Kerbal Space Program.

[gwillybj]

KSP got a couple of favorable, somewhat amusing, paragraphs in gameinformer (a monthly magazine put out by GameStop).

[Unorthodox]

Well, that suicide lander mission ended more appropriate to it's name than I expected, in a flaming ball of debris in the upper atmosphere. 


That new heat modeling bit me hardcore.  At least this time it happened slow enough for me to see what went wrong with the panels on the first tiny thing.  Eve is HOT!  Even before you start adding aerodynamic heating from speeds and pressure.  As soon as I entered the outer atmosphere, everything was at it's thermal limit.  Once the aerodynamic heating started, I actually had designed the heat shield so things started to cool except for some new aerobrake parts I was specifically testing out.  When they blew, it took the entire ship with em. 

There are radiator parts, I've just never needed them before, so  to ksp for making Eve a challenging location, but providing the parts needed to accomplish it. 

This is my first death since getting comfortable with the controls, and puts my game in an interesting position.  (I *COULD* have reloaded to an autosave in orbit and probably landed this thing by killing more speed prior to atmospheric entry, controlling my upper atmosphere entry a bit more and gently moving myself down with a semi-powered decent, but that would be less interesting to me than failing)

I presently have 4 contracts active.

2 have no expiration, they are not a problem. 
 
The other 2 are Eve science missions that expire in 2 years.  After 2 Eve failures, now, I don't have the cash to do these missions.  In fact, I have less cash than you do at the start of the game. (presently have 20k)  These contracts, when they fail, will cost me over 300k.   I have 2 years to earn enough to safely fail those missions and still operate.  I need to take contracts with up front cash rewards, which are inherently more risky. 


Eyeballing a 10 person munar base contract as a result. 

[Unorthodox]

Need to upload some more pics.
 
Managed to get 2 satelite contracts that were a stones throw from each other, so one launch took care of both. 

That netted me enough to try another Eve landing.  Had a fairing surrounding the lander craft as it went through the atmosphere, and radiators inside the fairing.  Worked like a charm.  Eve is STILL hot as hell, and my little Kerbonaut can't stand outside.  Not sure if sun position effects temps, but early morning is a slow death, just slap that flag down and climb back in.  The lander is safe with the radiators. 

With the missions to Eve taken care of, I was able to upgrade our research facilities, and have begun filling in the end of the tech tree.  Started with finishing off the big shuttle-esque vehicle techs I hope to play with soon, and then the mining techs.  Most the rest are convenience things. 

Have a slew of missions (6) all around Tylo (ganymede (spelling?) analog, BIG Jool moon).  I was able to transfer my previous Jool ship that did the touch and go on Pol to Tylo orbit to get a couple portions of the main contract but lacked the fuel to land.  Had a station mission as well, and managed to get a research station into orbit around Tylo (and tick the Jool station contract at the same time $$$), but again lacked the fuel to refuel the lander craft I'd sat down on Pol.   

I have left: land, plant flag, do science, and rescue stranded pilot in orbit missions all around Tylo.  Considering an alien inspired refinery ship type thing.  Have it making fuel from ore in that year or so it takes to reach Jool.  To get the ore, likely building a Minmus mining station. 

[Geo]

That netted me enough to try another Eve landing.  Had a fairing surrounding the lander craft as it went through the atmosphere, and radiators inside the fairing.  Worked like a charm.  Eve is STILL hot as hell, and my little Kerbonaut can't stand outside.  Not sure if sun position effects temps, but early morning is a slow death, just slap that flag down and climb back in.  The lander is safe with the radiators. 

You accepted a suicidal contract to put a Kerb' on Eve?
A mere unmanned lander wasn't enough?

[Unorthodox]

You accepted a suicidal contract to put a Kerb' on Eve?
A mere unmanned lander wasn't enough?

Unmanned landers can't plant flags. 

A rescue mission is on my long range plans when I have cash to spare, which will be coming soon after I complete the tech tree.  The Kerbonaut can survive about 5 minutes outside the craft before dying by the looks of things.  The heat, pea soup atmosphere, and gravity of Eve make it quite possibly the most difficult place to return from 

[Unorthodox]

Off the top of my head, stranded Kerbonauts:

1 Kerbal on Eve. 
3 Kerbals in Tylo orbit, out of fuel. 
1 Kerbal crash in Tylo orbit I'm supposed to rescue. 
3 Kerbals in Eve orbit, no propulsion on station.  This station has provided most of my research to date.   
3 Kerbals in Kerbin orbit.  Minor science station, need to move it out further to work as a refueling depot. 
4 Kerbals stranded on the Moon because the station somehow exploded itself apart at some point after it was landed safely (several missions ago) but before I returned to it to move it back into orbit (was going to move it to Minmus as the mining colony).       

[Buster's Uncle]

The game isn't exactly trying to model life support issues, is it?

[Unorthodox]

You can mod those in if you want.  IIRC the simplest being if you lose power, you lose life support, down to needing to pack O2, food, and water. 

My problem with them is they really don't add DIFFICULTY or expericence, just TEDIUM.  If I can get a station somewhere that has enough food whatever for 6 months, say, (and all my stations have loads of extra storage as the contracts list you need to support 8 or more kerbals and most I ever have is 4, usually 3, if I just loaded food/water instead it wouldn't change much) I can certainly get the resupply ship there...OVER AND OVER....

[Unorthodox]

Minmus mining company has landed and begun drilling operations.  Pics soon. 

This station is just a 'lets see how this whole thing actually works' since mining is entirely new to me.  I'm thinking I'll set up a main base on Ike (Duna's moon) for main operations.  It's far enough away to be useful refueling, but close enough that solar power is still efficient. 

With that, operation homecoming needs to kick off, bringing a bunch of kerbals home to operate the ike plant, speeding up production. 

[Unorthodox]

"Flaming Death", my Eve lander, the internals heating through the fairing. 



"Safe" on the ground.



The Kerbalnaught starting to overheat. 



Interesting new mission type.  If these need to be IN ORDER, that's HORRIBLE.  (Duna's moon, Eve's moon, back to Duna?) The destinations seem to generate randomly. 



Supersized Dragonfly station design on it's way to Jool/Tylo.  Look at those new Mk3 parts (main body here), very Shuttle inspired. 



Minmus Mining company.  Little Ore tug boat attached to the drilling station.  Currently working on building a Nostromo styled refinery to transport to Jool. 

 

[Geo]

The creators sure didn't make the ground appealing to wander around on.

[Buster's Uncle]

Note that Uno's pics click to embiggen.

[Unorthodox]

The creators sure didn't make the ground appealing to wander around on.

Depends where you are.  Minmus, I purposely landed in the biggest flattest area I could find to make landing and docking tugs easy.   

Eve was still dark and you can't see alot, but was a flatish spot near the beach to make it easier for a potential rescue later. 

[Geo]

I see.
So Eve isn't as hot as Venus then (you called it a Venus analogue earlier), if it has seas?

[Unorthodox]

The maths hold for comparison purpose. 



So scale Eve appropriately and the pressures maths and temps hold.  They are seas of unknown purple liquid.  IIRC water is not COMPLETELY ruled out at the pressure of Eve, but it's pretty close to boiling at the pressure.