Stuck Throttle Challenge

[Weagle]

The concept for this challenge is simple, one must complete a mission without ever throttling down to zero. On worlds such as Tylo, this is could be easy, for as soon as you touch down, just lower the throttle to near zero and that ship isn't going anywhere. Minmus and Gilly on the other hand, that's a different story.

The rules for this challenge are as follows:

1. Some mods are allowed, preferably Stock-ish. No Hyperedit or similar allowed.
2. For the sanity of all participants, interplanetary space is the ONLY area where your throttle is allowed to be set to zero, so one can use time-warp. The moment your craft enters the SOI of a planet, hit the gas.
3. For the sanity of all participants, the run may be segmented. I understand that you cannot save and quit while a craft is under acceleration, so you are allowed to throttle to zero in order to quit the game. When resuming, a 10 second window (mission time) is allowed in order to start the engines once the craft is loaded.
4. Any kind of air-breathing jet engines are ONLY allowed to be used on planets that have an atmosphere that supports them. Using them in space as a workaround to “having the throttle on” is grounds for disqualification. (Suggested by Nazalassa)
5. Editing thrust limiters is allowed, but are NOT allowed to be set to zero.
6. Action groups are allowed ONLY for non-propulsive systems. (Suggested by camacju)
7. Engines cannot be activated/deactivated through the Part Access Window (PAW). (Suggested by Nazalassa)
8. KAL controllers are NOT allowed. (Suggested by Nazalassa)
9. When landing on a planet/moon, a Kerbal must set foot and plant a flag for the landing to actually count.
10. Kerbin does count, but must be the last planet to be landed on.
11. Multiple craft are allowed.
12. If you run out of fuel, the challenge is over.
13. Any game mode is allowed.
14. To keep the spirit of the challenge, engines placed in order to "cancel out" the thrust of another is not permitted. (Suggested by Klapaucius)

Now for the scoring:

• The participant shall receive 10 points for a landing on each celestial body, for a maximum of 150 points.
• If the run is done in career or science mode, a 2x multiplier will be applied to the participants score, with a maximum of  300 points (2*150 = 300).
• Any landing that occurs without the planting of a flag will result in half points, for a maximum of 75 points (150 points if in career or science mode).

Extra points can be achieved by completing the following:

• An extra 50 points are given for completing the challenge using an SSTO.
• An extra 100 points are given for completing the Grand Tour.
• An extra 100 points are given for the most creative run (this will be up to my discretion).
• An extra 100 points are given for completing at least 7 landings with the lightest takeoff mass (this bonus can change hands).
•  An extra 200 points are given for completing all 15 landings with the lightest take off  mass  (this bonus can change hands).
• An extra 100 points are given for completing at least 7 landings in the shortest mission time (this bonus can change hands).
• An extra 200 points are given for completing all 15 landings in the shortest mission time (this bonus can change hands).
• An extra 500 points are given for completing at least 7 landings without the use of ISRU.
• An extra 1000 points are given for completing all 15 landings without the use of ISRU.

The leaderboard will showcase the top 5 participants (will be updated as runs are received):

Participant	Points	Mission Time	Takeoff Mass

 

I'm excited to see what people come up with for this challenge! If there are any questions/clarifications, feel free to ask below.

 

Best of luck!

Edited January 29, 2023 by Weagle
Clarification added to rule 5

[camacju]

You should disallow action groups as well.

[Nazalassa]

... and activating/deactivating engines from the PAW

[Klapaucius]

You may want to add a "keep to the spirit of the challenge clause" otherwise there are some very easy cheats, such as putting small engines sticking out on opposite sides to each other so that the thrust cancels out.  Things of that sort.

[Weagle]

Thanks to everyone that has commented on this post so far, I never expected anyone to truly give this any thought! Now on to your comments;

20 hours ago, camacju said:

You should disallow action groups as well.

I'm not entirely sure how action groups could be used to cheat the system, but I'll make a rule about them to ensure no one exploits them. 

8 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

... and activating/deactivating engines from the PAW

That's a good point. I'll be sure to make a rule about that.

7 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

You may want to add a "keep to the spirit of the challenge clause" otherwise there are some very easy cheats, such as putting small engines sticking out on opposite sides to each other so that the thrust cancels out.  Things of that sort.

Another great point! I'll be sure to include that too!

[Nazalassa]

11 hours ago, Weagle said:

That's a good point. I'll be sure to make a rule about that.

Don't forget about KAL controllers too, they can be used to turn engines off, and perhaps make a rule abouthaving jet engines in space that don't thrust, even if the throttle is not zero.

[Weagle]

2 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

Don't forget about KAL controllers too, they can be used to turn engines off, and perhaps make a rule abouthaving jet engines in space that don't thrust, even if the throttle is not zero.

Damn, there really is a lot that I haven’t thought about, haha. Thanks @Nazalassa!

[Nazalassa]

On 1/25/2023 at 5:20 AM, Weagle said:

Editing thrust limiters is allowed.

Just realized, if someone sets it to zero, the engine won't thrust whatever the throttle is.

[Weagle]

5 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

Just realized, if someone sets it to zero, the engine won't thrust whatever the throttle is.

Another great catch. Thanks a lot!

[Nazalassa]

Just now, Weagle said:

Another great catch. Thanks a lot!

You're welcome :)