Christoph1337

Dangit, I KNEW I forgot something! I'm going to chalk that up to being exhausted by the week; normally I hate the people who forget Dres. I'll go ahead and call it the Garnet Series.

It's been a while since I checked. At the moment, I'm planning a new Science Mode series with plans to name them after gemstones. Here's what I have planned: Quartz Series: suborbital flight Pearl Series: Mun missions Turquoise Series: Minmus Ruby Series: Duna Amethyst Series: Eve Zircon Series: Moho Emerald Series: Jool (will probably have several specially-named probe to investigate the moons) Diamond Series: Eeloo

...wow. This blows my MIND. I may have to download this one day, once I actually become good at KSP.

So I saw that Version 1.0 was out, and I went to the Launcher to update my game. However, when I opened the launcher, the box at the bottom that usually had the "Play" and "Update" buttons now just had "Checking for updates..." fading in and out. I seriously sat on that screen for about 30 minutes while I waited for it to give me the option to update, but it never did. Am I doing something wrong?

Okay, I thought about it for a while, and I've decided that Karbonite and similar mods are fine. I'm not a monster.

Here we see Jebediah Kerman, as usual being above such pedestrian concepts as "safe reentry velocity" and "being scared while plunging towards Kerbin at nearly 1.5 km/s".

Awesome work on Kaiser 2! Can't wait for the pack to be released!

1) I sadly can't test it myself because I am pretty much the worst KSP player ever. You know how I described the Grand Tour as a "coming-of-age" mission? Yeah, I haven't come of age yet. Heck, I haven't even landed on Duna without crashing yet, let alone learned how to solve problems of orbital mechanics. In other words, what's impossible for me is no gauge at all of what's impossible for good players. 2) Yeah, I do agree this may well be harder than I imagined. I'm officially changing the rules to allow for as many refueling missions as you need.

Well said; I haven't updated that section since I thought PFCE still worked. Will edit immediately, and will add the packs new packs you mentioned (except Kirius and Kohman, since they are other star systems and thus would technically not be part of a Grand Tour, though they would make great optional challenges). Also, I'm not sure about the whole "remove planets that you're not visiting" thing; will that cause the game to crash when you recover the science? Or when the mission ends? Just want to be sure your challenge won't be wasted.

Also, if anyone more artistically talented than me would be interested in making a banner for the thread, I would be more than ready to accept it.

I'd go ahead and say the 19 or so Mun missions I ran before I knew there was such a thing as quicksaving without mods... I'm so smart.

I would love to see art drawn of the planets added by the Outer Planets Mod or the Odysseus Pack. No pressure, though; if you don't feel like it, that's fine.

So are there any plans to port this pack over to Kopernicus? I'd love to add this pack as an option for my new Ultimate Grand Tour Challenge, but PFCE 0.90 is apparently broken.

So how goes progress on Kaiser 2? I was hoping that, if it gets ported to Kopernicus soon, I could add it as an option in my Ultimate Grand Tour Challenge.

Are there any plans to port this mod over to Kopernicus? I'd love to be able to add it as an option in my Ultimate Grand Tour Challenge.

Incidentally, guys, feel free to send in any well-made Kopernicus packs I have overlooked so I can add them to the links section.

Okay, yeah, I've noticed that the rules are kind of unfair in terms of the "three Kerbals" thing. I really didn't realize how limiting that would be to creativity; I mostly just wanted to make sure you didn't just have only one Kerbal for the whole mission, since that would get boring. I'm officially changing the rules to allow splitting of the ship to go to separate planets and moons, as well as KSP Interstellar in case you do want to go all in one run. I'm really sorry for this whole mess; this is the first thread I've ever created, and I'm still getting things set up. As for the solar panel thing, you're more than welcome to do whatever you want; I have no experience with OPM. Basically, just use your best discretion on whether it should be allowed. (Also, I'm officially adding the link to the Terrestrial Planet Pack, since Ixium looks really cool and it looks like a good challenge.)

No, since you only landed on the stock planets during your grand tour. The "Completionists" section is for people who complete the Ultimate Grand Tour Challenge, which requires the modded planet packs I mentioned. Your accomplishment is incredibly impressive, but it also doesn't meet the requirements of the challenge. In short: it doesn't qualify unless you have at least one planet pack installed.

You don't have to land 3 Kerbals on each planet; you just have to have at least 3 Kerbals on the mission, and you can't move the ship without all three Kerbals on board beyond basic docking maneuvers. One guy could be the dedicated lander if you want. Also, there is no actual scoreboard; it's just an unofficial thing.

Alright, so now that's the score to beat!

I think science points are going to be the scoreboard. That way the challenge will reward you for installing more planet packs. At the end of the mission record how many total science points you got and I'll list it with your name, along with what packs you used, on the Completionists section.

Yeah, I've heard that the PFCE 0.90 release is buggy. For now I'd recommend sticking with Outer Planets and the systems that have been ported to Kopernicus.

Well, my challenges were only suggestions. If PFCE is buggy, then by all means use the Kopernicus remakes (though I was under the impression Kopernicus is in an extremely early release, which is why I didn't mention it). Also, yes, you do also need to go to the stock KSP planets. As for the insane Delta-V...well, I did say this is supposed to be MUCH harder than the default Grand Tour.

I see no problems with the welding mod, as long as it doesn't reduce the mass or otherwise make the game easier; it seems to be purely an FPS thing, which is absolutely fine in my book. As for the three Kerbals, you can have one or more leave the ship for landings, but the ship cannot perform maneuvers (beyond basic orbital adjustments and docking) without all three Kerbals aboard; you can't leave a moon's orbit and have the Kerbal in a lander rendezvous with you later, for example. Unmanned ScanSat probes may be piloted remotely, provided they are launched either from your ship or from a refueling vessel; basically, you can control an unmanned ship as long as it's within the same planetary system as your Kerbals. Glad to know you like the challenge! If you decide to start one, make sure to tell me! Note from the future: This rule has since been changed.

The Grand Tour has long been something of a coming-of-age ritual for KSP players. It's the ultimate thrill: traveling throughout the Kerbol System, getting as much science as you can, never stopping or returning home to Kerbin until the conclusion of your journey. Once you prove you can land on every planet and moon of the Kerbol System without having to return home, you have demonstrated that you can handle any challenge that comes your way. Or can you? I hereby propose a new challenge, the Ultimate Grand Tour. Now, you might wonder how it's possible to up the stakes of a challenge that goes everywhere. Now, I'm sure that someone else more intimately familiar with the game might propose rules such as "use only a certain number of parts" or "complete the challenge in so-and-so amount of time" or "carry whatever number of Kerbals with you". I, however, have a simple solution: more planets. Using mods such as Krag's Planet Factory or the recently released Outer Planets Mod, you must set out on a new kind of grand tour, one with unfamiliar and unexplored horizons. Will you guide kerbality to new and even greater heights? Or will the once-great masters fall before this new frontier? Rules: 1) No cheating, or I will be very sad. 2) Your mission must include a minimum of three Kerbals. You may split them up however you want (i.e. sending one guy to a different planet or moon), but all three must begin the mission together. 3) At least one of these Kerbals must land on each planet and moon in the modded Kerbol System and retrieve at many unique science reports as possible. (Gas giants need not be landed on, but getting science from within the atmosphere will earn you a gold star in my book.) After landing on all bodies in the system, you must return home to Kerbin and land all surviving Kerbals safely. (Note: the same Kerbal does not have to land each time.) 4) Whether or not to use mods is more or less up to your best discretion. MechJeb is okay, as are mods that add new kinds of experiments. Infinite fuel mods are a big no-no. I want to say mods like Karbonite that let you mine resources for fuel are borderline cheating since you should have to pack what you need, but I also think those mods are incredibly cool, so I'll leave it up to you guys to decide whether you want to use it. Basically, if it feels like cheating, it probably is. Any purely aesthetic mods should be okay. [Edit: I thought about it again and Karbonite is okay.] 5) Post a comment with your plans before beginning your mission so I can make sure it qualifies for the challenge. 6) At least five new bodies must be added in your modded system, at least one of which must not orbit any existing planets. 7) Reloading of saves is not only allowed, but encouraged. As a KSP player, I know the propensity of things to FUBAR millions of kilometers from home. Fixing a design flaw and replacing the ship mid-mission is frowned upon, but is permitted in the case of a mission-breaking ship glitch, provided the ship is restored to the exact same position with the exact same fuel levels, with as little alteration as possible. 8) You are permitted to use as many refueling missions as you want. I'm not a horrible person; I'll let you have this. 9) Remember: document everything. Rule #1 of the internet: Pics or it didn't happen. 10) In regards to "getting out and pushing", i.e. providing an out-of-fuel ship with additional maneuvering power using a Kerbal on EVA, this is permitted if the ship is completely out of fuel and within Kerbin's SOI; however, you may only perform this once for every Kerbal on the mission. 11) This is intended to be a fun challenge. If you feel that any of these rules will ruin the fun for you, then don't follow them. Just know that breaking them will disqualify you from getting on the leaderboard. Suggested challenges: 1) The Sentar Challenge: This challenge focuses on the stock planets of the PlanetFactoryCE mod: Ablate, Ascension, Inaccessible, and Sentar. Sentar, a ringed gas giant, also has four moons: Skelton, Erin (with its own mini-moon, Pock), Ringle, and Thud. This challenge will be more of an endurance test, since it requires a lot of flying around between different parts of the Kerbol System. Points of danger: Ascension has an extremely elliptical orbit, taking it from within the orbit of Moho to beyond Eeloo; that means you'll have to target it at the right time, before it leaves the system for who knows how long. The three smaller planets- Ascension, Inaccessible, and Ablate- are small and hard to get an encounter with, and Inaccessible rotates so fast that you can only land on the polar areas. As for Thud and it's 3x Kerbin gravity...yeah, good luck. Other notes: I believe the pack also includes a second star system by default: the Serious system, which has only one planet, Joker. Feel free to go there if you want to be an overachiever, but it's not required to complete the challenge, since the Grand Tour technically only involves the Kerbol System. 2) The Outer Planets Challenge: This challenge utilizes the extremely well-designed Outer Planets mod, which adds three new gas giants with their own moons to the system, as well as a new dwarf planet, and also implements Squad's original idea of moving Eeloo into orbit of the second gas giant. If you don't feel like bothering with the inner solar system longer than you have to and want to explore the edges of the system, that's just fine by me. Points of danger: I haven't actually played with this mod before, so I don't know much about it. I've heard Hale can be a pain in the boosters to land on, since it's a tiny SOI inside the much bigger SOI of Sarnus. Bonus: For extra credit points, install the two expansions to OPM, "Outer Planets Plus" and "Plock Plus". They should add some great challenge! 3) The Kraken-Jeb Challenge: This is the ultimate challenge. For those of you who are so bored with normal KSP that you want to start doing the impossible, this is the challenge for you. The Kraken-Jeb Challenge features eight Kopernicus packs: JoolPlus, the Minor Bodies Pack, the stock PFCE planets in Kopernicus, Odysseus System, Terrestrial Planet Pack, Trans-Keptunian Pack, Kerbol Planet Pack, and the Porp System. This is the ultimate challenge, and I seriously doubt anyone will ever complete it, even with the refueling missions this will allow. But then, I've been surprised before... Points of danger: All the bad PFCE places are still bad. Other than that, your big obstacle is the lag. Yeah, you're gonna need a supercomputer to run this on top of everything else. [Also, look around carefully; there may now be some moons around existing planets you weren't familiar with.] Other notes: If you beat this challenge, you win KSP. Like, you're the winner. The only winner. Mad props to you, nonexistent future person. Note: These are all only suggestions. If you have another idea for an Ultimate Grand Tour Challenge, go right ahead and use it! (But check with me first to make absolutely sure it's okay) I have been warned PFCE for 0.90 is glitchy and most people are using Kopernicus, so you can use that if you want. Mods PlanetFactoryCE (buggy 0.90 release): http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65401-WIP-0-90-PlanetFactory-CE Outer Planets Mod: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104280-0-90-Outer-Planets-Mod-(1-5)-A-Titan-analog-bug-fixes-and-other-improvements-09-Feb-15 Kopernicus: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88168-Early-development-0-24-Kopernicus-Planetary-System-Modifier PFCE Packs (WARNING: may be broken; use at your own discretion) Kerbolis Pack: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84182-Kerbolis-planet-pack Kerbol's Asteroid Belt (awaiting possible Kopernicus port): http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/70294-Kerbol-s-asteroid-belt-Version-0-2-Released!-Perseus-Fixed! Urania System: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66882-0-23-Sido-s-Urania-System-16-new-planets-and-moon-! Sa-Fire System: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82057-Sa-Fire-Planet-Pack-for-Planet-Factory-CE-v-4 Super Eve: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/69341-0-24-2-32x-Super-Eve-Planet-Pack-0-2 Kopernicus Packs Jool Plus: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82227-JoolPlus-Kopernicus-Edition-ALPHA-RELEASE! Minor Bodies Mod: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/107873-0-90-Kerbol-Minor-Bodies-(1-2) Stock PFCE Planets in Kopernicus: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109358-Planet-Factory-Planets-for-KopernicusTech?p=1710357#post1710357 Odysseus Pack: https://kerbalstuff.com/mod/475/Odysseus%20Planet%20Pack%20for%20Kopernicus Terrestrial Planet Pack (I think it's for Kopernicus): http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110431-Terrestrial-Planet-Pack Trans-Keptunian Pack: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109125 Kerbol Planet Pack (may be outdated): http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/106765-Kerbol-Planet-Pack-for-Kopernicus-Version-1-0-2 Porp System: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110710-WIP-Porp-Gas-Giant-System-0-15 Kaiser 2: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/113945-Kaiser-2-Development-Thread [Coming soon to a star system near you!] Other Packs: Outer Planets Plus a.k.a. Kerlanes: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109592-WIP-OuterPlanetsPlus-v-1-5-8-Many-bugfixes-and-tweaks-Added-easter-eggs-Ocean-planet-incoming%21%21%21 (for those of you who don't think OPM is hard enough or want more to do at Urlum and Neidon) Plock Plus: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/111748-0-90-Plock-Plus-%28Outer-Planets-Mod-Plock-Extension%29-1-0-0 (for people who want an accurate Pluto-equivalent system) Completionists: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) So, that take care of everything? Good! Now get out there and fire those Kerbals at the stars! Make sure to comment if you're starting this challenge! Krakenspeed to you, participants!