The Apocalypse Challenge

[Poryy]

Kerbal atronomers have detected a Duna-size asteroid heading for Kerbin!

Your goal is to colonize as many other bodies as you can in the 5 year period before the asteroid hits. Colonies must be self sustaining, so the Kethane mod and extraplanetary launchpad mod are recommended.

The goal of this challenge is to get as many Kerbals off of kerbin as possible. Your score is the number of kerbals not on Kerbin+the amount of colonies you have. The time is up after 5 years of ingame time.

You are allowed to exceed the 5 year limit if all of your spacecraft are out of Kerbin SOI before the event.

RULES:

Hyperedit and any cheats are banned.

Mechjeb is allowed.

Infinite fuel, infinite RCS, and infinite EVA fuel is banned.

SCORING:

Bonuses

"It's a fixer upper, but the schools are great" - 25 pts - Manned Stations on planets

"Blew up the world and I still gotta go to school" - 10 pt - Have a dedicated science 'building' at you base (Once per base- not for orbitals)

"Canned Meat" - 10 pts - Create orbital stations around Kerbin. 10 pts per station.

"Gerbils are people too" - 1 pt - Each kerbal in a space station

"Want frys with that?" - 5 pts - Dedicated food supply module (from a mod or created from parts) at base (once per base)

Credit to Alacrity for creating these.

Main Scoring

"Colony One" - 5 pts - Create 1 colony.

"It takes two to Tango" - 10 pts- Build 2 colonies on different planets.

"Three's a charm" - 15 pts- Build 3 colonies on different planets

"Terracide" - 45 pts- Build a colony on Gilly.

"Saviour"- 2 pts per Kerbal in off-Kerbin.

"No man left behind"- 100 pts- Build all of your colonies without a single Kerbal dying.

"Des Verviedi"- Build a colony on Laythe.

Edited December 14, 2013 by Poryy

[alacrity]

I have been playing in career mode since 22 came out but Real lazy so haven't unlocked that much.

Questions for the Apocalypse

1) Kethane and the like don't seem to be linked into the career mode so I assume this is a sandbox challenge.

2) scoring: there seems to be little detail other then 1 kerbal equals and pt and 1 base equals a point. Are you taking suggestions for other scoring.

3) orbital stations count for points??

Alacrity

PS (scoring ideas)

"I can see my house from here" - 10 pts - Orbital manned station

"Gerbils are people too" - 1 pt - Each kerbal in a space station

"It's a fixer upper, but the schools are great" - 25 pts - Manned Stations on planets

"Canned air is still air" - 2 pts - Each Kerbal in ground base on planet

"The neighborhood sucks, but you can't beat the view - 15 pts - Moon Base

"Lunatics are doin it for themselves" - 1 pt - Moonbase Kerbal

"Can you hear me now?" - 50 pt - One time bonus for using Remote Tech to connect all bases

"Parking ticket" - 10 pts - Provide Rover/LESS vehikle/Rocket pogo stick or other conveyance for a base (Once per base)

"Blew up the world and I still gotta go to school" - 10 pt - Have a dedicated science 'building' at you base (Once per base- not for orbitals)

"Want frys with that?" - 5 pts - Dedicated food supply module (from a mod or created from parts) at base (once per base)

Alacrity

[Guest]

Your goal is to colonize as many other bodies as you can in the 5 year period before the asteroid hits. Colonies must be self sustaining, so the Kethane mod and extraplanetary launchpad mod are recommended.

The goal of this challenge is to get as many Kerbals off of kerbin as possible. Your score is the number of kerbals not on Kerbin+the amount of colonies you have. The time is up after 5 years of ingame time.

This'll be easy since I can use the infinite fuel cheat.

[Highlad]

You might want to take a look at this video, It would be a cool thing to impliment in this challenge. Instead of just having a time limit it would give you an actual event to anticipate. I might give this challenge a go

[Kasuha]

This'll be easy since I can use the infinite fuel cheat.

Why bother if you can hyperedit your colonies right into place?

[Poryy]

Why bother if you can hyperedit your colonies right into place?

I was typing on a Kindle, Rules are in place now.

[Noname117]

Are you allowed to exceed the 5 year time limit if all your spacecraft are orbited before it?

For example, I launch as many colony spacecraft as I can in 5 years, so when the 5 year mark hits I stop the launches and send them to their destinations. They arrive after the 5 year mark, maybe even 6 or 7 years instead, but would have all gotten there safely in the event of a Kerbin destroying asteroid.

Personally, I would recommend either that all spacecraft have to be orbited either beyond a certain altitude (to avoid the debris from the collision) or out of the Kerbin Soi entirely (to avoid the incoming planet), but can still reach their destinations after the 5 year marker before your final score is given.

[Poryy]

Are you allowed to exceed the 5 year time limit if all your spacecraft are orbited before it?

For example, I launch as many colony spacecraft as I can in 5 years, so when the 5 year mark hits I stop the launches and send them to their destinations. They arrive after the 5 year mark, maybe even 6 or 7 years instead, but would have all gotten there safely in the event of a Kerbin destroying asteroid.

Personally, I would recommend either that all spacecraft have to be orbited either beyond a certain altitude (to avoid the debris from the collision) or out of the Kerbin Soi entirely (to avoid the incoming planet), but can still reach their destinations after the 5 year marker before your final score is given.

Yes. You are also allowed to continue your save after this, but only from Extraplanetary launchpads. The only reason you can use Kerbin after the limit is to load the save.

[Poryy]

Would like some videos to be made of this challenge.

[SgìobairOg]

Oo, I'm tempted to get in on this one. Would you be agreeable to, as Highlad suggests, implementing the asteroid. If you were to go through the setup Scott Manly does on a fresh game then distribute that quicksave file that would be everyone's starting point? I suppose that would only work in sandbox though.

[Poryy]

Oo, I'm tempted to get in on this one. Would you be agreeable to, as Highlad suggests, implementing the asteroid. If you were to go through the setup Scott Manly does on a fresh game then distribute that quicksave file that would be everyone's starting point? I suppose that would only work in sandbox though.

It would be incredibly annoying, and people could just say "lolno" and push the asteroid to the left, averting the collision. I also don't run asteroid mods, as I think that glorified parts aren't worth it.

[obi_juan]

I was thinking in start a new sandbox game with similar plot... I suppose that the 5 years means until mission day 6Yrs 0days ohours.

I will use Mechjeb, because until now I could only go alone to Duna.

But there are mistake in the scoring:

SCORING:

Bonuses

"Canned Meat" - 10 pts - Create orbital stations around Kerbin. 10 pts per station.

If an asteroid with the size of Duna hit Kerbin, all the orbits around Kerbin will be unstable for a long time, also Mun and Minmus will suffer a 'debris shower' so anything on the surface of the the satellites could be impact with the debris of Kerbin+ Asteroid... So all the orbital stations and surface bases need to be far away of Kerbin, the more stable colonies will be in Jool.

I read that land on Gilly is very dificult, but I don't understand why you give the maximum points to make a base in that satellite. The third celestial object to suffer the 'debris shower' will be Gilly, because the gravitational attraction of Gilly is very low, most of the debris will go to Eve... But a station in Eve is more protected by the huge atmosphere, almost all the debris will consume in it before reach the surface. any station on Gilly will suffer a huge attack of small rocks at speed higher than 4 831.96 m/s, enough to pass through the walls.

If the proposed situation is real, the more protected places to make the new colonies are the bodies with atmosphere.

To give food to the colonies I will use this mod: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/renewable-bio-fuel-modules/

[JumpsterG]

I really want to do this challenge. It occurs to me this is a long haul in terms of time commitment, though. At least for a serious attempt. I'd also probably break away from how it's defined in the thread, so score may not be applicable.

Mission planning and engineering tasks for this seem really fun, but piloting all the missions possible within a 5 year span, trying to squeeze out as many as possible, would become tedious very quickly. Even if you limit yourself to only launching 1 rocket every month, that's still 60 launches. (I'm assuming using Kerbal Alarm Clock to manage multiple craft going to all destinations simultaneously)

If I go through with it, my plan would be to launch, utilize, land, and/or put together 1 of every base module, station, and vehicle I need on and around every colonized body. This proves that particular module/station/vehicle can be successfully deployed. Once every possible mission has been proven feasible, I'd calculate how many missions can be done in the allotted time and determine which combination of missions gives an optimal number of refugees (and/or score).

I'm having a lot of fun coming up with the assumptions I would use.

-Colony One (or a combination of control stations) must mimic functions of KSC (Launch capability, tracking station, VAB, Research, Administration)

-Interplanetary missions and colonies require a hitchhiker be present for every 2 kerbals present.

-Surface bases intended for habitation need infrastructure modules (food, power, kethane, community, governance).

-Space stations intended for habitation have to be supported by a colony with infrastructure AND launch capability on it's orbiting body.

My biggest problem is, for calculation purposes, how many launches/missions can be started and leave Kerbin's SOI in 5 years game time? It can be dependant on vehicle tonnage (as per Duna Colonization Planning challenge), or something reasonable like 1 per month/week, or it could even mimic how KSP is played (launch, 15 minutes to orbit, return to space center, launch again). Doesn't have to be figured out now, and in fact, I'd like to use a spreadsheet to show what's possible with differing launch frequencies.

TL/DR

I hope I can find the time to do this challenge! Sounds like fun!

[impwarhamer]

By any chance did you get your insperation from this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/45288-Kerbin-is-Doomed!

[Poryy]

I really want to do this challenge. It occurs to me this is a long haul in terms of time commitment, though. At least for a serious attempt. I'd also probably break away from how it's defined in the thread, so score may not be applicable.

Mission planning and engineering tasks for this seem really fun, but piloting all the missions possible within a 5 year span, trying to squeeze out as many as possible, would become tedious very quickly. Even if you limit yourself to only launching 1 rocket every month, that's still 60 launches. (I'm assuming using Kerbal Alarm Clock to manage multiple craft going to all destinations simultaneously)

If I go through with it, my plan would be to launch, utilize, land, and/or put together 1 of every base module, station, and vehicle I need on and around every colonized body. This proves that particular module/station/vehicle can be successfully deployed. Once every possible mission has been proven feasible, I'd calculate how many missions can be done in the allotted time and determine which combination of missions gives an optimal number of refugees (and/or score).

I'm having a lot of fun coming up with the assumptions I would use.

-Colony One (or a combination of control stations) must mimic functions of KSC (Launch capability, tracking station, VAB, Research, Administration)

-Interplanetary missions and colonies require a hitchhiker be present for every 2 kerbals present.

-Surface bases intended for habitation need infrastructure modules (food, power, kethane, community, governance).

-Space stations intended for habitation have to be supported by a colony with infrastructure AND launch capability on it's orbiting body.

My biggest problem is, for calculation purposes, how many launches/missions can be started and leave Kerbin's SOI in 5 years game time? It can be dependant on vehicle tonnage (as per Duna Colonization Planning challenge), or something reasonable like 1 per month/week, or it could even mimic how KSP is played (launch, 15 minutes to orbit, return to space center, launch again). Doesn't have to be figured out now, and in fact, I'd like to use a spreadsheet to show what's possible with differing launch frequencies.

TL/DR

I hope I can find the time to do this challenge! Sounds like fun!

You are correct.

And yes, KAC is allowed.

[Poryy]

I was thinking in start a new sandbox game with similar plot... I suppose that the 5 years means until mission day 6Yrs 0days ohours.

I will use Mechjeb, because until now I could only go alone to Duna.

But there are mistake in the scoring:

If an asteroid with the size of Duna hit Kerbin, all the orbits around Kerbin will be unstable for a long time, also Mun and Minmus will suffer a 'debris shower' so anything on the surface of the the satellites could be impact with the debris of Kerbin+ Asteroid... So all the orbital stations and surface bases need to be far away of Kerbin, the more stable colonies will be in Jool.

I read that land on Gilly is very dificult, but I don't understand why you give the maximum points to make a base in that satellite. The third celestial object to suffer the 'debris shower' will be Gilly, because the gravitational attraction of Gilly is very low, most of the debris will go to Eve... But a station in Eve is more protected by the huge atmosphere, almost all the debris will consume in it before reach the surface. any station on Gilly will suffer a huge attack of small rocks at speed higher than 4 831.96 m/s, enough to pass through the walls.

If the proposed situation is real, the more protected places to make the new colonies are the bodies with atmosphere.

To give food to the colonies I will use this mod: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/renewable-bio-fuel-modules/

Sounds good, oh, and I only gave a lot of points for creating a base on Gilly is because

A: It is hard

and

B: It would be ironic to build an asteroid base when your planet got destroyed by an asteroid. I am aware of the realism problems, I plan on adding more high-value achievements. Remember, the current ones are only Temporary!

By any chance did you get your insperation from this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/45288-Kerbin-is-Doomed!

Never even heard of it. Should I give it a read?

[JumpsterG]

Hi Poryy. I'm waiting for .23 to land before I begin this challenge but in the meantime, could you just clarify for anyone else interested, just how strictly scored this challenge will be?

I feel this is mostly a "see what players come up with" challenge, rather than a truly competitive one. Which I feel is fine, I prefer it this way so players can be more creative with their colony construction, but if you do intend for it to be competitive (leader boards and such), some things (like launch frequencies, part mods allowed, colony sustenance requirements) would need to be explicitly defined and the same for everyone, otherwise the scores become arbitrary.

Just some friendly advice. I wont be upset if the rules stay free-form, since I enjoy making up my own, and have no need to compare point values against anyone else.

[impwarhamer]

Never even heard of it. Should I give it a read?

I think the thread is dead now, but it's a good read if you want some inspiration for this challenge

the challenge was basically the same, except you only had 1 year

[Poryy]

Hi Poryy. I'm waiting for .23 to land before I begin this challenge but in the meantime, could you just clarify for anyone else interested, just how strictly scored this challenge will be?

I feel this is mostly a "see what players come up with" challenge, rather than a truly competitive one. Which I feel is fine, I prefer it this way so players can be more creative with their colony construction, but if you do intend for it to be competitive (leader boards and such), some things (like launch frequencies, part mods allowed, colony sustenance requirements) would need to be explicitly defined and the same for everyone, otherwise the scores become arbitrary.

Just some friendly advice. I wont be upset if the rules stay free-form, since I enjoy making up my own, and have no need to compare point values against anyone else.

I want to keep it a free-form challenge, with the scoring more like XBOX live achievements. Useless, but fun.

[obi_juan]

I think the thread is dead now, but it's a good read if you want some inspiration for this challenge

the challenge was basically the same, except you only had 1 year

I read both, and I like more this challenge, basically because I have 5 years. I'm not taking this challenge as something to do and show completely finish, I play this challenge when I want, basically with the minimum time warp every time that I will obtain a important step to complete the challenge I will write a report here. Because I play less than 14h at week, so to complete this challenge will take several months, for this reason I started yet, in one week I will have the version 0.23, so will be like and improvement of the ships in desperate times.

Now I'm on day 7 and I just send the kethane detector proves to Duna, Ike, Eve and Gilly. I'm sending also the Ketane proves to Jool. I just find a good location for my Mün colony (All my Kerbals will abandon this colony in less than five years) but this colony and a Minmus base will by my transfer point for my interplanetary ships (and the first time for me to build a Khetane/ore base).

[Poryy]

I read both, and I like more this challenge, basically because I have 5 years. I'm not taking this challenge as something to do and show completely finish, I play this challenge when I want, basically with the minimum time warp every time that I will obtain a important step to complete the challenge I will write a report here. Because I play less than 14h at week, so to complete this challenge will take several months, for this reason I started yet, in one week I will have the version 0.23, so will be like and improvement of the ships in desperate times.

Now I'm on day 7 and I just send the kethane detector proves to Duna, Ike, Eve and Gilly. I'm sending also the Ketane proves to Jool. I just find a good location for my Mün colony (All my Kerbals will abandon this colony in less than five years) but this colony and a Minmus base will by my transfer point for my interplanetary ships (and the first time for me to build a Khetane/ore base).

That's how you should play this challenge. Casually!

I'm actually just starting it, because I don't have much time on my hands either. I think a KMP server just for this would be awesome.

[celem]

I just started up a save for this too. Have a few crazy plans, probably end up putting so much into orbit that i cant physically manage the windows, but...meh.

All kerbals launching through an atmosphere must be in pressurised capsules is one of my rules for this one. And I have RT2 in so im gonna have to set up satellite networks if I want to use probes.

Crazy project are go!

edit:

Space hab into LKO. It's carrying 5 Kerbals for now, they rode up in the capsules on the docking ports.

The crew EVA from the capsules once in orbit. Jeb takes the first shift at the helm (I need 1 kerbal in the cupola to have vessel control due to RT) while the others settle into their new home to await the interplanetary burn to come

Ditching the command capsules frees up the 2 docking ports. Mission control realises that while they have an ore detector, there is no kethane scanner on-board. Plans are slated to expand the station here in LKO and correct a couple of oversights, before continuing on with various support craft to accompany the mission.

When asked where they were heading first the boffins at KSC simply scratched their heads.

"We havent decided yet, wherever lines up soon and sounds good I guess."

5x Kerbals

4 Hitchikers

1 Cupola

Big Ore Detector

RCS and ports

RT2 Dish and omni-directional.

Theres about 6.5k dV behind it, but I dont wanna send em miles alone so probably in orbit around Duna/Eve as it's the first run. Unfortunately I forgot to include a docking port and RT-dish on the unmanned nuke stage so I wont be able to bring it back to refuel. Would be smart since these are big launches in 1 piece.

Edited December 14, 2013 by celem

[Poryy]

I just started up a save for this too. Have a few crazy plans, probably end up putting so much into orbit that i cant physically manage the windows, but...meh.

All kerbals launching through an atmosphere must be in pressurised capsules is one of my rules for this one. And I have RT2 in so im gonna have to set up satellite networks if I want to use probes.

Crazy project are go!

edit:

Space hab into LKO. It's carrying 5 Kerbals for now, they rode up in the capsules on the docking ports.

The crew EVA from the capsules once in orbit. Jeb takes the first shift at the helm (I need 1 kerbal in the cupola to have vessel control due to RT) while the others settle into their new home to await the interplanetary burn to come

Ditching the command capsules frees up the 2 docking ports. Mission control realises that while they have an ore detector, there is no kethane scanner on-board. Plans are slated to expand the station here in LKO and correct a couple of oversights, before continuing on with various support craft to accompany the mission.

When asked where they were heading first the boffins at KSC simply scratched their heads.

"We havent decided yet, wherever lines up soon and sounds good I guess."

5x Kerbals

4 Hitchikers

1 Cupola

Big Ore Detector

RCS and ports

RT2 Dish and omni-directional.

Theres about 6.5k dV behind it, but I dont wanna send em miles alone so probably in orbit around Duna/Eve as it's the first run. Unfortunately I forgot to include a docking port and RT-dish on the unmanned nuke stage so I wont be able to bring it back to refuel. Would be smart since these are big launches in 1 piece.

I SAY! I'd say go to Duna. Easy to launch from and metric butt-loads of ore and kethane.

I like the design, BTW. Great work.

[celem]

Did a bit more on this last night before bed. Will post some shots again later tonight.

Got a keostationary satellite network up which lets me use probe ships within Kerbin's SoI, each carries a long-ranged dish (like the ones on the Duna station). This is awesome since it lets me start ditching spent launchers. Already well on the way to a decent Kessler Syndrome. (mainly capsules, some 20-odd of them, that were ditched after carrying passengers to LKO)

I put another few vessels into parking orbit. First transfer window is Moho which im gonna skip for now, it's a serious voyage that I traditionally have 0 luck with. Duna and Jool are next up, only days apart, so i'm building both flotillas at the same time. Station/Hab from the first shots is headed to Low Duna Orbit. It's accompanied by a manned sat-carrier with enough unmanned sats to build a complete coverage network round Duna, along with a kethane mapper to send to Ike. The relay sats are designed to sit a bit below synchronous orbit, but theres enough to daisy-chain the signal anyway, they carry dishes so this should let me link the Kerbin system to the Duna system. The pilot of the satellite carrier will join the habitants of the Hab once his job is complete. There is also now an extraplanetary launchpad in LKO, it's probably headed to Duna/Ike with the first waves of ships, to await in orbit there until resources have been identified and a colony-site selected.

The approaching Jool window also offers a great opportunity to begin with our plans for Laythe. As the most emminantly suited to colonisation we have big plans for this world. Slated for this first departure window are a Hab (similar to the Duna one above, but with extra dV in the transfer stage), 2x Surface base components (mainly habitation and power) and a manned kethane scanner sat. The KSC boffins havent yet cracked a way to deliver a full RT2 network to Laythe as they plan to do with Duna, hence the manned satellite for Laythe, pilot will join the Hab population when his job is done. I'm doing Laythe first since I feel happy delivering Kerbals there with minimal facilities. Since they have a breathable atmosphere I dont need to add loads of space to simulate life-support. They just need shelter and power. Surface bases elsewhere are going to hold fewer kerbals/physical 'seat' than this one.

Meanwhile all is not quiet in the Kerbin system itself. We launched a large lko space-station to act as a departure point, this lets us dodge adding capsules to future launches to carry the Kerbonauts through the atmosphere, the craft instead launch with only their primary pilot or under drone control and fill up on refugees at the station. Several 'bus-class' ssto shuttles have been pressed into service ferrying kerbals up to the station as fast as we can push them through the astronaut training complex. It's spam-in-a-can on the station, with 75% of seats taken, but nobody is going to be there for more than a week, so they can deal with it for now. I also want all my emigrants to be in contact with KSC through the RT2 mod, cant abandon people to madness. Laythe surface bases will initially be only in periodic contact as I do not have a network solution for the Jool system.

We also did some trial-run landings, deploying several experimental base modules to both the Mun and Minmus. The evac plan calls for no kerbals inside Kerbin's SoI, so these will be abandoned/relocated before the event.

62 Kerbals off planet

2 on the Mun, 3 on Minmus, 30 in the LKO departure station, the rest are relaxing in Hitchhiker compartments on various ships in parking orbit, awaiting their windows. Nobody has left Kerbin's SoI yet.

45 days in

1 fatality (shuttle pilot returning from bus-route to LKO station, flat-spin on re-entry, mk I model without abort system installed, design-flaw corrected + abort installed)

Edited December 15, 2013 by celem

[Commissioner Tadpole]

I think I may have a head-start...my third save file has a Munar colony in the works alterady and my first save file has a "base" on Duna. And after it is settled I'll launch rockets from the extraplanetary launch pad over there to colonize other planets, since leaving the Mun is so much easier than leaving Kerbin.