[1.2.xx] Supersonic Bomber Challenge

[MunGazer]

Challenge description:

 A terrorist faction known as the Kerbal State of Terrorists and Extremists (KSTE) is at war with you.

 A KSTE High Value Target (HVT) has been located at the coordinates of lat/long (1°/-111°).  Your mission, should you accept this challenge, is to destroy this craft with extreme prejudice using a high speed bomber aircraft.

 

Challenge instructions:

 1.  Use Hyper Edit to place a Crater Crawler [stock craft] at coordinates lat/long (1°/-111°).  Ensure that the brakes are set on it so that it doesn't roll around.

Alternatively, you can use this persistent.sfs file of the landed crater crawler:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/d9vc2v9xhoi6uj5/persistent.sfs?dl=0

 2.  Make an aircraft capable of destroying that target using one or more of the following types of weapons:
      I.   (Guided or Unguided)+(unpowered)+(explosive or kinetic)
      II.   (Guided or Unguided)+(rocket or missile)+(explosive or kinetic)

 3.  Take off from KSC's runway(1st screenshot), fly west over the ocean, and knock out the target (2nd screenshot). Then, turn around, return to KSC, and land on the runway (3rd screenshot).  Be sure to take those 3 screen shots AFTER each completed major task.  (The screenshots of course aren't needed if you have a video which clearly shows the F3 screenshot's information)  Then post your calculations and show how you  arrived at your overall score.

 

Challenge scoring:

 1. (Weighted as 50% of overall score) Time elapsed in total seconds from mission start until destruction
  of any part of the target

 2.  (Weighted as 30% of overall score) Highest heat damage recorded on any single part of the target (can be seen in F3 window after target gets hit)  Remember to scroll through that list and record the single highest heat, which will likely exceed the part's tolerance.  If you used a kinetic weapon, then your score will be 1,000 multiplied by the number of rover parts destroyed.  There are 115 rover parts in the crater crawler, so if all of them were destroyed, that'd be worth 115,000 heat.

 3.  (Weighted as 20% of overall score) The total cost of your craft as shown in the space plane hangar.

 

The method for determining your overall score is as follows:

 

(A. + B. + C.) where:

 

(MY SECONDS / YOUR SECONDS)*(50) = A.
(YOUR HEAT / MY HEAT)*(30) = B.
(MY FUNDS / YOUR FUNDS)*(20) = C.

 

To clarify, my example submission is supposed to be used with the above formula as a common reference point / benchmark in scoring each entry.  Those are:

MY SECONDS = 826;  MY HEAT = 60,209;  MY FUNDS = 96,617

 

So, for example:

 

Reference scores from my example submission:

 

A.  13 minutes, 46 seconds = 826 seconds
B.  60,209 heat
C.  96,617 funds

 

Entrant scores:

 

A.  20 minutes, 45 seconds = 1,245
B.  115,347 heat
C.  82,415 funds

 

Entrant overall score:

 

A.  (826 / 1,285)*(50) = 32
+
B.  (115,347 / 60,209)*(30) = 57
+
C.  (96,617 / 82,415)*(20) = 23

= 112

In the above example scenario, the entrant's overall score was (32+57+23) = 112 points.  The higher the overall score is, the better, with a score of 100 being exactly the same as the benchmark.

 

Challenge rules:

1.  No gatecrashing please (I define gatecrashing in this context as making entries that blatantly violate the rules and/or clearly disregard the intent of the challenge as outlined in the original post)
2.  Your craft must not exceed 30 kilometers altitude above mean sea level
3.  You may use any part, flight control, weapon (within the scope of the challenge as outlined), or weapon control mods that are compatible with KSP 1.2 or later, just don't use hyper edit for positioning your bomber or refueling aircraft (if any).  Altered physics or planet size differences are prohibited, although a FAR category leaderboard may be added in the future.  DRE and KJR are both accepted.
4.  All your difficulty settings should be at their default value (at least to ensure consistent aerodynamic heating among competitors)
5.  No nuclear weapons may be used (see weapon type guidelines in the challenge instructions)
6.  You may use drop tanks or separate parts from your craft, but no part of your primary craft can sustain any type of damage throughout the mission.
7.  Your final F3 screen shot after landing needs to show at least that you landed at KSC runway.
8.  Usage of pilot assistant, waypoint manager, navhud, etc. is encouraged and recommended.
9.  Refueling during the mission is allowed - but only under the very strict condition that it is mid-air refueling only and not within 100 kilometers of the target.  For instance, you may takeoff from KSC and link up with an airborne refueler aircraft to top off on fuel if you'd like.  Rearming during the mission, however, is not allowed. Since pre-positioning of such a refueler aircraft would adversely affect the time aspect of the scoring by the standard rules, such an entry would grant a pardon and allow the actual start time for the bomber to occur when it began moving down the runway.
10. Submitting additional videos, pictures, craft links, etc. is encouraged and permitted.
11.  Multiple entries are allowed.
12.  I may not accept an entry as valid if I think it uses a mod or does something that is too overpowered or unrealistic by "my" standards.  However, it would have to be pretty severe for that to happen.
13.  It doesn't matter if there's a kerbal in the target rover and it does't count for points

14.  Since this is a "supersonic" bomber challenge, your highest speed over land shown on the F3 screen after target destruction needs to be equal to or greater than 340 m/s

 

Challenge example submission of my own:

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

Leaderboard:

(Entries with an asterisk at the end of their score (i.e. 135*) are ones that used kinetic energy only to destroy the target)

Manned:

1. wrench-in-the-works // RFAX-178 Shadowsong // 8500.49

2. Lonogan1 // KDS A-114d 'White Hawk' // 3092.715794670952

3. Deathpuff12 // KB-26 Kraken // 1365

4. ABalazs // A-1002-A Lil Dart // 250

5. ruinzv2 // Decker Mk III // 209

6. DoctorDavinci // CANUKWorks DHB-69 Casper // 203.813

7. sdj64 // BX Crossbow // 162*

8. Nicole // Airshark Super // 135*

9. DebatedNothing // The Sled // 133.662

10. Deathpuff12 // K-25 Skyward // 129

11. wrench-in-the-works // XF-118 Phoenix // 127.14

12. hidude398 // LRB1 // 116.199

Unmanned:

1. Eidahlil // Kreditor Prefekt Drone // 1006

Exhibition Board:

1. DoctorDavinci // CANUKWorks Heinz 57 // "Be gone terrorist, along with the top two kilometers of Kerbin's crust upon which you stand"

(Entries here abide by the same rules but are not required to post scores)

Edited January 17, 2017 by MunGazer

[DoctorDavinci]

Interesting challenge .. I am going to have to take a crack at it

If I may make a suggestion ... perhaps you could make a save file for people to download as there are many (myself included) who don't want to use nor install hyperedit 

[MunGazer]

Just now, DoctorDavinci said:

Interesting challenge .. I am going to have to take a crack at it

If I may make a suggestion ... perhaps you could make a save file for people to download as there are many (myself included) who don't want to use nor install hyperedit 

I'll get right on that Doc

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Permission to fly to the target, fly around the planet, and land back at the KSC, all in under an hour?

[MunGazer]

1 hour ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Interesting challenge .. I am going to have to take a crack at it

If I may make a suggestion ... perhaps you could make a save file for people to download as there are many (myself included) who don't want to use nor install hyperedit 

Alright, just got the drop box link set up:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/d9vc2v9xhoi6uj5/persistent.sfs?dl=0

I will add it into the challenge main body in a sec.

 

 

54 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Permission to fly to the target, fly around the planet, and land back at the KSC, all in under an hour?

Sure, go ahead.  Your time in seconds will still be computed the same, but at least you'll still be able to compete with any others who use the same method

 

Edit:  Bah, sorry.  I realize what you meant now exactly with regard to the challenge.  Your time/score should be just fine since the only time to be logged is mission start to target destruction, you can take as long as you want / far as you want to get home

Edited November 13, 2016 by MunGazer
Suddenly realized what he meant :P

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Also, can I use an M2X Scramjet powered drone?

 

[DoctorDavinci]

1 minute ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Also, can I use an M2X Scramjet powered drone?

 

Would it not be a good idea to have seperate categories for manned and unmanned?

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Just now, DoctorDavinci said:

Would it not be a good idea to have seperate categories for manned and unmanned?

And one for Scramjet craft?

 

[MunGazer]

5 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Also, can I use an M2X Scramjet powered drone?

 

Yeah sure

3 minutes ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Would it not be a good idea to have seperate categories for manned and unmanned?

It would be a good idea, I'll add those sections to the leader board

3 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

And one for Scramjet craft?

 

Sure thing

[DoctorDavinci]

3 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

And one for Scramjet craft?

 

Not sure if having a separate leaderboard for scramjets is needed as suppose someone enters a scramjet drone and another enters a Kerbaled scramjet ... that would mean further dividing up the leaderboards into separate categories

A scramjet is just an engine after all

[MunGazer]

Just now, DoctorDavinci said:

Not sure if having a separate leaderboard for scramjets is needed as suppose someone enters a scramjet drone and another enters a Kerbaled scramjet ... that would mean further dividing up the leaderboards into separate categories

A scramjet is just an engine after all

Very good point, thanks.  I'll just leave it as manned / unmanned and that'll greatly simplify the leaderboard as well

Alright, hopefully everything is set up for you guys to have a go at it.  I'm at the end of a very long staying up not sleeping session thanks to a 10 hour energy chased by a Rockstar.  I'll sleep about 5 hours then I'll be back.  Have fun bros!

[JadeOfMaar]

43 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

M2X Scramjet

 

Ahh, something new to try out with that. I love that engine.

Edited November 13, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[MunGazer]

56 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Permission to fly to the target, fly around the planet, and land back at the KSC, all in under an hour?

I suddenly realized what you meant exactly with regard to the challenge.  Your time/score should be just fine since the only time to be logged is mission start to target destruction, you can take as long as you want / far as you want to get home

[Nicole]

No gatecrashing huh, an invitation is needed to take part..?

[MunGazer]

49 minutes ago, Nicole said:

No gatecrashing huh, an invitation is needed to take part..?

Oh, I'll clarify what I meant by no gatecrashing.

I define gatecrashing in this context as making entries that blatantly violate the rules and/or clearly disregard the intent of the challenge as outlined in the original post.

However, since the term could be misunderstood yet still by others, I'll go back and edit that when I get off work to avoid further confusion.

No invitation is necessary for this challenge.  Anyone may participate  

Also keep in mind that my entry attempted to set a modest bar of performance; I flew mostly at Mach 2 which was slower than the craft's actual speed potential, and also used a modest amount of force destroying the target, although much heavier payloads could be deployed from the example craft.  The score from that is simply a reference point for any submissions, who may easily exceed that score by a tremendous amount, but by the same token their peers will also see opportunities to push the performance or firepower envelope.

With a 12,000 pound tallboy bomb or a well placed cluster of maybe 4 or more JDAMs with a direct hit, etc., could potentially register over 3 million heat on the target and amp up your score.

You can test out different munitions heat damage on the crater crawler by simply attaching them to it back at ksc and right clicking on them "fire missile", then press f3.  Take note of how much heat damage was inflicted.  Closeness to the target and multiple munitions tends to increase the damage (obviously).

[MunGazer]

After some consideration, ladies and gentlemen, I decided to also specify the rule that your craft's ground speed must exceed Mach 1 (whatever that is exactly in m/s in ksp I'll have to find once I'm home) at some point enroute to the target.

I'll update the OP with that once I'm home (I'm kind of scared to try and edit that big thing on my mobile phone).

This is to keep things in the spirit of it being a "supersonic" bomber challenge, and also to prevent scenarios where a craft carries seven hundred large bombs to the target while flying relatively slowly.  Not to say you couldn't carry a very large number of munitions with a proper supersonic craft.

[Eidahlil]

For those times when it does not matter if the target is destroyed in 5 minutes or in 20, presenting you with the (barely) supersonic Kreditor drone. Armed with a single BDA TOW missile and the perils of a hyperbolic scoring formula, it costs 2420 funds. The low low part count of 9 (including the missile) makes maintenance a breeze, though, considering it has only one wheel for landing and takeoff, there will be lots of maintenance. The Kreditor has a cruise speed of 1.1 Mach fully loaded (cruising altitude 12km), and slightly faster empty.

During the showcase strike against the KSTE HVT, the time from launch to impact was 21:42, or 1302s. Due to experimental targeting heuristics, the drone fired at the center of the Crawler, but the Crawler has a hole there, and the missile flew right through, hitting the ground behind the crawler, and only the edge of the explosion hit the target. So the maximum heat was only 2000K. However as during tests the highest recorded temperature from the TOW missile was 12000K, which would be a difference of 5 points. management decided the difference is too marginal to perform another run.

So the score would be 826 / 1302 * 50 + 2013 / 60209 * 30 + 96617 / 2420 * 20 = 31.7 + 1 + 798.5 = 831

 

3 hours ago, MunGazer said:

craft's ground speed must exceed Mach 1 (whatever that is exactly in m/s in ksp I'll have to find once I'm home) at some point enroute to the target.

If KER Mach number readout tells the truth, KSP pretty much matches the real world, 1 Mach is about 340 m/s at sea level, and somewhere near 300 m/s 10 km up.

[MunGazer]

1 hour ago, Eidahlil said:

For those times when it does not matter if the target is destroyed in 5 minutes or in 20, presenting you with the (barely) supersonic Kreditor drone. Armed with a single BDA TOW missile and the perils of a hyperbolic scoring formula, it costs 2420 funds. The low low part count of 9 (including the missile) makes maintenance a breeze, though, considering it has only one wheel for landing and takeoff, there will be lots of maintenance. The Kreditor has a cruise speed of 1.1 Mach fully loaded (cruising altitude 12km), and slightly faster empty.

During the showcase strike against the KSTE HVT, the time from launch to impact was 21:42, or 1302s. Due to experimental targeting heuristics, the drone fired at the center of the Crawler, but the Crawler has a hole there, and the missile flew right through, hitting the ground behind the crawler, and only the edge of the explosion hit the target. So the maximum heat was only 2000K. However as during tests the highest recorded temperature from the TOW missile was 12000K, which would be a difference of 5 points. management decided the difference is too marginal to perform another run.

So the score would be 826 / 1302 * 50 + 2013 / 60209 * 30 + 96617 / 2420 * 20 = 31.7 + 1 + 798.5 = 831

 

If KER Mach number readout tells the truth, KSP pretty much matches the real world, 1 Mach is about 340 m/s at sea level, and somewhere near 300 m/s 10 km up.

Lol, awesome.  I love it.  I'll update the leaderboard when I get home.  The scoring strategy was perfectly valid - you engineered something extremely efficient / cost effective.  The example craft's manufacturer's stocks just crashed

[MunGazer]

Updated OP for the following:

1.  Clarified what I meant by "gatecrashing"

2.  Added rule for Mach 1 enroute to target requirement (340 m/s speed over land minimum)

3.  Added condition that a sufficiently clear video in entry exempts uploaded screenshots

[Eidahlil]

Since the original Kreditor did not truly fulfill the 340 m/s speed requirement, it's loaded cruising speed was only 330 m/s, the Kreditor Prefekt drone was developed:

• 89% faster, with a cruising speed of 2.1 Mach
• 15% cheaper, at the low low price tag of 2052 (batteries and fuel included).
• Just as deadly (same armament, same low low accuracy)
• 19% lighter
• 46% more fuel efficient
• Supersonic strike capable

The score: 826 / 708 * 50 + 11494 / 60209 * 30 + 96617 / 2052 * 20 = 58.3 + 5.7 + 941.7 = 1006

Edited November 15, 2016 by Eidahlil

[MunGazer]

37 minutes ago, Eidahlil said:

Since the original Kreditor did not truly fulfill the 340 m/s speed requirement, it's loaded cruising speed was only 330 m/s, the Kreditor Prefekt drone was developed

Cool, thanks  . I just got to work so I'll update your entry on the leaderboard to reflect this one once I'm home, roughly 9 hours from now.

[AccidentsHappen]

I accept your challenge! Extra points for a replica?

Just kidding. I do have a B-2 Spirit that can travel Mach 1.6 though...

[MunGazer]

14 minutes ago, AccidentsHappen said:

I accept your challenge! Extra points for a replica?

Just kidding. I do have a B-2 Spirit that can travel Mach 1.6 though...

Good luck and Krakenspeed with your challenge

I think replica styled entries would be really fun.  I plan to add some kind of polling system for style points (separate boards for style points apart from performance scores) for all the crafts submitted validly for the challenge that would be accessible to participants and spectators, I'm just not sure how to implement that yet and will be open to suggestions.

I imagine your B-2 replica would be well within the rules.

I want to encourage people not to worry too much about whether or not they achieve 1st place with their scores - unless that's your thing.  The scoring system is there mostly to spur on a sense of competition, but creativeness and having your own style to share is highly valued here.

Edited November 15, 2016 by MunGazer

[wrench-in-the-works]

Oh yes. My hours of building random bombers finally pays off. Expect a submission soon, I'm at work rn.

[MunGazer]

4 hours ago, wrench-in-the-works said:

Oh yes. My hours of building random bombers finally pays off. Expect a submission soon, I'm at work rn.

Lol sounds good.  Hilarious "Location: " by the way.