Going into debt and losing the game

[nats]

I find the biggest issue with this game at the moment seems to be going bankrupt unnecessarily. It has ruined three of my games lately. It seems there is nothing stopping you from paying for things (like training) and going into a negative balance which then seems to stop your game at the end of the season. I have manged to go a small amount negative though and it hasnt stopped the game so obviously there is some sort of trigger amount that if you go above it stops your game and you get sacked.

This really need seeing to. Either you should be able to only go negative as long as you go back into the positive next season. OR there should be a way of getting a loan by reducing your prestige (which would be the best way to deal with it). Or alternatively the whole allowance of going into debt should be removed from the game.

Because I am just finding it a right bind tbh. I dont notice myself in debt, I end the season and then the game ends. And theres nothing else to do but load a past save if you have one and not do the same thing again. Its not a great mechanic.

[lordshipmayhem]

That happened to me at first, going bankrupt and ending the game, and now I watch the quarterly expenditures like a hawk - especially in the early days. I hope these help:
1) I never expand a building before I need to. First season of the first year I build the Astronaut and Mission Control centres and expand the SET centre, but wait a season to start the VAB - I throw two of the opening set of 5 researchers into Rocket training in Season 1, and starting the 2-season VAB in Season 2 means it's ready when the rocket researchers are.
3) Don't hire more than you need. In the first four years, I get 5 controllers, three astronauts and 14 researchers - and stick with that levels, training three manned capsule researchers and three of "the other type of rocket researchers" for the rest of the first four years.
4) So what do I do about expanding the facilities? In Season 2 of 1958 I start upgrading the VAB, in Season3 I start upgrading the SET Centre and Season 4 the Mission Control Centre. All three will be finished in the first quarter of 1959, when I should have the $ to support their new bigger size, and I can hire another 5 controllers, another 2 researchers and another 3 astronauts (the two researchers are to round out the "other type of rocket" team and the "manned capsule" research team).

This should get you through the second 4-year cycle without going bankrupt. Good luck!

I'm now experimenting with a new technique that saves even more resources: instead of starting with a manned rocket, start with an unmanned rocket that can take my probes to the Moon. In Global Space Agency and NASA modes, that's the Atlas-Agena. Then I'll open the Atlas and start working on my first man-rated rocket. This means that I'm starting with a much higher score on the Atlas, giving it an advantage when I'm ready to start launching Mercury capsules. I still have to experiment with the Soviet gear for this strategy. The next step with this little experiment is to throw my unmanned rocket researchers into Manned Rocket training so that when I'm ready to leapfrog to the Apollo rocket they're ready, while the Gemini research continues. The Grand and Cunning Plan is that instead of using larger unmanned rockets, I skip all that and move straight to Manned Interplanetary-Capable rockets. Wish me luck!

You should get a surplus of about $200 per quarter (usually more) for the first four years in the Standard difficulty mode, and if you're in the sandbox you'll get your $10,000 per quarter funding for the next four years. You can now open two more rocket programs, a new probe (if you haven't already)

[nats]

Thanks for the advice I am still a relative novice at playing the game so I obviously am not taking enough care over what I do and when.

But the OP was really about the mechanics that allow you to go bankrupt a bit too easily. I dont think on reflection that debt and getting fired should be taken out but perhaps it could be handled with a loan mechanism where you pay interest and lose prestige all the time that you have the loan. The getting fired part should really be related to prestige in that not meeting prestige levels may increase the likelihood of you getting fired and the percentage of that also goes up the longer you have a loan. So I think you should be able to go in debt but it should have ramifications that will mean you want to minimise it as much as possible.

But getting fired straight away as soon as you go in debt, when the game doesnt even warn you or anything - which results in you losing the game entirely - thats a bit rough.

[lordshipmayhem]

I think if you check, you were probably not only running with zero funds, you were running an operating deficit. When that number of net per quarter in the lower left hand corner of the screen goes from green to red, you've got to look at how much money you have left (the number on top) and go to the Public Relations Centre to see what your projected income is going to be and how many quarters are left until your next review. The math isn't complex: how bad is your quarterly deficit, and how much money will you have left over, and how much money will you be getting when the time comes for the next review? You may have to close some projects, maybe even fire some controllers, researchers or astronauts. Sucks, but the game has no patience for a space program manager who has bankrupted his organization.

[nats]

Hmm I cant say whether that was the case that ended the game or not.

So if you will have an operating positive income for the next season and are in debt at the end of he present season it will let you continue for another season knowing you will get out of debt again? But if you are in deficit and become in debt at the end of the season it ends the game straight away as you will only get worse? I suppose that makes sense. I thought in one game I accidentally went into debt but had a positive income due next season and it still ended the game, but I cant be certain.

I think there should be some leeway - like being allowed to be in debt by up to $1000 or so before you are chucked out of your position, but maybe that is already in the game. I will have to do some tests maybe.