KSP Caveman Challenge!

[Nefrums]

Fully understandable with the sparse documentation i made.

I did not want to do a 200 images report that no one would care to look through, bur only showed the crafts and highlights from the difficult missions. And the mission with the plane was long, repetitive and boring. I should have mentioned that Bob reseted the experiments multiple times and included a pic of him doing so next to one of the KSC buildings or atop the mountains.

This challenge was way more fun than I thought it would be. And When I set out for Duna I had no idea on how difficult it would be, I really missed my precision nodes.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Nefrums

[Moesly_Armlis]

Welcome to the cave Nefrums.

Here is a big UGH, for being put under the light and revealing your caveman talents.

I never doubted the truthiness of your mission, but was interested in the verdict from our chief caveman.

Great job on landing on Duna. Every time I see a caveman go interplanetary it warms the cockles of my heart.

P.S.

I was surprised that the spelling check on this forum my browser did not flag truthiness

Edited August 29, 2015 by MoeslyArmlis

[Kelderek]

Here's my entry:

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Sorry that the images are all jumbled, I didn't keep notes on what order they go, so just think of it as a collage of the ships I used to get the challenge done..

Bob did the lion's share of the work using simple planes to fly and rove around. His ability to reset the experiments is just too useful in this challenge. I used Jeb for all the missions where I wouldn't be able to EVA.

I managed to get all of the science on Kerbin plus a pair of unmanned flybys of the Mun and Minmus (both returned to land safely at Kerbin). After those flybys I was about 44 science short for the final node on the tech tree, so I did a quick flight to the badlands (a biome I had skipped). I also realized I could do "splashed down" for the shores biome, so I gently pushed my plane into the water to get the last bits of science. I finished with about 12 science left over.

I loved this challenge, it was really hard at times, and I admit to milking Kerbin as much as possible. I found that the part count was less of a problem, it was the 18t that was the main limiting factor.

[Superfluous J]

I was surprised that the spelling check on this forum did not flag truthiness

There is no spell check on the forum. That's your own personal dictionary that understands the word

[ttnarg]

I loved this challenge, it was really hard at times, and I admit to milking Kerbin as much as possible. I found that the part count was less of a problem, it was the 18t that was the main limiting factor.

yep the limit is hard when I did it I stuck with the 18ton limit. Only went with something really big after I got all the tech. If I where doing it again I would go with something more mid scale like this:

I call it the Crow. Can easily do a manned mission to Mimmus and back. Take about 5 mins to dock together. This pic is not 100% caveman as I've upgraded my R&D building* but it can be made with caveman tech.

PS When building stuff like this the 20m caveman height limit can become a problem which is why I using thumpers instead of an inline engine. the Thmper is realy one of the best caveman engine.

*I'm doing something I'm calling caveman level 2. I've upgraded my R&D building but nothing else. And I'm not doing fuel transfer on Kerbin. Will post when I'm done.

Edited August 27, 2015 by ttnarg

[Bev7787]

Still working on the Laythe mission- now with clouds! (Updated to 1.0.4)

[ghpstage]

This looks like a really interesting challenge, will try a game under its rules even if I don't post it.

Has anyone yet succeeded without making a major run on Kerbin low altitude and ground (KSC in particular) science?

Edited August 29, 2015 by ghpstage

[Superfluous J]

This looks like a really interesting challenge, will try a game under its rules even if I don't post it.

Has anyone yet succeeded without making a major run on Kerbin low altitude and ground (KSC in particular) science?

Define "Major." I collected crew reports, eva reports, and 2x goo and jr readings at each of the 11 easy to reach (aka ground level, driveable) biomes at KSC, and also got science each time I landed in a new biome from missions. Other than that most everything was from Minmus.

[ghpstage]

Define "Major." I collected crew reports, eva reports, and 2x goo and jr readings at each of the 11 easy to reach (aka ground level, driveable) biomes at KSC, and also got science each time I landed in a new biome from missions. Other than that most everything was from Minmus.

A quick test shows 15.1 science from the runway with a mat lab, crew and EVA report and 2 goos. Add a thermometer and multiply by 11 and your talking about a fairly large amount of science. Its not a lot of grinding considering how much is available, but I would feel guilty taking so much!

Along with not accepting any repeatable contracts, not taking ground or airborne science that I don't start on, pass through or land on while attempting to go to space are the additional house rules I imposed for my attempt at this challenge. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with not going for a Kerbin ground/plane science run

Also intending to get really ambitious, the Duna, Eve, Jool SOIs are all on the target list!

EDIT-

It was going really well until I screwed up Jeb's Munar flyby, leaving him stranded in space.

Though his sacrifice was not in vain. He transmitted enough science back to get the crucial Electronics tech, from now on no other Kerbal will need to be sacrificed!

Edited August 30, 2015 by ghpstage

[wozit3]

I suppose its a little late to ask, seeing as how I finished already, but does FAR disqualify me from getting the badge?

[Superfluous J]

It was going really well until I screwed up Jeb's Munar flyby, leaving him stranded in space.

Though his sacrifice was not in vain. He transmitted enough science back to get the crucial Electronics tech, from now on no other Kerbal will need to be sacrificed!

Val is still orbiting Minmus in my Caveman save. About 2 m/s less dV and she'd have crashed instead of reached orbit. I think her Pe is somewhere around 7500m.

[ghpstage]

Val is still orbiting Minmus in my Caveman save. About 2 m/s less dV and she'd have crashed instead of reached orbit. I think her Pe is somewhere around 7500m.

Jeb's stuck with a PE of 866km, and dangerously crosses the Mun's orbit. Cause - My own stupid fault as I entered the Muns SOI on Kerbin's nearside, and botched up a very late correction burn...

Made a few mistakes that are causing annoying delays, namely,

• Landing my orbiter flight in the same grass my Flea landed in
  
• Jeb's Munar SOI science not being recoverable (transmit only),
  
• Designing my Munar probe as a lander rather than recoverable orbiter, means I now can't get rid of the 'Return from Mun' contract without another Mun mission, and killed off the landing contract....
  
• Tipping my Munar probe that had dV to visit another biome or two
  

Though it is still ticking along quite quickly, the Mun probe was the fifth flight.

To make matters worse I haven't been logging the transmitted science properly either, so I might need to restart

Edited August 30, 2015 by ghpstage

[Kelderek]

So did my entry for this challenge qualify? It's been almost a week and I haven't seen a response and I'm curious if I succeeded in completing the challenge. No rush or anything, I'm just curious.

[Bev7787]

Looks like it will qualify. But I'm not the OP so I don't know what he will think.

[Wosser1]

Tried it as well:

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Looking forward to adding the banner

I found that the part count was less of a problem, it was the 18t that was the main limiting factor.

Main problem for me as well, since adding more booster would have solved everything.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Wosser1

[MalevolentNinja]

That was fun, thanks for the challenge.

At first I was thinking "No way - how am I going to unlock those 1000 science nodes???" But then I remembered you can only go so far in the tree since we aren't upgrading any buildings - whew!

Completely stock, fresh install, no mods. Mostly spammed science around the space center, flew a few jet missions and launced a few suborbital rockets to different Kerbin biomes, launched 2 probes to the Mun and finished with a probe to Duna. Never could figure out how to do a manned Mun/Minmus mission, at least not with my self imposed rule of refusing to strand a Kerbal without a way back.

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Two things I noticed: 1) the game loads really fast without my 61 mods I normally play with! and 2) I really miss KER! So much missing information!

Yes, the landing legs on the probe were optimistic on my part, I was hoping for an Ike landing but ran outta gas

By the way, I was quick saving a lot, but I never reloaded, and didn't lose any Kerbals. I'm proud of that! It did, however, take me 10 years to get my Duna encounter... Probably should have aligned before launching, but I was really just testing the ship design. It worked so well I burned an escape out of Kerbin and got my high Kerbol science. Still had plenty of fuel, so I thought, why not head to Duna?

Edited September 1, 2015 by MalevolentNinja
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[ttnarg]

Has anyone yet succeeded without making a major run on Kerbin low altitude and ground (KSC in particular) science?

yes I've grab about 5 biomes from around KSC. I think it's safe to say I got most of my Sci from space.

[Bev7787]

I got an Eve counter :-). Now a Duna landing. This is hard

Edited September 1, 2015 by Bev7787

[ttnarg]

Here's my entry:

Looks good to me.

Seem to me there are 2 types of entries those that go biome hunting on Kerbin and those that go skip Kerbin and get most of their sci from space and the moons. Those that skip kerbin mostly use twin thumpers as their first stage.

[Kelderek]

I decided to load up this career game again and see what else I could do with full tech up to level 5 and no building upgrades. I just managed to make a successful unmanned orbit of Jool and got near and high space science transmitted back home. I'm sure this has been done lots of times, but it was fun for me to try. Getting into Jool orbit with only 18t on the launch pad and having room for full science was a pain. It was even trickier to make sure I didn't run out of power with such low solar light available that far out. It helps that Jool has a huge gravity well. The probe's orbit is roughly 100,000km x 350km, so I could probably get some encounters with the inner moons there too if I try. I estimate that I still have about 200 m/s dv to play around with.

[Bev7787]

You beat me. I was going to land on Laythe

[Moesly_Armlis]

While "waiting" for the Duna transfer window, Bill and Valentina are experimenting with a spaceplane design.

There seems to be an issue with the "Wheesley" jet engine thrust. The thrust is not reaching specifications.

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Any other cavemen been able to take a spaceplane into space?

edit:

Density at 267m during the day at KSC is only 1.09kg/m^3, vs 1.225kg/m^3 (i.e. 89%) at sea level in reference conditions. You need to worry about the lower pressure at 267m, and the higher temperatures during the day at the equator.

This seems like the reason and I will run some tests after dark.

Edited September 8, 2015 by MoeslyArmlis

[Kyrt Malthorn]

I'm gonna try it!!!

Should I journal it in the Mission Reports section for the heck of it? Hmm.... decisions, decisions. (It took me two days to decide I wanted to do this challenge. I lean heavy on KER. O.O )

[Moesly_Armlis]

I'm gonna try it!!!

I lean heavy on KER. O.O )

For designing vessels, KER is one tool that has less meaning for me now after learning to reverse the rocket equation.

Thanks goes to Slashy for writing the tutorial.

@MalevolentNinja

Very good another vintage rock intercepts Duna. No reloading now that is really something wonderful.

@Kelderek

Great job getting to Jool in caveman style.

@Bev7787

It is something special when a caveman continues to go interplanetary and plans on landing on Duna. Interplanetary cavemen are awesome!

Edited September 9, 2015 by MoeslyArmlis

[Kyrt Malthorn]

For designing vessels, KER is one tool that has less meaning for me now after learning to reverse the rocket equation.

No offense to Tsiolkovsky and the fathers of rocket science, I haven't been able to get my lazy butt to go learn natural logarithms.