xendelaar

that's what i did too! i stranded jeb and it took me almost two months (real life time) to get him back. goodluck with your mission good sir! i hope you get vall back sooner than i manged to get jeb though

congratulations on your first victory. must have been fulfilling! i do would like to advice you to do a mun visit without cheats. it's even more fulfilling when you're performing one without cheating. (sorry for being that guy).

@MutatedPixel and use 3 to 4 heat shields in the back to keep your ship in a prograde angle. they work as heat resistant winglets.

the things you build never cease to amaze me. absolutely stunning. you must have a lot of patience flying these behemoths.

yes i did. laythe is a bit forgiving for seaplanes than kerbin. it took me still quite some time to get a proper plane designed though. thanks for the comment. I'm still hoping i can finish my challenge

I'm still working on my "all reward sliders at 10%" career run where I trie to unlock the complete tech tree at 10 percent returns of all science, funds and reputation points. I'm already in the later stages of my career and I just visited Laythe to retrieve all its juicy science points.This career has been a real challenge and but it's very fun nonetheless! here's a small Gif of the laythe mission. for a full report check my mission report I've never played this mo before but it sure does look like fun!

Plundering Laythe I finally conquered Laythe! It took me quite some time to get there, but I did it. Here's a small mission update. Goal My goal isto retrieve all science from Laythe and bring it back to Kerbin. According to some rough calculations I want to gain at least 2150* 1.30(from leadership strategy) = 2800 science points Approach Build a Laythe worthy spaceplane (shown picture below) Build a small data courier probe that will be able to send all Laythe's science back to kerbin (shown picture below) Reposition the Space lab from Vall to Laythe and perform a surface scan so we know where all the biomes are at (shown picture below) Visit Laythe with the awesome spacesplane... do science... and get back into orbit Transfer science data to courier and send the courier probe to Kerbin SpacePlane to Space lab In the next GIF you'll see the first fase of the mission: getting the spaceplane near the space lab orbiting Laythe. It's just the empty spaceplane that's being hauled to the space lab around Laythe. The space lab contains a scientist that we need for this mission. This part was pretty straightforward, although I had some difficulties getting aligned properly with the space lab that was in an awkward polar orbit. Scienceing the faecal matter out of Laythe After the scientist was on board the plane, we descended towards the surface of Laythe. Here's a GIF of this part of the mission. The spaceplane flew great! Thanks @bewing for giving me several design tips and ideas! I used the Waypoint manager mod to pinpoint all biomes. The ship had a delta v budget of 25 km/s and I only used 10 km/s to cover all biomes. Ascending from water or land was no biggy. After visiting all biomes I took off again and flew above the atmosphere using the jet engine. After that I decoupled the plane part and activated the last stage which contained a spark engine to get into a stable orbit Getting the science back home The next step was to get the data to the courier probe. So I rendezvoused with the probe and transferred all the date to the courier. With all data secured, the courier headed back to Kerbin where the science points were retrieved. Because of the Leadership strategy, I gained another 30% science bonus! YAY! I gained more than 3200 science points from this mission! I'm really happy!! (The data collector also had many copies stored from other visits, so not all science points are from Laythe.)

these are incredible! great job good man!

this looks interesting. i will take a look when i get home

my first design was way different( and much cooler/ exotic) than the one I've posted for this challenge. i called it Shai Hulud ( named after the sand worms of Dune*), but that thing was very crash happy: i finally got frustrated and made the uninspiring thing i posted earlier... which was actually very robust! with it, i didn't even crash a single time! i believe that the large landing gears have a realy high stress tolerance! i wasn't aware of that until now. some control surfaces would have been a nice addition for the craft indeed. i really enjoyed this challenge. was the idea born from your current speed run *

Here's my entry: I didn't give the craft a name, but I would call it the Slug, I guess. Top speed: 139 m/ s Distance travelled: 61,228 m RAM: 16 Gb It was a great challenge. The fact that the clock was ticking made everything so much more exciting. Here's my video. I didn't edit it, so sorry for the long post. Some remarks on the video: I don't know why the rover hopped on the landing strip. It just happened With a TWR > 1, the rover wanted to get airborne after every jump, I tried to land as fast as possible. No kerbals were harmed during the making of this video

maybe this is something for ksp 2 but i would like to see stuff like sandlike surfaces that have the properties of lose dirt . gliding over the surface of the mun with tiny rollerblade wheels at 50 m/s just doesn't feel right to me. (i know it's just a game) maybe a campaign mode with some ai competition would also be nice.

very interesting challenge. Sign me up. ill start working on it later this week.

very interesting reports. i enjoyed reading them. i like the way you upgrade the rover after every crash. i wonder what you end up with in the end. btw. is that much monoprop really necessary to keep things going? i never use that stuff to begin with but i must admit i hardly ever use rovers so I'm quite the n00b when it comes to this.

you're absolutely right about unlocking the tech tree. there is no need for it at all! many high tier tech nodes are pretty much useless. but some high thrust engines could help making faster designs.. i think. also. your goal is to plant a flag on every body.. right? do you need to bring the kerbals back? else you could just hire several kerbals and give them a one way ticket to every celestial body. that would speed up the process right? i did the caveman challenge with version 1.0.5 and it was great. the game is completely playable without mods. you've convinced me to do my next career also completely stock.. perhaps a speed run. but ill have to do some trail runs to check if I'm suited for the job! i don't think there is an action group that would reset resetable experiments. so you would need to place the material bay and goo nearby the capsule. i can imagine that this could be time consuming...

do i understand correctly that you're going to unlock the tech tree without accepting contracts besides the scripted ones. are you allowed to use strategies? sounds interesting! good luck:)

Very entertaining video! I especially enjoyed the commentary! With this playstyle, some kind of explanation is vital in order for me to understand why the heck you’re doing stuff in such.. uhm… “ unconventional ” ways hehe. If this is an easy way of making a video, stick to it! It’s awesome! It’s cool to see what kind of designs and tactics you’re using to finish as fast as possible. Initially I thought the construction wasn’t part of the challenge, but including that brings a whole other dimension into play! You’re trajectories are awfully inefficient (delta v wise), yet super fast…and that is off course the main objective. When you wrote you were hoping to complete the challenge within 6 hours I thought it would be doable, even for me. But after watching this video and your previous one, I’m sure I can’t even compete a little bit with you. You’ve got these things figured out in so much detail, that it would be almost impossible to beat. I also like the way you use the glitches to your advantage. It’s really impressive what you are doing! I got one small tip that could help you, but you’ll have to test it for yourself. You could perhaps speed the process up a bit with using a scientist in your ship. If you dedicate an action group for performing all experiments on board, then you could use the data storage thingy to collect all data (with an action group as well) and after that you can reset the two resettable experiments with the scientist. Those experiments have to be within proximity of the lander can off course to make everything time efficient. If you would add an icky processing lab you would be able to reset all experiments with an action group as well, but that the resetting takes a bit more time. It could save you some time… perhaps.. I.. I really don’t know. XD This playstyle is sooo much different of what I’m used to haha. Besides that, you already mentioned this idea in the video. My only addition would be the action groups. Also thanks for the shout out. You made me blush hehe. Btw.. why are you going to do a Jool 5 mission? That doesn’t sound like a fast thing to do at all. If you just go to Pol, Bop and perhaps Ike, I bet you would be able to completely unlock the tech tree with only those biomes. You would have to know where to land off course and you are playing a caveman (stock. vanilla) career, so pinpointing every biome could be difficult. Speaking of which, you’re doing this challenge completely stock? Are you insane haha!? That’s some die hard sh..stuff right there! Why did you chose to do that btw? To make things even more difficult? Or are you a purist? I think I will do a stock game as well in my next career game. It makes everything even more challenging. Anywho, I can’t wait to watch your next update!

@bewing I just took a flight with your SP4 ship and it really flies well! I do have some questions though: I see you use the AV-R8 winglet as a cancard and rudder. Isn't that thing more draggy than the small flaps? You also don't seem to use dedicated flaps for rolling the craft? isn't that necessary to make a "proper" plane (i guess not cause I just made nice trip with it hehe)? Aren't the science parts mounted outside the ship kind of draggy? or isn't that an issue on Laythe? So many questions.. so much to learn In any case, thanks for the help!

interesting launching vehicle! very big and impressive. it looks a bit unaerodynamic though but i guess you need the thrust.

omg i really like the idea of starting a career completely blind! i guess your not using the porkchop plotter and such? I've been flirting with the idea myself of installing the planet pack later on. i will definitely consider copying your idea thanks for the interesting report!I

the thought of getting 500 kerbals to Jool makes my head spin. good luck with your endeavour! i enjoyed reading your progress . so your goal is to inhibit the jool system from a fresh career game? is it mandatory to unlock the entire tech tree first? if i look at your tech tree i think you would almost be able to start designing the "ark for jool". well... you would at least have to unlock the mammoth node off course!

stunning video! i really enjoyed watching it.

@bewing Thanks for the file! I will take a look at it tomorrow. the design looks really cool. Like a racer or something. I will sure check it out. I haven't been thinking of using an SSTO for this mission before... that's a very interesting idea. I've been busy as well! Here's my latest Itteration I increased the delta v budget to 66 km/s and the plane has two detachable wings and fueltanks. It doesn't fly as agile as my previous design but maybe I can tweak it a little. some stats delta v budget: 66km/s (KER readouts in picture are not correct) stall velocity: ~ 50m/s max velocity: ~1300 m/s (still figuring out which ascend profile is best) max altitude during hop on Laythe: ~ 80km 2 detachable wings and fuel tanks wings are tilted 5 degrees for better angle of attack

Visiting Vall Visiting Vall was a blast. I visited every biome and retrieved most of its science (it think). Here's a a small update of the mission. The mission For this mission, I chose to go for a science lander with an ISRU. I didn't want to use a pilot for this mission, so in order to use an octa core, I needed to get a relay up near Jool. Also, I figured I didn't need to send my Scientist back to the KSC because we still need to visit Tylo and Laythe, Moho, Eeloo and Dres. Instead I will send a drone courier back containing all collected science. In the picture below you can see all 4 ships. The mission went pretty smooth and there were no hiccups. The Relay with 4 RA-15 dishes (and the tier 3 communication building) were strong enough to have a link throughout the whole year. On the mining vessel I had enough energy storage and cooling capacity to produce fuel, without the drill overheating or shutting down. The biome hopping took me about 2-3 hours (play time). I also performed 2 observational contracts to make the mission profitable. After that I rendezvoused with the mail-drone , which was orbiting the planet, and transferred the data to the science collector. After that the mail drone flew back to the space station. The Science Lab and Miner vessel are still near Vall. I'm thinking of using the Space Lab for my Laythe mission. And I'm thinking of using the Science-Miner vessel for Eeloo, Moho and Dres in the future. Here's a rough Gif of the entire mission. please let me know if it's too displaying stuff too fast or is too long. I'm still trying to figure out how to GIF properly Results Like I said, was the mission very successful! I collected 2357,4 science points!! According to my calculation, I would be able to retrieve ~1700 science from Vall. With the leadership strategy I got an extra 544 science points (I think). So my calculation wasn't that off after all. I didn't think I got the 60% buff @Cunjo Carl was talking about. Now, what should I do with all these science points hehe. I'm thinking of upgrading some stuff so I can build a jet plane for Laythe.