Cavebomber challenge

[Pds314]

Story:

Kerbals from a far away land have taken control of the island runway and now demand that the island be recognized as independent. As the Island runway is clearly part of the greater KSC, this is obviously not acceptable. There only solution is force.

 

Mission:

Mission control has tasked you with bombing the island into submission. The problem is that mission control does not allow facility upgrades in order to save costs.

(Do it in career save. You may cheat in alt-F12 to give yourself arbitrary funds and science to buy your vehicle/get research, as well as cheating Kerbal levels to maximum, PLEASE do not use contracts to get extra parts).

Unactivated Solid Rocket Boosters will be counted as high explosive bombs.

 

Scoring:

You get a point for every unit of solid fuel that hits the island or the others in the chain.

In addition you can get points from the following bonuses:

 

Precision target bonuses

Everywhere on the island is fair game but it would be good to bomb these strategically significant areas.

 

Runway

Hit the runway with at least one solid fuel bomb: +200.

Disable the runway with at least 250 solidfuel: +350.

Destroy the runway with at least 600 solidfuel: +450.

 

Tower

Hit the tower with at least one solidfuel bomb: +400.

Destroy the tower with at least 300 solidfuel: +700.

 

Left Hangar

Hit the left hangar with at least one solidfuel bomb: +300.

Disable the left hangar with at least 200 solidfuel: +450.

Destroy the left hangar with at least 500 solidfuel: +550.

 

Right Hangar

Hit the right hangar with at least one solidfuel bomb: +300.

Disable the right hangar with at least 200 solidfuel: +450.

Destroy the right hangar with at least 500 solidfuel: +550.

 

Time bonuses:

Bonus points are granted for hitting the island quickly. The first bomb hit is what counts. (Use F3 if your craft stages).

<3.5 minutes: +150

<3 minutes: +300

<2.5 minutes: +450

<2 minutes: +600

<1.5 minutes: +750

<1 minute: +1000

<45 seconds: +1250

<30 seconds: +1500

 

Additional Bonuses:

Doodlebug: hit your target with an uncrewed plane with a bomb onboard. The bomb must detonate. +500.

Kamikaze: hit your target with a crewed plane with a bomb onboard. The bomb must detonate. +1500.

All Hands On Deck: provide your craft with at least 4 crew/passengers. +750.

Jumpjet: takeoff and land vertically instead of horizontally in a pure jet aircraft. +750.

Retro Style: use only unguided, unpowered, detached bombs, dropped from a crewed, pure jet aircraft: +1000.

Occupying Force: land a crewed, controllable rover with no bombs on the island runway and keep it there. +500.

Amphibious Assault: against all common sense, use a boat instead of a plane or rocket. +500.

Style Over Substance: use only launch escape systems for bombs. +500.

Systematic Destruction: bomb all 4 islands. +500.

Wrong Way: go West to get the island runway by circumnavigating Kerbin, staying within 30 degrees latitude of the Equator at all times. +1500.

One Hitpoint Wonder: build a crewed craft powered by rockets. -500.

Budget Overruns: craft costs over 20000 funds at launch. -500.

Pyrrhic Victory: lose over 5000 funds after recovery/lack thereof. No recovering parts of a craft on the island. -1000.

UAV: craft is uncrewed. -500.

The Kerbal Cost: have a Kerbal killed or taken prisoner (on the island without a functioning, controllable vehicle). -1500.

Ditched: Lose the craft in the water (splash down without being able to take off again or strand a Kerbal in water). -500.

Scrapped: Lose the craft on the KSC greens. (Make it unflyable) -250.

Going ballistic: use an uncrewed rocket vehicle and don't recover the probe core. This is not an "uncrewed bonus" for scoring purposes. -500.

 

Note 1: anything that requires a pure jet is compatible with prop engines as well.

Note 2: passengers aren't crew. A drone with passengers is still a drone.

Note 3: if a vehicle has crew and separates an uncrewed, controlled vehicle in midair, you do not get uncrewed bonuses OR crewed bonuses from the uncrewed vehicle.

Note 4: if a vehicle has crew/passengers and leaves the crew/passengers on the ground at home, it is considered uncrewed. Crew/passengers must takeoff with the vehicle and go over the ocean to count.

Note 5: rocket vehicle means a vehicle which has benefited from rocket propulsion. So a rocket-powered missile dropped from jet aircraft is considered a rocket vehicle, but said jet aircraft is not. However, a jet-powered missile dropped from a rocket-powered aircraft is considered a rocket vehicle.

 

Leaderboard:

1. Laie, 3250 in the Wunderwaffe

2. Ralanboyle, 3010 in an untitled craft

3. FlipNascar, 2200 in an X-wing Approach

3. Hdeedose, 1453.3 in The Thing

4. Pds314, 1355 in the Cruise-ader 2

5. Laie, 1150 in a flying bomb

Gatecrashers:

• Ralanboyle, 840 points in a Panther-powered aircraft. DQ'd for non-caveman tech.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by Pds314

[Guest]

?

5 minutes ago, Pds314 said:

The island runway has been

I guess I might have caught you still typing the challenge

Edited June 10, 2020 by Guest

[Pds314]

3 hours ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

?

I guess I might have caught you still typing the challenge

Yes unfortunately.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Pds314

[Pds314]

My first entry:
The Cruise-ader 2.
1355 points
It's a sluggish cruise missile that barely manages to stay in the air and under 5000 funds.













Bomb load to island: +455

Precision bonuses:
Hit runway: +200
Destroyed tower: +700

Time bonuses:
5:09. No bonus.

Additional bonuses:
UAV: -500
Doodlebug: +500

Edited June 14, 2020 by Pds314

[doggonemess]

FUN! 

Wait, I just made this joke in another post...

Still sounds fun! I'm in.

[Laie]

Is there any chance for turning this around? Last time I was a bit disappointed when the Island Tower just wouldn't blow up... the Island Airfield installations are indestructible, it seems.

I'd rather start at the Island Airfield and bomb the KSC, just for the BOOM.

[Pds314]

59 minutes ago, Laie said:

Is there any chance for turning this around? Last time I was a bit disappointed when the Island Tower just wouldn't blow up... the Island Airfield installations are indestructible, it seems.

I'd rather start at the Island Airfield and bomb the KSC, just for the BOOM.

I mean, you could fly it. I have no way to score it. Also if it's 1.8 or newer most facilities are virtually indestructible. The island facilities are indeed not destructible but for the sake of the challenge they count as "destroyed" if hit with enough solid fuel.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Pds314

[Laie]

On the off chance that it didn't come over: I was asking if you would rewrite the backstory so that we're supposed to wreck the KSC. Just so we can target destructible facilities.

45 minutes ago, Pds314 said:

lso if it's 1.8 or newer most facilities are virtually indestructible.

Oh, I wasn't aware of that.

[Hdeedose]

I'l try ...

[Hdeedose]

I present to you : The Thing !

I forgot to take a screen of the flight report , so I re-flew this plane just to see how fast I can do It . But it took me so long to finally manage to use the two bombs and to land , that I just dropped the first bomb , and looked at the time . Sorry , it's French , but you can see that I dropped the bomb at 2min46s , and I noticed something . The bombs can't explode when they fall on the hangar roof . So we see that it exploded 8 seconds later , when it bounced off the roof and felled on the floor .

Bomb load to island : +100

Left hangar hit : +300

Right hangar hit : +300

<3 minutes : +300

Occupying force : +500

Retro style : +1000

Pyrrhic victory : -1000

1500 pts

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by Hdeedose

[ralanboyle]

My Caveman Bomber: 

Hit the Runway with 600 units. (Each Thumper only carried 300 units due to hitting max Weight.) +450

Kamakazied into a Hanger, blowing up the 40 unit SRB at the front. +300, +1500

Did it in <2:30 +450

I believe my score is 2700. 

 

 

[Pds314]

On 6/11/2020 at 11:28 PM, Hdeedose said:

 

I forgot to take a screen of the flight report , so I re-flew this plane just to see how fast I can do It . But it took me so long to finally manage to use the two bombs and to land , that I just dropped the first bomb , and looked at the time . Sorry , it's French , but you can see that I dropped the bomb at 2min46s , and I noticed something . The bombs can't explode when they fall on the hangar roof . So we see that it exploded 8 seconds later , when it bounced off the roof and felled on the floor .

Bomb load to island : +100

Left hangar hit : +300

Right hangar hit : +300

<3 minutes : +300

Occupying force : +500

Retro style : +1000

Pyrrhic victory : -1000

1500 pts

 

I'm very sorry but unless I'm significantly mistaken, you didn't carry any Solid Fuel bombs?

Here's what I'm gonna do. Since it was clearly a misunderstanding I will count your liquid fuel bombs, but not for full points. Rather, I will count them as if they were Mites with the equivalent total weight. So since a mite has a total weight of 375 kg while your tanks weigh 275, I will be counting your liquid fuel bombs as Mites with 26.67 units of solid fuel each, so that they would weigh 26.67 kg. Therefore your score will be marked as 1453.3, Ok?

[Pds314]

5 hours ago, ralanboyle said:

My Caveman Bomber: 

Hit the Runway with 600 units. (Each Thumper only carried 300 units due to hitting max Weight.) +450

Kamakazied into a Hanger, blowing up the 40 unit SRB at the front. +300, +1500

Did it in <2:30 +450

I believe my score is 2700. 

 

 

I like it.

Unfortunately, there are four things about this entry which you didn't mention.

1. The good news is that you actually forgot to claim 640 points of bomb load to the island.
2. You should be getting Pyrrhic victory (-1000) because there's no way all that was under 5000 funds and none of it is being recovered. The cockpit and Panthers alone are 5600.
3. Jeb is clearly captured by the enemy on the Island airfield. That isn't a rover and rolling a cockpit around on battery power and internal reaction torque definitely doesn't count as a controllable vehicle. This invokes The Kerbal Cost. (-1500). That would make your final score 840 points.
4. Panther engine shouldn't be available in a Caveman save. How did you get it? Unfortunately I have no choice but to disqualify this entry.

So I will make a Gatecrasher section for this entry.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Pds314

[Hdeedose]

1 hour ago, Pds314 said:

On 6/12/2020 at 8:28 AM, Hdeedose said:

 

I'm very sorry but unless I'm significantly mistaken, you didn't carry any Solid Fuel bombs?

Here's what I'm gonna do. Since it was clearly a misunderstanding I will count your liquid fuel bombs, but not for full points. Rather, I will count them as if they were Mites with the equivalent total weight. So since a mite has a total weight of 375 kg while your tanks weigh 275, I will be counting your liquid fuel bombs as Mites with 26.67 units of solid fuel each, so that they would weigh 26.67 kg. Therefore your score will be marked as 1453.3, Ok?

Ok , no problem . I still beat you , so no problem .

Edited June 14, 2020 by Hdeedose

[Laie]

(click for video)

Oldschool you said? Can do. I couldn't build a working ramp, though, much less one long enough within the part count limit, so I had to go for a rocket sled. The long booster would somersault with the drone on top, so I had to add another one to keep it on the ground. Well, it works in Kerbal Space Program, as they say...

Due to whatever, only one SRB explodes against the Tower whenever I have the screen capture software running. The other half of the vessel happened to hit the runway, though, so I won't complain.

Before/after comparison of cash at hand shows a cost of 4997 funds, so barely within the limits. I managed to hit tower and runway with 300u each, in a bumbling 4 minutes. Those two hits plus "Doodlebug" should be 1550 points, if I'm not mistaken.

[Pds314]

2 hours ago, Laie said:

(click for video)

Oldschool you said? Can do. I couldn't build a working ramp, though, much less one long enough within the part count limit, so I had to go for a rocket sled. The long booster would somersault with the drone on top, so I had to add another one to keep it on the ground. Well, it works in Kerbal Space Program, as they say...

Due to whatever, only one SRB explodes against the Tower whenever I have the screen capture software running. The other half of the vessel happened to hit the runway, though, so I won't complain.

Before/after comparison of cash at hand shows a cost of 4997 funds, so barely within the limits. I managed to hit tower and runway with 300u each, in a bumbling 4 minutes. Those two hits plus "Doodlebug" should be 1550 points, if I'm not mistaken.

Wow it's so V-1-like.

 

Ok so 300u each.

That's 600 for the bomb load.

Plus 700 for the tower.

Plus 350 for the runway.

Plus 500 for Doodlebug.

Minus 500 for UAV.

Minus 500 for Going Ballistic. (I'm sorry but even RATO counts)

Total is 1150.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Pds314

[ralanboyle]

14 hours ago, Pds314 said:

I like it.

Unfortunately, there are four things about this entry which you didn't mention.

1. The good news is that you actually forgot to claim 640 points of bomb load to the island.
2. You should be getting Pyrrhic victory (-1000) because there's no way all that was under 5000 funds and none of it is being recovered. The cockpit and Panthers alone are 5600.
3. Jeb is clearly captured by the enemy on the Island airfield. That isn't a rover and rolling a cockpit around on battery power and internal reaction torque definitely doesn't count as a controllable vehicle. This invokes The Kerbal Cost. (-1500). That would make your final score 840 points.
4. Panther engine shouldn't be available in a Caveman save. How did you get it? Unfortunately I have no choice but to disqualify this entry.

So I will make a Gatecrasher section for this entry.

Okay, I'll try again but I need to iron out a few details. 

Kamazazi is +1500 but the kerbal cost is -1500? So, is this always going to be a wash? 

You said in the OP that I could yeet up the tech in the F-12 menu. That how I got the panther. 

[Laie]

2 minutes ago, ralanboyle said:

You said in the OP that I could yeet up the tech in the F-12 menu. That how I got the panther. 

Yup, but zero facility upgrades -- you only get as much tech as can be bought with a the tier-1 R&D.
You'll also be restricetd to 30 parts, 18t and size limits as determined by level-1 facilities.

[Pds314]

12 minutes ago, ralanboyle said:

Okay, I'll try again but I need to iron out a few details. 

Kamazazi is +1500 but the kerbal cost is -1500? So, is this always going to be a wash? 

You said in the OP that I could yeet up the tech in the F-12 menu. That how I got the panther. 

Technically kamikaze isn't always a wash. There's nothing that says the airplane must die from kamikaziing. But for the most part yes.

[ralanboyle]

got it, trying again...

[Pds314]

15 minutes ago, ralanboyle said:

Okay, I'll try again but I need to iron out a few details. 

Kamazazi is +1500 but the kerbal cost is -1500? So, is this always going to be a wash? 

You said in the OP that I could yeet up the tech in the F-12 menu. That how I got the panther. 

I said you could yeet up the research points. Not the tech tree. There's a distinct difference. Research lets you buy all the tech up to tier 5.

[ralanboyle]

Okay, seconds try: 

Hit the Runway and both Hangars. +800

Last bomb hits at 2:37 +300

JumpJet +750

Retro Style +1000

Total cost was 18000

Score- 2850? You be the judge. 

 

[Pds314]

1 hour ago, ralanboyle said:

Okay, seconds try: 

Hit the Runway and both Hangars. +800

Last bomb hits at 2:37 +300

JumpJet +750

Retro Style +1000

Total cost was 18000

Score- 2850? You be the judge. 

 

I like the star-shape lol.

Total bomb load: +160

Hit runway: +200

Hit both hangars: +600

Time bonus, under 3 minutes: +300

Retro style: +1000

Jumpjet: +750

Final score is 3010

[Laie]

On 6/14/2020 at 8:00 PM, Pds314 said:

Wow it's so V-1-like.

Thanks! I assure you that this is not a coincidence. If you want a name for the leaderboard, I'd suggest a flying bomb: not "The" and no capital letters, simply "Laie, 1150 with a flying bomb"

And here comes another familiar sight, let's call it the "Wunderwaffe", delivering two Hammers to the Hangars:

Again, click for flick. Going supersonic isn't quite period, but if it gets the job done faster... well, I won't complain. The first version had a Mk1 fuselage and two Junos, but normal-sized SRBs looked totally out of place next to small engine nacelles, so I cranked up the scale a bit. Proportions still don't quite work out, but at least it's not wholly ridiculous.

You'll have to carefully inspect the video frame by frame in order to see where the bombs end up and that I do indeed strike both hangars. Sorry about that... I don't know how I could make the camera follow the bombs.

As for technicalities, that's 750 solid fuel in two bombs, one for each hangar, in a little under 2 minutes. Rolls out for 16,900 funds, and recovers for 13,700 (give or take).

Thanks for the challenge! I'm having a blast, if you forgive me for saying so.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Laie

[Pds314]

4 hours ago, Laie said:

Thanks! I assure you that this is not a coincidence. If you want a name for the leaderboard, I'd suggest a flying bomb: not "The" and no capital letters, simply "Laie, 1150 with a flying bomb"

And here comes another familiar sight, let's call it the "Wunderwaffe", delivering two Hammers to the Hangars:

Again, click for flick. Going supersonic isn't quite period, but if it gets the job done faster... well, I won't complain. The first version had a Mk1 fuselage and two Junos, but normal-sized SRBs looked totally out of place next to small engine nacelles, so I cranked up the scale a bit. Proportions still don't quite work out, but at least it's not wholly ridiculous.

You'll have to carefully inspect the video frame by frame in order to see where the bombs end up and that I do indeed strike both hangars. Sorry about that... I don't know how I could make the camera follow the bombs.

As for technicalities, that's 750 solid fuel in two bombs, one for each hangar, in a little under 2 minutes. Rolls out for 16,900 funds, and recovers for 13,700 (give or take).

Thanks for the challenge! I'm having a blast, if you forgive me for saying so.

Nice! You really dropped those bombs from far away too. Impressed you hit.

 

So, as for the scoring:

Bomb load: +750

Disabled both hangars: +900

Under 2 minutes: +600

Retro Style: +1000

So that's 3250 points!

Edited June 15, 2020 by Pds314