Kerbal Space Program: Let's Light This Candle

Orphu wrote:

The 1.12 release has gotten me back into KSP a bit. I never played through the Making History missions, so I'm having fun with that, though they are jerks about springing last minute requirement on you!

Nope. I play games to escape real life.

Private Division is doing a survey, in case you care to let them know what you think about KSP.

https://twitter.com/KerbalSpaceP/sta...

Well, it's been almost five years since I briefly picked up KSP again (version 1.3). Before that I hadn't played since 0.23. I don't think I got very far with 1.3, but don't remember whether that was because I didn't care for the addition of Science or because something new came along at the time (but the latter is highly likely).

This time I had finally gotten around to "upgrading" my Squad account to a Private Division account, and noticed that my downloads link included the two DLCs that I had never checked out before. Ten minutes later I had downloaded the final version of KSP and was refreshing my memory using the tutorials (which mostly work). Now I've started a new Career mode game...

Hrdina wrote:

Now I've started a new Career mode game...

cya when KSP 2.0 releases.... you have many hours left of pure joy

Sonrics wrote:
Hrdina wrote:

Now I've started a new Career mode game...

cya when KSP 2.0 releases.... you have many hours left of pure joy

Given my level of confidence in the KSP2 release date, I have many, many hours left.

I learned tonight how much I do not like flying aircraft in KSP (or at least trying to land aircraft).

I've never had good luck with aircraft in KSP. I stick to Rockets & Rovers.

It's funny how much time I've spent building in-atmosphere aircraft in what is primarily a space game. I did eventually put an air-breathing spaceplane on Laythe. Later I tried building VTOLs and gave up.

For a fun challenge, try building a boat, and see how fast you can get it.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I've never had good luck with aircraft in KSP. I stick to Rockets & Rovers.

Agathos wrote:

It's funny how much time I've spent building in-atmosphere aircraft in what is primarily a space game. I did eventually put an air-breathing spaceplane on Laythe. Later I tried building VTOLs and gave up.

I'm not sure that I had ever built an aircraft before. I'm not sure I'll build another. I only did it this time for the novelty and for some of that sweet science. I'm ready to send Jeb & Valentina back to orbit.

WizKid wrote:

For a fun challenge, try building a boat, and see how fast you can get it.

Without exploding?

Hrdina wrote:
WizKid wrote:

For a fun challenge, try building a boat, and see how fast you can get it.

Without exploding?

It's Kerbal, exploding is always optional.

So far I've worked my way up to two missions to Mun - one flyby and one orbital.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/NyMlAfK.png)

That brought a bunch of Science that I can use to put together a landing mission soon. That's where things frequently went sideways for me before (literally in some cases).

Despite the increased distance, it's easier to land & take off from Minmus than Mun. And you get a little bit more science on Minmus. I'd recommend landing there before you tackle Mun.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Despite the increased distance, it's easier to land & take off from Minmus than Mun. And you get a little bit more science on Minmus. I'd recommend landing there before you tackle Mun.

Yeah, I remember having no trouble at all landing on Minmus back in the pre-release days. Mun, on the other hand, required a lot of Quicksave abuse.

Yup, the lower gravity is a blessing. Much harder to crash and you lose less fuel decelerating and then again on your takeoff.

It's less kind to rovers (they tend to bounce), but on your first landing missions you're not going to be bringing a rover anyway.

Funny thing is that I have a contract for a Mun landing, and another one to build a base on Minmus. I guess a Minmus landing is too easy to rate a contract.

First rescue mission was a success.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/TRoIJv5.png)

IMAGE(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/92/5a/6b/925a6b43b526ac6d420a002f5a107636.jpg)

Yeesh, that should probably be NSFW-tagged.

I've finally grabbed enough Science to move up to the "Apollo" capsule from the Mercury/Gemini capsules. These just look objectively nicer.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/IJKT99N.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Qag5S5S.png)

I looked up after one of my orbital launches and saw a partial solar (Kerbolar?) eclipse.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qUI7ZSe.png)

I've got a whole bunch of rescue mission contracts lined up, along with tourist contracts. I usually launch with one tourist and one open seat for the rescue. The tourists are getting more than they pay for.

Sorry, no NSFW tag here, either.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/nh4bVNw.png)

The first station is pretty low-rent, but it does have a cupola that gives a good view of approaching ships, even though this one is hard to see on the smaller image.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/TORXqHm.png)

On a recent trip out to Mun I noticed that the sun was about to disappear behind Kerbin.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1VXJWTw.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/EjAOPOs.png)

Last night I had a bit of a Kerbal adventure.

I combined three missions into one flight:
* A rescue mission for Songel Kerman (stranded in Munar retrograde orbit)
* A tourist trip to Munar orbit for Felipe (IIRC) Kerman
* A test of the Mk25 Parachute

So I brought out my standard Munar orbiter, stripped off the Clampotron and the twin radial parachutes, and added the Mk25. The pilot was Doodtop Kermen, himself previously rescued from Munar orbit. The third seat was of course left empty for Songel.

The outbound mission was pretty normal; Songel was rescued in short order and Felipe got his joyride. Doodtop then executed an escape burn that would bring them to a 35 km periapsis with Kerbin.

The capsule went through reentry and the parachute test was performed successfully. Then, the capsule hit the ocean at about 60 m/s and was destroyed.

Maybe I opened the chute too late? Fortunately, I hit quicksave at about 100 km, so try again; same results.

That's when I noticed that, despite not having "drogue" in the name, the Mk25 is only a drogue chute. It was not capable of bringing the capsule to a safe landing.

I could have had the Kerbals abandon ship, but tourists can't leave the capsule and I only had two personal chutes.

So, Doodtop did an emergency burn that just barely kept the capsule above the atmosphere at periapsis (about 71 km), with an apoapsis almost out at Munar orbit.

I couldn't send a rescue ship because of the Tourist. That might have worked if I hadn't removed the Clampotron to make room for the chute, but I couldn't just have him EVA over to the other ship.

So, I sent Jeb, Bill, and Bob up on a repair mission, with two of my normal Mk2-R radial chutes in cargo.

Jeb was able to maneuver close enough to the damaged ship so that Bill could attach the new chutes.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/CeKlcoY.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/zisJKPF.png)

After that, the ships separated to make their individual landings. One last bit of comedy was that Doodtop managed to bring his ship down in the high mountains. At least we got a little science out of that.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/VhIjv2p.png)

"Hey guys, I see you installed the Mk25, when do you want the full chutes put in place?"

"...."

WHOOOROAROOOOSSHHHH!

"Liftoff is successful!"

Robear wrote:

"Hey guys, I see you installed the Mk25, when do you want the full chutes put in place?"

"...."

WHOOOROAROOOOSSHHHH!

"Liftoff is successful!"

Ha, I wish I had noticed the problem that early.

That sort of thing is like half the game lol

You can attach items post-launch? What?

Are you using a mod?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

You can attach items post-launch? What?

Are you using a mod?

No, the Engineer Kerbals gained that ability in one of the later post-release updates (1.11). This was only the second time I've done that; the first was for a mission to update a satellite.

See EVA Construction Mode.

Oh, interesting!

Looks like 2019 was the last time I played.

There were so many previous games where I wished I could do this! There were even a few times where I hacked a savegame to add parts onto a vessel in orbit because I'd forgotten some vital piece of equipment.

Great work, Hrdina. A similar…challenge…pushed me into learning all about the mods available, so I could have one kerbin perform a spacewalk to another vessel in its own comet-like orbit, in order to install a solar panel onto it.

Keithustus wrote:

Great work, Hrdina. A similar…challenge…pushed me into learning all about the mods available, so I could have one kerbin perform a spacewalk to another vessel in its own comet-like orbit, in order to install a solar panel onto it.

Thanks!

Lessons learned of necessity are ones we'll remember.

More Kerbal adventure:
Jeb and a tourist were on a mission to rescue another Kerbal stranded in orbit around the moon. They did a proper trans-Munar burn, so I had set up a Maneuver at Munar periapsis to go into orbit and used the Alarm Clock to wait for the maneuver.

After that I decided to use RCS to fine-tune the approach to the Mun, then warped to the Alarm and saw this less-than-useful orbit:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/8eNHnrc.jpg)

Apparently I neglected to adjust the alarm clock, so Jeb went zipping past Munar periapsis and out into deep space. Because of the inclination there was no way to get a second Mun encounter. So the tourist got an extra-long joyride and Jeb fortunately had enough fuel to deorbit back to Kerbin a few days later.

The coda to that experience was that I then sent Val up to complete the rescue mission. The timing of her launch meant that the rescue target was within just a couple of km when she got to periapsis. I will pretend I planned it that way.

Jeb's next mission was a little more successful.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/I2vZWbe.png)

Edit: Also, when Jeb & Bob first stepped onto the Mun they were each wearing their parachutes. You can't be too careful I guess.

Early access coming in February of 2023

Is "Skeptically excited" a thing? Cuz thats what I think I am. I honestly don't trust the developer but if it's not obvious garbage I will probably still buy on day 2 or 3.

Edit: And its $50, dang