Orbit and beyond

After a sufficient share of suborbital forays, which were more like elevator studies (up, down, up, down, … yeah, probably the pure essence of the whole Kerbal Space Program!), it was time for the first orbital flight. For this, I chose a conventional staged rocket. I had a test contract for a higher orbit, higher than the Starglider would have deltaV for. 

In the meanwhile I had also figured out the “pod-problem”. A re-entry speed is only too high and leads to “splad” if the distance for slowing down via aerobraking is too short. Thus, all those vertical climbs into suborbit led to high speed vertical descends with very little time for braking by the air resistance of the atmosphere. Re-entry should rather follow a flat and long curve. I love how this game makes you learn by leading you to your own deductions.

- two phased re-entry: big empty fuel tanks help to slow down faster
 

And, what can I say, it fills me with pride to report that my first orbital flight went absolutely smoothly, no reverse-flight function whatsoever. A rare achievement indeed. And a lot of science points on the side; never forget to bring along all your science toys!

 

 - horray! it survived!

After this foray, the orbital playing field was open, with plenty of tourist contracts. This also gave me the opportunity to refine the Starglider from a suborbital hopper to a true Orbiter. I also practiced re-entry a lot, finding the proper descend curve and angle of attack. 




 
 - high angle of attack for re-entry













 - Spacegliding down the rest









One time, I could point land the Orbiter with its parachutes on the runway. The Orbiter wings do not only sufficiently slow down the re-entry, they also allow for gliding and thus some limited aiming where to touchdown. It is a lot of fun to guide those half-planes-half-rockets.

 


 - precise touchdown location










The only nuisance is the weird SAS-autopilot, who with bigger vessels like this would pendulum endlessly when steered. This is a mixed problem of the position of the piloting unit, as well of a too-weak torque in space or the limits of atmospheric flight (try a 90-degree turn at 600 m/s…).

 


 - this approach was a close one










After some time and with more cash, I felt confident to reach out: Mün flyby. Some tinkering and pimping up of my Spaceglider with some staged fuel tanks squeezed out enough extra deltaV do just pull it off.





- going for a Mün flyby










Before this thing really went to Mün, I had to do a lot of test flights. Earlier, I worked a lot with the "reverse flight" option. However, this steals a lot of game time and game progress is lacking accordingly. This time, I simply took tourist contracts in order to finance every test flight. Once in orbit, I would see if I managed to save enough deltaV in order to get into the Mün sphere of influence (SOI). This, in turn, honed my skills for a proper ascend profile for this iteration of the Spaceglider class. Adding tanks changed center of mass and drag profile, after all: Any modified space craft is a new space craft.




 - on Mun trajectory; very rewarding experience

Kerbal Space Program 1.05

After what seems a long time I start the Kerbal Space Program. Thanks to my blog notes, I quickly am up to date, but also overwhelmed. There are 15 missions to be fulfilled, about a dozen vessels en route, the to-do list on Kerbal Alarm Clock beckons. I check the Vehicle Assemby Building (VAB) for the newly designed parts which were introduced with the latest patch 1.05. Damn, the new Mk1 Cockpit looks better than I thought. But, alas, it thouroughly replace the old, equally nice design, even on my saved files. Also, some parts got modified and need refitting; especially the parts, which I used to place landing gear on, have a new form.

Then, the setback: Almost all of my designs have become invalid! Checking back with the Science Building makes things clearer: A certain delta wing got placed to tech nodes higher, which I do not have access to. Same applies for the Whiplash jetstream engine. This means that my entire supply structure, my spaceplanes which bring fuel and cargo into orbit, is down. Back to rocketbuilding, I guess.

As usual, when I enter a mid-game after a long time of absence, my motivation to continue it quickly drops. Things are simply not present anymore, and I suffer from the complexity I have created myself. I am also surprised to realize that my blog entries do not help me to get back in. On the contrary, it feels wrong to continue with invalid ship designs floating everywhere. Granted, I could have just deleted all and start with my current science and wealth, but this feels more like invalidating past efforts and those good memories. A fresh start is in order, which has also the advantage that I can experience the game with the new low-level parts, most notably new small jet engines and a new Mk1-crew cabin for two passengers.

New Career Game, moderate difficulty.



- a fresh start











Yes, the mission offering structure has been definitely improved. Also, having now started two career games already, I run them much more efficent and smoother, knowing exactly how and where to reap science on the way.

However, the atmospheric model has also changed again. I realise this when my Mk1-pods when dropping from the sky frequently just don´t slow down enough in order to safely deply parachutes. Not sure if it is properly simulated to have a Mk1-pod plus a Junior Lab hit the surface with supersonic speed, just from the acceleration of its own weight from great heights?



 - old pilots truth: up is easier than down










Once I try my first aerobraking through the atmosphere, going down to the 45km, which I still knew from my last game, the entire ship explodes with the cockpit, pilot and scientist on board. Thoughtless I had invalidated the reverse-flight option and not done any quicksave. With 2 of 3 kerbonauts dead and very little money left, this career game is doomed after one game session. Besides, no way that I continue without the iconic Jebediah, my chief pilot kerbonaut!

New Career Game, moderate difficulty.

As it turns out, hitting observation points above certain altitudes is not possible with the new Wheesley jet engine. Maximum height is about 5 km. The next powerful version fails at about 10 km. Also annoying is the constant trial and error approach with rockets, as I have no idea how deltaV and drag interact, each time in a different way for each new rocket.




 - environmental effects mod makes it more immersive



 





So, surprisingly, I come to like those tourist contracts. Mostly thanks to the new Mk1-passenger module, which is very early available, I can ferry them very efficiently into suborbit. The only problem which remained is the very high re-entry speed, too high for parachutes. Airbrakes would be nice, but they are locked much higher in the tech tree. This is the point where I remember the Orbiter approach, i.e. glide back in like the Space Shuttle did. What can I say, it works fabulous. A pair of wings not for flying but to slow down the fall until the parachutes get their bite.

This idea at the same time marks the beginning of my “Starglider” series, which finally leads to a very cheap single-stage-to-orbit plane/rocket hybrid.




 - this one marks the beginning of a new concept









 In my previous career game, I had funnelled all research towards the construction of space planes, because jet engines are a very fuel efficient means to gain altitude, thus allowing for very good payloads in form of fuel, satellites and even whole spaceships. Since the changes in the tech tree in version 1.05, the according technology has even higher science point requirements, which makes it impossible to achieve a spaceplane logistic in an early to midgame stage. In come my hybrid rocket planes.

 


- evolving











Before unlocking more tech or going to Mun, all tourist contracts remain on demanding suborbital or orbital flights. The Starglider offers this for up to four passengers and the trip costs overall only about 8,000 Credits. After some time in the tourist business, one might also be tempted to already call it grinding, my account is well filled with about 300,000 Credits. This strategy is similar to what I did in the career game before. Later contracts will cost much more time to fulfil, so this phase in the game is the best cash earner, if you can stand the grind.

 


 - matured model










I guess, after three game sessions, I am back in the Kerbal Space business.

 


- smooth touchdown

The Secret World

Sooo... as I had almost predicted, my forays into Star Wars: The Old Republic became boring very quickly, once that coolness of cleaving through enemies with a lightsaber has worn off and the complexity of rotating about a dozen abilities´ cooldown timer has become transparent. It is a pity to not conclude (yet) again the story of the Jedi Knight, but these days, I just follow my impulses. Like the element wind, I am here and soon somewhere else.

No one can tell me,

   Nobody knows,

Where the wind comes from,

   Where the wind goes.

It’s flying from somewhere

   As fast as it can,

I couldn’t keep up with it,

   Not if I ran.

But if I stopped holding

   The string of my kite,

It would blow with the wind

   For a day and a night.

And then when I found it,

   Wherever it blew,

I should know that the wind

   Had been going there too.

So then I could tell them

   Where the wind goes . . .

But where the wind comes from

   Nobody knows.

- A. A. Milne, “Wind on the Hill”

Enter The Secret World (TSW).



This little jewel of an MMORPG is easily one of the last remaining bastions of actual gameplay challenge, mixed with a superb moot for its setting. Well, it could have done better on a personal level, as all those game mechanics and monologues give little room for character interaction, but I consider the game´s particular style as an art. And managing those 529 skills, creating synergies which are actually direly needed in order to best the challenges which the game throws at you, is a minigame in itself. I don´t want to know how many hours I have spend the last weeks just pondering by aid of this fantastic skill planning tool, after a particular helpful community resource explained the basic principles behind it.




 - fighting IS in Egypt (well, something of a kind)









The first time I have played TSW about four years ago, I went with The Dragon, the most enigmatic faction of the three available ones. Besides, you get a blow job right in the intro.
Nowadays, it seems I am more settled as I went for The Templars righteous justice; attractive that they, at least, leave you to your own decision and just don´t simply abduct you into their ranks!

TSW has three big game locations, each of them divided into three or four big maps, which are littered with adventures, secrets and horrors. Solomon Island, New England. Marya, Egypt. Karpatians, Transylvania. Each map masterfully captures the particular sociocultural environment and mixes it with mystery and horror elements. It was a blast to go again through the storyline and all those missions. Plus, in the meanwhile, there were new issues, finally reveiling the mystery about that horror-dream you are presented with in the into: Tokio is open.



 - and, Shambala











A character in TSW has no particular class or playstyle. It is entirely up to your choice how you create it, based on said 529 skills and a choice of two out of nine available weapons, which serve as a focus of your powerful immortal magic abilities. The system is fantastic. Combat builds on a resource building-consuming concept. So called "builder" abilities do weak damage but build up to five resource points which you can use for a strong ability called "consumer". On top, there are side effects like affliction (bleeding or poisoning effects), weakening, hinder or impairing, which have their own intricate dependancies and synergies.

My character is named Adam Kadamon, based on the server Arcadia. As my first focus, the sword and blood magic served well. The former is strong in area based melee attacks, the latter dishes out formidable damage and also offers healing magic. I imagine "Adakada", as my character´s ingame nick goes, as a kind of a Blood Paladin. Sword strikes justice, drawing blood which also heals and protects. In later stages, the magic of "Exquisite Corpse" draws only two resources and builds up a medium strength protective shield in combination with a heal effect. This is my modern day paladin´s holy shield. An area effect ability called "Clearing the Path" allowed for >40% of my hits to devastatingly penetrate all afflicted targets, and my passive skills were all focusing to add damage upon afflicted targets ("Blood Sport" creates an affliction, and numerous other abilities exploit this by adding extra damage). The latter became my signature abilities, providing consistent high damage to each weak builder ability so that each rivaled a consumer ability, and by virtue of being added passive abilities, translated to all other weapon combinations later on. The beauty about this skill choice is that it does not rely on "procs", like critical or penetration his, but adds damage simply on a per hit basis.



- mysterious dreams, enigmatic missions










Another set of abilities centered around elemental magic, where also where fast available two-point consumers would allow for high damage per second, simply by virtue a rythm ("rotation")  of two builders to one consumer (instead of five builders to once consumer). This elemental magic, together with the above passive affliction-based damage skills enabled my to experiment with my secondary weapon choices, where I tried out Hammer, Chaos Magic, Shotgun. All of them added fantastic synergies in their own way. The high numerical base damage of my affliction set would for example combine nicely with a single high added percentage of damage ("Expose"). The usual way would have been to add percentage probabilities and damage, but by virtue of percentages being relative, my combination with stacked absolute damage bonuses quite overachieves.

I originally planned to do a little article series on my forays there, but I got swept away and totally swallowed by the combination of game mechanic-ing and those moody and quirky quests. If the term themeparc setting has a meaning, it is here!

However, my motivation dropped at a similar point as last time, when most of the story content was done, and the "end game grind" took over. In that stage, looking out and hunting for items usually becomes more important than both mood and story. While I am not opposed to some Nethack-Diablo-style of gameplay, I do not want this as a obligatory stage to savour more of a different game content. After finally understanding some of the equally intricate equipment (aka talsiman) mechanics and some group dungeons later, it all became the same again for me. Looking for a team is tedious, even though Funcom just has released a group finder. However, either nothing pops up at all, or the team is so overgeared that the whole mood of the dungeon is wasted. As is my time.

I still want to progress beyond the gate to Tokio, and maybe two more game sessions later I would have grinded enough of an epic equipment, but, too late, the game already lost again steam for me. And then I stumbled upon a nice gameplay video of Kerbal Space Program and some other motivation got quite kindled again...

Balmorra

Hyperjump to Balmorra, to see Master Warren Sedoru. Balmorra is an industrial planet for weaponry. THE weapon production plant, and currently in the hands of the Empire. However, the Republic has staged an invastion, so we are in a warzone. Master Sedoru is not pleased about this, as the mission requires secrecy. Well, I think you can hide a lot in a war torn area. The objective is to get a prototype cloaking device; the technological insight will allow the Jedi to identify the hidden fortress of the Emperor.











The republic storyline starts in Bugtown. Genenic modified giant insects run rampant, and the feeble hold of the Republic is threatened by the Empire´s satelite defense system. Destroy Collocoid nests and queens. Fixed. Found resistance hospital overrun by more bugs. Fixed. Need to bring vital supply of medpacks to a rather charming resistance doctor, who immediately wanted to examine my heroine after the fight. Also, need to find intel from an agent shot down by the Empire, in order to know how to access and control the satelites. Both missions lead my heroine to a camp of the resistance fighters.

A funny mission takes place with a captured Empire droid, who believes he is reporting to the Empire; transponders in shot-down Empire fighters could be cracked by a republic specialist. A greenhorn soldier-pilot wants to recover Republic transponders. And a resistance agent needs data from his spy drones in a hazardous area (heroic). Plenty of stuff to do! And I guess I know now why at some point you stop thinking about the content of quests and just do them. A shame about all that voiced dialogue, but, come on, repetition galore does not make things more heroic!

Next step, after I found the shot down agent of the Republic and his data: Extract a hacker who is able to take control of the satelites, now that we know where they are and how to access them. At the location of the heroic mission is a puzzle-quest; the first one I have seen in this game. And a difficult one, at that. Once I have figured out which pillar switches which ones on, I already have created an intricate confusion. This website helps solving the issue (switch to a 3x3 grid like the pillars are, red=off, blue=on). I remember this mission now, from years ago, where it was even more difficult with constantly respawning enemies, which at that time still needed teamwork of two heroes to dispatch, constantly interrupting the guesswork.

After these exploits, my heroince teleports back for further tasks, to get one step closer towards getting that prototype device (Jedi Knight storyline), as well as loosening the Empire´s grip on this planet (Republic storyline).

Showdown with Darth Angral

My spoilery ventures as a Jedi Knight in SWTOR continue. Alderann was the last chapter in the first story arc, now I have reached showdown time.

Uphrades is an apocalypse; the planet´s atmosphere is on fire, thanks to Darth Angal bein in posession of the Republic´s superweapon, the climate killer. My heroine catches an SOS signal from a freighter which is being boarded. To the rescue, the survivors deliver detailed protocols of the weapons terrible work, having practically set aflame the atmosphere. A litte  question of morale whether the freighter should enter the still imprisoned planet in order to bring supplies to the last remaining survivors down there. They will be trapped too, not knowing for how long. Of course my heroine supports this kind of heroism!

This seems to have been a test run. Angral is headed for Tython, powering up his weapon. About time for the final confrontation with this bugger! And interesting it becomes. After sabotaging the ship´s power, the imminent threat is gone. However, in comes a big surprise during the confrontation with Darth Angral: My companion Kira, by virtue a "daughter" of the Emperor, gets possessed and my heroine thus adressed by the Emperor himself. Thus Jedi master has to fight Jedi padawan after Darth Angral is finally done for. The fights are short as usual, and Kira finally manages to fend off the dark influence (hopefully thanks to the many light side points and positive influence I stuffed onto her so far!).


- unfortunately, screenshots of the cutscenes seem to be not possible










All done for, the Jedi Council honors our achievements and promotes Kira to full Jedi Knight status.

Back on the ship, my heroine gets contacted by a ghost. Master Orgus lives on through the force like Obi-Wan-Kenobi does. He sends us to Tatooine once more, a stranded ship is in need an bears a message of great urgency.

The direction this mission takes me opens up new parts of the map and of course some side missions. Two heroic missions yield a nice surprise. Apparently, the loot is adapted to my heroine´s real level. Since by now she is level 53, the equipment I get is pretty overpowered for a mere level 30 Tatooine!



 - total domination











In the end, the ship I discover is that of a Jedi and I can save him from assaulting Sith. He was on a vital mission which makes my heroine being summoned once more to Tython and bring his surveillance data.

In the Jedi Council, Master Tol Braga is one of those "ugly" aliens and presents a bold plan: To capture the Emperor himself. My heroine is nominated for the team as the best fighter of the Jedi. First stop: Balmorra.