DonLorenzo's Forum Campaign: To space, the moon and beyond

[DonLorenzo]

@Bellaby: for most if not all powered landings I use the mechjeb landing module. What players tend to do is give instructions on how to set that up (landing m/s) and at what altitude to engage it (if engaged high up it can be wasteful). This works well. I\'m good at manual landings too, but there will always be an element of risk so I suggest just using the landing autopilot.

@robsr3v3ng3: The crew have to survive! Always! So yea they have to return to kerbin, this goes for all other missions also unless explicitly stated otherwise (there are no such missions available at the time)

[issarlk]

what do you mean one parachute for two rockets?! You can get up to 8 spent SRBs and a stack decoupler on one single parachute.

Thanks ! Using parachutes makes sense now ^^ I thought they would become interesting only to salvage liquid first stages in a rocket.

[db101]

Are structural pylons allowed as radial decouplers?

(or perhaps unlockable via technology research?)

[DonLorenzo]

At the moment they aren\'t, except in contracts. I\'ll add a tech for them this turn. Going to do the turn update now!

Turn 8 overview!

A fairly straightforward turn, nothing extraordinary happened really. Tech got researched and ships were launched, a weekend just like the kerbals like it!

Technology changes

-Decoupler tech has been reduced again, now costing $2400

-Salvage Tech IIa has been reduced, now costing $1350

-Parachute Tech has been reduced, now costing $2250

Financial Overview

Player: Awaras Mission Completed: 200km Tech purchased: Decoupler Tech Spent: $11800 Income: $17000 New Balance: $46700

Player: sal_vager Mission Completed: 50km Tech purchased: Decoupler Tech Spent: $9950 Income: $11000 New Balance: $18750

Player: Fireblade Mission Completed: Complete one full kerbin orbit Tech purchased: Fuel Tech Spent: $28100 Income: $30000 New Balance: $32080

Player: robsr3v3ng3Mission Completed: 80km Tech purchased: Liquid Tech I Spent: $17550 Income: $14000 New Balance: $20900

Player: Issarlk Mission Completed: 200km Tech purchased: Parachute Tech Spent: $17100 Income: $14000 New Balance: $21030

Player: Bellaby Mission Completed: Establish Orbit Tech purchased: Liquid Tech I Spent: $24450 Income: $22000 New Balance: $27260

Player: Db101 Mission Completed: 80km Tech purchased: Salvage Tech IIa Spent: $14000 Income: $14000 New Balance: $24150

Player: Fermun Mission Completed: 80km Tech purchased: Booster Tech Spent: $11450 Income: $14000 New Balance: $16550

Turn 9 Announcements

-New Tech: Decoupler Tech II, costing $2500 which will unlock the airplane radial decouplers (structural pylons). They cost the same as the original radial decouplers but are about half the weigth.

-Turn 9 contract: Launch the space bus! (See OP)

-Due to me having an extremely busy schedule near the end of the week + weekend, the turn will last untill sunday night. 01-07-2012 @ 23:59 (GMT+2) If I have all submissions by friday morning I could process the turn then, but I\'ll only do that if you all have submitted

Cheers

[fermun]

I think something is off on my balance, I had $12500, I spent $11450, and had an income of $14000, I think I should have a current balance of $15050 not $13050.

[DonLorenzo]

I\'ll havelook when I get home I was fairly rushed so could well be

edit: yep you\'re totally right. sorry about that. I made a new spreadsheet for you and the references weren\'t done properly. It was taking the turn 1 starting balance for your t2 as well. Fixed now and your balance is $16550

[Bellaby]

Hey guys & Don,

I\'ve had an idea floating around in my \'brain\' concerning the building of the space station. Most people simply cannot afford to send up a secondary, non-profit (at least, no immediate profit) rocket up into orbit with a payload for the station. But some of use (myself included) do have a spare grand or two which we could spend on such missions, but this amount of money would never launch a rocket.

Now of course we all could just save those few grands over 4 or 5 turns and then have enough for a personal rocket, but that\'s 4 or 5 turns away! What I propose is a sort of \'funding pool\', kept track of in the OP, where people donate howevermuch of there budget to.

Then, with a pool which would grow much quicker with several lenders, a space-station mission can be attempted by an individual using the pool. First this person must request the money for a pool in a forum post (to prevent multiple people claiming the same money) with whoever posts first gets the money. This money MUST then be spent, in the same turn as it is claimed, on a space-station mission. Whether it succeeds or not isn\'t the matter, it\'s simply that i see this as an easier way to set up mutually beneficial missions.

If the pool is claimed, but the player doesn\'t do a mission (for whatever reason, i realise the RL has a tendency to get in the way of internet shenanigans! ) it is returned to the pool at the start of the next turn.

The pool may not be spent on personal missions.

All of the pool (or however much claimed from the pool) must be spent in the turn it was claimed purely on a space-station mission (don would be able to confirm this by knowing the player\'s turn details (i assume ) )

Players are morally obliged to spend some of their own money on a space-station mission when drawing from the pool (ie not to fund the mission purely from the pool, incase of failure so that pool isn\'t completely emptied for no success). Obliged!

Anyway these are just my thoughts, post what you think!

Oh and also information about the space station, that is tracking it\'s completion and how to complete it, might want to be in the OP.

- Bellaby

[DonLorenzo]

So, I completed the turn, the new contract and updates tech/missions are now in the OP.

@Bellaby; looks like a cool initiative, I\'m all for it as long as you guys do most of the legwork yourself. Get yourself an IRC room or a new forum topic or whatnot. I\'ll keep track of the \'fund\' in the OP if you like, everyone can say per turn how much to put in it etc. I was going to put a spacestation progress bit in that anyway (as soon as something gets launched), so it can go in there. I don\'t want to be responsible for deciding who gets to draw from it and what for etc, that\'s all up to you guys.

I\'m thinking as soon as the station is up and running, it will not only unlock more missions but also provide a big boost to the \'fundraising\' option

Cheers.

[Bellaby]

cool challenge, but i have two questions;

1 - Clearly we can\'t use the fuel of the space bus, but can we use it\'s engines (having provided fuel from elsewhere)

2 - The aerospike engine is described as a rocket engine, and definitely burns like one, but does that come under the \'jet fuel\' rule?

Also as for my idea, if there is interest in it then I\'ll set up a \'sub thread\' although where i should put it I\'m not sure

[DonLorenzo]

Good questions;

I\'m going to rule YES on your first question. Aerospike will count as a rocket and thus burn rocket fuel.

[Awaras]

Bellaby, I am interested in your proposal. Just open a separate thread in the off-topic subforum called 'DonLorenzo\'s campaign player chat' or something like that. Just let everyone know what it is for in the first post.

[robsr3v3ng3]

ermmm I think I have found yet another bug which causes half fuel consumption.

I have a central tower of two fuel tanks with a large LFE on the bottom, there are three of these arranged symmetrically. Attached to each is a radial decoupler with two tanks a stack decoupler and other stuff. A fuel line went from the bottom of the two radial tanks to the top of the tower tanks. This gave the three central engines half fuel consumption.

I shall try to find a work around.

[DonLorenzo]

If you put the fuel line from bottom tank to bottom tank I think it works properly. It also causes the radial stacks to drain completely first. At least that\'s what I think you\'re trying to do

[robsr3v3ng3]

Yeah I was trying to drain the two tanks above the stack decoupler first. I thought it still drained the top tank of the central towers first before draining fuel from the radial ones.

[Awaras]

Are the techs salvage tech IIa and salvage tech II dependant on one another (do we have to research one of them before the other, and if so, which) or can we research them separately?

[DonLorenzo]

They are both dependent on salvage tech I but not each other in any way

[Bellaby]

hows everybody this absurdly hot afternoon?

I set up the \'DonLorenzo\'s Forum Campaign Player Chat\' thread over here --> http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=15108.msg227707#msg227707

Check it out guys, if you will, its for all of us to discuss and coordinate community projects (the current one being the space station).

Anything thing to say about it? Post in the thread! I\'ll monitor it like I have nothing else to do in my life at the moment... (heh)

[Bellaby]

With the zoxy tanks that need to be lifted, I understand that they need to be full, but all extra tanks are drained equally once above atmosphere, and i don\'t know of a way to prevent this. Is there? Or will slightly emptied tanks be OK for the space station?

[Awaras]

With the zoxy tanks that need to be lifted, I understand that they need to be full, but all extra tanks are drained equally once above atmosphere, and i don\'t know of a way to prevent this. Is there? Or will slightly emptied tanks be OK for the space station?

We might leave zoxy tanks for last, when at least some of us should have unmanned pods... I mean, there is plenty of other stuff that needs to be lugged up there...

[Bellaby]

Oh i see, no kerbals no breathing, full tanks. Clever.

I so want remote tech *drools*

freaking kerbals having to breath, and return alive. . .

[Awaras]

And no need for a ZO2 main, meaning a slightly lighter, more efficient rocket...

[DonLorenzo]

Ah I hadn\'t considered that about the ZOXy draining. Let\'s just look at the amounts, if you only drain equivalent to the capacity that\'s coming back down with the kerbals, thats ok. Proper distribution is then implied. So for a 200x200km insertion lugging an extra small ext. tank for the kerbals to breathe would probably suffice. Unmanned launches are ofcourse also viable, as Awaras said.

[robsr3v3ng3]

I\'m designing some rockets atm and I just realised something. As I will be leaving the atmosphere I need to pack some extra zoxy. I know I need to research zoxy 1 tech unless I want to carry extra zoxy in an additional main system tank. However, say I do go for the tech route, what are the prices of the tanks? The costings table shows two tanks, small and large (capacities of 150 and 800 respectively), but what about the 2 sizes of radial tanks (capacities of 75 and 400 respectively)?

[BlackBicycle]

I am not in this game (not yet : ), but I\'d point out that, per the decision of the modmaker, the large tanks and main module are being phased out for the next version, the older models are here only to keep continuity with older .craft designs. I suppose only the new (very flat) main module and only side tanks should be used.

[fireblade42]

... However, say I do go for the tech route, what are the prices of the tanks? The costings table shows two tanks, small and large (capacities of 150 and 800 respectively), but what about the 2 sizes of radial tanks (capacities of 75 and 400 respectively)?

The radially mounted ones are half the price of the stackable ones.

You could put on a panel to refill delivered tanks.