Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

[ChaserGrey]

Yes you did. Dirty Commienist.

[Simon_Jester]

[Reviews Murcan plan]

Ugh. Don't know if I can afford to start N-1 in 1970. Then again, the Murcans still have many megabucks worth of docking tests to do before they can achieve anything...

[ChaserGrey]

Yep. I'd still say it's too close to call. I can see us doing a lot of doubling up- launch an unmanned docking mission with one shuttle, then send a crew up in the other shuttle to snag the on-orbit docking module and perform another test. After all, we still have the D duration step to take care of, and probably a few EVAs as well (note to self: check current and max reliability on EVA suits).

Granted, EVAs don't give us any prestige at this stage, but they're also fairly easy to tack on if you're sending up a crew anyway- so there's really no excuse for not having your suits as reliable as possible before you head to the Moon. Better safe than sorry...

[Eternal_Freedom]

[Reviews Murcan plan]

Ugh. Don't know if I can afford to start N-1 in 1970. Then again, the Murcans still have many megabucks worth of docking tests to do before they can achieve anything...

My hope is that the prestige boost from the XMS-2 flight will give me a big enough budget to start Saturn-V and perhaps Kicker-B and Docking Module in Spring 1970. S-V is the single biggest investment left. I would have started it sooner but the 90 Mb cost made it incredibly prohibitive.

[ChaserGrey]

We'll see how the budget goes. It might be better to start the DM first, though- we need to get those missions started soonest. We won't need the Saturn V ready until after our docking skill has been raised and the LM is through the R&D phase.

[Eternal_Freedom]

If the budget is not big enough to start S-V AND the DM, we'll go with the DM and Kicker-B and get as much R&D done as possible, and leave some funds for the S-V.

[Simon_Jester]

My hope is that the prestige boost from the XMS-2 flight will give me a big enough budget to start Saturn-V and perhaps Kicker-B and Docking Module in Spring 1970.

Don't bet on it- DM is 15, Kicker-B is 12, and Saturn V is 90. That totals 117 MB, which leaves you next to no money for research, even assuming you get a 30-40 MB budget increase next year over what you had going this year.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Hmmm...well, I need to get the ball rolling on the rocker sooner or later, and I may not have that much cash in one block for sometime. We'll see how it works out.

[Scottish Ninja]

My hope is that the prestige boost from the XMS-2 flight will give me a big enough budget to start Saturn-V and perhaps Kicker-B and Docking Module in Spring 1970.

Don't bet on it- DM is 15, Kicker-B is 12, and Saturn V is 90. That totals 117 MB, which leaves you next to no money for research, even assuming you get a 30-40 MB budget increase next year over what you had going this year.

A little more expensive than that - US DM is 18, Kicker-B is also 18. That makes 126 MB total.

[PeZook]

So, it is how I thought it would be. I will be too busy today to make an update, and we leave at midnight.

So...see you in a week! I encourage you to be silly in the meantime.

[Scottish Ninja]

Have a good trip! I'm sure we can come up with something suitably disastrous in the meantime.

[Simon_Jester]

Granted, EVAs don't give us any prestige at this stage, but they're also fairly easy to tack on if you're sending up a crew anyway- so there's really no excuse for not having your suits as reliable as possible before you head to the Moon. Better safe than sorry...

I think you still get +1 prestige for an EVA or a manned docking, even after everything else is considered. But you'd know better than I.

Hmmm. I think I'll do a Pavylyvych-Shroomanski conversation, predicated on the assumption of a Murcan minishuttle success in Spring 1969. Assuming the Murcans succeed it becomes canon.

[Scottish Ninja]

For those of you playing at home, 1.0.0 is out.

Also, this one is just straight cheating:



I found the config file - there are now options, among other things, to change the way the booster model works; (the options are compound safety [as it is now], average safety [as it was in earlier versions], or the minimum safety of either the booster or rocket); to allow the use of first-generation rockets for lunar missions (so boosted Atlas and R-7 rockets can send probes to the moon, and the R-7, for that matter, can send a Soyuz to the moon, which I think tilts the historical meter back in the opposite direction...)

Other changes in 1.0.0 include some renaming of the Soviet hardware to make it more historically accurate (the Duet becomes the LKM, L3 becomes LK, A-series is R-7, Vulkon and Kvartet are the UR-700 and LK-700 respectively), elimination of the need to have backup crews, and successful missions increase Max R&D by one point along with the safety factor (making dummy tests before Max R&D worthwhile, among other things. It's reset on a catastrophic failure, though.) As you may also note from the image, the victory screen reports who was the first to set foot on the Moon, and the game gives you the option during a lunar landing to choose who will be first, assuming you're landing with anything bigger than a one-man lander.

[Marcus Aurelius]

For those of you playing at home, 1.0.0 is out.

Also, this one is just straight cheating:

You set the config file so that missions never fail, so you only had to purchase the necessary equipment, recruit astronauts and fly to the moon without wasting money on that pesky R&D?

Please note that if you want the Windows installer for 1.0.0, you will have to go to the right place under the "Files" section at Sourceforge. The direct link still points to 0.4.8.

The changes seem worthwhile, albeit not anything drastic.

[PeZook]

I am back from the Sudetenland!



I am happy to confirm that it is completely free of Nazis.

[FaxModem1]

Aww, y'all are so cute.

[Simon_Jester]

Da! Da, comrade!

Though I plan to go on a trip this week myself, and can't really post from work like I used to. So I don't know how much I'll be doing.

[Simon_Jester]

Just to double-check: we can assemble a crew, assign them to a mission that same season, and fly them the next season, da?

[PeZook]

Da, comrade Chief Designer!

[Scottish Ninja]

I am back from the Sudetenland!



I am happy to confirm that it is completely free of Nazis.

Was that before or after you got there?

Simon, I can recommend plans and let you sign off on and/or modify them if you feel like you're too busy to do everything yourself.

[Scottish Ninja]

Ghetto edit: Wait, what am I saying? I'm busy as hell this week too.

[OmegaChief]

I'm also reasonably busy this week, but between us we can probably get a good enough plan together.

Or we could let Shroom take personal control of the space program for a while, what's the worst that could happen?

[Simon_Jester]

Eh. I can keep up a reasonable rate, I think. I just won't be able to do one-day turnarounds, reading a PeZook post in the morning and having the response plan drafted before he gets to bed.

[PeZook]

Well, for what it's worth, I will probably not have time to do an update until tomorrow, either

[PeZook]

As an aside: did Murcans settle on a name for their shuttle?