The Official Kerbin Cup Tournament Thread - Final Entries Posted

[cantab]

It's not too bad actually. A bit under 600 parts overall. Kudos to the Whack for keeping the part count sane.

And yes, it occurred to me that using the debug menu isn't against the rules. Hack Gravity being the most obviously helpful option. Also not against the rules is emptying the fuel, assembling the ship, and refilling it.

Edited July 2, 2014 by cantab

[HafCoJoe]

Also not against the rules is emptying the fuel, assembling the ship, and refilling it.

Bro. Genius. If you're using a crane of sorts that is :/

[Wooks]

My team will be making the deadline Guaranteed.

Then you already won the challenge. Congratulations.

[Whackjob]

A bit under 600 parts overall. Kudos to the Whack for keeping the part count sane.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a nervous tic in my eye when I stopped building.

[Rune]

It's not too bad actually. A bit under 600 parts overall. Kudos to the Whack for keeping the part count sane.

And yes, it occurred to me that using the debug menu isn't against the rules. Hack Gravity being the most obviously helpful option. Also not against the rules is emptying the fuel, assembling the ship, and refilling it.

The emptying tanks part is a kinda obvious first step (good luck lifting them off the ground in one piece otherwise!), but using the debug menu... come on! I wouldn't vote for those lazy cheaters. Much better to design a giant SSTO scoop that can hold them, a rover-powered broom, and pick them up and lift them to assemble in orbit.

Rune. Crazy as it sounds, I have a feeling that IS the easiest way, the boosters look quite light when empty.

[Rune]

Oh, addendum about the docking glitches: the best way to steer clear of that bug (if it is what I think it is) is to undock your vehicles in the reverse order you docked them. Part of why that bug is so hard to track is that it has to do with ships without command parts and hierarchy order when undocking, to the best of my knowledge, and I have encountered it many times. The game forgets to add the "undock" option to a docking port thinking it is no longer docked or something. If, however, the bug is related to phantom forces upon docking... well, the Whack may have build a glitched ship due to part clipping, docking ports on struts/clipped docking ports usually does that. It could also be a matter of some part picking some weird parent on the VAB, that also happens (ever pulled a part only to have a totally unrelated part also come off the ship? With great clipping comes great glitching!)

Rune. Hope that helps the teams into making this a challenge about building, not bugs.

[Xacktar]

Thanks for the info, Rune. Much appreciated.

[Whackjob]

Aaaand, just to up the pressure slightly. I have photographic evidence that anywhere between one and four teams have successfully assembled the Arkingthaad Super Lite rocket. Names withheld to protect the guilty.

[Andrew Hansen]

Aaaand, just to up the pressure slightly. I have photographic evidence that anywhere between one and four teams have successfully assembled the Arkingthaad Super Lite rocket. Names withheld to protect the guilty.

We're working as hard as we can. So far, we've had around... let me count... at least seven awesome ideas that all should have worked, but didn't because of glitches and problems. We have two things going on right now - a main plan, a desired one, which we hope will work, and a back-up plan in case our main idea fails.

We really want to get passed the assembly stage - we have an awesome video idea we want to make a reality!

But yes, we're all working as hard as bees.

[Whackjob]

That's the odd thing I can't really pin down. It looks like the bugs are team specific. What I mean is, some teams seem to be absolutely [expletive deleted] plagued with save-killing bugs, and other teams aren't even being touched by them.

I wonder what the difference is. Maybe some mod that makes docking ports sketchier? Hey, guys being plagued by bugs, if you drop all and go to stock, do you STILL see the issue?

#EDIT: Maybe we can fill out a nice bug report when all is said and done!

[iClarion]

That's the odd thing I can't really pin down. It looks like the bugs are team specific. What I mean is, some teams seem to be absolutely [expletive deleted] plagued with save-killing bugs, and other teams aren't even being touched by them.

I wonder what the difference is. Maybe some mod that makes docking ports sketchier? Hey, guys being plagued by bugs, if you drop all and go to stock, do you STILL see the issue?

#EDIT: Maybe we can fill out a nice bug report when all is said and done!

My teammates and I have experienced a few bugs. At one point I had some trouble making quicksaves that would actually load. Then I loaded one that was apparently bugged out because the entire screen went white with explosion particle effects, but slowly overtime and without sound.

Quicksaving problems can be solved by repeatedly backing them up So it shouldn't be a game-restarting problem, and if it happened once, it shouldn't happen to someone again if they're being careful.

Also, my teammates and I had the mysterious acceleration problem in orbit. Suddenly the ship parts are rapidly propelling themselves without any explanation. I was able to solve this problem by force quitting the application and restarting. It's luck of the draw whether it happens or not, but again, quicksave backups save the day!

[Whackjob]

Ok, and for the bug-plagued, even if the bugs prevent you from directly doing anything useful with the Arkingthaad tower lander, screenshot everything! What you did, how it went wrong, and how it went boom! My personal vote don't hinge on success. I'm more interested in the creative means used to assemble them. Especially so if you don't do things the easy way!

I can't say for anyone else, of course, but even if the Kraken moves into your apartment and welches on the rent, you can still get my vote.

[Xacktar]

That's the odd thing I can't really pin down. It looks like the bugs are team specific. What I mean is, some teams seem to be absolutely [expletive deleted] plagued with save-killing bugs, and other teams aren't even being touched by them.

I wonder what the difference is. Maybe some mod that makes docking ports sketchier? Hey, guys being plagued by bugs, if you drop all and go to stock, do you STILL see the issue?

#EDIT: Maybe we can fill out a nice bug report when all is said and done!

I can say I've had float bug and save/quicksave corruption at 100% stock. So mods may make it worse but they aren't root cause. Perhaps its related to the strength of the system KSP is running on? Perhaps those with no bugs just have the GFX/processor power to overcome them or not encounter them. No idea, personally. I usually love it when I break the game, in this case its driving my up and over the wall and into a pit full of lit matches and rocket fuel.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Xacktar

[r4m0n]

I can say I've had float bug and save/quicksave corruption at 100% stock. So mods may make it worse but they aren't root cause. Perhaps its related to the strength of the system KSP is running on? Perhaps those with no bugs just have the GFX/processor power to overcome them or not encounter them. No idea, personally. I usually love it when I break the game, in this case its driving my up and over the wall and into a pit full of lit matches and rocket fuel.

I've had my share of bugs, mostly the floaty undock, though my console was flooded with nullrefs all the way through. Didn't get any save-corruption though, and I've noticed that if the floaty bug happens, at least here, I can save (at the bugged state) and load again, then try undocking again (it apparently doesn't actually undock in the floaty state) and it works then.

Edited July 3, 2014 by r4m0n
untypoing

[Wooks]

That's the odd thing I can't really pin down. It looks like the bugs are team specific. What I mean is, some teams seem to be absolutely [expletive deleted] plagued with save-killing bugs, and other teams aren't even being touched by them.

I wonder what the difference is. Maybe some mod that makes docking ports sketchier? Hey, guys being plagued by bugs, if you drop all and go to stock, do you STILL see the issue?

#EDIT: Maybe we can fill out a nice bug report when all is said and done!

*broken english ahead, be warned dear reader*

After reading the last few posts I've reached a (preliminary) conclusion: My team, the awesome "I Think We Broke It", had little to zero experience with those glitches at this scale. Maybe we had some brushes here and there with some of them in the past, and each of us solved them starting over whatever we where doing, changing the design of our ships, or simply laughed off the bugs and moved to another project down the pipe.

Is not the challenge fault, is our lack of knowledge about the ways the game can screw you up.

In my particular case I've found a couple Krakens myself in the year and a half I've been playing, but nothing at this level. This is a whole new world for me and I've had a crash course the last 48 hours on the various glitches paired with this kind of project. It has been nightmarish for all of us and I'm not using the word lightly.

Perhaps our team has found its weakness, but we are powering through the challenge, learning, trying to catch up and rising to the ocassion. I am honored to be working with a real team of dedicated players that I can call, without a shadow of a doubt, my friends. If we are going to fall we are going down with our boots on.

(overly dramatic? maybe )

Edited July 3, 2014 by Wooks

[DevL]

*broken english ahead, be warned dear reader*

You need to edit your post and remove this false claim.

[Wooks]

You need to edit your post and remove this false claim.

You're making me blush

[HafCoJoe]

Also, my teammates and I had the mysterious acceleration problem in orbit. Suddenly the ship parts are rapidly propelling themselves without any explanation. I was able to solve this problem by force quitting the application and restarting. It's luck of the draw whether it happens or not, but again, quicksave backups save the day!

I had this same problem and reloading a quicksave did help it. The starting piece seems to freeze and everything else accelerates in a strange direction. Oh and WhackJob the save isn't broken if your worried I resurrected it somehow!

[Whackjob]

You're making me blush

I would go so far as to say your command of the English language in some cases exceeds the ability of native speakers.

[m1sz]

The bugs I found were always related to the claw, so I don't understand how you "deattach" it inversely, it's just 1 part so I can only try to release it by clicking it!, then the ships go separated ways, but are still the same ship..., one starts to float. Reloading didn't work :/

Anyway, of course, 10h+ of video and pictures ready to show in my HD.

[allmhuran]

So I am trying to put together a video and am encountering the problems others have noted in the thread. Since this challenge seems to be broken by "mr buggy claw" and/or mr buggy "ship that isn't actually a ship with a command module that may not have been the original root part", here's what I did:

1) Drained fuel (duh)

2) Built big spaceplane that drives over the big parts and grabs them with claws, and another little ship just to pick up the command part.

3) Fly to space

4) Build in orbit

5) Refuel

What I didn't get around to doing: Land on power, refuel, relaunch.

What's happening to me with the first part I've put into space for the video is exactly what others have said: When the last claw is released, the ships do stupid things. They fly away, or can't be switched to. If I attempt to go into rails warp the ships still rotate (wtf?) and rails warp goes up to 5 times only, then resets itself back to 1x.

Since I'm not an official challenger and was only doing it for a video, I fortunately feel no obligation to do it all again in the hope I get lucky again. But if it's this frustrating for me, it must be super frustrating for the competitors.

If anyone is interested I will put together what I've got, the draining and the getting-into-orbit of the first leg section.

Edited July 3, 2014 by allmhuran

[Xacktar]

Since I'm not an official challenger and was only doing it for a video, I fortunately feel no obligation to do it all again in the hope I get lucky again. But if it's this frustrating for me, it must be super frustrating for the competitors.

You have no idea, man. Jeb is so scarred from the experiences that he never smiles anymore.

Anyhoo, since Whackjob really wants screenshots of what we're doing, I thought I'd give you all a sneak peek.

As you can see, we're making progress. Things are looking up.

[Wooks]

So I am trying to put together a video and am encountering the problems others have noted in the thread... *snip* ...since I'm not an official challenger and was only doing it for a video, I fortunately feel no obligation to do it all again in the hope I get lucky again. But if it's this frustrating for me, it must be super frustrating for the competitors.

If anyone is interested I will put together what I've got, the draining and the getting-into-orbit of the first leg section.

Thank you for your input, you described our past 4 days step by step.

... oh, drain the fuel? I'm assembling it with the parts full of fuel because editing config files is for cheaters

On a side note to the modders: good luck using KAS to refuel it on orbit and not finding the "hey both ships are linked and now we are going to spin me right round, baby ♬

right round like a record, baby ♬

Right round round round ♬

You spin me right round, baby ♬

Right round like a record, baby ♬

Right round round round ♬" bug

Edited July 3, 2014 by Wooks

[allmhuran]

I didn't edit out the fuel, I just drove up a fuel truck with 6 LVT30s, attached with a claw and burned it off.

[Rune]

The bugs I found were always related to the claw, so I don't understand how you "deattach" it inversely, it's just 1 part so I can only try to release it by clicking it!, then the ships go separated ways, but are still the same ship..., one starts to float. Reloading didn't work :/

Anyway, of course, 10h+ of video and pictures ready to show in my HD.

I haven't fooled around with the Klaw enough to find that bug in particular, I thought it was the result of multiple ships docked together (A&B dock C, then B detaches and things bug). I will have to investigate that one when I come across it. Anyhow, I have a feeling this can be done without Klaws at all...

Thank you for your input, you described our past 4 days step by step.

... oh, drain the fuel? I'm assembling it with the parts full of fuel because editing config files is for cheaters

Put a rover with a big empty tank and a Klaw in front: there, a place to hold the fuel while you build the ship. Bet you are slapping your face right now.

You have no idea, man. Jeb is so scarred from the experiences that he never smiles anymore.

Anyhoo, since Whackjob really wants screenshots of what we're doing, I thought I'd give you all a sneak peek.

http://i.imgur.com/EG5P2B4.jpg

As you can see, we're making progress. Things are looking up.

I LOL'ed so hard watching that...

Rune. I don't envy you on this one guys, not one bit.