KSP Caveman Evolved Challenge

[Superfluous J]

I checked the Eeloo checkbox today. It's a rare manned mission because I didn't want to have to think about comms and - I mean come on it's Eeloo.

I really only *need* one more building unlock to complete this whole thing - the R&D building for vectors or aerospikes for the Eve liftoff. However, I basically have the exact amount of money to unlock it right now so I'd not be able to build a ship. So, I'm doing the entire Jool system next and Eve will be the finale of the series. Maybe with a contracts montage to make the money to upgrade the rest of the space center.

Spoiler

 

 

[Superfluous J]

Poor planning and bad encounters cause a much more storied (and not really a) "Jool 5" mission than I was planning for. Don't look at the scoreboard if you don't want spoilers, because this is far from a sure thing.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited July 24, 2017 by 5thHorseman

[jonny]

It took me a week to plan, days to complete and hours to upload and comment. But I finally finished my Jool 5 mission.

I installed Precise Node for the mission.

 

[Superfluous J]

56 minutes ago, jonny said:

It took me a week to plan, days to complete and hours to upload and comment. But I finally finished my Jool 5 mission.

Very cool! I don't have time to look at all the pics right now but I'm updating the leaderboard.

[Superfluous J]

3 hours ago, jonny said:

I claim the Munless night challenge finished

And now you can finally go to Mun and Minmus for the unlock we all got first

[jonny]

15 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

And now you can finally go to Mun and Minmus for the unlock we all got first

Mun? Minmus? What are you talking about?

I think there is only Eve and Gilly  left to explore. Is there something I didn't know about the Kerbol system?

[ManEatingApe]

Now that Love Island Season 3 is finished I finally have time to chip away at this challenge.

Jeb and Valentina team up to tackle the final two worlds: Eve and Gilly.

The Eve ascent is the usual mix of frustration, elation, desperation, exhortation and celebration.

A quick pitstop on Gilly...

...then our dynamic duo return safely.

Even though all 18 building upgrades are unlocked, I'm still not able to finish the challenge due to insufficient funds.

Relying solely on the World's Firsts awards for cash was a reasonable plan, but ultimately not enough to fully upgrade buildings without additional contracts.

Never fear, while the Eve mission was underway, our eagle eyed intern accepted a series of lucrative contracts. Stay tuned for the adventures of the Cash Cow...

 

Complete mission album link.

Edited July 31, 2017 by ManEatingApe

[Superfluous J]

10 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

Eve and Gilly

Very nicely done! I may steal borrow ideas from that Eve lander. Because I hate Eve and get ever more frustrated with it with every attempt.

I'll mark you as 18/18 but not a "WINNER" yet. Congrats on the hard part!

EDIT: I somehow missed your Moho report. Sorry about that, but you won all the same so no harm no foul

Edited July 31, 2017 by 5thHorseman

[ManEatingApe]

10 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I may steal borrow ideas from that Eve lander.

Please do! I've shamelessly pinched some ideas from Foxster's excellent Eve landers in this challenge thread, especially using the circular intake and small hardpoint to minimise drag. For example 33.2 tons here and an incredible 18.79 tons here (kudos to @Foxster)

Mine are a bit bigger to make up for ham-fisted flying skills, but do the trick from most elevations (below 500m you'll have to jetpack the final part into orbit )

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by ManEatingApe

[Tattiebogle]

Dres Done

Sent Gerley Kermin to Dres on the good ship Dres 2

Put Dres 2 in Kerbin orbit then sent up fuel and pilot.

Got into Dres orbit and used a small craft with one of those chair/seat things as a lander. Never used a chair before. Wow!! was it a handful. It must be controlled from the pilots perspective or something. It was a miracle that I landed safely.

No reverts/quick saves. Heart in mouth moments.

Launching from Dres to orbit was relatively straight forward, now that I knew what to expect. Met up with the Dres 2 and Gerley transferred over by EVA.

Returned to Kerbin , nice orbit .Then noticed the Dres 2 had no heat shield. So transferred Gerley to the craft that brought him to the Dres 2 about 4 years earlier. Unfortunately, this meant I didn't get the returned from Dres worlds first. But the last Picture shows that he did plant a flag on Dres. May try to deorbit the Dres 2 for the worlds first cash.

I choose to upgrade the VAB.

Pictures may or may not be in the right order .I find imgur a pain

 

[Superfluous J]

11 hours ago, Tattiebogle said:

Dres Done

And well done at that!

Quote

Never used a chair before. Wow!! was it a handful. It must be controlled from the pilots perspective or something.

I find that putting a probe core (an okto 2 is my fave for this) right under the seat as its "mount" comes in very handy. You can control from there and everything is "correct." Another trick is to rotate the seat so the Kerbal is lying on his back.

Quote

Unfortunately, this meant I didn't get the returned from Dres worlds first.

That's fine. If the Kerbal was on the surface of Dres (don't even need to get out and plant a flag though why you wouldn't escapes me ) and recovers on the surface of Kerbin, that counts as returned from Dres.

Edited August 2, 2017 by 5thHorseman

[Tattiebogle]

4 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

 rotate the seat so the Kerbal is lying on his back.

 

That's what I should have done. Cheers.

[Tattiebogle]

Moho Done....

Finally managed to return from the surface of Moho

Sent Agager Kermin in the good ship "Moho 4 Maybe 5" a slightly modified "Dres 2" 

Achieved Moho encounter. Used a ton of fuel to orbit then transferred to the Lander. Much better control with the seat rotated so the guy is on his back. Landed, grabbed a surface sample and eva report but forgot to do the temp and the other one I always forget the name of. Took off and met back up with the mother ship.

Great difficulty getting Kerbin encounter even with KAC. I think the longer the game has been running the less accurate it is. So just burned into Kerbol orbit then worked it out from there.

Thought I had plenty of fuel to get into Kerbin orbit. Wrong!!!!.... So I got Agager out to use his jet pack (Remembering to grab the science) 600 d/v just might be enough to do it.

Kerbin orbit achieved!! Was I happy or what.

Sent up a rescue craft and returned to Kerbin with Agager safe and sound.

Still to upgrade the VAB from the last mission to Dres. Bit of a cash flow problem. Will have to do loads of contracts to get the cash together for upgrades. For this one, I'll upgrade the Research centre.

Off on my holidays next week so I'll be away for a while.

 

 

[Superfluous J]

16 hours ago, Tattiebogle said:

Moho Done....

And by the skin of your space suit. I love those "Kinda like an asteroid encounter" rescues

Enjoy your vacation. Don't spend too much of it planning your Jool, Eeloo, and Eve missions!

[Superfluous J]

I have officially won, but it will be a bit before I post anything. The Eve ship is technically my own because I built it from the ground-up using the pictures of @ManEatingApe's ship

I actually had more fun making the money to upgrade everything, though it was easy when I used what money I had left to upgrade the Admin building and then turn lots of science into money. I ended up not even needing to finish the 12-contracts-in-one-mission flight to Gilly, though I at least saw through to landing.

[ManEatingApe]

All done! A final mission fulfilled five closely related contracts finally allowing us to purchase that fancy coffee franchise for the engineers erm...I mean all the remaining building upgrades.

As a minor hack the 2nd stage was intentionally placed in front of the 3rd stage so that the spaceplane could be mounted at the back. This allowed its wings to help stability (rather than hinder it, if the spaceplane was mounted conventionally towards the front)

The stations shared parts in order to save mass. The spaceplane on its own comprised the Jool "station", while the counterweight had the necessary liquid fuel and extra accommodation for the Laythe station.

 

Valentina gazes across the endless tranquil ocean, trying to remember if she packed a towel.

Amusingly a Kerbal counts as a "craft" for contract purposes, so Valentina got paid over half a million funds for a quick dip.

There was plenty of room, so Bill and Bob came along for the ride too.

Once back at Kerbin the remaining 3 contracts were finished.

Look at that shiny fully upgraded Space Center!

 

Full mission album here

Craft files from this and previous missions for the curious, each craft chemical powered, fully Kerballed and suitably primitive!

• 01 - Kerbin Suborbital
• 02 - Kerbin Orbit
• 03 - Minimus
• 04 - Mun
• 05 - Duna & Ike
• 06 - Dres & Eeloo
• 07 - Jool
• 08 - Moho
• 09 - Eve & Gilly
• 10 - Cash Cow

 

@5thHorseman Kudos on creating an thoroughly entertaining challenge, I had lots of fun. Looking forward to watching your final entry!

Edited August 5, 2017 by ManEatingApe

[Bev7787]

I see these caveman challenges are still going strong  Need to do this again when I get 1.3.

[jonny]

last weekend I finished the Challenge with a single mission conquering the final 4 celestials. Of course manned, and as always without visiting any celestial twice.

@5thHorseman that is a great set of rules you put together for this challenge. I had a lot fun, and the missions felt never repetitive or boring.

The full album is here: http://imgur.com/a/yGqgJ
But every important step is in the Spoiler

Eve Transfer + Landing

Spoiler

First stage separation

I had to stick the nose cone on top of the other one, because the fairing had to be a interstage fairing. A closed fairing did unveil the Kraken on the launch pad.

Eve transfere

Aligning the orbit with Gilly's orbit

Val is inside the Eve-lander on a sub-orbital Trajectory

2 Aerobraking passes later

Vall can't get to the ground because I forgot to stick a ladder on the lander

the launch is timed to meet the correct inclination

during my [high number] attempts to get the lander back to a stable orbit I was to busy. I couldn't take Screenshots.

Vall had to accelerate the last 100m/s in EVA

 

Gilly + Return

Spoiler

Jeb thought it is absolutely unnecessary to archive a stable orbit around Gilly. He sent Vall to plant the flag on EVA

After a quick stop on the surface of Gilly she was on her way back to the ship

On the way back

Minmus + Mun

Spoiler

The where a little bit surprised to find a Celestial inside the SOI of their Home World

The root part  was wrong.... the dV readout of KER as well

my shiny new space center

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by jonny

[zanie420]

@5thHorseman, what is considered a landing? Can I crash a probe on the Mun and Minmus to get my first upgrade?

[Superfluous J]

39 minutes ago, zanie420 said:

@5thHorseman, what is considered a landing? Can I crash a probe on the Mun and Minmus to get my first upgrade?

I personally counted any landing in which something containing a pod/core was stationary on the surface. In several cases in the series I literally only had that left (see my "Jool 4" video, it happens on Laythe)

[Superfluous J]

6 hours ago, jonny said:

last weekend I finished the Challenge with a single mission conquering the final 4 celestials. Of course manned, and as always without visiting any celestial twice.

And very well done! When you announced you were going to try this challenge along with Munless Night, I thought you were crazy. Much respect for sticking to it!

[Superfluous J]

Bam. Eve.

Spoiler

 

All I have left is making the money. I've done it, just haven't had time to make the video. I'll post my thoughts on the challenge itself at that time.

[zanie420]

Man, video editing is tough. Kerbin SOI complete. Next video, I will be taking the launchpad upgrade. Need to futz around the KSC and grab all the science so I can fill out the rest of the 90point tier.

 

 

[Superfluous J]

4 hours ago, zanie420 said:

Man, video editing is tough.

Don't I know it.

Welcome to the challenge!

[Superfluous J]

Aww done!

Spoiler

 

 

I really enjoyed doing this challenge. When I set it up, I was a bit afraid that after the first few parts (for me, after finishing off Duna) it'd be old hat again but it really never felt that way. I'm glad I did it.

I've no plans to shut the challenge down, and do have plans to fix the leaderboard. So keep on posting and playing

Edited August 10, 2017 by 5thHorseman