Intercept Challenge

[EmperorJon]

Ok, I\'m going to break the golden rule of challenges here, but only because it\'s not yet actually possible.

The Challenge:

To use the upcoming persistance mechanic to place a space station of some sort in orbit. Then shoot it down.

Rules:

The station must be one object, and the whole station will probably be constructed out of parts from a pack. This will be decided on later. It may be a set downloadable design, or it may need to be constructed by you using a certain number of parts.

This means it must be put up there in 1 flight. Once again, the packs allowed will need to be discussed.

Once it\'s up there, the bad guys obviously have to shoot it down! Whether you use a missile or some sort of SRB cannon, is up to you.

Awards for:

- Cheapest cost of rocket to get the station into orbit.

- Cheapest cost of rocket to shoot it down.

- Fastest orbit and shoot down combined.

- Doing it round the Mun instead. (MegaJebBonus anyone?)

- Doing it all with no casualties. (Ignore the guys on the station.)

Anything else to add?

EDIT:

The moment I posted this I thought of something else. With persistance and flights saved to file, it may be possible to share flight save files. So you can load other peoples\' flights in to your game. That would be brilliant, and if so I shall simply distribute the save with the station already up there and the challenge will revolve entirely around gunning it down. It will be interesting to see how it reacts with the log and similar; it may be possible to view whether it\'s all be destroyed or not.

[gabyalufix]

Why isn\'t this possible? All you need to do is launch a space station, land on kerbin, launch again, and somehow intercept the station, right?

So practically impossible, but not actually strictly impossible.

Hmm. I was planning on trying this on the mun sometime soon. Gonna make a super-beacon first though. Maybe a few other tricks to make the intercept easier.

[Tosh]

Hmm. I was planning on trying this on the mun sometime soon. Gonna make a super-beacon first though. Maybe a few other tricks to make the intercept easier.

Dunno about \'super\' ones but as for good old SignalFlare it simply goes out when it\'s more than 5 000 meters away from a command pod. I\'m not sure whether it still exists in the game... I just could not find it again. Ah BTW I never got a \'splashdown\' report from a part dropped from more than 5 000 meters.

UPD. It concerns atmosphere flights only. In space nothing \'goes out\'.

[Caesar15]

Seems interesting, accepted once 0.14 comes out

[Gojira]

Seems interesting, accepted once 0.14 comes out

This\'ll be fun 8)

[Tim_Barrett]

In the meantime you can just make a small interceptor plane and a mothership plane split mid-flight, and shoot it down in the atmosphere. Much more fun I\'d say.

[Robo336]

Why isn\'t this possible? All you need to do is launch a space station, land on kerbin, launch again, and somehow intercept the station, right?

So practically impossible, but not actually strictly impossible.

Hmm. I was planning on trying this on the mun sometime soon. Gonna make a super-beacon first though. Maybe a few other tricks to make the intercept easier.

It is not yet possible because all parts that are more than ~5km from your command module are currently deleted.

If you try to keep track of a discarded booster by zooming out the camera, you\'ll notice that it 'disapears' at some point.

But I can\'t wait to try a hostile interception once persistence is out!

[gabyalufix]

Hmm. tested and confirmed. Unfortunate.

[Millitron]

It is not yet possible because all parts that are more than ~5km from your command module are currently deleted.

If you try to keep track of a discarded booster by zooming out the camera, you\'ll notice that it 'disapears' at some point.

But I can\'t wait to try a hostile interception once persistence is out!

FALSE

They are not deleted. 5km is just the maximum draw distance for ships. The object is still there, and if you\'re enough of an expert with orbital mechanics so you can come back to within 5km again, you will see the object 'reappear'.

They ARE deleted if you end the flight however, which is what persistence in 0.14 is going to change.

[gabyalufix]

Um. I\'ve tested this on my install, and it seemed to confirm the 'deleted at 5km' theory.

My test was thus: I lifted off, leaving a few modules on the ground. Rose to 5km, cut engines and drop back down again. The launchpad is empty when I arrive.

Is something else happening here?

[Millitron]

Um. I\'ve tested this on my install, and it seemed to confirm the 'deleted at 5km' theory.

My test was thus: I lifted off, leaving a few modules on the ground. Rose to 5km, cut engines and drop back down again. The launchpad is empty when I arrive.

Is something else happening here?

I just tested it too, and you seem to be right. This is weird, as in the challenges section, awhile ago we were trying orbital rendezvous, and given some careful decoupling, it was doable, but very difficult.

[gabyalufix]

Maybe something odd happens when a part is on the ground when it goes out of range? Maybe it only tracks trajectories for objects, and stops if they hit anything.

One funny thing: by very carefully bobbing above 5050m or so, I had some of the grounded parts disappear, and others explode on impact with the ground.

[Tosh]

They are not deleted. 5km is just the maximum draw distance for ships. The object is still there, and if you\'re enough of an expert with orbital mechanics so you can come back to within 5km again, you will see the object 'reappear'.

They ARE deleted if you end the flight however, which is what persistence in 0.14 is going to change.

Another way to test: create a part which it 2 km in diameter (maximum allowed size for KSP). Leave it on the ground and go 5 km away from it. See part\'s disappearing. Come back and try to find it))

Maybe something odd happens when a part is on the ground when it goes out of range? Maybe it only tracks trajectories for objects, and stops if they hit anything.

Well, test #2: give that part very small mass and drag and attach it to the drone flying at 2500 m. Then go up to 7500 m...

[gabyalufix]

Another way to test: create a part which it 2 km in diameter (maximum allowed size for KSP). Leave it on the ground and go 5 km away from it. See part\'s disappearing. Come back and try to find it))

Why does the 2km thing help?

[EmperorJon]

Because you can see it from 5km up.

[Tosh]

It\'s visible from 5 km. You can see when the part disappears... even if it\'s attached to something moving.

[Millitron]

I think I figured out the difference. I seem to recall Harv saying that things on rails will be deleted if they\'re in atmo. I\'m betting that at around 5km, the parts are put on rails, and are then deleted since they\'re in atmo. That\'s why the orbital rendezvous worked, but this doesn\'t.

[gabyalufix]

AH! That makes sense.

I confirmed the disappearance visually, using a whole pile of those landing flares, at night. it was visible at 4900 meters, but somewhere on the way to 5100m it disappeared (didn\'t get the exact moment, and I wasn\'t perfectly straight up, but close enough).

[trbinsc]

Why does the 2km thing help?

2km is the largest part the game can handle.

[Tosh]

I think I figured out the difference. I seem to recall Harv saying that things on rails will be deleted if they\'re in atmo. I\'m betting that at around 5km, the parts are put on rails, and are then deleted since they\'re in atmo. That\'s why the orbital rendezvous worked, but this doesn\'t.

Well; I\'ll try to rendezvous with that 2-km bubble... as soon as I\'ll master orbital rendezvous))

[gabyalufix]

I\'ve been flying missions where I drop a huge cloud of landing flares, change orbits, then try to find the cloud again. The cloud of flares is pretty visible, but the only times I\'ve managed to intercept, I got atomized in the 200 m/s impact.

It\'s easier to do around the mun, because the orbital velocities are lower.

[Tosh]

Well; I\'ll try to rendezvous with that 2-km bubble... as soon as I\'ll master orbital rendezvous))

Confirmed. Only parts in atmo (and deployed \'parachutes\') are deleted when going \'on-rails\'. When I remade my rendezvous target as a \'strut\' rather than \'parachute\' it stayed visible even at 100+ Km distances.

So orbital intercept is doable even in v0.13.

Now how many Muns are in this picture?

[Feragorn]

Only 1. That\'s some other large orb part you lofted into orbit there.

[Tosh]

Only 1. That\'s some other large orb part you lofted into orbit there.

Darn. I should have taken two of them. And texture the second one as the real Mun 8)

[Feragorn]

The texture would\'ve made it much more believable, since there\'s that bug which knocks the Mun out of orbit.