KSP Caveman Challenge 1.1

[pasukaru76]

On 29 Dec 2015 at 2:29 AM, MoeslyArmlis said:

Welcome to the clan pasukaru76 !

Thank you, it feels good to have my name scribbled on the cave wall.

[Bev7787]

I am at the moment redoing the challenge

[pasukaru76]

With hard mode done, I decided to have a go at the easy mode speed run. Not quite as fast as Slashy, 2h 53m for me.

I drove my science collection rover over to the island runway (yay for buoyancy), which probably was a waste of time since it's Grasslands biome and the Grasslands west of KSC are reachable in less time.

 

[GoSlash27]

Pasukaru,

 I've heard that there is a hidden blob of "tundra" biome over there somewhere. I never tried to find it myself... just what I heard. If true, that would be pretty useful. Maybe not so much in Easy mode where space happens so quickly, but it might be worth investigating.

Congrats,

-Slashy

[pasukaru76]

10 minutes ago, GoSlash27 said:

I've heard that there is a hidden blob of "tundra" biome over there somewhere. I never tried to find it myself... just what I heard. If true, that would be pretty useful. Maybe not so much in Easy mode where space happens so quickly, but it might be worth investigating.

I agree that one definetly wants the low and high orbit science to finish quickly in easy mode. It's a rather big amount of science points compared to what adding another Kerbin biome would yield, and a suborbital hop only takes a couple of minutes.

I've heard about the Tundra biome somewhere close to KSC, too, but like you have never bothered trying to find out where exactly that is located.

[Superfluous J]

I landed in it once, coming back from space and trying to get moderately close to KSC just for fun. It was pretty cool.

Not literally. It was equatorial so it was actually quite warm.

Unless you know exactly where it is, though, I bet it's quicker to send a rocket to the real Tundra though.

Edited January 1, 2016 by 5thHorseman

[Bev7787]

6 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

Pasukaru,

 I've heard that there is a hidden blob of "tundra" biome over there somewhere. I never tried to find it myself... just what I heard. If true, that would be pretty useful. Maybe not so much in Easy mode where space happens so quickly, but it might be worth investigating.

Congrats,

-Slashy

I've stumbled on it in my caveman attempt- but I'm not telling where

:-)

[Moesly_Armlis]

18 hours ago, pasukaru76 said:

With hard mode done, I decided to have a go at the easy mode speed run. Not quite as fast as Slashy, 2h 53m for me

That is alright and your time is on par.  You  receive a new Talc mineral.

 

Caveman find Tundra!

18 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

Pasukaru,

 I've heard that there is a hidden blob of "tundra" biome over there somewhere. I never tried to find it myself... just what I heard. If true, that would be pretty useful. Maybe not so much in Easy mode where space happens so quickly, but it might be worth investigating.

Congrats,

-Slashy

Way back around 0.19 I started my journey on a hardS career.  The Tundra biome I discovered was in the hills south west of KSC.  Then I found another more convenient Tundra located about 1 km west of the runway.  I recently searched but now doesn't seem to be there anymore.

Spoiler

But the best Tundra is located on the steep shores north by northwest of the runway.  The splashed science can be done quickly on three different biomes.  There is another area relatively close to KSC that contains the Badlands biome and within that area splashed science can also be done in multiple biomes.

 

Caveman Lift

The ability to lift payloads above twenty metres is important for building vessels that can perform.  This is a build where a 10 tonne payload is assembled and then erected vertical.  The "Payload Cherry Picker" is up for design next and will secure the payload and transport it to the top of the Zemod rocket booster.

The "foot" of the erector was modified and improved the angle of the payload.  The payload remained in a near vertical position and now the "Payload Cherry Picker" should have less issues to deal with.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[ManEatingApe]

Thanks to @GoSlash27 and @MoeslyArmlis for creating and maintaining this immensely fun and entertaining challenge!

I'd been intending to restart a clean 1.0.5 career game for a while and this challenge provided the perfect opportunity. I decided to try the 'Vanadium' level using a fresh un-modified 'Moderate' level difficulty game.

The first few missions were straightforward enough. An unmanned mission to Minimus and back and a 2nd mission to solar orbit gave me enough science and cash to try something different.

Firstly I hired a new Kerbal and renamed him 'Matt Kerman' for humour value (you can probably guess where I'm going with this...)

Next Matt went to Minimus in the Locomotive stage:

Then the science tender was attached:

Then another 6 fuel tenders were sent to Minimus:

Finally the Space Train was ready:

Choo choo!

Sorry Ike no time to stop.

Matt then went to Duna and pottered about until running out of fuel

Any volunteers for a Caveman rescue mission?

Rather than create a single large album that might be a little tedious to browse, I've broken them into 3 separate albums:

(1) Warmup

(2) Space train assembly

(3) Duna mission

available after the spoiler:

Spoiler

Warmup

Space Train Assembly

Duna Mission

 

 

Edited January 1, 2016 by ManEatingApe

[GoSlash27]

^ There is much Epic here.

[pasukaru76]

Oh man, space train to Duna, brilliant!

Caveman gotta collect all dem minerals, Normal difficulty was next for me. Highlights of this run included grabbing science from near the Sun, and throwing a rock into Dres' SOI.

 

[Moesly_Armlis]

@ManEatingApe

That is some very interesting work you have done.  Did you test your vessel by constructing it first on Kerbin?  It looks as if you enabled the staging feature for the docking ports, but you did not use it that way.

It would seem Matt must use his abilities to construct a return vessel on Duna.  Let me know if our space agency can assist you in bringing Matt Kerman home.

6 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

Rather than create a single large album that might be a little tedious to browse, I've broken them into 3 separate albums:

 

The albums are not visible to me.  It  could be the spoiler is causing issues? Would you please re post your album links.

 

@pasukaru76

I will be reviewing the entry and send you the updated badge.

Edited January 2, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[ManEatingApe]

7 hours ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

Did you test your vessel by constructing it first on Kerbin?

@MoeslyArmlis In true Caveman style there was no testing whatsoever done of the completed Space Train vessel before it launched from Minmus. It was a little nerve-wracking as I had not idea whether or not:

• With 14 docking ports the Kraken would strike immediately
• The thing would be manoeuvrable at all
• If it had enough fuel to even reach Duna!

7 hours ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

It looks as if you enabled the staging feature for the docking ports, but you did not use it that way.

The ports were used as decouplers when each section was launched piece by piece from Kerbin and it looks like the game remembered this when I re-assembled them on Minimus. I really should have fixed the staging during the mission but just used the undock function instead.

In 1.0.4 you could attach a docking port to a non-docking port piece. You could then detach but not-reattach this piece, a useful trick to save weight and part count. 1.0.5 has made this even better since you can now have the docking port decouple in the staging flow, a nice feature I was taking advantage of.

7 hours ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

The albums are not visible to me.  It  could be the spoiler is causing issues? Would you please re post your album links.

No worries, just in case here's the direct album links Part 1 - Warmup,  Part 2 - Assembly and Part 3 - Duna Mission and here's the albums reposted:

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by ManEatingApe

[Moesly_Armlis]

@pasukaru76

You have acquired another mineral; apatite.  For a rock thrown at Dres, you receive the Dres Order of Troglodyte Award.  Great job.

 

@ManEatingApe

 

Building a space train was fascinating and clever.  Instead of orbital rendezvous and docking you landed and placed your assemblies in close proximity then docked them together.  I am curious as to how much extra fuel was used doing ground rendezvous compared to orbital rendezvous.  Although the Space Litter Cops will be sure to charge and fine your space agency on multiple counts and locations.

You have successfully completed the caveman challenge and acquired the vanadium mineral.  For your interplanetary trip to Duna you are also awarded the Duna Order of Troglodyte.

Fellow clan members welcome our newest caveman ManEatingApe

Edited January 3, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[Bev7787]

 

i finally have a craft that can go to Laythe

 

Edited January 3, 2016 by Bev7787

[ManEatingApe]

 

10 hours ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

Fellow clan members welcome our newest caveman ManEatingApe

Thank you, I'm honoured and delighted to join the clan.

To make it easier to chisel the clan members' names into the cave wall using the primitive landing struts we have available, I've taken the liberty of providing each clan member's name in Ogham (an alphabet designed to be hacked into stone pillars):

GoSlash27    ᚌᚑᚄᚂᚐᚄᚆᚇᚆᚐᚄᚕᚉᚆᚈ
pasukaru76   ᚚᚐᚄᚒᚉᚐᚏᚒᚄᚕᚉᚆᚈᚄᚓ
Caithloki  ᚉᚐᚔᚈᚆᚂᚑᚉᚔ
MoeslyArmlis  ᚋᚑᚓᚄᚂᚆᚐᚏᚋᚂᚔᚄ
Nefrums    ᚅᚓᚃᚏᚒᚋᚄ
wibou7   ᚃᚔᚁᚑᚒᚄᚕᚉᚆᚈ
ManEatingApe    ᚋᚐᚅᚕᚈᚔᚍᚐᚚᚓ
Bev7787  ᚁᚓᚃᚄᚕᚉᚆᚈᚄᚕᚉᚆᚈᚄᚑᚉᚆᚈᚕᚉᚆᚈ

 

Edited January 3, 2016 by ManEatingApe

[pasukaru76]

In order to complete my collection of the basic minerals, here's my run at moderate difficulty.

Nothing special this time. I skipped most of science available from KSC buildings just because I did not feel like driving another science rover thingy all around the block. I seem to have acquired the skill of consistently hitting Minmus SOI with caveman tools, four missions to Minmus and the Hohmann transfer was spot on for all of them.

 

[sal_vager]

Well done @MoeslyArmlis, this is a great challenge, you're stickied for 2016!

[pasukaru76]

I wanted to improve my time for the easy mode speed run, so here's another attempt. Elapsed game time is 1h 42m.

The last mission of this run was an orbital trip to gather "in space high above Kerbin" science, which alone accounted for 44m of the time. I needed 120 science points to finish when I launched that mission. I'm guessing flying a science plane to the highlands and mountains might have been a little faster, though maybe not by much.

 

[ManEatingApe]

@Bev7787 I'm looking forward to your Laythe mission, you'll be the first Caveman to send your Kerbal on holiday there!

To pass the time I threw a rock pebble at Eeloo. No fancy multiple launches although the craft was right on the mass and part limit at 17.94 tons and 30 parts respectively.

By sheer fluke I got a close enough intercept that after 1 save/reload I was able to tweak the orbit close enough to get a capture.

 

Album:

 

 

[pasukaru76]

9 minutes ago, ManEatingApe said:

To pass the time I threw a rock pebble at Eeloo. No fancy multiple launches although the craft was right on the mass and part limit at 17.94 tons and 30 parts respectively.

Excellent! Now someone needs to go to Moho and then we'll have proof that cavemen can go to any planet. I tried Moho once but did not hit the transfer window accurately enough.

It's good to know that multiple OX-STAT panels are enough to power a probe core at Eeloo.

[ManEatingApe]

33 minutes ago, pasukaru76 said:

Excellent! Now someone needs to go to Moho and then we'll have proof that cavemen can go to any planet. I tried Moho once but did not hit the transfer window accurately enough.

I was sure that you were already working on it as you've already ticked off Eve, Duna, Dres and Jool. I'd love to see you succeed, Moho terrifies me with it's insane 3500 m/s insertion burns.

It'll probably need at least 2 craft docked together to get the necessary dV. Moho is such a sneaky planet, it looks so temptingly close, but energetically speaking it's further away than Eeloo.

33 minutes ago, pasukaru76 said:

It's good to know that multiple OX-STAT panels are enough to power a probe core at Eeloo.

Just barely enough to break even. I had to carefully keep the craft oriented to face the sun or it would start running out of power.

Edited January 3, 2016 by ManEatingApe

[pasukaru76]

2 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

I was sure that you were already working on it as you've already ticked off Eve, Duna, Dres and Jool. I'd love to see you succeed, Moho terrifies me with it's insane 3500 m/s insertion burns.

I would be satisfied if I can manage a fly-by, and thrilled if the fly-by would be close enough to actually see the planet.

As of now I have not trying docking in my caveman saves. I'm tempted to try your way of docking on Minmus, it seems that might be easier than a rendezvous in space.

[Bev7787]

Ttnarg from the original caveman challenge did a kerbed round mission to Duna

[ManEatingApe]

1 hour ago, Bev7787 said:

Ttnarg from the original caveman challenge did a kerbed round mission to Duna

Wow he did! What a high bar to set, that was epic. Clever use of both ground side docking and orbital docking. For reference, here is the link to ttnarg's mission post

 

1 hour ago, pasukaru76 said:

As of now I have not trying docking in my caveman saves. I'm tempted to try your way of docking on Minmus, it seems that might be easier than a rendezvous in space.

I was just giving orbital docking a shot. First of all <facepalm> it turns out the the navball will show target mode once you're close enough (~10km not sure of exact upper bound)

I hadn't realised this. It was mentioned in the original Caveman thread, so <sigh> RTFM lesson for me. However that makes docking just hard instead of extravagantly difficult. 

I sent up 2 ships, being much more careful with their ascents so that their orbits were almost identical, then time warped in the Tracking Station until they were close. I could then select target mode by double clicking the other ship in normal view.

Then it was simply business as usual... 

  

 

I'm not sure which is a better approach yet, the Minimus assembly approach lets you be much less precise but limits the maximum size of any single to piece to ~ 1.1 tons. On the other hand driving a rover on the surface is a lot of fun!

On the gripping hand Orbital docking is technically far superior, but you have to be careful on the ascent.

Edited January 3, 2016 by ManEatingApe