2x gravity career mode stock challenge

[galactictaco]

so i started a career mode with hacked gravity (you have to set it each load in but its worth the challenge). basically its just stock career mode but in 2x gravity, making most of the early missions next to impossible (i found only the world first missions could pay the bills when it takes 7k delta v to get to orbit, you cant waste your effort and funds on a mission for 1600 funds). its been a huge challenge so far, especially given the 3k mps orbital speed makes reentry extremely deadly (havent gotten back any experimental data other than crew reports since science parts explode at around 40 kilometers. return from the mun was next to impossible, still in the works for my play thru. you return at over 4k mps which means instant death without over a kilometer of delta v to slow your approach, you still use nearly your entire heat shield entering at 3k mps, and like i said, you cant recover much science without clever protection measures. i cannot imagine trying to land and return from the mun. with the tech i have unlocked its a struggle to get even 4 tons into orbit. but yeah, 2x gravity stock career mode if you are up for a challenge. your first orbital mission is basically a mun shot and every mission after that is also crazy difficult, most normal vessel configurations are basically useless since its over 1k mps to get to the mun. so going for a lunar mission is equivalent to a duna mission, at least in terms of injection delta v, i noticed my orbital speed was pretty high tho when i got to the mun, close to a kilometer per second, im not sure how that compares to duna or ike. its a big leap forward in engineering, at least as a lay player, thats for sure, maybe it will be easier as my engines get bigger, but i need 5 skippers and 4 big solid rocket boosters to get a 4 ton mun mission into orbit and it still comes up short by 300 delta v. i dont imagine mainsails will improve this by much but im also still developing launch vehicles that make sense in this new high grav environment. the other thing i noticed with reentry is that normal parachute procedure (1 cone on top of the mk 1 pod) will potentially blow up your heat shield on landing, you come down at over 8 mps which i didnt think was that fast but i see my heat shields blowing up an aweful lot at that speed, not a major concern but worth mentioning if simulated danger is a concern in your space programs.

[SOURanger]

I think this is a superb idea but you need to set us ground rules ie: decide whether this has to be completely stock or whether mods that help with dv calculations or contract packs are allowed (I'm assuming we can't have KW rocketry), decide how you're scoring us and at what point the challenge is complete (completing tech tree for example), also will there be an easy normal or hard mode? Decide upon these things and I will eagerly take this on. Peace.

[galactictaco]

interesting, i hadnt thought it through that far. i suppose completing the world first missions up to a returned landing with flags from the mun would be the challenge (no minmus missions to enhance science return), i base this on how difficult science return is (especially weighted against cost if you wanted to farm kerbin, those launches are pretty heavy if youre trying to reach the poles or badlands, 12 science isnt going to be worth it after a while), im one mission from landing on the mun i think and i cannot fathom the build, ive had to cheat contracts just to keep my funds near able to afford my launches so id imagine an official challenge run would have been much more tedious and time consuming given the marginal return on investment, these launches are very costly with the need for so many engines and basically twice the normal launch size. im banking on a decent return on science from my current 'orbit the mun' mission because i sank the goo canisters deeper into my vessel, but i can also imagine they will explode anyway when i reload the save. this is with a 3k mps reentry, so thats already me saving a kilometer per second worth of fuel to slow down when i get back just to avoid exploding on contact with reentry plasma, this is definitely quite a challenge.

 

  im using the fixed version of KER which would seem only fair given the amount of experimenting it takes to get the right TWR and also have enough delta-v. beyond that im on 1.2 so most of my favorite mods arent updated, but given the changes to things like delta-v costs and transfer windows (youre going faster so you need way different transfers, i found trying to get to the mun without instrumentation meant a completely different path than i normally take) i would say the only thing against the rules is mod parts for your ship itself. so stock boosters engines fuel tanks etc. the spirit of the challenge is to be as stock as possible but obviously the nature of the changes means builds need more feedback in terms of TWR or deta-v. contract packs would be sort of cheating in my book, considering in my opinion, the broken nature of the contract system works greatly towards the challenge. you dont get many realistic options from the standard contract system other than to charge towards world first missions just to break even and earn enough to build a bigger vessel next time and also have upgrades to your VAB and launch pad. and those upgrades are basically essential from start because the 30 part limit and weight limit prevent you from being able to achieve orbit entirely, at least with early tech.

 

im not sure if there would be hard mode beyond the initial challenge, i havnt calculated a transfer window to duna nor have i calculated my delta v costs or my encounter velocity, i hazard a guess duna may be out of reach until you get significantly deeper into the tech tree but i suppose the inherent unknown of this mission qualifies it for hard mode. i dont see how a point system could be put in place, i havent found many ways to innovate launch builds beyond the russian route of adding engines like a motherloveer to the first stage. the main challenge to this in my opinion is that pulling off a manned landing and return from the mun will take as much effort as a manned launch and return from duna, but you will not have anywhere near the tech needed. i still cannot even exit my craft off world, so i cannot even complete the challenge once i make my first landing LOL.

[galactictaco]

so my update is landing on the mun is next to impossible, at least given this play thru. its over 100k units to launch (i was at 150k+) and i didn't manage to get any landing gear tech or small construction pieces (it could be done but more trouble than its worth without higher tech level) so landing ended rather poorly,wound up sideways and stranded (altho i think had enough delta v left, about 1300 ish), science jr won't survive reentry. this challenge might be more fun to try than it is possible to achieve. 

munar orbital velocity was around 750 at an altitude of 50k so more doable than it first appeared but still a substantial challenge. will be diving back in eventually but losing every piece of science off a cheated back craft because reentry heating at 3k mps is rather disheartening. science survived munar orbit, but the munar lander i cheated home still violently erupted on entry.

[macktruck6666]

I say multiple difficulties. 1.5 gravity for easy. 2.0 for Normal. and 2.5 for Hard.

[galactictaco]

I've been getting phantom exceleration under hacked gravity, so gave up on going back to the mun, i suspect I'm gonna come up short anyway on delta v when i get home and explode on entry, but it kind of made me feel like 'why even bother' especially since its shard to cheat craft home with the mock hyper edit feature and my predicted intercepts are utter horse excrements and my orbit becomes dislodged from kerbin and starts moving through the planet and away from the mun.

[Tidus Klein]

Eve sea level in this challange woulf be...improbable...challange accepted!

 

FYI? If some one actually accomplishs this..can they say they beat the game?

Edited November 13, 2016 by Tidus Klein

[Pds314]

Would be interesting to try to do anything in 10x gravity. I have tried making a plane, to no avail.

[SOURanger]

On 11/9/2016 at 7:02 PM, galactictaco said:

I've been getting phantom exceleration under hacked gravity, so gave up on going back to the mun, i suspect I'm gonna come up short anyway on delta v when i get home and explode on entry, but it kind of made me feel like 'why even bother' especially since its shard to cheat craft home with the mock hyper edit feature and my predicted intercepts are utter horse excrements and my orbit becomes dislodged from kerbin and starts moving through the planet and away from the mun.

You sure it's hacked gravity causing the phantom acceleration? I don't think I ever had a ksp release where that never happened ever. I think there'll be a way to get around the dubious conics but I haven't tested it yet, have you tried disabling grav hack to plot the maneuver,then re enabling grav hack to perform it, just doing whatever the maneuver tells you to and ignoring the dubious predictions? I found that I could plot a mun>Kerbin return trajectory despite the equine products just by trusting the ejection angle from the mun. So long as I DIDN'T time warp through the soi change the game would sort its maths out then. 

[SOURanger]

Anyways I did some messing about in my sandbox and decided to run my entry under 3x grav hack, it seemed to be more, how you say... "suicidal". This video covers everything I did from launch vessel to escape atmosphere. To avoid clutter/spamming i will not post a video on this thread again til I get to the apollo-esque mission and thus complete the challenge, but the entire run will be searchable on the tube.  

Nb: There is much wrong with it so I'm treating this as my 'pilot video'. 

I liked this one better...

 

Edited November 27, 2016 by SOURanger