BSC Challenge: Rover + Skycrane - Yet another winner!

[Andrew Hansen]

Wow! This has been quite the experience to participate in this challenge. I was rather busy this time and almost didn't get my entry in on time. Thus, I didn't have much time to test it. I really hope that during the next BSC as soon as the entries close I don't suddenly say "Oh! If only I would have changed that one thing...."

But I feel honored to have made it into finals. Thanks Xeldrak for re-doing the voting, and thanks everyone who voted for me! Unfortunately, I think that during the next BSC I might be even more busy (depending on when it happens), but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.

[Liowen]

I have abstained from voting at all due to many reasons. Nothing against anyone at all I just have my reason is all.

[BagelRabbit]

I see that I didn't make it into the finals. Ah well, maybe next time. And, I am 100% certain that every finalist did a better job with their rover than I did.

Best of luck everyone.

[Spartwo]

Thanks for all the criticism,I think they've been addressed.

-~double the landing D/v.

-As a result the TWR isn't as stupidly high.

-Less clipping.(it's still all asthetic.

-Lower rover COM & wider wheelbase.

-ASAS now ejected in second stage(because it's perfectly balanced)

Edited December 15, 2013 by Spartwo

[antbin]

Thanks for all the criticism and suggestions, I'm glad some of you enjoyed my rover!

I voted for Ravenchant's, because of its medium size, nice lines, and good control.

To do a little last minute campaigning I was going to try and get a screenshot of my rover jumping the Dres canyon... but I can't seem to find it in 0.22!

[XolotlLoki]

Just got back from picking up my new car (drove from SF to Phoenix and back), and I'm in the finals. Thanks everyone who voted for me! This is my first time to make it past the primaries.

[*]XolotLoki: Your entry was my absolute favorite because it was simple, indestructible, and low part count.

Thanks for your votes, and for appreciating the design choices I made

[Xeldrak]

I voted for Deathsoul097's Sojurner. Usually I prefer bigger rovers (as you can clearly see on the CRAATRV), but I think the Sojurner strikes the heart of the challenge: It's simple - really simple and still looks good It's probably one of the few entries a newb could actually rebuild after examining it.

[XolotlLoki]

Going back through the thread:

I vote for XolotlLoki's SIR. Has the bare essentials with no meretricious frills, and works properly. Would have liked a drogue chute, some landing lights, sepratrons, and some struts going from the rover's four corners to the vertical beam.

Thanks for the primary vote! I never took SIR to Duna (Munar EDL was the difficult one), so I left off the chute. Struts would have looked good (especially liked them on antbin's rover), and added some strength. But SIR was strong enough without them, so in service of part count they got left off as well. And I never figured out how to get landing lights that wouldn't break off in a crash on uneven terrain.

However, sepratrons would have indeed been a nice touch. I've never used them, but the rovers with them were much more pleasant to land. Even though I've gotten pretty good at ramping the throttle just before skycrane separation, it's always a hair-raising moment.

[XolotlLoki]

For those that have tested my entry what do you think was my biggest mistake?

The middle wheels had a tendency to go flat on less than even terrain. Other than that, I was impressed with how stable and functional it was, especially such a large rover with medium wheels.

[XolotlLoki]

I'm not on your spreadsheet...

So sorry, it looks like your entry came in a zip file, so the game didn't list it in the UI. I'll test and update the matrix for the record.

[XolotlLoki]

Why you say i have no lights :/

Not sure, I'll load your rover on Kerbin and check.

EDIT: I loaded your rover on Kerbin at night, then turned the lights on. Here's what I see:

No visible lights. Where are they supposed to be?

Edited December 16, 2013 by XolotlLoki

[XolotlLoki]

Could you please fix my nick in there?

Come on people, it's just six letters. How can you misread them?

Fixed. In my case, I think my brain saw a Kerbalization of the name Joshua.

Out of curiosity, what's the (ethnic?) origin of that name?

[XolotlLoki]

@XolotLoki, My rover has both solar and 1 RTG!

I drove it at night with lights on at full speed, and watched to see if there was any battery drain. Almost all the small rovers had some drain, probably hard to fit enough RTGs.

[XolotlLoki]

what do the K and ! mean?

I updated the spreadsheet to explain, but basically it means whether that column was valid for that test on that planet. So for the "roll damage" test, K means your rover was damaged when rolled on Kerbin, !K means it wasn't damaged, and ?K means I couldn't make it roll so I have no idea. Same with M for Mun.

[XolotlLoki]

Confused as to how mine is hard to detach from?? There is a docking port that will release it (I know it works as I have tested the .craft file to make sure it wasn't messed up). Not complaining just really baffled on why that is complex is all.

Was your skycrane separately controllable? If so, then a docking port would be reasonable.

Usually when I land a rover with a skycrane, I ramp the throttle just before detaching, then let the skycrane fly off on its own. But there's no way I'd be able to click a docking port while doing this. Only stage separation (or an action group) is fast enough.

[Xeldrak]

Allright, Xolotl - now that you've basically filled up a whole page on this thread alone, why dont you collect all the stuff you intend to write in a single post? Or do it like me and edit your last post as long as it is the newest post in the thread.

While it's awesome that you actively take part in this challenge, filling up a whole page with relatively short post is not considered to be well-mannered.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Xeldrak

[XolotlLoki]

Two quick things about the spreadsheet for my design. The first is that the craft's spelled the Columba-A; just a little thing there.

Fixed.

The second is that it can carry four Kerbals, although this makes it roll-happy and probably shouldn't be done unless you're content with slow driving and slow turns.

Updated.

By the way, if you do update the spreadsheet, can you add the meaning of the punctuation marks (!K, ?K, etc.)? There's been some comments from people unsure of what these meant. (Including me.)

I had added the meaning to my original post linking the spreadsheet, but not the spreadsheel itself. Done now.

EDIT:

Allright, Xolotl - now that you've basically filled up a whole page on this thread alone, why dont you collect all the stuff you intend to write in a single post? Or do it like me and edit your last post as long as it is the newest post in the thread.

Doing so now.

Edited December 16, 2013 by XolotlLoki

[Kasuha]

Fixed. In my case, I think my brain saw a Kerbalization of the name Joshua.

Out of curiosity, what's the (ethnic?) origin of that name?

I guess that may explain why so many people misread it. I never noticed the similarity.

But it was always supposed to sound japanese (カスãƒÂ; I'm not from there though) and it's way older than KSP.

[Ravenchant]

Hm...I'm thinking of abstaining from voting. It's pretty much a tie between XolotlLoki, antbin and Deathsoul97, and picking one at random wouldn't be exactly fair, given how low the overall voter numbers are :/

[Andrew Hansen]

It's pretty much a tie between XolotlLoki, antbin and Deathsoul97

I think you mean Xeldrak, XolotLoki, and antbin since Deathsoul97 has over three times as many votes as antbin does.

It's interesting that no one has voted for me yet, but I don't think it's a big deal since as you've stated, there aren't very many voters so far.

By the way Xeldrak, I think it'd be awesome if the next BSC competition had to do with the Rocket-Powered VTOL. I just love that stock craft, and it'll be interesting to see what people come up with.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Andrew Hansen

[Ravenchant]

I think you mean Xeldrak, XolotLoki, and antbin since Deathsoul97 has over three times as many votes as antbin does.

No, I meant I couldn't decide for which one of the three to vote. Past tense used because antbin got it in the meantime. While Loki's entry (is it okay to shorten like that?) is probably more fun to drive because of...acrobatic potential, the one way ticket has more features

Edit: I'll try to adress the skycrane stability issues sometime next week. Admittedly, it does tend to flip around a lot on Kerbin because of the dense atmo.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Ravenchant

[XolotlLoki]

While Loki's entry (is it okay to shorten like that?) is probably more fun to drive because of...acrobatic potential, the one way ticket has more features

Loki is fine, and you are of course correct about One Way Ticket's extra feature set. Which is why I voted for antbin as well.

And sploden, I've updated my test matrix to include your rover. I actually liked it as much as Deathsoutl097's, which was the only other really good small wheeled rover.

[Xeldrak]

We have a winner! Congratulations to Ravenchant, Deathsoul097 and antbin!

Well, that was a rather eventfull BSC-iteration But it was fun as allways and I'd like to thank everyone who entered the contest or voted according to the guideline - you guys make the challenge possible I don't think I will start the next BSC before Christmas Eve, since there is a new update that should each one of you busy and lots of social occasions - but keep an eye open.

[Kasuha]

Thank you for organizing the challenge and congratulations to winners~

[antbin]

Hey, wow, three very different rovers in the final three! Congrats Ravenchant and Deathsoul097 for the win and runnerup. Thanks horndgmium, Kasuha, Ravenchant, SaplingPick, and XolotlLoki for the votes. And last but certainly not least thanks (cannot be thanks enough) to Xeldrak for making these challenges happen.

Edited December 17, 2013 by antbin