What Career build are you most proud of?

[NorthernDevo]

Hallo folks!

LOL - this is pretty funny that a low-level player like myself should offer this topic. Some of the builds that people have done are stunning; amazing. People have created entire cities; vast fuel mining facilities. They've re-created ships from Science Fiction - the Enterprise, Star Destroyers, and the like.

Wonderful stuff.

My question: in the career game, which build of yours are you MOST proud of? It doesn't have to be the magnificent artwork described above; it can be a ship that simply works perfectly - does everything you want it to.

It can be a particularly attractive ship, or a particularly useful one - a really good mining tug, for instance.

What's the machine that you just want to smile and show all your friends?

This is mine:

The LG-14 Ground Exploration Vehicle Rover Max.

Chuckle - I've been crowing about this thing for a while and while it might sound strange when compared against the wonderful builds of other players, I'm the most proud of this one. 

You see, until 1.6 came out I've been stymied at building a decent Rover and have yet to manage a single working GEV. The moment the Mk2 Lander Can was redesigned with a Rover configuration, this excellent little bus became available. 

The first design was good, but this rebuild is - in terms of effectiveness - superb. She's been tested on the Mun, Minmus and Ike, and has proven to be a totally reliable, stable and tough explorer.

The first build put the wheels on the modular girder segments. This gave it a low-slung CoG and good stability but not good enough for the punishing conditions at Mun's North Pole.

Following a grueling 2-day (real time) rover mission at the Munar North Pole which took our intrepid Kerbals  on a tortuous 40-km. route through the deadly crevasses and towering mountains of that awful terrain, she was rebuilt with I-beams to give the wheels a bit wider tread and length. The headlights and important components were pulled back to be protected by the metal structure and the solar panels given rollover protection via a solid iron girder T-frame. The fuel cell - originally ejectable - was integrated into the frame and the 'baguette' fuel tank replaced by the smaller - and ample - R4 'Dumpling' which provides hours of solid power. 

In addition to the body's inherent electronics, the vehicle has a belly-mounted redundant RoveMate and a full suite of science mounted on the aft bulkhead for easy access. The Material Bay is built into the body, and the machine has both full MechJeb and KES support, as well as a dedicated Fly-By-Wire hub.

The vehicle sports two O-10 jump jets with 280 units of onboard fuel and 200 units of additional fuel in ejectable external tanks. 2800 units of electrical potential gives the vehicle hours of non-stop heavy movement in low-light conditions even without powering the fuel cell. 

Top speed is in excess of 50 km/hr dependent on local gravity, duration is at least six hours on reasonable terrain without solar recharge. 

I have to admit, I'm really proud of this machine and though it can't come close to the huge, wonderful builds of other players I'm proud because it does exactly what I want it to: carry science teams to explore and survey alien worlds and do it quickly, safely and confidently. She's both incredibly robust and incredibly versatile; she can - if her Mothership carries a claw - convert into a lander an actually launch into orbit to refuel in VERY low-G conditions (Minmus, Gilly, Ike, etc.)

I'm pleased as punch - ok; your turn!

What build are you particularly proud of?

Edited December 31, 2018 by NorthernDevo

[Tonka Crash]

August 1st:

Today:

[The Aziz]

I don't seem to have a better shot of it (except of landed/crashed/splashed 1st stage) but I did have a 1.25m reusable rocket, perfect in carrying small payloads to Low-to-High Kerbin Orbit, and super easy to fly. Sometimes, for heavier payloads, but too light for 2.5m rocket, it was equipped with two side boosters, the same way as Falcon Heavy.

Then there is my Moho Bug, its design was just too good for me personally. Spreading wings to warm up in the sun. Too heavy to fly. Nothing crazy about its specs though.

And Duna ship + lander. I screwed up the design of those side boosters (they were meant to burn to slow down at Ike, ended up overheating the black tank so I had to drop them) but otherwise more than capable to do its job.

Edited January 1, 2019 by The Aziz

[RealKerbal3x]

I rarely play career mode, but I have a sandbox game in which I act all serious and real-space-program-y. While it isn't a particularly complicated or difficult build, I'm very proud of my Kraken V launch vehicle. A real workhorse!

Heavy-lifting, stable and adaptable - it has two different upper stages that can be swapped out depending on the mission.

[Pecan]

Oh there's no competition* (or pictures).  That's the first crewed orbiter I made in career - one Kerbal to orbit, then back again.

(*Literally, there's no competition.  That's the only vehicle I've made in career, about 3 years ago)

[IncongruousGoat]

This thing:

It's just a single-use ship for a Duna-Ike mission. Except that it was built and flown using a fully T1 space center, in a career with 10% science, funds, and rep rewards, no quicksaves, no reverts, and 0 starting funds. It took 18 (successful) launches to assemble due to part and mass limits, and flying it was an exercise in precision eyeballing due to the lack of patched conics, but it worked. Somehow.

Here's the career I built it for, for those who are curious

 

[NorthernDevo]

49 minutes ago, IncongruousGoat said:

This thing:

It's just a single-use ship for a Duna-Ike mission. Except that it was built and flown using a fully T1 space center, in a career with 10% science, funds, and rep rewards, no quicksaves, no reverts, and 0 starting funds. It took 18 (successful) launches to assemble due to part and mass limits, and flying it was an exercise in precision eyeballing due to the lack of patched conics, but it worked. Somehow.

Here's the career I built it for, for those who are curious

 

That...is...AWESOME!!!

You talk about totally jazzed on coolness; this is brilliant!

I'm reading your career page now; just absolutely loving it.

You see, for quite a few years - about 4 I'm guessing - I didn't have much to live on. I barely had money to eat and certainly not enough for internet so for all that time the only KSP I had to play was the demo (version unremembered) that I downloaded from a cyber-cafe.

I still enjoyed it hugely - KSP's demo is more complete and enjoyable as many full games - and mentioned in one of my first posts how fun it would be to go back to the parameters of the demo and see what a player can do.

(In fact, it was in the thread of my introductory post here:)

 

Well Sir, you've just shown us what a player can do with it.

COOL! 

Now I have to go, find the Caveman Challenge and take it up! Thanks!

Cheers (from another Simon and Garfunkel fan! lol)

Edited January 2, 2019 by NorthernDevo

[IncongruousGoat]

@NorthernDevo The Caveman Challenge thread is here:

The maintainer is (AFAICT) currently away for the holidays, but the challenge is still active.

The best part is my mission isn't even the most impressive thing that someone's done. That would be the guy who took Bob on a continuous EVA from the surface of Kerbin all the way to Bop and then back (you can only go on EVA on the surface of Kerbin, but there's nothing preventing you from taking an already EVA'd Kerbal wherever you want).

[Pecan]

19 hours ago, NorthernDevo said:

.. how fun it would be to go back to the parameters of the demo and see what a player can do.

No docking-ports in the demo, unfortunately, so you wouldn't be able to construct things like this in orbit.

[Pthigrivi]

Been working on this career w/ life support for about 2 years now. Almost time to go to Jooll!



Bow section is a floating seabase for Laythe, the drive section with centrifuge will return to Kerbin eventually and ferry a new load of colonists, and hiding behind there is a VTOL science and mining rig. Also shipping out with the convoy is a VTOL SSTO shuttle for Lathe, a big lander for Tylo and setting up refueling runs from Vall, and a bundle of 12 survey and communications satellites to fan out across JSOI. 

Edited January 3, 2019 by Pthigrivi

[dallascwbys9]

I think my build that im most proud of is a duna base that i sent in one go, for a contract

[KerikBalm]

I'd say either my heavy SSTOs (which I first build in sandbox), my modular stations/long range exploration vessels (life support and stock centrifuges), or my modular and relocatable surface bases.

[Ratwerke_Actual]

I would have to say this asteroid mining base. I was doing a hard mode career, (no saves/reverts/permadeath), when the Reddit Challenge came up. Had plenty of funds and a full tech tree, so I decided to skip sandbox and fly the whole mission. Only stranded two Kerbals on the mission. (I later rescued them).

[Cruzo]

The Barrakuda - a cruising vessel meant to support long term interplanetary missions.  It has a lander that can land and return from Duna, a couple of deployable relay/scanning satellite probes, greenhouses and enough crew space to keep 6 kerbals happy for years with USI Life Support.  Fully loaded the main engines have 4200 dV, though the crew section can detach and deploy nuke engines for another 3000 dV if it becomes necessary.

more pics and details here if you're interested.

 

[Starhawk]

Hmmm.  Well, I guess that would have to be my workhorse mining/refining/tanker craft.  It has been built anew in every version since I first created it.

  The original version was built a long time ago.  I think in 1.0.5.  It had a Poodle as the main engine.

The version currently in service has a Wolfhound as the main engine and looks like this:

 

Happy landings!

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

My first asteroid grabber; Ronin1.

I really struggled with wrapping my head around asteroid interception at first, and made a thread here asking for help, which I received in abundance. Seeing my old pics of this ship always reminds me of how awesome the KSP community is, and makes me proud to be a part of it.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Rocket In My Pocket

[klesh]

I havent continually played on a single career save since the 0.23 days.   Now, I play a little and toss is all out in 3 months when the next update hits.  I dont have the desire to play on some old version from 9 months ago with a bunch of bugs that are already fixed.   The current version always has plenty.  

[Chris_Pi]

This - All-purpose RCS tug. Put it together ages ago when I got tired of using tons of monoprop and wrestling station parts around with other ships or undersize tugs. Been rebuilding the same basic layout as parts change since I can't remember when. RCS is symmetrical for thrust in all directions and fuel use doesn't shift the C/G, Which is a tiny bit high on the radial port on this one. Plenty of power, Nothing off-balance. All three ports lit up.

Got it updated and waiting for my career game to catch up and be able to use again. Might need to move the spotlight for the radial port though. 1302 M/S worth of fuel @2260 kg. It'll drag around pretty much anything. Nice to be able to launch ships with no RCS and dock them to a depot with this.

[Freshmeat]

This is a difficult question, so I'd rather answer with the draft I like the most:

This is the only screenshot I have of my Raven Vb LKO booster KSP version 1.3 something. It has flown dozens of missions during my most active career, and is probably my most used type of booster ever. It carries 20 t to LKO with a bit of fuel and a 1000 dv transfer stage, enough for my typical Mun or Minmus missions. It was useful even for sending unmanned probes on interplanetary missions. While not the most efficient in terms of cost/payload, it flies extremely stable and with good margins for error.