R&D and first impressions

[leszekbr]

Hi,
this is my first post here.
I've been waiting for many years for this kind of game. As many others I'm a big fan of BARIS.
After several hours playing SPM, I've found several flaws, especially in R&D:
1. starting reliability is always 0 regardless of previous designs (this make sense only for couple of years, when you have to design everything from scratch - in reality Gemini program was based on Mercury collected experiences, etc.)
2. maximum number of assigned SET employees is limited to 4.
3. I see no reason for sequential planet probes research (maybe except of landers) - these are based on similar designs, in connection with point 1 gameplay is annoying.
4. Failed mission slows down project for several years

This way each development is going to be extremely slow, regardless of previous experience, available budget and personnel (I've started development of Saturn probe in 1983, having excessive amounts of funds and stuff, I don’t see any chances to send Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969).

Second thought - missions endurance: in reality flyby time of first Jupiter probe (Pioneer 10) took only 1,5 years (launched march 72, approached Jupiter in November 73). In SPM Jupiter flyby takes 20 seasons.

Third thing – basing on experience of playing long term missions (like Jupiter probe) I would suggest 2 changes:
1. ability to use assigned mission control stuff for entire mission
2. ability to skip mission screens - watching identical screens for 18 seasons is really boring.

At last - sorry for my bad English

[kokubokan25]

This way each development is going to be extremely slow, regardless of previous experience, available budget and personnel (I've started development of Saturn probe in 1983, having excessive amounts of funds and stuff, I don’t see any chances to send Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969).

However i concur with you in many ways, keep in mind that the game missions are now small. No Apollo, no LM, no Gemini-Moon, no direct ascent desing, when those missions are attached (and when the buildings work as planned) you will find with a limited budget.

[Nacho84]

Hello leszekbr,

Welcome to the forums! Don't worry, I can understand your English perfectly.

1. starting reliability is always 0 regardless of previous designs (this make sense only for couple of years, when you have to design everything from scratch - in reality Gemini program was based on Mercury collected experiences, etc.)

We'll implement a "reliability transfer" mechanic at some point.

2. maximum number of assigned SET employees is limited to 4.

You lost me on this. Do you want to have more than 4 or less?

3. I see no reason for sequential planet probes research (maybe except of landers) - these are based on similar designs, in connection with point 1 gameplay is annoying.

The "reliability transfer" mechanic will take care of that. Also, remember that one of the key points of SPM is to give you lots of programs to try for. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to open them all, we just provide them and it's up to you really!

4. Failed mission slows down project for several years

This way each development is going to be extremely slow, regardless of previous experience, available budget and personnel (I've started development of Saturn probe in 1983, having excessive amounts of funds and stuff, I don’t see any chances to send Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969).

This will get sorted during the beta once we have more gameplay mechanics in and we start tweaking the values.

Second thought - missions endurance: in reality flyby time of first Jupiter probe (Pioneer 10) took only 1,5 years (launched march 72, approached Jupiter in November 73). In SPM Jupiter flyby takes 20 seasons.

You're completely right! I don't know how I missed this one. I'll change this in a future update, thanks for spotting this.

1. ability to use assigned mission control stuff for entire mission

This was done intentionally. The thing is, you might not want to "lock" your flight controllers into a long mission, as you might need to borrow some of them for another task (you probably assign a skilled guy during a critical season and then remove it in order to assign it to another mission).

2. ability to skip mission screens - watching identical screens for 18 seasons is really boring.

I can see what you mean. This will probably get added at some point, yes.

Cheers,

[leszekbr]

Thanks for reply!

2. maximum number of assigned SET employees is limited to 4.

You lost me on this. Do you want to have more than 4 or less?

When you implement reliability transfer I suppose current maximum of 4 should be OK, but I think temporarily increasing number of scientists allocated for priority project could be great option.

1. ability to use assigned mission control stuff for entire mission


This was done intentionally. The thing is, you might not want to "lock" your flight controllers into a long mission, as you might need to borrow some of them for another task (you probably assign a skilled guy during a critical season and then remove it in order to assign it to another mission).

That's great flexibility, but it would be nice to have an additional option to skip allocation screens for multi seasons missions.

Best regards.

[NASAIsAwesome]

Thanks for reply!

2. maximum number of assigned SET employees is limited to 4.

You lost me on this. Do you want to have more than 4 or less?

When you implement reliability transfer I suppose current maximum of 4 should be OK, but I think temporarily increasing number of scientists allocated for priority project could be great option.

I need this.
I often undergo "crash" R&D projects that try to do near-impossible goals (LUNAR FLYBY IN 1957!), but what ends up happening is I miss that goal, or I stagnate badly in other areas while doing this "crash" research program.
It would be nice to be able to assign unlimited scientists to a certain project, which would allow me to accomplish massive goals in relavtively short order (Like a moon landing in 1965) without stagnating too much in other areas, or unassigning many of my skilled scientists.

[Arron69]

A thing i would like in R&D, is a button to clear all 4 research Spaces at once.

Andi.