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antiquark
This is like KSP but without the fun.
LorenDB
I wouldn't say without the fun... It makes for a good reinforcement of my landing skillz.
playingalong
Nice one.

The left-right feel swapped to me, but I fail to give a factual reason.

Also reminds me of two 90s era DOS games: Ugh and some other about landing on Moon. Similar to yours, but the lander looked like a small tower/crate (for lack of better description).

boomlinde
I think some games in this style rather have you fire the left thruster with the left arrow key and firing the right thruster with the right arrow key, which kind of makes sense in its own right.
bornon5
I agree about the left-right issue. I just can’t get acclimated to the current controls. Lovely game though, still good fun :)
gkfasdfasdf
I felt the same about wanting left-right to be swapped when I played on mobile, and I crashed every time. However, on desktop, the controls feel just right (with the arrow keys) and I landed every time. Could also be related to the vastly larger screen space on desktop.
playingalong
Ah. Yes. Should've mentioned I was on mobile.
exebook
Wanted to play, but after the tutorial a first touch makes the ship disappear. When I reload the page, I can see the ship again, and the landing curve, then again if I touch the screen everything disappear except for the stars.
ehmorris
Ah! If you've got a console error I'd appreciate it
gavmor
Apparently, it's all about feathering the throttle. Very nice!

Near-perfect landing, super smooth

Score: 96.5 point landing Speed: 1.1mph Angle: 0.7° Time: 45 seconds Flips: 0 Max speed: 43.7mph Max height: 256ft Engine used: 73 times Boosters used: 37 times https://ehmorris.com/lander/

---

I see it took you about seven months from "Initial Commit" to its current state. How did you stay on track all that time?

ehmorris
Yes but you can also compete on using as little throttle/booster as possible! IMO the perfect landing is one where you engage the engine at the exact right moment to touch down at <1mph, and you engage a booster only once in order to be upright. Engine and booster use aren't part of the score though.

The older commits were part of a previous idea that I abandoned, then a few weeks ago I deleted almost everything and gave it another try.

Thanks for playing!

moron4hire
Yeah, but how many times can you flip the rocket?
lagrange77
> IMO the perfect landing is one where you engage the engine at the exact right moment to touch down at <1mph, and you engage a booster only once in order to be upright.

Would be interesting to see, if optimal control would do just that or use many short bursts.

nfriend
Love it! It's like a cross between Flappy Bird and Asteroids. Nice tutorial at the beginning, too.

Just managed to get a 98.5, which I think was mostly luck.

LorenDB
I'd love to see an indicator showing how quickly you are rotating. That would make the final touchdown a lot easier to get straight, IMO.

Also, could the trajectory stay visible at all times? That would help plan burns better.

warent
Pretty fun! I like trying to make as many flips as possible:

  Basically a fender bender, but you landed
  Score: 45.4 point landing
  Speed: 3.5mph
  Angle: 9.5°
  Time: 62 seconds
  Flips: 18
  Max speed: 86.8mph
  Max height: 1276ft
  Engine used: 32 times
  Boosters used: 55 times
russellbeattie
I went up to 20,000+ feet, flipped 1000+ times, but then didn't land it. I couldn't get it to stop flipping before it crashed.
varyherb
Same

  Just shy of a good landing
  Score: 78.3 point landing
  Speed: 5.5mph
  Angle: 0.3°
  Time: 577 seconds
  Flips: 206
  Max speed: 302.4mph
  Max height: 12012ft
  Engine used: 69 times
  Boosters used: 89 times
djmips
My best is 22 flips. I did them on screen.
nedt
Flipping is really fun. If you do really many you'll get the color particles in straight lines coming down:

  Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth
  Score: 143.9 point crash
  Speed: 1259.8mph
  Angle: 35.0°
  Time: 629 seconds
  Flips: 1709
  Max speed: 1259.8mph
  Max height: 44983ft
  Engine used: 1 times
  Boosters used: 58 times
bxparks
Awesome, the highest crash landing speed I was able to achieve was 97.7 MPH after about 20-30 attempts.
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bxparks
I went off screen, turned around and crashed at 394.6 MPH.
ehmorris
This, and going sideways really really fast is the way. The highest I've seen is 1500mph.
bxparks
I crashed at 2499.1 mph by going sideways for a long long time. How accurate is your physics? If I hit orbital velocity, will I just orbit the moon? What if I hit escape velocity?
ehmorris
That is amazing. Not accurate at all really, unless the moon was an infinite plane I guess. If you hit escape velocity you'll never land!
pmx
Had a great time seeing how fast I could make it go!

Impressive speed, impressive angle - you crashed with style

Score: 89.2 point crash Speed: 761.4mph Angle: 41.4° Time: 82 seconds Flips: 0 Max speed: 761.4mph Max height: 344ft Engine used: 97 times Boosters used: 45 times https://ehmorris.com/lander/

ehmorris
Very nice, did you hear the baby at the 400mph mark?
pmx
I did wonder what that sound was!
ehmorris
That’s my baby
basicallydan
This is adorable.

Great game! I got a 95 point landing after a good few goes then I saw all the fun people were having with the crashes so I joined in. Great job!

minitoar
lol I sort of thought that was my baby on the monitor
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placatedmayhem
This feels like an achievement:

  Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth
  
  Score: 190.2 point crash
  Speed: 1612.3mph
  Angle: 98.6°
  Time: 220 seconds
  Flips: 0
  Max speed: 1612.3mph
  Max height: 4534ft
  Engine used: 15 times
  Boosters used: 129 times
  https://ehmorris.com/lander/
ehmorris
This is the fastest I've ever seen!
ccoggins
Fun game! After climbing to 1 million feet, it took over 500,000 more to finally reverse direction with the ship pointed down and the engines firing.

  Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

  Score: 869.4 point crash
  Speed: 7757.3mph
  Angle: 62.2°
  Time: 1319 seconds
  Flips: 0
  Max speed: 7757.3mph
  Max height: 1549465ft
  Engine used: 11 times
  Boosters used: 351 times
  https://ehmorris.com/lander/
ehmorris
Wow, I need to make a new crash blurb
messe
How about some blurbs related to the flip count?

    Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

    Score: 421.9 point crash
    Speed: 3737.1mph
    Angle: 57.9°
    Time: 567 seconds
    Flips: 1463
    Max speed: 3737.1mph
    Max height: 47969ft
    Engine used: 3 times
    Boosters used: 140 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
madamelic
If you really want to, you should add achievements.
messe
Well, my middle finger is numb, but I beat 1000 points. I took a straight path upward, and then switched to a horizontal -90° burn, slowly shifting to a -135° burn as I got closer to the ground.

    Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

    Score: 1606.2 point crash
    Speed: 14427.6mph
    Angle: 18.9°
    Time: 1567 seconds
    Flips: 14
    Max speed: 14427.6mph
    Max height: 1361872ft
    Engine used: 1 times
    Boosters used: 438 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
messe
The quickest (in terms of time elapsed) crash I've been able to get is 5 seconds. I think 4 may be just about possible, with the right initial conditions.

    A smooth… wait… you crashed

    Score: 26.1 point crash
    Speed: 94.8mph
    Angle: 140.9°
    Time: 5 seconds
    Flips: 0
    Max speed: 94.8mph
    Max height: 240ft
    Engine used: 1 times
    Boosters used: 4 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
ehmorris, this is addicting for all the wrong reasons.
notmysql_
4 seconds on my 3rd attempt somehow

  A smooth… wait… you crashed

  Score: 29.0 point crash
  Speed: 88.2mph
  Angle: 173.4°
  Time: 4 seconds
  Flips: 0
  Max speed: 88.2mph
  Max height: 218ft
  Engine used: 1 times
  Boosters used: 3 times
  https://ehmorris.com/lander/
messe
Nice. I can get 5 reliably, but haven't been able to get 4 at all.
notmysql_
Apparently the timing isn't tied to the framerate, so after I ran the game on a faster computer I got 2 seconds quite consistently

  A smooth… wait… you crashed

  Score: 28.7 point crash
  Speed: 80.4mph
  Angle: 178.4°
  Time: 2 seconds
  Flips: 0
  Max speed: 80.4mph
  Max height: 185ft
  Engine used: 1 times
  Boosters used: 2 times
  https://ehmorris.com/lander/
wizofaus
When you can actually land (not crash) in 2 seconds, NASA may have a role for you...

(8s was the best I managed but still a "fender bender").

ehmorris
Yeah that is a flaw. You could also just make your browser window very short on desktop. I think if it’s shorter than the lander height you may land in 0 seconds?
upon_drumhead
I made my browser short and then zoomed the window as large as possible

Daily Challenge #5 8.4 point crash

3.2mph | 82.2° | 0 flips So, so close to a landing, but still a crash

https://ehmorris.com/lander/ 0 seconds Max: 3.2mph | 12ft Game size: 191x57

SebRollen
I managed to get my rocket very very slowly rotating (<0.1° / s), so that I could just hold the acceleration and have it do one arc from launch to crash:

    Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

    Score: 1712.2 point crash
    Speed: 15226.2mph
    Angle: 174.3°
    Time: 5963 seconds
    Flips: 0
    Max speed: 15226.2mph
    Max height: 1993862ft
    Engine used: 21 times
    Boosters used: 14 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
messe
Now that's impressive.

1h40m for it though..., that's an extra 1h15m for just 800mph more. With some tweaking of your initial launch angle (get it somewhere between 40-60° rather than 0° which is what I'm assuming yours was, correct me if I'm wrong), plus maybe a second fine-tuning once you reach apolune, I'd guesstimate you could make 25000mph in ~3000 seconds.

DrSiemer
This reminds me of when I made a parody "game" once, where all you had to do was click to get a point.

I had included a message at 10k, for a friend that I had expected to check the js source, but to my surprise a non-programmer friend send me a screenshot of it. He just kept clicking "to see if something would happen".

If only I had thought to turn it into an app with some ads at the time, there's a whole idle game genre these days. In some situations people will go to surprising lengths for a basically meaningless and pointless payoff. I still enjoy driving off the map in Trackmania myself. Takes almost an hour, but it's very zen.

tumidpandora
Landed in 8 seconds -->

Terrible landing, you need to land slow and straight

Score: 27.9 point landing Speed: 11.3mph Angle: 5.6° Time: 8 seconds Flips: 0 Max speed: 39.0mph Max height: 173ft Engine used: 2 times Boosters used: 5 times https://ehmorris.com/lander/

pmarreck
I just got:

    Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

    Score: 309.4 point crash
    Speed: 2607.1mph
    Angle: 176.2°
    Time: 293 seconds
    Flips: 0
    Max speed: 2607.1mph
    Max height: 174828ft
    Engine used: 6 times
    Boosters used: 54 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
lol (and now I see others have already beaten this...)
hesk
Took it up to 1 million feet, it took another 1.5 million feet to bleed off 4000mph upward acceleration, then turned the pointy end downwards and accelerated.

  Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

  Score: 1117.8 point crash
  Speed: 9876.7mph
  Angle: 177.3°
  Time: 2101 seconds
  Flips: 0
  Max speed: 9876.7mph
  Max height: 2505688ft
  Engine used: 3 times
  Boosters used: 271 times
  https://ehmorris.com/lander/
waltbosz
I used the same strategy. Same results with the bleed off. I was surprised how much I had to keep correcting my angle on the way up and down.

    Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth    
    
    Score: 921.4 point crash
    Speed: 8113.1mph
    Angle: 174.8°
    Time: 1638 seconds
    Flips: 0
    Max speed: 8113.1mph
    Max height: 1686337ft
    Engine used: 417 times
    Boosters used: 603 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
einhverfr
I now have joined the club too

Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

Score: 314.8 point crash

Speed: 2657.5mph

Angle: 174.1°

Time: 471 seconds

Flips: 0

Max speed: 2657.5mph

Max height: 179734ft

Engine used: 4 times

Boosters used: 83 times

https://ehmorris.com/lander/

Benn1x
i'm now a club member too Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

Score: 324.3 point crash

Speed: 2900.4mph

Angle: 16.7°

Time: 1943 seconds

Flips: 56

Max speed: 2900.4mph

Max height: 751071ft

Engine used: 14 times

Boosters used: 170 times

https://ehmorris.com/lander/

rahulroy9202
Not the worst landing, but not very good either

Score: 63.6 point landing Speed: 4.9mph Angle: 4.1° Time: 26 seconds Flips: 0 Max speed: 21.5mph Max height: 236ft Engine used: 30 times Boosters used: 8 times https://ehmorris.com/lander/

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marcodiego
Suggestion of improvement: landing should only be successful if lateral velocity is inside a limit.
ehmorris
Lateral velocity should be taken into account since I'm taking the vector of the x/y velocity. It's just that it needs to be under 12mph, so you can be going pretty fast laterally.
timbeccue
Love this! Very simple and creative.

  A solid “C” landing

  Score: 71.9 point landing
  Speed: 4.7mph
  Angle: 2.5°
  Time: 276 seconds
  Flips: 27
  Max speed: 114.4mph
  Max height: 1323ft
  Engine used: 58 times
  Boosters used: 63 times
  https://ehmorris.com/lander/
frutiger
Unbelievable, the crater is visible from Earth

    Score: 345.1 point crash
    Speed: 2928.9mph
    Angle: 175.6°
    Time: 696 seconds
    Flips: 28
    Max speed: 2928.9mph
    Max height: 299886ft
    Engine used: 37 times
    Boosters used: 194 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
markm248
Way more fun if you try to see high you can get your crash score. 26.3 personal best
boomlinde
I like this kind of game, and this is perfect for a short diversion! This is the best I can muster for now:

    Very nice landing, amazing

    Score: 90.1 point landing
    Speed: 2.8mph
    Angle: 0.4°
    Time: 9 seconds
    Flips: 0
    Max speed: 38.7mph
    Max height: 240ft
    Engine used: 10 times
    Boosters used: 10 times
    https://ehmorris.com/lander/
Evidlo
The lander disappears as soon as I touch the controls and never crashes. Iceraven 1.14.0/Android 11
jefc1111
Fun! I'd like to get a bonus for rotations in both directions.
ehmorris
I had a 1 point bonus for flips in the score but ended up removing it because it felt too overpowered. But! Having a good score AND flips is impressive in itself.