[Suggestion] Overall Suggestions for the better game, part 4

[lehovsky]

Hi All,

Yes, it`s me again

I have installed 7.18 version and I wanted to share few thoughts about this release and few overalls.

1. Sandbox mode - In my opinion Sandbox mode should be realistic, but still enable more fun. What is more funnier then running 2 manned missions a season recreating the history (eg Gemini Program)? With current gameplay I am forced to run as few missions as possible, not to risk any failures. Can you tweak that just for Sandbox mode, please?

2. When opening a program, we should receive a Mission Control Matrix.
MCM would be a list of controllers needed to run a mission, for ex. 2 GNC, 1 Booster, 1 Flight, 1 Spacecraft systems. This will enable strategic planning for those missions. When I finally get to fly a mission, it fails because one of the controllers is not skilled enough to perform as expected. I know I can train them, but still it takes time and it is a kind of a lottery.

3. Manned Suborbital Flights - this one was needed just for early spacecrafts to determine 0G effects on human body. Therefore penalization for Orbital flight should be removed for every manned spacecraft, if we have performed one suborbital flight before(regardless the spacecraft used).
Unmanned Suborbital/Orbital is still needed to test the spacecraft. For Gemini/Apollo there was no suborbital manned flight.

4. BUG - When managing personnel, you open Training and then click cancel, the employee selection goes to the top of employees list. It should remain on the last selected person.

5. Astronaut assignments - When you assemble a mission, an astronaut list is sorted with Leadership at the top. But during a mission Leadership/Piloting/Fitness is needed for rolls. Please adjust Crew requirements when assigning the crew for a mission.

6. Astronauts. We should have 2 kinds of them - Rocket Jocks, and Eggheads. Come one guys, those man were the best pilots in the world. Give them some credit. I propose to generate them in following way:

Test Pilots - Piloting => 75%, Fitness => 75%, Leadership =>50, EVA = 0 (you need to train them for that), Science =>40 (they had engeneer degrees)
Scientists - Piloting =<30 (they should receive them during entry training), Fitness - random, Leadership - 0,EVA - 0 (as above), Science =>75,

You could add a spacecraft knowledge skill. Therefore you can assign people with certain knowledge for certain programs.

7. BUG, sometimes when you manage payloads and assign techs to some component, when clicking on Back to Space Center, the game goes out to main menu.

8. Keep up the good work!

[lehovsky]

Hi all,
Few more to consider:

1. I would also propose to add an info for Main news. When you are informed that some of the staff might resign due to low morale, it would be good to know not just their names but job as well. For ex:
Following personnel might resign due to low morale:
Jane Doe 43%, John Doe 46% (Astronauts), John Noname 39% (Controllers).

2. In addition for transparency, can you create tabs for personnel? I mean besides the new view that you are planning to implement (Nacho84 post), add 4 tabs:

All/Assigned/In Training/Idle

3. BUG Apollo Moon program - I ran LM test in Earth Orbit, so I wanted to go for the moon with next mission. Strangely Moon Orbit Mission (C prime) had penalty for reliability, while LM test in Moon Orbit had none. I had no previous flights to the moon except unmanned probes.

4. Except the Museum part, can you put a star on a mission type when you select one, if you have already successfully performed it, please?
As I finish playing, I load a game next day, and I am not sure what mission types I have already flown. A star/astronaut pin/frame color change would do

5. Are you planning to put Skylab into the game soon? After I achieved Moon landing and extended stay (J mission) I found that I have nothing else to do.

6. Controllers - when you launch a multi season mission (extended satellite) Booster controller is not needed after the launch, he could be revoked to the pool of unassigned controllers. Those guys were needed just for 10 minutes. Course corrections can be done with Trench guys and System controllers. Same as orbit insertions.

7. Is there a plan to have a program based on EOR or Direct ascent? Lets go Science Fiction

Probably there will be more to come
Thanks for hours of Joy Gentelmen!

[Nacho84]

Hello lehovsky,

Apologies for the late reply

1. Sandbox mode - In my opinion Sandbox mode should be realistic, but still enable more fun. What is more funnier then running 2 manned missions a season recreating the history (eg Gemini Program)? With current gameplay I am forced to run as few missions as possible, not to risk any failures. Can you tweak that just for Sandbox mode, please?

Yes, no problem, we'll add more initial funds.

2. When opening a program, we should receive a Mission Control Matrix.
MCM would be a list of controllers needed to run a mission, for ex. 2 GNC, 1 Booster, 1 Flight, 1 Spacecraft systems. This will enable strategic planning for those missions. When I finally get to fly a mission, it fails because one of the controllers is not skilled enough to perform as expected. I know I can train them, but still it takes time and it is a kind of a lottery.

Notice that if you click on the information icon for a missin configuration, you'll get a diagram with the "Macro View" (i.e., the number of seasons) and then you can dig into each season and see which flight controllers are needed, which mission components are involved, etc.

3. Manned Suborbital Flights - this one was needed just for early spacecrafts to determine 0G effects on human body. Therefore penalization for Orbital flight should be removed for every manned spacecraft, if we have performed one suborbital flight before(regardless the spacecraft used).
Unmanned Suborbital/Orbital is still needed to test the spacecraft. For Gemini/Apollo there was no suborbital manned flight.

Very good point. We'll fix this on the spreadsheet.

4. BUG - When managing personnel, you open Training and then click cancel, the employee selection goes to the top of employees list. It should remain on the last selected person.

We'll look into this.

5. Astronaut assignments - When you assemble a mission, an astronaut list is sorted with Leadership at the top. But during a mission Leadership/Piloting/Fitness is needed for rolls. Please adjust Crew requirements when assigning the crew for a mission.

Yes, the current algorithm only sorts by leadership. We'll fix it at some point in order to take into account the skills used during the mission.

6. Astronauts. We should have 2 kinds of them - Rocket Jocks, and Eggheads. Come one guys, those man were the best pilots in the world. Give them some credit. I propose to generate them in following way:

Test Pilots - Piloting => 75%, Fitness => 75%, Leadership =>50, EVA = 0 (you need to train them for that), Science =>40 (they had engeneer degrees)
Scientists - Piloting =<30 (they should receive them during entry training), Fitness - random, Leadership - 0,EVA - 0 (as above), Science =>75,

You could add a spacecraft knowledge skill. Therefore you can assign people with certain knowledge for certain programs.

Adding 2 kinds of astronauts can be done relatively easy. The spacecraft knowledge is a bit more harder, because it requires changes in the UI, so I cannot promise it for the first release.

7. BUG, sometimes when you manage payloads and assign techs to some component, when clicking on Back to Space Center, the game goes out to main menu.

We haven't seen this one while doing internal playtesting, but we'll keep an eye on it.

8. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

Cheers,

[Nacho84]

Hi all,
Few more to consider:

1. I would also propose to add an info for Main news. When you are informed that some of the staff might resign due to low morale, it would be good to know not just their names but job as well. For ex:
Following personnel might resign due to low morale:
Jane Doe 43%, John Doe 46% (Astronauts), John Noname 39% (Controllers).

This one has been implemented, you'll see it in the next patch.

2. In addition for transparency, can you create tabs for personnel? I mean besides the new view that you are planning to implement (Nacho84 post), add 4 tabs:

All/Assigned/In Training/Idle

We will set some time aside in order to polish the UI before release, so we'll look into this.

3. BUG Apollo Moon program - I ran LM test in Earth Orbit, so I wanted to go for the moon with next mission. Strangely Moon Orbit Mission (C prime) had penalty for reliability, while LM test in Moon Orbit had none. I had no previous flights to the moon except unmanned probes.

Thanks, we'll take a look at this.

4. Except the Museum part, can you put a star on a mission type when you select one, if you have already successfully performed it, please?
As I finish playing, I load a game next day, and I am not sure what mission types I have already flown. A star/astronaut pin/frame color change would do

We'll add this suggestion to the backlog, no problem!

5. Are you planning to put Skylab into the game soon? After I achieved Moon landing and extended stay (J mission) I found that I have nothing else to do.

Yes, Skylab is coming in part 2

6. Controllers - when you launch a multi season mission (extended satellite) Booster controller is not needed after the launch, he could be revoked to the pool of unassigned controllers. Those guys were needed just for 10 minutes. Course corrections can be done with Trench guys and System controllers. Same as orbit insertions.

Yes, we noticed the same thing a few months ago. We're planning to fix it before release.

7. Is there a plan to have a program based on EOR or Direct ascent? Lets go Science Fiction

The game already features a Gemini Direct Ascent and the LK-700. We're working on EOR missions for both sides as well, which we plan to release soon.

Probably there will be more to come
Thanks for hours of Joy Gentelmen!

No problem at all, feel free to post your suggestions. Apologies if sometimes it takes a while for me to get back, but I'm being pulled from several directions Rest assured, I read everything.

Cheers,

[lehovsky]

Hi Ignacio,

1. Regarding the Sandbox mode I have few additional suggestions.

Game set up options. Before you launch the game you would be able to enable below options:

a. Unlimited Funds (staring with 999 millions);
b. All personnel learning skill on 99;
c. 2 X Research Speed;
d. R&D max reliability 99% or simply "No Failure mode"
e. Other ideas?

Of course it will be stated that enabling this options will degrade the game experience.

[nico7550]

a screen with configuration sliders could be a good idea...