Is .24 out yet? Seems like a really stupid question, but seems like I heard that it was. I try running the patcher, and it executes, but stalls at 94% “cleaning up some files”. Wouldn’t the patcher note that .23 is current if .24 wasn’t out yet? I can’t seem to find confirmation or denial of .24 release online. My google-fu is as weak as my rocket design apparently. : (
LOL, just as I said that, “one more search” yields this. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content/279-0-24-Update-Update
, which looks both recent and authoritative.
Welcome Chunklet, formerly a Class C Asteroid, to the ever-growing Kerbin system!
Chunklet entered the Kerbin sphere of influence at a 106° inclination, with a periapsis of just under one thousand km. Capturing the asteroid proved to be a mundane challenge, in that Chunklet masses merely 45.25 metric tons, as opposed to Kerbin’s other new moon, Booger’s mass of 1528.3 t.
However, enterprising Kerbals, who have formed the Ooberkerman Group, lead by one Nelzor Kerman, argued for moving Chunklet from its slightly retrograde polar orbit to a non-retrograde equatorial orbit, for the purposes of establishing a commercial space colony. The Δv required for this maneuver was staggering, requiring a state-of-the art Talon III tug, equipped with an Advanced Grabbing Unit (aka “The Klaw”), and no less than four re-fueling missions. Relatively few Kerbals died during vehicle testing and mission activities.
Now Chunklet resides at a near perfectly circular, equatorial orbit: 1012.418 km at apoapsis, 1011.975 km at periapsis, with an orbital inclination of only 0.3°. Ripe for new, very exclusive space condominium development!
In other news, the recently built and expanded Laplace Space Station is currently staffed by fourteen Kerbals, including the famous Jebediah, Bill, and Bob, who have taken up permanent residence aboard the station. With the new Zarashuna Mk. 3 Space Plane and various Nymph-class orbital insertion vehicles, getting into space is a doddle! …At least for the well-heeled Kerbal… (Rides on the Nymph Mk. 3 into orbit start at K$ 19.9 million; Zarashuna Mk. 3 Space Planes available for purchase starting at K$ 199.99 billion. Interested parties should contact the Ooberkerman Group.)
Space exploration continues apace with the Walcott Science Buoy, currently floating in one of the larger of Eve’s seas. Yep, that stuff’s rocket fuel, folks. Albeit warmer than we’d prefer. And a bit hard to retrieve.
Plans for Kerbaled expeditions to Jool and Duna coming soon!
Laplace Space Station, with docked Zarashuna Mk. 3 Space Plane. Another view.
Talon Mk. III, rendezvoused with Chunklet. Jeromone Kerman on EVA to take a sample.
(ETA: this is all from career mode, and entirely stock except for MechJeb, which I use for the very useful in-flight data panels and occasionally autopilot for the simple, boring stuff.)
Inspired by this thread, I designed a sun-grazing craft and launched it. Here it is, on its way out of the sphere of influence of the planet Kerbin. 19 days to escape the Kerbin system, 31 days to apoapsis in its new orbit around the sun. I have other flights active at the moment, so time-warping will be handled judiciously. I’ll post updates to this thread if any are remotely interesting.
I’m not planning on working hard to figure out how to use any of the inner planets to help with this; that’s probably just way too complicated for me.
In other news, what’s this? Looks like some Kerbal aggression has gotten out of hand.
I did that a few versions ago and it got pretty glitchy as I approached the Kerbol. I eventually just changed the orbit so it actually crashed into it (the probe burns up long before it actually hits the surface), but doing a close flyby didn’t seem to really work because the time compression was acting so wonky there.
Yes, I’ve read that in past versions, which is why I never bothered trying it before.
But now there’s science to be done! (For the Kerbals who are still alive…)
And reports are, things are more stable. We shall see.
I’ve done a few probe science flybys. I am trying to get a return flyby with a probe, if I can return that, I will try a kerballed flyby and return. My approach has not been subtle , lots of LV-Ns so it doesn’t take forever and epic amounts of fuel, and a lot of time warping. Last time I didn’t have enough delta V to get captured by Kerbin on the way back, although I was always setting up maneuver nodes to just get am encounter and then figured I could sort out the retrograde burn into a stable orbit. I have realized I need to refine them a bit more to get an encounter and get the periapsis into the aerobreaking altitudes or at least really close by to get a bit more gravity swing into an orbit.
With my Icarus I probe, I’m using a stack of the recently buffed ion engines, which at least according to MechJeb should have enough oomph to do the job getting there, but probably not enough to return to Kerbin. Perhaps to a point at which a Kerbal could realistically ETA over to retrieve the science, however.
Perhaps the Icarus II mission will be Kerbaled!
Should I hold off on buying until the Steam summer sale?
Unless you’re so excited you can’t wait. The game is a whole bunch of fun, though.
Personally when a game is this good I like to support the Devs who made it. This is not like Ubisoft with a gazillion dollar budget.
I think Kerbal is well worth full price but of course that is subjective.
To each their own and no reason to feel bad about your choice (whatever it is). What ever you choose is right for you which, in this case, is all that really matters.
Keep an eye on the KSP facebook page or the forums, they do regular sales through their own website.
My Moho direct ascent, kerbaled lander mission did not go well. Getting an encounter and then insertion orbit to Moho is a mammoth pain. I blew all my delta V planned for landing and ascent just getting into orbit, and a screwey polar one at that. I made it home with the aid of the launch planner window (below) and RCS thrusters to finesse a Kerbin aerocapture having just left moho . I had planned for Orrod Kerman to do this mission, Jeb snuck back aboard after a few “test launches”. Probably for the best as I suspect Orrod would be sat on a long term posting on Moho if he had gone.
The launch planner on the remote chance you don’t have it bookmarked.
Well the Dres mission went the same way. Bill had to fly out and get Jeb from dres orbit, he was 300dv shy of getting back himself. 10 Years later Jeb is back home, I don’t think I am ready for the life support or deadly reentry mods.
If you did hold off, it is now 25% off in the steam summer sale
I’m not sure I ever will be, myself. Unless I’m just feeling sadistic.
Anyone besides me enjoying the new “First Contract” update?
Some of them are pretty goofy, but I enjoy that.
It adds a little more to do in the endgame. KSP sort of suffers, in my opinion, in that there isn’t much to do once you’ve gotten through the tech tree. Contracts also force you to be a little more frugal in design, though personally after the first three missions or so I’ve been totally ignoring the budget because I’ve got so much money that it’s largely irrelevant. Some of the technologies seem to have price tags associated with them, which I think is a good thing; there’s got to be a sink for all of this cash I’m raking in.
Yeah, the budget element isn’t especially challenging, but it does add a fairly enjoyable element.
Clearly we are just seeing the testing of the workflow with the budget and reputation model. With those elements in place it will interesting to see how they craft a game with budget/science/rep being the elements the player has to balance and what the ultimate end goal , or winning , will be defined as. The sandbox and community challenge aspects are huge, but science, and now rep/cash are just ways to step you through to sand box mode. These are great game play mechanisms, and the implementation looks good, I just wonder what the finished game will be, other than pissing my wife off because I keep launching grinning green maniacs into space.