Bay 12 Games Forum

The OrbiTower Mk I, a new paradigm in rocket design, is having a certain amount of trouble with the whole "not falling apart and exploding on contact with physics" thing. It takes a couple tries, but we get Launch Stability Enhancers in positions where they won't allow the Tower to collapse under its own weight. Then the solid fuel boosters break the decouplers and smash into the rest of the ship. A few struts fix that. Unfortunately, the design evidently is too heavy for the relatively few liquid-fuel rockets in the second and third stages to handle, so it is overall considered a failure, even though the solid fuel boosters (narrowly) avoided overheating. The OrbiTower project is scrapped.

I work on an orbital (?) launcher with three stages of solid fuel and one of liquid. Two problems come up: A lack of structural soundness in the bottom stage (note to self: Inter-connect solid fuel stacks) and overheating. Oh, and it has zero control surfaces, only RCS. And in case that isn't enough, it has a terminal case of spinning. And we run out of fuel pretty fast. It's not exactly an ideal proof-of-concept.
You know what they say: If at first you don't succeed, and your original design had horrible flaws, go back to the drawing board because you have unlimited funds anyways. Aand this one fails worse: The first two stages (composed ~100% of solid fuel) fall apart, the third stage starts blasting downward (nearly keeping the cockpit trapped underneath), and the control surfaces didn't do much of anything.
Struts were added...let's see...three here, three there, fifteen overall I think. It worked well for a while...but apparently the decouplers were getting a lot of damage from the exhaust, so the first stage smashed into the rest of the craft. Bill Kerman was killed, his command pod struck by one of the fuel boosters.
Half a dozen new struts were added, connecting the first two stages in a move that I hope I don't regret when the first stage runs our of fuel. I don't! Instead I regret not doing the same with the second stage. Bob Kerman died in the explosion.
Three more struts. And now it explodes right after takeoff. RIP Ludeny Kerman. Too much stress on the one liquid fuel engine, it seems.
Those three struts were supplemented with six new ones. Things go well. Well, until we hit an apoapsis at 13,000 meters and things start going crazy. "SAS isn't keeping us stable and manual control is worse" crazy. Splashdown is achieved.

Time to try something I know can work: The old NL-Vb. Catastrophic failure on the second stage when the solid fuel boosters kinda fall apart, sending us into a wild spin that the SAS makes worse. I, uh...I don't remember that happening. But hey, not counting dignity there were no casualties!
Relaunching, no such difficulties. Geofemy is put into an elliptical orbit, apoapsis a bit over 400 kilometers and periapsis a bit under 100. He even still has fuel!

I'll call that a success and take a break.

I'm trying to figure out if I should be insulted by you putting the rockhand (a kinda pathetic achievement) alongside such great deeds.

Um, Alexandria already demanded that we give Torban bootlicking and stuff. She even threatened to bind us all in a Spellstone if we didn't.

((...Okay, going to assume things.))
 Selina comforted Angel, then was confused by Will.

"Um... er..." Selina is really confused...

"If you're in the middle of something I can leave..."
Angel is crying into Selina's shoulder. Or hip or something, I'm not sure of the exact placement of the people.

_{<...Huh? Oh... my apologies, I forgot to take off my bracelet. I assure you I am in a, most, sane state of mind, give me a moment please.>}

<Nice job of sounding it.>

<You could try seeing a psychiatrist before taking drastic measures...>

<Excellent suggestion. Any idea where Marie is?>

Cool. Now, what happens if we do that to a MEC?

I'm not going to argue any more. Or respond to him in any way in any game I play that he's in ever again.

Not again.

You know, Alexandria's supposedly ignoring me now, but I'd like to say that last night I was strongly considering quitting this game because of how obstinate, stubborn, and overall selfish she was being. Just putting that out there. If she actually goes through with demanding our bootlicking, I will have Carl give a stern talking-to to Torban and then leave.

Weirdly, it wasn't letting me burn. Or there was something else stopping me from burning at the apoapsis and not at the periapsis.