The No Contract Career Challenge

[Scarecrow71]

Another update to my mission log for this challenge!  Things are coming along nicely.  Slow, but nice.  I'm noticing that the more upgrades you do, the quicker things seem to go.  At least, that's how it is right now; I'm sure I'll slow to a snail's-pace crawl soon enough.

 

[Scarecrow71]

The latest entry here.  I'm stalled with making funds.  I thought for sure that EVA and planting a flag on Minmus would get me something, but I earned almost nothing.  Any suggestions, beyond Administration Strategies?

 

[18Watt]

On 2/27/2018 at 5:12 AM, Kergarin said:

sorry for off topic, but is there any way to make imgur upload my images in the correct order?

Apologies for the necro, but for those who struggle with Imgur’s file order, here’s what I do-  Batch rename all my screenshots as ‘Contest00001’, 00002, etc.  OS X makes this really easy, pretty sure you can accomplish the same thing on Windows.

Then upload to Imgur, and select Sort by Original Filename.  
 

Also, @Superfluous J, I’m making a run at this one too.  Yes, I actually read (or at least skim) every post in a challenge before entering.  I do have a question which I didn’t see addressed in the posts:

One of the rules states No Science on the Launchpad (zero contracts!)   I assume this just means no accepting ‘test part’ contracts on the launchpad, but does not prevent me from recovering science from the launchpad or around KSC?

In other words, I’m planning on collecting science from KSC before my first launch, ala my Kerpollo entry.  I won’t get as much here due to facilities at base level, and no Surface Samples at the start..

 

[Superfluous J]

4 hours ago, 18Watt said:

One of the rules states No Science on the Launchpad (zero contracts!)

Specifically it says:

Yes, this includes "Do science on the launchpad." NONE CONTRACTS

"Do Science On The Launchpad" was supposed to imply that was the easy gimme first contract of the game. Seems it did not succeed. I'll reword it

You are correct that you can do science on the launchpad. You just can't get more easy money for it.

And welcome to the challenge! I didn't even realize how much I missed verifying challenges until you two started doing mine one by one

Edited December 7, 2021 by Superfluous J

[18Watt]

Here's a link to my mission reports for this challenge:

So far I've completed 3 launches:  Orbit Kerbin, Fly-By Mun, and Land on Minmus.  I have accumulated a lot of science, but not enough funds yet to unlock R&D level 2.  I'm currently debating wether a Mun landing would be worthwhile, or if I should head for Duna next.

Before my third launch I activated Leadership Initiative at 25%.  Once I get the tech-tree filled out I'll start converting science to funds, but that's a long way off yet.

[TheFlyingKerman]

I have been doing an easy version of the challenge. Per the save file

Spoiler

            StartingFunds = 25000
            StartingScience = 0
            StartingReputation = 0
            FundsGainMultiplier = 0.5
            RepGainMultiplier = 0.6
            ScienceGainMultiplier = 0.5

            ResourceAbundance = 0.5
            ReentryHeatScale = 1
            EnableCommNet = True

I also enabled part entry cost, plasma blackout, and always enable hotkeys.

I flew many missions concurrently, so I am not sure how to report them (it the entry qualifies)

Spoiler

1) Flea launch and splash down

(upgrade Astronaut Complex)

2) First orbit. Launched Jeb into polar orbit and did all EVA reports

3) Kerbin Plane mission, visited Island Airfield and Monolith nearby

4) KSC Rover science

5) Moar plane missions, visited Temple and KSC2

(upgrade mission control and tracking station)

6) Manned Mun orbit

(upgrade launchpad)

7) Manned Minmus landing and return

(upgrade VAB and R&D)

8) First reusable rocket SSTO avaliable, launched a Mun rover

9) Launched a constellation of 3 relays

10) Launched resuable Mun lander

11) Manned vessel rendezvous with Mun lander in Mun orbit, docked to refuel the lander, landed on Mun, drove the rover around for science, then returned to Kerbin.

12) Minmus Rover

13) Probe to look for anomaly at Kerbin, Minmus and Mun

14) Second manned Minmus landing

15) Unsuccessful Kerbin green monolith hunt, Minmus rover visited green monolith

16) Another probe to hunt for Kerbin monolith, this time from LKO

17) Another Kerbin green monolith hunt, this time hit the jackpot and unlocked advanced science

18) Gravity scan probe for Kerbin

19) Sun orbit and return probe

20) Gravity scan probe/ lander for Mun

20a) The last probe was a few m/s short of DV to return to Kerbin, a retrieval probe was sent

21) Duna lander and return probe (relay included)

22) Ike rover (relay included)

(upgrade tracking station)

23) Gilly lander and return probe (also orbited Eve)

24) Pol rover and relay, used Tylo for gravity capture then flew by Laythe and Vall before landing.

25) Dres rover and relay

26) Laythe orbiting probe and ore scanner/relay (flew by Tylo and Vall, planned to return)

(upgrade R&D)

27) Bop rover and relay (still ongoing)

28) Minmus miner

29) Eeloo rover and relay (refueling from Minmus miner, still ongoing)

30) Moho rover and relay (refueling from Minmus miner, still ongoing)

31) Duna helicopter

32) Duna/Ike reusable lander (relay included)

33) Interplanetary ferry

34) Crew delivery (Bill) for interplanetary ferry

 

[18Watt]

No Contract Challenge Complete!

Took me 11 launches.  I did use some strategies in the Admin building, and also used a MPL to give myself a science bump, and also to generate some funds.

The final mission, using two ships to get rendezvous, docking, and station bonuses at every CB, was very rewarding.  I ended up having enough funds to upgrade all facilities about halfway through my final mission, and by the time I returned to Kerbin I had nearly $8M surplus.

If I did this challenge again (and I might!) there are a few things I would do differently.  Many thanks to @Superfluous J for suggesting the rendezvous/station/docking bonuses, which really got me out of a rut.  Next time I would make an attempt to get those bonuses much earlier if possible.

I only landed a probe on Eve, and did not land on Laythe or Tylo (orbit only).  I think bringing a Laythe lander would have been useful.  Landing on (and returning from) Tylo, I don't think that would have generated the funds to make up the additional cost.  Returning from Eve's surface was out of the question for me, they way I build Eve landers is far too expensive to be worthwhile in this challenge.

Two aspects to this challenge which tripped me up:

• I normally fill out my astronaut roster by rescuing stranded Kerbals.  That wasn't an option in this challenge, because you have to take contracts to rescue them.  So I had to PAY MONEY to recruit extra Kerbals.  One of my big ideas was to launch a bunch of MPLs to spam science (and thus money..), but that doesn't look as attractive when you have to shell out a lot of extra money for each new scientist.
• Doing the Kerpollo missions I got used to not bringing probe cores on anything.  So when I was actually using probes of any sort during this challenge, I was reminded how probe cores can sneakily use up all their electricity, and end up with no solar panels pointed at the sun.  I managed to get a good laugh at myself every time!

Here's a link to the final post in my Mission Reports page:

 

[Superfluous J]

On 12/17/2021 at 11:10 AM, TheFlyingKerman said:

I have been doing an easy version of the challenge

Welcome! Based on your settings it seems more like you're doing a "Hard Custom" as in it's custom, but closer to Hard than Normal. I will admit though that I'm out of practice turning a list of save file settings into config screen options.

As far as counting, yes it does! I love reading mission reports and seeing images of the ships constructed and situations encountered, but that is by no means necessary. This is hard enough of a challenge that I'll take your reports on faith so long as they appear reasonable. Which yours does

One thing, are you using any mods?

[Superfluous J]

15 hours ago, 18Watt said:

If I did this challenge again (and I might!)

Having people doing the challenge again has piqued my desire to do it again as well. I had this big idea that the MOMENT I got docking ports I'd send a probe that would meet every mission I sent to each world do the docking thing. I just never got around to it. I'd love to complete this challenge without leaning so heavily like I did on the Admin building.

Congratulations, as well! Good to see another in the winner's circle

[18Watt]

1 hour ago, Superfluous J said:

I'd love to complete this challenge without leaning so heavily like I did on the Admin building.

For me, I’d like to do it without using the MPL.  Although I only launched one of them, it still feels chesty…

edit- Wow, autocorrect really got me this time. I meant to say ‘cheaty’….  

Edited December 19, 2021 by 18Watt

[18Watt]

@Superfluous J, I'm indeed making a second run at this challenge.  I probably won't post as many screenshots this time, I'm doing this just to try a few different strategies.  The details are in my Mission Reports thread.  I'm not too far along, I've only launched two ships so far.  Looks like my third will possibly be a probe to get rendezvous bonuses at Minmus, Mun, and Kerbin as I bring the second ship back home.

Oh, I should mention I do play 100% stock, I see you had me down as a modded entry for my first run.  I do use the MH and BG packs, otherwise I'm 100% stock.

[Superfluous J]

Okay I'm doing this again.
 

Spoiler

Not many images for the first part because early ships are pretty standard for me by now. But here's the simple "Settings" screen showing I'm on "Normal" mode.

My play through will be Modded Normal. I have only 2 mods installed: Warp Everywhere because that should be Stock (is stock?) and ForScience because I will never click a science experiment again (well, almost never). My goal is to not touch the Admin building except to upgrade it. We'll see how that goes.

My first "launch" was Bob getting science on the pad, which unlocked the thermometer and barometer. My first actual launch was Jeb getting more science on the pad and in a tiny hop to the Crawlway, which unlocked better flight options. My third launch was Val going into polar orbit, at which point I upgraded to Astronaut Complex 2 so she could go EVA, both in orbit over all the biomes, and also upon the very early bit of re-entry to get upper atmosphere EVA.

I've not played since they actually fixed Kerbals not sliding on ladders and it's a joy. I 4x time warped and left Val there for an orbit and a half while writing this up (and looking up Kerbin biomes because I don't remember them all by heart like I used to), and she got all the biomes ending - as usual - with the Badlands. I then de-orbited, not caring about recovery funds, onto the grasslands north of the big desert. I kept enough fuel to power brake before hitting the one chute, but it was not as graceful a landing as we'd hoped for. Still, any orbit you can walk away from, right?

That gave me enough science to unlock the OKTO, the Science Jr, and the Jr Docking port, which means I was now ready to "construct a space station" in orbit of any world I want. And the first such world I want do that on is Kerbin. However first I could really use better fuel and engine options (I hate "Reliant Probes"). So I unlocked the basic plane parts and made a cheap-and-cheesy jet-powered science car. Like you do. Here's Bob showing it off (He sits in the back and resets the experiments while Jeb drives) - as well as his golf swing.

The car got a ton of science from all around KSC, though as it has no brakes or reverse gear, it did not get any building science. It also didn't get the nearby splashed down science because Jeb crashed it.

A little haphazardly, I spent 150k of the 163k I had in the bank on an upgrade to Tracking Station 2, to give me not only patched conics (which will be useful soon) but also in-flight Ap/Pe readings, one of my major wants on every launch. This though meant I had to launch 2 ships with 13k funds before I could make any more money.

So, I built this guy, with enough fuel in the first stage to JUST get into orbit with a perfect launch (which I even managed, one of the two times) and enough fuel in the payload to pretty much do anything you could want (like, for instance, finish getting into orbit). He cost 4645 funds so after launching 2 of them, I had about 3700 in the bank - which isn't enough to launch another.

However with orbit information rendezvous and docking were a breeze so after this scenic view, I was able to get back up to 61k funds, hopefully enough for a Mun Lander.

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Superfluous J

[18Watt]

6 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

ForScience because I will never click a science experiment again

Yes!  That's why I altered my settings to always allow Action Groups.  However I still need to go out and collect all the science.  Hmm, maybe I need to start using a few mods...

6 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

I've not played since they actually fixed Kerbals not sliding on ladders and it's a joy.

Amen!  I really wish I'd figured out your method of attaching a 'stopper' at the end of ladders a long time ago.

Looks like you are also confident docking without RCS!  That's handy.  First, of course, because sometimes I forget to put a monopropellant tank on the ship.  But also because to do RCS right you really need at least 3 RCS blocks- that's 10% of your part count allotment with the base level VAB!  I also noticed not only did you dock without RCS, you made the effort to align your probes properly- so that solar panels on each probe are offset 90 degrees, less chance of a blackout.  I still haven't tried the docking port rotation feature yet..

[Superfluous J]

5 hours ago, 18Watt said:

Looks like you are also confident docking without RCS!

I can dock any two ships without RCS. I put it on bigger ships because it makes it much easier, but with tiny ships (or a tiny ship docking to a larger ship) it's just extra unneded parts. I may install a 3rd mod, docking port alignment indicator, but I shouldn't need it as I'll probably never dock two very large things together.

5 hours ago, 18Watt said:

I also noticed not only did you dock without RCS, you made the effort to align your probes properly- so that solar panels on each probe are offset 90 degrees, less chance of a blackout.  I still haven't tried the docking port rotation feature yet..

I forgot you could rotate docking ports. I actually did that on purpose before docking. It wasn't pre-planned, but about 2 seconds before docking I thought "why not?" and turned my active ship 90 degrees.

Both were originally lined up with a panel in the sun because 10 electric charge isn't much and I've hit THAT problem FAR too many times

[Superfluous J]

To the Mun! Again in spoilers to hide images even though there are only 5.

Spoiler

Meet Mun Orbit 1, with a multi-step mission. Normally this sort of ship would carry a pilot and a scientist, but this mission is bringing along an engineer. Bill's job this trip is simple: He needs to attach an antenna to the probe that's in orbit because I forgot to put it there on launch he needs the experience. The ship has only 2 engines but 3 main stages. The first stage is a Reliant to get us out of the atmosphere and also a good bit of sideways motion. The second stage uses a Terrier that will be the main engine for the rest of the flight, but drains the fuel tank on top, so we can throw that tank away once in space and have a ship with (mostly) full tanks.

We meet the probe and Bill does his job, then we send them both to Mun. The fuel budget for both ships is pretty tight and of the two the probe is by far the most expendable, so I do most of the work with it. After I got the ships to the Mun I could afford to upgrade to Mission Control 2 and get glorious, glorious maneuver nodes. With them, The rendezvous goes off easily.

Note the probe is missing its other half. I locked this probe's fuel tank until I ran out the fuel in the other probe, and then tossed it aside as so much trash.

Then all that was left was to undock and come home, which with 300m/s in the tank and maneuver nodes was no issue at all.

I also set up a future node for the probe to start its trip to Minmus to dock with someone there.

I was hoping I'd be able to upgrade R&D before landing on Mun, but with a 451k price tag (and only having 226k funds after returning from Mun) that's not happening. So, I've decided instead to go land on Minmus. Hopefully all the money I get for getting there and docking with the probe, plus landing and flag planting, will be enough to unlock R&D 2 so we can get surface samples before taking off again. Here's hoping!

Oh, and in all the excitement Jeb and Bill forgot to do any EVAs around Mun. Let's say their doors got stuck shut when Bill's laser welder misfired.

 

[Superfluous J]

It's Minmus' turn. Here we go.

Spoiler

After the Mun Orbit Mission (MOM) returned, the Lab RATS (Researchers And Technical Staff) were able to figure out several very important things, including fuel lines, launch clamps, struts, fairings, and the Experiment Control Unit. Now the only question was, could I build a Minmus lander complete with a packed away set of ground experiments and the pilot, engineer, AND scientist required to set them all up efficiently... in 30 parts and 18 tons?

No! Not even close. So, I bit the bullet and upgraded to Launchpad 2. It was only 50k and if I'm 50k shy of upgrading R&D when I land on Minmus, I'll accept that I'll have to live with not getting surface samples there.

So by using 29 of my 30 parts and 40 of my 140 tons (and 21.7 of my 35 meters height) I launched this ugly ship into Kerbin orbit. His little hat there contains the fuel to get to Minmus, and the rest should get us home. Tucked down between the fuel and the engine is the science, both on-ship and a container for on-ground science for Minmus. Above the Pea capsule is a probe core. I just couldn't get 3 Kerbals to Minmus on my budget and we need an Engineer (A level 1 in fact) to get the needed 2 power units from the solar panels I'm attaching to the Go-ob unit and the transfer station. And I need Bob to be the scientist to reset the ship science and set up the Go-ob for maximum output.

It took a while, but I got both the crew and the probe to Minmus for the ceremonial docking. I remembered to get some EVA science (not to mention a spacewalk) as well. Landing was easy as expected on Minmus, and we got the ground station set up with no problems. Bob even found a sandstone rock to bring home as a souvenir for study in R&D.

Turns out a level-0 scientist is no better than an other Kerbal, so we're only getting 25% output from the thing. But hey science isn't why we're here, it's cash! And after doing everything you can do to get money, we hit 430k funds, which is laughably within 50k of what I needed. So if I could have avoided upgrading the launch pad I'd have been able to take a surface sample. Oh well, maybe next time.

Fuel was a bit tight, so I scrapped the idea of biome hopping and just launched back into orbit, then returned home. The act of doing so got me over 100k more funds, plenty to upgrade R&D and have a decent budget for the Mun landing ship. I also got 1500 or so science of which I really only needed 180 for the only two non-plane nodes left. So I got bigger rocket stuff and the landing gear I might use on Mun when I get there. I'll spend the other 1350 science once I unlock R&D but for now, I'm happy to sit on it.

 

[TheFlyingKerman]

I have decided to start and other challenge save in normal setting.

However the linked images don't seem to work???

Edited December 22, 2021 by TheFlyingKerman

[18Watt]

I've complete launches 5 and 6 in my second run, link here.  Launch 5 was to Eve and Gilly, launch 6 was to Duna and Ike.  I hit a few snags on the run to Eve, but nothing that I couldn't recover from.  The run to Duna went pretty smooth.

I'm using the Leadership Initiative again.  That coupled with using probes earlier to get the docking bonuses is working extremely well.  I'm following @Superfluous J's second run, I think you're trying to do it without strategies?  That's another thing I'm wondering about.  I might make a third go at this challenge!  Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves 18Watt, I still haven't finished the second run..

Edit:  I just checked, after launch 6 I was able to fill out my Tech Tree, almost completely,  there's only two nodes left (hypersonic flight..).  I'll be able to finish the challenge (famous last words..) with launch 7, out to Dres, Jool, and Eve.

Out of curiosity, is there a separate bonus for starting a station on a CB's surface?

1 hour ago, TheFlyingKerman said:

However the linked images don't seem to work???

I was able to see the images in your linked post no problem.  And that's an interesting start!  Definitely a different direction that I have used so far.

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by 18Watt

[TheFlyingKerman]

On 12/23/2021 at 1:45 AM, 18Watt said:

Out of curiosity, is there a separate bonus for starting a station on a CB's surface?

I think it does

Spoiler

Got an instant 20k profit docking two rovers next to the runway.

 

 

On 12/23/2021 at 1:45 AM, 18Watt said:

I was able to see the images in your linked post no problem.

It is good to know. Imgur won't open, Imgbb allowed me to upload but the link didn't work, Imgpile seems to work for now.

Mission report updated

 

[18Watt]

9 hours ago, TheFlyingKerman said:

Got an instant 20k profit docking two rovers next to the runway.

Oh wow!  That is really interesting!  I just tried it, and got $14,850, including a $4,050 bonus for leadership initiative.  

• I have Leadership initiative at 25%, which adds 37.5% to world first bonuses.
• Looks like the base for Station Start on Kerbin is $10,800.
• 37.5% of that is $4,050, for a total of $14,850.
• Your mileage will obviously vary depending on what strategies you have going..

Thank you for pointing that out!  During my first run I was going along nicely, and hit a wall, becoming unable to generate enough funds to progress.  @Superfluous J suggested getting Rendezvous, Station Start, and Docking bonuses, which I had forgotten about.  Here's another source of funds I hadn't realized.  Probably not practical on every CB, but it could be profitable on a lot of them.  I'm already thinking about launching a probe with maybe 10 tiny rovers to LKO, then every time I head to a different CB I grab one or two of the rovers...

Rovers can be constructed really cheap, and with just a little fuel or monopropellant it could also be the probe for the orbital bonuses.  

[TheFlyingKerman]

On 12/25/2021 at 1:36 AM, 18Watt said:

Looks like the base for Station Start on Kerbin is $10,800.

$10800 is the right number. Also got 4800 for first docking and another 4800 for crew transfer for a total of $20400.

Update 2

 

[Superfluous J]

Time for Duna!

Spoiler

First, I upgraded to VAB 2 so I can actually make ships. You can see it in the background of this launch of the Duna Lander. Or the Ike Lander. I don't remember. They look exactly the same on the pad. I'm Hoping going to Duna and Ike and then landing on one of them, will get me the money to upgrade R&D once and for all, so I can do surface samples and resource transfers. Also, I can get decent antennas so my 2nd ship doesn't have to be Kerbed.

I hate math so installed my 3rd mod, AntennaHelper (and its 3 dependencies upping me to 6 mods now). Using it, I determined that I have no ability to communicate out to Duna. All interplanetary antennas are locked behind R&D 2. Huh. Who knew?

So this mission would need to actually be with 2 kerbed ships, and I figured two 2-kerbal ships was the way to go. One is designed to land on Ike, the other on Duna. Even though they're exactly the same ship Here's the Duna lander. You can tell because I used orange paint. The launch stage is still attached and has the dV to mostly eject to Duna. Like before, the ship has a hat as well with enough fuel to get into orbit of Ike.

The mission plan was to land the Ike lander at Ike, then get back into orbit and rendezvous and dock with the Duna lander, which would already be in orbit of Ike. Then I'd repeat at Duna with the Duna lander. However, a seating SNAFU caused Bob and Bill to change places (they were on the manifests as B. Kerman) so when the Ike lander arrived at Ike with an Engineer in the seat, the decision was made to rendezvous (but not dock due to the fuel tank hats each ship had on their docking ports) around Ike so Bill and Bob could change places, and Bob could perform science on the surface of Ike. This went off without a hitch, and all the orbital machinations were even enough to upgrade Mission Control before the Ike landing, which will result in Surface Sample science, a bonus!

The Ike lander's hat ran out of fuel as planned before landing, so we tossed it aside.

Bob got a nice flag planting in for once. Jeb had to stay in the ship because they were afraid it'd fall over with SAS off.

The Duna ship had to toss its hat aside with fuel in it. Sad, but with fuel transfer available now we have a lot more leeway in the 2 ships.

I can hear the coins dropping.

Duna landing. If you squint you can see Ike in the haze on the horizon.

Bob playing Golf on Duna. Val, like Jeb, was afraid to take her hand off the control stick lest the lander tip over.

Once docked in orbit of Duna, the ships could head home. they did so attached, and in Solar space detached, wandered 5km apart, and came back together to make more cold hard cash test docking with no nearby gravity masses.

Something is up with the in-game alarm planet transfer calculator. I've seen this before with mods but expected the game to do better. Oh well.

The ships came in days apart and the Ike lander managed to land on the desert isthmus just west of KSC continent.

Of course, the Duna lander also landed in that same desert. Here it is coming down over Woomerang.

After completing the mission, I now have 1.5 million funds and 7814 science to spend in my new R&D facility, which I STILL can't afford to upgrade to level 3. That's likely my next building upgrade target. As to my next PLANETARY target, I've still go Mun waiting to go and with this level of tech it'll be a breeze. I'm not sure yet though, I could do Eve or even go further. Who knows?

 

[18Watt]

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

All interplanetary antennas are locked behind R&D 2. Huh. Who knew?

Not me.  I finally figured out Remote Probe Control (I think..).  But to make that work efficiently, or with limited VAB or Launchpad capabilities, is not easy early on.  I wish the Lawn Chair was available earlier in the tech tree, the Lawn Chair solved a lot of my probe problems.

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

I figured two 2-kerbal ships was the way to go.

Yeah!  That’s the way I build ships too!  Why send one Kerbal when you can send four?

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

The mission plan was to land the Ike lander at Ike, then get back into orbit and rendezvous and dock with the Duna lander, which would already be in orbit of Ike. Then I'd repeat at Duna with the Duna lander. However, a seating SNAFU caused Bob and Bill to change places (they were on the manifests as B. Kerman) so when the Ike lander arrived at Ike with an Engineer in the seat, the decision was made to rendezvous (but not dock due to the fuel tank hats each ship had on their docking ports) around Ike so Bill and Bob could change places, and Bob could perform science on the surface of Ike. This went off without a hitch, and all the orbital machinations were even enough to upgrade Mission Control before the Ike landing, which will result in Surface Sample science, a bonus!

Not gonna lie, I got a headache reading that.

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

The Duna ship had to toss its hat aside with fuel in it. Sad,

That really bugs me, and I go to great lengths to use the last drop of fuel out of every tank.  Even when it makes absolutely no sense to do so.  I feel your pain..

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

Duna landing

That’s a brave move, sir.  A tall, teeter-y lander for Duna.

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

Something is up with the in-game alarm planet transfer calculator.

Yup.  I don’t use mods, so I really can’t compare it to mods which help with transfers.  But I’ve given up on the transfer planner- I can do it much better myself.  I did briefly use KAC and TWP- I was glad to see a stock KAC in the game, really useful.

The excuse I’ll give for transfer planners not working the greatest is: turns out planning efficient transfers is hard!  One of those cases where a monkey’s brain (mine) can usually use intuition to get equal or better results than a computer.

 

[Superfluous J]

6 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

Why send one Kerbal when you can send four?

Actually all 4 were necessary. 2 pilots, one for each ship. Scientist to reset the Goo and Jr, and an engineer to literally ride the whole way to Duna and back just so he can repack 2 parachutes before returning home.

7 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

Not gonna lie, I got a headache reading that.

It was hard to plan and do, it SHOULD be hard to read!

8 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

I go to great lengths to use the last drop of fuel out of every tank.

I tend to as well and yes I didn't like it. What's worse, I'm pretty sure if I'd thought about it Bill could have EVA-construction-attached that tank back onto the ship to transfer the fuel. Oh well

9 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

That’s a brave move, sir.  A tall, teeter-y lander for Duna

It's not as bad as it first appears. The fuel + engines make it bottom heavy and Val's leaning on the flight stick to keep it upright.

 

[TheFlyingKerman]

Update 3 and 4

Challenge complete!!!