The Kerb-ball Run: Driving From KSC to KSC2/Baikerbanur on Only Fuel Cells.

[DoctorDavinci]

1 hour ago, GDJ said:

Okay with these glitches in the terrain I'm bowing out of the Challenge.

That sucks ... hope you get it figured out at some point

I actually just finished the run .... just under 6 hours and 35 minutes on the mission timer

Here's the craft file: https://kerbalx.com/DoctorDavinci/Dukes-Jalopnick

 

[GDJ]

Congrats, and that's a pretty decent time for 2000+ km of dirt!

If I can figure out what is going on with my game I'll reinstate myself.

[Azimech]

I don't think I could beat that time, you have a brilliant rover @DoctorDavinci!

[Azimech]

@MattJLseems your OP could use some updates soon :-)

Anyway ... I do think I can get a good score with my Very Ugly Contraption™ . All focused on efficiency and nothing else. No refueling required, probably.

[GDJ]

Alright @Azimech, the question of the "holes" changing location:

Not sure, but before I tossed my old game in the trash, the only drivable land was the KSC. The rest of the planet as far as I can tell just went to mush. Everywhere I went off the KSC it sank down and blew up.

RE-downloaded a complete new game, only have SQUAD in the game folder and so far no "Holes".

I dunno.....might be mod related.....maybe not. I just don't know at this point.

I'm going to recollect fresh downloads of all my mods and do them a few at a time, and see what transpires.

[GDJ]

Okay, so far Tweakscale, Wild Blue Industries, Kerbal Foundries, KSPWheel aren't the culprit. 

[Azimech]

I did it, here's an album with a few pictures.

https://imgur.com/a/6vXjF

 

As you can see, the starting mass is 4.27t.

And the finish: 6 hours and 35 minutes. Lost some time due to crashes, backflips, pilot flying out his seat, etc. Didn't break any wheels and I'm lucky: I discovered I had Jeb behind the wheel instead of an engineer.

Very sturdy vehicle btw!

Almost forgot: stock parts with paint and Mechjeb.

Edited November 23, 2017 by Azimech

[DoctorDavinci]

5 hours ago, Azimech said:

I did it, here's an album with a few pictures.

https://imgur.com/a/6vXjF

 

As you can see, the starting mass is 4.27t.

And the finish: 6 hours and 35 minutes. Lost some time due to crashes, backflips, pilot flying out his seat, etc. Didn't break any wheels and I'm lucky: I discovered I had Jeb behind the wheel instead of an engineer.

Very sturdy vehicle btw!

Almost forgot: stock parts with paint and Mechjeb.

That's amazing ... 6:35 is a hard time to beat but you got me by over a ton and a half

Awesomesauce 

[GDJ]

Alright, I haven't found any offending mods, but good news is that I drove for 100 km's last night and not a single glitch.

So I'm throwing my hat back into the ring!!

Also I did a somewhat smaller vehicle I'm going to put on the back of the truck.

The AVRO Grand Prix Special V2
She does 57 m/s and hold together nicely.

Edited November 25, 2017 by GDJ

[MattJL]

I'm sorry for neglecting the thread for the past two weeks!  (In my defense, I've been busy).  Will be updating the leaderboard in a few moments.  Love the entries so far - @GDJ, that roadster looks absolutely beautiful.  Sorry about the terrain giving you grief.

@DoctorDavinci, I've been following your run in my off time.  Loved the car, and fine job on beating the clock.

@Azimech, fantastic entry all-around!

I look forward to seeing more entries, this is fun to watch.

Edited November 27, 2017 by MattJL

[GDJ]

 

My progress so far: 1 hour 50 minutes in. Making good progress in The Truck (slightly simplified build).



Not a speed demon, but it does a steady 38 to 41 m/s. Toned down the speed, less problems.
Lots of lights for night driving. Deck lights keyed to ladders.
4 small fuel cells, 12 OSCAR tanks in a 3 x 2 construction, 9500 units battery power (these wheel assemblies take a MASSIVE amount of power when taking off from a standstill: around 45 units/second until I reach 30 m/s)
10 wheel drive, front dual steerers running at 60% torque, rear duals running at 100% Torque.



Valentina put up the KSC Marker to begin all missions, and added her own linguistic flair:

 

Progress at Marker 4

 

Still trucking.....

 

That's a big cactus.....

Progress as of Marker 9: 2 hours 36 minutes




 

Y'know, Kerbin really does have some nice views......


Unfortunately I've hit a snag: I lost Jeb.

He tripped when getting out of the truck, and poofed. So I'm down to Bill behind the wheel. I'm thinking of flying out a replacement pilot but unsure if that's allowed. Thoughts?

EDIT: Already transferred a new pilot to my Truck. The OP can add 30 minutes to my time as a penalty if they wish. That's fair.

 

 

Progress after marker 10: 2 hours 48 minutes in.

 

Progress as of Marker 18, 5 hours 30-ish minutes.

 

Edited December 10, 2017 by GDJ

[GDJ]

On 2017-11-26 at 9:36 PM, MattJL said:

@GDJ, that roadster looks absolutely beautiful.  Sorry about the terrain giving you grief.

Not your fault for the terrain. I'm 99% sure I have the issue rectified (it was a mod issue).

The final version of the Roadster:



I have it set up for 53 m/s, but it's capable of 65. Quite stable despite it's 1.6 tonne weight, thanks to it's darn near perfect 50/50 weight split.

This one is straight fuel cells: No batteries needed.
Might need a fill-up part way to KSC2, but we shall see once I'm done with The Truck's run.

Edited December 2, 2017 by GDJ

[GDJ]

Updated my trip. Had a misfortune with my pilot.

[Marschig]

Mass 3.15 t, time 05:06:39  https://imgur.com/a/IQn0A

[GDJ]

@Marschig:

Great time on your run! Congrats!

 

[GDJ]

Another update. See my big post above.

[Urus28]

I first tried this challenge with a quite ambitious giant rover.... Very fast it can reach almost 100m/s but also very heavy with a mass of 50t...

The mass of this rover was just too much for the wheels, explosions were very common during jumps in the hills.

So I made the run with a far less ambitious rover ! But still a big one

13.897t a large fuel cell array and a J33 for water crossing, the rover is 100% stock and is quite fast. You can reach 80m/s (actually I reached 90 during the run but not on flat terrain) with it and can cruise at 70 without real problem (on flat terrain). The big wheels are strong enough to resist long jumps, a good thing when you cross hills at high speed.

 

I reached the water crossing after 1h 11 minutes...

 

Time to cross the water near of 33 minutes, clearly the slowest part of the run with a speed of 13m/s

 

Crossing the desert and plain at 250km/h.... Not bad for a 13t vehicle !

 

Hills are always a difficult part with lot of jumps, the rover is quite difficult to control at high speed in this kind of terrain...

 

The end is near ! One final jump is mandatory

Final time : 3h 59 minutes 27 seconds !

This challenge was well... challenging ! I had hard time at the conception of a good rover and the journey was long and difficult. I'm happy to just have reached the end without exploding.

 

Edited December 13, 2017 by Urus28
Text details

[DoctorDavinci]

8 hours ago, Urus28 said:

I first tried this challenge with a quite ambitious giant rover.... Very fast it can reach almost 100m/s but also very heavy with a mass of 50t...

The mass of this rover was just too much for the wheels, explosions were very common during jumps in the hills.

So I made the run with a far less ambitious rover ! But still a big one

13.897t a large fuel cell array and a J33 for water crossing, the rover is 100% stock and is quite fast. You can reach 80m/s (actually I reached 90 during the run but not on flat terrain) with it and can cruise at 70 without real problem (on flat terrain). The big wheels are strong enough to resist long jumps, a good thing when you cross hills at high speed.

 

I reached the water crossing after 1h 11 minutes...

 

Time to cross the water near of 33 minutes, clearly the slowest part of the run with a speed of 13m/s

 

Crossing the desert and plain at 250km/h.... Not bad for a 13t vehicle !

 

Hills are always a difficult part with lot of jumps, the rover is quite difficult to control at high speed in this kind of terrain...

 

The end is near ! One final jump is mandatory

Final time : 3h 59 minutes 27 seconds !

This challenge was well... challenging ! I had hard time at the conception of a good rover and the journey was long and difficult. I'm happy to just have reached the end without exploding.

 

Unsure as to how you got those rover wheels to drive you faster than the config allows for

Top motor speed of the Rovemax Model XL3 is 15.5 m/s ... how are you able to reach 80 m/s using those wheels is beyond me

Config edit I suppose, yes?

[Marschig]

29 minutes ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Unsure as to how you got those rover wheels to drive you faster than the config allows for

Top motor speed of the Rovemax Model XL3 is 15.5 m/s ... how are you able to reach 80 m/s using those wheels is beyond me

Config edit I suppose, yes?

It can be achieved in stock by pressing A-D for short time. You can easily prove this by building similar rover:

 

[Azimech]

2 hours ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Unsure as to how you got those rover wheels to drive you faster than the config allows for

Top motor speed of the Rovemax Model XL3 is 15.5 m/s ... how are you able to reach 80 m/s using those wheels is beyond me

Config edit I suppose, yes?

In addition to what @Marschigwrote:

I'm thinking it's possible to achieve this with Mechjeb and the wrong (right) steering PID settings and lower friction settings on the front wheels.

[Urus28]

8 hours ago, Marschig said:

It can be achieved in stock by pressing A-D for short time. You can easily prove this by building similar rover:

 

Yes, this is exactly how I made it, no mod or cheat is required. =) Congratulations for the 121.4m/s, I never reached such kind of speed during the run

8 hours ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Unsure as to how you got those rover wheels to drive you faster than the config allows for

Top motor speed of the Rovemax Model XL3 is 15.5 m/s ... how are you able to reach 80 m/s using those wheels is beyond me

Config edit I suppose, yes?

No config edit, just press A and D to accelerate.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Urus28

[DoctorDavinci]

9 hours ago, Marschig said:

It can be achieved in stock by pressing A-D for short time. You can easily prove this by building similar rover:

 

KSP is the game that keeps giving 

Been playing for 4 years or so and I've never seen that ... fantastic

[Urus28]

1 hour ago, DoctorDavinci said:

KSP is the game that keeps giving 

Been playing for 4 years or so and I've never seen that ... fantastic

Now you can try this on Mun... High speed with low gravity a real challenge !

[MattJL]

Wow, lots of comments since I last checked in.  Impressive work all around!

Updating the leaderboard right now.

[ChaoticPheonix]

Hope this isn't dead, I'm really wanting to do this.