Stratzenblitz75

Thanks! Those gravity assists sure do take a long time, but since there is no life support, I figured I'd give em a try. Turns out the lazy Kerbin->Kerbin->Kerbin gravity assists are not all that useful. Sure, they are somewhat easy to do, but they don't save you that much deltaV (I spent 1687 m/s, as opposed to 1950 m/s for a direct Jool transfer (no insertion burn)). In hindsight, I should of just slapped some more fuel on the transfer stage and did a direct Kerbin->Jool transfer burn. Although it seems like an exaggeration, I really was ticked off by that ladder . It was especially frustrating since I TESTED it on Kerbin before I launched it. I have no idea why he couldn't climb it... Maybe the Kraken adjusted it slightly so that it wouldn't work. IDK, but next time, I'm just sticking an extra capsule to the base of my craft so that I never have to deal with ladders again.

Today, I went to Jool:

Agree with all the others, Its nice to see this challenge rebooted for 1.0. Thanks to sdj64 for reviving this awesome challenge! Speaking of 1.0, I think I have our first entry! Jool-5 Non-Stop. I basically restricted myself to using one capsule, and no docking or ISRU in order to create a serially staged monstrosity. Here is the release thread: Hope you enjoy! As you can see, I left the resource tab open for the entire trip for easy checking.

Greetings! With 1.0 out, and the Atlas Mission in standby for a reboot in 1.0, I decided to record a quick Jool-5 mission. Of course, I can't just do a logical Jool-5, I have to impose some pointless restrictions. So, this is a one capsule Jool-5 without docking or ISRU. Basically, I wanted to create a serially staged spacecraft where the entire thing has to land; take off from a moon; transfer to another moon; land... No refueling or docking in between. Let me know what you think!

Why? Even with the ISP and solar power changes, Ion engines are still OP IMO. You can land a one man capsule on pretty much any planet smaller than the Mun with just battery power and ion engines (Yes this includes the outer planets/moons as well, you don't NEED solar panels for constant charge when 3K electricity can give an ion engine 6 minutes of burn time). It seems unnecessary that they should be able to get a TWR of >1 on Duna on top this. Anyways, I doubt that ion powered SSTOs are impossible on Duna. Have you tried using wings? An Ion powered glider should easily be able to make orbit.

Agreed, Time control is a very useful mod for making videos. If you have any large ships, lots of explosions, or any other FPS dropping phenomenon, Time Control Mod is an absolute must for making a seamless video. Not only that, but it allows you to pause time and setup things for your video (like activating engines, positioning vehicles, dropping bombs, etc.).

My biggest achievement that I finished would have to be my Kerbol System grand tour. As you can see, this was done in 0.23.5. I'd imagine a Kerbol System grand tour would be a lot more difficult in 1.0 due to the ISP nerfs and aero changes, but still possible. As for unfinished projects, I have my Atlas mission (see my sig) which I probably put far more time into (100-200 hours). Unfortunately, because of how outdated my save-file is, bugs and crashes happen all the time (in fact, most of time is spent fixing bugs) which makes the save-file almost unplayable. With 1.0 out though, I hope I can breathe new life into the series with a reboot. When I finish this series, it will easily be my biggest achievement. Oh and there's also my first Mun landing. I will never forget staying up late to land this thing on the Mun.

My rocket powered semi-truck is clearly still in the early stages of development...

Today, KSC engineers learned that heatshields are unnecessary for 7 km/s reentries when you can just use the "unimportant bits" of the space craft as your ablator. Just don't expect any refunds for the "slightly vaporized" equipment.

I've been having a lot of fun with this game recently. Its one of those games where you play, lose, think to yourself "just one more go", then you check the time and find that several hours have passed. Its so addicting! I've scored 1st place a few times on the US West server. I go by the name of Green Thumb, (ya'know, because I feed the virus "plants"). In the future, I'll add the [KSP] prefix so you all can identify me easier.

Alternatively, if you have a nVidia or AMD card, you can use Shadowplay or AMD GVR respectively. These recording software use your GPU's h.264 video encoder to capture video, and as a result, they create very high quality videos with very little impact on in game performance. Plus, the file sizes are very reasonable; I just got half an hour of 1080p 60FPS KSP game-play for about a gigabyte of hard-drive space. Best of all, they are completely free. Also, for the love of Kod do not buy FRAPS. It costs $37 (Which is a lot considering the other options are free), can have a huge impact on in-game performance, AND it exports massive AVIs that will consume your hardrive. Shadow-play, OBS, AMD GVR are FAR better options. For editing the videos, I use AVIsynth, a very powerful non-linear script based editor (its also free). Its great for trimming videos, speeding up videos, overlaying images and videos on top of videos, transitions, and all sorts of useful stuff. Since it is script based, edits are instant and there's no chance of crashing the editor and losing your work. Although, it is a bit un-intuitive with the lack of a GUI. Still, if you've done any programming before, it shouldn't be too hard to learn. It also comes with tons of user-created plugins for doing all sorts of cool stuff (Like adding perspective to videos, so that you can have a tilted screen). Since AVIsynth processes AVIs, and since OBS/Shadowplay/AMD GVR output to mp4s, I use XVID4PSP to convert the mp4s to AVIs. Its quite a versatile tool since it can convert video into many different formats using a wide variety of codecs. If you use the right codec, the quality of conversions is nearly loss-less as well. So there you have it, a completely free setup for recording and editing (if you don't count the computer you're using to record, or the electricity required to run your computer, ect..) You can check out my Youtube channel to see videos I've made with this setup. Though, I haven't been too active lately and I've only uploaded two videos, but I'm hoping to change that soonTM...

Wow, this thing looks pure awesome! So awesome, in fact, that I just had to download it and give it a spin. (this is coming from someone who rarely downloads crafts) ... And I'd have to say, pictures don't do this thing justice. The way the air-brake "scales" ripple down the spine of the Draco as you maneuver around makes it feel alive. Very creative use of tweak-scale and stock parts. Plus, it flies decently well, which is impressive considering it looks so unorthodox for an aircraft. +rep from me (Btw, I think it would be better if you put most of your pictures into an Imgur album. That way, the pics won't take up as much space and it makes it easier to flip through them.)

With the new aero, proper gravity turns are now possible in stock KSP (YAY!). Now, one-button launches are far more practical than they were before, so I think a revival of the “one-button†challenge is in order. Inspired by Yakky’s Hand’s free challenge which in turn was inspired by Thunderous Echo's "One-Button Bill" Challenge. Briefing: Ever since Kerbin’s dramatic atmosphere transformation, Jeb has not been able to fly our rockets straight. We've built several hundred rockets already and he has crashed every single one of them (it’s quite amazing, really). As a result, we are now almost bankrupt; one more failed launch will put the final nail in the coffin for our space program. That’s why we need your help. We need you to build a rocket that requires so little thought to fly that Jeb cannot possibly crash it. We need a rocket that only takes one button to fly. Interested? Great! Here are some basic guidelines that you should follow while you build your space craft: Rules: - Only use one action to fly your space craft: The stage function (the Space bar). There is no limit to how many times you can stage. - Once launched, you cannot change the throttle. - No debug menu “cheats†(no infinite fuel, unbreakable joints, etc.) - Stock only, no mods other than information/visual - Provide pictures of all the key events in the mission WITH resource tab open. - (Optional) Provide a craft file with staging time stamps. If your mission is complicated, I may ask you do this just to verify. There are two categories you can apply for: --- Explorer --- Goal: Exploring the Kerbin system will never be easier (at least for the pilot)! Your mission is to send a one-man capsule to a stable orbit somewhere in the Kerbin system. (You can take extra, but we only care about the pod) Scoring: For Kerbin Orbit: ----- (semi major axis(in Km) * (1 – eccentricity of orbit)) For Mun Orbit: -------- 30*((Mun SOI radius(2230) - semi major axis(in Km)) * (1 – eccentricity of orbit)) For Minmus: ---------- 60*((Minmus SOI radius(2187) - semi major axis(in Km)) * (1 – eccentricity of orbit)) (Basically, you get rewarded more points if your orbit is large and circular) 1.5x multiplier for return trip. 0.9x multiplier for every stage past stage two. (For instance, if you stage four times, your multiplier is 0.9*0.9 = 0.81) No points for leaving Kerbin’s SOI. Multipliers are accumulative Explorer Leader board: --------------------------------------------------- - Stratzenblitz75 (916.6, Only used SRBs) --- Heavy Lifter --- Goal: How awesome would it be to have a rocket that can deliver payloads to LKO without having to think about piloting it? Your mission is to efficiently deliver a payload to Low Kerbin Orbit using only the space bar. (Fairings are recommended) Scoring: log2(Mass of payload)*(Mass of payload / (cost of rocket(not including payload)-cost of recovery)) Heavy Lifter Leader board: ----------------------------------------------------------- - None yet --- Mile Stones --- Goal: Prove the improbable! Be the first to: Land on the Mun: Land on Minmus: Land on another planet: Rendezvous with an asteroid: Thanks for viewing and good luck! (Also, feedback on the challenge, especially on the scoring system, is greatly appreciated) - - - Updated - - - As custom for starting a challenge, here is my entry: Score: = (705.8 * (1 – 0.038)) = 678.99 = Staged three times * return multiplier*score = 1.5*0.9*678.99 = 916.6

Thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to get the next episode out in the next two weeks. No promises though! This stuff is time consuming and I don't want to rush anything. Glad you enjoyed the voice acting! It was by far the most difficult thing to do (Especially coming from a first-time voice actor).

Yep, I config parts all the time to reduce part count/balance them/make them more interesting. For instance, I added a NearFutureElectrical FissionGenerator Module to the B9 Reactor part so that I could add fancy glowing heat radiators to it:

Thanks! I wanted to make something big and I"m glad I accomplished that. However with great size comes great lag... Seriously, the game runs at 1/10 speed around that thing. I'm not sure if EVE enhanced Kerbin is causing this lag, or the ship itself is wholly to blame. Either way its slow... Also, just as an update I am working on episode 2! However, as I said, the lag makes things really slow. My ~10 minute Munar encounter burn took over 2 HOURS. And I had to babysit it the entire time since Mechjeb apparently can't keep it pointed straight. I really hope there's some way to automate these burns... Maybe there's some Mechjeb settings that can tweak how Smart A.S.S behaves... If you guys know any mods for 0.25 that can keep large, slightly wobbly ships pointed at the maneuver node I'd love to hear about it!

I don't think you're going to get an answer to that. Its not like many people (or any people at all) have tried to Speed-run Jool-5 so there's no reference point to judge the impressiveness of your mission. However, it does sound like an interesting challenge. I'd like to give it a try, but I have my hands full at the moment. Maybe later, I have some ideas on how to get a fast time... (Also, if you want to do speed runs, you need a timer overlayed on the video! Not the mission clock, an actual timer that counts in real time from the moment you start building the ship to end of the mission.) In my opinion, one of the greatest things about this challenge is the thoughtful and thorough judge :wink:who spends so much time going over everyone's missions to provide feedback and include note-worthy stuff in the Hall of Fame (and occasionally disqualify entries for sneaky cheating). In my opinion, you shouldn't skim over missions quickly and review them later, that's just going to lead to an even bigger pile of work later on. Instead, I think you should enlist some judges (or maybe just a back-up judge that can step in when you don't have time) if you feel that it would be too time-consuming to give all these entries a thorough review. Just ask (Over PM preferably, the topic might get flooded if anyone could apply), I'm sure plenty of trustworthy people would like to help you review missions.

Well, I have a few favorites: Xacktar: Lots of hilarious videos of kerbal genocide/crazy contraptions/all round absurdity here. His Christmas special has to be one of my favorite KSP videos.SWDennis: Crazy, epic, and lots of variety! He does videos on all sorts of KSP things, ranging from hype-trains/hype-planes, to Kerbal blenders, to giant mechs. And his presentation is top-notch! Always excited to see one of his videos in my sub-box. Darren9 (AKA Daz050571 on YouTube): Similar to SWDennis, Darren does all kinds of crazy/epic stuff, and he does it in his own unique style. If you enjoy SWDennis, you'll enjoy Darren's content. is another one of my favorite KSP videos.Maccollo: Maccollo is IMO one of the best KSP players out there. His RSS Venus landing is a true testament to his skill. And, its presented in such a way that you can't stop watching it! I have to stop myself from clicking on his videos for the 'n'th time so that I'm not sucked into an epic 17 minute adventure every time I check his channel. Tsevion (AKA Matthew Karr on YouTube): Another brilliant KSP engineer. He makes some incredible stock creations and concisely explains how they work. His is another one of my favorite KSP videos.Felsmak: Felsmak creates some very bizarre, yet hilarious videos. Go ahead and watch his " "(don't worry, its PG-13!) series to see what I mean.Allmhuran: Yet another KSP engineer, Allmhuram specializes in constructing Tier 0 Behemoths (Before launch pad restrictions). And I think that about covers it.

Onward!

YEAH! THAT's gotta be a first. Nicely done! (LOL, that debris field. The Eve EPA is very displeased:D)

Well, it looks like Pol is more broken than I thought. Definitely going to hinder my efforts to explore it... Still, we need to see if we can land anything on this "phantom terrain"! Hopefully, it doesn't just instantly destroy any vessel that comes in contact with it.

Interesting.. If this is true, then I guess this makes the Jool-5 challenge impossible with 0.90... However, I doubt that your results completely reflect stock KSP, since Lou and redsh both did this mission in 0.90 and they didn't appear to have any problems with Pol. Perhaps you have a corrupted install? Or maybe the collision issues only appear in certain areas... I do remember having collision issues with Pol on my grand tours, but they only happened when I was in map mode. When I wasn't in map mode, there appeared to be no issues. I'll have to see for myself! If there is "phantom terrain" on Pol then perhaps I make a "floating" base...

Sorry this response is coming a bit late. Nevertheless, I appreciate your feedback. Yeah, I definitely agree with you here. I struggled a lot with writing the dialog in this video and it shows. I wanted it to give some exposition to the story but I didn't want it to sound too ridiculous or forced. In the end, I'm not completely happy with how the dialog turned out. However, I hope to improve it in future episodes. Lol, you're getting rep just for that description. Gave me a good laugh:D Actually, I have my own version of dangit for this mission. Its called "bugs". In fact, just now, I tested the docking ports on the Observatoirum and the Eve Science rover won't undock. Great. Now I have to dig through that 200,000+ line persistent file and find the ONE docking port that's causing the problem. Ughhhh... I'm sure this isn't the end of it though. Expect more hilarious (and frustrating!) bugs in the future. As for keepfit, that actually sounds like an interesting mod. The Hab rings, Agricultural modules and all the other empty spaces in the ship should provide plenty of space for all the Kerbals. Plus, none of my craft expose the crew to prolonged high-gees (even the Eve science rover is "safe" since it descends into Eve's atmosphere fairly gently) so I'm good (I think) in that area. I might try installing it if it weren't for this: "- Uncounted undetected bugs!" NOOO OHH KOD PLEASE NOOOOO! NOT THE BUGS....

Actually, I think I have an explanation for this: I'm using the hanger/VAB extension mod, which isn't updated for 0.90. Since this mod expands the building area of the VAB, the PF fairings can expand to a much larger size than in the regular VAB. Or at least I think that's whats going on. Could be wrong, but it seems like the most logical explanation.

There's a limit on how tall the fairing can be? If so, then I've never encountered it. The only limit I know of is how wide you can make the fairing base and as you can see, I modified that limit so that I could use a 20 meter base. Perhaps the height limit is tied to how wide the base is? Or maybe there is a new height limit introduced in PF 0.90 (I'm using 0.25 for this mission)? I dunno...