So I finally achieved my first ever Mün landing in Kerbal Space Program, but wow, what a crazy mission. :D
Now for anyone that do not know what KSP is, it is a rocket game/simulator where you build your own rockets and launch it into space or to other planets. Pretty fun game but can have a bit of a learning curve as travelling to other planets isn’t as easy as just aiming toward it and flying there.
To the mission: It all started with me taking a break with building my Space Station (no fancy name for it yet) and decided to attempt a Mün landing. I went with the Apollo idea in some sense, with a rocket staying in Mün orbit and a lander going down, landing, then coming back up, dock and head back to Kerbin, where the rocket section will be detached to “burn up” in Kerbin’s atmosphere and the lander, equipped with parachutes, splashdown... not that is how it turned out at all.
After trying several designs, I ended up with the single kerbonaut rocket design seen in the picture above called Munar Mini I. Barhat Kerman was the kerbonaut pilot and after a successful launch, an orbit was achieved around Kerbin.
Achieving a Mün orbit went pretty well, although I have no idea what is a good orbit height for a mission like what I wanted to do. In any case, I ended up with a 15,000m orbit, which might have been too low.
The Mün landing went surprisingly well too. Barhat enjoyed a bit of jumping and running around on the Mün before heading back to the lander, just to discover I forgot to add a ladder... okay no big deal, just jump up, grab and enter the pod. After that... the problems were not so small. The pod lacked fuel to get back to a Mün orbit... a lot of fuel.. After quicksaving and attempting several times, I just could not reach the orbiting rocket again... is this it? Barhat stuck on the Mün... well at least till rescue comes? Barhat was not about to give up and neither was I, so I decided to try an EVA orbit. Using the lander, I used the last fuel available to launch the lander as close to the direction the rocket is going as possible. After achieving an apoapsis about the height of the orbiting rocket, Barhat went on a EVA, leaving the lander to crash back into the Mün while he used the jetpack until FINALLY achieving an orbit, but only with 43% fuel left in it.
After this came the orbiting of the Mün for 2 and a half game hours (poor Barhat) until finally being in a position where only a little fuel will be needed to get close to the rocket. This took some adjusting but I finally got close... and after using as little fuel as possible, Barhat reached the rocket, with 3% fuel left. Phew...
Heading back to Kerbin was easy enough, as the nuclear engine does a pretty good job and does not use a lot of fuel. Reentry was set... but getting close to the planet, I realised something. There is NO parachutes on the rocket... The initial plan was for the lander to drop back to Kerbin, not the rocket. Quick adjustments was made to get back in a safe orbit and not crash into Kerbin.
Now I could leave Barhat just in orbit, but that did not feel right after such a crazy mission. That was when I remembered my space station and a new plan was set in motion to dock with it.
Not long after, Barhat was close to the space station, just to realise another problem. There is not one RCS thruster on the rocket, which will make docking so much harder... okay no big deal, my space station has a “tug” that is used when sections need to be moved to different spots. Final adjustments are made, being careful not to use the nuclear thruster in the direction of the space station that could push it out of its orbit. After that Bill Kerman, who is one of the crew members on the space station currently, was contacted, who jumped in the tug and head on over to the rocket which was about 200 meters away.
Well of course, another problem. The rocket had a much smaller docking port than what the tug had... great. So with nothing else to do, the tug headed back to the station and docks, and Barhat made a final adjustment to make sure the rocket is 0 m/s relative to the station.
He did one final EVA over to the space station and entered one of the living units, calling it successful mission. -You can also read this mission log on the official Kerbal Space Program forum.
Well I know it is a little late, but Happy New Year to all! Hope you all have an awesome year!
Just some updates on what is in the works.
On the topic of Machinima, I like the idea of using Kerbal Space Program for machinima's, so it was decided that there will be a sequel to Orbital, with some ideas for episodes beyond that. The script for the next machinima is already written with here and there things that will be worked out. Filming and voice acting will most likely start this month so by the end of the month I will have a better idea of when it will be released. This is also going to be the longest machinima I ever made, so that will be interesting for sure :D
For Second Life products there isn't much to say. Haven't really been inspired to create anything new to sell, but that isn't saying I won't. If I get an idea of something interesting, I'll probably start creating it immediately :D There is some stuff I created a while back though that I might put on the marketplace soon.
Machinima's is on the top of my list for now so my Youtube channel will be relatively active for the next while. Will post again when I have new news!
Can it be? Yes it can! Another machinima is online!
Happy Early Xmas All!
About a month ago I discovered this song by DJ BL3ND, and after getting permissions, plans was set up for a machinima. This weekend we got the filming done and I can present to you, Jingle Rock!
Well wasn't thinking of doing a machinima and posting it today when I got up this morning haha.
Kerbal Space Program have a competition going for Good Idea, Bad Idea and thought I'll give it a go. Luckily Thomas that did the reporter voice in "Orbiter" was online and quickly did a few lines for the narrator. Big thanks to Thomas for that!
After three hours it was done and yes, that actually includes filming, voice acting, creating some quick logos, editing everything together, then rendering, encoding and uploading to Youtube.
And here it is, Geoflock's Good Idea, Bad Idea.
Hope you all like it!
You can head on over to the official Kerbal Space Program Forums for more information about the competition.
ALSO: Kerbal Space Program is celebrating their second anniversary today!
A few weeks ago I discovered a game called Kerbal Space Program in a video on Youtube. It immediately got my attention and downloaded the demo the same day. Two days later I bought the game :D
If you do not know the game, it is a rocket simulator where you build and launch rockets into space, orbit and land on other planets and moons and basically enjoy what space has to offer. The game is a lot of fun, so after playing it for a few weeks, I decided to make this machinima!
The first ever Kerbin satellite is ready for launch and everybody is ready for this big day including the KSPNN (Kerbal Space Program News Network) crew, professional Mission Control Kerbals and Jennie Kerman, the kerbonaut!
Just a quick note to let you know that a new machinima is in production. Filming is done and also some editing, the only thing that is left is the voice acting of some scenes and then the editing and finalization of the machinima :D
Well finally released a new update!
This one is for the Comrido system I created a bit more than a year ago.
The 2.0 version includes a brand new design, channel changer & viewer, custom image option and an improved menu with a lot of behind-the-scenes optimization to the code. The radios can now display the custom image of the unit they are synched with (if one is set) with some changes to the textures.
The Comrido RGU unit, Comrido U unit, Comrido R radios and the Comrido RGR radios given by the RGU units have all been updated to 2.0 and will be rolled out within the next few days to anyone that already owns the 1.0 version.
Here are my experience and thoughts on the game I have spending my last two and a half weeks on,
Guild Wars 2. I added wiki and video links to the some of the topics where you can read in detail about it rather than me spending another few pages explaining exactly how it works. I also added some other videos from ArenaNet and some pictures I took in Guild Wars 2.
Back Story:
Back in 2006 I got Guild Wars, my first ever MMO. It was something totally
different to me, especially since before that I only played single player games
and the occasional LAN with friends. This opened a whole new world to me and I
enjoyed Guild Wars for several months which was also the start of me making machinimas with this slideshow. I made some great friends there and enjoyed several adventures through the world of Tyria with my Elementalist and his pet, Phoenix.
Then a few years back I heard rumours about Guild Wars 2 being developed and I
started following the trailers, waiting patiently until the release date was
confirmed and I could pre-order it.
I admit there was the fear of hype. I have seen several games
these last few years, building up hype just for the game to release and you
realise it was just that, hype. Well, I can gladly say Guild Wars 2 is not like that.
My Character:
From the first trailer I saw for Guild Wars 2, I knew that I wanted to
play as an Asura, so as soon as I logged in and selected Aurora's Glade as my EU server, I started creating my male Asura. Character creation has more than a few options to make your character as unique as possible, especially with detailed customization on the faces. This adds the ability to fine tune every part of your characters face like the nose size, eye shape, height and color, mouth width, etc.
After spending a good amount of time creating my Asura, I selected Engineer as my profession and then selected a few Personal Story options (more on this below). Last was my name and I was ready to enter the world of Guild Wars 2.
A few people mentioned this and I agree, at first it can be very chaotic. In the area I started off, there was characters running all over the place, fighting stuff and me standing there trying to figure out what I have to do and where I have to go. ArenaNet obviously wanted to start of the game with with a bang, which is great, it just takes a bit getting used to.
My Asura character with the human city, Divinity's Reach, in the background.
Exploration:
Exploring has been improved big time from the first game, especially
since you can now jump and swim as well. There is a lot to see, secrets to be
found, point of interests, vistas and so much more.
The areas look beautiful and the buildings architecture is very unique to
who build it like Asura usually have pyramid-type inspired builds with
use of blue glass, where the Sylvari have all their houses build (or grown?)
out of plants.
Some areas also depend on the time of day, for example; a lake
during the day might look beautiful, but at night it is covered by mist and
bats roam the area. This gives a nice experience when exploring.
Very Fun Jumping Puzzle.
What I really enjoy is jumping puzzles that can range from some easy to
more challenging, to some where jumping miss might result in your death (I have
screamed a few times loudly when I slipped). Rewards range in all kinds of
forms and several times there is a jumping puzzle to reach a Vista.
Then there are the cities... I visited Divinity’s Reach, the main city of the humans, one day and it is absolutely massive and feel
so much like an actual city that is alive. It has market stalls, people walking around and doing stuff and another reason why it probably feel so massive is because a huge portion of
it is explorable and not just backdrop. What you usually see in games
are that cities feel more like small towns or it is massive with backdrops, but
the explorable area is just a small portion of it. So far I have been really impressed with the cities and villages I have seen.
Small Oceanside Village.
And of course, I cannot forget about the underwater areas. It is beautiful
and offer so much for exploration. Other than the facts that combat changes
(read below), it is so fun swimming around and interacting with what you can
find.
Combat is similar in the way that you have certain skills on certain
number keys; the difference is the fact on how much emphasis is set on moving
constantly. Standing still and just attacking is usually a great method for
getting yourself killed very fast. Moving, dodging and knowing when to hide
behind objects will keep you alive for a good time.
Depending on the weapon you use depends on the skills you get. For
example, having a dagger and pistol in each hand is complete different skill
than a two handed sword or even switching dagger and pistol around. Also with
your weapon skills, you have skills you can unlock as your gather skill points.
For example as an Engineer the first skill I chose to get is a gun turret that I can
shoot at targets.
Bodies everywhere.
As mentioned above, combat changes underwater with the fact that you
use a different weapon and with that you have different skills too. It can take
a bit to get used to the underwater combat as it works vertically as well, but
it adds to the game so much. Some of your own skills might not work underwater
where others will work differently.
Events are one of the greatest things that has been added to Guild Wars
2 and made me see questing in MMO’s in a totally different way. Instead of
walking up to an NPC, get a quest, do something and return it, these events
happen from time to time and usually even leads on to something bigger. For
example, one event is a fort being attacked and you can help defend it. After
that, the people there send a runner to go tell another guard some distance
away about who the attackers was... now you can escort that runner to his
destination. After reaching it, you can attack the initial attackers... That is
three events, none that you talked to NPC’s and you’re not locked in a quest at
all.
Another event I really enjoyed was when I was standing around one day, watching NPC’s and sorting some inventory. I heard one NPC
talking about combining some stuff to make something incredible... next thing the
NPC goes “oh oh” and runs away with a huge blob appearing where he was
standing and starts attacking everything it sees. What followed was a huge
battle where several other players joined in to defeat it.
Escorting Allies.
These events do repeat from time to time, but even with that it does
not feel boring at all. It feels a lot more like a world that is alive with
stuff happening all over the place where it is up to you if you want to help or
walk away. Awards include experience, coin and karma, another currency used to
buy items from some vendors that offer it.
Usually in other MMO’s you are told something like “You are the only one that can save this world”, not mentioning “You and the other thousands of
players playing this game”. This is what I like about Guild Wars 2, because the story feels unique to you and changes depending on your choices you made with character creation and throughout the game.
Another thing that I really like is whenever there is a
story type cinematic (as seen in the picture below), your character actually
has a voice and you watch the story unfold. You can also bring party members with you on your personal story where they can help and watch these cinematics with you.
Dialog Cinematic
ArenaNet several times mentioned making this unique to each player and
in most cases; it usually is, as far game limits go.
So far in crafting I have been having a lot of fun and have actually
spend more time on it than I thought I would. There are several types of
crafting, but you can only focus on two at a time. It is easy to switch though
by paying a small amount coin and your progress will not be lost with the one
you switch out.
I decided to go with Leatherworker and
Jeweler. Jeweler has been a lot of fun so far, and I have created some really nice
rings with great boosts.
Leatherworker on the other hand I am still working on as it is a bit
harder finding leather or I haven’t found a spot where I can get it easier.
Crafting items gets stored in your Collections tab(all crafting items stack up here nicely organized), freeing up space from your inventory and your bank slots. You can craft straight from both your collections and bank slots although discovery (method of discovering new recipes by combining items) is at the moment limited to what you have in your inventory, but is said to be fixed to work directly out of your bank and collections too. Haha of course the same day I post this, ArenaNet releases update notes that it is fixed.
Bank slots can store items that is then available over your account, meaning you can log into any of your characters and the bank is shared. This bank is also accessible from any crafting areas so no need to run directly to the bank each time.
Sorting out inventory after crafting several stuff.
I have sold and bought a few stuff with the Trading Post so far and it
works really well now. Initially after the launch there were major issues with
it and mostly it was offline while they try and fix things. ArenaNet have fixed
these problems a while back and it is working great now although the economy
needs to stabilize a bit. Since it was offline so long, there was a surplus of
items people wanted to sell, bringing in a huge supply for low demand. It have
been getting better over time now and it is pretty interesting to see how this
all works out.
Gems are another currency that can be used to buy special stuff in the
Gem Store like mini pets, boosters, bank slots, etc. You can purchase Gems with
real money or even use coin you make in the game to buy some and depending on
the exchange, you might not have to pay too much for a few gems. Problem
usually in MMO’s with in-game stores is the fact that people buy items that
gives them suddenly an edge over other players. Considering the only thing that
can give you a bit of an edge is boosters (which you can find in world too) and
the fact that PvP auto levels you to level 80 for fair combat between all, I
cannot see the Gem Store having that problem.
A few days ago I created a guild called Tyrian Serenity with my girlfriend. We have a website up now, so check it out! So far it has been pretty fun with the guild and there are some
nice things that can be upgraded. Not much else to say on this topic for now.
I'm so small, I fit right into this plant... which can actually be a Sylvari pot...
I haven’t
spend much time on these yet but the little I did play has been fun. As
mentioned above, when you go to PvP or WvWvW, you are automatically levelled to
level 80. PvP is your usual player vs. player games where two groups also try holding as many points on a map as they can to reach a target
score. WvWvW is massive, and the little I played was pretty fun but a bit
confusing... then again I didn’t spend much time reading how it works, so will
be trying that out more in detail another time.
Music & Audio: Official Audio Video
Music in the game is by the same composer as Guild Wars, Jeremy Soule. His music really makes some scenes perfect and there is a few other games I have played that had him as the composer like the last three titles of the Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim.
Audio in general is well done and voices sounds great, especially when you hear someone outside a building your standing in and it is muffled. Even if you hear another character with the same voice, it isn't always so noticeable. Also there is some great voice actors for some of the voices like Felicia Day, Steve Blum, Jennifer Hale and more!
Here is a video of the some of the Guild Wars 2 voice cast. Note that this video was created back in 2009, just for incase you are wondering why Felicia Day says its her first video game.
The only problem I had so far with audio is that sometimes there is a difference in the voice when one NPC talk to another than when you select to that NPC to talk to them directly. Also there is the issue that some event voices is way to loud when your standing far away from them, but I have seen this being mentioned a few times and most likely will get fixed in the future.
Posing with Yardlie
Other:
Then there are the smaller things that really make the game that little
bit better and that a lot of game companies do not even think about. One
example is when I was out exploring; I found this building where young Asura is
learning. While exploring around there, I found a desk, and selecting it the
text read “Braclo”... it was my desk from when I was studying there!
Another
example is something a few people have mentioned, and that is the way NPC’s
interact with each other. One of the ones I saw is two Sylvari talking about a Charr that
just arrived and they are wondering about war in general. They actually then
walked over and talked to the Charr, which in turn kinda scares them hehe. Most games when it comes to stuff like
this usually have the starting scene and then the characters fade off or just
go about doing something else, forgetting what they were talking about two
seconds ago.
The animations are really well done too, especially when it comes to
the small detail. As an Asura, if I run sideways for a bit and stop, my
character does a little jump to the that side on one leg; Or when I jump and
land, I kind of land in a almost-falling-forward manner. The emotes is really well done and each race also has
their own dance. If you don’t mind seeing each dance of the
races, watch this great YouTube video.
The overall art look of the game is really nice touch as well. At first I was not sure if I would really like the artistic route they are taking, but I am really liking it so far. The user interface usually have a brushes drawn type of look to it with even some ground textures have that brush look. If you like concept art, be sure to check it out on the official Guild Wars 2 website.
The Asura City, Rata Sum
Guild Wars 2 is a fun, exciting, living world that is full of adventure
and exploration and has become my favourite MMO ever. Big thanks goes to ArenaNet and everyone involved for making an amazing game!
