Year 1, day 71. Calculated Risk Space Program.
Quick recap of the week: the Air II found a brand-new launch site north of KSC (the Cove Launch Site), and then politely asked me to eject and enjoy a parachute ride. Normal week at the space program.
The bigger problem was the bank account. Training Val cost 62,000 funds and 10 R&D, my first time doing that. Turns out Val's tuition is a lot like the real thing: it's expensive and I only found out after paying. So, broke, I went contract hunting with the Air III.
Now, I run OhScrap on purpose. Parts with a bad Safety Rating fail in flight, and that's the whole point: it's supposed to make me nervous. It works great.
Flight 1: night, north, landing in the Highlands. The parts started to quit on me. First an elevon said "I'm out", so I re-mapped the control surfaces while still flying, which is as graceful as it sounds. Then my wife walked into the office to say something to me, I bumped out of pause by accident, and I almost lost the plane. The pause was entirely my fault. The elevon, I'm blaming on OhScrap.
Flight 2: day, west, and I did the classic thing. I did not repair the plane. Money was still low, so I took another contract (a Crew Report at a waypoint west of KSC) and flew it in daylight with the same tired airframe. More parts started failing. The control setup I had just fixed turned out to be reset, so I fixed it again, and I filed that as a bug for Claudinho (my AI intern, who will tell me I should have repaired the plane).
I reached the waypoint, finished the contract, and kept going, looking for some flat desert to land on and collect a little science.
That's when I saw them: runway lights. In broad daylight. Out in the middle of the desert. A very normal thing to see, if you ask a plane held together by hope and a Safety Rating of "uh-oh". I went to check: it's Atacama Airport, from KerbinSide Remastered, about 143 km west of KSC. I put the Air III down, and I did it with one elevon gone, a battery short-circuited, and a cockpit with no reaction wheels and a short circuit of its own. Jeb got out for the selfie, because of course he did.
And the airport is closed. I landed at an airport that is closed. It's not even a good "I'm on the runway, please send help" story, just a plain "I landed and nobody came out".
Here's what Claudinho and I worked out, from tests on a separate copy of KSP and from the config files. It hasn't been tested in my own Steam game yet. To open a base you have to be within 5 km and pay an opening cost, from the Kerbal Konstructs menu or by clicking the Base Boss (which I never found while I was there; I'd like to meet the boss). For Atacama the cost should be zero. I'm broke, so zero is exactly my price.
Next time: repair the Air III (yes, finally), deal with those giant flags, find another contract out west, and fly back to open the airport. If it works, great. If it doesn't, you'll read about it here, and I'll blame Jeb.
Two real bugs I'm still tracking: giant flags after recovering a vessel, and the control surfaces resetting. Val should finish training soon, hopefully before my wallet finishes crying.
The toys in this log: Enhanced Astronaut Complex (the training), OhScrap (the failing parts), KerbinSide Remastered and Kerbal Konstructs (the airport). Thanks to their authors. Please keep the toys coming. I'll keep breaking them.
Em português: Flight Log #001 da campanha Risco Calculado. Sem dinheiro (treinar a Val custou 62.000 créditos e 10 de R&D), fiz dois voos de contrato com o Air III, que roda o OhScrap de propósito. No primeiro, à noite, rumo ao norte, as peças começaram a falhar e eu reconfigurei os controles em pleno voo (e quase perdi o avião quando saí da pausa sem querer). No segundo, de dia, rumo ao oeste e sem consertar o avião (clássico), cumpri o contrato e fui pousar no deserto, onde vi a luz de uma pista: o Atacama Airport, do KerbinSide Remastered. Pousei (sem um elevon, com uma bateria em curto, com a cabine sem rodas de reação e também em curto-circuito), o Jeb saiu para a selfie, e o aeroporto está fechado. Pelos testes numa outra cópia do KSP e pelos arquivos de configuração, dá para abri-lo a até 5 km, pelo menu do Kerbal Konstructs ou pelo Base Boss, e no Atacama o custo é zero. Falta comprovar no meu jogo: no próximo voo, depois de consertar o avião (prometo).