KSP Caveman Challenge!

[Bev7787]

Geez... This is fun. Still working on mine. Just finished harvesting KSC science for EVA, goo, reports and material bay. Tier 3 complete. Tier 4 here we come!

[HoloYolo]

Since I'm going 100% stock for a while, I might try it later.

[Jouni]

I had to give this a try. It took ten not very well planned or optimized missions to get all 90-point nodes.

I copied the basic idea from someone's screenshot earlier in this thread. If you can't stage or add more fuel, you can use more boosters and tweak the thrust down.

Who needs radial parachutes?

This mission was quite ordinary.

I wanted to recover the Science Jr. Using wings to decelerate seemed easier than trying to keep the heat shield pointed to the right direction. It kind of was, but the ascent was much harder.

The same idea with wings here as well. This time everything was easier, because I had much more control authority. I used radial engines, because the rocket was too heavy for a single engine, and boosters would have been too heavy for the launchpad.

I had finally unlocked a decent probe core, so kerbals were no longer necessary. From this point onward, all of my rockets were variations of the same design.

Fourth leg made Mun landings a lot easier. Still, the second landing kind of failed.

I just removed the landing struts and burned until the rocket ran out of fuel. The payoff wasn't very good.

Minmus missions don't need as much fuel, so I added a second Science Jr instead.

This was the only time I reused a rocket from the previous mission. The plane change required more delta-v than last time, so I had around 15 m/s too little delta-v for the last landing. Fortunately lithobraking with landing struts is a valid strategy for reducing horizontal speed on low-gravity moons.

[GoSlash27]

Jouni,

Very well done! Excellent step-by-step documentation, too! This is going to prove very helpful to people who are struggling to get on their feet in the early going.

You are hereby inducted into the clan with full honors and privileges!

Best,

-Slashy

[Terwin]

My caveman challenge album:

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If that did not work, here is the link: http://imgur.com/a/rat3O

Things I learned:

At least 8 of the 9 biomes on Kerbin have a splashed-down location. Everything except Mountains.

(Highlands were in a small pool near the badlands, I was actually going there to get badlands splashed down only to find out it was highlands)

KSC has at least 15 biomes at the starting levels: Admin, Astronaut Complex, Crawlerway, Flag pole, KSC, Launchpad, Mission control, R&D, R&D corner lab, Runway, SPH, SPH Main Building, Tracking station, VAB, VAB main building. You can also get EVAs for 'flying low' at KSC and the flagpole.

It takes a *long time* to fly to the badlands using the basic jet engine, it also takes a while to get to the poles.

Those ice flows are hazardous near the edge. I had intended to just drive my airplane off the edge of the flow, but it kept exploding before it reached the edge for some reason, finally had to take off then open chutes just past the edge of the ice and parachute down.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Terwin

[GoSlash27]

Congratulations to Terwin, our first kerbin-bound caveman!

A special induction ceremony...

Best,

-Slashy

[killakrust]

I've been having a go at the challenge over the last week or two in my spare time. I originally intended to do a dry run of the challenge, then record it proper. However, it's taken a lot longer than expected, so I'll just post this video of me going to Minmus to grab some science.

I've sped it up to x16 so as not to bore you guys. I've also cut out a load of reverts (had some solar panel issues, and the darn thing kept tipping over on Minmus and I blew up a few times trying to take off again.

Anyway, I've got two more missions planned that I reckon will net me enough science to finish the challenge. I'll post that up here when I'm done.

Edited July 19, 2015 by killakrust
Video not displaying

[Bev7787]

M1 has arrived at the mun. Sciencing of biomes commence shortly

[killakrust]

Okay, so my last mission didn't go as well as I had planned. I sent Jeb to get some crew reports from Minmus. The plan was to do a high and low orbit report, then land at the equator and head north to the equator in a few jumps to the pole. Unfortunately he only made it halfway before running out of fuel. It's cool though, Jeb decided he liked the view, and has been referring to the craft as his new winter cabin.

Got enough science to unlock one more node, so I guess I'll be doing at least two more missions to finish this off.

[ttnarg]

Just wanted to let you know I'm giving this a go it fun but hard. I love how every one done this challenge in different ways. I'm about 75% of the way there will post when I'm done. After finishing I'm going to upgrade the Astronaut Complex and R&D and keep going (Astronaut Complex upgrade is needed to upgrade the R&D) this will give me:

- EVAs

- flags

- Surface samples

- Resource transfer

The Resource transfer will help a lot with bigger mission.

[mattssheep4]

Finally got it done!

Here's my proof:

http://imgur.com/a/0kVjd

[GoSlash27]

mattssheep,

Congratulations for successfully completing the Caveman Challenge! Welcome to the clan

Most civilized caveman ever...

Best,

-Slashy

[killakrust]

Forgot to record my last missions, but basically I went to Minmus's north pole with a non-returnable probe, then sent the last probe to the Mun's north pole, then realised I had enough Dv to return to Kerbin. I actually landed back on Kerbin without a chute after a few aerobreak's (to save fuel); smashed my engine but the probe and science all survived.

Here is the tech tree:

KSC:

and most of the rocket designs I used.

[ttnarg]

Done, at least 1 pic from every mission:

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I tried not to repeat missions(did a bit at the end to get the last 54 sci). I got 1 more mission planned before I upgrade my R&D building, something a bit crazy. I'll post pic unless its a complete failure.

PS docking in space under caveman conditions.... very hard, I do not recommend it.

Edit: I've added comments to the pictures.

Edited July 23, 2015 by ttnarg

[Diofantos]

It's done!

No landings on either Mun nor Minimus, just flybys and a bit of science from contracts.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197974241235/screenshot/634230638849315962

[Bev7787]

3 nodes to go! (For me)

[GoSlash27]

killakrust,ttnarg and diofantos,

Congratulations on completing the Caveman Challenge!

The secret is to keep banging those rocks together!

Best,

-Slashy

Edited July 24, 2015 by GoSlash27

[Bev7787]

2 nodes

[Bev7787]

Just one more node...

[mattssheep4]

PS docking in space under caveman conditions.... very hard, I do not recommend it.

It is, but docking actually ended up being critical for several of my missions, especially the probe I sent to Jool. I'm proud to say that I've gotten extremely good at rendezvous without all the fancy stuff.

[GoSlash27]

It is, but docking actually ended up being critical for several of my missions, especially the probe I sent to Jool. I'm proud to say that I've gotten extremely good at rendezvous without all the fancy stuff.

Same here. Rendezvous and docking is definitely more difficult under caveman conditions, but not prohibitively so. All of my missions that returned science from the munar surface used it.

Kind of an added bonus of this challenge; you learn that you can actually accomplish a whole heckuva lot with low mass and part counts. It teaches you how to make do with less, which is a good mindset to have when doing rocket science IMO.

When a design isn't quite meeting the mission goal, the normal reaction is to ask "what can I add to make it work". The proper question is actually "what can I do without in order to make it more efficient".

If you can do that, there's pretty much nothing you can't accomplish in KSP.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited July 27, 2015 by GoSlash27

[merendel]

meh docking isnt so bad. since you can still target once the craft get somewhat close its not any harder from inside the physics window than normal. Only hard part is you may not have enough part count avalible to afford RCS but you can get prety good docking without with small stuff like this. The Rendevous itself is mostly just an exercise in patience. Match planes (not hard to eyeball) Match the orbit as best as possible so at least one node (ap/pe) touches the other orbit. raise or lower the other node slightly and let the craft catchup to eachother over time. Cant do the normal aggressive intercept that you can do with normal patched conics and such

[Bev7787]

I did it!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[ttnarg]

meh docking isnt so bad. since you can still target once the craft get somewhat close its not any harder from inside the physics window than normal. Only hard part is you may not have enough part count avalible to afford RCS but you can get prety good docking without with small stuff like this. The Rendevous itself is mostly just an exercise in patience. Match planes (not hard to eyeball) Match the orbit as best as possible so at least one node (ap/pe) touches the other orbit. raise or lower the other node slightly and let the craft catchup to eachother over time. Cant do the normal aggressive intercept that you can do with normal patched conics and such

WHAT? you can target??? that would of made stuff so much easier! if you look at my last post you see one of mine I did docking in space with out RCS. It look so long I decided not to do it again.

[merendel]

WHAT? you can target??? that would of made stuff so much easier! if you look at my last post you see one of mine I did docking in space with out RCS. It look so long I decided not to do it again.

ya once you get close enough for the hudmarker indicating the crafts position to appear in the world you can doubleclick it to target it. you still dont get close approach markers or anything like that in map view but it does alow you to use target mode on the nav ball. You still have to get yourself fairly close, 80km or so and actualy figure out where in space the other craft is in relation to yourself so its still trickier than being able to target from the map but it gets the job done.

Good job on docking pure visual with no RCS or navball assistance. thats just hardcore. its alot easier when you can easily kill relitive velocity a few dozen meters away, poitn both ships at eachother and just give it a touch of gas to dock.