[Tohopekaliga]

Somebody voted for talking about Astrophysics, so...

Kerbal Space Program! One of my favorite games...although I haven't actually played it in a few weeks.

Anybody else play it?

I like building big fancy space stations, and complex interplanetary ships. Always a fun time.

[Lawtan]

I've wanted to play it, but haven't had the chance. Played a demo NASA Lunar Space Station creator once, though.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I know of it, but don't play it myself. Closest I get is Space Engineers where I'm currently hollowing out and Asteroid for base. Not sure how I'm going to fit a refinery in there, though. Things designed for space building work a little awkwardly when walls get involved.

[Lawtan]

...I may save money to get Space Engineers...
Asteroid Base, away!

(On another note - Universe Sandbox^2 is a cool simulator)

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I've been at it for 12 hours now. Much more progress has been made since they brought in the terrain leveler and I can fix the mistakes I keep making with the hand drill. Does feel a little like cheating, though.

*twiddles thumbs while waiting for Salone to show up*

[Tohopekaliga]

Oh, I've got Space Engineers, too. :D I haven't played it since the planets update. It's neat, but I like Kerbals more. Having to think about orbital physics is fun.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I saw the planets update. My asteroid warren feels less special now. :(. Not sure how I'm going to approach the next part of my base. I have rudimentary power and walls, and a med station with some storage cubes. Not sure what to do next.

[Tohopekaliga]

I usually appropriate one of the cargo ships or an abandoned one as my mobile base and modify it over time.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I'm not sure this thing is actually moving anywhere at any significant speed. It's the starter asteroid on survival mode.

Also, shouldn't this be in the games & tech forum?

[Tohopekaliga]

lol, good point.

And asteroids don't move in SE.

[Salone]

I play Kerbal, but I am awful right now. Playing career mode, and so far I can barely manage to get a capsule in to successful orbit around the planet. The one time I landed on the moon, I wasn't aiming for it. I never got to it again.

I think my designs are just...off.

[Tohopekaliga]

Haha... My most recent career game has a space probe on its way to an intercept with Jool, 6 kerbals in orbit around Duna, and another ship of 5 kerbals going to Eve...although those guys aren't gonna land. (The Duna ship did send people down.)

Eve sucks to take off from.

[Salone]

I don't know what my issue is really, I suppose I'm just...designing wrong. I just always feel like a small child stumbling through the game. I've exploded so many ships. My science always drops off and I can never get enough to unlock the next set of things.

[Tohopekaliga]

Hmm, well. I play with a multitude of mods.

One that is very helpful is "Kerbal Engineer Redux." It gives you displays of the ship's deltaV capabilities, among other things. That's quite helpful, especially after looking up a deltaV chart of the system. You need ~4000 dV to get to orbit, then another 1000 to get into Mun orbit, and about 300 to get back.

[Salone]

See, I think that would be something I need. My entire design philosophy is "We'll slap it together and see how far it gets'. Maybe I am not the target audience for the game.

[Tohopekaliga]

Naw. That's exactly the philosophy of ksp! It's just there's a large subset that does what I do, modding galore.