The Official Kerbin Cup Tournament Thread - Final Entries Posted

[cantab]

My reading of the rules immediately made me think of ways to take the bits up and assemble it in orbit, but obviously the actual teams should clear this with Rows. Even assembling it in orbit will be no mean feat mind, with the parts not having all-axis RCS control individually.

[Whackjob]

I shot a PM to Rowsdowser regarding an extension. Given it's a wee bit tougher of a challenge, that and a national holiday is going to force everyone to obey familial summons, I don't think it'd be a problem.

[Vaporo]

I don't see why saves corrupting is so much of a problem, though. We can make multiple quicksaves now (alt+f5), so just save at every step of the assembly process. That way if the game crashes you just reload your most recent save.

[VR_Dev]

obey familial summons

Also if peoples computers are running slo mo my macbook might not even be able to handle this challenge

Edited July 2, 2014 by clown_baby

[Wooks]

I don't see why saves corrupting is so much of a problem, though. We can make multiple quicksaves now (alt+f5), so just save at every step of the assembly process. That way if the game crashes you just reload your most recent save.

The challenge gives us a savegame that has the ship pieces outside the VAB, scattered between the launchpad and the VAB building. The pieces are not saved as ships on the VAB or the SPH. You can't revert them to any of the buildings. You only have that set to play with.

Once you blow up / destroy / glitch / maim / twist / bug any of them you need to reload the fresh savegame to reset them... and start from zero.

You quicksaved? There are bugs that just corrupt the save and when you reload, welp, you reload the bug and the piece that is glitched explodes / flies away / dissapears / you name it almost instantly.

You have 75% of the build done and the last piece blows up? Reload the most recent save and the piece is glitched? Too bad, reload the clean save folder. Again.

And again. And again... and... well, you know the drill.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Wooks

[HafCoJoe]

I'm making my own ship with docking stoof but I won't be using your's WhackJob sadly D:. Too laggy and crashy for my likeness and 32 bit CP. I'll be posting pics though!

NOTE: The custom leg is what crashed it for me as I recreated it in a new save and launched with it crashing the same way. The ports are probably helping the glitch too though.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Avera9eJoe

[Whackjob]

Ok, here's the word from Rowsdowser himself: Challenge is extended until Tuesday.

#EDIT: For those suffering bugs with it... have you tried fooling around with the physics slider?

[allmhuran]

I tried this myself and have been able to complete the challenge without any issues with quicksave corruptions etc, but I don't have any mods in use. Not sure if that's what is making the difference.

[Whackjob]

I tried this myself and have been able to complete the challenge without any issues with quicksave corruptions etc, but I don't have any mods in use. Not sure if that's what is making the difference.

You actually put her together? PM me some screenshots!

[federicoaa]

The Whackboss challengue XD

[m1sz]

I'm not sure about mods either, most of the bugs I'm encountering are related to the claw...

For example, when you try to de attach a vessel from one of the legs, it bugs. Ships do separate, but they are considered the same ship, and the leg starts to float like in a gravity hack.

this has killed many hours, and no quicksave will help, they corrupt too. Anyway, if allmhuran was able to do it with stock only (I suppose kerbin assembly), I'll try with a new save, only stock ^^, and see what happens

[allmhuran]

I'm not sure about mods either, most of the bugs I'm encountering are related to the claw...

For example, when you try to de attach a vessel from one of the legs, it bugs. Ships do separate, but they are considered the same ship, and the leg starts to float like in a gravity hack.

This did happen to me a couple of times, but I was able to revert to a quicksave without issue. I'm not sure why it happened or why it eventually didn't happen, but yes I did use the claw.

[Wooks]

I tried this myself and have been able to complete the challenge without any issues with quicksave corruptions etc, but I don't have any mods in use. Not sure if that's what is making the difference.

For me is the saves, I'm trying both approaches: stock and modded. You managed to fly the thing without glitches?

[Andrew Hansen]

Our team has had so many different ideas for assembling these things, but although each idea should theoretically work, they fail because of bugs and glitches. Messed up collision meshes, floating glitches (described by m1sz above), claw problems, crashes, and other insanity render all our work useless.

The modding team can probably dig into things and figure out what's going wrong and fix it; for us, we have to start over each time.

But we are determined to conquer this challenge, nonetheless.

[allmhuran]

You managed to fly the thing without glitches?

I wouldn't say "without" glitches. But... put it this way, the ship is assembled and flyable.

The main issue I faced was multiple claws not grabbing, but there are ways and means.

[The Jedi Master]

I think it would be kind of funny if no one made the deadline, even with the extension.

[iClarion]

I think it would be kind of funny if no one made the deadline, even with the extension.

My team will be making the deadline Guaranteed.

[iClarion]

The rules say you have to assemble it then launch it, so our team talked about perhaps assembling stuff in space, but we're hoping we can build it on the ground first before having to resort to that as a last option.

The good thing about mods is that they allow you to do things you can't do in stock, but the bad thing is they can result in bugs and glitches.

Reading the rules over again, I don't really see that constraint. All I see is, "Your challenge is to take it to orbit (I tested it myself, it is SSTO compliant, but will need refueling before going elsewhere). Once in orbit, go on a sightseeing tour."

So "taking it to orbit" could mean a lot of things I think. You could break it into pieces and fly every piece into orbit by themselves according to this wording

[Andrew Hansen]

Reading the rules over again, I don't really see that constraint. All I see is, "Your challenge is to take it to orbit (I tested it myself, it is SSTO compliant, but will need refueling before going elsewhere). Once in orbit, go on a sightseeing tour."

So "taking it to orbit" could mean a lot of things I think. You could break it into pieces and fly every piece into orbit by themselves according to this wording

If you go to the actual download page on Curse, the wording is, "You have one week to assemble it, launch it, land it someplace interesting, then return it safely to the Kerbal Space Center, using a powered landing."

So it seems to be implying that first you assemble it, then launch it, and do the rest of the mission.

[Whackjob]

Yeah, that's what I originally wrote before submitting it to Rowsdowser. Feel free to launch it sectionally if you want. Though I say again my votes going to whoever does it the hardest way.

[Rowsdower]

Yep, that's fine. The ingenuity put forward within the constraints listed are part of the challenge.

[r4m0n]

Yeah, that's what I originally wrote before submitting it to Rowsdowser. Feel free to launch it sectionally if you want. Though I say again my votes going to whoever does it the hardest way.

I am unable to do things the easy way, so I'm looking forward for the other entries :-)

As for the claw decouple+float bug, I've come across it a few times, and I think it happens when you release the root node before you release all the joint-only ones. You can't really tell which is which, so I suggest just reloading and trying in a different order.

[The Jedi Master]

Rules question: can we use infinite fuel?

[astropapi1]

How many parts is the entire ship? I feel like my laptop would commit suicide if I tried to open it in KSP.

Good luck to all teams. You're representing the Forum!

[HafCoJoe]

When I tried my launching method I did use the claw. I shall try again using the docking ports only I think.

Jedi, WhackJob said kudos for doing it the hard way, but I guess it isn't against the rules :/. I don't suggest it.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Avera9eJoe