Jump to content

The No Contract Career Challenge


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Antstar said:

Nice!!

Interestingly enough, since I never paid attention in the pre 1.0 days or maybe it changed, I have played KSP for 4 years and never seen the upgraded SPH or admin building :0.0:

Is lounging in the pool another situation :wink:

I totally get that. For me it's the R&D facility. I just never feel the need to spend all that money on it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Cunjo Carl said:

I was super close when I had to go to bed last night, so I took an uncharacteristic lunch break and finished the challenge! I'll edit in the full mission report later, but because I'm kinda excited, here's the facility :D@5thHorseman .

Nicely done! Did you use the Admin building?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Nicely done! Did you use the Admin building?

Yep! Otherwise I would have needed to do many more, and more difficult missions. I look forward to seeing someone tackle that challenge!

I used Leadership 25% just before my Mun launch, and increased it to 55% just before landing from the Jool mission. I think it worked out nicely. The main thing preventing me from going higher was the unshown minimum Rep requirement, which ramps very quickly after ~50% commitment. I didn't use any of the other strategies though, so no science->funds stuff. Regardless, just for fun, I wound up collecting >10k science I had absolutely no use for, but definitely wanted to tackle this as a 'only worlds firsts funds' challenge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Cunjo Carl said:

Yep! Otherwise I would have needed to do many more, and more difficult missions. I look forward to seeing someone tackle that challenge!

Watch me do it. 

@5thHorseman how do you feel about using mining to make money? I guess I need only one more launch to Eve to unlock it. I will make a save at this point and complete the challenge with mining.

Still, I want to know if it is even possible without exploiting mining (I’m having the sneaking suspicion it isn’t as there’s a limited amount of world 1st’s to do).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, Human Person said:

Watch me do it. 

Still, I want to know if it is even possible without exploiting mining (I’m having the sneaking suspicion it isn’t as there’s a limited amount of world 1st’s to do).

I'm looking forward to seeing your drilling operation too! But here I was referring to my added challenge  'all money from world's firsts' without using the leadership strategy. I'm pretty sure it was 5thHorseman's initial idea for the challenge and judging by the numbers I've gathered (these ones) it should be possible with a narrow margin for whatever intrepid soul takes it on. I've put a lot of work into small cheap expendable rockets, and I think they might be possible, but the real approach would be reuseables like your twin boar SSTO rocket or @Kergarin's SSTO rocket planes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Human Person said:

Watch me do it. 

@5thHorseman how do you feel about using mining to make money? I guess I need only one more launch to Eve to unlock it. I will make a save at this point and complete the challenge with mining.

Still, I want to know if it is even possible without exploiting mining (I’m having the sneaking suspicion it isn’t as there’s a limited amount of world 1st’s to do).

Mining is okay, though exploiting mining on the luanchpad would be cheesy.

We figured out that there are at least $10M available from world firsts, and it costs about $8M to upgrade everything. So it would be a feat without mining and without the admin building, but would be possible. I may even try it myself once I've won the way I'm going now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

exploiting mining on the luanchpad would be cheesy.

this is what happens when you get too greedy doing it:

4BLhVTk.png

I didn't even mine, I just converted ore to Monopropellant. You make 2.38:funds:per unit of ore. the craft you see exploding there has 252.000 units of ore and 504 empty monoprop tanks. It would have made a profit of 599760 funds while costing 2.5 million.

 a slightly smaller version of it didn't awake the Kraken.

 

BTW, it took me 31 launches of converters like this, gradually making them bigger while upgrading Launchpad and VAB to get to this point.

 

I called the Converters Cheaty McCheatface

 

I'll post the Eve and Gilly mission needed to unlock Mining later, have to make the album nice.

Edited by Human Person
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

We figured out that there are at least $10M available from world firsts, and it costs about $8M to upgrade everything. So it would be a feat without mining and without the admin building, but would be possible. I may even try it myself once I've won the way I'm going now.

That means you have 2M funds and have to do Everything (does your calculation include visiting every anomaly?). That's very ambitious. Probably possible but too much effort for my taste. I'm gonna say you either have to use the admin building or exploit mining.

Edited by Human Person
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6th Launch: Eve lander probe and Gilly return

 

Mind that I'm still playing without maneuver nodes and with the 30 part limit:

 

Spoiler

you've seen this before:

0LTg49m.png

7Zl0TwZ.png

fWVCD7u.jpg

the spacecraft does the transfer to EVE

fN8UnTY.png

and detaches the lander when entering EVE SOI 

bgUadmA.png

it gets into orbit 

exz37j8.png

and the probe reenters and lands

tqv3mNW.png

m7MPBcB.png

Jeb lands on Gilly

mYRyjhP.png

and flies back home 

1AKCbK7.png

he has lots of extra delta v ,but decides to aerobrake anyways

5XtUjSI.png

wxUXW8I.png

VO8AU9F.png

xYjbzFk.png

3
3

 

Now for the cheaty part:

 

Spoiler

J6TCf0o.jpg

lots of launches like this, the craft getting bigger and bigger, upgrading VAB and Launcpad 

k7quRhS.jpg

QVKeGbj.jpg

all in all 35 launches of this kind, very much cheating.

ljPU51r.jpg

1

 

Summary: 

I did the challenge without using the admin building, without using the science Lab and with only 6 launches (that left the ground). I recovered nearly everything. As soon as I unlocked mining, I started cheating money by converting ore to monopropellant.

Here's an album of all my pictures for this challenge: https://imgur.com/a/LA5Ao

 

Edited by Human Person
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Human Person that's some fine progress you have made, well done on upgrading the r&d to level 3 with the bare minimum of flights! Do you think you would ever revert your save to complete the challenge without becoming the "Kerbal Mining Program" ? :)

In my attempt I will have to visit Jool and her moons next (and cheaply!) if I ever want to unlock ISRU

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I intend to do the challenge with:  No Mining and No Admin building (and no lab but science really isn't a problem).

But, I was fearing that I might suffer from cash shortage in the end. Fear leads to suffering which leads to the Dark Side. The Dark Side leads to overengineering and a will to solve simple problems with oversized lasers. I couldn't build a laser but I could overengineer my next mission (twice). So, here's an intermission mission. It is really just about building and testing a mothership + lander combo that is not meant to return to Kerbin. It should refuel in space and send a command module and science container back home (the command probe is for the "Return from" world firsts).

The good news is that I found 3 new world firsts that I don't think were in @Cunjo Carls first list (which was great, thanks!):

PFLzRY1.jpg

So, there's:

  • Rendezvous
  • First space station
  • Docking maneuver

But, I don't seem to get anything for just walking on the Mun. Just landing and flag planting. Can anyone confirm/deny that the Walk achievement exists? Maybe it was removed?

With the three new worlds first I believe there is 11M credits total which is more than enough to unlock everything, even without saving cash.

Here's the full intermission report:

https://imgur.com/a/RQKjk

and Valentina testing her new rocketbike. Valentina is always sooo much happier than Is-this-rocket-really-ISO-9001-certified-Jebediah...

FLgF8iN.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

6 minutes ago, dvader said:

The good news is that I found 3 new world firsts that I don't think were in @Cunjo Carls first list (which was great, thanks!)

 

Nice! I'll grab those values from your mission report add them to my list. It's funny, because I basically never do those 3 things, so I hadn't even considered them! Good finds. Also, sweet rocket bike.

One other thing to add in regards to the list, it appears that to get the 'space walk' first you need to have your kerbal leave a pod while in orbit. Flyby and suborbit don't count, and neither does (as was my case once or twice) just having a kerbal reach orbit without their craft or pop off from a command chair.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Kergarin said:

My attempt to do this fully reusable makes good progress. I have landed on Mun, Minmus, Duna, Ike and Gilly, while recovering every part. All I have to spend my money for is fuel :D

Welcome to the insanity!

Are you going to post pictures? Proof is easy to fake but a little bit goes a long way nonetheless :)

Also, are you playing stock or modded, and what game mode (if custom, what base mode and what customizations)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Welcome to the insanity!

Are you going to post pictures? Proof is easy to fake but a little bit goes a long way nonetheless :)

Also, are you playing stock or modded, and what game mode (if custom, what base mode and what customizations)?

Yes, I have a lot of pictures :D but I have used the admin building and I'm thinking about starting over again without it and maybe make a video.

If I continue with the admin building, I think I would be done after visiting the Jool system. :/

I'm playing stock on normal settings plus "require signal for control", "plasma blackout" and all pressure/g force limits activated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Kergarin said:

sorry for off topic, but is there any way to make imgur upload my images in the correct order?

If there is, I don't know it. I spend more time arranging images than I do documenting the mission. I guess if you uploaded them ONE BY ONE in REVERSE ORDER and then QUIT IN DISGUST HALFWAY THROUGH that would work. Well maybe not that last step.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, 5thHorseman said:

If there is, I don't know it. I spend more time arranging images than I do documenting the mission. I guess if you uploaded them ONE BY ONE in REVERSE ORDER and then QUIT IN DISGUST HALFWAY THROUGH that would work. Well maybe not that last step.

Seems it would take less time to start over again an make videos :confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's my second to last mission. Just one more to do before I'm done.

https://imgur.com/a/ufR9X

It's a Jool 3+2 mission. Landings on Pol, Bop, Vall and orbits around Tylo, Laythe plus atmo flight at Jool. Docking, First Station etc around all. It gave about 4.4M cash with no admin building stuff.

All in all, it went really well. I don't think I reloaded anything... until it was time to go home that is. I am apparently really crap at grav braking around Eve and spent hours bouncing between Eve and Kerbin before I rage reloaded and got back home with just one grav brake around Kerbin.

The highlights are some very nice photo ops:

e4Aza1c.jpg

And this... Something just doesn't feel right...

7rfvd8H.jpg

There's 14 m/s left in the rocket bike and the relative speed at intersection is 37.7 m/s. Hmmm.... subtracting... comparing... and... spacewalk?

@Kergarin If you google for sorting and imgur, there are lots of upset people out there. Apparently, it was a feature and they removed it. I've tried sorting and reverse and uploading but it gives random order anyway. There are external tools that can do it but I haven't tried any. Also, sometimes when I add pictures too quickly,  firefox freezes and I have to start over.

Also, that's a really cool start! Do you have any mods to prevent things from blowing up once they are more than 2.8 km away? I wish I was better at recovering stuff...

Current plan is just one more mission and then I can upgrade all and have approx -51000 cash left. Wait... is that a minus sign? Nah, it's probably nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, dvader said:


@Kergarin If you google for sorting and imgur, there are lots of upset people out there. Apparently, it was a feature and they removed it. I've tried sorting and reverse and uploading but it gives random order anyway. There are external tools that can do it but I haven't tried any. Also, sometimes when I add pictures too quickly,  firefox freezes and I have to start over.

Also, that's a really cool start! Do you have any mods to prevent things from blowing up once they are more than 2.8 km away? I wish I was better at recovering stuff...

 

Thanks! And also thanks for tip with the tools, I will have a look at them.

No mods here. I just try to get ap a little above 70km with the booster stage, and then bring the second stage as quickly as possible into a stable orbit or at least into a wide suborbital trajectory, then switch back to the booster, before it gets too deep into the atmosphere. I fully deploy the booster parachutes as late as possible (around 300m in this setup), so that I don't loose much time watching it descend and can switch back fast to the second stage.

I don't have the correct numbers right now, but I think things out of physics range only disappear below somewhat around 30-40km.

I try to switch back to the booster above at least 60km, because I think it also looses the atmospheric braking, if it's out of physics range. But that's just an assumption.

 

Edited by Kergarin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm officially Done! One last trip to Eeloo with a Duna/Ike fly by on the way back to get the final cash.

https://imgur.com/a/K0kUA

After 24 years in space, Valentina got 140 XP once she landed. I hope she thinks it was worth it. That famous smile of hers was gone once she landed on Kerbin.

Settings:

  • Only cash from world firsts.
  • No admin building strategies.
  • No mining
  • Normal Career with G-forces and Always ActionGroups (which I didn't need as much thanks to the ForScience mod)
  • A bunch of mods.
  • (No Science Lab but was not really an achievement. Science is abundant and I got more than I needed with just the thermometer and barometer)

I visited all the bodies except Moho [EDIT: and Dres. Executive summary here]

@Cunjo Carl, I found another world first that I had forgotten about: Transferring Crew. I didn't get it until the final recovery so the 4.8K cash is for Kerbin. I believe two command modules must be involved and not just a chair. Maybe it is the same with the "walk on surface" that I can't find. Maybe you don't get it with a chair but only with a command module.

Highlights:

jboefkT.jpg

Eeloo landing mission (I forgot to take picture from the ground though... but it is really nothing to see. Just white and brown dirt.)

leYtVaI.jpg

Duna and Ike flyby.

And that's it!

 

Edited by dvader
Forgot about Dres and added Executive summary.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...