Gameslinx Planet Overhaul career playthrough

[Jetski]

After some troubleshooting, we've managed to get the impressive planet pack by @Gameslinx up and running in 1.22 Linux x64.  I'll be chronicling the adventures of Kerbalkind as they explore this new system.  On first impressions, the graphics and the work that has gone into this are outstanding.  The first orbital flight with the giant rings overhead and a sunflare are giving me back some of the wonder that made KSP grab me in the first place.  Some images from the first two flights follow.  A quick sounding rocket for science, then a very clumsy orbiter mainly powered by SRBs.  Ended up in an elliptical orbit out of fuel, and Jeb had to get out and push to make it home.

 

Edited May 28, 2017 by Jetski

[Gameslinx]

First

And thank you for playing through the pack, I can't wait to stay tuned here

It's nice to see a player's take on this to see how they progress. If you find any other bugs dump them on the forum thread. I'll usually respond within the hour

Thanks!

Edited May 28, 2017 by Gameslinx

[Jetski]

Unfortunately my next Explore contract after making orbit is for Olu'um, which is far beyond the reach of my current technology, and on the far side of the Sun, quite a while for a good transfer window.  Here's a quick tourist mission, also grabbing Materiels Bay Science up to LGO.  Now to see what I can do to up my tech for an Olu'um mission.  Trying to decide whether to try a one-way probe (research heavily into antenna science) or a manned mission, which will require better rockets.

 

http://imgur.com/a/dZZIx

I opted to hoover up a little local science, and put the research into bigger fuel tanks and solar panels.  Still can't get any decent contracts (lots of Gaia part testing small stuff, and a few atmospheric surveys I don't have the wings for).  I'm going to make a run at some of Gaia's moons on my own dime, and see if any good contracts come out of it.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Jetski

[Jetski]

My woefully underfunded mission to the polar moons has not gone perfectly. 

I spent every penny I had to get Bob and a little science lander into a polar orbit and intercept the moon Olei.  With a basic tracking center, I felt like I was back doing the Caveman Challenge - trying to get an intercept on a tight dV budget without nodes or patched conics is challenging.  Finally I got an intercept, and got into orbit, netting about 100k funds to from World Firsts bonus.  I ended up in a retrograde polar orbit around Olei, and prepared to manouver when disaster struck.  I accidentally jettisoned my full drop tanks with the landing legs attached instead of the empty engine stages I had used for transfer.  Bob is stranded with only his get-home fuel remaining.

Using the 100k funds and some transmitted science from high orbit, I built the aptly named Better Lander and sent it with a probe core to go meet Bob.  Still no tracking center, so I was really struggling to meet him in high orbit of the moon, and disaster struck again.  Bob and the original Moon Explorer strayed too close to the edge of the Olei's SOI, and while I was warping the empty Better Lander to meet him he was thrown back out into Gaia orbit!  As I was pondering what to do with my 2 landers and my limited funds, KSP crashed...

My current plan is to send Bob home with what he has (if I can do it with his scanty 400dV remaining), leave Better Lander in orbit around the Olei, and send Bob on another ship to finish the exploration and harvest that juicy science.  Stay tuned to see if he survives this debacle!

 

Edited May 29, 2017 by Jetski

[Jetski]

Victory!  After some careful adjustments, Bob managed to get his original Moon Lander back into an Olei orbit and meet up with Better Lander.  After a daring spacewalk to catch up with the lander as it streaked past at 68 m/s, he proceeded to explore Olei and Olemut.  Living up to it's name, Better Lander safely managed both bodies with dV to spare. 

Landing on Olemut was interesting, at first glance the flat areas appear to be Minmus-style frozen lakes.  Just to be cautious, Bob landed near the edge of a lake, and just dipped a single lander leg in to test the waters.  Sure enough, the diabolical @Gameslinx has provided liquid oceans on this vacuum moon to lure the unwary landers to their doom.  Perhaps a quick reading of the planet's description could have revealed this, but it was more fun to find out for myself.  Surely the Kraken must lurk in these inky depths....

 

[Gameslinx]

You can actually get an Olei encounter relatively easily by using the same methods as you do getting to the Mun. Or you could do it all polar for the extra challenge!

[Jetski]

Today Bob returned safely from the Polar moons, although he did have to get out and push in high Gaia orbit due to a slight miscalculation on a burn.  Next up I loaded up KAC to look at upcoming transfer windows.  Lots to do, many places to visit!  Still about 40 days until the next planetary window, so I decided to do a few quick contracts so I could afford NERVAs.  With the vast distances to many of the planets, it will be a while before my antenna tech is sufficient to send probes, so I'm expecting to have to send a few pilot/scientist teams to faraway lands.  With that in mind, I did a half dozen Rescue contracts to bulk up my crew roster, and a few Station and Satellite local contracts (including a surface base on Olemut) to add some much-needed funds. Nothing groundbreaking, but now I'm ready for some serious interplanetary exploration!

On a side note, I landed Bob at the poles, and was expecting a nice splash down in the pretty blue water.  Imaging my surprise when he was able to get out and walk around on the hard surface!  Netted a nice "Landed in the Ocean" surface sample to go with the "Splashed in the Ocean" samples I had already obtained.

 

Edited May 29, 2017 by Jetski

[Jetski]

The first interplanetary flights are underway.  After loading up KAC to check transfer windows, it seems like the first 2 are for Flak and Quarta. Flak looked like a fairly routine deep space mission, so I setup a low tech (Terrier powered) 2-Kerb lander with a pilot (Jeb of course) and a scientist.  I of course named it Flak Attack, and after an uneventful launch I made a hard burn for a Flak intercept.  All is well, and in 3 years I'll have a nice flyby and hopefully landing.

Quarta appears to be a tougher nut to crack.  According to the orbit lines, it actually seems to be traveling RETROGRADE around the Sun, and moving at around 3.5K m/s.  Nothing for it but to put together a large NERVA-powered asparagus beast, with a small lander that detaches and uses one of the NERVAs for a landing engine.  Rather than deal with 2 crew, I sent a single pilot on this mission.  Inevitably named the Quarta Pounder, this beast waits in low orbit with a Mainsail powered transfer stage ready to send it off to meet Quarta.  Once the transfer burn is complete, I hope to have nearly 10k Dv to allow an intercept with Quarta, and if all goes well, a landing.  Unfortunately, KAC isn't dealing well with computing a window for a retrograde planet, so I'm warping 5-day intervals and setting a node.  At least 20 days to go, so I'm looking into a low budget probe to Sonus in the mean time.

Meanwhile, Bob is doing some research in his own little scilab orbiting Gol, slowly bringing Kerbal tech up to an effective level.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2017 by Jetski

[Laythe Squid]

Well done! Can't wait to see how this turns out!

[Gameslinx]

On 29/05/2017 at 8:41 PM, Jetski said:

The first interplanetary flights are underway.  After loading up KAC to check transfer windows, it seems like the first 2 are for Flak and Quarta. Flak looked like a fairly routine deep space mission, so I setup a low tech (Terrier powered) 2-Kerb lander with a pilot (Jeb of course) and a scientist.  I of course named it Flak Attack, and after an uneventful launch I made a hard burn for a Flak intercept.  All is well, and in 3 years I'll have a nice flyby and hopefully landing.

Quarta appears to be a tougher nut to crack.  According to the orbit lines, it actually seems to be traveling RETROGRADE around the Sun, and moving at around 3.5K m/s.  Nothing for it but to put together a large NERVA-powered asparagus beast, with a small lander that detaches and uses one of the NERVAs for a landing engine.  Rather than deal with 2 crew, I sent a single pilot on this mission.  Inevitably named the Quarta Pounder, this beast waits in low orbit with a Mainsail powered transfer stage ready to send it off to meet Quarta.  Once the transfer burn is complete, I hope to have nearly 10k Dv to allow an intercept with Quarta, and if all goes well, a landing.  Unfortunately, KAC isn't dealing well with computing a window for a retrograde planet, so I'm warping 5-day intervals and setting a node.  At least 20 days to go, so I'm looking into a low budget probe to Sonus in the mean time.

Meanwhile, Bob is doing some research in his own little scilab orbiting Gol, slowly bringing Kerbal tech up to an effective level.

 

 

Found an issue with Sonus' moon, Sojos. Could you open Olei > Configs > Sojos.cfg. scroll down to were it says PQS, then 'Mods'. Find "VertexColorMap". Inside that node, increase its order by 500 or so.

That should fix it!

Edited May 30, 2017 by Gameslinx

[Jetski]

Flights are off!  I decided to resolve my lingering Explore Olu'um contract before starting a ton of missions to other bodies.  Once Flak Attack and Quarta Pounder were well on their way, I took some time to put together a fairly extravagant mission to Olu'um, mainly using hardware I already had in space.  I moved the science lab I had with Bob over to a Gol orbit, and brought a nice little NERVA powered lander with a big fuel stage to meet up.  Once in Gol SOI, I did some quick landings and science, then stuck everything together.  At this point I realized I needed another 1600 LF or so to make the mission work, so I needed another launch after all.

The cleverly named craft Miner was put together and everyone's favorite engineer Bill took off towing a big lug of fuel to Gol.  He met up with the Olu'um ship, topped up her tanks, and still had enough to land on Gol and start mining.  Once back in orbit, I realized he had about 4.5K dV, so he's going along to Olu'um separately. 

The burn to Olu'um could have been handled better, I made the mistake of leaving Gol and getting into an elliptical Gaia orbit, thinking it would save me a little fuel, but after warping to the transfer window I found the ellipse to be pointed about 45 degrees away form where I wanted to be.  Oh well, it's just more fuel right?  It took me about 2K to get an Olu'um intercept, whereas the Miner only needed about 1.4K direct from Gol. 

Some warping, and now I'm just entering Olu'um SOI with both craft, finally completing the annoying Explore Olu'um contract.  Contracts have now reset to normal, with an Orbit Nightmare (in Gaia SOI) popping up next.  Of course, my tech tree is nearly completed with all the warping and a scilab full of samples, but it will be fun to check out the sinister football that is Nightmare after I get into a stable orbit out at Olu'um.  I actually read some of the descriptions, and I'm concerned about spacecraft melting if I go too near the protostar gas giant, so I'm letting the Miner with radiators make a close pass, while the main ship with all the delicate bits does a wasteful capture burn away from Olu'um.  More to follow...

 

 

[cratercracker]

Nice reports mate!

[The Minmus Derp]

Moar?...

[SiriusRocketry]

@The Minmus Derp not likely, seeing as the OP hasn't updated the thread in a year. 

[The Minmus Derp]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Boohoo