Jump to content

The No Contract Career Challenge


Recommended Posts

6 hours ago, Xurkitree said:

I did see your earlier challenge submission and that was really good. And now I just realized that you'll create another completely reusable Eve Lander and that'll blow my socks off.

Good luck!

We will see what happens :D but the continuation may take some time 

3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

This is one thread I won't mind the Necroposting on :D

I actually forgot it existed. it's been a long year I guess!

It's still one of my favorite challenges, really a great idea! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

Wow this thread went over a year with no replies...

I'm glad this thread was revived, as I had missed it the first time round!

Funnily enough it matches an idea I had been persuing for my own amusement, though not quite rigorously enough to qualify here, of a "hard mode, no rockets" career - using nothing but Kraken drives (which, despite their over-powered nature is still non trivial, particularly designing craft, at ultra low tech levels, from scratch, with no revert to launch allowed). I'd have to restart anyway to go with the no contact rule, but would that qualify/be interesting enough for placement here, or is it a little too gauche...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a cunning plan....

A No Contract Career...as a KSP Caveman!

Accept no contracts.  No gameplay mods.  No upgrade of KSP facilities.  Difficulty Levels as for Caveman Challenge (see Caveman 1st post).  Victory conditions as for Caveman Challenge: unlock all tech tree nodes possible with a Level 1 R&D facility (up to Tier 5 inclusive).

Other conditions, including possible added starting seed funds, TBD.

Is a Nanocrystaline Diamond career possible?  (The toughest Difficulty Level, with rewards for Science, Reputation, and Funds set to 10%.)   Could it be done with a sufficiently large added starting seed of funds?  And how big does that seed have to be?

And what Difficulty Level of Caveman game is possible without any added starting funds?

Inquiring minds want to know! :)

Enough interest and I'll start a Challenge topic for...the Community Caveman No Contract Career (CCNCC) and flesh out the details. :)

Edited by Jacke
Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Jacke said:

A No Contract Career...as a KSP Caveman!

That sounds ghastly.

I can't wait to see how you fare on this but as for me... no way! That's crazy.

Of course you need to ignore this challenge's win condition as it's diametrically opposed to the caveman restrictions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

That sounds ghastly.

I can't wait to see how you fare on this but as for me... no way! That's crazy.

Of course you need to ignore this challenge's win condition as it's diametrically opposed to the caveman restrictions.

It's primarily a Caveman career with the added limitation of No Contracts, using Caveman's win condition of completing the first 5 Tech Tree Tiers.  It's shorter than No Contracts because no KSC facilities are upgraded nor does it need to earn the extra funds for that.  But everything needs to be done with only the Level 1 facilities and what's possible with them.

The quick consensus on the Caveman topic is up to stock difficulty Hard (60% rewards, Caveman Topaz level) should be possible, especially as they start with at least 10,000 funds.  The 3 custom levels beyond that (Corundum, Diamond, and Nanocrystaline Diamond) are much harder, with respectively 30%, 20%, and 10% Science rewards, but Funds rewards for all 3 are 10% and no starting funds.  Without the funding from accepting contracts, Caveman rules would have to relaxed to allow an added starting seed of funds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only saw this challenge today and thought maybe I should have a go at it. On the other hand it does look like it has the potential to be a huge timesink. Maybe I'll dip my toe in the water and see how quick some early progress can be made.

If this becomes one of those month long obsessions, someone won't be forgiven :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some progress since my last post.

There's been flying for science.

xJPYLCq.png

YKf8c24.png

TDUaNHU.png

Driving for science.

AVzLV43.png

A Mun orbit mission, which was a little hairy without manouver nodes.

NuBEe7q.png

Then after the necessary upgrades to add manouver nodes, a docking mission in Kerbin orbit.

JSWGi3H.png

 

This is my current status, with launchpad, astronaut complex, tracking station and mission control all upgraded to level 2.

DOrLZNG.png

9yCFwcE.png

 

The next step... landing on the Mun.

Edited by purpleivan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I somehow totally missed this. I'll go over the entries from @purpleivan and @Kergarin as soon as I can. which will hopefully be this weekend.

Currently I'm in the middle of things as I've upgraded all the relevant buildings to level 2, the last one being the R&D center a couple of days ago.

One thing that I've noticed is that in the early stages of a contract free game, is that you get lulled into thinking that you can hang around a single location, scooping up cash from milestones. That's true of Kerbin as you get awarded for all sorts of relatively minor things, but once you leave the planet there are fewer to collect per planet. A lot of these per planet milestones you pick up on your first visit if it's a landing mission, so probably not more than a single mission per planet required to grab the set.

One thing that's going to do is push your focus from one planet to the next faster than I had expected. Not a complaint about the milestone system, just unexpected.

When I've played career in the past (one game when some of the new major version come out) my aim has just been to complete the tech tree, then call it a day. That means my focus has been on sceince gathering rather than cash in those games.

Enjoying the challenge of playing it the contract free way though.

BTW... someone asked in another thread if I was using a convert science to cash strategy. My aim has been to not use the Admin building at all.

Additional info on my game is that I'm "mod light", as I'm using KER and Kerbal Alarm Clock. Just couldn't part with KER's DV calculator during construction and KAC is just to handy to drop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Val, Jeb and Bob just got back from a huge around Jool. Enough was made to upgrade a few buildings, so now all that remain is the top level upgrade to the Admin, R&D, VAB and Spaceplane hanger.

Upgrading those is going to cost roughly 4 million funds, but definitely looking doable with a return trip to Jool (landings only made on Vall and Pol, with flybe of Tylo and Laythe), plus Eve, Eeloo, Moho and Dres not even looked at yet. Ike wasn't visited either on the Duna run.

This was the trip that broke the model of going reusable on the launchers, as the transfer vehicle was just too heavy for me to be bothered trying. Probably could have done it, but the income from the mission (about 1.4M funds) was enough that saving 40k or so to by using a reusable launcher just wasn't worth it to me.

h0YR47S.png

Full write up with lots of pics (as usual).

Edited by purpleivan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Okay I've updated the front page. @Kergarin you were already a winner, I just have a bad memory :D@purpleivan you're now in the participants. Looking forward to more!

Val just returned from a trip to Ike, which earned enough that I could finally afford to upgrade the R&D center to level 3, will some margin for comfort.

I'll be posting a write up of that and my current career status later today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Val's Ike trip can be read about here.

The current status of the game is...

Buildings remaining to upgrade to the top level are the VAB, Spaceplane hanger and Admin Building.

Total cost for that will be 2,253,000.

Planets (and moons) left to vist are Moho, Eeloo, Eve (for a kerballed landing anyway) Laythe, Tylo and Bop.

 

Just realised when I popped out on the runway to check on something for Kayak Club, that the runway is still at Level 1. Therefore additional cash will be required to fix that up to Level 3 standard, so an extra 360,000 funds of thereabouts to find.

Edited by purpleivan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Since the previous post I ticked Eeloo of the list.

But now arrrrgh... I was about to launch the 2nd of my three vehicles that are part of my Tylo landing mission (the lander, then a fuel vehicle to fill it in orbit, and finally a return vehicle) to pick up the goodies for that not so little grey rock, when I was told I didn't have enough funds.

Sure enough, my Tylo mission was going nowhere without an injection of cash after I pointlessly upgraded the Admin building. Now I've had to put together a cheap (fully reusable) mission to Duna, to pick up the "started first space station" milestone. After that it's rinse and repeat time with the same trip to Minmus.

I've even had to rendezvous the first of the Duna bound ships with the empty of fuel, Tylo lander to pick up Jeb to pilot it, as I'm doing everything outside Kerbin SOI manned. Val will be in the return vehicle, so I can get the "space station" milestone for Tylo.

I'm not making things easy for myself :(

Edited by purpleivan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad to see this thread is still alive. A while back I started this challenge but with a twist: the Kerbol system is replaced with the real solar system. All parts are the same as the regular game, and the RSS mod has the same world first bonuses for Kerbin/Earth and similar for other analogous bodies, but just orbiting the moon and returning takes more dV than a land and return mission to anywhere in the Kerbol system. My plan was to wait till the whole thing was finished to post it here, but I kinda stopped playing KSP half way through the attempt. The furthest I got was landing a probe on a Mars moon and a Kerballed orbit of Venus with a return. Maybe I'll pick it back up before KSP 2 is released and see if I can close it out. I wrote about each launch in a mission report thread:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like my challenge entry career game is moving into the end game.

The last mission was a trip to Tylo, then as so much fuel was left after that, a dash over to Bop.

qNls0LG.png

Quhunv0.png

9tN3A6u.png

nLAAEBW.png

0aDlnc7.png

bhrcjdx.png

Not that it matters for the challenge, but this was the mission that completed the chase up the tech tree.

I8SWJuX.png

Next a quick trip for the docking related prizes around Minmus, before heading to Moho.

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...