100% Reusable Careermode Hotseat

[mpink]

Hi there and welcome to the career mode hotseat challenge.

The idea is that you download the latest save game directory, present a mission plan (as to claim the seat before flying any long missions) fly a mission and then upload your save directory and make a report. I find Dropbox very handy for shearing files like this.

I say directory as i would like to test your craft and we may like some shared parts/craft as the game develops.

I strongly suggest saving craft using the naming system of MissionNumber(3 digets) - ForumName - CraftName.

So my 1st mission shall have a craft named "001 - MPink - Experimental 5K VTOL" and you will only need to remember a mission number in order to find a craft you may want to use again later (+ alphabetical mission order sorting).

Rules

The career mode is running in hard mode but with a few added restrictions to make it more interesting.

1) As you may have spotted all craft must be 100% reusable.

By that i mean all craft parts should theoretically be 100% recoverable (land on the pad or runway) but i understand that sometimes things don't go as planed .

This adds some difficulty with some missions as testing decouplers at low altitudes is as good as impossible and early exploration missions are extremely difficult to return from.

Theoretically we could collect old satellites later in the game using retrieval craft. Having extra fuel on them to help with making a return rondaview would go a very long way to convince me that you haven't just chucked it into space and forgotten about it.

2) No pilot purchase. When your dead your dead. We should be able to rescue a few pilots hear and there but i doubt we shall ever produce a colony.

3) No contract skipping. Canceling a contract is different and allowed as it has a financial penalty and sometimes you might just take a contract to unlock a part you need for another mission but clicking the X on a mission you dont like the look of is just cheating.

4) only one launch per turn. Some missions may need multiple launches that require the next player to continue where you left off. An exception to this is placing a target on the pad as to help guide you back home. This can be done when your over the 30K mark and helps hugely with guiding you back home. Using and empty decopler on the pad results in an explosion but yes you can place a target on the pad at launch time too, It just needs to be 2 parts and have some mass to it.

5) No double seating. After you have flown a mission You must wait for another player to fly before taking the seat again.

Mods

Im more of a stock player myself but see no reason why you cant use a mod just as long as the save can still run in a stock version afterwards. No longterm craft with parts that are not stock.

When we get to some serious missions I think Kerbal Engineer will be a must.

Scoring

Im intending to keep a score of the missions and try to rate them all.

This may be complicated and depend a lot on my mood though so you must understand its just a bit of fun.

Max 10 points for accomplishing your mission objective (gaining science, cash & crew).

Max 10 points for presentation of report. Im going to try a make a video for every mission I do using afterburner to capture then VLC to encode and youtube to edit. I see no reason why a few screen shots with some well thought out words wouldn't get a good score too though. Its all about telling the story.

Max 10 points for your piloting awesomeness. Im not sure what will be good enough for a 10 at this stage or even how I might judge it without a video. My thoughts are to test the craft made and compare it to what you have done. Some craft are just impossible to fly so may score high for just not killing everyone. Recovering from an accident would be a great way to score points hear but then your likely to lose some in other areas for that.

Bonuses

1 SemiBull = Landing just off the center of the landing pad.

2 BullsEye = Landing exactly in the center of the pad.

5 Deadeye = Landing in the center of the pad from orbit.

2 Cleaner = Returning a craft/part left by someone else but only after your primary mission is done.

5 VomitComet = Making a flight with no chance of using SAS.

-2 Junker = Some part of your craft was not recovered.

-10 Destroyer = Crashing a perfectly good craft or trying to land on a building and breaking it.

-15 Killer = You ended a pilots life.

Im sure there shall be more so if you can think of a reason your flight deserves extra points then you should state it in your report.

Leaderboard

1) 14 - MPink - Mission 001

2)

3)

4)

5)

Bare with me as i do the 1st mission to demonstrate. humm so you cant make double posts and self bump your own thread now then. Ill just have to hope that people are willing comment and chat as we get this thing started.

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Mission 001 Plan

Reach the 5K mark and bring home some much needed cash/science while demonstrating that it is possible to land back on the pad.

We need at least 5 science to open the next tech so I shall try "Launch new Vesal" + "Set Altitude Record" for an expected return of just under 4K and at least 3 science.

Starting with 10K cash and 0 science/reputation (before excepting contracts or doing anything) at Year 1 Day 1 0H 0M.

There shall be a small gap while I attempt the mission but I shale return with the save file shortly.

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Mission 001 Report

Mission 001 Save File

jeb achieved both missions and done some science landing back on the pad safely.

He generated 12.4 Science and upped the cash to 15,286 so managed to bring home 1K more than i was expecting he managed all this in about 2mins of game time but it sure seamed like longer to me.

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Judging Mission 001

Well ill give the mission a score of 4. It achieved all the goals it set out to but only bringing back 12.4 science on the first mission isnt hugely helpfully.

For the report ill give a 5. The mouse pointer is missing there wasn't any commentary or story telling and the music just overruns a little. On the upside though it dose demonstrate using cockpit mode to get better accuracy with the navball.

Piloting will get you a 4. At 5K you can still do this all by eye and don't need SAS at all. I should have hit the black dot exactly at this range with that much fuel and how hard is flying in a straight line anyways.

+1 for a BullsEye (ill count the whole grey circle as a bull and it should be about the same size as the mesh on the next pad)

for a Total of 14 Points

Edited February 4, 2015 by mpink