The_Rocketeer

Slight bit necro...

On which axis is it turning? If you don't understand x/y/z explanations (no offense intended) use the question below instead. Imagining the craft is a ball, look straight at the command module from in front. Does it turn like a ball rolling towards/away from you, a ball rolling past you, or a ball spinning on the spot?

Tsevion, you have utterly dominated this challenge despite a significant absense. From someone who really tried hard to achieve this first, and couldn't even come close: I applaud you.

While I do take the view that not every challenge needs to be terrifically difficult to accomplish... yeah, this doesn't interest me.

Unfortunately I think I'm out of the running on this. Uni assignments have caught up with me and these runs just eat too much time out of the day. I'm also only making moderate gains per design revision, and others are now just a kiss from the goal, so it's unlikely I'll get a big enough lift before someone else makes true orbit. I've really enjoyed being in this process though, I feel like everyone who submitted an attempt has contributed to the final design a little. Wing:fuel:engines ratio information alone is invaluable.

Could be you're just slowing down too much for the corners. I'm afraid I don't really know what else to suggest.

From your original question, it sounds like you're having problems keeping the CoM in one spot. The answer to this is to make sure that you carry the same amount of fuel in front of the CoM as behind it. You can either do that using a single tank or several. A straightforward way to do this is to make your first part a tank, then add parts in turn to the front and back, keeping the CoM indicator near the middle of the fuel tank. You should be able to get a SSTO spaceplane to work with a single inline Turbojet and a pair of nacelle RAPIERs - I used that exact thrust package in my Peregrine SSTO (see the K-prize challenge) which I use to carry satellites up to LKO or even GSO.

You are actively learning how to solve problems of your own creation - excellent! I strongly recommend practising with rover designs in the SPH. There are various ways to attach a payload like a rover to a rocket, none of which are without their hazards. The easiest to build is to just plonk the rover on the top of the rocket with a stack separator so you can detach it when you land, but this means the rover has to fall from on top of the rocket before it can be used. Other options include using a skycrane (see the stock example) to drop the rover from beneath (like the Mars rover), or making the rover with VTOL rockets or RCS built in so it can land itself. SPH symmetry is much better than the VAB for Rover designs. Start your design with a root part that represents where the rest of your rocket will be attached to the rover, and build the rover onto this part. When you've finished building the rover, select the part of the rover that attaches to the root part (which will detach all of the rover parts as a subassembly) and drop the rover onto the subassemblies tab. This will let you save the rover to this tab so you can load it in the VAB and put it on your rocket. You might find that turning over your rocket is harder than you thought, because the low gravity on Mun means you don't get a lot of traction/grip from your wheels. Therefore, I suggest building a rover with several pairs of wheels, and consider adding some ballast part to gain extra grip. Of course, if your stuck lander isn't too heavy and is a nice round shape this might not be necessary.

I swear to god, every time I check a new post on this thread my heart stops while the page loads in case someone's actually made it. Talk about a space race!

Check keybinds, u'll almost certainly find the answer there.

I'm not confused about what he's asking. If you think I've failed to answer his question, I suggest you write your own answer.

Sorry if and of these suggestions seem a little patronising, just covering the bases: Are you using your RCS thrusters? Are you accelerating basically all the time except for in the very tight corners? Have you got all wheels set to power the car? Are you using all-wheel steering? Is your car light enough (under about 1.25t)? Are you wheels properly aligned? If the answer to any of those questions is no, that's probably your answer.

The stock game is hard partly because of it's forced limitations. Overcoming those is a game in itself. Using mods that solve problems like this could be viewed as cheating. After all, modifying config files in many games would be an out and out hack, let alone adding 'special' guns in a shooter (remember the Golden PP9?) or supercars in a racer. It's not that I think all mods are cheating, but I am very selective about which mods I adopt because I don't want to play in cheatmode.

It's not working because you're using the whole URL. You only need the imgur reference for the actual gallery. This is normally just 5 characters in higher and lower case near the end of the URL. So, not [ imgur ] *imgur gallery URL* [ /imgur ] but [ imgur ] *imgur gallery reference code ONLY* [ /imgur ]. The persistant trails lines are what bothers me. Yes I know I can make them really narrow, but I like to drive with the camera nice and low, not with a high overhead view, so the trail lines would get in the way and make it difficult to see the shape of the corner. In the Formula K challenge I can just turn off the trail and look at the world to understand the shape of the corner.

My latest runs with the Shrike IV and V were less successful than the III. (IV: 9 tanks and 20 wings, V: 7 tanks and 20 wings - both had 4 engines). Cutting wings from 24 to 20 doesn't seem to have affected climb-rate very much, but it could be part of the reason I'm not getting as good overall performance. I'm beginning to run out of ideas. However, mabdeno's better performance with more engines makes me think this could be the way to go. I'm considering an attempt that uses optimal aero-lift and low power settings to gently lift a much heavier thrust package to the thin atmosphere and then make a massive push for acceleration. I'm sure this idea is full of pitfalls...

Ailerons shouldn't affect pitch, they control roll. If they control pitch and roll they are elevons, which is a different kind of control surface and should be placed differently. Assuming you mean ailerons, you can use the tweakable menu to stop them from moving when you use pitch. Just right click on them (either in the SPH or during a flight/before take-off) and make sure the button next to Pitch is toggled to off. Incidentally, they should also have Yaw toggled off. If you mean elevons, the problem is probably caused by the surface being in front of the CoM (centre of mass). Surfaces in front of the CoM automatically angle upwards to pitch up because under torque the aircraft pivots around/close to the CoM - think of a buggy with 4 wheel steering, the back wheels turn the opposite way to the front wheels to make a very tight turn. The solution in this case is to make sure your CoM is well in front of your surfaces, or to convert these surfaces to ailerons only and use a separate rearward tailplane or forward canards to manage the pitch.

I may be wrong, but I'm not aware of any audio for voices in the game. (EDIT: one exception is the noises made by Gene Kerman in the Contracts screen - not really talking tho) I think most Kerb voices in Squad-released videos have been altered by playing ordinary voices in reverse and slightly accelerating them. If you have any audio-editing software you should be able to do this. If not Audacity is free and would do the job. Alternatively, you might find the Chatterer mod has something you can use.

Seriously respect projects like this. After the 'rocket-to-the-moon' side of KSP, making your own challenges and overcoming them is what I think the game is really about. Your problem is single crafts do not collide with themselves (hence why clipping parts don't explode under normal circumstances), and using the grappler changes the two separate objects into one new craft, the same as docking. I'm also aware of glitching problems when two grapplers are attached, i.e. deployed, on one ship: Without using a mod like KAS, your only real option may be using multiple docking ports, as capi suggested. Something worth trying though, would be to have the grappler grab the heaviest part of your rolling vehicle radially, in this case the Jumbo tank from the top, bottom or side. That should reduce the 'bendiness' of the cargo overall and could solve your problem.

Shrike III had 24 wings and 8 tanks. Shrike IV will hopefully run later today with 20 wings and 9 tanks (built last night but it got past my bed time). I want to try to keep within the hour on flight time (last run took off almost as soon as the sun was showing and was close to sunset at bingo-fuel), because turns are so inefficient. Also 90 minute flights get really, really boring. I reckon that means I need to boost acceleration, which either means cutting out drag (tanks and wings) or adding thrust (engines). Another thought that crossed my mind was raking the wings up about 10 degrees so the thrust vector is nearer horizontal at higher altitude. Do u think that would work? Thrust would be tackling drag more directly (rather than losses to mass), but drag could be slightly higher overall... EDIT: Bedia, Chuck Yeagar? What I wouldn't give for that guy's thrust :wink wink:! Still, thanks for the morale boost

haha cool :-D I'm afraid u made another wrong turn just before the SPH, you're supposed to take the last right turn, not the 2nd last. Your car looks amazingly fast, I'm struggling to comprehend how I can set a comparable time in mine. Maybe it's just watching a vid vs actually driving... Wish I had stronger youtube-fu so I could upload a vid.

Latest effort, keeping you on your toes Slashy. I'm getting rapidly airborne at about 12-15m/s, and then climbing steeply, but I find the acceleration is just too slow for the remaining fuel above 20,000m. I'm thinking I should drop a few more wings on the next run. Strange, til now more wings has tended to be an improvement. FWIW, this was the Shrike III.

Oh yeh? Try driving straight up a steep hill on x2 speed. :-p

Well, I don't want to give away too many tips! This is a championship after all. I will admit, I have been braking/lifting a bit more than you say you have. Ghost-car comparisons would be awesome, but sadly this isn't Gran Turismo :-)

I think you've misread my posts. I laughed at this, but a small sick part inside me knows it's true. This is literally my last post in this thread, I'm not even going to check here again so please don't address any more replies to me. Who knew that space-Nazis really do exist?

Very nice. I don't know if Kyrian accepts resubmissions? If so I might have to head back out onto the track...!