JAFO

It's now July.. and nothing has changed! Not happy. I tell a lie... After a lot of faffing about in the VAB with attachment nodes, cargo bay nodes, and part attachment sequence, I managed to get the option to undock my lander's docking port. Now to see if I can still remember how to do a manual Mun-landing!

That's excellent news! Indeed, we all have. The upside to you being new to KSP is, by the time you have a few Caveman Challenges under your belt, you'll be a far more capable player than those newbies who immediately go the "lots of mods to make things easier" route!

If there's one thing the Caveman Challenge teaches in spades... it's minimalism.

Congratulations, @DennisB! It gives me great pleasure to bestow upon you the Talc award for completing the Caveman Challenge in Easy Career Mode! Your name has been carved on the cave wall on page one of this thread, and your badge will be your inbox shortly. Ooga Booga!

Your name and a link to your Apatite challenge attempt have now been added to the cave wall on the first page of this thread. A very belated congratulations! I realise that you've already added your badge to your sig, but if you'd like a more high-res copy, just let me know.

Welcome, and congratulations on taking on the Caveman Challenge! That's all good.. if they're going to succeed, cavemen need to push the parts and size limits as hard as possible. As for "high tech", well, you're still limited by what parts are available without any facility upgrades, so that's fine too.

A hugely belated CONGRATULATIONS to @king of nowhere for his completion of the Nano-Crystalline-Diamond challenge! Additionally, for your outstanding voyage to the Jool system and back, you have been awarded with the Order of the Trilobite The cave wall at the beginning of this thread has now been updated with your name and a link to your challenge thread. Your name has also been added to the list of recipients of the Order of the Trilobite. Badges for your awards will appear in your inbox shortly. Wear them with pride!

Oh shoot.. sorry, mate! Thanks for the heads-up! Will deal with it as fast as I can. I've just spent the last few days setting up a new laptop, as my old one was crapping out. For the record, I've finished reviewing king of nowhere's attempt and will be making his award shortly. (I'll be travelling on business for the next couple of weeks, but yes, it's really coming.)

My apologies. You have my attention. I'll review your attempt and get back to you soon. (And no, that's not an "Elon soon".)

Will do!

My apologies to everyone for my long absence. Details later. Suffice to say my free time is short these days, and has been for months. This is a topic that, as you pointed out, different people have different opinions on. I'd like to hash it out with everyone a bit, before making a final ruling. However. Since you've been rolling along in this challenge for a while without any clear guidance (and Jool is a bloody long way to go and then end up disqualified!), I'm going to say, carry on as you were. We'll sort things out properly once the dust settles. But no, I won't disqualify this particular run, regardless of what's decided on.

To date, the only Caveman Rovers on Mun have been probe-core only, so a crewed one will be another first.

That looks amazing! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Also, congrats on what I'm fairly sure is the first ever Caveman Rover on Minmus!

Congratulations on obtaining your Apatite badge, @Rakaydos! I've added your name to the Cave Wall, not sure if you'd like the badge to go with it or not, since you don't currently have your earlier ones in your sig. Let me know what you'd prefer.

According to @Deddly, it's (sort of) kind of a bug. But one that can be fixed by telling Steam to verify the game files. So it would appear there's a file that sometimes fails to be updated when Steam upgrades the game.

Of course! How on earth did I forget to add this to the list of Caveman resources in the OP? That oversight has been corrected.

Best of luck with this.. by my estimate, you're gonna need well over 1000 HG-5's.. maybe even several thousand. Excellent news! Welcome to the challenge! The 1.4-1.10 rules don't apply for 1.11-1.12. That's why this is a new thread, with its own rules. It was agreed that for this latest round of the challenge, DLC-based entries are no longer a separate category.

I'm fairly sure it was.. I just copied the earlier settings, nothing has been changed. Wow.. I had no idea you even tracked our humble little challenge! I'm not aware of any challenge that has their own special mod! That would be more than a little cool. All of the above sounds great, to be honest, and being able to choose a difficulty level with a click or two would be fantastic. If you're willing to do it, that would be amazing. (Of course, this means I'll have to increase my monthly Patreon donation. I wouldn't feel right otherwise!) Umm.. you DO get a vote. Everyone in the Clan does. That's how tribes work. Very good point.

Well... in the rules for the higher difficulty levels at least, there are pretty pictures to look at as well...

Fair point.. but at the Nano-Crystalline Diamond difficulty level, there are times when the budget is too tight for that approach! Already covered. Check out the current rules on the OP. That's more-or-less the reason why we have 5 different Caveman Challenge threads. Any time the game has changed enough to warrant it, a new thread was started, and the rules evolved to suit.

Yes, some things certainly have gotten easier in recent years.. no having to calculate dV and TWR by hand any more, especially. And we'd be honoured to have you take another shot at the challenge!

So far as the mod that LGG made to toggle this goes, I think we'd have to classify it under "No mods that alter gameplay". But if someone already has it set 'on' in their main settings.. well, I'm not sure... Is this yet another thing we're going to have to ask for a photo of, to prove it's 'off'? Or, like so many other adjustments Squad have made to KSP over the last few versions, that have made Caveman life easier, do we simply bow to the inevitable? Speaking personally, I'm inclined to simply allow it, but I'd very much like to hear other viewpoints. Especially from those who've had to do ladder-riding missions, extended or otherwise. Interesting. And good to know that phantom forces have been reduced. I well remember the "fun" Cavemen had on interplanetary trips, having to ensure Bob was always correctly oriented on the ladder, to prevent things going off course. I can't imagine anyone missing that "feature", but since it comes at a price... well, I think some discussion is warranted. Thanks for doing the testing, and reporting on it. But the thing I really want to know is, how do you feel about it? Do you think we should embrace it, or insist that it be turned off? And in the spirit of how issues were traditionally dealt with in tribes, I'd like to convene a Clan Meeting of all Cavemen and Cavewomen, especially the senior members, to hear what they think. @GoSlash27, @Superfluous J, @Moesly_Armlis, @micha, @Terwin, @Bev7787, @joshudson, @Rakaydos, @IncongruousGoat, @ManEatingApe, @dvader, @Muetdhiver, @Speeding Mullet, @Mr. Peabody, @MinimalMinmus, @fourfa, @Jacke. As senior Clan members, you are all invited to share your thoughts on this development, and how we ought to handle it. Everyone else is welcome to express their opinions/ideas as well.

Good to know.. thanks. Hmm.. I think it's time I go read up on the upcoming release.

I'm not sure it will. After all, no rule change was needed when dV info was suddenly built into stock. Basically, the rules have always been, "you may use any tools supplied by stock." Or are you suggesting that after 1.12, we ban the use of external transfer planners? Not that we've seen yet. But I suspect it may require one of the "old hands" to explore the possibilities. Newcomers to the challenge tend to have their hands full just getting to grips with the challenge itself, without getting fancy.