Kerbal Space Program.

[Unorthodox]

Figured there should be some interest in this over here. 

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

To be clear, this is an UNFINISHED game.  But, I think it's largely going in the right direction, to the point where it might be worth it for some of you to hop on board now. 

There are a TON of mods for the present build, but I don't use any.  The only 'mod' I've done is plant my own flag into the game files (which i need to fix, even, because it didn't like the transparancy, I'm just lazy). 

(Me crashing on the Mun, note the broken landing gear...the engines were taken out too...)



Rescue lander, and several more in orbit and on the Mun in the same location:



Big city center heading to the Mun:





The game is not without it's flaws in this, essentially, alpha state, however.

The docking clamp REFUSING to connect.  Took about 15 minutes hovering at 0 distance for it to finally lock.



However, it does SMALL missions very, very well.  (probes, lunar landers, etc)  Once you get BIG, it starts getting trickier as the mechanics tend to shake your rocket apart. 

Rather shocked this thing worked...



Presently trying to get an assemble in orbit Duna (mars) mission going.

[Arbee]

Oh, lord, this thing looks fun.  Gonna go ahead and download the demo... hope it'll run on my laptop, haha.

[Geo]

You mean you haven't switched Kerbals to pumpkins in your game, UnO???

[Unorthodox]

If someone's got the talent to do that, I hope they give me the files.  I couldn't draw a decent pumpkin, let alone animate it.  As you can see, I'm too lazy to even fix the flag! 


Most the mods I've seen are adding parts and/or resources to the game or altering mechanics, though.  Not a lot of cosmetic stuff. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I could probably teach you how if I knew what was needed (file format and so on) to do that...

[Unorthodox]

Not interested in animating anything.  And I seriously can't draw more than some killer stick figures. 

I COULD fix the flag, I've just been too lazy to go look up where to stick the fixed file. 

[Unorthodox]

Correction, not interested in animating anything that's not an animatronic prop. 



Though thinking on it, it's probably a similar process...

[Buster's Uncle]

Let me know if you want to take a run at it...

[Green1]

Is it just me, or does anyone else wish the Civ series handled space exploration similar to this rather than just "build" the Apollo project then assemble spaceship parts and immediately head to Alpha Centauri?

Not saying Civ should use Kerbals or need manual docking or landing sequences. Just the way it handles missions.

[Unorthodox]

Perfect example of the joy and frustration of the current game, tonights project (after fixing the flag), getting a modular craft up to orbit with lotsa fuel left over. 


Looking good into the second stage, solid boosters giving me a speed boost when I make my initial turn...



All looking good ready to make my burn to circular orbit...




Needing a little more burn, so firing the engines on the modular portion...



And notice I forgot to add fuel lines from some of the radial tanks...back to the drawing board tomorrow...

[Buster's Uncle]

It is rocket science.  No, wait...

[Unorthodox]

So this morning, I fixed the fuel line, and plunked a couple solid boosters on the first stage to hopefully let the 2nd stage get up there with a bit more fuel.  Going through the preflight routine of locking the gimbles on the motors of the first stage.  IMO this is a gameplay issue, the in-game stabalization system will cause those motors to rip apart your ship if you don't.  Really only a huge problem with this particular motor. 




We're going a bit faster and about 1000 ft higher than last night, when we engage the 2nd stage, looking good. 



Starting my turn...notice the one engine there still has full fuel...I forgot to disable the fuel crossfeed on my modular craft....



I finally notice that when I drop the solid boosters....disabling...it's ok, I thought, just burn that motor a little longer, right?



The radial tanks spent...may as well drop just them and burn the center engine with the spare fuel a little while to make circular orbit...Uh, that's a problem! 

[Unorthodox]

By some miracle my modular craft survives that.  Sure we lost some fuel, but whatever.  Plan was originally to build a big Duna ship here, but figure may as well look at the new flag and make sure it's working right, so how bout a munar voyage?



Leaving tons of fuel in orbit, that module has a remote guidance system and works on it's own anyway, I take the lander down, one designed with Duna in mind, but it works.  I've been looking for the mun arch for some time now, finally found it. 

[Geo]

By some miracle my modular craft survives that.  Sure we lost some fuel, but whatever.  Plan was originally to build a big Duna ship here, but figure may as well look at the new flag and make sure it's working right, so how bout a munar voyage?

There's no miracles in space, only sound engineering! 

[Buster's Uncle]

There's no sound in space, so I'd recommend solid engineering...