[Steam] Kerbal Space Program - Update 0.22: Career Mode!

[Furah]

Accidentally ended my space station's flight. [bleep]. This. Shit. I'm going back to Pokemon Crystal. Wait, I lost my save file for it. Restarting time.

[misterxman]

Update 0.20 came out a little while ago, brings the following features:

 

Patchnotes:

7 new Parts and 2 IVA Spaces:

• Cupola with IVA
  
• Small Lander with IVA
  
• 2 new Probe cores
  
• New large docking clamp
  
• New Medium wheel
  
• Attachable command seats for kerbals
  
• Customizable flags!
  

 

 

 

[Albel]

I think I need to hook up with you on some help. I haven't played KSP in ages...everything looks so different.

[misterxman]

Feel free to send me a PM Albel, YouTube has some very good tutorials available as well. This game has been changing so much that they updated the Demo Version to the new graphics/parts.

 

Another news bit: They opened an official KSP merchandise store! As a big fan of the game, I got a Jeb Kerman 3D model:

 

(Papercraft created by me)

 

Also a mousepad :P

[Dizzle229]

We found him.

 

 

 

[misterxman]

KSP 0.21 has been released, some minor changes but laying the groundwork for Career and Resource systems:

 

 

 

 

* Revised Flight-End scene flow.

In preparation for Career gameplay, we've redesigned the way flights are ended. Gone is the 'End Flight' button in the Pause Menu, cause of many a tale of accidental space station deletion. Now, you'll either get to return to the Space Center (as before), or when applicable, Revert to an earlier state (to launch or to the editors).

 

* New Space Center Scene.

The most underdeveloped part of the game finally gets its much deserved overhaul, featuring new models for nearly all the facilities, plus a couple of new ones as well. Keep on reading for more details on them.

 

* The Astronaut Complex Facility.

Another huge feature in the making, the Astronaut Complex is a new building at the Space Center, that gives you an overview of all your available victims brave explorers, and lets you recruit new ones from a list of applicants.

 

* Crew Management

Along with the Astronaut Complex, this adds the ability to select the crew for a vessel before launch (from the launch sites or from the editors). Pick from the list of available crewmembers, and assign them to any (yes, any) part on the vessel.

 

* New VAB and SPH Interiors.

The insides of the construction facilities are also completely re-done, the models are not only vastly better-looking than before, they're far more efficient as well, so there's no performance tradeoff here.

 

* PSystem.

This was one of the biggest code overhauls we've ever pulled off. Now, instead of having everything duplicated in each of the game's scenes, all common elements like the scenery, game logic, ambience and the planetarium are created once and get reused. This means the world you see at the space center is now exactly the same as the one you see in flight, and in the tracking station. It also means much slicker transitions between scenes, as we don't have to respawn everything again.

 

* Overhauled SAS Flight Control Sytem.

Veteran players (and new ones alike) will be happy to know we’ve done away with the old Stability Augmentation System (or Sickness Avoidance Solution or whatever you want to call it) we had, which caused more flight stability problems than solutions sometimes, and re-built it completely from scratch. We can’t overstate how much of an improvement over the previous system this is.

 

* Much Improved terrain on Kerbin, the Mun, and other places.

New procedurally generated craters on the Mun, low hills around Kerbin, and a lot of other tweaks and optimization make for a much more interesting landscape to fly around and crash into land at.

[Randox]

So I've gotten back into this, well into 0.21, now using the Lazor Docking cam mod, and probably soon to be using Kerbal Engineer as well. It turns out I still have some residual talent for rondevouz once I got through the first one, and with the docking cam, I can dock in IVA mode, though if I go in too soon I will use more fuel I think. I am also using the Kethane mod, because it gives me something to do. I already tried a small mining operation, but I need to send in a new mining vehicle as the last one cleverly didn't have a refinery, and I don't feel like using the orbital refinery station as a rescue craft again. Sadly, the Miner did not survive re entry either, and lost me 3 Kerbals, including Bill I think. It was too heavy and ran out of fuel on the way down, and when the parachutes opened all the way it tore the entire ship apart. Some modifications might be made in the future to this, but that ship had never really been intended for anything but low-g landings, and it was designed under the assumption it would still have working engines during the entire process, so a new one is in the works with landing lights and a small emergency refinery, and possibly a slightly larger Kethane capacity.

 

What I am really working on though is a flight to Duna. I've tried this in the past, and gotten intercepts, but the protractor mod kept crashing me so I've never completed this. The plan is to send a specialized Kethane refining station and Kethane Miner out to Duna, and relocate to Ike (or stop there on the way in) to start the Kethane mining operation. A second interplanetary craft will be sent carrying a space plane for deployment on Duna. The Kethane mod includes the Kethane turbine, a jet engine capable of operating in extraterrestrial atmospheres, and I want to try it. If the plane is unable to escape on the rockets I will be providing it, I think I can rig the Miner so that it will be guaranteed to be able to escape from the Duna surface assuming it can land in the first place.

 

Anyway, this is the second generation Station, a redesigned version of the orbital Hub I have over Kerbin which includes a better docking port selection (including an in-axist senior port which among other things, means the station can both be towed and act as a tugboat) and a greater crew capacity, as well as the Kethane refining equipment. It's a fairly capable ship in it's own right, and htis was taken just after it chased the nearly empty mining rig so they could dock.

 

 

I've also been having a lot of fun with my cargo lifting rockets. Kethane tanks are empty on launch, so the Miner was actually really light for lifting, but I used the heavy lifter becuase I was headed strait to Minimus. I still had the 6 boosters when I started the second phase of the orbital burn (once you are at altitude, you finish getting orbital velocity). Without thinking, I put the hammer down on the engines, and the craft made it all the way to 8+ g-force acceleration before it folded from the strain and turned into a pants soiling inferno. The command pod managed to survive, so I have this picture before I decided to try that again.

 

As near as I could figure out, the boosters broke free from the main engine fuel tanks (which is usually the case for this design, the boosters have an astronomical TWR when nearly empty compared to the main engine which still has a full tank plus the payload holding it back). It looks like the boosters ran out of fuel right as the ship broke apart since the 4 survivors are so close together. The other two booster collided with the central stack, at least of which actually shot into the mining rig itself blowing up everything below the command pod, which has a higher impact tolerance.

[misterxman]

KSP 0.22 is out!  This update introduces "Career Mode", where the player earns science research points from missions to unlock new parts.  So far it's pretty fresh way to play the game, but it is a work in progress for future updates.

 

 

Also, there's mods that let you add night lights and clouds to planets now, they look amazing from space:

 

 

 

Have fun!

[Randox]

Not a particularly big update for me, but it's nice to see that the game is at the point where the developers feel it's time to really start working on the game, and not just the framework the game is set in. Progress!

 

And the lights and clouds look lovely.

[Dizzle229]

A little annoying though that you can't see the science text in sandbox.

[Dizzle229]

Anyone here still play?

 

0.24 has just been released, and I've been playing it for the past few days. It adds the contract and reputation systems into Career mode, as well as costs. It's pretty fun, though it could use a little more variety and balancing. I unlocked most of the tech tree without leaving the Kerbin system.

[Randox]

I still play on occasion. Right now I just don't have the time to invest though, so I might not be playing this update. We'll see.