Boat momentum challege

[Theriss]

Yay, competition! seanth should update his OP with the new rules. You gotta "drive" it to the water on a "trailer", and get a shot of that too, which is proving to be quite the challenge, but I've got a ship in the works...

Yup, I read through the thread. A few months ago, boats were really my thing in KSP. (see http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24340-Build-the-fastest-boat and http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25016-In-search-of-Ferdinand-Magellan) I usually don't use mods, so I've got some experience taxiing to the shore. I decided to stop doing boats when I started playing again, but finding this challenge makes me want to try again...

[seanth]

Herp. How do I delete a bad post?

Since I can't delete a post which was apparently fueled by more enthusiasm than wisdom, enjoy this KSP moment of wat:

http://youtu.be/A9PzzS5EBkQ

Edited October 10, 2013 by seanth

[seanth]

I'm back!

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Ship[/TD]

[TD]Striking Kaiser[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Mass (m)[/TD]

[TD]177,720 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Speed (v)[/TD]

[TD]87.4 m/s[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Momentum (p)[/TD]

[TD]15,532,728 kg m/s (Ns)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

The Striking Kaiser is named partly after Henry Kaiser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Kaiser and his work with the Liberty ships in the second world war. My new design is very modular, which means can easily drop in an additional 57 tons. If you look closely at the image, you can see how there are two types of "legs": one type that stays close to the body, and a type that projects out away from the body. Those projecting leg struts are made to allow non-clipping overlap. The modular sections are designed for transport to other planets where they can be assembled on the surface. In this design I removed the docking ports between sections to provide more structural integrity. Each of the modular sections has side mounted engines. For this challenge there's a special rear module that has a large bank of engines.

Note the design flaw where four engines failed to get any fuel. I'm not sure what the problem is, actually, but in the next iteration I'll make sure everything is getting fuel.

I'm still working out how to post a craft file. I tried posting the hex of a zip file to a blog entry, but wasn't sure people would know how to take the hex, make a zip, and get the .craft from that.

Anyway, I'll hopefully have another entry to post tomorrow. I can smell first place. It smells like petroleum.

[Ezriilc]

I'm back!

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Ship[/TD]

[TD]Striking Kaiser[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Mass (m)[/TD]

[TD]177,720 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Speed (v)[/TD]

[TD]87.4 m/s[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Momentum (p)[/TD]

[TD]15,532,728 kg m/s (Ns)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

...

The Striking Kaiser is named partly after Henry Kaiser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Kaiser and his work with the Liberty ships in the second world war. My new design is very modular, which means can easily drop in an additional 57 tons. If you look closely at the image, you can see how there are two types of "legs": one type that stays close to the body, and a type that projects out away from the body. Those projecting leg struts are made to allow non-clipping overlap. The modular sections are designed for transport to other planets where they can be assembled on the surface. In this design I removed the docking ports between sections to provide more structural integrity. Each of the modular sections has side mounted engines. For this challenge there's a special rear module that has a large bank of engines.

Note the design flaw where four engines failed to get any fuel. I'm not sure what the problem is, actually, but in the next iteration I'll make sure everything is getting fuel.

I'm still working out how to post a craft file. I tried posting the hex of a zip file to a blog entry, but wasn't sure people would know how to take the hex, make a zip, and get the .craft from that.

Anyway, I'll hopefully have another entry to post tomorrow. I can smell first place. It smells like petroleum.

She's lovely - graceful looking. I like the modular aspect of it, and I do look forward to getting my grubby little fingers on her.

I once worked in a building in Georgia that was allegedly used to help build some of the Liberty Ships.

Mind you, I'm working on making the PMV_Kolossus amphibious, so you may want to up your game by a couple orders of magnitude.

---

About .craft files, I believe you're WAY over thinking it. These files are nothing more than plain text with no coding in them, so they can be posted just about anywhere, like the Contact form on my website, or via direct email.

• Just open the .craft file as plain text, and then copy and paste the contents into the Message box. Easy as cake!
  

One could even post them on this forum, but it would just make a mess. The PM system here is certainly an option, but it's less convenient.

Here's a sample .craft file with just 1 part. I'm using the CODE tag here to preserve whitespace indents.

ship = Ship_SAMPLE_Title
version = 0.21.1
description = A single Cubic Octagonal Strut, my newest favorite part.
type = SPH
PART
{
    part = strutCube_4294831744
    partName = Part
    pos = 0,5,0
    rot = 0.7071068,0,0,0.7071068
    attRot = 0,0,0,1
    mir = 1,1,1
    istg = 0
    dstg = 0
    sidx = -1
    sqor = -1
    attm = 0
    EVENTS
    {
    }
    ACTIONS
    {
    }
}

[Ezriilc]

I once built a ship that had over 1500 parts. Even though it's just plain text, picture how LONG that file is...

[Ezriilc]

Here's a cool overhead map showing the J.A. Jones shipyard where some Liberty Ships were built. I did QA for a heavy ship-board equipment manufacturer there in the 1990s. We built the aircraft elevators for the Charles de Gaulle (R91) aircraft carrier, and some other cool stuff for the US Navy.

[seanth]

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Ship[/TD]

[TD]Major Strangways https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7_wWtXK4tmcZ2l2S3RvS01VNUE/edit?usp=sharing[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Mass (m)[/TD]

[TD]341,790 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Speed (v)[/TD]

[TD]71.0 m/s[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Momentum (p)[/TD]

[TD]24,267,090 kg m/s (Ns)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

My first thought was to name this one after Giles "more weight" Corey, but I already have a ship by that name (a slowboat kethane tanker). Instead I picked another person that was pressed to death (in the UK). I'm a bit worried that, now that I have a modular design, the challenge will end up being a war of attrition. Maybe there should have been a rule about max part count.

@Ezriilc: I think it's fun that I'm tending to pile on the mass and you seem to be piling on motors. Oh! I looked at one of the craft files you posted. Holy clipping.

Are we scaring off other people from trying this?

[Ezriilc]

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Ship[/TD]

[TD]Major Strangways https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7_wWtXK4tmcZ2l2S3RvS01VNUE/edit?usp=sharing[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Mass (m)[/TD]

[TD]341,790 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Speed (v)[/TD]

[TD]71.0 m/s[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Momentum (p)[/TD]

[TD]24,267,090 kg m/s (Ns)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

...

...

My first thought was to name this one after Giles "more weight" Corey, but I already have a ship by that name (a slowboat kethane tanker). Instead I picked another person that was pressed to death (in the UK). I'm a bit worried that, now that I have a modular design, the challenge will end up being a war of attrition. Maybe there should have been a rule about max part count.

@Ezriilc: I think it's fun that I'm tending to pile on the mass and you seem to be piling on motors. Oh! I looked at one of the craft files you posted. Holy clipping.

Are we scaring off other people from trying this?

That's truly awesome. Yesss, some competition. Now I've got a challenge. Nice work.

By my experience, getting a thing moving faster is an very efficient way to impart energy - certainly up to terminal velocity.

Oh, I hope we're not scaring anyone off. Maybe this is just too easy for them and we're just pissing up a rope...

[Ezriilc]

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Ship[/TD]

[TD]PMV_Kolossus_x5

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Mass (m)[/TD]

[TD]207,280 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Speed (v)[/TD]

[TD]145.1 m/s[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Momentum (p)[/TD]

[TD]30,076,328 m/s kg (Ns)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Almost no clipping at all, and boy was this a pain to get into the water. I'm beginning to hate that rule again, but the one limiting parts might be good. I could just keep adding hulls to this rig and drive the score higher. Then the winner may just be whomever has more video RAM.

Limiting the number of parts without giving up performance in any category seems to be the holy grail for KSP in general, once other skills are learned, that's where I always gravitate back to. Perhaps doing a certain task with the least number of parts, or under an limit.

Good luck! A word of advice: Drag below the water-line is killing you.

[seanth]

I could just keep adding hulls to this rig and drive the score higher. Then the winner may just be whomever has more video RAM.

Limiting the number of parts without giving up performance in any category seems to be the holy grail for KSP in general, once other skills are learned, that's where I always gravitate back to. Perhaps doing a certain task with the least number of parts, or under an limit.

Good luck! A word of advice: Drag below the water-line is killing you.

I concede to the superior ship. I'm certain I could beat your last score, but I agree with you: the contest would just degrade to adding on more weight until the frame rate became unbearable. I'll make a not on the first page that if anyone tries a challenge like this again, they might consider calculating the score as (mass*speed)/(# of parts).

I'll keep watching this thread to update scores if anyone decides to tackle the leader. Meanwhile, time to do another circumnavigation+science. I wonder how much science I can collect in a circumnavigation. Hmmm. A new challenge?