JAFO

I'm not sure it will. After all, no rule change was needed when dV info was suddenly built into stock. Basically, the rules have always been, "you may use any tools supplied by stock." Or are you suggesting that after 1.12, we ban the use of external transfer planners? Not that we've seen yet. But I suspect it may require one of the "old hands" to explore the possibilities. Newcomers to the challenge tend to have their hands full just getting to grips with the challenge itself, without getting fancy.

Congratulations, @WarSprite! Not only have you completed the challenge at Topaz level, and qualified for an Order of the Trilobite award, you've also pushed the knowledge boundaries of what Cavemen can achieve, by proving that even on Hard setting, it's possible to complete the challenge without any KSC science, without any Kerbin biome science, and without taking any contracts! Several of us, myself included, didn't think it could be done, and you've proven us wrong in spectacular fashion. It is now my great honour to present you with the Topaz Badge for completing the challenge on Hard difficulty setting, and with the Order of the Trilobite for reaching Duna! Your name has been carved on the cave wall and added to the List of Trilobite Awardees, and your badges will be in your inbox shortly. Ooga-booga!

Confirmed. Edit: The rules in the OP have been updated to reflect this.

Things are going well! Just so you know, you can set tank-use priorities in the VAB (right-click on the tanks) so that they are drained in the desired order, that way, often there's no need to turn off fuel feeds. (There are times it's still a useful thing to do, though.)

Should you happen to have your heart set on a crewed landing, don't forget that a Mk-1 Lander Can is also lighter than the command pod. That's why I use it on my Caveman Minmus Landers.

This is one of the reasons I prefer my own technique for encountering Minmus.. I always arrive at Minmus just as it's crossing Kerbin's orbital plane, and therefore there are no corrections to be made at all. Might not save a lot of dV, but every little bit helps! Ummm.. why go to the expense of circularising? So long as your Pe drops below 30km to get your "low space" science, you're good to go. Dropping your Ap down below 30km as well, is just an unnecessary waste of fuel.* There's nothing magical about a circular orbit, other than the visceral satisfaction it provides. Elliptical orbits are often just as good, and can, in fact, be more useful. * Though with an elliptical orbit, you should try to make your escape burn at close to Pe, so as to maximise the benefit you get from the Oberth Effect.

Impressive work so far.. carry on! Don't forget that if a jet-rover isn't in the science budget, there's always the good 'ol Caveman Science Roller to fall back on. You should already have all the parts you need for that. A bit more painful to get around, for sure.. but it gets the job done!

A most creative approach.. don't think I've seen anyone lob up 4 Science Jr's at a time before, not at this stage of a run, anyway. I probably spoke a little too soon. The real wall will be once you've harvested all the high/low Mun science. At that point, all the easy "low hanging fruit" is gone, and I suspect you'll find it hard getting enough science to unlock items essential to progress further. But.. best wishes. I'd love for you to prove me wrong.

Hmm.. good thing they're "flexible" goals.. because I suspect that, especially since you're making an attempt at Topaz, that you're gonna run smack into a science wall before too long. And rubber walls hurt less than solid ones. Aaannnnddd..... There's the first of those walls I was talking about! Good luck, but I think you're about to learn just how flexible you'll need to be...

G'day, @WarSprite! Welcome to KSP, to the forums, and to the Caveman Challenge! We look forward to seeing how you go..

I use my account on KerbalX to do something similar. In addition to thus making them available to everyone, by using the KerbalX mod in-game, I can directly import craft from previous attempts into my new Caveman games, without having to build them again from scratch. Comes in very handy.

Yes, that would be fine.. but be aware you've maxed out your badges for this particular run. The most I could do would be to update your entry on the List of Legendary Cavemen & Cavewomen to include the additional achievement. Have you considered doing it on a difficulty level that you haven't tried yet? Speaking of which, I somehow thought your old 1.45 award was also Apatite, but I see it was actually Topaz. I'll make up a combo Topaz/Apatite badge for you.

Not on Eve itself. Cavemen have landed on Gilly, but that's all. A successful return from the surface of Eve would be VERY difficult to accomplish. Congratulations, @Sirad! I'm pretty sure you are the very first Normal difficulty level Caveman to even attempt an interplanetary mission, let alone land a Kerbal on and return from Duna. The fact that you succeeded certainly qualifies you for an Order of the Trilobite award. So it is my very great pleasure to confirm your (second) Apatite Badge, and also induct you into the Order of the Trilobite. Your badges will be in your inbox shortly, and your name is being carved into the cave wall. Again, well done! A very impressive mission.

Excellent job, @Sirad! And quite well documented, too. Speaking personally, I'd love to have seen a few shots of your various craft in the VAB (I'm always interested in construction details), but the lack of them does not affect things, from a qualification perspective. (Out of curiosity, if I'm understanding the fuel levels correctly, it seems you had to do a revert at one point, when leaving the surface of Duna? What went wrong? Again, no problem.. reverting is permitted for Normal difficulty attempts.) And before I forget, again just curiosity, did you max out the tech-tree before the Duna mission, or were there a few things you had to unlock after getting home from Duna? Well done! I'll see you over on the main Caveman Challenge thread.

Umm.. I think you're looking at a different "proof of concept" thread that was posted about a week ago. This is the Caveman Challenge attempt thread: No sign of MJ in this one!

That's great news! I really hate having to disqualify an attempt. Looking forward to seeing your entry.

EDIT: @SiradI see from the thread you created on your "Planning for Caveman Duna trip", that you apparently used MechJeb in your attempt. I'm very sorry to inform you that MJ and/or KER, or any other mods that can provide extra information, or alter gameplay in any way, are NOT permitted (see the OP). So unfortunately, your entry would be disqualified, and no badge(s) can be awarded. Please do feel free to re-attempt the challenge with all rule requirements met. See the OP for all rules and other requirements. Yes. That would earn you an Order of the Trilobite badge (in addition to whichever badge applies to the difficulty level you used), and get your name added to the List of Legendary Cavemen & Cavewomen. Yes, that's permitted. After all, it's what @paul_c used to calculate the transfer window for his successful Nano-diamond attempt. I would recommend you create an album on imgur.com to host them, and post the link to it here. Imgur lets you add a caption for each image, and I highly recommend you make use of it to discuss what's going on in each shot. See some of the other Imgur albums of challenge attempts for examples. Also, be sure your images include the additional screenshots detailed in the OP under the heading "The minimum amount of proof needed for a challenge entry."

Hmm.. I'm not surprised, but nice to have my suspicions confirmed. Very cool tool!

Congratulations, @paul_c! A magnificent effort indeed! My apologies for the long delay in responding. Exams and starting a new job this past week have eaten into my online time more than I'd like. However... It is my great pleasure and honour to bestow upon you not only the Nano-Crystalline Diamond Badge, but also declare you as a new inductee into the Order of the Trilobite, reserved for the truly legendary Cavemen who succeed in pushing the limits of Caveman tech to the extreme! Your badges will be in your inbox shortly, and your name is being carved in new entries on the cave wall. Look at that Caveman go!

Fair point..

That's a lot of work for just 17.3 science points.

Given that both pilots are at Duna, it would have to be a drone craft. And given that the best antenna tech available to cavemen is the HG-5, mid-course corrections are, for all intents and purposes, impossible. Bravo! Go for it! You're looking good from where we stand...

I suspect the worst that might happen would be some docking ports that get themselves confused and end up locked in the wrong state. Fortunately, that's not hard to fix, thanks to the KML - Persistence file editor.

Ok! excrement just got serious... awesome! Fantastic work on your ship so far. Well done! Not having done it myself, there's a lot here I can't comment on, but I can make one suggestion. When getting out of Kerbin SOI, don't go for a single long burn.. make use of the Oberth Effect and put in a few periapsis kicks to get there. You'll need to be a little careful of the Mun's location of course, but it will save you some fuel.

For a Caveman, putting together enough antennae to reach Duna or Eve just isn't really feasible. The only relay antenna available to Cavemen is the HG-5. In testing, I found that with L3 tracking stations, a cluster of 88 HG-5s orbiting Eve gave an 11% signal at Eve, when Eve was at closest approach to Kerbin (so for 90% of its orbit, Eve was still out of range, and Duna was just never gonna happen). I estimate that to do the same thing with L1 tracking would need something on the order of 500-1000 HG-5s, so unless someone comes along who has a serious masochistic streak, I don't expect to ever see it happen in a Caveman run. (But I'd love to be proven wrong!)