Death Engineering

Well, I tend to have multiple craft in production simultaneously, often with similar designs. After a launch I find myself going back to 'edit' a craft that is in storage or partially assembled because a design improvement surfaces during the launch or mission execution. In these cases, I 'edit' the craft but don't always remember to 'save' the file before I commit the changes, causing me to have to re-do the modifications on the original source file again if I use the craft for another mission or as the base for a similar mission. So.. for me, I'd like the 'auto save' to be at the 'Build' and 'Save Changes' step.

Thanks again @magico13 for a great set of mods; KCT + SR really add a lot to the game and give KSP some of the missing flavour from my other space-obsession: BARIS. One thing that I do miss though is the 'Auto Saved' craft that stock KSP creates. I'm not really sure where that feature would be best wedged into. Perhaps on the 'Build' button, or 'Launch' button. Maybe nowhere. Have you thought about adding something like this into KCT?

Completing the Mun Landing Program After (barely) making it home on the first Mun landing, a new lander was developed to carry three Kerbals to the Munar surface. The first contract to use the new lander was a Field Research request to take a scientist to the Mun to perform some experiments on the Mun's Midlands. During the simulation, the lander appeared to have enough Δv to make the trip. However, due to a very sloppy launch and Munar orbit insertion, the lander would not be capable of making the return trip! Luckily, there was another lander already being assembled back home. With a few mid-production alterations, the lander would become a rescue mission. After performing the experiments to complete the contract, the crew got out their deck of kards and waited for the rescue mission to come get them. Using the modified lander as a template, two more rockets were queued up for construction to finish up the Mun landing program. After the rescue mission, one more contract was accepted to take a scientist to the Mun. This time, the landing zone was on the Mun's Southwest Crater. As the team approached the LZ, the terrain appeared to be too steep to land. After some careful flying around the target area, a reasonably safe site was selected. The two stage lander successfully completed its mission and returned home. Back in Mission Control, there still weren't any Tourism contracts for the Mun, but there were two Rescue contracts, both in nearly identical low equatorial orbits. Perfect! The last Mun landing mission would be a dual rescue and 'Worlds First' attempt to visit the Neil Armstrong Memorial. Once there, the crew planted a flag on the NAM in memory of their fallen comrade Jebediah Kerman. This landing completes the Mun landing program, as Mission Control now focuses on the minty looking moon at the edge of Kerbin's SOI. At this point, the Research and Development facility still does not support taking surface samples, so there is still plenty of Mun science to be gathered once that upgrade is completed, should some extra science be needed later on in the space program. While the final Mun landing was underway, a contract to deploy a satellite into a Kolniya orbit was completed to earn 176,425 funds. Considering the mission cost was only 27,815 funds the profit made the mission well worth the effort! Using a slightly modified Mun lander, Mission Control queues up two Minmus bound rockets in the VAB. The first rocket will be completed in 8 days. Having learned the value of having a rescue rocket in storage from the Mun landings, Mission control will ensure a backup plan is in place throughout the Minmus landing missions. Using the profits from the Rescue, Field Science and World's First landings, a second strategy was accepted: 'The Duna Program'. The Strategia 'To Boldly Go' strategy was also upgrade to level 2. With the massive advance funds from accepting 'The Duna Program', there was enough kash to afford upgrading the R&D facility - completing the upgrade will take 38 days. During this time, Mission Control will complete the 'Explore Minmus' contract and hopefully pick up some Field Science, Tourism or Rescue contracts around Minmus as well. At this time, however, there are no more Minmus contracts available. More missions around Kerbin and Mun will be completed once the 'TH-NKR Research Lab' is unlocked and the space program starts building the first space stations in preparation for deep space exploration. But, those missions will have to wait until the R&D facility upgrade is completed in 38 days, Moving on to Minmus, contracts currently active are a Minmus flyby tourism contract (which was accepted long before the Mun program was complete), 'Explore Minmus' and Strategia's 'The Duna Program'. But for now, its time to visit the tiny green speck orbiting Kerbin! KCT upgrades so far: VAB Rate 1: 0.9 SPH Rate 1: 0.15 Research: 6 sci/86400 Development: 32 sci/day Active Strategies: 'To Boldly Go II' 'The Duna Program'

Hello @nightingale.. I'm wondering about strategies that say things like "Cannot have more than one crewed or uncrewed mission active at a time" (eg 'The Duna Program'): There can be two active missions; one crewed and one uncrewed? What happens if I launch a second crewed mission (or does Strategia simply prevent it)? Having fun with it so far! Just about ready to write up the next post.. but need to select the second strategy .

That challenge was fun! Big missions, big launches, loooooong travel times. And if I recall correctly, I hit 89g re-entering Kerbin atmosphere. Ah, pre-heating and souposphere...

When I create a challenge, it's one that I want to play myself but also see how others approach the challenge using the same parameters. And, I'm always impressed by the ingenuity I encounter. A challenge I create or participate in needs to be epic; something that's requires multiple launches, planning, complex goals etc. However, there is definitely a sweet spot somewhere. Take for example a challenge I developed around Vall: it had it all, or so I thought.. Background story, diverse goals, clear and easy rules, and took some time to prepare. But, it got very little interest, perhaps because of the rules, maybe the destination wasn't interesting enough, maybe too linear with its goals. Anything Apollo usually gets some interest though.

Thanks for your understanding.

Atmospheric science is acquired using the Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer. The SHUTTLE does not have to stay in position - it only needs to have the ability to land and return to orbit from whatever body (Ike/Duna) you are scoring for. Same SHUTTLE cannot score for both bodies. Your hypothetical Kerbal would earn 7 points in that scenario.

With a suitably efficient launcher and plenty of kerbs, I could see how a mission like you are describing could have a high potential for good scoring success provided that you are able to hit 5 biomes for the surface samples and get the aerodynamic science. You may also want to manufacture your Duna ascent and Kerbin return fuel on Duna or Ike.

One giant leap for Kerbalkind.. But one long walk for a Kerbal After completing six launches for profit: some pure Tourism, some pure rescue and a few that combined both into one launch, there was enough funds to upgrade the Tracking Station and VAB. While waiting for the upgrades to complete, also completed a successful Munar flyby mission with goo and science lab. By the time the upgrade were complete, we were ready for our first Mun landing. However, due to a problem with an attempted crewed Munar flyby before the tracking station was finished, Jebediah Kerman was lost. A miscalculation (okay, it was a guess) with the free-return trajectory pushed Jeb's orbit too far away from Kerbin and he didn't have enough fuel to burn to a Kerbin aerocapture. He ran out of electricity and died. After a re-design of the Mun rocket and the completed Tracking Station upgrade, a second attempt was launched with Valentina at the helm. As she approached the Mun, I could see she was coming in close to the East Crater where a special surprise awaited. Without even entering Munar orbit, burned directly to a landing near the Mun arch. In order to save fuel on the lander, Val had to EVA to the arch in order to get the World's First for finding it. By the time she got to it, she'd burned all her monopropellant and had to walk 7km back to the lander. It was brutally slow. Valentina landed safely, but nearly ran out of supplies on the return leg getting down to less than an hour of supplies left. Another redesign is needed before another landing is attempted.. really don't want to lose another pilot. During the profiteering launches, I found that I was still consistently unlocking new Strategies. While I appreciate having all the new strategies unlocked (in many cases I had unlocked levels I, II and III of a strategy) I'm still not able to take advantage of them with the Level I Administration Building. Perhaps I was gaining rep too quickly with 'Pilot Focus I' and the combined Tourism/Rescue missions to keep the balancing 'fair' or maybe the fact I'm playing with the reduced profits from 'Hard' mode kept me from upgrading the Admin Building but it seemed somehow unbalanced; it felt like I should have already had the Admin Building upgraded. I wound up cancelling a contract to test the LV-909 in flight over Kerbin due to its impractical requirements: 41-44km and no faster than 440m/s. Pretty unlikely to be at that altitude and that speed - will have to pay closer attention to those test contracts requirements. It is now Year 1, Day 316 and after (finally) having the funds to afford it, the Admin Building is now upgrading to Level II and will completed in 28 days. Until then, I've switched the strategy to 'To Boldly Go..' while I complete some more Mun landings. Funds are at 598,144 and 41.3 SCI in the bank with only one more 45 SCI node left to unlock. The available contracts were quite limited and only one involved a Munar mission: a Field Research contract to take a scientist the the Munar surface. This will require a redesign of the Mun lander to support passengers, and hopefully by the time that contract is done some Tourism contracts for Mun landings will pop up. Let the Munar Madness commence! KCT upgrades so far: VAB Rate 1: 0.8 SPH Rate 1: 0.15 Research: 5 sci/86400 Development: 16 sci/day Active Strategies: 'To Boldly Go I'

How I interpret this is like a Formula 1 racing team where one driver is clearly superior over the other. Even though both cars are prepared identically, one driver consistently manages to squeeze more performance out of the machinery than the other driver is able to.

Hey that's awesome. Hope to see another run! Leaderboard updated! Sorry I've been sparse with my replies lately.. ran into a spot of trouble IRL that has kept my online activities somewhat curtailed. How's everyone else doing?

I've set that to 0 for all probabilities and no more asteroids. I'm certain that these were slowing down the game as there were probably 50 asteroids in the tracking station. ps. Setting the tracking station to not show them doesn't make them go away, just stops you from seeing them; KSP still tracks their orbit. I'm using the KSPRC textures along with the SVE clouds/citylights and Scatterer. Works awesome. Just pick out the bits you need from each.

This is awesome! I live 5 mi from where these are built and have seen them flying.

Hehe.. I never use it, and I've 'been-there-done-that' pretty much everything. (See profile 'Mad Scientist') Doing laser-precise interplanetary transfers is one of fave parts of KSP, especially around Jool. Wow, fantastic mission! Thanks for participating and joining the forums just to do so... WELCOME! I hadn't really done the math for such a mission but knew that SSTO/ISRU would produce good results. I'm not going to make a rule-change exactly, but more of a clarification. that once the mission is over, KSC has closed their doors to spaceflight and is now being pressured by politicians to focus their attention on building something more important to the typical kerbal; perhaps cookware. This means that any parts that are recovered but are not used again in a mission will not count in the recovered funds. Since your (albeit beautiful) space plane will not be used again, its initial build costs cannot cancelled out by recovery. The funds were spent to build it and although it was recovered intact, since it won't be used again its funds won't count toward the score. However, your space plane will make fine (radioactive..) landfill. Hope you're not too chuffed about it... OP has been updated to clarify this and since I think I may counted the final launcher's recovered funds in my own score I'll have to account for that. _______________________________________________ I realize that this clarification is going to negatively impact at least one ongoing mission, and for that I apologize. At the risk of ruining at least one mission already rolling (sorry.. ), I've had to make a clarification to the rules in order to keep in spirit with the challenge's design: Important note on Recovery: Only hardware which is reused for another launch or mission can be counted. The funds to build the hardware, once spent, cannot be recovered through some kind of sale or auction. Recovery is intended to offset or reduce the costs of building new hardware. If a stage is recovered and not used again for another mission (a booster stage or space plane), that hardware is chopped up and used as land fill. Who would do such a thing? Only Canadians.. Q: "Why a time limit on launching and recovery?" A: Kerbals have lost interest in the space program by Year 6, Day 1 and have turned the launch pad(s) into a Theme Park, but Mission Control is still running a skeleton crew until Year 8, Day 200. Q: "Why do Kerbals who are not in a Kerbin return trajectory by Year 8, Day 200 count as 'lost'?" A: Kerbals need the "geniuses" at KSC to get back home. When Mission Control is closed down on Year 8, Day 200, they conveniently forget about helping to get their kerbal brethren back and wander over to the Theme Park. Q: "Why can't I count recovered hardware that doesn't get reused?" A: If the recovered hardware isn't going to be launched or reused, due to pressure from the new Konservative government, the hardware is unceremoniously chopped into little bits and used as landfill for the Theme Park. (see Avro Arrow "Black Friday")

So, there would not be a message on screen with the ISP changes? That would be preferable for folks like me who prefer not to know too much detail.

This mod was brought to my attention in regards to a challenge I posted. Must say, it is such a simple concept to use save-game forks to accomplish this but works brilliantly! Kudos, @SIT89!

Ahhh.. so that wasn't intentional. Thanks for letting me know. REALLY glad I saved just prior to unlocking 'The Mun Program'. I'll revert and make sure to not activate a second strategy until I upgrade the Admin Building. Any idea what might have triggered it to let me unlock the second one?

Cleaning up some Kerbin contracts and kicking off Tourism In order to build up funds and science to upgrade the Launch Pad, Mission Control and Astronaut Complex, a very basic jet was used to pick up some surface EVA and crew report contracts around the KSC area. Two variations of the jet were used (one with and one without science parts). The KCT mechanic to 'Recover Active Vessel' was used to keep the jet intact and only had to fill the tanks before each flight reducing build times. Once the appropriate nodes were unlocked, a simple probe was sent to Mun for a flyby mission. Unfortunately, a miscalculation in battery needs rendered the probe inert just prior to hitting Mun's SOI, so it was less probe-y and more trash can-y. Oh well, still got the contract done and much needed funds from Worlds Firsts. Playing in 'Hard' mode with its reduced funds and rewards had not posed a problem before, but between the long build times for rockets and longer times for building upgrades (KCT) I wound up having contracts I could not complete. At one point, funds were down to only 2,388.. luckily the Mission Control upgrade was already underway. Filling up the 5 new contract slots and their contract advance funds gained enough funds to press on with the space program. I guess I could have waited on selecting a strategy instead of rushing to 'Pilot Focus I' and tried out something in Finances (Massive Scale Launches perhaps) and probably not have run into the funds-crunch that was almost a game-breaker. Chalk it up to 'experience'. I was surprised how much in-game time had passed before I was able to launch Tito Kerman! I probably could have just stacked two Mk 1 Command pods, but that looks too goofy for me so I held out until I could acquire the Mk 1 Crew Cabin. Much more appealing and will be able to (hopefully..) bang out two Tourism contracts at a time. It seemed like almost every launch and recovery would unlock a new Strategia item, which gives me a lot to look forward to. I found the 'Free Ice Cream' particularly intriguing with its temporary reputation boosts giving the potential to quickly access other strategies. At some point, Strategia allowed me to activate a second strategy. Not really sure when or how that happened (Administration Building is still level 1), but I've selected 'The Mun Program' as my second active strategy. edit: Allowing me to add a second strategy at this point was a Strategia bug and I've reverted to a save just prior to adding the second strategy. This entry closes at Year 1 Day 245. We've completed numerous contracts in the wee jet, a semi-successful Munar flyby and Tito Kerman is back on the ground grinning like a madman. It is going to take a few more 'boring' missions before any Mun landing can be attempted as the power requirements for TAC really necessitate having some kind of power generation - carrying enough batteries to go there and back would be part and mass prohibitive. KCT upgrades so far: VAB Rate 1: 0.75 SPH Rate 1: 0.15 Research: 4 sci/86400 Development: 8 sci/day Active Strategies: The Mun Program (reverted to save just prior to adding this strategy) Pilot Focus I Tech Tree

That's a pretty good transfer window. As far as I'm concerned, anything under 1300m/s for a Duna transfer is reasonable. Let's not forget Oberth and Mun assists, too. I'd not heard of that MOD - I will update the OP to allow it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! From the OP: Yes, one could edit the 'persistent.sfs' file and hack in SCIENCE and funds, but you'd also have to keep track of the massive number of funds gained as a result of the 'Worlds First' records. (I tried this in playtesting the challenge.. it was a pain ) I wonder if there is a way (cheat menu/mod/???) to disable the World Firsts... To be frank (actually my name is Chuck), I really think 'Sandbox' is the easiest way to play this challenge. I build a very basic Google DOC sheet to keep track of every simulation, build and launch/recovery. It was really easy.. am I possibly missing something? (very possible)

Now, THAT is a very cool looking machine!!! Labs/Habs need to have at least 4/6 seats but doesn't need to have that many kerb's on board (just the Scientist) to score. As @Nich mentions below, the Lab/Hab requirement is to put everyone on the same playing field with the spacecraft, but it's up to you if you want to risk that many kerb's or be chicken cautious like me and only land a few in each. Can't really condone "cheats" without it being a Kraken visit or something similar. Can you go back to a earlier save and re-fly the mission(s)? (I always do a save from the KSC after a major milestone with notations like "year1day232" so I can go back if needed.) Good luck! edit: Something similar happened to my Duna lab.. I lost two of the three GigantorXL panels on aerobraking and on the next mission flew up a module with new solar panels.. would that work?

Very nice! What was powering the ascent stage?

That is AWESOME. Thanks. Mind if I place that link in the OP?

"To Boldly Go.." - A 'Strategia' Career This thread will be a play through of KSP in Career 'Hard' mode' (allowing reverts) using the mod Strategia by @nightingale along with several other science and visual mods. Complete mod list: Throughout this career, I'll post the major decisions made in Strategia, tech tree choices, and major missions and milestones achieved. Hopefully the career will be interesting to follow for those who are interested in playing a modded career or are considering trying out one or more of these mods. The trained eye will recognize that there are no engineering mods on the list! This is intentional and is how I've always played. While I have nothing against KER/MJ, I've never played with them and will be building all vessels with only my own sense for Δv needs Because of that, there will be close-calls, there will be mistakes and there will probably be some lost kerbals as I always play with crewed missions and a life support mod (TAC in this case). As this is the first time I've ever played with TAC, chances of lost kerbals have increased greatly.. sorry in advance Jeb. Let's get on with it...! The first five launches were enough to get into orbit and open up the first five tech tree nodes: At the end of the fifth launch, I made the decision to activate the 'Pilot Focus 1' to help increase funds for Tourism contracts. Was that a particularly 'bold' choice? Nah, not really. But as I mentioned earlier, I don't use engineering mods so some missions may well have to be flown more than once. Summary of first five launches: The first was a basic rocket with 5 'Flea' engines with the thrust turned way down and staged ignition. Got some decent altitude and recovered the entire vessel. The following launches completed some 'landed' test contracts including an LV-T45 test contract on the final launch making it reasonably easy to get into orbit with its thrust vectoring goodness. Next time.. There are some 'Field Science' contracts around KSC area, so I've unlocked the first 'Aviation' node so we can cruise around Kerbin's surface. Also will be kicking off the 'Tourism' contracts and possibly a flyby of Mun. This thread will run at least until the first landings of a Kerbal on one of Jool's moons.. I hope to make it interesting and possibly even informative.

That's great.. ASCII art. And I'm even old enough to appreciate that. You can use it, but in my testing it didn't seem to actually do anything in Sandbox mode. If you're using a career and hacked in a nice round number as a budget and a bunch of science to unlock the tech tree, should be fine.