Hard difficulty, career mode, 2.5x scaled Kerbin system. How hard can it be?

[PTNLemay]

One SRB-test later.

 

(cue soft melancholy...)

And the really bad part is that I'm not very far into the tech tree, so I don't have a lot of tech or available missions to grind much money. I was getting a few nice satellite missions, but I suspect those will disappear after I resort to the bailout.  The spaceplane hanger is unupgraded, which means I can't use it for any of my spacecrafts that use more than 30 parts.  I must confess, this is quite a pickle!

 

Intro
I want to try a scaled up career mode game using only stock parts as much as possible.    I thought I had installed KIS and KAS, but it turns out I forgot to add them.   So all I have really is Kerbal Engineer Redux, Sigma to rescale the system, and a Space Hotel mod that just gives me more interesting contract missions.   Everything else is stock.  I don't have much of a "narrative" planned to follow through with this career run, so I'll mostly just be posting highlights and fun/interesting/terrifying moments that I run across.

 

Achievements thus far:

• Docked in orbit of Kerbin
• Manned landing on the Mun
• Unmanned landing on Minmus
• Orbit Kerbol
• Unmanned flyby of Duna

 

Fatalities: 

• Jebediah Kerman
• Erton Kerman
• Triger Kerman
• Bob Kerman
• Daphsey Kerman

Edited December 30, 2017 by PTNLemay

[MoarBoostersRUS]

Are you running any other mods? I suggest getting Real Fuels and SSTU

[PTNLemay]

Just Engineer Redux, KIS and KAS.  I thought of adding more, but even just those few mods introduce enough little bugs.  I didn't feel like contending with more.  Those three just feel like things that absolutely should be in the stock game, so I rarely play without them.

Also, I realized this should have probably been put in the Mission Reports section... not a big deal, but if a passing mod sees this could you please nudge the thread into that sub-forum?

 

EDIT:
I just remembered, I'm also using the Space Hotel mod.  Which gives more elaborate space tourism contracts.

Edited November 26, 2017 by PTNLemay

[Ten Key]

38 minutes ago, PTNLemay said:

Also, I realized this should have probably been put in the Mission Reports section... not a big deal, but if a passing mod sees this could you please nudge the thread into that sub-forum?

Done.

[MoarBoostersRUS]

I'm with that would love to see KER in stock as well, But I highly suggest getting SSTU labs it offers parts for lower part counts and better engines for larger scale as well as more types of panels and better command pods. I play GPP at 10.65x scale (real scale) and SSTU is a god send with real fuels and well smurf but those two are really only needed for larger then 2.5x. 

[PTNLemay]

14 hours ago, MoarBoostersRUS said:

I'm with that would love to see KER in stock as well, But I highly suggest getting SSTU labs it offers parts for lower part counts and better engines for larger scale as well as more types of panels and better command pods. I play GPP at 10.65x scale (real scale) and SSTU is a god send with real fuels and well smurf but those two are really only needed for larger then 2.5x. 

Hmm, thanks.  I hadn't heard of SSTU before.  

I just about managed to pull myself out of the fire.  The bailout ruined my reputation, but I was able to rebuild the VAB.  So I won't have to resort to flying my rockets out of the SPH.  A few juicy satellite missions should have me on my feet again. 

I wish I had more wild narratives with which to fill, but really it was just that smoking crater that I felt like sharing.  Jeb died in that accident!  And on hard mode, he's not coming back.

[MoarBoostersRUS]

Keep at it  hard mode can be a pain in the butt but It makes the game a lot more fun (at least IMO)

[PTNLemay]

Today I learned... 9 km/sec is not enough delta-V to perform a Mun landing and return at 2.5x scaled solar system.  Which... surprised me.  I got so mad in the moment that I forgot to take a screen-capture, but suffice to say Val managed to just make it into a Mun-escape trajectory (while her capsule fell crashing back onto the Mun on a sub-orbital trajectory).  She was later safely rescued.  Another fun fact, rescuing an astronaut who was on the surface of the Mun does not count as a vehicle returned from the Mun, so I missed that achievement... 

I suspect that the changed scale is confusing the contracts, or maybe it's the Space Hotel mod I'm using that's messing with them.   Putting a small satellite in an equatorial orbit of Kerbin gives me 58,000 credits.  But sending a kerbal to the mun and returning him/her gives me 88,000.  With this altered difficulty curve, it feels like it should give you 100,000.  That's what my spacecraft is going to end up costing just to get her safely back in a single vehicle. 

Also, an interesting little bug with the rescale mod.  The astronauts you are meant to rescue are spawning inside of the atmosphere (between 80 and 90 km).  It's still possible to rescue them, because they don't start experiencing the drag until you get close.  But it's astonishingly difficult to get to them in time before they burn up.  I've succeeded 1 out of 3. And failing gives you a big reputation penalty. 

At the moment the only contracts that really turn a profit are satellite missions.  My program is basically riding on them.

Edited November 26, 2017 by PTNLemay

[PTNLemay]

Staging accident nearly killed two of my scientists today.  The mission list called for a Mun base, with a lab on it, and I tried to launch them in this monstrosity.  But I thankfully felt that this was sketchy, and put them in the passenger pontoons on the sides.  They have 40 m/s impact resistance, vs the main lab's resistance of just 6 m/s.

I wish I could get a safer launcher, but I need every bit of deltaV.  Even with a rocket this big I'll need to refuel before I can reach the Mun.

 

EDIT:
Eh... scratch that.  They are now very much dead.  Turns out the thrust wasn't high enough in the upper stages, so the (normally more than enough) 6 km/second wasn't able to get them into orbit.  I dropped the security parachutes once we reached space, not even considering we wouldn't make full orbit.  They survived the re-entry heat, but hit the water at 130 m/s.  Now I'm out of scientists...  this is tough.

Edited December 5, 2017 by PTNLemay

[DAL59]

@PTNLemay I recommend using EOR.  Launch a lander capable of landing and returning into LKO, then dock an unmanned booster to ts to take it to munar orbit.    

[PTNLemay]

@DAL59
Yeah, that was the plan.  I just misjudged the sheer weight of the thing and the needed thrust to get it up.

The third attempt worked.  This time flown entirely by remote with no Kerbals on board.  It doesn't look half bad when it's not sitting on top of a huge stack.  Now I just need to refuel, get scientists onto it, and head off to the mun.

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by PTNLemay

[PTNLemay]

Progress!  The mobile lab made it to the Mun, I got the crew on board safely and did a quick refuel.  Made it onto the surface with 600 m/s to spare (so she's not taking off again, at 2.5x scale it takes about 850 m/s to achieve munar orbit).  I'm also pretty confident that I can take on Duna at this point, I just want to wait for the milestone missions to bring it up.

 

Also trying out some new parts I unlocked.  This is the ship I'll be using to perform docking experiments in Munar orbit (part of a mission).  The capsule on the top is sort of a mish-mashed Gemini capsule analog.  It can safely bring two kerbals back from orbit.  I don't think the specs are much better than just stacking two 1.25m cans on top of one another.  And it's certainly heavier than that earlier approach I had.  But... it looks cool.

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by PTNLemay

[PTNLemay]

As I mentioned earlier, on this rescaled solar system the rescue missions are extremely difficult because the Kerbals are effectively spawning inside of the atmosphere.  You have... maybe a minute to get to them once they enter physics range before they overheat and explode.  I pulled off one such rescue so far, all the other attempts failed catastrophically (usually ending up with me losing the rescue vehicle as well).

So I finally got a new rescue mission, this time involving a Kerbal stuck in Minmus orbit.  Great!  No atmosphere there.  And it's not like the rescaled system could cause it to be so confused that it would spawn it with a suborbital orbit.  Right?

I think the only way I will be able to safely rescue a Kerbal is if he's in a kerbol orbit.  I mean... is there a way to easily edit the ship's orbit? Any other thoughts or suggestions on how I might save poor Greglo?

 

 

On a more positive note, the Ares probe successfully pulled off a Duna flyby not too long ago.  I'm going to try and get the capsule to return in one piece, to fulfill a milestone mission.  She has over 3 km/s left over in the tank, so I'm not too worried.  But I'd love if it I can get the stage to hit Kerbin.  Keep the sun's orbit nice and clean.

Edited December 30, 2017 by PTNLemay

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, PTNLemay said:

is there a way to easily edit the ship's orbit? Any other thoughts or suggestions on how I might save poor Greglo?

There are several ways but, short of immediately quitting the game and editing the save file, I don't think any of them will work for a rescue.  The thing about rescues is, you can't select the ship until you get another ship within physics range, so neither the stock cheat nor HyperEdit can be used.  I don't know of a way to edit the stock contract parameters, like to make rescuee orbits conform to non-stock solar systems.

When I use a non-stock solar system, I frequently have similar problems with rescue orbits.  Thus, I just ignore rescue contracts.  To be able to afford a large roster of Kerbals, I use Custom Barn Kit to set the price of hiring them very low, and constant.