Suggestion for improving the failure model

[alnby]

I've been really enjoying this game and just love the amount of detail you've put into it (especially the Buzz-pedia and craft animations). After completing a few playthroughs, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the failure model:

Currently a manned mission can end in either total success or total catastrophic failure (for the most part). The most extreme example I've encountered is a failed science step on a joint mission ending in the death of both crews. All-or-nothing failures can be a little nonsensical at times.

I'm not arguing against mishaps, but rather for an option of attempting to return crew / scrub the mission when feasible (obviously there are situations where this would never be possible). To provide some examples of what I'm thinking-

• 1) Astronaut on duration step gets space sickness ---> skip to Reentry Preparations step (and duration goal is failed)
  2) Lunar lander crashes ---> Apollo capsule skips to Trans-Earth-Injection step (minus two crewmembers)

By simply allowing players to skip to later mission steps (where realistically feasible), you can provide avenues for partial failures / mission salvaging while still keeping the existing mission configurations. If I recall correctly, this is the model implemented in BARIS.

[Vivisector9999]

I like this idea.

[Palarran]

I think for every failure, there is a certain % chance that the mission will be a regular failure (crew survives) or catastrophic failure (all crew dead) based on the mission step. I agree that the system should be expanded upon, with partial failures resulting in deaths to some astronauts and others returning safely, during certain mission steps.

[Janus366]

What I would suggest, its a more interactive, roleplaying model for failures like the old BARIS. Basically, everytime you get an error, you get a text describing the situation: "Rocket failed to ignite", "Docking failed due to a computer error", "Heat shield broke down and capsule desintegrates on the upper atmosphere", etc. And if the error was solved, have something say like "Trayectory problems were detected but control was able to solve it", etc. And if you get an error in middle of a mission which should not be a catastrophic error, like in BARIS and like what they are proposing in this thread, be able to scrub the mission and try to return back to earth making all the checks necesary in the process with a prestige drop obviously.

C'mon, this game is good, but it still seems that and old game from 20 years ago still have a lot of better things that could be taken into consideration to make the game more fun and inmersive.

PD: Sorry if my english it's not good, it's not my main language.

[Mach25]

A couple of things from the old BARIS I would like to see in mission failures (and correct me if this is already there, I just may not have noticed it)

-If my Manned Orbital mission succeeds in beating my opponent to First Man In Space, but astronaut dies during reentry, then there should still be some prestige earned for beating my opponent. Same should go for every other major milestone (first docking, first EVA, etc).

-Do more to visually differentiate the two failure types. As it is now, you really can't tell much of a difference between a mission failure and a catastrophic failure. If I recall correctly, BARIS showed a yellow screen for mission failure and a red screen for catastrophic, with funeral animation for dead astronauts at the end. I think there was even a cemetery in the main screen where the astronauts who died during your quest for the moon were memorialized. Maybe after your first astronaut dies, a memorial is created on the buildings screen where your fallen heroes are listed...

[Palarran]

Dead astronauts are listed in the museum, but buried a few pages down. It would be nice if the memorial had its own button on the first museum screen.

[jgf1123]

I feel BASPM is a little trigger happy on the total-crew-kills failures, though I have a small sample size. I've had a couple component failures that my flight controllers and astronauts couldn't fix, both of them ended with total-crew-kills. I felt BARIS was a lot more forgiving. Minor glitch on a extended-length mission? The mission is cut short and you move onto reentry events.

[Nacho84]

Dead astronauts are listed in the museum, but buried a few pages down. It would be nice if the memorial had its own button on the first museum screen.

I like this idea. I'll see if I can fit it for the next update!

Cheers,