Jump to content

The Ultimate Challange


Recommended Posts

4 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Is this a stock contract? Is there a way to make it appear?

You could test it pretty easily (once you get it offered) by hyperediting a cheesy ship from Kerbin to Eve orbit, then detatch part and Hyperedit that down to landing, then toss parts of it away and Hyperedit it back into orbit and dock it, then Hyperedit the whole thing to Moho and then land the same pod with a different lander (via Hyperedit again) and see if the "one ship" checkbox stays checked.

I though am pretty sure the game isn't going to care how much of the ship landed and returned from the surfaces so long as a single - and the same - command pod did.

The contract is in the original post, and yes, it's stock. 

I think you said the magic words, the "same command pod".   I think you have the right idea using an experiment with Hyperedit to see how the contract responds.  I'll try and get something set up tomorrow

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

The contract is in the original post, and yes, it's stock.

I saw the original post. :) Is there some tell in the picture that shows it's a stock contract? I mean, it follows the patterns of stock contracts but so do many modded contracts.

I suppose we could set up a save with all contracts but that one disabled, and maxxed out rep/money/science so it's essentially Sandbox plus that contract.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I saw the original post. :) Is there some tell in the picture that shows it's a stock contract? I mean, it follows the patterns of stock contracts but so do many modded contracts.

I suppose we could set up a save with all contracts but that one disabled, and maxxed out rep/money/science so it's essentially Sandbox plus that contract.

I don't know how to tell it's stock from the picture, other than I'm not using any mods. 
Only Chatterer, which doesn't effect contracts, and Hyperedit when I absolutely have to for my fan-fiction story. 
Other than that I'm playing a vanilla career game.
If there is a way to show it in the contract, I will definitely provide a picture or whatever. 
But other than that I guess you'll have to take my word on it.  :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So is that going to be the cardinal rule for this challenge, same command pod touches every body? Or are you going to wait on the hyperedit test to see if it fulfills your contract requirements?

 

I'm tempted. I'm 95% there... pretty sure I'd have to start from scratch for Eve though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Oh I wasn't doubting you, I was just curious. I'm interested in a way to make the game serve up the contract.

Oh... that I can't help you with, sorry.  In almost 1000 hours of playing, this is the first time I've had it come up.  Honestly, until yesterday, I didn't know it existed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, WhiteKnuckle said:

So is that going to be the cardinal rule for this challenge, same command pod touches every body? Or are you going to wait on the hyperedit test to see if it fulfills your contract requirements?

 

I'm tempted. I'm 95% there... pretty sure I'd have to start from scratch for Eve though.

I'm not sure it's a cardinal rule.... I'll try the hyperedit thing tomorrow and see what happens.

There are other challenges that have different "levels"... I guess that's the right word for it.  Personally, I don't see why @sdj64 shouldn't be acceptable.  That's an extremely impressive mission report.  But the way the game is structured might not agree.

Perhaps we can add an "Elite" class for anyone doing it with just one command pod instead of using several. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sadly it appears that there's no way to make it appear by simple config file editing. The best I can think to do is make all other contracts super rare, and make all the "grand tour" contracts super likely and allow you to have like 30 of them at a time :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@EvermoreAlpaca very nearly did it, except the Eve lander.  http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/111626-the-ultimate-jool-5-challenge-continuation-for-ksp-10/&do=findComment&comment=2209188

As others have said, my grand tour would not qualify under that contract.  To design a ship for it, it would be a similar all in one ISRU ship with a lower stage(s) that get dropped on Eve ascent.  Do Eve first and then everything else can be done with the top stage.  That or something with 5thHorseman's command pod switching idea (make sure it's the root part too).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, sdj64 said:

@EvermoreAlpaca very nearly did it, except the Eve lander.  http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/111626-the-ultimate-jool-5-challenge-continuation-for-ksp-10/&do=findComment&comment=2209188

As others have said, my grand tour would not qualify under that contract.  To design a ship for it, it would be a similar all in one ISRU ship with a lower stage(s) that get dropped on Eve ascent.  Do Eve first and then everything else can be done with the top stage.  That or something with 5thHorseman's command pod switching idea (make sure it's the root part too).

Well, qualify or not, I think your ship is still really, really impressive! 

His video is an hour long.  I'll watch it tomorrow.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I condensed that mission into a 6 minute version here:

I later did a low mass version here:

 

Obviously, both have a disposable lander that brings the brave pilot down to eve and back up again.  Single stage from eve's surface to orbit is technically possible, and I have personally done it using hyperedit to get to the surface of eve, but the challenge of actually landing it there is daunting, if not impossible.  In any case, you would have to at the minimum detach the eve plane from a mothership in low eve orbit and reattach when back in orbit.  Being as you can just barely get from the surface of eve to orbit without any consideration for the challenges posed by landing, I would be very shocked if anyone manages to achieve a mission to eve and back without losing any parts to the purple beast.

Some more relevant advice is this:  Don't let anyone tell you how to do your mission.  Its fun to look at challenges and take inspiration from what others have done, but personally I have more fun by setting my own objectives and rules, and doing things my way!  

Case in point, and because I am obsessed with grand tours, I did a single stage grand tour by merely doing a fly-by of each planet and moon, not landing anywhere.  Took quite a bit less delta V than I anticipated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghbCTpKJxtY

Edited by EvermoreAlpaca
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, EvermoreAlpaca said:

...I did a single stage grand tour by merely doing a fly-by of each planet and moon, not landing anywhere.  Took quite a bit less delta V than I anticipated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghbCTpKJxtY

I made a flyby challenge with a stipulation of doing the whole thing from launch to landing (one ship) in 12 Kerbin years. The first actual attempt did it in 4 using the Y6 Eeloo launch window.

Forum Search "Kessel Run". There's an abstract of the route taken as well. Outermost inward. Plenty of refuel stops as well, it might even be possible to keep it to less than 5 years *and* make at least one landing per planet SOI with the same command pod, reuniting with the same mothership each time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ihtoit said:

I made a flyby challenge with a stipulation of doing the whole thing from launch to landing (one ship) in 12 Kerbin years. The first actual attempt did it in 4 using the Y6 Eeloo launch window.

Forum Search "Kessel Run". There's an abstract of the route taken as well. Outermost inward. Plenty of refuel stops as well, it might even be possible to keep it to less than 5 years *and* make at least one landing per planet SOI with the same command pod, reuniting with the same mothership each time.

Due to the single stage design, heavy use of gravity assist was necessary to finish without refueling.  Interesting challenge you have there, favouring speed over efficiency.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ihtoit said:

I made a flyby challenge with a stipulation of doing the whole thing from launch to landing (one ship) in 12 Kerbin years. The first actual attempt did it in 4 using the Y6 Eeloo launch window.

Forum Search "Kessel Run". There's an abstract of the route taken as well. Outermost inward. Plenty of refuel stops as well, it might even be possible to keep it to less than 5 years *and* make at least one landing per planet SOI with the same command pod, reuniting with the same mothership each time.

You know... it didn't occur to me until I read this how long this will take (in game time). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is really interesting.

I think the most difficult interpretation would be that your lander can only shed parts and not gain them.

In that case, I think my approach might be:

1. Design a Tylo lander.

2. Make that the top stage of my Eve lander.

Go to Eve first, and everything else should work out fine.  Heck of a transfer stage needed for the thing, of course.  Or maybe several different disposable transfer stages that get sent separately.  Hmmm.

I may well be insane, but now I'm really tempted to try this.

Happy landings!

Edited by Starhawk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I played around with an experimental ship and hyperedit and it looks like the contract wants the one-command pod option.  Anyone out there wants to verify that would be most welcome.

But as far as a forum challenge, this is already so hard I don't see it needing to be a requirement.  Maybe we could set it up with like a gold, silver and bronze levels.  Gold level being stock with one command pod only, silver lever a stock mothership with multiple landers, bronze heavily modded mothership.... or something to that effect. 

I've never hosted a challenge before, so I'm open to suggestions at this point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Im working on this with a stock ship, got my single command pod landed on the Jool-5 (posted pics over there too), Eeloo, Dres, Duna, Ike, and now waiting in a Gilly orbit for my Eve lander and Moho diver transfer stage to show up.  Val is having quite a time of it, with a lego-style ship featuring a Klaw tug that has gone through 6 reconfigurations at last count.

Part 1:

 

Part 2:

Part 3:

 

Edited by Jetski
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eve failure!  So I got my Eve and Moho ship over to Eve SOI, met up with Val in the drive/pod lander, and got everything reconfigured nicely.  Then I tried landing.  First attempt I jettisoned the fairing and it knocked off a few landing fins, unfortunately with half my chutes attached.  Next attempt I landed too low, my lifter can't make orbit from 1900m, despite my best efforts.  Now another F9, and I'll try again later.  Here's the meetup and attempts so far, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, Jetski said:

Eve failure!  So I got my Eve and Moho ship over to Eve SOI, met up with Val in the drive/pod lander, and got everything reconfigured nicely.  Then I tried landing.  First attempt I jettisoned the fairing and it knocked off a few landing fins, unfortunately with half my chutes attached.  Next attempt I landed too low, my lifter can't make orbit from 1900m, despite my best efforts.  Now another F9, and I'll try again later.  Here's the meetup and attempts so far, though.

Very impressive!!!
I'm thinking of maybe making a refueling colony on the surface of Eve before I attempt it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Just Jim said:

Very impressive!!!
I'm thinking of maybe making a refueling colony on the surface of Eve before I attempt it.

Fuel wasn't the issue, there's just a top limit on the size of Eve lifter I'm willing to transport out there before FPS goes to single digits. I'm going to try @parzr landing spot, maybe better luck from there.  If that fails, I'll go get a bigger lifter, and not try to package my Moho diver in the same launch :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/27/2016 at 0:52 AM, Just Jim said:

This is an absolutely amazing and inspiring mission, but I have to wonder if you're right. 
Because different landers were used for different bodies, I'm not sure the contract would accept it.

 

On 1/27/2016 at 5:53 PM, Starhawk said:

Not sure how the current iteration of the contract system handles undocking and redocking when "using a single vessel" is specified.

Last time I checked (which may have been 0.90), every command module (probe core, pod, cockpit) maintained a list of situations it's been in. So the "vessel" to complete this mission can be a singe tiny probe core + docking port that gets attached to any number of special-purpose landers. The mission was complete when I landed the command module on Kerbin -- no recovery needed. This also meant that I could keep the vessel sitting around, allowing me to complete the mission again and again simply by switching to the landed vessel.

1 hour ago, Just Jim said:

I'm thinking of maybe making a refueling colony on the surface of Eve before I attempt it.

Siberia is sooo last century.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...