Kerbal Space Program.

[Unorthodox]

There is a difference between have to and can. 

I could have waited till further up the tech tree, or split this into several missions to make a prettier rocket.  I have little patience for the bottom of the tech tree, though.

And, no, we are not to release, yet, just to fully featured career mode.

[Unorthodox]

Another thing to keep in mind, there are no fairings in the stock game, so your landers and stuff are pretty ugly at liftoff. 

Anywho, after the moon mission, I spent the science and loaded up a station.  This used up nearly my entire budget, I then put it in orbit around the mun and did multiple plant flag and science transmission contracts from the moon, then moved it out to minmus when the mun contracts dried up.  This thing has a minimalistic lander, and a science lab so that I can reuse the science parts on the lander. 



However, my station only has enough to fuel the lander to 4-5 landings, depending on how efficient I make those.  So, I pulled the whole thing back to orbit around Kerbin after being out doing science for a full in-game year, and sent up a ship that contained an updated lander, a refuel tanker, and a return capsule for all the science experiments that needed to be recovered instead of transmitted, even with the mobile lab (I wish they'd increase the value it added to transmissions, honestly).

So, the tanker was docked out front, and the old lander docked to balance out the mass of the new lander.  New lander has 5 science instruments as opposed to 2, and was designed to be more efficient on low gravity worlds.  With contracts few and far between around mun/minmus now, I'm mostly doing this on my own dime to get the science, but I have about a million to spare.  Debating whether to try to just upgrade this thing in space or scrap it for a new one once I unlock more parts. 

[Geo]

No Kerwomen in space yet?

[Unorthodox]

I guess not?  I've only used the original trio and a couple I rescued from space, haven't looked over the available hires to see if there are any at all. 

[gwillybj]

I've been following this topic since its inception, and am very curious about the game. Is it a leisurely game, without "pressure" to make your moves quickly? Can you spend some time making plans as we do in a nice solo SMAC game, or are you required to push yourself along to get things done?

[Unorthodox]

Well. 

At present, the career portion of the game there is SOME "pressure" in that you have a budget and a deadline for the contracts you accept.  It's entirely up to you to choose which contracts you accept, and they can be rejected to get new ones instead.  The BUDGET can get tricky, especially if you fail to accomplish something.  The deadlines are usually an in game year or more from what I've seen, and I'm fairly sure time doesn't pass while you're designing a spacecraft.  So, to hit, say, mars, you need to get going sooner rather than later, but I've never felt rushed to hit a deadline.  But, as far as in-flight moves, you generally have a whole lot of waiting (fast forwarding) for the right window followed by some precision moves.  Now, how quick you need to be depends on what you're doing.  Docking a ship to a station, you got to be a little on the ball once you're 5 meters out and moving at a meter per second, you have to keep lined up.  Landing on the moon is a lot simpler/more relaxed, and obtaining orbit can be down right lazy/sloppy.  I wouldn't call it a twitchy game by any stretch. 

Sandbox mode there's only what pressure you want.

[gwillybj]

I wouldn't call it a twitchy game by any stretch. 

Sandbox mode there's only what pressure you want.

Thank you. Those are the kind of things I was wondering about. Definitely something I'll look for when it goes alpha.

[Buster's Uncle]

[Unorthodox]

Another update I missed. 

Difficulty levels added, don't know what that means yet.

[Unorthodox]

Beta Than Ever Playthrough

[Unorthodox]

So, I updated and started over, as I usually do with updates. 

Little nuances have been added for new players.  Optional tutorials abound. 

The first thing that hit me was I could only have 2 contracts at a time.



This is increased as you upgrade mission control, but put a real quick stop to my habit of just taking everything ASAP.  So I took the low hanging fruit of launch SOMETHING and hit 5000 ft. 

Not TERRIBLY expensive to upgrade mission control, but enough you're going to have to do a couple efficient launches first.


All the pieces add little limits.  The launch pad has a weight limit to what you can launch until you upgrade, the hangar limits how many pieces you can have, etc.  Perhaps the biggest limit, however is the tech center:



Whether that's 100 science PER FLIGHT, or 100 science TOTAL, that's going to limit or hault your progression up the tech tree at points until you upgrade. 

WAY overkill to hit 5000, this can reach space, but it's my tried and true tech 0 reuseable craft, paying only for fuel, and solid fuel is cheap.  Want to train a pilot first, so in he goes... 



The mound of dirt we are calling the launch pad...



They've made some graphical updates that make this thing run like crap on my laptop now.  Going to have to go into the settings next session. 



Some other interesting things on my first flight:

Jeb couldn't take surface samples.  Don't know if only science people can, or if I need new parts or tech to do that.  This coupled with the only 2 contracts slowed my tech progression significantly. 

The nav ball changed at altitude...not sure what the new markings were for, guessing orbit. 

Slow crawling up the tech tree...



Picking and choosing which contracts to pursue is now rather interesting with the only 2 limit.  Some are REAL simple, and not very rewarding, and some could be challenging at various tech levels.  This new type of one highlighted is deceptively difficult despite the one star rating, and clearly written with a plane in mind, something I've never mastered the controls of.  But, it gives you a global location to seek out on Kerbin. (and a blip on the globe indicating where it is)  Do I dare hope they have such locations on all planets? 

[Unorthodox]

With the 2 contract limit, my starter craft had to make a second flight to get an easy 3rd contract.  On the way, a new wrinkle.  We can't perform EVA's until something is upgraded...this will slow down science again (good thing). 



With the third contract done, my first upgrade is to the business center to increase my number of contracts, thus make money faster, thus upgrade more things. 

Gorgeously crafted contract here. 


3 in flight crew reports, followed by an EVA report at a specific location.  Keeping in mind you can only have one report at a time without transmitting, this is deceptively difficult and requires quite the versatile craft. 

Locations in green. 



After a couple orbits, Bob and Jeb upgrade.  There's no reason to upgrade Bill till I go to the moon.  I will say, having a pilot adds very noticeable stability to your rocket. 



I'm forced to upgrade the launch pad as I continually hit the weight limit, and I upgrade the astronaut complex so they can do EVAs.  This leaves me taking a bunch of random contracts just for the money as I ever more slowly creep up the tech ladder. 

While clicking around, I noticed a new building (to me), that allows me to set business strategies.  Give up some of my prestige for more science.  Give up some cash for prestige, etc.  Tradeoffs. 



Several launches later, I'm now almost to a stuck point.  I need to upgrade the VAB, as presently my rockets are limited to 30 parts.  I don't quite have enough money to do so, and the remaining contracts either don't pay/aren't worth the effort, or are difficult to do with my 30 part limit. 

Meanwhile, I'm almost maxed out on science until I upgrade as well, and it is a LOT more than I have the money for.  Figuring out how to do these contracts within the limits is actually fun/a good thing however.

Fantastic new type of contract to place satellites. 



Maybe just bad luck, but this one has a VERY difficult orbit, counter to Kerbin's rotation, eccentric, with the apoapsis beyond the moon. 


 
However, the pay reflects the difficulty. 

[Unorthodox]

So, after upgrading the VAB (construction building) and setting up my business strategy to take reputation in favor of more cash, I was nearly bankrupt and with such a low reputation that few contracts were available.  In fact, the only one I could reasonably do was to test a part on an escape trajectory.  So, I built a tiny satellite with the test part and a couple science gizmos and flung it out, at a loss, just to earn the reputation.  Completing this contract triggered one of the get science contracts, so the satellite then quickly turned a profit as I just went back and ran a science experiment off it. 



With that 30k, I tried my hand at one of these satellite missions, placing one in keosynchronous orbit.  The thing 'clicked' into "proper" orbit a lot quicker than I thought, so you only got to be close, probably +/- 2 % or so. 

(the escape sat out the top there, my contracted sat centered.)


With a decent stack of cash again, it was time to try some more interesting contracts.  A rescue operation would turn a small profit and give me another pilot.




But, a confluence of contracts come together:

Explore the Mun with the following benchmarks:

Obtain orbit around the Mun
Transmit or recover science from space around the Mun
Land on the Mun
Transmit or recover science from the surface of the Mun

Now, in the past, I would load up a big lander and head out carrying multiple science experiments back home, resulting in a 300+ science mission...that's not going to do me a lot of good as my science building still needs to be upgraded. 

A second contract coincided to launch a new unmanned probe to a specific Munar orbit.  Thus, I'm packing a tiny satellite with a couple science gizmos to complete both these contracts.  Figuring on the RCS thrusters to slow my final descent at landing. 



My initial insertion to Munar orbit was actually REALLY close to the contractual orbit as well. 



Leaving it in orbit a bit for the contract to trigger. 



Way too much fuel left over, I was figuring on more work trying to attain the specific orbit.  Didn't have time, will land the rest of it later. 

At the tech limit, with 340k in funds, I need 410ish to upgrade the research center.  Should be able to do that and have about 100k left over once I finish landing.  Then it will be time for some big manned missions. 



Overall, the update has been fantastic so far.  I'm doing contracts for money and science, where it used to be I'd just worry about the science and the money would flow in.  Having a bigger variety of them is always appreciated.  The upgrade mechanics set decent milestones with the different buildings becoming obstacles at different points.  So far, the money is tight, however, and newer players might have difficulty if they fail a mission or two, it could be disastrous.  Don't know what happens if you run negative reputation...maybe I should test that. 

[Geo]

If your finances run awry, perhaps you should sack a certain Mortimer Kerman?

[Flux]

Oh! This game!
I remember watching one of my siblings play an early demo of it before it was released.
Really interesting physics sim.