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All Reward Sliders at 10%: COMPLETED!! :D


xendelaar

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☆☆☆CLICK HERE OR HERE FOR MY LATEST MISSION REPORT☆☆☆

I started a new career game (v1.2) and put all reward slider (Funds, Science and Reputation) at 10%.

My goal: to unlock the entire tech tree with the difficulty on ultra hard mode!

Mission reports

1.      Introduction (this post)

2.      Minmus, Mun and Duna Flyby

3.      Visiting Gilly and Cash Cowing Minmus

4.      Visting several biomes on Duna with a drone

5.      Jeb and Bobs' radical adventure to Bop and Pol

6.      Biome hopping Mun with new equipment

7.      Biome hopping Vall

8.      Biome hopping Laythe

9.      Taming Tylo

10.  Completing the challange! <NEW>

 

Introduction

 

vJA9CMw.png

In this thread I will report on the progress of my mission. I've already been working on the career for a couple of days and I didn't take pictures of all large events, so my apologies if my story looks a bit inconsistent.

I will not report on every single contract I've accepted, since that would become real boring, really fast. Instead, I will just talk about the approach I've used and talk about some cool stuff that happened along the way. So let's get started, shall we?

 

The beginning

With all slider on 10%, money is a real issue. I had to carefully select contracts, because many of them did not return any profit. Landing my ship near the space station is also very important. This way, I could minimize profit loss from the ship recovery. I would also try to use single stage ships as long as possible.

My first goals was to unlock basic rocketry, and Engineering 101.

Getting science was pretty difficult with the reward slider on 10%.

eJxmKv7.png

 

After several missions I saved enough science, from biome hopping, to unlock basic rocketry and Engineering. This also unlocked more contracts.

With liquid rockets unlocked, I could start collecting the science near the KSC.

Spoiler

It's a great day for rooftop science!

CP5Acld.png
 

 

I earned money by performing:

  • Tourist missions
  • Crew report missions
  • Test stuff in flight

Flying sub orbital tourist missions was very profitable ( ~1300 Funds/ mission). I just flew straight up and landing near the KSC again.Crew report missions near particular zones were less profitable because of distance I landed from the space station. I used these missions to collect the science on different biomes!

In a short period I retrieved most of the science from Kerbin's biomes, which wan't much ( ~ 8 science points or something). I would have to visit the moons in order to progress any further. However, I wasn't able to get to the mun with my current available techs, so I asked the people on this forum to help me out. Many people had great ideas of increasing my science output and there were even two designs posted that would give me a Mun flyby ( thanks to @Cunjo Carl and @Streetwind for the help!). :D I eventually chose Streewind's design because of its simplicity. I really recommend everybody to check cunjo carls design as well. It's really something special and way past my designing capabilities. 

This is the Munshot, designed by Streetwind

fD0m6co.png
I used it to perform a Mun Flyby:

Spoiler

 

Getting into orbit was easy.

hqfflwj.png

I skimmed the outskirts of the SOI of the Mun and got all the science!

Mp4J723.png

After that we head back

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I received quite a lot of funds with the "world first milestones" which was nice.

6JxCT59.png

We also got a lot of science

mszCRLW.png

 

After the Mun flyby I almost had enough science points to get the survivability tech unlocked. I was lucky to find a contract that gave me 1 science point after completion which is quite a big deal on ultra hard mode. Now I could unlock the barometer!

6E0PUEp.png

With the barometer, I visited most of the biomes again to get all science points (0,4 per biome). After that, I started performing missions to earn funds to upgrade the astronaut complex, which costs 150k... I performed many test XXX mission, which gave me approximately 2000 funds per mission. I have to admit.. performing these missions over and over was a bit boring.
After many of flight hours, I finally saved enough dough to upgrade the facility.

I then put Jeb into polar orbit and from there we started performing EVA reports on all biomes we flew over. This gave me ~0,6 science points per biome! Hurray for me!

My next goal was getting enough science points to unlock the Terrier! That thing is essential for space travel! But 45 science points is very expensive price to pay, so we'll have to think of a way to up our science output. Luckily I didn't have to think for long... After several contracts, I received a test a terrier on the launch pad mission!! Naturally I was overjoyed! I didn't accomplish the mission, but instead.. I made a rocket that hopefully could get into orbit around the mun (and perhaps minmus?).

8aTk0Mt.png

I shamelessly used part clipping to make the ship more compact. It had approximate 5200 m/s delta v. We flew towards the mun and successfully into orbit. We even had enough juice to get home! From here, Jeb made tons science points on EVA reports while skimming the surface. I don't have any pictures of this mission.

We  then flew home and received many juicy science points

O7Ie7G1.png

After that, we refuelled the vessel and flew towards minmus, the science goldmine of the solar system. Here, Jebb also made several Eva reports and then headed back towards the KSC.

Spoiler

Hub4UWL.png

O7Ie7G1.png

zDjRQhD.png

nsAZRSL.png

O7Ie7G1.png

I had enough science points to unlock advanced rocketry and could ditch the terrier contract.

nzcai5y.png

After unlocking the tech, I optimized the ship and squeezed an extra 600 m/s delta v out of it, making it able to land on Minmu. I also received a contract for landing on minmus which would give me ~35k funds :

Spoiler

35K funds rewards is a good deal if you ask me!

Z9jm22J.png

Landing on the flats because.. welll.. they're flat and we don't have to use energy to stay up right.

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Planting the first flag

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I lost the ship during the landing, but all the science has been contained.

10k1yfQ.png

 

Now, I've got enough science points (69) to unlock the tech. I'm still not sure what I'm going to choose. I'm thinking of picking Basic Science, because of the science jr module. I could also wait and save up to unlock the spark or skipper What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading! :D

 

 

 


 

Edited by xendelaar
removing many mistakes, over and over again...
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We're still not out of the woods

Here's a small update of my current challenge. In my previous update, I unlocked the terrier node which made things way more interesting. I used the terrier to perform Mun and minmus flybys and the EVA reports came rolling in. Within an hour or two, I scienced every drop of EVA juice from all biomes. I chose to unlock the basic science node with all my science points.

Making a profit is still pretty difficult, but I managed to make a small yet steady profit.

With the science jr module unlocked It was time to step things up a bit. I designed a new ship that could land on minmus and performed experiments on every biome. I made money by performing "plant flag" missions, "get science from the surface" and "get science from space around xxx" missions. The money I received in advance from these missions was almost enough to fund the missions. The rest was profit!

I spent hours visiting all biomes on Minmus. Eventually I had enough funds to upgrade the launch pad. I thought I would be out of the woods from here on out, but that wasn't the case. With the new launch pad I could build bigger ships. But bigger ships are also more expensive, which meant less profit. The upgrade did make things bit more easy though, because I could increase the delta v budget a bit. 

My next upgrade was propulsion systems tech node.

XSUZ1N0.png

I figured I could make smaller ships this way. I did help a bit, but I did have higher expectations... After that I unlocked stability for the cones and next I unlocked Fuel systems so I could build bigger ships with 30 parts.

XSUZ1N0.png

With al these techs unlocked I visited the mun and started harvesting science on this surface. I visited three biomes in two separate missions and received a lot of funds for accepting the "exploring the Mun" contract.

After I landed back on kerbin I received an  "explore Duna" contract, which would give me ~75K worth of funds! I could really use this kind of cash so I accepted the contract. This wasn't a very smart decision, as you will see in a bit. 

I designed a ship with approximately 7200 m/s delta v. It could, in theory perform a returm mission to Ike! I launched the vessel and used the launch window planner mod to time my transfer burn. Without a manoeuvre node this is still pretty difficult. I didn't know if I had an encounter with the red planet. I had to "F5-F9" a lot to get a proper encounter, but I finally got one:

DKQJkPI.png

I tried to land on Ike, but due to all the previous correction burns (because i didn't have a manoeuvre node) I didn't have enough fuel to get home, so instead I just got the science from the upper atmosphere on Duna and got ready to journey to Kerbin once again. Once I was back again in orbit around the star, things became more difficult. I was in an elliptical orbit around the sun and I didn't know how to calculate my way back home. So I had to find an encounter by trial and error... many.. many errors.

But.. After an hour or so I found an encounter and we almost home. Man, was I overjoyed when I saw the ship passing through kerbins' SOI again!
 

Spoiler

 

Almost there!

RlrGPje.png

Finally an encounter! Whoohoo!

I9Ivn5T.png

Slowing down using the atoms of kerbin

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Just a couple more orbits

aKilRku.png

There we go :)

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Landing the ship on kerbin yielded many science points and funds!

nyJEJqt.png

 

What should I do next?

With many science points and funds, comes great responsibilty. What should I upgrade next

Building Upgrade:

  • Tracking station/ contract building: so I can make a proper flight plan and visit Ike and Gilly?
  • VBA: so I can make bigger ships?
  • Tech centre: so I can finally take surface samples

 

I don't think I will upgrade the VBA. WIth my current techs I'm able to get to Ike and back so that has no priority. What would you guys pick?

Tech node upgrade:

  • heavy  rocketry: for the poodle and skipper
  • electrics: so I can use solar power. use the OCTO to send scientist to ike and stuff for more science?

 

What would you guys pick?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for the replies CraterCracker and Stupid Andy.

I chose to go for both techs and I upgraded tracker station and contract building. I really needed the manouvre nodes to plot my course
It has been a while since my last update because of some real life stuff.
Anywho… today I will give a small update of the things I’ve done last weeks with my challenge.  This update will be a small summary since I haven’t done much extraordinary stuff.

 

Science stuff

In order to get more science points I visited Gilly and Ike to get all the science! I collected all science except the surface samples...
 

Spoiler

The mission to Ike

jdqyt2r.png

The mission to Gilly

c3vsmLu.png

 

These missions gave enough science points to get some nice techs:

5crU4AS.png

 

The Cash cow phase

 

To get any further, I needed to upgrade my science facilities. I wanted to extract surface samples to get moar sciene points! So I found a simple way of making easy money!

  • Build a small vessel and call it the Cash Cow
  • Go to minmus and park into a polar orbit
  • Accept all  conduct report above XX km around minmus contract
  • Profit!
  • Rinse and repeat until bored but rich!(it almost felt like cheating)

 

Spoiler

Just another day floating in a polar orbit around minmus... Jebb works hard for his money!

EyBNEuZ.png

 

 

It took me some time, but I made a lot of money around minmus. I did the same thing around Ike for even moar profits! Within a couple of evenings I had enough money to upgrade the science facilities

After that I build a Minmus Hopper and collected all surface samples of every biome.

 

Proceeding towards the atomic age

My next goal was going to visit Bop for some science. I noticed I wasn’t able to make a decent return vessel with the current weight limit of 140 tonnes. For a proper return trip I need a scientist for resetting experiments and a pilot for plotting manouvre nodes. This made the ship fairly heavy.

For long distance space travel and heavy loads I need better engines. I would need to unlock the nuclear engine! But this baby costs 300 + 160 science points (in my case)…

I currently only have 240 points so I need an additional 220 points. 

I tried getting surface samples from the Mun, but that only gives me 12 science points per biome..and besides that, I’m a bit tired of visiting the Mun and Minmus.

So I thought about something else:  A biome hopper on Duna!

 

 Getting Science from the surface of Duna

The idea is pretty simple.

  • build a ship with a scientist, engineer and an octacore. I would also need a lot of delta V...
  • build an autonomic lander with a delta v budget of 2500 m/s and strap on all the science equipment I currently have available. Add a docking port and attach it to the other mothership.
  • Fly to Duna and park into a polar orbit
  • Dump the probe towards a specific biome, land with some shutes, get the science and hop on back towards the mothership to refuel. (maybe with a kerbal the on board?)
  • Rinse and repeat several times and we're good to go

This is my first time ever trying something like this, so it's really refreshing for me. I don't know if it is a good idea to park into a polar orbit, but we'll see!

Here are some pictures of the Duna mission:

Spoiler

We have lift off

aQDocei.png

Finding a polar encounter

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aerobracking mothership and drone in the atmosphere

JAhl82G.png

Releasing drone for descent

Rr8rN3k.png

Landing drone on polar highlands

BcdcwpI.png

Edited by xendelaar
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@StupidAndy, Hehe I didn’t land on Duna…yet. When I made the last screenshot, I had to quit  :s. So I still don’t know If I’m able to land. J Did you also write a report on your mission?

 

Disaster struck!

---I forgot to mention this in my last report---

I’ve been playing KSP a couple of weeks without steam (for no particular reason), but yesterday I logged in by accident and KSP started updating to version 1.2.9…
Long story short: It corrupted my Ultra hard mode save game! Reverting to 1.2.2 didn’t help either so I had to start a new career game and cheat my way back to mimic my old savegame. It feels kind of dirty, but it’s the only way to get back on track.

Luckily I had enough screenshots to know how many funds, science points and unlocked techs  I had prior the incident. I also didn’t have any active flights so I didn’t have to any mission all over again. I still have to figure out how to give my pilots more experience points, but I hope I’ll find a way.

 

After the bug I started the mission to Duna. J

 

I also would like to add that this “Challenge” still is very entertaining!  IN the beginning everything was realllllllllly difficult. After unlocking the spark and upgrading the air field (which was pretty darn difficult), things became a bit more easy, but still very challenging.

What surprises me the most is that I’m currently unlocking tier 2 techs and it is still very challenging to make significant progress. I know the grindy  process isn’t for most players, but for me, this is perfect! It forces me to still think outside the box. Even when I’m in the mid-phase of my career.

 

Thanks for reading my rant. I just wanted to share my thoughts with the community.

 

Have a great day!

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Despite looking, I'd somehow been missing these posts :confused:. I wound up with a lot of comments, so I tucked them in a spoiler.

 

Spoiler

 

On 3/19/2017 at 3:37 AM, xendelaar said:

My next upgrade was propulsion systems tech node. I figured I could make smaller ships this way. I did help a bit, but I did have higher expectations... After that I unlocked stability for the cones and next I unlocked Fuel systems so I could build bigger ships with 30 parts.

The terrier's amazing efficiency is hard to beat, even with appropriately tiny engines! Though they're not glamorous, those cones and fuel crossfeeds can make a world of difference, especially in 1.2.

 

On 3/19/2017 at 3:37 AM, xendelaar said:

But.. After an hour or so I found an encounter and we almost home. Man, was I overjoyed when I saw the ship passing through kerbins' SOI again!

That sounded like a huge pain. Congrats on making it through!

 

On 4/10/2017 at 9:54 AM, xendelaar said:

I tried getting surface samples from the Mun, but that only gives me 12 science points per biome..and besides that, I’m a bit tired of visiting the Mun and Minmus.

So I thought about something else:  A biome hopper on Duna!

I really like your idea to send down a probe to collect science, then bring it back up for collection and refurbishment in orbit. That way it could be made very small, and take advantage of your spark tech node. It looks like you just picked up precision engineering for the relay antenna, too- I was wondering about that! I'm looking forward to seeing how this one works out.

 

On 4/10/2017 at 9:54 AM, xendelaar said:

This is my first time ever trying something like this, so it's really refreshing for me. I don't know if it is a good idea to park into a polar orbit, but we'll see!

That's a great outlook. I hadn't really thought about it, but I suppose I get fun out of my speedrun challenge for a very similar reason...

Given the proximity of Ike, I don't think a polar orbit should be an issue. If you need to plane change, it'll be happy to oblige (as many wayward satellites (thread) have discovered, quite by accident even  ^_^)

 

On 4/10/2017 at 9:54 AM, xendelaar said:

Rinse and repeat until bored but rich!(it almost felt like cheating)

As I understand it, when done correctly, most business works out like this in the end :) .

 

On 4/11/2017 at 6:28 AM, xendelaar said:

Long story short: It corrupted my Ultra hard mode save game!

:o That... sucks. For getting your pilots their XP back, is there any chance you can use the new alt+f12 cheat to put them in the orbit of say.. Gilly, land them, put them back 'round kerbin, and reenter them with the no heating cheat? It would be tricky to get their levels just right....

 

On 4/11/2017 at 6:28 AM, xendelaar said:

What surprises me the most is that I’m currently unlocking tier 2 techs and it is still very challenging to make significant progress.

I personally consider that a huge positive as well, it makes for an exciting read! Like you I had assumed that once you went interplanetary (with access to Gilly, Ike etc) the mission would start to stabilize, but it seems like the damper of that 10% is keeping it on edge. Speaking of which...

 

 


Good luck with your next round, I'm looking forward to the Duna mission, and look forward to seeing what you do with the next little foothold it'll provide!

 

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Hey @Cunjo Carl 

thanks for your comment. 

Here are my replies to your questings. i put them in a spoiler as well.:)
 

Spoiler

 

The terrier's amazing efficiency is hard to beat, even with appropriately tiny engines! Though they're not glamorous, those cones and fuel crossfeeds can make a world of difference, especially in 1.2.

 

The Tierrier is amazing indeed. It has been a while since I wrote that update but as I recall, compared to the terrier, the spark gave me a couple of 100 m/s extra, with all the constraints I was having at that moment. The crossfeed and cones also helped building a more efficient ship.

 

That sounded like a huge pain. Congrats on making it through!

It was a pain indeed. I was lucky I went to Duna so I didn’t have to think about adjusting the inclination angle for getting back again. That made the whole ordeal more or less doable.

 

I really like your idea to send down a probe to collect science, then bring it back up for collection and refurbishment in orbit. That way it could be made very small, and take advantage of your spark tech node. It looks like you just picked up precision engineering for the relay antenna, too- I was wondering about that! I'm looking forward to seeing how this one works out.

 

The Biome hopper was a success and I visited 6 biomes. I will write a report when I get the kerbals back home. There were some… complications… but I will explain them in the next update. I did pick the precision engineering tech to extend my antenna range. I used 8 comsats to stay in contact with Kerban, but I couldn’t get any coverage when Duna was removed too far from Kerbin.  I think I would have needed 20 comsats to get complete coverage througout the year.

 

That's a great outlook. I hadn't really thought about it, but I suppose I get fun out of my speedrun challenge for a very similar reason...

The only thing that keeps me interested in KSP is raising the bar from time to time. Just like you’re doing with your second speed run. I wonder what I will do when this adventure comes to an end.
 

Given the proximity of Ike, I don't think a polar orbit should be an issue. If you need to plane change, it'll be happy to oblige (as many wayward satellites (thread) have discovered, quite by accident even  )

I should have read this thread earlier! This could have saved me a lot of money (more on this in my next update)! Is it possible to make a 90 degree plane change just by passing the SOI of Ike????
 

As I understand it, when done correctly, most business works out like this in the end .

Hehe, I guess so! It still was a lot of work so I didn’t get the money for free after all.

 

That... sucks. For getting your pilots their XP back, is there any chance you can use the new alt+f12 cheat to put them in the orbit of say.. Gilly, land them, put them back 'round kerbin, and reenter them with the no heating cheat? It would be tricky to get their levels just right....

I tried using the cheat menu to alter the XP but I didn’t find any usefull button. The idea of hyperediting the kerbals to Gilly is brilliant!! That would be wayyyy easier  than figuring out how XP is stored in the savegame file. That’s what I did to solve the problem. But that took my quite some time to figure out.

  

I personally consider that a huge positive as well, it makes for an exciting read! Like you I had assumed that once you went interplanetary (with access to Gilly, Ike etc) the mission would start to stabilize, but it seems like the damper of that 10% is keeping it on edge. Speaking of which...

I know, right!? I thought it would be  nice to Biome hop Bop after Biome hopping Ike, but with the current techs and facilities I wasn’t able to get there. Same goes for the other planets. Sure.. I can visit 1 biome of Dres or Bop and then head back home, but that’s too time consuming/inefficient for my taste in the current phase of the game. With the current science point “prices” of the techs ranging between 160 to 300, I need higher yields to get any further.  One biome per flight just won’t cut it.

 

Thanks for the comment :)

 

 

Edited by xendelaar
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Drone hopping on Duna

 

I finally finished my mission to Duna. The goal of the mission was to gain at least 300 science points and to make a small profit on the mission.

 

Like I said in my previous post, I made a Biome hopper drone with science equipment that is able to visit one biome of Duna at a time. After collecting the surface science, it would fly up to a mothership where a scientist and engineer are waiting in a polar orbit to reset the experiments and repack the parachutes. Finally the drone gets refueled and then it’s off to visit the next biome.

I used the trajectory mod to pinpoint my landing site and used the WIKI to locate various biomes. That last part was pretty difficult since the textures of Duna don’t  clearly correspond with all 11  (?) biomes. I had to save and reload a couple of times to find a suitable landing spot.

 

Let’s see how the first biome hop went, shall we:

 

Spoiler

 

Releasing the probe from the mothership

tSSxTBV.png

 

Lowering altitude and getting ready to land on the poles

Gktp97P.png

 

Almost there..

PxCnRMC.png

 

Landing successful! Let’s get the science and get back to the mothership while we are still aligned with the polar orbit. One trip resulted in approximately 50 science points. I would need at least 6 trips to gain 300 science points.

whXzOpa.png

 

Aligning with the mothership. I was afraid the polar orbit would influence the inclination because of Duna’s rotation but that was no issue whatsoever

FwXkEKs.png

 

Docking again onto the mothership so I can refuel the drone

6X2JPiW.png

 

Resetting all the experiments and repacking the chutes

eabZrGA.png

 

Of to the next Biome

Tv74H1M.png

 

 

The mission was a success! I repeated the exercise 5 more times. After that I ran out of fuel. I could have sent a refueling ship from kerbin, but I had enough science points to upgrade my nuke engine tech. It was also getting more and more difficult to find a new biome to land on so I planned my trip back home.

 

Jeb to the rescue!

I plotted my trip home and waited until the launch date was near. I then tried to set a maneuver node to plot my course home but then realized I was too far away from kerbin to have a signal… Bill and Bob were not able to place maneuver nodes and the octa core was offline… darn it! Besides that, my orbit was very badly positioned to efficiently get out of Dunas’ SOI.

Bottom line: I wasn’t going to get home with the current ship*

 

(* I later learned from @cunjocarl  that I could have used the SOI of Ike to change my inclination, but by then I already sent the cleanup crew. )

 

I decided to send a new ship to pick up Bill and Bob. We would leave the drone and mothership behind.  First I positioned the mothership in a (more or less) equatorial orbit in order to get a smooth rendezvous with the rescue ship.

Spoiler

Changing inclination

 

erh8aeW.png

 

After that I sent Jeb to come pick up Bill and Bob.

 

 

qC1GqGw.png

 

 

Getting an encounter with Duna

9umiAY1.png

 

Aerobracking on Duna to get into orbit

l6FjPhC.png

 

Rendezvous with the mothership

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Target in sight!

ptpw7z4.png

 

Bob and Bill switching crafts. Off course they also brought the science data along!

qeykeKK.png

 

The rescue mission was pretty expensive so I had to take a detour to Duna in order to make a small profit again. We conducted a observational mission near some targets for ~40K worth of funds.

J9834ih.png

 

After that we went home!

 

Parking orbit

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Getting an encounter with Kerbin

QT7ctzD.png

 

Pinpointing landing spot near the space station

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Landing

1bufNVe.png

 

 

 

Mission summary: >300 science points!! YAY! Mission accomplished (h)

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Time to unlock the Nuke tech!

jJuHqPf.png

 

 With this tech unlocked, I think I can visit almost any celestial body and get all the science I need! 

 

Next stop! Bop!! :)

Edited by xendelaar
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@NISSKEPCSIM Thanks for the applause hehe. It really is a interesting challenge! you should try it. :)

@cratercracker Thank you for your kind words. The new forum features sure are neat!

@Gordon Fecyk haha thanks for the KSP prize! XD The Eve mod you made looks very cool btw!

 

Jeb and Bobs' radical adventure to Bop and Pol

With the LV-N at my disposal I'm able to make much more efficient crafts with the given weight limit of 140 tonnes. For my next mission I want to retrieve all the science from Bop and Pol. The higher tier techs are getting pretty expensive to unlock (with science points), so that's why I want to perform 2 visits in one trip.
For this mission I'll make a craft that has:

  • All the science modules available
  • Delta V budget of at approximately 10.000 m/s  (twr 0,3) (excluding the lifter )
  • Jeb for piloting, Bob for resetting experiments

I aim to get at least 750 science points and make a small profit out the mission ( > 100.000 funds)

GIF

For everybody who's not interested in the whole story: I made a quick GIF to give you an "fast" impression of the mission.

5pHWX05.gif

The Mission report

The mission is pretty straightforward. I just want visit the two smallest moons of Jool. I made craft and maxed-out the weight limit of 140 tonnes and tried to get as much delta v out the vehicle as possible. Click on the spoiler below to read more about the mission.
 

Spoiler

 

Ready for launch

1TQT48p.png

Getting into orbit and shedding some extra kg's

fmrQULH.png

Finding an encounter with Jool and using Tylo's gravity to get into orbit

hTJoHK5.png

Adjusting trajectory to get a pretty good encounter with Pol. I don't have a picture of that. I parked into a polar orbit so I could perform a observational mission which gave me ~100k worth of funds.

lUnQKeb.png

After completing the mission I started landing on every biome to collect science.

XFlPxol.png

I visited all 4 biomes and then head on to Bop

eTZTBfZ.png

Arriving at Bop I parked in a polar orbit to perform an observational mission...again

hLMBDqc.png

After that I started visiting every biome. I shamelessly used Alt-F12 to make the last biome visible.I couldn't locate the "Valley" biome with the wiki page alone. :S

m0clLJe.png

With all science collected I left Bop and parked into a orbit around Jool. Waiting for the launch date.

D10yFQ2.png

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Finding a proper encounter was a bit tricky. I finally found a really inefficient one though..

IQ0l2Mx.png

Not bad, but the re-entry velocity is going to be a pain in the behind.

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I used all my fuel to reduce my velocity in the hopes it wouldn't burn up in the upper atmosphere.

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re-entry wasn't easy.. I lost my engine due to heat problems, but the crew survived!

tBPjGhC.png

Landing

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Landed

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The mission was a success! I made more that 800k worth of funds by completing contracts and retrieved 1400 science points!

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Up Next

I'm thinking of Biome hopping Dres on my next mission.

I'm also thinking of unlocking more science equipment to increase my science output. 1400 science points is nice, but knowing I still have got to unlock many 300, 550 and 1000 techs, I realize that I need moar science to get any further.

I'm also thinking upgrading my launch platform and communication station so I can make larger crafts and get better radio reception.

 

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@xendelaar, your reports look proffesional!

And i aslo i added a new Dres flag in my thread!

I suspect you building a plane and send it to Eve ,planes fly well in the atmosphere of Eve ,even if the lifting force is small and there is a lot of biomes!

Edited by cratercracker
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@cratercracker's remark on visiting Eve made wonder how many science points I could get from every celestial body. Eve is a difficult place to get to and is even more difficult to get from. I don't want to go there if I could get more science points from, let's say... Vall for instance. So I made a small spreadsheet to estimate the science potential of all planets.

When I was busy Excelling, something dawned on me... with the science slider at 10%; and with the current locked tech nodes; is there enough science to unlock the whole tech tree?

I altered the sheet and summed up all the potential science point I could harvest, compared them with the amount of science points I need to unluck the rest of the tech tree and came to the following conclusion:

wJBIhO2.png

There is probably not enough science left to unlock every node in the tech tree!!

The blue arrow indicates the surface points available in the solar system. I didn't substract the points I already farmed. The red arrow indicates the total amount of science needed to unlock the remaining locked tech nodes.

I didn't include the seismic, gravioli and atmospheric measurements or all high and low space measurements.  I made just a rough calculation, but this still is bad news. @astroheiko told me he finished a 10% challenge before, so it should be possible! I wonder how he did it! Maybe he used the processing lab?

 

 

Edited by xendelaar
adding credits to @cratercracker
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I love it!

I like the gif! And, that's a heck of a kick of profit you made out of the Bop/Pol mission. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

For the science, which device were you planning to pick up: The surface accelerometer or the atmospheric variometer? Or both?

If you're planning to revisit the old biomes (and given you're bringing along Bob for these missions) have you considered retaking some old science and passing off a copy to a Mobile Processing Lab? I've used them a sum total of... never, but lots of people swear by them. I saw @Z3R0Gravitas updated the wiki page for v1.2, and it's quite readable/complete now, with examples and everything. Each MPL apparently lets you use an old experiment as a new one again at a huge boost to the science in exchange for a bunch of power and a staff scientist... For you (and your 0.1x) it'd work up to a whole 0.5x, or even 0.625x if you brought it out to the SOI! :lol: These experiments can also be passed around using sci containers, which I've been becoming increasingly excited about as time goes by. The only problem is the MPL is sitting on the same tech node as.... ladders. Not the most glamorous. Who knows, what are your thoughts on the thing?

Also, you're probably rolling in reputation by now! Will you be doing any of the administrative strategies like aggressive negotiations, or just soaking up the high tier missions the enormous reputation provides?

 

13 minutes ago, xendelaar said:

There is probably not enough science left to unlock every node in the tech tree!!

MPL's got you covered then.

Edit: Also, it's not glamorous, but I believe you can farm science from asteroids surface samples.

Edited by Cunjo Carl
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I admit it. At some point, I "cheated" (shame on me;.;) and used the Processing Lab. That took me too long. 10 % are really hard and I used 20% for funds reward etc.

Asteroids to fill the rest would be possible, as Cunjo Carl has already mentioned, but do you really want to do this? That would take a long time.

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