The Elcano Challenge: Ground-Based Circumnavigation (Continued)

[max_creative]

I would assume jumping all the way over a Mun crater breaks the rules, right? I mean, it's so awesome! But it definitely goes way to high... I going to need a lot of books to read while waiting with a weight on the W key...

[Claw]

On 7/4/2016 at 9:12 AM, Thalamask said:

Congrats, Claw. Nice mission. I note you bring your Kerbals back too... nice touch!

Thanks. And yes indeed, they are the same crew that has done all of my Elcano missions.

[LaytheDragon]

How long would a Tylo Elcano take IRL? I have a Transport Trucker on its surface, and it can go up to 50 m/s on Tylo generally (and more dangerously for the "suspension" I used to place the wheels on, it can take 2x physics warp). I was able to have it drive on fine after damaging two of its front four wheels on the truck cab during a small jump during 2x physics warp at 50+ m/s on a small slope downhill. It has 12 wheels on the cab, plus another 16 on the trailer at the back. The semi-truck open-box trailer on the back can be unhitched from the cab, too. I think (but am not certain that) it should be capable for an Elcano on Tylo, but I know not if I'd be able to have the patience, despite it being quite fun to drive (and crash).

 

[Claw]

1 hour ago, LaytheDragon said:

How long would a Tylo Elcano take IRL?

I think it took me about sixty hours in-game, though I was not able to sustain 50m/s the whole time. By pure math, it would take about 11 hours of real time at 50m/s and 2x warp. I had to repeat several legs of the journey due to crashes, and probably averaged about 20m/s. I can't recall off hand if I was able to go 2x or 3x most of the way. It was extraordinarily painful.

Quite frankly, Tylo is pretty low on my list of enjoyable drives. But everyone is different, and enjoys different things, so maybe it'll be your kind of thing.

I would assume jumping all the way over a Mun crater breaks the rules, right?

Yes, that's right. Only brief jumps are allowed. There's no definition of brief, but I'd say sailing over the tops of craters might not qualify as brief (since most craters are pretty large).

[LaytheDragon]

10 minutes ago, Claw said:

I think it took me about sixty hours in-game, though I was not able to sustain 50m/s the whole time. By pure math, it would take about 11 hours of real time at 50m/s and 2x warp.

I would probably drive at 40 m/s on non-perfectly-flat terrain due to my 50+ m/s on a downslope run at 2x warp being dangerous, and ending in a large enough bump blowing up some wheels, but it doesn't sound repulsive from what you are stating. Here is a picture of my truck after popping some tires on a "jump" going 50+ m/s downhill.

Spoiler

 

Also, @Claw, is there any chance that you (or another developer) can fix the invisible Pol walls now that you are on the developer team? I haven't myself encountered them, even when I refueled the ship that brought that truck to Tylo on Pol, but I have noticed them discouraging some players from landing on Pol.

Edited July 6, 2016 by LaytheDragon

[Claw]

My Moho mission is up!

It was quite a ride. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I wish the terrain had a bit more shades of color to it, but the relief of the terrain was quite nice (for the most part). The first launch was a failure, partly due to fuel constraints and partly due to bad pilotage. After adding a few moar boosters, the crew was on their way with the rover. They even took a tour of the Mohole.

 

Here's the mission album

 

[Claw]

3 hours ago, LaytheDragon said:

Also, @Claw, is there any chance that you (or another developer) can fix the invisible Pol walls now that you are on the developer team?

It's on my list, though I couldn't guess as to when it might get looked at. :/ 

[Daeridanii]

@Claw. If you'll permit the question, why are mod planets not allowed? I was kind of hoping to do an Uncharted Kerbin run.

[max_creative]

Almost done with the K-L sail rover mk1!

It's going to need a lot of work before I take it to the pyramids in my mission report though... It floats though! (Unless you run into a Mallard plane like I did.)

[The Optimist]

Sad news, my friends...

The evil horrible satanic glitch kraken has eaten the entire alternate universe where the LandKreuser was...

[damerell]

16 hours ago, The Optimist said:

The evil horrible satanic glitch kraken has eaten the entire alternate universe where the LandKreuser was...

Not even a craft file left?

[Claw]

On 7/6/2016 at 1:39 PM, Daeridanii said:

@Claw. If you'll permit the question, why are mod planets not allowed?

Well, I'v been thinking about this and I'm not sure I have a hugely satisfying answer. One part is that it was an original rule, and I've kept the rules consistent. But also, with the near limitless planets (and other mods) available, I've tried not to create too many caveats for the rules. And with so many other options, creating badges and categories might become unmanagable. So a bit of a copout, but tracking all that might be quite a burden.

 

On 7/6/2016 at 1:42 PM, max_creative said:

Almost done with the K-L sail rover mk1!

Looking forward to seeing it.

20 hours ago, The Optimist said:

The evil horrible satanic glitch kraken...

I see your other post. Hopefully we can help you sort the save issues. Good luck!

 

Cheers,
-Claw

[The Optimist]

5 hours ago, Claw said:

Well, I'v been thinking about this and I'm not sure I have a hugely satisfying answer. One part is that it was an original rule, and I've kept the rules consistent. But also, with the near limitless planets (and other mods) available, I've tried not to create too many caveats for the rules. And with so many other options, creating badges and categories might become unmanagable. So a bit of a copout, but tracking all that might be quite a burden.

 

Looking forward to seeing it.

I see your other post. Hopefully we can help you sort the save issues. Good luck!

 

Cheers,
-Claw

The persistent and quicksave files were corrupted. It's just a jumble of bugs, and it even prevented me from opening other saves.

[Claw]

I've posted my Gilly mission report, including a bit about the design and launch.

 

Here's the Elcano album!

 

Gilly wasn't all that fun, but I think that was mostly my own fault for not designing the rover a bit better. I thought it would stay attached to the surface a bit better than it did, so didn't bother to attach a "down force" system to keep the rover firmly grounded. This limited the drive to about 1.5 m/s... Sloooowwww....

[The_Rocketeer]

Started an Elcano ocean circumnavigation of Kerbin today. After something less than 2 hours, I'm about 1/5 of the way round Kerbin, stopped at dusk at a small lonely island to the east of the Pyramid desert. My craft is a jet-powered catamaran-hydrofoil that cruises at about 100m/s, drawing inspiration from the Bartini Beriev VVA-14 ecranoplan (tho mine doesn't isn't supposed to actually fly!). I estimate it will need 2 fuel stops to complete the journey, but these will have to be delivered by plane because I didn't pack an ISRU.

Already had a few mishaps, including an accidental keystrike that cost me 2 air intakes and one auxiliary engine. This slows me down when I'm fully fuelled, but at about 2/3rds full the craft gets back up to top cruising speed - overspeeding is possible but results in horrifying control loss and -ahem- backflips! and crashing! and death!

Here's a few shots so far:

 

[Claw]

5 minutes ago, The_Rocketeer said:

My craft is a jet-powered catamaran-hydrofoil that cruises at about 100m/s

That's a really awesome looking boat. Have any zoomed out pictures of it at speed? I'm guessing it glides on top of the foils. Sort of looks a bit like an A-10 meets catamaran to me.

 

[The_Rocketeer]

2 minutes ago, Claw said:

That's a really awesome looking boat. Have any zoomed out pictures of it at speed? I'm guessing it glides on top of the foils. Sort of looks a bit like an A-10 meets catamaran to me.

Thanks!

Yeh, it rises out of the water pretty gradually between 30-60 m/s, and above 60 it looks like the thing is 'standing' on the floats, with only the foils and gearpods submerged. I'll try to dig out a screenshot...

Here we go:

 

I'm currently thinking about refining this until I can circumnavigate non-stop, without refuelling. I don't know what the current surface speed-run is, but I can't imagine many crafts that can keep up with this in the current release.

Edited July 9, 2016 by The_Rocketeer

[Thalamask]

21 hours ago, Claw said:

I've posted my Gilly mission report, including a bit about the design and launch

Gilly wasn't all that fun, but I think that was mostly my own fault for not designing the rover a bit better. I thought it would stay attached to the surface a bit better than it did, so didn't bother to attach a "down force" system to keep the rover firmly grounded. This limited the drive to about 1.5 m/s... Sloooowwww....

I found Gilly quite tricky as well. I took my ionbike out there and you can rest easy knowing that engines merely present a different set of problems, rather than making things better. Congrats on another complete Elcano, Claw. You must be very nearly finished by now!

[Claw]

34 minutes ago, Thalamask said:

You must be very nearly finished by now!

Thanks!

...and indeed I am. Only Eve left, and I'm actually a bit over 3/4 done with it. The mission reports have been lagging (much like they did with Jool).

[Thalamask]

2 minutes ago, Claw said:

Thanks!

...and indeed I am. Only Eve left, and I'm actually a bit over 3/4 done with it. The mission reports have been lagging (much like they did with Jool).

Ah, ya barsteward. I suppose it was hoping too much to be able to beat you to the finish given how long you've been around working on these things!. Unfortunately, nobody remembers second place! 

[edit] Are you at least going to create some sort of "Elcano Grand Master" badge that I can have as a consolation prize?[/edit]

Edited July 10, 2016 by Thalamask

[Claw]

Actually, that also raises a difficult question. What to do about a badge? It would feel kinda strange designing my own. I mean, I can make it, but feels weird doing the main design (too much like tooting my own horn). You guys have any ideas for some sort of master badge?

[Thalamask]

I'm no expert, and I couldn't design the badge myself, but what about something like this:

Start with a base badge like Mun. Strip the planet out the centre and put the wheel in. Then steal the propeller from the water challenge and overlay that on the central wheel.

Under the two arches, where the wheels used to be, put Kerbin and Eve one on each side, then arrange the remaining smaller bodies around the outside edge of each of the planets, grand-tour style.

The top text could read "Elcano Grand Master" and the bottom would stay with "Circumnavigator".

Keep the central wreathe. It looks cool.

What do you think?

[Claw]

2 hours ago, Thalamask said:

What do you think?

How about this for a start?

 

This one might be a bit busy, with the wings essentially covered. I think I will try your idea by expanding the sides a bit and putting the moons around the edges, but maybe leave the planets on the inner part. Also, having the wheel large with the prop on top looked odd.

 

Edit: Okay, second pass with the moons on the outer edge and flipping the wheel/prop size.

[The_Rocketeer]

3 hours ago, Claw said:

 

Nice, but still a little busy.

I'd make the 3 roundels Kerbin, Eve and Tylo (left to right), keeping the wings as are but scale up the laurels and send to back so they go behind all 3 roundels. Put the small moons/planets in 2 blocks of 6 (2 wide, 3 tall) overlapping the edges of Kerbin/Eve and Eve/Tylo. The wheel and prop I'd like to keep somewhere too, perhaps scaled down to the small-planet size and place side-by-side over Kerbin and Tylo?

[Chemp]

On 9.7.2016 at 11:56 PM, The_Rocketeer said:

Started an Elcano ocean circumnavigation of Kerbin today.

I love the way this looks, especially the cockpit placement.

How do you deal with the asymmetric thrust? Did you angle the engines, or do you let the control surfaces handle the offset?

Edited July 10, 2016 by Chemp