Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Who]

@who... I disagree with that being the best first shot. Predicated on the fact that I came into the game having little knowledge of celestial physics and just an interest cultivated in SPACE by an engineer dad who

was

is a space nut.

With that said, I think for a first landing Mun is a better approach for a noob like me. Higher gravity is a good thing as long as your final engine can escape the gravity of the Mun (mine can). This is due to the Pull of "Earth" and the fact that there is not atmosphere on Mun. I can escape the Mun easy, but landing on it is more difficult because it requires more accurate orbital calculations to get there. Higher gravity = more forgiving.

Now, this is all given the fact that the pull of the earth from minmus is further away and thus the relative gravity maybe greater on minmus because of this distance. But for now, I'm happy to try a Mun landing for historical reasons as well as the shit ton of contracts I have for it. Again, Career mode.

ooh KSP finally has career mode working?

there goes my weekend...

Yeah they have "contracts" now that you can complete for money and science. Pretty cool actually.

Well I did the Mun first because I was afraid of how far away Minmus was. Landing on Minmus takes less delta-v and is much more forgiving, but I suppose you are right in that it's easier to get a Mun intercept than a Minmus one. Also if your contracts say go to the Mun then follow the money, this playthrough I planned to go Minmus -> Mun -> Eve -> Dres -> Eeloo -> Moho -> Eve2/Gilly -> Duna/Ike -> Jool/moons, but contracts told me to go Mun -> Minmus -> Eve/Gilly -> Duna -> Jool ->Any of the final 3. Also it told me to do Jool's moons in order from the outermost to the innermost when I would have otherwise gone innermost to outermost.

Also, I finished my Jool mission, I have satellites and unmanned landers on/around every moon. Well, technically to be completely finished I need to get the main ship out of Laythe's orbit and get it into a Jool orbit where it doesn't risk hitting anything else, but I'll do that later, it's time to move on and go to Dres. Dres is going to be a manned mission, I know I can get a Kerbal there and back easily and I'm only doing one thing with that launch. I think I'll do Eeloo and Moho in the same launch though. Because I can.

[CooLDoG]

Goddamn that is some pretty advanced shit going on. I was happy to land on the Mun today and get back in one piece. I have a pretty good rocket and I think with just a few modifications I can use existing parts and get to minmus pretty easily. Right now I want to go to Mun one more time with a few modifications to the lander and the third stage (the one that sets the intercept and initiates orbit around mun).

After that I'm going to minmus. And then after that docking. That shit is intimidating.

[Oman]

Yeah but like why does it matter.

Okay time for me to talk about The Wolf Among Us.

Firstly, to anyone who likes adventure games or stories or interesting characters, get in on this now. Don't wait. It's worth it.

Secondly, spoilerooooo:

Spoiler: Wolves

So, I think the finale is actually a curse of the branching story of these CYOA games. That it has to have multiple interpretations and multiple access points because players are coming to it with different information and different histories.

I personally really liked the fact that she lied in the trial and think that should have been the finale: Bigby has to choose whether he wants truth and justice, or whether he wants Fabletown to have a chance at stability. That's the question inherent in following her or letting her go. Speaking of which, does anyone else think Snow looked really fucking bad a running a town? She was struggling pretty hard all the way through this.

I also felt let down not seeing some closure with the Woodsman. He was honestly one of the more conflicted of characters, and it bothers me that Grendel was a bigger fixture in the end than him. The Wolf and The Woodsman's relationship is there all the way through the story, and then he doesn't rock up to the ending. It's a shame. Poor Woody.

Reference Kerbal Space Program: I can never play that game. I can't get a rocket to work that has more fuel than LEO and maybe return to earth. I can't even look at Mun.

Every time I try to learn I feel like I'm doing a tertiary engineering course just watching a youtube video. Which is a shame because I like the adventure and the exploration. I want to explore the galaxy with landers and shit.

[CooLDoG]

Multiple engines and maybe four boosters.

My current rocket has 4 engines and 4 boosters for the first stage. second stage is three engines. Third stage is one engine. Last stage is a tiny engine with the lander pod. Seems to work fine. Remember: bigger on the bottom. You want your rocket to get drastically lighter each stage. That's the trick.

[Who]

Reference Kerbal Space Program: I can never play that game. I can't get a rocket to work that has more fuel than LEO and maybe return to earth. I can't even look at Mun.

Every time I try to learn I feel like I'm doing a tertiary engineering course just watching a youtube video. Which is a shame because I like the adventure and the exploration. I want to explore the galaxy with landers and shit.

Did any of those youtube videos mention the word "asparagus"?
I wouldn't recommend looking it up if you enjoy building rockets because coming up with asparagus on your own extremely satisfying, but as soon as you know how to do it it pretty much solves all design problems, and if you dislike that part of the game then looking it up would be fine.

Goddamn that is some pretty advanced shit going on. I was happy to land on the Mun today and get back in one piece. I have a pretty good rocket and I think with just a few modifications I can use existing parts and get to minmus pretty easily. Right now I want to go to Mun one more time with a few modifications to the lander and the third stage (the one that sets the intercept and initiates orbit around mun).

After that I'm going to minmus. And then after that docking. That shit is intimidating.

That's what I love about KSP, the learning curve. There is always something which is really intimidating.

Currently I'm extremely intimidated by Eve and Tylo, and way more intimidated than I should be by Duna and Laythe. They have atmospheres, atmospheres are intimidating. Well, actually I'm not that intimidated by Laythe because it has oxygen. Duna will probably be a joke when I finally land there, but I'm afraid of it at the moment. Tylo I think I could return from unmanned without much trouble, I was able to land something which only weighed .54 tons while it was in orbit and if I made something capable of taking .54 tons from orbit to surface (Should be easy) then I could use it to return, idk if I could return from Tylo with a manned thing. Eve is really really intimidating.

Ok I swear this is a conspiracy and Dres is a really nice (dwarf) planet. Every time I go to Dres I'm conveniently at a launch window. And I don't even plan/wait for launch windows (Well, sometimes I do sometimes I don't. I never have when going to Dres), I just launch, play with maneuver nodes, and find that I am at a launch window.

Of course, it's been labeled not to be trusted by the scientific community, so maybe it's just trying to get on my good side.

[CooLDoG]

SO I got to Mun and back. I ran out of fuel midway through my re-entry burn... so I had to use RCS fuel via the docking interface. Keep in mind kids: shit goes out, you go forward. And especially true if you are going at low speeds.

Also, the game isn't that hard to learn at first. It gets more challenging later on, but the basics are pretty simple. With that said, if I got this game as a kid I would be pissed off.

My next plan is a Mimmus landing (if who is to be believed it should be pretty easy with just a hand full of modifications to the current build I'm useing). That or docking. Actually, probably docking, because I will need that later.

[Who]

SO I got to Mun and back. I ran out of fuel midway through my re-entry burn... so I had to use RCS fuel via the docking interface. Keep in mind kids: shit goes out, you go forward. And especially true if you are going at low speeds.

Also, the game isn't that hard to learn at first. It gets more challenging later on, but the basics are pretty simple. With that said, if I got this game as a kid I would be pissed off.

My next plan is a Mimmus landing (if who is to be believed it should be pretty easy with

just a hand full of modifications to

the current build I'm useing). That or docking. Actually, probably docking, because I will need that later.

FTFY. If something can land on the Mun it can land on Minmus. It may be overkill, but it definitely can.

And go for docking. I hear it helps. I never actually learned how to dock with docking ports. I mean, I can set up an intercept and get ships to the same speed/velocity, and I can then grab one with the Klaw/Transfer Kerbals/Whatever else needs to be done, but I've never actually docked with docking ports. Or actually I might have done so once in an attempt to create a space station which never ended up doing anything, but I definitely don't dock as a matter of course. So yes, learn it now or you could end up not learning it ever.

Also, why did you have RCS? Why do people use RCS in general?
I've never used RCS for anything other than as the propellant for really light probes and as a propellant with an obscenely high (You can just keep adding more ports, they're all massless) t/w ratio.

Also, done with Dres, now it's time for the Eeloo/Moho mission. I don't know if my current ship has the delta-v to get from Kerbin to Eeloo to Moho, I think I should build a bigger one just to be safe. Also, because Moho has a relatively high surface gravity and takes an obscene amount of delta-v to get home from, rather than using my standard return stage I need to make the moho to orbit stage lighter and include a heavier moho orbit to Kerbin stage which gets left in orbit. (Lander is a thing involving a lander can, FL-T200s, and Rockomax 48-7Ss. Usually I just take along an ion thruster, some xenon, and a command seat and use that to return but Moho's gravity+high delta-v requirement means that I'll take two, one heavy one one light one, and switch in orbit of Moho)

[Rhinox]

man you guys are so much further along than I am.

Last time I played I spent a while using one of the included orbit capable ships in sandbox mode just practicing getting to the same orbit over and over again. I've launched stuff to the mun just for fun but have not even thought about landing + returning yet.

Playing this weekend I realized I pretty much forgot how to do everything I was practicing before. Contracts and science are cool though because they provide a sort of natural progression to the game that helps with the learning curve. A couple of the early contracts were giving me fits though, like the "test this giant booster but only in this certain altitude range and speed range". Like, ok what is the point of this again? And testing the decouplers and stuff while on the ground was another one I was trying to figure out what the point of the contract was. I guess just an easy contract?

Anyways, I did manage to finally get something up to orbit and back down to kerbin again but it wasn't pretty. I'd like to practice docking and making a space station but right now I can't imagine I would ever be able to intercept anything I launch out into space with a second rocket. Still got a lot to practice.

Also, whats up with the dozens of asteroids I can keep tracking? Do they do anything or do they just keep showing up randomly in case I feel like trying to intercept one? I keep tracking them and I think I'm up to like 40 or 50 so far. I've got 1 orbiting kerbin so thats kind of neat, almost like a 3rd mun.

[Kcdaspot]

Im speedrunnning DW8.

no i have not thought about what im doing..

i did get the wei historical route under 2 hours.

http://www.twitch.tv/kcdaspot

Watch the fail?

[Kcdaspot]

Wait fuck it... Im going to staples so i can have two screens brb.

[CooLDoG]

Also, why did you have RCS? Why do people use RCS in general?
I've never used RCS for anything other than as the propellant for really light probes and as a propellant with an obscenely high (You can just keep adding more ports, they're all massless) t/w ratio.

1) Stability on launch. Yes engines can direct their thrust, but if you want a nice, smooth trajectory that burns less fuel, then RCS helps out.

2)

orientation for burn. The most important thing period.

It saves so much fuel. If you have to fire your engine and then turn around to burn look at how much fuel you have to waste to turn around AND counteract what you just thrusted. I can not imagine how you can be precise at all without rcs.

3) It weighs very little, so why not.

4) If you run out of fuel you got this!

5) docking.

man you guys are so much further along than I am.

Last time I played I spent a while using one of the included orbit capable ships in sandbox mode just practicing getting to the same orbit over and over again. I've launched stuff to the mun just for fun but have not even thought about landing + returning yet.

It is definitely a steep learning curve. Just remeber, anything you do in orbit will affect the opposite side of the orbit. If you slow down the other side will shrink. If you speed up the other side will grow.

[PeregrineV]

Last chance sale. I'm debating on getting:

Dark Souls + Age of Empires 2
Payday 2
Tomb Raider

Can only get one... I'm very torn.

you should get Dishonored if you haven't already

...have I mentioned my intense love for Dishonored before?

I bought Dishonored when it went on sales on Steam recently and it is a totally kick-ass game!!

With that said, before I rave on it any more, does anyone have any suggestions for others that are highly similar?

I like the sneaking aspect, I like the adjusted gameplay based on actions, I like the flavor/world-building, I like the storyline, I like the steampunk genre, I like the inclusion of magic and how it's handled, I like the ease of gameplay, including magic and weapons, I like the environment (graphically), I like the fact combat is complex but not too much so, I like pretty much most things about it.

Finished Knife of Dunwall, starting on Witches of Brigamore, so am about to run out of game. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Maruchan]

god damn it. I've wanted KSP forever, and all you guys are just making me want it more.


How much is it currently?

[CooLDoG]

god damn it. I've wanted KSP forever, and all you guys are just making me want it more.


How much is it currently?

my ksp thread is soon to be populated by my rocket design... when I get around to it.

The game is currently $30, and well worth it in my mind. The game is still in early development and it is this good... when it gets released it will be mind blowing.

[Maruchan]

Unless it pulls a "Towns" and "releases" while still full to shit of bugs and is essentially a beta.


but I have faith in it that it won't do that

[zoraster]

Wing Commander III (the one with mark hamill aka Luke Skywalker) is free on origin today

[Chevre]

I know there's a separate thread for it, but some of it is still spoilers to me, so I'm gonna post here that I finally got around to finishing The Walking Dead Season One. Here are my choices for all the episodes:

Spoiler: Chevre's Choices

Episode 1

Didn't lie to Hershel. Honesty was just one of the big things during my playthrough; the "you were honest with _____" must have popped up a million times during Episode 4.
Saved Shawn over Duck. He was just more of an asset to any chance of survival we had.
Sided with Kenny on Duck's being bitten, I was also very considerate regarding bites/injuries/etc.
Didn't give Irene the gun.
Saved Carley. I just feel like there's so much more development with her than Doug; it just feels like the natural choice.

Episode 2

Didn't kill Jolene
Didn't help kill Larry
Didn't kill either brother
Didn't loot car

Episode 3

Didn't shoot woman
Didn't leave Lilly behind
I guess I fought with Kenny in the train cab, but half-pacifism, half-not knowing where to click led me to just take all his punches lol.
Killed Duck myself
Helped Christa onto the train

Episode 4

I killed the zombie boy
Didn't threaten Vernon
Took Clementine to crawford
Saved Ben

Episode 5

Only Omid and Christa went with me. I let Ben decide for himself and there was no way Kenny was going with me unless I chose the "family" option
Didn't cut off arm
Argued calmly with Kenny
Gave up all weapons
Didn't kill the Stranger
Told Clementine to shoot me

[Iecerint]

I know there's a separate thread for it, but some of it is still spoilers to me, so I'm gonna post here that I finally got around to finishing The Walking Dead Season One. Here are my choices for all the episodes:

Spoiler: Chevre's Choices

Episode 1

Didn't lie to Hershel. Honesty was just one of the big things during my playthrough; the "you were honest with _____" must have popped up a million times during Episode 4.
Saved Shawn over Duck. He was just more of an asset to any chance of survival we had.
Sided with Kenny on Duck's being bitten, I was also very considerate regarding bites/injuries/etc.
Didn't give Irene the gun.
Saved Carley. I just feel like there's so much more development with her than Doug; it just feels like the natural choice.

Episode 2

Didn't kill Jolene
Didn't help kill Larry
Didn't kill either brother
Didn't loot car

Episode 3

Didn't shoot woman
Didn't leave Lilly behind
I guess I fought with Kenny in the train cab, but half-pacifism, half-not knowing where to click led me to just take all his punches lol.
Killed Duck myself
Helped Christa onto the train

Episode 4

I killed the zombie boy
Didn't threaten Vernon
Took Clementine to crawford
Saved Ben

Episode 5

Only Omid and Christa went with me. I let Ben decide for himself and there was no way Kenny was going with me unless I chose the "family" option
Didn't cut off arm
Argued calmly with Kenny
Gave up all weapons
Didn't kill the Stranger
Told Clementine to shoot me

If you

don't loot the car

, does the

Stranger's origin story change

?

[Sudo_Nym]

I know there's a separate thread for it, but some of it is still spoilers to me, so I'm gonna post here that I finally got around to finishing The Walking Dead Season One. Here are my choices for all the episodes:

Spoiler: Chevre's Choices

Episode 1

Didn't lie to Hershel. Honesty was just one of the big things during my playthrough; the "you were honest with _____" must have popped up a million times during Episode 4.
Saved Shawn over Duck. He was just more of an asset to any chance of survival we had.
Sided with Kenny on Duck's being bitten, I was also very considerate regarding bites/injuries/etc.
Didn't give Irene the gun.
Saved Carley. I just feel like there's so much more development with her than Doug; it just feels like the natural choice.

Episode 2

Didn't kill Jolene
Didn't help kill Larry
Didn't kill either brother
Didn't loot car

Episode 3

Didn't shoot woman
Didn't leave Lilly behind
I guess I fought with Kenny in the train cab, but half-pacifism, half-not knowing where to click led me to just take all his punches lol.
Killed Duck myself
Helped Christa onto the train

Episode 4

I killed the zombie boy
Didn't threaten Vernon
Took Clementine to crawford
Saved Ben

Episode 5

Only Omid and Christa went with me. I let Ben decide for himself and there was no way Kenny was going with me unless I chose the "family" option
Didn't cut off arm
Argued calmly with Kenny
Gave up all weapons
Didn't kill the Stranger
Told Clementine to shoot me

If you

don't loot the car

, does the

Stranger's origin story change

?

The car gets looted by the group no matter what you choose, so the Stranger ultimately gets screwed over by that. He just doesn't get angry at you specifically for it.

[PeregrineV]

Wing Commander III (the one with mark hamill aka Luke Skywalker) is free on origin today

Went to take a look and Tigers must be gnawing on it, since it won't load.

[CooLDoG]

I got it and I'm probably going to dig out my joy stick later tonight.

[zoraster]

yeah it's a little tough with the keyboard but it's okay. the bigger issue is the one with lots of those old games... the resolution is tiny, and if you alt-tab for any reason i can't get my DOSBox to reexpand. That's okay though. Working on the stupid cloaking torpedo exercise that I remember failing about 20 times when I first played the game.

[Chevre]

The car gets looted by the group no matter what you choose, so the Stranger ultimately gets screwed over by that. He just doesn't get angry at you specifically for it.

Also, I think I read a post from you earlier in the thread wondering

how the Stranger chastises you if you don't endorse the looting of the car.

He accused me of choosing beautiful Carley over "the boy" Doug, and taking Clementine to the dairy "full of sickos."

[CooLDoG]

yeah it's a little tough with the keyboard but it's okay. the bigger issue is the one with lots of those old games... the resolution is tiny, and if you alt-tab for any reason i can't get my DOSBox to reexpand. That's okay though. Working on the stupid cloaking torpedo exercise that I remember failing about 20 times when I first played the game.

Guess I'm going to be config-file-diving later tonight.

[Maruchan]

well you guys got me to buy KSP. 'grats.