krautfed1

Kinda new/lurker here, am I reading the formula correct that more parts boosts the multiplier? Not in the spirit of competition, but what limits someone from just adding a bunch of physicsless parts to boost? My first attempt was ~175,000 pts then I just added just a few meaningless parts and got 230,000 pts on 2nd try. Then I tried to exploit it with parts and 3rd try I got 3,000,000 pts. FWIW, my altitude record of the 3 attempts was 9,776m

@Chequers Upon looking at this, I need to disqualify myself from Onyx Eyes, for now. As you see in my recovered parts list, I used FL-T800 fuel tanks, which I believe fall into same Tier 5 as small nose cone in previous attempt. I just built a Orbit Boot Camp 4.0 replacing the FL-T800's with FL-T400's and with same Delta-V as OBC 3.0 and it comes to cost of 5,110. I then replaced a FL-T400 with reduced fuel with FL-T200 and I'm able to get a little more Delta-V. Doing so, I'm left with 3,323 m/s in VAB vs the 3,525 m/s I had in OBC 3.0. Reducing the fuel (weight) also made TWR go up in VAB from 2.10 to 2.32. So maaaaybe I can still accomplish this feat, but I'll have to try at a later date. For now, I relinquish my 1st Class and Onyx Eyes.

I'm a newbie here, this is my 2nd challenge. I'm terrible at designed stable aircraft so I figured this was a go. Funny thing is I did my first attempt successfully with one of my more stable aircraft, only to realize after I landed, it was a UAV drone with no Kerbal. So I re-did my aircraft dubbing it the Nostril-Damus 1 due to twin front intakes. I setup to launch from the pad using a stand clamp, with launch requiring ramp up of engines to get TWR greater than 1, then action group to unclamp. Worked like a charm. I'm clueless as to the efficiency of engines but in my mind I wanted to fly high altitude to lower air density for heat. I don't know if I did it right, but I got there. Landing was uneventful which is almost never the case for me. 15min 48sec is my time in the Nostril-Damus 1. I had so much fuel left over, I flew back to KSC to test out speeds and altitudes. I think I could improve slightly.

@Chequers Thank you for the welcome. I'm hooked on Challenges now. Bummed I missed the extras, I went back for tweaks and SUCCESS! I ditched asymmetrical but stuck to the design of having modular girders take the landing even at 11 m/s under chute. I love using these girders and I'm very sloppy at landing. I had a dozen attempts at this and finally realized I was trying to do it with Goo Canister and it was just throwing me off on decent. Switched back to thermometer and viola, better re-entry control. So much control that I could fairly easily steer to KSC to fine tune. I landed on the runway and did a crew report for good measure of my landing location. I'm crossing my fingers that I made 1st Class. Also, if I made 1st Class does that make this one of the lowest mission costs in 1st Class? Launch cost: 4,710 Recovered: 3,976 Mission cost: 734 Distance from KSC: Runway baby! Parts: 10 Science: Thermometer

Well crap, I just signed up for this to be my first challenge. In fact, this is my first ever post. I didn't look at other designs here, so sorry if this is copied. It made several attempts and most were stricken with coming in too hot while under parachute. I finally decided to try to have an asymmetrical design with parachutes on one side and modular girder segment on other to take the landing (allows 80m/s!). In previous attempts, I added a drogue chute to stabilize decent under parachute. In my successful attempt, I tried without drogue to get launch under 5,000. It was very perilous without because it teetered violently under main chute. I had also lost all electric charge so maybe it would have been easier had I saved some juice for SAS right at touchdown. I think I either just made 1st class, or slightly missed it with KSC biome, which I guess I could reattempt. Launch cost: 4,918 Recovered: 4,096 Mission cost: 822 Distance from KSC: 1.8km (97.9%) - Does this count as KSC biome? Parts: 9 Science: Thermometer Highest tech: I don't know how to tell this, but I think highest tech part is small nose cone and FL-T800?