Kerpollo - A Complete Science Mode Run In 9 Acts

[zanie420]

Installed, 1.6 and I was just thinking about doing another Caveman run.... when I came across this challenge! Darn you @5thHorseman

 

Making my first attempt, using the same mods as you and discovered something. Can you choose the other launch sites (ie Woomerang), in order to gather the science from there as long as you don't launch? Or are we limited to the KSC @5thHorseman? 

Edited January 2, 2019 by zanie420

[zanie420]

Can I get an answer @5thHorseman? I need to start over if I am breaking the rules, or the 'spirit' of the challenge.

[dnbattley]

Related to @zanie420's question above, is there a fixed science value you would permit one to add at launch, instead of undertaking the "KSC biome grind" dance, and cracking straight on with the missions?

Edited January 3, 2019 by dnbattley

[zanie420]

10 minutes ago, dnbattley said:

Related to @zanie420's question above, is there a fixed science value you would permit one to add at launch, instead of undertaking the "KSC biome grind" dance, and cracking straight on with the missions?

Crud.... I didn't mean to open the flood gates, or undermine anything. I clearly believe in doing the grind as part of the inherent challenge.

I think I will just restart and try not to emulate @5thHorseman's beginning too much, and limit myself to the KSC. Being able to chose the other launchpad is akin to teleporting to another biome, and perhaps a shortcut through the aforementioned dance 

 

[Superfluous J]

Sorry it's been a busy 24 hours.

Extra launch sites are out. They're new enough I forgot about them.

No bonus for skipping the grind. I'm skipping it too and so far not missing it.

[ManEatingApe]

Why grind KSC science when there's the MOAR boosters approach...

(Normal science career, stock only)

@5thHorseman Would it violate the spirit of the challenge completing the tech tree using fewer than 9 launches?

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, ManEatingApe said:

 

@5thHorseman Would it violate the spirit of the challenge completing the tech tree using fewer than 9 launches?

I hate to say it but yes, it would. Though I'd totally love to see it!

Edited January 4, 2019 by 5thHorseman

[zanie420]

After restarting, here is my attempt
https://imgur.com/a/SYOdW3X

MODS:
For Science
All Y'All
Making History
Kerbal Alarm Clock
Astrogator
Transfer Window Planner
Antenna Helper
Precise Node
Warp Everywhere

SETTINGS:
Normal Mode, no changes.

Edited January 4, 2019 by zanie420

[Superfluous J]

So I violated 2 of my rules. One of them was to make a backup before launch. I figured it wasn't important because come on I was just going to Mun. The other was I put a probe core on my ship. I wasn't using it as a probe core, but instead as it (the Stayputnik) was the lightest size-0 part I had to put on my ship as a nosecone at that low tech. I realized this was a violation about 10 seconds after landing back on Kerbin, and my oldest backup is from Mun orbit, after landing.

So, I'll be starting over from scratch. I guess it could be worse, I could have done it on my Jool 5 mission.

57 minutes ago, zanie420 said:

After restarting, here is my attempt

And a well done attempt it is! I love science cars, I don't know why.

I should probably start the leaderboard or something!

[zanie420]

Sorry, I got frustrated with imgur and having to reorganize/reupload  pics, so I made a video this time. I hope I am getting better at it

 

 

[ManEatingApe]

16 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I hate to say it but yes, it would. Though I'd totally love to see it!

No worries, thought it might be a little cheeky!

I like your rule restrictions so I'll probably continue the save trying to do it in the fewest launches possible (off my own bat of course in order to not derail this thread). A kind of "inspired by Kerpollo" non-official outlaw renegade attempt

Edited January 4, 2019 by ManEatingApe

[Superfluous J]

3 hours ago, zanie420 said:

Sorry, I got frustrated with imgur and having to reorganize/reupload  pics, so I made a video this time

I know what you mean. I took the opportunity granted with my forced restart to record it instead of taking screenshots.

Edited January 4, 2019 by 5thHorseman

[Ultimate Steve]

@zanie420 As far as imgur goes, yes, the ordering is really freaking annoying. Just some advice for next time - if you have a ton of screenshots, though, you can upload the first flight, and wait, use the add more images option, add the second flight, etc. They will still be in the wrong order, but at least the flights will be in order. It will take a bit longer, though. You don't have to sit through it, you can do something else and come back every once and a while. Or write it up while the screenshots are coming in, flight by flight.

@5thHorseman I have now fully finished Duna and Dres, although I forgot to bring a gravioli detector to Dres, so I'm slightly behind on my science goals. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to do Jool, my last mission, without having to science spam. I still have Eve, Gilly, and Moho to go through, but I need 5550 science from those 3 bodies. Which I think might be doable, but it might not be... Maybe I'll only science on some of the Joolian bodies. I'll post the whole update when done, should I do it here or in a separate thread due to the number of pictures? I'll try to keep it pretty minimal, though.

I have KIS/KAS installed on the game but I'm not using it. It adds another 550 science tech node, I'm assuming I don't have to unlock that, right?

Also, I'm ready for Moho, with something that looks awesome and is hopefully overkill.

I do not, ever in a million years expect this to work correctly the first try. Also I'm adding more tanks, the liftoff TWR is a bit high.

[Ultimate Steve]

GRR!

Defying all odds, it worked on the first try. I'm almost to Moho, and of course now I realize I have no scientist to reset the experiments. I can still get at least half of the science from Moho without multiple uses on the bay and goo, but still, GRR.

[zanie420]

2 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

GRR!

Defying all odds, it worked on the first try. I'm almost to Moho, and of course now I realize I have no scientist to reset the experiments. I can still get at least half of the science from Moho without multiple uses on the bay and goo, but still, GRR.

Impressive craft! I look forward to seeing your progress. I am going in the order @5thHorseman set, so I just finished my first interplanetary trip to Dres.... barely. Only had 50m/s left to adjust for the final aerobrake at Kerbin. My mistake was using verners, that were not centered as well as forgetting to turn RCS off. Ate up a surprising amount of deltaV over the trip there and I didn't realize it   I will edit the video in the morning and post. Cheers! 

[Ultimate Steve]

10 minutes ago, zanie420 said:

Impressive craft! I look forward to seeing your progress. I am going in the order @5thHorseman set, so I just finished my first interplanetary trip to Dres.... barely. Only had 50m/s left to adjust for the final aerobrake at Kerbin. My mistake was using verners, that were not centered as well as forgetting to turn RCS off. Ate up a surprising amount of deltaV over the trip there and I didn't realize it   I will edit the video in the morning and post. Cheers! 

Also, @5thHorseman, you say one body per trip... What if you accidentally encounter the Mun coming back from Moho or something? What about gravity assists? Of course, I won't do science around the bodies.

[qzgy]

34 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Also, @5thHorseman, you say one body per trip... What if you accidentally encounter the Mun coming back from Moho or something? What about gravity assists? Of course, I won't do science around the bodies.

From reading the rules, I don't think there's any limit on body encounters, or even on getting science from said body. Just landings.

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Also, @5thHorseman, you say one body per trip... What if you accidentally encounter the Mun coming back from Moho or something? What about gravity assists? Of course, I won't do science around the bodies.

@qzgy has it. It's one LANDING per trip (well 2 if you count landing on Kerbin at the end). Everything else is fair game.

Also, "Fill out the science tree" is a nice personal goal but is not actually a goal of the challenge. You'll need a lot of the high tech parts for your Jool 5 and Eve runs (at least, I will) but if you don't need a node and don't have the science, you'll still win the challenge.

And when I did it unrecorded, my Duna mission (which I did after Dres, Eeloo, and Moho so all that was left was Jool and Eve) I unlocked the entire tree. So I can't see how you'll not unlock it all even missing out on some.

And to just state it: Feel free to do the science when you encounter these other bodies.

5 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I'll post the whole update when done, should I do it here or in a separate thread due to the number of pictures? I'll try to keep it pretty minimal, though

Your call, if you put it here put it in a spoiler, and use jpgs please. If you post your own thread of course link to it here

Edited January 5, 2019 by 5thHorseman

[Superfluous J]

Okay I finally have my rebooted attempt up, on the YouTubes. In it I am able to save the goo experiments in Kerpollo so I get a little more science than before, but I still use the same Munpollo ship I used the first time, except reworking the top to remove the Stayputnik. And forget to put a decoupler between the pod and the rest of the ship. It'll be fine. Surely.

Note in the video you see me land, take off, and land again on Mun. This isn't biome hopping, I just wasn't comfortable getting out of the ship at that angle. I only "hopped" about 10 meters away, to land with my ship lengthwise down the hill.

Spoiler

 

 

[zanie420]

2 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Okay I finally have my rebooted attempt up, on the YouTubes.

Ok @5thHorseman, you make excellent videos. I, again, will attempt NOT to copy you style too much. Editting Drespollo now....

Also, maybe I misunderstood.... but I thought part of the challenge was leaving an orbiter and rendezvousing with it, Apollo style. I didn't see that in your video....

Edited January 5, 2019 by zanie420

[Superfluous J]

32 minutes ago, zanie420 said:

Ok @5thHorseman, you make excellent videos. I, again, will attempt NOT to copy you style too much. Editting Drespollo now....

Also, maybe I misunderstood.... but I thought part of the challenge was leaving an orbiter and rendezvousing with it, Apollo style. I didn't see that in your video....

"Once you have unlocked any docking port, you must also leave a craft in orbit of each world landed on, during the landing."

I have not yet unlocked any docking port.

Well, NOW I have, and Minpollo (and all further *pollo missions) will have an orbiter.

Edited January 5, 2019 by 5thHorseman

[zanie420]

1 minute ago, 5thHorseman said:

"Once you have unlocked any docking port, you must also leave a craft in orbit of each world landed on, during the landing."

I have not yet unlocked any docking port.

Oh, I see.... with unlocked nodes, comes great responsibility

[vyznev]

On 1/4/2019 at 4:45 AM, 5thHorseman said:

So I violated 2 of my rules. One of them was to make a backup before launch. I figured it wasn't important because come on I was just going to Mun. The other was I put a probe core on my ship. I wasn't using it as a probe core, but instead as it (the Stayputnik) was the lightest size-0 part I had to put on my ship as a nosecone at that low tech. I realized this was a violation about 10 seconds after landing back on Kerbin, and my oldest backup is from Mun orbit, after landing.

Oops, I guess I overlooked that rule as well.  Which means my science rover run to the mountains and my first flight are disqualified, since I had an OKTO core on them to provide stability assist for Bob.

Although, looking at the rules again, technically they only say that landers can't have probe cores. Neither of those craft were ever going to land anywhere (well, except on Kerbin at the end, that is). The rover never even took off to begin with (unless you count a few jumps off bumpy terrain).

Anyway, at least I have a save from before I unlocked the OKTO. While I could easily redo the science run and just replace the probe core with a second command pod, I don't think I'll bother. Even going to the mountains only earned me 84 points of science, which is nothing compared to what I already had from KSC. And it turned out I had more science than I really had any use for, anyway; the only tier 5 parts I ended up using on the Kerpollo mission were some FL-T800 tank, which can be easily replaced with two FL-T400s, and the OKTO core that I wasn't supposed to use anyway.   So I'll just rebuild the craft without those and refly the mission.

(Oh, wait, solar panels! I had those too, and I guess I do want them if I'm going to take a detour to Minmus orbit. But that's OK, I have enough science from KSC to unlock them. And I can actually unlock the FL-T800 tanks with just KSC science too, so all I need to do is dump the OKTO. I wonder if I should replace it with a second pod and bring Jeb or Val along? That'd increase weight a lot, but I do have delta-v to spare. But I'm also pretty sure I can fly this mission without stability assist, so I don't really need a pilot. Then again, leveling up a pilot now could be useful for the next mission... )

Edited January 5, 2019 by vyznev

[Superfluous J]

28 minutes ago, vyznev said:

Even going to the mountains only earned me 84 points of science, which is nothing compared to what I already had from KSC

Yeah and it's somewhere around 7% of what you'd get from Mun and less than from Minmus. If you're that close on your Dunpollo or Drespollo mission and still don't have all your parts, THEN it's time to start thinking about a mountain drive.

[zanie420]

Drespollo completed, and boy was it TIGHT! Proud to say I only needed 1 extra try at the Kerbin aerocapture
 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by zanie420