Austerity - A Rocket Made of Red Tape

[Danger Will Kerbinson!]

((18000) - (16065 - 500)) + (10700 - 0)) = 13135

Excellent score, seems people are sharpening their pencils a bit, casting off the shackles of RCS and MJ and really getting cheap.

Edit:

You forgot your full ride bonus Kappa73, Ill update you to the full score of 13635

Edited July 11, 2013 by Danger Will Kerbinson!

[Kelmoir]

Well, I did my second entry on that spot. After accepting, that I did leave quite some optimization potential behind, I had to realize, that I still did only scored 3rd.

But I did a vid this time, at least...

http://youtu.be/vMEbCLBAprM

And for the scoring:

Score:

9784 Price of the craft

- 160 KER

=9624 "basic price"

18000

- 9624

= 8376

+ 300 Lighting

+ 200 Solar

+ 150 Battery

+ 1000 Red. Para

+ 500 Docking

+ 50 no MechJeb

+ 1500 Full science

+ 500 Full thing Bonus

=12676

Maybe I do an 3rd try, and then pictures only...

[Danger Will Kerbinson!]

Alright, I have been knocked out of first so I had to go back to the drawing board. Its NOT a pretty machine, but thats the point

My heap in the garge 13595 as flown. No MJ, 500 credit for the KER and we get a net cost of 13095 for a base score of 4905

This is how it looks on the pad, I swear it does not break.

The key to launch is to wait for it to wobble up to straight and then pull the trigger, it actually flies very well after that...even though the boosters sway and look terrible.

No debris

All aboard!

Landing ski jump run out slope style...patent pending.

Geneford is relieved, the rockets don't like being scraped down a hill and they blew up in protest.

Score-

4905 Base

Bonus

Extra capsules 2500 x 2 = 5000

3 capsules, 6 parachutes 3 x 1000 =3000

Lights + 300

Solar panel + 200

Battery + 150

Docking clamp + 500

Science package total + 1500

No MJ + 50

Full Ride + 500

11200 Bonus + 4905 Base = 16105

EDIT : After redoing the math to account for the boosters that KER does not show by default my real total is 13905 (maybe)

Seems there is also an occasional adding bug with KER, Im taking my score off the board.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Danger Will Kerbinson!

[Danger Will Kerbinson!]

Well, I did my second entry on that spot. After accepting, that I did leave quite some optimization potential behind, I had to realize, that I still did only scored 3rd.

=12676

Its still not a bad effort, would have been first place only 12 hours ago. I too was mired down in a rut fighting to get barely over 13k and then I got some inspiration, so don't worry, there is more to be saved!

Besides, you still have the first properly formatted entry prize. The prize is an asterix...but thats something.

[Kappa73]

You forgot your full ride bonus Kappa73, Ill update you to the full score of 13635

Thank you, I seem to miscalculate my score on every challenge i attempt heh =)

[Kappa73]

The key to launch is to wait for it to wobble up to straight and then pull the trigger, it actually flies very well after that...even though the boosters sway and look terrible.

ooh that is so Kerbal it hurts... my eyes... to not look! bravo!

[Tarmenius]

11200 Bonus + 4905 Base = 16105

And here I thought I was reaching the limit of cost reduction. Looks like it's back to the cutting board! Good thing I still have a few tricks up my sleeve *evil grin*

[Scorpi15]

Alright, I have been knocked out of first so I had to go back to the drawing board. Its NOT a pretty machine, but thats the point

The key to launch is to wait for it to wobble up to straight and then pull the trigger, it actually flies very well after that...even though the boosters sway and look terrible.

Just like the Space Shuttle!

[Danger Will Kerbinson!]

Ok folks, there is a problem with this challenge and it must now be closed until further notice. All the scores on the leaderboard are to taken with a grain of salt.

While goofing around with refining my rocket and getting an 18k+ point build into orbit I realized that Engineer is bad at math. It seems to have a bug in it where it will not add and subtract properly. Sometimes it will not add on the cost for an item and other times it seems to add far more than what something should cost. It is not a constant bug, it will work fine then just not.

After a bit of looking it doesn't seem to always register things stuck to certain other items.

And a much bigger problem which makes my own entry really invalid is that it does not consider solid rockets to be a valid stage so it won't show its cost, or the cost of anything stuck to it, unless you click "show all stages" I knew it didn't figure out the delta V for them right, but I thought it was still adding the cost into the bottom line.

This is a pretty easy fix, just show all stages...but the adding random extra cost bug I have run into is more problematic.

Short story, challenge closed for now

Edited July 12, 2013 by Danger Will Kerbinson!

[metaphor]

Aww, I guess my submission is a little late. I was about to say something about the "show all stages" bug that doesn't count SRBs, but I haven't seen any other bug. But you can always add the cost of the parts by hand without using Kerbal Engineer. For example, your rocket is only about $2000 more than it's showing.

Anyway, here's my entry:

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11202 cost - 500 for KER = 10702

Bonuses:

5000 for 2 extra empty seats

300 for docking lighting

200 for solar panel

150 for battery

3000 for 3 sets of redundant parachutes

500 for launch clamps

50 for no Mechjeb

1500 for 4 scientific instruments

500 for full ride

That's a total of 11200 in bonuses.

10702 - 11200 = -498

18000 + 498 = 18498 final score

It was fun, the bonus values are pretty well balanced.

[Tarmenius]

So, KER doesn't include the cost of SRB's? Guess I'll have to re-calculate my score... as well as the entry I was about to post.

...And read more than just the latest post in the topic

[Danger Will Kerbinson!]

So, KER doesn't include the cost of SRB's? Guess I'll have to re-calculate my score... as well as the entry I was about to post.

...And read more than just the latest post in the topic

No, it will if they are staged right and you "show all" BUT If there is a decoupler out of place which messes up the order things go haywire.

The 'bug' part had to do with my removing a battery, not seeing the price dip, so I put it back on..and another, and 10 more and other random parts and nothing was being added. I had another incident where I changed from 4 little radials to 1 lvt 45 but instead of having the price drop by a few dollars it shot up by 3000. That might be from having symmetry selected yet only placing one rocket in a central spot. Like I said the problem is the random nature of it, something predictable can be worked around. Its like it works great until you trigger some event and then the math just stops.

Interesting thing about your ship Metaphor, its almost identical to the 18k ship I mentioned I had flying when I ran into these bugs. It was changing out for the smaller chutes which cost a few dollars more but are way, way lighter so I could drop fuel and engines that allowed that jump in score. Well done!

I think the only difference, other than placement of lights and science gear was that I used a Jr docking port saving like 80 bucks and no decoupler from the capsules to the tank, just letting the deceleration from 6 chutes popping to rip that tank and engine loose.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Danger Will Kerbinson!

[rpayne88]

Is there a bonus for making it reusable. I managed to get a rocket up to a 160km x 160km circular orbit with everything attached and it is almost completely reusable. The only thing it jettisons in an irrecoverable way is its nose cone. I have yet to dock it, but that is because I have yet to put a station up that has 0.625m docking ports. I'll still post it, but, unfortunately, I may be disqualified. I use FAR on my rocket to accurately model its aerodynamics. Since this makes the game harder for me and does not effect add any parts, is it okay for me to submit my entry once I dock it?