Reusability Challenge

[macktruck6666]

 

Recover Everything

This challenge has a simple premise, complete the entire tech tree and recover everything.

Rules:
No mods allowed.
Making History expansion pack allowed.
Everything you launch must be able to land on Kerbin intact.
Mystery goo and science jr must be returned to Kerbin while everything else can be transmitted.
Imgur album of all major vehicles prelaunch should be included. (suggest making vehicles standardized)
Images of at least one mission for each major vehicle showing all it's pieces landed on kerbin after mission completion.
Images of all payloads prelaunch. (suggest making payloads standardized)
Image of at least one mission for each major payloads after payload has landed back on kerbin.
Quicksave and reverts may be used. (refer to difficulty level for clarification)
    
Definition:
A major launch vehicle is defined as an aircraft or rocket that either
1) Doubles it's takeoff thrust from the previous major vehicle
2) Changes it's fuselage diameter

A payload is anything that either
1) Spends more then one day in orbit
2) Leaves Kerbin orbit

Easy Mode (Carbon Level):
Do everything on easy, normal or moderate settings.
Quicksave and reverts are unrestricted.

Hard Mode (Hydro Level):
Do everything on hard settings.
Quicksave and reverts may only be used on landing attempts. It may not be used because of poor mission planning.
"Extra Groundstations" disabled.
"Require Signal for Control" enabled

HardCore Mode (Solar Level):
Do everything on hard settings.
Quicksave and reverts may only be used on landing attempts. It may not be used because of poor mission planning.
"Extra Groundstations" disabled.
"Require Signal for Control" enabled
No mobile processing labs allowed.

Sadistic Mode (Green Level):
Do everything on hard settings.
Quicksave and reverts may only be used on landing attempts. It will be used when the craken appears. It may not be used because of poor mission planning.
"Extra Groundstations" disabled.
"Require Signal for Control" enabled
No mobile processing labs allowed.
For rockets over 1.25m diameter fuesalage:
You may never press the recover button. (suggest creating recover/fueling/payload intergration vehicles)

Edited April 11, 2018 by macktruck6666

[Thor Wotansen]

When you say no mods, do you mean no part mods, or are you excluding every MOD, including visual and information mods?  There are also a few mods that help keep track of which science experiments you've done where, which are very helpful.

[Kergarin]

Like this? 

I also did it without accepting any contract, and planted a flag everywhere. Played on normal mode

[macktruck6666]

1 hour ago, Thor Wotansen said:

When you say no mods, do you mean no part mods, or are you excluding every MOD, including visual and information mods?  There are also a few mods that help keep track of which science experiments you've done where, which are very helpful.

Lets say yes to visual. Information mods no. You have coal level for reverts. You can play through again once you've established your designs. No on science mods, I don't want to vet each science mod and it makes people lazy at mission planning.

59 minutes ago, Kergarin said:

Like this? 

I also did it without accepting any contract, and planted a flag everywhere. Played on normal mode

Yes, so strictly following the rules, it would be "level 5 coal"

You definitely added difficulty without accepting contracts, but for the purposes of a competition the difficulty doesn't scale easily. Meaning, I doubt it would be possible to do no contracts on Hard mode.

[Thor Wotansen]

Disallowing mods that don't change the stock science, aero, physics, or mechanics and have no effect on the function of a craft, other than reducing trial and error, is silly and not enforceable.  I'm afraid I will have to decline this challenge.

[macktruck6666]

34 minutes ago, Thor Wotansen said:

Disallowing mods that don't change the stock science, aero, physics, or mechanics and have no effect on the function of a craft, other than reducing trial and error, is silly and not enforceable.  I'm afraid I will have to decline this challenge.

I disagree. Having information mods allow you to make sleeker rockets that are less versatile/functional. This in turns makes you make more specialty rockets and requires more photos. Allowing science mods allows people to create large rockets without any repercussions. If you make a larger rocket to do more science in one run, then there should be negative consequences such as being annoyed to manually collect the science.

[tseitsei89]

20 hours ago, macktruck6666 said:

I disagree. Having information mods allow you to make sleeker rockets that are less versatile/functional. This in turns makes you make more specialty rockets and requires more photos. Allowing science mods allows people to create large rockets without any repercussions. If you make a larger rocket to do more science in one run, then there should be negative consequences such as being annoyed to manually collect the science.

Science mods I dont really care about but without information mods the game is pretty much unplayable for me.

Since it is IMO quite impossible to design a rocket if you dont know the key performance numbers (mainly twr and dv)... It becomes a guessing game instead of design and planning game. I could of course do the calculations manually but that is tedious and not fun. So information mods do not even make the game any easier. Just less tedious and more fun. But hey it is your challenge so you decide the rules