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Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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13 Responses

  1. Hoosegow Flask says:

    Kerbal. Finally learned the main “trick” to space plane design (center of lift needs to be slightly behind center of gravity), thanks to Scott Manley’s YouTube videos. I was also inspired to reread Oscar’s aircraft engineering post. Now I kinda wish Kerbal had more focus on the engineering aspects, rather than mostly gluing parts together. But I realize there fun trumps realism, which all has to be balanced with what’s achievable programatically and is able to be run on the audience’s machines.Report

    • Oscar Gordon in reply to Hoosegow Flask says:

      That’s not really a trick, it’s kinda how you design planes in general (you could just asked me, I would have told you).

      PS if you like messing around with aircraft design, I recommend X-Play. It’s a top notch flight Sim & it has a built in Numerical simulation system that will estimate your design performance.Report

      • Hoosegow Flask in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

        Thanks, I’ll add it to my wishlist and keep an eye out during the Summer Sale. (I assume you meant X-Plane.)Report

        • Oscar Gordon in reply to Hoosegow Flask says:

          Yes, X-Plane (damn big thumbs and small phone keyboards…). I discovered that bit of software back when I was an undergrad and I tend to throw money at it every few versions because it really is quite good.Report

      • DensityDuck in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

        I do love seeing all these people saying “WHAT R BEST TIPZ FOR KERABL ROCKETS” and I’m like “kid, after I learned what those were I got to put letters after my name”.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to DensityDuck says:

          We’re turning rocket science from an unaccessible hobby into an accessible one.

          We’ve got kids asking for tips for rockets. They’re playing at stuff that used to get you letters after your name.

          We need to make video games about drug research.Report

          • Joe Sal in reply to Jaybird says:

            “This just in: new video game shows kids how to make real nova-6”Report

          • Oscar Gordon in reply to Jaybird says:

            When they start designing and building actual rockets (even model rockets), I’ll be impressed.

            Although you get the letters after your name not for knowing the tips, but for knowing how those tips all work together to prevent flaming wreckage from being strewn across three counties.Report

            • Joe Sal in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

              Ha, when was your first rocket build?Report

              • Oscar Gordon in reply to Joe Sal says:

                7 or 8, I think?

                My “Oh crap, the math is really effing important” moment came when I decided to give an old model rocket a Viking funeral, pulled the ‘B’ motor mount out, glued a large ‘C’ motor into it, ripped out the parachute and hung a condom full of gasoline from the nose cone (& glued the nose cone in).

                Made it I don’t know how high before the motor cut out, but it fell back to about 10 feet up in the air before the ejection charge popped and turned it into a fireball. I had hit the deck by then and felt the heat wash over me.

                PS I was in my early teensReport

              • Joe Sal in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

                I guess I was about eleven when I started sending up ‘payload’.Report

            • DensityDuck in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

              I’ll be honest, a lot of this Kerbal stuff goes as far some things I’ve been paid to do.Report

  2. Oscar Gordon says:

    Once I got used to the combat system, I really enjoyed Rebel Galaxy. I hope they do a DLC or an RG2, because I got to the end of the story & wanted more. I’m seriously considering playing it through again and going hardcore pirate.Report