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Grinding away at Visual Survey Contracts

Kobymaru

By Kobymaru
in KSP1 Discussion

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Kobymaru

Kobymaru

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So KSP is fun, right? Especially since the newest update.

So I tried to get some funds for my Mun project, and I resorted to do some visual survey contracts.

That turned out to be surprisingly hard with low tech.

Here is my pain:

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Also, how do you get a plane in the air without landing gear? There is only one solution.

MOAR BOOSTERS: http://i.imgur.com/RsEo6D9.jpg

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Tw1

Tw1

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They did. They're called fuel tanks.

ARGQpJE.png

I think the did have wheels before rockets, they just didn't think to combine the two, so the space program doesn't get them until later.

I like the idea of survey contracts, but I have yet to attempt one.

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kookoo_gr

kookoo_gr

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Here is my plane for Visual Survey Contracts. It takes off vertically from the airstrip, in order to get the parts needed i had grind the rocket missions and go for plane research with the help of turning my rep into science. Once i grind all the nodes at the tier 1 research facility i will make my rep into funds an away we go to the Mun.

Y5zbsqv.png

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Kobymaru

Kobymaru

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I did something similar for my 0.90 career. Building stuff with low tech levels is a bunch of fun.

http://i.imgur.com/KlsJtUM.png

So I am not the only one! Glad to hear.

Beyond that, I recommend waiting for jets.
Well, propulsion isn't even the problem. It's taking off and landing that's a problem.
http://i.imgur.com/ARGQpJE.png

I think the did have wheels before rockets, they just didn't think to combine the two, so the space program doesn't get them until later.

I like the idea of survey contracts, but I have yet to attempt one.

Nice! Cheap Rover. Add solar panels or batteries, stick it in front of a rocket plane and you get an A1-surface visual survey mission.

I see that Katamari vessels are commonplace to explore the KSP.

Sorry, what are Katamari vessels?

What works great as a low-tech takeoff-aid are seperatrons. Just fire up your jet, trigger ~ 4 seperatrons to lift your small plane up and off you go. Landing via chutes. Worked great for me until unlocking landing gear.

Except sepatrons aren't low-tech :(

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LordFjord

LordFjord

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Except sepatrons aren't low-tech :(

I haven't upgraded my research facilities yet, so I consider them somewhat low-tech. Just looked it up, tech 3, 20 science points to unlock, thats pretty lowtech.

I got them way earlier than the landing gear and it worked as a stylish take-off method :)

Placing a plane vertical on the runway always looked odd to me.

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Janos1986

Janos1986

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Today I unlocked the basic jet engine but I still lack landing gears. What could I do to explore a bit and to complete those pesky survey contracts...

Well, the brits solved this pickle for me years ago, so I blatantly copied EVERYTHING.

BEHOLD, THE AV-7X SCIENCE MOSQUITO!!!1!!11

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Exactly 30 parts for 6,3 tons of weight.

Switching from VTOL to normal mode isn't easy, since action group are still disabled. But once you get the hang of it, it's pure fun.

Its maximum flying altitude it's around 20.000 meters if I remember correctly (I was too busy practicing landings to remember).

I landed on the top of a mountain to get some science, then I tried to see if they added a biome on the old airstrip, one last stop on the VAB, and returned it safely on the runway.

NOTE: No-one told me that the helipad on the L1 VAB are ridiculously small and aren't flat with the roof, so I had to close the front legs to level the craft.

Edited by Janos1986
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Dirty Bob

Dirty Bob

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I decided to make a pod bomber to get the surface data. It worked well once. I made low speed passes and dropped the command pod with deployed chutes.

I had some weird results though. As far as I could tell, if I was out of rendering range the pod would be destroyed. I'm guessing it goes on rails and that doesn't bode well for something that will hit the surface regardless of the speed. I did stay in rendering range once though and it worked.

A5DAC76AC167C851E8B9C37DF4451622AC162556

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gtmattz

gtmattz

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Wow... All these designs with wings and stuff... For the survey missions I completed all I did was build a basic rocket, launched it and pointed it in the direction of the survey location. When I had a ballistic trajectory that would take me over the survey location at an appropriate altitude I just let her coast and made a crew report when the icon on the navball started flashing. Once I had the report I popped the chute and returned to the surface etc.

Edited by gtmattz
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