Challenge XR2 Reconnaissance: 20 hours of toil (v1.3)

[Wishbone]

XR2 Reconnaissance Challenge v.1.3 (September 25, 2010)
=======================================================

This is a challenge scenario with Lua helper script
(Orbiter 2010-P1 and later).

=====================
Minimum requirements:

Orbiter 2010-P1 (and later), by Martin Schweiger.

Vandenberg AFB 2.0 by Scott Conklin - [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2380"]VandenbergAFB - 2006[/ame]
XR2 Ravenstar MkI 1.1 by Douglas Beachy - http://www.dougsorbiterpage.com/
UCGO 2.0 and UMmu 2.0 by Dan Polli - http://orbiter.dansteph.com/

=====================
Credits:
Lua scripts courtesy of Martin Schweiger and various authors at OrbiterForum.

Thanks to orb and dgatsoulis for helpful suggestions.

All remaining errors are mine (Wishbone).

Please feel free to use and abuse the Lua script (it's public domain).

=====================
Installation:
Simply unzip to your Orbiter directory.

Launch Orbiter,
choose scenario folder 2010 Edition\Challenges
and select Recce Mission.scn.

Note: this challenge levels the playing field by setting
its own XR2 realism parameters.

=====================
Situation report:

Your multi-purpose XR2 has recently performed a landing at
CCAFS instead of Vandenberg due to weather concerns.
She has been urgently re-fitted with special multi-spectral
reconnaissance equipment, including a synthesized aperture
radar, and given a launch azimuth waiver by the POTUS.
The cause of that is an impending crisis in negotiations
with the Atlantic-Pacific League and the inability of our
conventional spy satellites and other national-level assets
to provide adequate coverage of the League's installations in
southern Chad, near Kerguelen Island, in eastern Nepal and
at their leased base at Ascension Island (yes, it is THAT
cheesy).

Your flight data file (see Object info in the Orbiter in-sim menu)
contains target coordinates (Control Hut #1, Control Hut #2,
Control Hut #3, Control Hut #4). You are to perform a daytime
overflight of these targets in any order, doing photographs
(using Screen Capture MFD at 10-degree field-of-view from
the cockpit window) at slant range less than 225 km (in Planetarium
mode with Vessels on). There are unconfirmed rumors that
S-300V batteries have been installed to protect the airspace,
but you need not worry about them, you'll be flying too
high for them, right?

Please note that a retrograde orbit gives you more chances to
fulfill the mission. Just don't botch your ascent or the range
safety officer will blow your bird to a million little pieces.
Need for vigorous plane change maneuvers (pure-jet or assisted
by aerobraking) is anticipated.

Landing is to be performed at Vandenberg AFB (or to be more precise,
within 200 km of VAFB) not later than 20 hours after scenario start.

Your callsign is Rocky-4.

Use of BaseSync and Attitude MFDs is recommended.
SCRAM engines are essential for your success!

Now that you've got past tough security blokes that guard your
gem of a ship and waved goodbyes to the ground crew, prepare for
take-off. Good luck.

 

[dgatsoulis]

This looks like a nice challenge, with a very good script! (Both story and LUA).
I had a quick look.

1) There seems to be a problem with the "control huts".
When you load the scenario, huts #1 to #3 are still packed (despite the "CargoUnpacked 1" setting in the scenario file). Only control hut #4 is unpacked.
I think that this is a bug of UCGO and the latest Orbiter version. I remember we had encountered something similar at the OFMM lite missions. (I may be wrong about this, this might be a bug that just happens to me).

2) You don't specify what kind of settings we should have in the XR2RavenstarPrefs.cfg file. This can be a very challenging mission when you have a MainFuelISP=0 setting, but a rather easy one if you change that setting to 3 or higher.
It would be even better if you used the CONFIG_OVERRIDE_ feature of the XR series to provide the settings that you want, within the scenario file.

3) Since your challenge requires other addons, it would be nice if you provided links for them.

You did an amazing work with the LUA script:thumbup:. I hope i find the time to give this a try this weekend.

 

[Wishbone]

Thanks for playtesting!

1. Yup (as in I should have checked it) . The real variable to watch out for is AFCMode. Should be 120 for unpacked cargoes, not 56.
2. Done, uploading tonight.
3. Will do.

Things to do: I was thinking about some range safety mechanism to blow up the XR2 at launch if she decides to go into a dive at Ft.Lauderdale or Miami or whatever. Payload feedback (based on angle off nadir, to dissuade people from non-direct passes). Relay satellites.

 

[Wishbone]

Version 1.1

Please download the updated version attached to this post.

Fixed:
* Not all huts were unpacked

Updated:
* Readme file cleanup
* Links to requirements added

 

[dgatsoulis]

Challenge Completed!

I tried it with a slight change. MainFuelISP=1 and APUFuelBurnRate=5.

First hut:

Second hut:

Third hut:

Fourth hut:

Landing at Vandenberg. Unfortunately, i hadn't checked if Vandenberg AFB had been installed properly. All i got was the base's name but nothing else. I did a safe landing about 5km from target.

Landed:

Time: 3.10 hours

A big thanks to Wishbone for this great challenge. Playback attached.

 

[Wishbone]

Ahh, it's agentgonzo's Darwinian flight school, I see Changes that are warranted:

1. I'll add the requirement for the VAFB scenery/runway addon.
2. You've convinced me to place S-300V SAMs around the 4 huts to protect them from indecently prying eyes. Since this is daylight, electro-optical detection may be better than radar... The first thing low flyers will notice will be RWR's whine when the missile enters terminal phase.

 

[dgatsoulis]

Ahh, it's agentgonzo's Darwinian flight school, I see

:rofl: Yeap! Class of 2008. Graduated summa cum laude. :rofl:

---------- Post added at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 PM ----------

The first thing low flyers will notice will be RWR's whine when the missile enters terminal phase.

Low flyers? Sure, they don't stand a chance.
But a Ravenstar that at the "slowest/lowest" point of it's trajectory -other than the launch- had a velocity of 4.4 km/s at an altitude of 47km, has no chance of getting hit by a SAM. (I think)

 

[Wishbone]

Dunno, what about THAAD and SM-3? The reason people fly above 100 km is partly legal: below that you're technically conducting a hostile act.

 

[Tommy]

But a Ravenstar that at the "slowest/lowest" point of it's trajectory -other than the launch- had a velocity of 4.4 km/s at an altitude of 47km, has no chance of getting hit by a SAM.

I would imagine that by the time we can actually make an XR-2 type of ship, the means to shoot one down will have been available for some time. Sad, really, but history supports this hypothesis.

 

[Wishbone]

Version 1.3 is out

Fixed:
* reload high scores bug

Added
* Vandenberg AFB link
* SAM launchers (right now with no functionality, but who knows )
* Acceleration HUD indicator (am considering making the equipment fragile)

 

[Wishbone]

Uploaded the pack to OHM, since I cannot delete earlier attachments from existing posts here.

 

[orb]

Uploaded the pack to OHM, since I cannot delete earlier attachments from existing posts here.

Have you tried "Edit > Go Advanced > Manage Attachments > Remove"? That should work, or is there a bug with that and you cannot remove them this way?

 

[Wishbone]

The manage attachments button is not there. To upload, I'm using IE5 (no joking). Of course, I sometimes also use lynx, just not at the forum...

EDIT: using dgatsoulis' launch azimuth as a cue, completed the scenario in 3.51 hrs (did not change Isp nor APU fuel burnrate, am not that expert). Did not violate anybody's airspace, did two aerobrake plane change maneuvers (one of them with initial crosstrack of 9 thousand km), and frolicked around VAFB to a smooth landing with no RCS fuel, no scram, coolant overheating, 3% APU fuel and 1% of main fuel