Antique Rocket Challenge

[Ultimate Steve]

So, the idea for this challenge came to me from two things... One, I was watching some old Top Gear, and two, someone just necroed a thread from 2014 saying that the DL link was dead.

 

So... Commence the Antique Rocket Challenge!

 

The goal of this challenge is fairly simple. You must take craft files from old versions of KSP, stick them in 1.3 or 1.4, and go to as many places as possible with those craft. No modifications are allowed to the crafts (2 exceptions, see below), but orbital construction is allowed.

 

Scoring is a bit complex. For each version number, there is a point value. For each celestial body, there is a multiplier for orbiting and returning, and landing and returning. You average the point value for each craft you used for the mission, and multiply it by the body multiplier. For each body that you visit (you may, of course, launch multiple missions, this doesn't have to be a grand tour thing, you can launch separate stuff to each world) you have a point value now, and then you add them together to get your final score.

Version Point Values (includes all .x versions):

1.4: -100
1.3: -50
1.2: -20
1.1: 0
1.0: 5
0.90: 10
0.25: 15
0.24: 20
0.23: 25
0.22: 30
0.21: 40
0.20: 50
0.19: 65
0.18: 80
0.17: 100
0.16: 150
0.15: 250
0.14 and before: 350

Subassemblies follow the same rules, although they were only implemented in 0.22. The addition and subtraction of subassemblies are the ONLY modifications allowed to craft (besides draining oxidizer from tanks for old NERVA powered craft).

 

Planetary Multipliers (land with a Kerbal and return him/her to Kerbin):

Moho: 5x
Eve: 15x
Gilly: 1.5x
Mun: 1x
Minmus: 1x
Duna: 2.5x
Ike: 2x
Dres: 3x
Laythe: 7x
Vall: 3x
Tylo: 5x
Bop: 2.5x
Pol: 2x
Eeloo: 3x

 

Scoring example:

Say I went to Dres with a craft assembled in orbit with 3 ships, a core from 0.18, a lander from 0.24, and a launch vehicle from 0.19 carrying a reentry ship from 1.0. That's 80, 20, 65, and 5, so 170. 170/4 is 42.5. The Dres multiplier is 3, so 3*42.5 is 127.5. If I had also gone to Gilly with a different ship and gotten 35 points there, my total score on the leaderboard would be 162.5 (Dres+Gilly).

You'll notice some of the versions have negative points, this is to de-incentivise anything recent, while still allowing it in case you really need a reentry vehicle. If I went to Eve with a craft from 1.4, my Eve score would be -1500. Not good.

 

The spirit of the challenge:

The aim is to find the oldest crafts possible (most likely not your own, look around the forum and old sites!) that still work and have fun making them work. The scoring system is probably unbalanced but decent, don't just go for maximizing points. Another "spirit" thing is seeing how designs have changed over time.

 

Things to watch out for/rules/tips:

Craft from before 1.0 will not have heat shields, so be careful! Craft from before 1.0 will also not have been built with aerodynamics as a feature, most likely. 

I'm not sure if there was a reformatting of the craft file system at one point, some old craft may not work at all.

Don't use the old Mk3 parts, they will not load.

Mods are allowed, as long as they aren't OP, but good luck getting an 0.18 parts mod working in 1.4. Your entry will be denoted as a modded entry.

Information and visual mods (but not autopilots) are allowed.

At one point the small reaction wheel was 1.25m.

At one point, NERVAS used oxidizer. I will allow draining oxidizer from tanks.

Be wary of old DL links from suspicious sites.

Old parts will load into the game with their updated models and textures, this will lead to weirdness as well as potential gaps.

You must play in 1.3.x or 1.4.x.

If you still have old versions of the game, you *may* design your own craft, but it is discouraged. The idea behind this challenge is to use other craft.

Please provide a source for each craft you use.

Places to find old craft include the spacecraft exchange subforum, old YouTube videos, old Reddit posts, the Shareables section on curse, and KerbalX.

KerbalX and Curse both have filter by version functions, those are probably going to be very useful!

No debug menu, HyperEdit, config editing, persistence editing, etc. Basically just use common sense and be a good person.

No spamming tiny 0.18 craft to boost your score. Every craft must have something to do with the mission.

 

Leaderboard:

*crickets so far*

 

 

And lastly, have fun!

[mrhexed]

HI steve! May I ask how to download these antique parts?

 

Edited June 26, 2018 by mrhexed

[swjr-swis]

14 minutes ago, mrhexed said:

HI steve! May I ask how to download these antique parts?

You shouldn't need to: the whole idea is to load a craft in a recent version and let KSP's own loading code resolve the issues. If the craft loads at all, all the parts will show up with their current counterparts. This may however have unexpected effects, like gaps between parts etc. That's the challenge.

 

8 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

ld parts will load into the game with their updated models and textures, this will lead to weirdness as well as potential gaps.

Additionally, there are also stat differences: some parts will load with old numbers for tank volume, heat resistance, drag values. It should be interesting indeed.

[mrhexed]

2 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

You shouldn't need to: the whole idea is to load a craft in a recent version and let KSP's own loading code resolve the issues. If the craft loads at all, all the parts will show up with their current counterparts. This may however have unexpected effects, like gaps between parts etc. That's the challenge.

 

Additionally, there are also stat differences: some parts will load with old numbers for tank volume, heat resistance, drag values. It should be interesting indeed.

Thanks!

 

[Ultimate Steve]

Hmm, this is going to be harder than I thought to get a good score. KerbalX and Curse only go back so far. The really old forum posts had the DL links in the attachments, and that's not a thing anymore. Most of the 0.18 era crafts were lost in the Great April Derp. And then there was the Mediafire purge...

Edit: I have yet to find a single working forum DL link. It doesn't help that none of the forum links really work at all that far back.

Edited June 26, 2018 by Ultimate Steve

[vyznev]

I found this blog post with a working link to a craft file from KSP 0.13.2. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be compatible with KSP 1.4.