To boldly go... (manned vehicle challenge)

[Two]

... where no Kerbal has gone before.

The challenge: fly only manned vehicles. So no satellites, rovers and so on. At least no unmanned ones. If you are so cruel to squeeze a poor Kerbal into a tiny satellite to have him orbit around Mun for the next 20 years, that's perfectly ok.

Rules:

- All maneuvering done with vehicles must be executed by a Kerbal. That also forbids assisted steering (like 'prograde') if your Kerbal can't do it on his own.

- Must play at least on 'moderate' difficulty (or worse if you dare).

- Mods are allowed, but no parts that assist in maneuvering of vehicles may be used (probe cores, MechJab, and so on).

Exceptions:

- Probe cores may be used (solely!) to prevent 'debris' state.

- Probes may be used for very short maneuvers, where a manned probe would be completely silly (like attaching parachutes to an asteroid). Maximum range on such maneuvers is 1km, if the probe is further away, it is considered "No longer in command range" and must be terminated/abandoned. Such probes must especially not contain any science equipment. When in doubt, use a manned vehicle.

Hard mode: No 'revert flight' or quick-save.

Feel free to post pictures of your journey, like: which planets you managed to reach at which science stage, or where Kerbals got lost on the way, or anything else entertaining. =)

[-ELF-]

Ummm... What's the difference of common playstyle?

Is it only me, or having a kerbal aboard any vehicle adds confidence? To go on repair of broken solar panels or rover tracks... Gather some MOAR !!sciense!!, and transmit it home, so that they will send MOAR kerbals that way...

Started a new career in 1.0 not playing much. No kerbals lost, never used a probe core, preparing a Minmus landing mission now... I suppose we will take two tourist along with us. The more the merrier! Mua-ha-ha-ha...ha... ahem...

Yep.

[Two]

It is pretty easy on lower difficulties, but on higher difficulties you run into the issue that to gain more science, you need to explore past Kerbin system. Getting there with a probe is easy and can gain much science in return, but getting there with a Kerbal on board - so a much heavier vehicle - is much more difficult. At some point you would need the science you would get there to get there.

And then Kerbals can be lost forever, where a probe is easily replaced by just flying another mission. Putting an advanced probe core on the ship ensures that you get all the maneuver abilities all the time, but if your pilot dies, you need to fly around all planets and land on them to level the new one up again.

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

If you send a Kerbal to gather science you can get a lot of EVA reports from orbit, and you get he full value from transmitting.

If you can get to the Mun and return you easily have the delta-v to get to Duna and Eve orbit for a lot of EVA report science. Returning is optional at this point - you can get your Kerbal back when you have unlocked all the parts you need.

Kerbals are not exaclty in short supply, you can alway rescue another one from LKO.

The main problem with "no probes" is propably that you get no satellite contracts, which can make you a lot of money in normal games...

Edited June 1, 2015 by RocketPropelledGiraffe