try it for myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Field_and_Steady-State_Ocean_Circulation_Explorer

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/16229135687_8404a1ab2a_b.jpg

That's my MKII design. It's got solar panels down the sun-facing side, a bunch of xenon and monoprop tanks as a fuselage, a battery, an RTG and a small robot brain to control it.

The next attempt will loose the battery, the RTG as well as the RCS and monoprop gear in favour of a small manoeuvring stage to refine its orbit before I ditch that, and I'll add a reaction wheel for automatic control. At the moment I have to fly it manually because the brain is too simple.

I've also got way too many solar panels, since I've limited engine power to 5% and I'm using only a tiny amount of throttle to maintain altitude against drag (orbiting at about 65km). At this point I could probably go to 40km and still fly stably.

[Rare White Ape]

And here's the simplified MKIII!

Starboard
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7345/16229571407_298483963e_b.jpg

Port
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7333/16414542792_1e2828c3a0_b.jpg

It'll probably fly for weeks with that much xenon. It's too bad the game won't let me leave it and go do other things, as it won't autosave while in atmosphere.

If you want to build one, it's just an ion engine, four xenon tanks, a battery, a controller with reaction wheels (in the middle for good torque control), and a bank of solar panels to power the ion reaction. The nose cone is optional but may reduce drag and add days to its flight, but I've not tested that. I'm nerdy but not that nerdy. Those blocky little fin things near the rear are from the support struts to stop it wobbling at launch.

Get it into space using whatever ludicrous million-Lb-thrust-all-engine-creation you want to use. But be sure it can see the sun at all times to keep it going, or the ion engine will suck all its electron juice in a flash. I'm on a polar orbit for simplicity's sake.

I built a simple positioning stage with one small monoprop tank, one small rocket fuel tank, one small rocket and four RCS thrusters. When you're at 65km, stop thrusting, circularise, discard everything, point it in the right direction and see how you go.

[Rikadyn]

could also use the 3x2 solar panels that extend and rotate...

[Denetti]

I need to get back to this game. Some shots from last time I played:

Minmus station with tug unit on the left, and lander on the right.

1016

Lander on Minmus.

1017

Mun station.

1018

[Kchrpm]

Someone build me a Hooters space station. Zero G boobies!

http://img.pandawhale.com/post-54959-Zero-Gravity-Kate-Upton-Neil-d-QBEj.gif

[Rare White Ape]

After my tentative first attempts at docking last week, I've been practising and I can now dock relatively easily. It takes a lot of patience, but now it's a skill I can put on my Tinder profile.

Basically, it goes like this:

1. Launch. Use the targeting feature in the map screen. Get your orbital inclination and apsides to line up with the target.
2. Your speed of approach is determined by how far above or below the tracking vehicle is in it's orbit with respect to the target's altitude. A lower orbit is faster, while a higher orbit is slower.
3. Patience. Remember that F5/F9 is really useful if you run out of it.
4. It's counter-intuitive, but if you're losing ground on the target vehicle, thrust away from it, retrograde along your orbit. This will lower your orbit, and at 180 degrees from your current orbital phase, you will have caught it up again.
5. Once you're within 1000m, start using translation to move your spacecraft perpendicular to the target. If you've got it selected as a target there will be a pink icon on the navball. Use SAS to keep your attitude, and translate to match its heading. Hopefully you've got plenty of monopropellant.
6. In targeting mode the navball will show your heading relative to your target instead of your orbit. If the yellow prograde icon is overlapping the pink target icon, you're on the right track. Keep translating to keep that prograde heading on the target.
7. As soon as you can see it, right click the docking port in your target and set that as your target. You will now point to that particular part of the spacecraft rather than its center of mass. From now you should be able to look away from your instruments and fly visually.
8. At 100 meters or less it's time to start lining yourself up square-on with the docking port. It's much easier if you've come at it from a straight line but if you can manage that you should be working at JPL. Reduce your closing speed to zero and be really gentle.
9. Now be all Jar Jar Binks and go steady... steady... Translate forwards at 0.5m/s or less for an easy coupling.

So now I'm making a space station, with multiple modules that I build on the ground then attach using docking ports in space. I think if they make a Kerbal 2 they would need to add the ability to use Canadarms and attach stuff in space during spacewalks like they do in real life but for now it's robotic spacecraft FTW.

Here was it's first incarnation. This is when I discovered that apparently a 25m/s closing speed is too much velocity :/

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8648/16246303948_5bcd919ee0_b.jpg

I managed to recover and build a wee Frankenstation from the broken parts, but I got my dudes outta there in the escape module and scuttled this one for a new one.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7324/16407996476_3c0fd91e07_b.jpg

Currently I have three modules and a crew return vehicle in space, with more modules and a truss system to carry batteries and fuel supplies and solar panels on their way. It'll be like a clone of the ISS for now, with the freaky shit to come when I'm feeling masochistic. I'll get a pic next time I play.

In other news, I built an upper stage that can fly back to the KSC under manual control, and it has a bunch of ghetto landing legs a-la SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. I can land it pretty much wherever I want within it's fuel range. It has no engine in this pic because I landed a bit too hard and it broke off.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/16247708779_3375f38012_b.jpg

And I built a rocket to send the rover+skycrane rig to Mun. Not a really huge achievement but I did get it up on three wheels and drove along like that for a minute, then later on rolled it over and half of it exploded.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7417/16246297178_3ca7face7f_b.jpg

So yeah basically this game is my drug at the moment and I have to ban myself from playing it until I've had dinner and gotten the housework done.

[Rare White Ape]

Fucking awesome game.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7314/16345223530_b3ccb71191_b.jpg

But parts lag is fucking killing me and my 4GB of RAM. There would be about 150 parts on this space station by now. There are five launches worth of modules in that pic, but I've had other things attached and then removed and sent back to the ground.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/16531669752_8a6c3aab23_b.jpg

The low-tech way this game is made isn't very efficient; it chugs along at 20fps in 720p with no AA whereas I can play Portal 2 with near full settings in 1080p and have a smooth experience. Applying physics to all those bits eats up video memory like nothing else.

I'm trying to add a pair of trusses to provide power to the station. You can see them in the bay of this shuttle, soaking up the sunlight. They've got lights and batteries and RCS engines and spare propellant. They each have their own contollers so that I can fly them out of the cargo bay and onto their docking nodes near the front of the station.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7294/15910146634_52a2182341_b.jpg

It'll probably take me about a week while I wait for it to render the next frame.

[KillerB]

Yeah, I finally broke down and got this to put my new laptop to proper use.

I no longer desire food, drink, sleep or sex. I just want to play this game. Re-teaching myself calculus and physics that I haven't used in close to 15 years is a real bitch, though. :lol:

[Rare White Ape]

I love seeing the way someone who actually knows what they're doing play this game.

Seat-of-your-pants is fun tho. Guessing how much delta-V you need for everything results in some spectacularly over (and under) powered monstrosities.

"Flying to Mun? Ok, activate engine... Now!"

*5 seconds later, capsule reaches escape velocity

[Rare White Ape]

KSP 1.0 is out!

They say it's the biggest update to the game ever, and it has left Steam Early Access, now as a full release game. I'll start a full career mode now.

But first thing's first. I spent the first, oh, thousand-ish hours of my day off playing with new heat shields, new fairings, and new resource sensors.

I built a small probe with an ion engine and mapped Kerbin, then decided to use it to map Mun and Minmas as well. It'll be the first spacecraft I build which will orbit two bodies other than Kerbin in one mission :) It's currently orbiting Mun, but I'm adjusting its orbit to the correct orientation for scanning. It needs to be polar, so it'll have to come back down to equatorial again before I fly it out to Minmas.

[Rare White Ape]

I built an aircraft using stock parts that actually flies.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7741/16769778163_c4611bd55e_b.jpg

It's somewhat of a copy of a Russian Miyasischev M-55. They were originally conceived to take out high altitude reconnaissance balloons that were launched by the 'Merkins during the cold war, but that all came to an end when they started using spy satellites and the Lockheed A-12. Neither of which could be dealt with by an aircraft like this. It was then reconfigured as the M-17 Stratosphera and used for reconnaissance like the U-2 spy plane. Later on, the M-55 Geophysica made its apprearance, and is still used to this day for science research.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5456/17182630677_d72f122b02_b.jpg

I wanted to build a replica of the M-55 and expected it to make it off the runway and then immediately disintegrate in a high-g flat spin, so I was really surprised to find that it flew fairly stably right from the word go. It might be a unique quirk of a design like this, where the centres of mass and lift seem to synergise with one another. Or it could just be because I'm fucking awesome.

A few refinements later and it's capable of this: 25km altitude, which is practically IN SPACE. Bill Kerman looks utterly rapt.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5453/17390054515_a35b7bc43f_b.jpg

It can also do this when it hits thicker atmosphere without killing all Kerbals on board. I'm a little bit disappoint. One day I'll figure out what those new health meter-looking things are for. I didn't find out today :shocker:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5336/17202241078_a4099b81e8_b.jpg

Next steps are to fiddle with the angle of the empennage, because it has a tendency to either pitch up or down quite a bit, and I don't seem to have the ability to change the angle of the horiz stabiliser in infinite increments in the assembly hangar. I also need to change the control surfaces which control roll; the ones on the end of the wings are massive and almost flip it over at high speed.

[KillerB]

They're thermometers for parts... once they start heating up too much they appear. If they fill up the parts go boom.

[Rare White Ape]

With the release of Kerbal 1.0 I finally started doing career mode. For once, having some goal to your space odyssey is nice, rather than outrageous rockets with m0ar boosters or weird space experiments and other frankly cruel acts of Kerbal astronaut torture. And doing these things has given me a fair idea on how to space properly.

But starting with a small selection of parts is hard. Really hard. And slow. And tedious. However, do you know what hard and slow and tedious work brings you?

No, it's not the fabled female orgasm, that'll never happen. I'm referring to creativity!

The mission: Ferry two tourists on a suborbital flight on Kerbin and bring them safely back home.
The problem: I only have a crew capacity of 1, and tourists can't fly themselves.
The solution: Stack three capsules on the top of one rocket, with enough fuel in the final stage to slow it all down enough for a safe 'chute deployment. Place a stack separator between each capsule, with a parachute linked to the staging of each component, viz:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/475/19122283393_a946a775f9_o.png

It's good for 75km straight up, with a rocket assisted descent in the last stage. By the time it gets below 250m/sec it's pretty close to the ground and out of juice, so I've gotta smash the space bar in a slight panic to drop the unused mass and separate the pods. It'll give the three pods a nice ~2 minute float to the ground, landing just a few kms west of the launch pad. Surprisingly, dropping from a stationary height of over 70km is more risky than re-entry from low orbit. There's not enough time to wash off speed in the atmosphere.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/326/19716703006_2a66bc4b17_o.png

[Random]

I think I spy some duct tape in there.

:D

[Rare White Ape]

Do you know how I know I love this game?

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-29-2015/3AGDjp.gif

[Rare White Ape]

http://i.imgur.com/7kg4sn2.jpg

[Kchrpm]

Coming to XBox One, PS4 and Wii U.

[Rare White Ape]

Yeah I've been seeing that in various places. It's a strange one. They announced the PS4 version a few weeks ago, then the Xbone one last week, then Nintendo accidentally put up a KSP trailer on their YT channel a few days ago.

I mostly consider it odd because it's such a mouse-and-keyboard intensive game and I have no idea how the developer they've contracted plans to translate that to gamepad use.

Not to mention mods, which make this game worth it on PC, IMO. It's still good to play in vanilla mode, but it's so much better with added technical and graphical updates, which you can add yourself. I don't know if I'd be enthused at all in a console port if I can't add Astronomer's Visual Pack, contract configurator, KW Rocketry, SCANsat, Joint Reinforcement, MechJeb, Alarm Clock, Texture Replacer, etc, etc, etc.

Buuuut, check this out!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content/352-Kerbal-Space-Program-1-1-update

The most exciting news is something that should've happened six months ago :) Maybe the console ports will line up with the new game engine (including 64-bit processing!) and be more stable than KSP is currently.

[Kchrpm]

http://www.polygon.com/2015/8/28/9214573/nintendo-indie-developers-nindies-wii-u-3ds-damon-baker-interview


For example, Mexican indie studio Squad is bringing Kerbal Space Program to Wii U, and Nintendo is "positioning it as the definitive version of the game," said Baker. Kerbal on Wii U will allow players to examine and create spacecraft on the GamePad, and it will be the only version of the game with exclusive features.

[Rare White Ape]

1.0.5 has been out for two weeks now and I've been enjoying mostly creating aircraft rather than spacecraft with all the new spaceplane bits they've given us.

Plus my aircraft creation voodoo is gaining strength by the day. Here's three examples of neat little jiggers that I've birthed from the space plane hangar, all using stock parts.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/684/23393128395_4726aa0f61_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BDaU4V)screenshot32 (https://flic.kr/p/BDaU4V) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

Starting in the middle is my F-15 copy. It uses the new jet engines with afterburner and huge thrust vectoring range, so it can do crazy stunts previously only seen in the latest Russian Sukhois. I made it when 1.0.5 came out, so it's my first really decent aircraft.

On the left is an F-106, probably my favourite real-life interceptor jet; it's such a handsome devil and looks suitably comical in Kerbal guise. The real aircraft is famous for area rule design (it's predecessor the F-102 didn't follow that and couldn't achieve mach 1 without a major redesign) and even though KSP doesn't simulate area rule I've still replicated it here with the shape of the fuselage behind the air intakes.

The little one is a copy of a de Havilland Vampire which the British introduced in the last days of WWII. I made it tonight, and it's my favourite so far. It flies so nicely, even if it is a little bit slow with its single Juno engine that pumps out 20kN of thrust, as opposed to the F-15 which produces 130kN per engine. One feature I love is how the front landing gear juts awkwardly out from the nose like the real one does.

The great thing about jet engines is that they don't use nearly as much fuel as a rocket, so they'll go for ages with fuel in the fuselage, and you can really extend their range through the use of drop tanks made from Mk.0 parts, as seen under the wings of the F-106. The F-15 looks really awesome with one between the wheels, plus they can be placed according to weight distribution, so they don't screw up their handling characteristics too much!

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5656/23393103725_bdf7294193_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BDaLJz)screenshot35 (https://flic.kr/p/BDaLJz) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5787/23310522311_3787fc713f_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BvSwa6)screenshot34 (https://flic.kr/p/BvSwa6) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5727/23097340310_d02c2c2361_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/Bc2Uzm)screenshot33 (https://flic.kr/p/Bc2Uzm) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/584/23284697582_820fe65387_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BtAan9)screenshot42 (https://flic.kr/p/BtAan9) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5642/23393144475_bfe2cca132_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BDaYRa)screenshot41 (https://flic.kr/p/BDaYRa) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/705/23097373060_0488b728d5_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/Bc35j1)screenshot40 (https://flic.kr/p/Bc35j1) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/747/23284717312_73e0b9d77b_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BtAgej)screenshot39 (https://flic.kr/p/BtAgej) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5718/22765990623_e9f264c25d_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/AFKDRH)screenshot38 (https://flic.kr/p/AFKDRH) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/583/22764788784_dc9bff0818_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/AFDuAm)screenshot37 (https://flic.kr/p/AFDuAm) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5638/22766001493_3b474d349b_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/AFKH68)screenshot36 (https://flic.kr/p/AFKH68) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5702/23310543231_bfd5b5bf16_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BvSCnM)screenshot43 (https://flic.kr/p/BvSCnM) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

[Rare White Ape]

I built a rocket powered spaceplane and based it off the X-15, which actually went into space at one point.

Mine did too. It's the first thing I've built that can go from horizontal takeoff and leave the atmosphere.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5684/23600711565_be6499837f_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BXvPj6)screenshot47 (https://flic.kr/p/BXvPj6) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

It wasn't too successful, re-entering the atmosphere with no fuel left to power it was a very interesting proposition. So I attached it to this for fun!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/756/23600719565_90a6a44cc5_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BXvRG2)screenshot46 (https://flic.kr/p/BXvRG2) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

It wasn't too successful either. It did make it into a suborbital flight, only a few dV short of reaching orbit, but trying to bring it down again was the problem, flying mostly like a very stable brick that only spins on one axis instead of three when not under power. Re-entry heat was the worst of it; the crew cabin disintegrated and left me to watch on helplessly as the rear of the vehicle slowly tumbled back to sea level like a headless chicken. Not so good for maintaining the healthy population of Kerbalkind.

More research needed, methinks.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/780/23574672396_6786718433_o.png (https://flic.kr/p/BVdmLU)screenshot45 (https://flic.kr/p/BVdmLU) by rarewhiteape (https://www.flickr.com/photos/7679735@N03/), on Flickr

[Rare White Ape]

I watch a lot of videos featuring KSP on YouTube, and I think some of them are good. Really good. Scott Manley, Hazard-ish, Matt Lowne, etc. Just hella crazy, creative and scarily skilled flying, cut together with music to make wee stories in time lapse.

But among all of these great channels, I found one video today which really struck me like a lightning bolt and put a giant smile on my dial.

Cupcake Landers has been doing its own thing for a little while with ultra cute craft designs, and this particular video is a perfect firestorm of story, adventure, great music, and a super twee aircraft that the Kerbal guy gets around in. Most importantly, this combination of factors comes together to show off the absolutely mind-bending sense of awe that exploring the world with rocket science can elicit. It is this awe in computer game form that drives humanity in real life to explore the universe. It might just be Kerbal Space Program, but this guy gets it.

You please watch now :)


http://youtu.be/j7CbzL6JWH8

[Rare White Ape]

I've just found out that a pre-release version of the 1.1 update is available now for Steam users.

Go to the game's properties via the Steam library menu, choose the Betas tab, and opt-in to pre-release versions. It should start downloading right away. It'll be a 900 MB file.

I'll be taking this for a spin in a half an hour :)

[Rare White Ape]

Pre-release of 1.2 is out now.

It brings communications (think, talking between ground and controlling a robotic spacecraft) and a host of other things to the stable of improvements.

Thus:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW2H1PfbJeU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OezCFnPi5RM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67vpxlrt5A

[Rare White Ape]

Hnnng. I'm playing this again.

The Apollo 11 50th anniversary got me playing agian; I did a Mun mission last weekend. And then the new robotics expansion sucked me in. So far I've been experimenting with prop-driven as well as swing-wing aircraft. You can build so much cool stuff now, and this week led me to multiple late nights just mucking around.

Look at this guy!

*Top Gun theme plays in background*

https://i.imgur.com/UKx0rb7.png

https://i.imgur.com/dYrdtgx.png

[Rare White Ape]

KSP 2 was announced at Gamescom!

Me so happy :D


https://youtu.be/P_nj6wW6Gsc

[Dicknose]

Yeah I read about that.
Said they didnt mention Mac/linux support, just Windows and consoles.

[Dicknose]

OK digging up an old thread....
But I got KSP for the PS5 and have been playing a little bit, ok a little bit each day, ok a lot each day.

Yeah Im late to the game, heck KSP2 is out, but Im making up for lost time.
So loving it!
I knew a bit of the astrodynamics (like retro burn to chase a craft ahead of you) but still had to master some stuff like docking. Actually pretty good at it now. Slammed one home from about 1km, look mum no hands!
Slowly learning how to use the interface for better control - eg focus on a target moon, adjust manoeuvre via graphical editor. Can now hit a moon of Jool from Kerbin orbit insertion burn.
This week has been practicing slingshots. The PS5 version doesn't support as many conic patches as PC but Ive still managed to have slingshots of 3 different Jool moons setup at once.

Currently working on my Eve land and return, that's a tough one. Also Laythe return. Managed to land, but couldn't get back to orbit. Going to use the Dart (not the Dart!)

Now - my major bummer is that the game crashes far too often. Worse, it can crash and take out the game save. Which means that save is lost and you start again. So Ive been uploading my save to PS inter webs. But still need to be careful I dont upload a dead save! Pity the PS5 doesn't support USB game saves like the PS4.
All this means Ive restarted Career 4 times. Of cause Im more experienced and can rock thru the early bits to unlock parts (go science bits for the feedback loop of earning more sci points)

One bit Ive have barely touched is planes - sorry RWA. They dont do it for my like rockets do.
Will get to them, need to earn my trophy for landing back at Kerbal Space Centre.

So... anyone still playing or got KSP2?

[Rare White Ape]

I haven’t got KSP2, it’s far too pricey as it is right now. Plus I haven’t touched KSP1 much at all in the last few months.

Although late last year I built a replica of a propeller driven E-2 Hawkeye reconnaissance aircraft, complete with rotating AWACS antenna on the roof. It flies really nicely! But it’s electric powered, so it’s filled with RTGs hidden inside the fuselage :lol:

To top off the nerdy completeness of the E-2, I looked up the rotation speed of the antenna, and set the RPM of the motor that drives it to the exact same speed.

[Rare White Ape]

A couple of screenies for you. I did a little figure-8 loop over KSC to show it off :)

https://i.imgur.com/DZJPk9a.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/D4CACl2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/K5Erizq.png

https://i.imgur.com/VfQPVzi.jpg

And playing it "a little bit each day" is just fine ;)

[Dicknose]

Love the attention to detail.
You are inspiring me to try planes!

Just had it do another lost-it-all crash. Download backup that's a couple of days old.
Was just prepping for an Eeloo mission.

[Dicknose]

A couple of shots from me...

Randomly caught an eclipse while landing
4113

Slingshots
4114

Earning the Eve trophy for safely returning.
As you can see "no target" was my craft destroyed.
Yeah I totally screwed up, no parachute, coming in too hot and couldn't get into orbit, so had to got for a hard landing. In the end the best I could do was crash slow enough to earn the trophy in the ms before my craft was obliterated.
4115

[Rare White Ape]

Haha, nice!

Do your Kerbonauts have parachutes in the PS5 version? You could have bailed out and landed safely. Or would it not count for that trophy?

[Dicknose]

They do, didn't get to try that. Once I got the trophy it was like "thanks for your service"
My checklist now includes parachutes!
And landing lights - nothing worse that trying to land or dock virtually blind.

[21Kid]

Kerbal 2 is 20% off in the Steam summer sale right now.

It's not much, but I don't know if it will get much more of a discount any time soon.

[Kchrpm]

Kerbal Space Program 2 devs play Tears of the Kingdom


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odj5roUbDVA