Cupcake's Fish Food Frenzy!

[Cupcake...]

Oh No! There's a runaway train with a cargo full of ultra concentrated fish-food and it's heading straight for the sea. If it can't be stopped they'll be goldfish as big as whales, oh the humanity!


BRIEFING
The situation looks grave but we have one last hope. As well as the Laythe bound fish-food the train is also carrying an experimental version of the Scythe VTOL drop ship, using some separators, bottle rockets and sticky tape we've managed to arm the vessel with a crude form of air to ground rockets. All we need now is a dashing hero to pilot it and save the day... Umm, that's you BTW.


LEADER BOARD: ............


INSTRUCTIONS...
You can find the challenge file here: http://snk.to/f-cdcl433u It needs to go into your space plane folder...

I recommend you start a new save game or close down any existing flight/debris before starting the challenge.

Press 4 to deploy the antennas, this bits a bit laggy but the FPS will pick back up again once they're deployed. Now will be a good time to quick save.

Set full throttle (important) and press 5 to start the challenge.

The Scythe will now be de-coupled and ready to fly, press [ to switch to it ASAP as the engines will have started spooling up.

You ship is armed with 14 air to surface rockets, in order to preserve the balance and stability of the ship they're set to fire in pairs. That means you've got 7 salvos to destroy as much of the train's cargo as you can, good luck!


RULES:
1 - In order to be eligible for scoring, full throttle must be set before starting the challenge and switching over to the Scythe.

2 - Due to the hectic nature of the challenge you'll need to submit a video, if this is a problem you can tally your own score and submit it but I'm afraid I'll have to mark it Non Verified on the leader-board.

3 - This is primarily a flying challenge, anyone who spends too much time on the ground, or fires missiles from the ground will be disqualified (except of course if you've submitted a rover design).

4 - At a distance of around 500m any trains or carriages in motion will stop, if this happens you'll be ineligible to get points by destroying them.

5 - With this challenge you are free to build/use your own vessel, you'll just have to delete the Scythe and build your own design in it's place, or use the sub-assembly saver to import your vessel. In order to work your design must be included in the challange file. If you say, loaded your design, taxied off the runway and then loaded the challenge file it won't work. Planes would have been great but the 500m motion limit makes them impractical, you'd be better off building attack VTOLs. You are welcome to enter rovers for the challenge, but I may make a separate score board for them. In order to give the train a fighting chance any design you create must start facing away from the train towards the mountains.

6 - MODS are allowed, including weapons providing they stay within the spirit of the challenge, i.e won't destroy the whole train in one shot, or come with 9000000000000000 rounds of ammunition. I'm not really up to speed with the Mod scene but if there's something like a laser targeter you can mount on the Scythe, grab it!


POINTS SYSTEM
Like any reputable institution KSP has taken out insurance against just such an event, I don't want to bore you with the small print but in short it means more destruction = more cash! There are two types of fish-food being transported with each wagon hauling two crates. The silver crates are carrying bread crumbs while the golden crates are stuffed with super concentrated, high grade fish food. They're worth more cash, but are also more difficult to destroy. A wrecking bonus is awarded where the crates are tipped upside down but not destroyed while a salvage bonus is awarded to crates that are stopped. Points are awarded per crate not wagon.

SILVER CRATES
Complete Destruction - 10 Points
Wrecking Bonus - 7 Points
Salvage Bonus - 5 Points

GOLD CRATES
Complete Destruction - 20 Points
Wrecking Bonus - 10 Points
Salvage Bonus - 7 Points

TRAIN
Complete Destruction - 15 Points
Wrecking Bonus - 10 Points
Salvage Bonus - N/A

LOW MILLAGE SPECIAL, ONE CAREFUL OWNER
10 bonus points for landing your undamaged Scythe gently on the rocket pad at a speed of 1m/s of less.

PURPLE HEART
5 bonus points for anyone who managed to damage the Scythe (knock something off it) and still complete the challenge.

SHARPSHOOTER AWARD
10 bonus points awarded to anyone you can either hit the train from a distance of 200m+ or that managed to destroy the chimney (jet engine) on top of the train while leaving the rest of the engine intact.


BONUS AWARDS:
The Arnie award for collateral damage, given out to whoever can produce the most bedlam and destruction or the most convincing Austrian accent. May also be awarded to whoever has the most spectacular crashes!



The Statham award for precision fighting & American accents. We're looking for clean, efficient shooting here, we want to see who can squeeze the most out of their ordinance and craft.



The MacGyver award for science and industry, awarded to anyone who takes part in the challenge using their own designs.




HINTS AND TIPS
1 - To complete this challenge you really need to use a HOTAS Joystick, ideally one with a twist function that will let you yaw such as a Microsoft Precision Pro 2 or a Logitech Extreme 3D PRO. To all you keyboard warriors out there you are of course more then welcome to take part but I think you'll find it a bit of a struggle.

2 - If you already own a stick this is my recommended setup for the challenge:


3 - You'll want to get to know the Scythe before setting off on the challenge, you can find it here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/40460-Real-men-don-t-need-wings It's basically the same as the challenge version the only difference being that I swapped the turbo jet over for a normal jet, oh and the missiles as well...

4 - The missiles are quite effective providing they have enough time to get up to speed, ironically this means the further you are away from the target the more chance you have of destroying it. At point blank range you'll be lucky to do any damage at all. The missiles are usually pretty reliable but like anything else they can fail occasionally, or work too well and pass straight through the target! The gold crates are more tricky to destroy side on but are weaker at the ends if you can get a shot in.

5 - ASAS is your friend, use it, it'll help make the Scythe a stable gunnary platform. If you need to turn fast disable it temporarily.

6 - The missiles are mounted in line with the cockpit, this means you can use the navball to check your elevation before firing. Remember, you only have 7 shots make every one count!

7 - Flying a VTOL is a little bit like flying a helicopter (well a bit easier actually, no tail rotor torque!) in that you're constantly balancing conflicting forces, it's not a question of just setting 25% throttle and leaving it there, you'll have to constantly make tiny corrections especially during hovering or low speed maneuvers. You'll notice the ship will get lighter/more agile the more ammunition you fire.

8 - Unlike a plane you can attack from almost any angle you like with a VTOL, if you're having trouble getting the elevation right try attacking straight on at first.

9 - Once up to speed the train will be travelling along at around 21 m/s if you can destroy it/knock out the first wagon the remaining cars will slow to a more manageable 5m/s.

10 - Practice, practice, practice! If you launch the challenge without setting full throttle the train will amble along at a more gentlemanly 3-5m/s perfect for a bit of gunnary practice...

Good Luck!
Cupcake... Edited July 19, 2013 by Cupcake...

[Johnno]

The top video is one of the funniest KSP videos I've ever seen. Brilliantly well done Cupcake.

[Cupcake...]

The top video is one of the funniest KSP videos I've ever seen. Brilliantly well done Cupcake.

Thanks!

Cupcake...

[Deadweasel]

...your justly-won free internet is right this way.

[Cupcake...]

...your justly-won free internet is right this way.

Hooray! I shall treasure it forever more...

Cupcake...