My own KSP challenge

[Kermanzooming]

It's true that KSP is not finely balanced in terms of gameplay; you can easily unlock all the tech tree without leaving the Kerbin system, so going to the outer planets is not needed in terms of science.

And heavily modding my game is not an option, as I am playing on a not so powerful laptop that can't cope with a lot of mods.

That's why I have challenged myself; I should get a Surface Sample from every biome in every body (planets and moons) and bring it back safely to Kerbin.

It also gives me a reason for creating manned base with MKS-Lite, so exploration can be done locally instead of from Kerbin.

Anyone has done this challenge before?

[JT531]

I'm sure someone has, they just haven't posted about it in recent memory.

also.. are you planning a grand tour sort of thing or one-planet-at-a-time?

good luck!

[qromodynmc]

If i have rocket parts capable of interplanetary, I directly go to Duna, then Jool etc. Yeah we can unlock all tech tree in kerbin system but, point of game is not unlocking tree, it's exploring the universe.

[NSEP]

I have never done this before, and i probably wont, because building and flying takes alot of time. Just imagine you forgot the ladders on that thing! UNGGG!

[Provisional Name 12]

I basically started a career with this objective of collecting all the science in all the biomes, but I am using a bunch of mods including. MKS/OKS, LS and remote tech. So that will take a bit longer, but it actually doesn't seem to be that bad, I am pretty close to establishing my mun and minimus bases After that I will probably setup a more long-term craft to hit gilly > moho > Ike. Probably might need to send a solar upgrade to meet for the ike stage, might need a crew replacement or something as well. But by then I should already have something on duna and be working on an Eve base. I wouldn't be totally surprised if that took me a while to complete, but grinding out the mun and minimus have been the biggest effort before, because of their numerous biomes. I'm probably a better pilot and base planner by now though.

I think that unless you are using life support MKS doesn't have any hostile effects on your gameplay and you can virtually ignore it for just picking up all the samples. You should do what I was talking about and build a single low-g/no-atmos lander to hit gilley, moho, ike and dres. Not sure if you could move it into jool without problems (probably need alt power like nuke or fuel cell after that) but all you really need for that run is a stock refueling/tugboat setup and a small resource scanner satellite. Eve you might as well leave it till later cause you will need to fire a rover down with some sort of way to return. Rovering around eve has to be one of the most tedious things but if you leave it till you have the good wheels you will probably have more fun.

I can't really offer good advice on the outer system though. Haven't been past duna, before I installed these mods and did a career restart.

[Kermanzooming]

2 hours ago, SpaceCommunism said:

I think that unless you are using life support MKS doesn't have any hostile effects on your gameplay and you can virtually ignore it .

Forgot to add I'm playing with USI Life Support, so bases will be an extra challenge. I like your plan, gathering all science from all biomes is quite a challenge... And the point of taking Surface Samples is to force me to do manned missions with a return to Kerbin.

Right now I have probes on the way to Duna+Ike, Jool and Moho for reconnaissance purposes.

[magnemoe]

In this game I have all biomes and bases on all practical bodies as goal. Done with Mun, Minmus, Duna and Ike, Gilly and Eve but just orbital station on Eve. 
Bases on Pol and Bop in the Jool system while all moons except Laythe is explored. 
Has an contract on Moho so its next 

[Kermanzooming]

7 hours ago, magnemoe said:

In this game I have all biomes and bases on all practical bodies as goal. Done with Mun, Minmus, Duna and Ike, Gilly and Eve but just orbital station on Eve. 
Bases on Pol and Bop in the Jool system while all moons except Laythe is explored. 
Has an contract on Moho so its next 

Are you playing with Life Support? Which one?

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, Kermanzooming said:

Are you playing with Life Support? Which one?

With tac life support, I also use planetary bases who has an greenhouse reducing the supply need for bases some. 
Also uses roverdude's orion mod, it greatly reduces travel times to other planets at an vastly increased cost, I can reach Jool in 100 days but it will cost me an 4-700.000 credits.  

[Kermanzooming]

I didn' knew of the Orion engines... they look awesome (video review for those like me).

 I had a look at TAC and USI-LS, at the end decided for the simpler USI option. I installed it to give bases some reason to be ( and hopefully, with the need of greenhouses, to achieve some kind of self-sufficiency).

As I play on a Mid-2011 MacBook Air, I tend to use as less mods as possible... Althoug maybe performance is not as affected by the number of mods as per the number of parts, never really knew.