purpleivan

Ok... back on track now, after a little detour to Duna and Ike. Funds have been replenished sufficiently to pay for the trip to Tylo.

In a similar(ish) vein.

Detour Are you sitting comfortably, well let me tell you a story. It's a story of a whizzy spaceplane bound for Laythe. and of a massive reusable launcher putting a lander for Tylo in orbit. splashing down safely in the sea. But it's also a tale of a certain person (that would be yours truely) splashing his cash around like there's no tomorrow and upgrading facilities (the Admin Building) that he's not even using. Which gives this tale a shocking twist... this space program of mine is almost broke. Well... down to 145,463 funds which was short of what was needed. After putting the Tylo lander in orbit empty of fuel (so I didn't need a bigger launcher) the screen on the hole in the wall at the KSC, was flashing "insufficient funds" to launch the fuel vehicle, or the one to bring Jeb back from Tylo. The reason for a separate vehicle for the return was to pick up the rendezvous, docking and "space station" milestones. So, I was stuck. Then it occured to me that although Duna and Ike had been visited, no docking had taken place at Duna and not even a rendezvous at Ike. So tragedy turned to hope. Hope in the form of a couple of little payloads like this. One had to be automated so it could be flown remotely to recover Jeb, who was standed in the Tylo lander. Then for both Jeb and Val it was a case of goodbye Kerbin... ... and hello Duna. Both got a nice view of Duna while waiting for that first kerching. I can he that bell ringing already. and there it is. With the pair of ships docked it was time to head for Ike for a repeat performance. Ike was in the middle of an eclipse when the pair arrived... they're pretty brutal in these part. Once there was some light on the surface Val detached her vehicle and headed for the surface. Even though the little grey spud had been visited before, Val couldn't resist taking a quick excursion on the surface. Shortly after she made picked up the rendezvous, docking and a space station milestones when meeting up with Jeb. After winding the clock forward to the transfer window it was time to head for home, again with the two vehicles flying as one. On approach to Kerbin (about 400km out) Val realised that the solar panels had been blocked for some time, so she and Jeb were out of juice for re-entry. But a quick trip outside to nudge the vehicle into a slow spin fixed that. Yep... fixed, and not much time to spare. Once the craft was plunging though the atmosphere it was realised that by pure luck, it was due to land nice and close to the KSC, so the recovery percentage should be pretty high. Jeb shouted over the comms that he could see the mountains to the West of the launch site. "You sure Jeb, I don't see a thing". The pair had a good view of their home on the way towards the ground. Before finally touching down in the foothills of the mountains. Unfortunately I'd never planned for the two vehicles to land while docked together, so as they teetered around on the chutes before hitting the ground, there was no opportunity to give a touchdown blast on a Terrier to soften the blow. So scrub two tanks. But joy of joys... this tale has a happy ending, in the form of 393k funds in the bank. Enough to complete the launches needed for that trip to Tylo.

Weeeeeeell... that's what Kerbin was based on, rather than what Kerbin is and as you said, other features of the landmass has changed (the big crater), so why not the land under the ice (which was added). Plus if I'm being really pedantic, it's impossible to represent floating ice using the rendering/data method chosen for the planet surface, without added continent spanning objects, so in the "reality" of Kerbin, it would have to be solid ground. Finally and most importantly, if I than darned icewall could have been sailed under my "circumnavigation" could have been done in a couple weeks instead of 3 months... that's gotta be worth something. Ok, pedentry over... I'm gonna shut up now, I've got a No Contracts career game to salvage

But they could be ice covered land masses, like Antarctica, even if there was an ice shelf at their edge. The gives that impression, with the white ice on top of dark grey mass underneath. As for Unity being to blame blame for there not being open water under the ice, it's just not really Unity's fault, it's just the nature of using heightmaps to generate terrain from. That method doesn't allow for concave, or overlapping features.

Strictly speaking all of the oceans on Kerbin are one big lake, as it's not possible to circumnavigate the globe by water in any direction. That's how my "sorta-circumnavigation" got it's name. Admittedly it is a very big lake.

Since the previous post I ticked Eeloo of the list. But now arrrrgh... I was about to launch the 2nd of my three vehicles that are part of my Tylo landing mission (the lander, then a fuel vehicle to fill it in orbit, and finally a return vehicle) to pick up the goodies for that not so little grey rock, when I was told I didn't have enough funds. Sure enough, my Tylo mission was going nowhere without an injection of cash after I pointlessly upgraded the Admin building. Now I've had to put together a cheap (fully reusable) mission to Duna, to pick up the "started first space station" milestone. After that it's rinse and repeat time with the same trip to Minmus. I've even had to rendezvous the first of the Duna bound ships with the empty of fuel, Tylo lander to pick up Jeb to pilot it, as I'm doing everything outside Kerbin SOI manned. Val will be in the return vehicle, so I can get the "space station" milestone for Tylo. I'm not making things easy for myself

No definitely not done that, no docking done on the surface. The only places that I've deliberately tried to get the station milestone were Kerbin and Mun orbit and in both cases I probably made a docking before my attempt to put together a station. My confusion came out of thinking that the "station" milestone had more requirements (simlar to those for a contract station) than simply docking two ships, so I was picking it up when it wasn't expected and not noticing.

When I went looking for posts about this a few minutes ago, I found an old one (2015) that said just that. Probably I've been picking up these miletones earlier when docking without thinking about picking up the station milestone, but miss the notification for it. Then later I'd dock something else, not get the milestone and think something was wrong.

Thanks for the suggestion @The Aziz but I've now tried changing the naming type of the station to "Station" but the game doesn't recognise it as one in terms of milestones. I think it's just used for identification purposes for the player, rather than gameplay affecting in career. I'm hoping to get to the bottom of this soon, as I'm going to be sending vehicles to Tylo, Laythe and Pol as the next step in my career game and I'd like to pickup the cash for the "start constructing station" milestone for each.

The idea had occured to me and I thought I'd checked that, but I'll take another look. It's be quite annoying if it's that simple

I'm in the later stages of my game for the No Contract Career challenge, which relies on achieving milestones as the only source of income. According to lists that I've seen and a screenshot in the challenge thread there is a milestone for "started construction of the first space station" for each of the bodies (next to bottom on list in image). Early in my game I put together a two part station in Kerbin orbit that I thought had the requisites of a station (an antenna, can generate power, space for 5 kerbals), but I didn't chalk up the milestone. Since then I've just ignored that potential milestone and the cash it would bring. So the question is, what are the requisites for unlocking that milestone?

You could go electric with something like this to cruise around in.

Argh, I was convinced this was the place, although looking at the original pictures again, it's very clear that it's not. I think I was a little too caught up in doing the build, what with Val tugging on my arm, saying "hurry up airdrop me already", that I overlooked the obvious difference in size.

Well thrill seeking rocket riders need some thrill seeking snacks.

Got to be some kind of ultimate combo, like a chilli dog, wrapped in cheese, deep fried and then coated in chocolate. Probably topped with sprinkles.

Actually I had the same kind of thought and tried to think of a funny alternative to the X-plane names to call it, but came up empty.

Val's been playing with boats again, to go exploring in the Kayak Club. Boats like this. That turned into planes. Then boats with wheels... that also turned into planes. Finally, settling on a simple jetski/torpedo like design, she and her ride were loaded up under the belly of the carrier aircraft. Then she was dropped over a tiny lake... several times. That huge helmet kept smashing into the support pylon, separating her from her new toy. Finally, sans headgear, Val was headed lakeward on the end of a deployed parachute. The carrier pilot took a pass over the lake to confirm her chute had opened. Down on the water Val spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon speeding around this little crater lake.

OK, enough of the judgerifying... time to crack on with some exploring. Lac Eve Val had a dream... a dream of screeching around in a boat on Lac Gilly, just around the corner from @Pds314's Lac Eve. But what manner of boat should it be? An early choice was for a simple jet powered torpedo like craft. Unfortunately Val tried it at full throttle, which turned it into a jet powered missile resulting in the usual carnage. She added some wings for stability... ... but that just turned into an even more capable aircraft, so maybe the wrong direction to take. A fine little aicraft it was, but this is supposed to be a boat. Well... at least it's closer to the water now. Val decided that adding wheels would make it easier to get a boat into the lake. But this also behaved far too much like a plane. Ok... back to square one then, just remember to keep the speed down Val. Now, how to get out little jet ski out to Lac Gilly. Here's how. Good to see that Val has her helmet on as she waits for takeoff. Remember, safety first kids. After flying... in a direction... Lac Eve came into sight. Our pilot for the day, Stables Kerman took a pass over the Lake, as this would be the back up if Lac Gilly turned out to be a poor place for a boat. Given what's coming up, this place does look appropeiately like a bombing range. Bombs awaaaay!... I mean Vals awaaaay!. Ouch! Ouch again. Good thing she's wearing a helmet. But maybe that helmet's getting in the way of deployment. Val tells Stables to make another pass over the lake, this time a little slower and lower, and she loses the headgear. This time Val cleared the support pylon and she (and her ride) is safely on the end of a deployed parachute. Stables throttles up to avoid speading the carrier craft over the landscape like butter on hot toast. Val's still descending safely (she's the little dot just below the plane's trail. Stables takes a low(ish) pass over Lac Gilly and is happt to confirm that Val's chute has fully opened. Now to find a landing spot. Meanwhile, on Lac Gilly strange things are afoot. Val seems to be unconscious and she has two mystery passengers in her one seat vehicle. A quick F5/F9 scene reload fixes the issues and Val wastes not time throttling up her jet ski. After some fun buzzing around the lake, it's time to go see Stables in her ride home. Stables stared out of the cockpit windows wondering if Val will hand him the keys to her new toy. Not a chance. Yep... unless Kerbin has a 3rd polar cap I'm unaware of, I've boated past it

Here is this judge's... er... judgement. In the case of Koolkei's river, the feature is of too large a scale to be considered a specific location. If the image had been closer to the river, focusing on a specific feature of it, then it would be most suitable. For example this is approximately the same as as Koolkei's view of the bendy river, ignoring the cloud of course. An issue with allowing very large area features to stand would be that they would encompass otherwise valid locations for Kayak Club. For example if we fly closer to the Southern part of the bend in @Koolkei's image, then we can see this neat tributary to the main river, a scale of feature more suited as a Kayak Club location. Koolhai's 2nd location "the iceridge" may well stand as a suitable location for the purposes of Kayak Club, in that it has a significant feature in the deep iceridge. However this judge has insufficient information regarding the uniqueness of this feature to provide a judgement. Above water the location is anonymous and featureless, similar to much of the length of both polar cap coasts. During the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation I boated the entire length of them, however the view below the surface was obscurred by Scatterer's water shading, making assessment of the depth of the iceridge beyond a few tens of meters impossible. Judge Purpleivan's exhibit A. For this reason I have to reserve judgement until Judge @Castille7 opines on this matter, or a survey mission to the region is undertaken, to determine the scale and/or commonality of the deep iceridge.

Here ya go. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pniu14rChEo68jJdMzvHItaFBfb79eTG The folder contains the configs for Flight, EVA, plus some additional ones for flight with various DoF settings.

A Kerbling is a young Kerbal... everyone knows that

Val headed for Ike, to grab its fat stacks of funds, in a contract free career game challenge entry. The Reuso 2 launcher (not used that for a while) dropped back down at the edge of the KSC property. Once Val arrived at Ike she proceded to stamp her bootprint of authority on the place. Little known fact, Val secretly had the words "Property of Valentina Kerman" etched into the sole of here left boot, as an "if all else fails" retirement plan. This was followed by a trip to Eeloo by Jeb, Bob and Val, courtesy of the new Reuso 4, heavy launcher. This put it's 51 ton payload into an 80km orbit, with only the fuel and 3% taken off the parts recovery price, as the cost. On Eeloo mighty rocks were conquered. Then run away from. Before finally returning home.

The cooler side of town The list of planets to visit and drain their cash filled rewards is definitely getting smaller (ok... that was true from the start), so things are getting tougher for in this career game. Next target... Eeloo. The means of travel would be The Big Chill, the launch vehicle, the new Reuso 4. This reusable launcher is capable for putting something like The Big Chill (weighing in at a not so svelt 51 tons) into an 80km orbit, then returning to do the whole thing again should the need arise. Yep things get pretty hot on the way to orbit. But all is well above the atmosphere. With circularisation done, The Big Chill is detached. Reuso 4 made the return trip to the surface for the pretty much standard 97% return value, after plopping down just a few km behind the KSC. Back in orbit, it was time to get out of orbit and on towards Eeloo, thanks to Mr Wolfhound. On arrival in Eeloo space, it was time yet again for the EVA, Crew Report and science data grab. Don't take too long Jeb, that planet is getting closer rapidly. The Wolfhound done, it was time to hit the nuke. With orbit established Jeb hopped out of the pod, to allow Bob to reset the Mystery Goo machine, ready for its use on the surface. Fat with fuel it took longer than anticipate slowing this thing down to a non flamey wreckage speed, prior to landing. it was travelling almost horizontally a couple of km up, at about 150m/s, when this was taken. But have no fear, the landing is here, with a nice smooth touchdown (ok... an F9 rescue was required after I fluffed the landing the first time taking this shot). Once the usual data was grabbed it was time for Jeb head outside. Bob and Val were sleepy after the long trip and couldn't be bothered to go with him. Leaving Jeb all along to go exploring. Ooo... shiny (kind of). Jeb made a beeline for this little lump of colourful rock, that was a short rocket jump from the landing site. "I claim this rock in the name of the Kerbin Guild of Pilots" (local 42). Having stack his claim to the little rock, Jeb's attention turned to something bigger. Yes... bigger. Much bigger. Wth his bootprints carved in the crusty outer layer of the large rock, it was time head back to the ship. Jeb decided that this rocket jumping thing was so easy he could do it backwards. With the inevitable consesquences. At least he's still smiling. Before departing the surface, don't forget to raise the flag Jeb. Don't that coming back for that one milestone is going to be cost effective. Up, up and away from yet another planetary body. After watching the calendar wind down to the time of the transfer window, it was time to light that nuclear blowtorch and head for Kerbin. Bob had a nice view of the home planet coming in, but Val, as much as she tried just couldn't swivel around enough to see it. The effort pincjed a nerve in her neck, resulting in her being stuck in this pose of manic laughter until the medics could deal with it, after landing. Using the remaining fuel, Jeb brought the re-entry speed down to something like a Mun return. Still... don't think those solar arrays are going to make it to the ground. The nuke engine did make to the homeworld, but only for an instant, as there was only 0.3 units of fuel remaining to arrest the 13m/s descent speed on the chutes. So it, like the solar arrays, went poof! But the rewards of the trip are plain to see. About 800,000 funds and 2600 science, not bad from the little ball of ice. Time to spend my science winnings. To unlock the remaining parts of the tree will only require another 2058 points. With a respectable amount of funds in the bank, it was time to upgrade something. What to pick, what to pick... ahah... VAB I choose you. Now this only leaves the Space Plane Hanger and the Admin Building for this challenge entry to reach its conclusion. At a cost of about 1.4m funds for the last two upgrades, a trip to the remaining Jool system bodies (Laythe, Tylo and Bop) might just pay the bill.

Val's Ike trip can be read about here. The current status of the game is... Buildings remaining to upgrade to the top level are the VAB, Spaceplane hanger and Admin Building. Total cost for that will be 2,253,000. Planets (and moons) left to vist are Moho, Eeloo, Eve (for a kerballed landing anyway) Laythe, Tylo and Bop. Just realised when I popped out on the runway to check on something for Kayak Club, that the runway is still at Level 1. Therefore additional cash will be required to fix that up to Level 3 standard, so an extra 360,000 funds of thereabouts to find.