Kerbal Space Program

[Knorf]

Patch 0.25 is out. I’ve been enjoying it.

Lots of new, shiny bits, especially for space planes. Your existing planes will be broken, just fyi.

I’m not sure I’m going to run another career from scratch, but the new in-game “strategy” options and customizable difficulty settings are most welcome.

Destuctible buildings. Yes.

However, the buildings are VERY tough. Flying a small jet plane at nearly 200 m/s straight into the new administration building was not enough to bring it down. Clearly more tests are called for.

[XT]

@Knorf

Patch 0.25 is out. I’ve been enjoying it.

Lots of new, shiny bits, especially for space planes. Your existing planes will be broken, just fyi.

I’m not sure I’m going to run another career from scratch, but the new in-game “strategy” options and customizable difficulty settings are most welcome.

Destuctible buildings. Yes.

However, the buildings are VERY tough. Flying a small jet plane at nearly 200 m/s straight into the new administration building was not enough to bring it down. Clearly more tests are called for.

Well, you can check out Scott Manley’s attempts to destroy the Admin building here. He goes over, very briefly, some of the new features as well. I haven’t tried the new version yet, but I’ve heard that MechJeb is broken so I’ll probably wait until that’s fixed before starting yet another new career.

[Knorf]

Yep, MechJeb doesn’t have a release update for 0.25, yet, but I’m sure it will be out soon. Don’t let that stop you, though!

I also watched Manley’s attempts to blow up KSC buildings, and myself had the same experience that they are way tougher than realistic buildings. As if that would stop me! But the point isn’t “realism,” per se, or to add weaponization to the game, but to add some element of risk to botched launches. It’s turned off by default at lower difficulty settings.

[Knorf]

Getting a sample from an asteroid is affected by the raw biome (low Kerbin orbit, high over Kerbin, landed at KSC, etc.)

I don’t remember that in earlier versions. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, but I for sure don’t remember it being there. Either way, MORE SCIENCE.

I had a Kerbal ride a Class D Asteroid, code-named “Butthammer,” all the way down from high over Kerbin onto the Kerbin highlands (detaching soon enough to not explode, though. Some Kerbals want to live.) There was nominally a plan to nudge it into an orbit, but it was coming in at a stupidly steep trajectory, retrograde and very nearly a polar orbit, and there simply wasn’t sufficient Δv.

Another Class E, code-named “Nostril Thruster,” landed in the Kerbal ocean. The organization known as Kerbals for the Development and Preservation of Celestial Rock Gardens was sad about that outcome.

[Ike_Witt]

The game has been crashing a lot for me lately.

[Knorf]

@Knorf

There was nominally a plan to nudge it into an orbit, but it was coming in at a stupidly steep trajectory, retrograde and very nearly a polar orbit, and there simply wasn’t sufficient Δv.

“Polar orbit.” Heh. I hasten to add to that the periapsis of said orbit was practically on top of Kerbin’s center of mass. The plane of the “orbit” was badly inclined in the retrograde direction…as are they all, it seems like.

Ike Witt, my game’s been very stable on 0.25. Maybe try reinstalling?
One assumes you don’t have quicksave or flight reverting disabled…

Unrelated ETA: be careful to use stability enhancers when launching your rockets. Even a small drop for a large rocket onto the launch pad can hilariously destroy said launch pad.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Lots of exciting news on the Dev notes , looks like the VAB parts assembly process is getting an overhaul with different attachment modes and after .26 update they will go to .9 beta. Sounds like new biomes being added as well. Unfortunately I have not had a lot of KSP time , annoying pesky work interrupting my Kerbal time.

[XT]

Yeah, looks like they did a major overhaul:

Felipe (HarvesteR): This week was a big one. To add the new gizmos to the editor, I had to delve into one of the most convoluted areas of KSP code, the editor logic. That part of the code is very sensitive to small changes, so poorly-planned tweaks to it usually end up creating a heap of bugs.

This time around though, I decided to put an end to it and take on a complete overhaul of the editor logic code. I undid the mess of switch statements and state logic we had, and replaced it completely by a proper finite state machine setup, using the same FSM system I wrote for the Kerbal EVAs for 0.16. The KerbalFSM system is generic and fully expandable, and allows us to have much more control over what is meant to happen and when.

Of course, this meant chucking out a lot of working editor code, but it was for the best. If we had left it as it was, we wouldn’t be able to add new features without increasing even more the complexity of that already critically complex blob of code. It took a lot of recoding, but I can now say it was definitely worth the effort.

There are now four construction modes when you are building a ship.

Place Mode: This is the standard mode, where you click on parts to pick them up or attach or detach them from the ship.

Offset Mode: In this mode, you can select parts from the ship, and on selecting, a translation gizmo will pop up, allowing you to slide the part freely, without detaching it.

Rotate Mode: In this mode, you can rotate the selected parts using a rotation gizmo. This mode also works on unattached parts, and you can also switch to it while attaching too.

Root Mode: This mode is only available if you have an eligible set of parts selected. Activating root mode will allow you to select another part (from the children of the selected set) to attach by. It will reflow the hierarchy much like docking does, so the selected part becomes the new root of the hierarchy. This one is particularly useful for subassemblies and such.

The last few days were mostly devoted to ironing out issues with the new implementation, and improving the way the editor handles rotating parts and symmetry. It is now possible to switch between Radial and Mirror symmetry modes using the Y key (a UI button will follow shortly), both in the VAB and SPH. This is amazingly useful for building shuttles and hybrid type vessels.

I’ve also revised the attachment rotation maths, which could arguably be said to be the ugliest bit of code in the game at the moment. That impossible chunk of logic was tossed out, and a much more elegant system put in its place.

All in all, it’s been a fair amount of improvements to ship construction. Hopefully it should make building ships much more intuitive and fun.

There are a bunch of other things in there, but I think that is the biggest thing they did. I’ve been playing a bit with the .25 version and it’s pretty good. Lots of new features. You can really see what the final game is going to be at this point.

[Knorf]

Solid improvements, all said. I’m looking forward to the 0.9 release!

I sympathize with Precambrianmollusc—my KSP time has been limited as well of late. I haven’t started a new career to try out the objectives coming from the new admin building, and probably won’t until there’s more to career mode to play with in addition to that, such as the promised pilot stats that stick with the Kerbonauts and accrue over time and successful missions.

But “less than I’d like” isn’t none. Here’s my newest spaceplane making use of the new parts. Also, an asteroid I, er, “landed” on Kerbin, and a science craft descending for a landing on Duna, with Ike rise.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Nice craft, I did play around with the new parts, and ended up with an SSTO not entirely dissimilar to yours. The new air intakes make life much easier for an SSTO as well. I felt bad about trying to air hog with multiple ram jet intakes on tri couplers, the new intakes are more elegant, OK its the same thing as air hogging, but looks less egregious. I like the continual focus on fun and playability vs realism. If they push realism too far then there will be basically very few designs for anything that would actually work. The new aerodynamics will be cool and if they can incorporate some elements of deadly reentry, with the possibility of skipping off the atmosphere or cooking up on reentry, for harder playability levels that would be cool.

The crew progression should be good, less incentive to leave the kerbs stranded in space, I guess that’s what the frame work of the Courage/stupidity characteristic was for.

Really interested to see what game mechanic the destructible buildings has to offer. Sure blowing up the KSC may be fun for a few hours, but after that? Obviously the building destruction is not the game mechanic, but the code that allows terrain etc to change must lead somewhere.

[Ike_Witt]

@Precambrianmollusc

Really interested to see what game mechanic the destructible buildings has to offer. Sure blowing up the KSC may be fun for a few hours, but after that? Obviously the building destruction is not the game mechanic, but the code that allows terrain etc to change must lead somewhere.

War. Or multiplayer games. Haven’t you tested a MIRV missile?

[Precambrianmollusc]

That would certainly be a possibility for mods etc, but I am not sure that Squad would have developed the code/mechanisms of destructible buildings to that end. They have said they wont develop weaponry so I don’t think they would put it in for a combat mechanism. Then again Squad may be thinking of exit strategies and selling the whole thing on to a bigger developer and thought the infrastructure developed would help in that regard as a ‘see what else is possible’ type thing to add some value to the product.

[Grumman]

I got my first Mk 2 fuselage SSTO into orbit for the second time - just - and this time it has a payload. Namely, a rover. Now I just have to set up an intercept with the half-full orange tank of fuel sitting in orbit and I’ll be ready to head off to Minmus.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Well looks like upgradable buildings , some cool looking stuff posted on the forums , it’s starts very rustic , even a rusty old car on the lot.

[AlsoNamedBort]

Well, finally got back into this game. Last time I really played it was back in the pre-moon days. I tried it once since then but it was too confusing (there weren’t really any in game tutorials at the time). The maneuvering nodes certainly make everything a lot simpler. In just a couple days I’ve made it to the Mun and back and I’ve got a probe orbiting Minmus. Next step: attempt an orbital rendezvous to rescue a Kerbin who’s been stuck in orbit for a couple years now.

[Precambrianmollusc]

KSP moves to Beta 0.9 “Beta than ever” is released, lots of good stuff.

Alas I am about to spend the next 5 days on aeroplanes and Houston with no KSP time. But then 3 weeks in sunny South America doing not much except eating cow, drinking wine, amusing the kids and trying to get Jeb into all kinds of life threatening situations. I know he will just laugh it off, but still, it’s the thing to do.

[Knorf]

Firing it up as I type.

BETA THAN EVER.

Woo-hoo!

[Grey]

Anyone else notice that Jeb and company tend to not hold on when doing an EVA? I mean it use to happen occasionally, so I’d watch and hit F if needed, but in the currently release they seem to just pop out.

[Knorf]

Yep, I’m replaying career mode, and on Jeb’s first EVA … Yikes! Jeb! Hold on fer Kerbog’s sake!

[XT]

If anyone is interested in the specifics here’s the link:

Other exciting features include:

A Retooled Craft Editor: Build crafts better than ever before with advanced part sorting and construction gizmos that allow players to place, offset and rotate the different parts on your craft.
Expanded Contracts: Brian “Arsonide” Provan, creator of the highly rated mod, “Fine Print,” has implemented and expanded his mod into the game, granting greater variety, depth and difficulty to the previously implemented contract system.
Biomes Everywhere: KSP-TV host, Alyson “Tanuki Chau” Young created new biomes for the game, bringing them to over 100 areas from which Kerbals can collect, store and send science data. The new biomes have been placed all across the universe, giving players bigger incentive to explore every inch of the game.
New Mk3 SpacePlane parts: Prolific modding community member, Christopher “Porkjet” Thuersam has overhauled and added to the popular collection of Mk3 parts that allow crafts to carry larger payloads.

“We’ve come a long way,” said KSP lead developer, Felipe Falanghe. “The decision to go into beta is a big step and there’s no better way to say it than with an update the size of Beta Than Ever. It means we’re in the home stretch. We’re not done with the game by any means, but it’s matured to a point where we can safely say that hitting 1.0 is within sight.”

I noticed the big download last night. I’m guessing that MechJeb is broken again so I’ll probably wait to try it out until they get that up and running again.