GSA Campaign -- 7.17

[SoulBlazer]

With the new patch out I'm going to try to go ahead and do a campaign for the GSA and see if it's any easier to reach the moon.

This has been played with the newest patch (7.17) at Normal difficulty level (the lowest).

I'm also going to pretend this is a NASA campaign (which has not been turned on yet) and limit myself to US programs.

1st Quarter 1955 --

Game start. Open or expand most of the buildings on the base. Hire 2 more scientists since I have room for them.

I can't open a rocket program yet as the VBA is being built so I open both the X-15 Space Plane and Explorer 1 Satellite programs.
3 R&D people start working on the former and 2 on the latter.

One of my short term goals (randomly assigned) is to have a mission control person get their Flight Director skill to a min of 60%
This seems totally doable. The other one is to achieve the last (most difficult) of the Space Plane missions. I lucked out and
got two easy ones for this game. Deadline for both of them was end of 1958.

2nd Quarter 1955 --

Got a random prestige boost event of a gain of 40 points.

Leaving flight engineer staff size at 5 for now since that's good for space plane and satellite launches.

Budget right now is $20319 on hand and gaining @1957 a season.

Research continues and building on the base continues.

3rd Quarter 1955 --

New scientists are available. Also the base has finished building. As of right now, I can do small rockets, have room for 7
astronaughts, 14 R&D people (but only 7 hired), 5 Technicans, and can have 7 programs open at once.

Also due to lessons learned from past games I've increased the budget for each department to get morale to 70 percent.

Now that I have the ability to open a rocket program, I go ahead and look at what I can do. I decide to take a risk and open up
the Atlas Booster rocket program (human rated rocket). This will cause me to have a deficiet each turn until the end of 58, but the
bleeding would be slight, and this is a rocket I should be able to use through the Mercury program as well. To reach the moon
by the end of 1972 (game end) I need to finish both the X-15 and Explorer programs by the end of 59.

Also rockets take a while to R&D, so I assign 4 of my 7 R&D people right now. 2 work on the X-15 and the last on the Explorer.

People are hired so we have 7 astroanughts and 5 mission controlers in training.

Money is now a loss of $-268.6 a turn.

4th Quarter 1955 --

No random events. People are still training and programs are still being R'D.

At the end of this turn, here is the progress of the programs:

X-15: 75.5 percent. Should be ready to go in a couple turns.
Explorer: 51.1 percent. Going to require more people to R&D. Aiming for a 1957 launch.
Atlas Booster: 35.8 percent. This is why I wanted to stat this early!

Here's the base at the end of 1955:

[SoulBlazer]

1st Quarter 1956 --

The 5 technicans are ready. I do advanced training for each of them, one for each skill.

I have NO IDEA which skill is 'Flight Director' (I said this was a issue in past versions) as there's no skill called that. I'm
going to just go ahead and train and see what happens.

2nd Quarter 1956 --

No random events. The X-15 is safe enough to use, but it requires a astronaught and my guys have not finished their basic training yet. They should finish that next turn.

3rd Quarter 1956 --

Allright! Both the astronaughts and technicans are ready! I go ahead and plan the first mission -- X-15 Flight Test. This
ties up 1 astronaught and 4 technicans. The other 6 astronaughts and 1 technican go into advanced training. The astronaughts
are all put into Fitness -- I know from past games you want to have this skill at LEAST 80 for each guy.

At the end of the turn, the X-15 is at 87.4 percent with the last R&D training done on it.

4th Quarter 1956 --

Success! The X-15 Flight Test was perfect!

However, I got hit with a random event. A surprise 'Health and Saftey Inspection check' cost me $1504. Ouch.

The X-15 Experimental Flight 1 is planned.

Scientists are allocated around again, since no more research on the X-15 is deemed critical. 4 people on the Atlas Rocket, and 3
on the Explorer. I want to open the Mercury program but need to finish research on one of these programs first.

At the end of 1956, the Explorer has been R&D'd to 73.4 percent and the Atlas to 70.8 percent. Once both of these get to 80
I feel it's safe enough to do a satellite launch.

No problems with the second X-15 mission either.

[SoulBlazer]

1st Quarter 1957 --

By accident, I assign all five of my technicans to advanced training. So that means no missions for a couple of seasons.
No worries, I need more time to do R&D'ing for the Explorer launch.

2nd Quarter 1957 --

Nice R&D bonus -- all programs will get a 27 percent boost over the next two turns.

3rd Quarter 1957 --

Somehow I obtained the 'Flight Director' short term goal. Not totally sure how, since I said there's no skill actually called that.
Astroanughts and technicans have finished advanced training so I plan the last X-15 mission, Experimental Flight II.


Sad to say, though, that the X-15 mission is a failure and I lose prestige paints. Only a -3 percent hit to the X-15, though.

4th Quarter 1957 --

I try for the X-15 Experimental Flight II again so I can finish this up.

At the end of the turn, here's the R&D Status:

Atlas Booster -- 84.2 percent
Explorer -- 85.3 percent

This time the X-15 Experimental Flight II is a success.

1st Quarter 1958 --

Decide to leave the R&D people where they are for one more turn, to crank out as much safeness as I can. It's time, though,
to send up the first artificial satellite.

The launch is planned.

Success! Explorer 1 is sent up with no problems.

2nd Quarter 1958 --

The success launch of Explorer opens up the Lunar and Sun probe programs.

Due to lack of funds, I can not open the Mercury program right now.

I decide to wait one season to launch Explorer II (the extended mission) as there's no need to rush it.

3rd Quarter 1958 --

Explorer II is planned for launch.

The last of my money is tied up for this, so I can't even do any more training. I have just enough to make it though the rest of
the year, at which point the budget will be re-set to a higher level.

Explorer II (the extended mission) is sent up with no issues.

4th Quarter 1958 --

Explorer II continues with no problems.

Then, success!

[SoulBlazer]

1st Quarter 1959 --

All R&D'ing that can be done on both Explorer and Atlas is done. It's time to open the Mercury program.

Mercury is opened for about $3000, which leaves me $1000. Next turn I will open the Pioneer program (Lunar Flyby) as I don't have
the money for it this turn.

I assign the 4 best R&D people I have to start work on the Mercury.

I'm concerned about the late start in doing this program, but now that I have the foundation going I should be okay.

Also the Mission Control building is expanded so that I could have a total of 13 there, one R&D person is hired for a max of 8,
and anyone not already in use is advanced trained. This totally drains my funds for the season.

Out of the 2 new short terms goals assigned (59-62), one of them I already planned on -- do a lunar flyby. The other one I've not
seen before and don't understand. It says I have to keep at least 2 parts of a Human Rated rocket about 85 percent. Do they
mean the R&D people? I'll have to check this out.

Explorer II finishes it's duration mission at the end of this turn and that program is now finished.

2nd Quarter 1959 --

The Pioneer program is opened and my remaining 3 R&D people start working on it.

Indeed, the Atlas Booster is fine for sending up the Mercury but I'll need a better rocket for the Pioneer. Again, no funds for that --
my income each turn is about $2900 -- so a new program will wait for next season. I do hire the flight controllers that I have room
for now, to max it out at 13.

3rd Quarter 1959 --

Random event means I can't launch missions, but didn't have any planned.

The only rocket that I can buy that is US based and is open to me right now for the Pioneer is the Juno. I open this up for $2000
and re-assign my R&D people.

My 8th R&D person is ready, so 4 people are assigned for the Juno, 2 for the Mercury, and 2 for the Pioneer.

I spend my remaining $2000 on upgrading the VAB to allow for medium size rockets and lunar based missions.

4th Quarter 1959 --

Once again, lack of money is hurting me. I can't afford to do the first Mercury test (unmanned sub orbital) and I can't hire any
more R&D people till next turn so I send everyone to advanced training and just end the turn. All in all, a quiet year.

[SoulBlazer]

Damn it, I had a nice long year typed up for 1960 and lost it due to a PC crash.

Basicaly, the year was spent expanding the base and researching, and Mercury 1 (an unmanned
suborbital test) was done during the Quarter 4 of 1960.

Here's the base and our status at the start of 1961:

[SoulBlazer]

1st quarter 1961 --

More advanced training for our people, and the go ahead for Mercury II (the sub orbital flight) is given.

The mission is a success.

2nd quarter 1961 --

More training, and another mission planned....this time, Mercury III, the unmanned orbital test.

Again, no problems.

3rd Quarter 1961 --

Money is just about out, so no missions can be done this turn. In addition, R&Ding for our three programs can probably be stopped,
but no money to open up a new program yet.

So all I do this turn is advanced training.

4th quarter 1961 --

Several things this turn. 1st, we get a event that give us a cost savings of 18 percent across the board for the next 3 seasons.

2nd, R&D of Mercury is totally finished. Although I want to launch more missions, opening a new program is now critical.

At first I want to open Gemini, but the high cost of that program (over 11K!) makes that impossible. It will have to wait for
the next budget increase in 1963.

So instead I go to the lunar probes, and open up Ranger 3 (the lunar impactor) for $2500. This leaves me $1180 to spend.

Assign more people to training to finish the turn, and re-allocate my R&D people. At years end, we have:

Pioneer: 4 people R&D, at 88.2 percent.
Juno: 4 people R&D, at 88.7 percent.
Ranger: 4 people R&D, at 48.7 percent.

1st quarter 1962 --

Several things that need to get this done this year. 1st is doing the Pioneer mission so I can get the short term objective
bonus. 2nd is doing at least one more Mercury mission, the manned orbitial. 3rd is opening up a new program to R&D.

So I decide to launch the Pioneer probe to get that done, and spend the rest of my money on training.

The Pioneer is a success.

2nd quarter 1962 --

With only $1683 coming in each turn, what I can do is limited, so I only do training this season.

3rd quarter 1962 --

I have just enough money to open Pioneer 2 (the lunar orbitial program) and assign 4 R&D people on it. Wasn't enough money
to do Mercury and I can't have these R&D people sitting useless. I am so ready for a pay increase!

4th Quarter 1962 --

Despite my best efforts, I'm not going to get that second short term goal done about the two R&D people having 85 percent
in rockets. Oh well.

I go ahead and assign more people to advanced training this turn, and get ready for a budget increase -- a badly needed one --
next turn.

At the end of the year, I get my budget increase:

[SoulBlazer]

Despite the fact that a new version is out (7.18) I'm going to keep playing this one with 7.17 and see how I do. I haven't really
run into any bugs or problems with the game so far.

So now we start 1963. We got the budget increase, but not QUITE enough money to open Gemini yet.

1st Quarter 1963

I take a look at my new short term goals. I'm happy to see they are both doable and I'm already making progress toward them.
One is to have 15 employees in the Mission Control building. The other is to launch a Lunar Orbiter. (Which is already
being R&D'd)

Checking some R&D progress, I realize that to launch the lunar orbiter I'm going to need a better rocket, so I purchase
the Atlas-Agena, a good workhorse rocket that should serve me well for most of the game.

I also upgrade both the Mission Control and R&D buildings so I can hire some more people. With most of my money spent (have about
3000 left) and not enough flight controlers free to do any launches I end the turn.

2nd Quarter 1963

Random event gives me 12 percent savings in purchasing hardware for the net 6 turns. Nice!

With the flight controlers have finished advanced training, I'm ready for another Mercury mission. I decide to push my luck a
little and skip the manned orbital and do the manned orbital duration so I can wrap Mercury up.

Mercury IV is launched and the mission is a success! With that the Mercury program is finished.

3rd Quarter 1963

The Gemini program is opened. We assign our 2 free R&D people to it. People are hired also to take advantage of the expanded
Mission Control and R&D buildings.

4th Quarter 1963

The first short term goal about assigning 15 flight controlers is finished.

Despite the fact that the new Atlas-Agena rocket is only R&D'd to about 75 percent, I decide to go ahead and risk doing Ranger 3
(Lunar Orbital) cause I want the R&D people free to move to something else. The probe is launched and the flight controlers
patch the launch together so that it's a success.

1st Quarter 1964

People have finished basic training.

The Surveyor (Lunar Landing Probe) program is opened. To make room, the X-15 is finally closed.

R&D people are shuffled around. Our 4 best rocket people stay on the Atlas-Agena. Our 4 best manned capsule people on the
Gemini. Our 4 best probe people still working on the Pioneer 2 (Lunar Orbital). 3 people each on the EVA suit and the Agena
docking, with the last 2 on the Surveyor.

I also go ahead and take a risk and prepare a sub orbital unmanned test of the Gemini, even though it's only 70 percent.

Realizing this may be my last chance, with folks going to be busy from here on out, I finally spend the rest of my money to
assign everyone free to advanced training. This leaves me with $20 in the bank.

Gemini 1 is a success. A random event at the end of the turn boosts moral in the astronaught program by 19 percent, as they are
encouraged by the fact their new capsule seems ready to go soon.

2nd Quarter 1964

I realize much to my disgust that none of my current rockets -- and I have 3 of the damn things now! -- can send up a Gemini
for the orbital tests. Another more powerful rocket is going to be needed. Do I go with the Saturn 1B which is cheap and ready
now, and could be used for most of the rest of the game, or upgrade the base and go with the Saturn V? That option is very
expensive, but it would cover me for the Apollo if I go that route.

I decide to hold off on that until next turn, and focus on launching Pioneer 2 this turn, which is safe enough.

Pioneer 2 is a success, and that's 3 of the 4 Lunar Probes that are done.

3rd Quarter 1964

Making my decision, $3500 is spend to upgrade the VAB so that we can do the Saturn V.

R&D people are shuffled around to put 4 each into our active programs -- the Atlas-Agena, Gemini, EVA, docking, and Surveyor.

4th Quarter 1964

There's about $5100 coming in each turn now. With $7000 in the bank I need to wait one more turn for the Saturn V. The VAB is
not ready yet anyway.

1st Quarter 1965

The VAB expansion is not ready yet, so I decide to launch a mission. We have enough rocket power to send up a manned
suborbital with Gemini so I plan one.

Sad to say, Gemini II is a failure. The hit to our equipment is minor. I'm just upset about the wasted money.

2nd Quarter 1965

It seems I found a bug in the game -- perhaps one of the ones fixed in the new update? Trying to launch Gemini III just takes
me a black screen and I can't get past it. I'll fiddle around with this later, but if I can't get past this I may have to give up
this let's play.