Little feedback about 0.7.19

This forum supports the Early Access Program for the PC for Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager (SPM). iOS, Android and Mac releases are still in development. SPM is the ultimate game of space exploration. It is the mid 1950s and the race for dominance between the US and the Soviet Union is about to move into a new dimension: space. Take charge of the US or Soviet space agencies - your duty is be the first to the moon. Carefully manage your budget by opening programs, spending R&D funds on improving the hardware, recruiting personnel and astronauts and launching space missions in this realistic turn based strategy game.

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kokubokan25
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Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by kokubokan25 »

Hello.

Well, the game it's better and better each patch, thanks!

Now the setback.[:D]

IMHO the game is unplayable if you, as player, had the objective of follow the historical path.
MONEY!!!

I was trying with Soviet Sandbox mode without edit files.

In the first period only can lift-off the Sputnik, no money to anything more. Because of this only get medium prestige so the next period was under-level budget.
The cost of the programs (rockets and capsule) in the second period empty my reserve. Without money only can fly the Vostok I uncrewed capsule. After this wait three seasons to get the money to second mission.
The second mission was a disaster and causes a 2000 points lost of prestige. My level fall to 4000 with only eight seasons to reach 10000 and get the next level of budget. Impossible mission, of course.
In this point abandon game.

I think the budget would be rised at least 70000$ in reserve. Seems very hard accomplish historical path with a catastrophic failure. Keep in mind that a CATASTROPHIC FAILURE is very very very very common in every game.

Now i will try another time editing the Constants and using a start budget of 75000$. The seasonal budget unchanged.

My remarks in this short game:

-Seems like the personnel ratios are now very low at start. It's changed this point?
-Why the Sputnik 2 needs 12 flight controlers and 1 astronaut to lift-off? It's normal? A bug?
-When try to select a rocket to Sputnik 2 the program allowed me pick the R-7 Vostok. It's normal? I can fly the unmanned missions with manned rockets?

Thanks.
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kokubokan25
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by kokubokan25 »

Just abandon the second try of Soviet Sandbox.

The Luna 2 mission unable to complete due the Pioneer 4 problem, as previous version. Please fix-it.

Now change to NASA...
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Nacho84
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by Nacho84 »

Hello fremen,

Thanks for the feedback.
ORIGINAL: fremen

Hello.

Well, the game it's better and better each patch, thanks!

Now the setback.[:D]

IMHO the game is unplayable if you, as player, had the objective of follow the historical path.
MONEY!!!

I was trying with Soviet Sandbox mode without edit files.

In the first period only can lift-off the Sputnik, no money to anything more. Because of this only get medium prestige so the next period was under-level budget.
The cost of the programs (rockets and capsule) in the second period empty my reserve. Without money only can fly the Vostok I uncrewed capsule. After this wait three seasons to get the money to second mission.
The second mission was a disaster and causes a 2000 points lost of prestige. My level fall to 4000 with only eight seasons to reach 10000 and get the next level of budget. Impossible mission, of course.
In this point abandon game.

I think the budget would be rised at least 70000$ in reserve. Seems very hard accomplish historical path with a catastrophic failure. Keep in mind that a CATASTROPHIC FAILURE is very very very very common in every game.

Now i will try another time editing the Constants and using a start budget of 75000$. The seasonal budget unchanged.

Regarding this, either N_Molson (who's helping us with the balancing) or myself will chime in and address this in more detail.
ORIGINAL: fremen

My remarks in this short game:

-Seems like the personnel ratios are now very low at start. It's changed this point?
-Why the Sputnik 2 needs 12 flight controlers and 1 astronaut to lift-off? It's normal? A bug?
-When try to select a rocket to Sputnik 2 the program allowed me pick the R-7 Vostok. It's normal? I can fly the unmanned missions with manned rockets?

Thanks.

The personnel ratios were changed in 0.7.17. They used to be too high, so it wasn't very challenging, that's why we decided to lower them.

About Sputnik 2 needing an astronaut: it was a bug in the spreadsheet. It's been fixed in 0.7.19.2, which is available for download.

You can definitely use manned rocket in order to lift probes. Notice that manned rockets are usually more expensive than their non man-rated counterparts, so you might want to evaluate carefully before picking one. Despite the cost, it might make sense to pick a man-rated rocket in order to improve its reliability, though.

Cheers,
Ignacio Liverotti
Lead Developer of Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager
Polar Motion

www.polar-motion.com
spm.slitherine.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PolarMotion
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Nacho84
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by Nacho84 »

ORIGINAL: fremen

Just abandon the second try of Soviet Sandbox.

The Luna 2 mission unable to complete due the Pioneer 4 problem, as previous version. Please fix-it.

Now change to NASA...

Yes, apologies for this. I'll upload a new patch tonight/tomorrow morning fixing this issue so that you can resume your game.

Cheers,
Ignacio Liverotti
Lead Developer of Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager
Polar Motion

www.polar-motion.com
spm.slitherine.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PolarMotion
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kokubokan25
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by kokubokan25 »

Thanks!!
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N_Molson
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by N_Molson »

I was trying with Soviet Sandbox mode without edit files.

In the first period only can lift-off the Sputnik, no money to anything more. Because of this only get medium prestige so the next period was under-level budget.
The cost of the programs (rockets and capsule) in the second period empty my reserve. Without money only can fly the Vostok I uncrewed capsule. After this wait three seasons to get the money to second mission.

OK, here's a short walkthrough : [;)]

Turn 1 : Infrastructures building and SET Personel management

- Build the missing infrastructures (Mission Control, Cosmonauts Center).

- Open Sputnik 1 program.

- Go in the SET building, and fire personel that are really too incompetent. Then recruit. Mostly, you want to "hunt" those profiles :
1) Specialists (rocket, probes, crewed spacecraft) that have a skill near 70% but a low "lightbulb" (low learners)
2) Fast-learners (that have a high "lightbulb" skill). Those will spend time in advanced training.
So at this point, you should have 1 or 2 decent "Probes" SET assigned to Sputnik, 2 SET sent in "Rockets" advanced training, 2 SET sent in "Crewed Spacecraft" adv. training, and the 7th can be used to reinforce one of those areas, or you can already train him to "Man-Rated rockets", which is going to be very useful later.

Turn 2 : Mission Control

- Now that the Mission Control building is ready, hire Mission Controllers, all 5 of them. Here is how you should do the repartition :

1) The one that has the highest lightbulb skill should be "Flight Director" profile. He'll have a lot of things to learn.
2) A "propulsion" specialist. Extremely important.
3) A "spacecraft system" specialist. Not so critical in the first Sputnik mission, but quickly becomes essential.
4) A "crews/payloads" specialist. Will be useful as soon as you will send Luna-3 to the Moon, and also for manned missions.
5) A "trajectory & GNC" specialist. Same reason as above.

MCs are critical. They give you a "second chance" in case of failure that will make all the difference on the long run. Always, always have them training if they are not assigned to missions.

Turn 3 : R-7 and Cosmonauts

- The Assembly Building is now ready. Open the "R-7" rocket program that will easily lift our Sputnik to orbit. At this point, SETs recruited in Turn 1 are ready. Have 2 SETs working on R-7, 2 on Sputnik at minimum.

- The Cosmonauts Center is ready. Recruiting cosmonauts is a delicate operation. Bear in mind that their advanced training is the most time-consuming (1 year), so you have to hire the elite (as in reality). Here are the selection criterias :

1) A decent "lightbulb" skill (75+). Training opportunities are limited so the guys have to get the most of it.
2) An average of skills over 50%. Forget those with less than 50% in those three critical areas : Leadership, Piloting, Fitness. You might want to prepare 2-men crews right from now, so you can have 2 cosmonauts with low Leadership, and focused on Piloting, EVA, Fitness skills. Science is a "plus", good but not critical.

Notice that you have more time to make your selection here, so that you can be difficult. Dont hire all seven now, waste of skills and you'll have to pay them. High morale in the corps draw more motivated and qualified recruits the following year, so a salary boost might really worth it. Anyway you won't need legions of them in the current state of the game.

Turn 4 : On the Road !

- MCs are returning from basic training. Sent them to advanced training, following the specialization profiles described above (Turn 2). Now we are beginning to build a professional workforce.

- SETs are returning from advanced training. You sent two of them to "crewed spacecraft", so its time to open the Vostok program and assign them to the spacecraft. Notice I'm not covering the "PKA straegy" here, which is a bit different. You can go that way too, remember that the PKA is a fully orbital spaceplane almost as capable as Vostok. Harder to R&D, though. Here, let's go Vostok. We can afford to have both programs open at the same time right now.

- MCs are returning from advanced training. Just keep on making them better and better. Do that everytime, unless you need them for a mission.

The costs/funding balance should be still over +800 at this point.

Turn 5 : complete cosmonauts recruitment.

- If you rose the salaries of the cosmonauts, the recruits selection of 1956 should be interesting. Continue to make your market.

- 1956 will be a year devoted to R&D and personel training from now. Don't open other programs. Watch the R&D of Sputnik, R-7 & Vostok rise.

Turn 7 : Cosmonauts adv. training, first batch

- Your first cosmonauts are returning from basic training. Send them to adv. Training in the following skills : Leadership, Piloting, Fitness. Here are our candidates for the first man in space.

Turn 9 : Cosmonauts adv. training, second batch

- The second batch of cosmonauts (recruited during turn 5) are now ready. Specialize them in : Piloting, EVA/Science, Fitness. They will be specialists/flight engineers for the 2-crewed missions. Planning, planning !

Turn 10 : Historical launch preparations

- Don't send the MCs in advanced training, if you want to launch next turn. Well, not the 3 ones you need : Flight Director, Propulsion, Systems.

Turn 11 : Ready for launch !


- We are in Fall 1957. Its precisely when the Soviets launched Sputnik-1. At this point, you should have the R-7 near 80%, and the Sputnik above 85%. Mission Controllers have now a decent level. Time to take our chances !

Turn 12 : Moving forward.

- Assuming you had a reasonable luck and that Sputnik 1 succeeded (+1400 prestige), think right now to the future of your unmanned program. Here I'll chose Sputnik 2 as a logical continuation. So open that program. You'll benefit from technology transfer from Sputnik 1 (well, seems it doesn't work. We'll fix that !!). Take the SET assigned to Sputnik 1 is the satellite has not maxed out its R&D % during the mission, and assign them to Sputnik 2.

- Schedule "Sputnik : extended mission". That one will earn us more points for cheap, and now the hardware is really reliable, with competent MCs.

- You can take the gambit of upgrading the SET building and the HQ right now, in order to open more programs (lunar probes) and get things rolling. That will shift your quarterly balance in the red. Beware though, if you fail missions in 1958 and end with a loosy budget, there is no withdrawal plan.

Turn 13 : Lunar dreams

- Time to think to those lunar probes. The "Lunik" rocket will be our weapon of choice here. R-7 should be maxed out, so have the SET that worked on it shift to Lunik (open that rocket program). You'll get a great technology transfer from the R-7 (33% or so), and it will prepare an even better one for the "Vostok" (50%+). So, paradoxally, you win R&D time by doing this.

Turn 15 : On the good path

- After "Sputnik : extended" completion (+500 prestige), you should be above 2000. That's close from the 2500 target. We still have money (more than 15,000) and 2 seasons, so let's use them. Let's go for another Sputnik 1 (simple) mission, there are 125 more points to get (and it trains the MCs) !

Turn 16 : Push forward


- There's currently (but it will be removed very soon) a bug with Sputnik 2, so we can't launch it. No problem, let's get 75 points again with the now very reliable Sputnik 1 !

Turn 17 : Budget Review 1 outcome

Without having positive R&D, prestige or money events, I had the following results :

Prestige : 2,412/2,500 -> Budget : 7,344/7,500, not bad at all.

Components in R&D : Vostok (75%) / Sputnik 2 (74%) / Lunik (rocket) (62%)

Next goals :

1) Send Luna-3 on a lunar flyby.
2) Get a man in orbit before 1962 with Vostok.

That's defintively doable [:)]
Nicolas Escats
Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager Contributor
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kokubokan25
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by kokubokan25 »

Thanks, this "program" is very "doable".

However, i think the point is: Assuming you had a reasonable luck
I'm never assume this because after a very lot of plays, the true is: ASSUMING YOU HAD A GREAT NUMBER OF FAILURES.
And many of those failures are after R&D with 80% safety or more.

Of course every man had a "point of view" to play the game. My intention is running a game in a historical path and assuming a lot of failures.
To do this is essential MORE MONEY. Anyway, this is only my opinion and, the fact, the Constants files are easly editable so......[:D]

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N_Molson
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by N_Molson »

Code: Select all

I'm never assume this because after a very lot of plays, the true is: ASSUMING YOU HAD A GREAT NUMBER OF FAILURES. 

This can get fixed by extensive R&D and properly trained Mission Controllers & Astronauts. [:)]
Nicolas Escats
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RE: Little feedback about 0.7.19

Post by shaunchattey »

I will give the soviets a try!
=His Majesty Selim III of the house of Osman, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire=
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