Ike Return Senario!!!

[DerpenWolf]

Bill Kerman is on Ike, help him get home!

Basically a number of craft are in orbit of Duna and Kerbin with varying levels of fuel, your job is to try to rendezvous with and gather the resources/parts you need from these crafts. Some of the vessels will get gravity assists that alter their orbits so timing could be quiet essential!

Rules:

1.You may only control the craft that Bill Kerman is in at the time. (No flying any vehicle unmanned)

2.You may not launch any more craft.

Goo Mode: Get Bill back to Kerbin (doesn't matter if he survives the landing).

Easy Mode: Get Bill back to Kerbin safely.

Hard Mode (This should be possible but I haven't had time to test it yet, gravity assists will be essential): Get Bill Kerman to the science station orbiting Duna, then ride in the science lab (like its a habitation module) back to Kerbin's orbit/sphere of influence where you then have to find a way to get Bill back on Kerbin Safely (Just Bill. the lab can stay in orbit or can be on a escape trajectory, doesn't matter) and you must use the normal file (not the less random one!).

Kraken Mode (Probably possible): Same rules as hard mode except you can't use any of the craft that were originally orbiting Kerbin (no using the plane or probe).

Also its a now known bug that the gravity assists that Ike gives the science station can vary between games due to different time warp speeds so I added a version without this for those who don't want this semi random situation.

And here is a link to the normal file (semi random gravity assists to the Science station from Ike): http://pastebin.com/njFv2Gv4#

And here is a link to a new less random file (no semi random gravity assists to the Science station from Ike): http://pastebin.com/XRERwea4

(Copy the text and put the data into the same type of text-holder-thing (I just used Notepad) the other scenarios are, then name the folder Ike Return and just put it in the main scenarios folder!)

edit/clarification/ more detailed explanation on how to run get the scenario set up ---> You should be able to open the .sfs file with Notepad or a text editor of some sort. You then just can just copy and paste one of the other scenarios to your desktop, rename it to Ike Return, open it with a text editor, delete the old content, then you just paste in the new data, save the document, and finally put it in with the other scenarios! I tested this multiple times out of paranoia and it worked every time!

Give me feedback about how you think I could improve the level and share screenshots or a video of your journy!

Edited May 16, 2014 by DerpenWolf

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Might have to try this later, sounds interesting.

[iDan122]

Umm the file is .txt, it doesn't work, you need .sfs extension for scenarios

[sal_vager]

You just need to change the file extension, nothing difficult

[DerpenWolf]

Umm the file is .txt, it doesn't work, you need .sfs extension for scenarios

You should be able to open the .sfs file with Notepad or a text editor of some sort. You then just can just copy and paste one of the other scenarios to your desktop, rename it to Ike return, open it with a text editor, delete the old content, then you just paste in the new data, save the document, and finally put it in with the other scenarios! I tested this multiple times out of paranoia and it worked every time!

[Dunbaratu]

Question: What are you looking for as the method of proof that it happened? Screenshots along the way?

[DerpenWolf]

Question: What are you looking for as the method of proof that it happened? Screenshots along the way?

Screenshots over the corse of the trip or a video works.

[Pecan]

Interesting idea, well done.

[Kasuha]

I tried to fast-forward from the start of the scenario without doing anything and the station passed by Ike about three times and then fell to Duna. Is that intentional?

[DerpenWolf]

I tried to fast-forward from the start of the scenario without doing anything and the station passed by Ike about three times and then fell to Duna. Is that intentional?

Yes and No, I intended for the station to have some sort of interaction with Ike but as it turned out the position I had parked it in while I set other stuff up worked pretty well so I decided to leave it how it is!

[Kasuha]

The only problem is, the result depends on how fast you time warp during these interactions. I tried it three times and I got three different results. And the first interaction is even glitchy - the game won't tell you it's going to happen, then suddenly switches the SOI. That's not very cool.

[DerpenWolf]

The only problem is, the result depends on how fast you time warp during these interactions. I tried it three times and I got three different results. And the first interaction is even glitchy - the game won't tell you it's going to happen, then suddenly switches the SOI. That's not very cool.

Thanks for pointing that out, I just checked it and your right in how it acts so strangely at the first interaction. I'll add this to the main/starting bit and note it as a bug but I am a bit torn on whether I should try to fix this or not as fixing it would help give everyone a more equal experience while not fixing it adds an interesting wild card factor to the mission. I do know it is possible to rendezvous and dock with the station (a snapshot of one of the craft near it is shown) but I will say it was not the easiest thing to do. Regardless I will look into how I could fix this odd bug but if I do find a fix I will probably ask around whether people think it should remain a bit random or not.

[Captain Sierra]

Thanks for pointing that out, I just checked it and your right in how it acts so strangely at the first interaction. I'll add this to the main/starting bit and note it as a bug but I am a bit torn on whether I should try to fix this or not as fixing it would help give everyone a more equal experience while not fixing it adds an interesting wild card factor to the mission. I do know it is possible to rendezvous and dock with the station (a snapshot of one of the craft near it is shown) but I will say it was not the easiest thing to do. Regardless I will look into how I could fix this odd bug but if I do find a fix I will probably ask around whether people think it should remain a bit random or not.

Perhaps keep the existing save for Hard/Kraken difficulty and upload a fixed/more stable scenario for Goo/Easy difficulty.

[DerpenWolf]

Perhaps keep the existing save for Hard/Kraken difficulty and upload a fixed/more stable scenario for Goo/Easy difficulty.

I like it and I shall get to work on making a modified save for easy mode!

[Dunbaratu]

I need a rules clarification on this point (boldface mine):

Hard Mode (This should be possible but I haven't had time to test it yet, gravity assists will be essential): Get Bill Kerman to the science station orbiting Duna, then ride in the science lab (like its a habitation module) back to Kerbin where you then have to find a way to get Bill back on Kerbin Safely (Just Bill not the lab).

Presumably this means rules don't require Bill to stay in the lab all the way to Kerbin's ground, otherwise it's impossible for him to live without the lab surviving too.

So when do the rules allow him to leave the lab again? Upon entering Kerbin's SOI? After a stable Kerbin Orbit? During atmospheric re-entry? What does "in the science lab back to Kerbin" exactly mean?

[DerpenWolf]

I need a rules clarification on this point (boldface mine):

Presumably this means rules don't require Bill to stay in the lab all the way to Kerbin's ground, otherwise it's impossible for him to live without the lab surviving too.

So when do the rules allow him to leave the lab again? Upon entering Kerbin's SOI? After a stable Kerbin Orbit? During atmospheric re-entry? What does "in the science lab back to Kerbin" exactly mean?

You just have to ride it back to kerbin orbit/Sphere of influence (its ok if the lab is on an escape trajectory when you ditch it), you then just need to find a way to get Bill home alive. I shall clarify this in the rules. Also part of the idea behind this is that he theoretically needs the supplies from the science lab to make it home alive.

Edited May 16, 2014 by DerpenWolf

[Dunbaratu]

You just have to ride it back to kerbin orbit/Sphere of influence (its ok if the lab is on an escape trajectory when you ditch it), you then just need to find a way to get Bill home alive. I shall clarify this in the rules. Also part of the idea behind this is that he theoretically needs the supplies from the science lab to make it home alive. I shall clarify this in the rules

Okay thanks. Then in that case I think I've got the solution. I just have to re-do it because of ... well.. a trap you put in there that I won't mention publicly because it's a spoiler, but it was a mean trap I fell into.

[Dunbaratu]

Okay I don't have the solution, at least not for hard mode. I'm not 100% convinced it's possible. I'm trying to run the numbers but I think given the mass of the science station at its minimum size with everything undocked, and the total amount of fuel in orbit around Duna, there's not enough to achieve the DV for a duna-to-kerbin transfer.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

It doesn't work for me. It's doesn't show up in the list of scenarios.

[Kasuha]

It doesn't work for me. It's doesn't show up in the list of scenarios.

Download the file into KSP/saves/scenarios and rename it to "Ike Return.sfs". Make sure you got the extension right, "Ike Return.sfs.txt" will not work.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

That's what I did KAsuha

[Dunbaratu]

Something seems broken about the scenario file and I'm not sure what it is: More than half the time when I try to load the game, Bill's feet are glued to the ground of Ike and he won't walk - he can only rotate in place. I have to keep killing KSP, deleting the scenario directory that was created, and re-run the game and restart the scenario. I have to do this about 2-3 times before getting a start condition that actually works and loads right.

[Kasuha]

I redownloaded both files, tested them and had no problems with seeing or starting the scenario and moving Bill around in both cases.

Just to be sure, I made correctly named files for you to download here:

Normal

Easy

Try it with them.

And by the way, you don't need to kill the game and delete the scenario directory to restart it. If you highlight a scenario, there's a Delete button in the lower left corner of the window, you can delete the instance from there.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Kasuha

[Kasuha]

I ran the "Kraken" mode and in the end it wasn't even that hard. Spoilers and comments inside the album.

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[Dunbaratu]

I ran the "Kraken" mode and in the end it wasn't even that hard. Spoilers and comments inside the album.

http://imgur.com/a/NnsWt

How on earth did you get the space station orbit to have a temporary capture by Ike? I got that to happen once with the old file and realized I was cheating because I was putting the ship under direct control before Bill was on it and that wasn't allowed, so I started over fresh wiping everything and re-getting the download (I say "the" download because at the time there weren't two of them) and the darn space station never did it again on subsequent tries. Getting that capture to happen would greatly help reduce fuel usage and I can't recreate it.

Ironically you've named the version where the capture is designed to never happen as "easy" despite the fact that it takes more fuel that way.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Steven Mading