Matrix Games Forums

Hello all! As usual, please accept my apologies for taking a couple of days to get back to you.

ORIGINAL: EleSigma

Is there any plans to add more craft with later updates? I really want to try and win the game using mostly Russian made craft like have a LK-700 landing, then launch the Mir and use the Buran to supply it. ESA Hermes would be nice too.

Yes, we'll certainly consider adding even more craft if enough players request them in the forum [:)]

ORIGINAL: jcjordan

For Pt1 will there be a further breakdown of the different types of equipment available unlike the general type variety in BARIS ie there were 2 kinds of Saturn rockets the I & the V with the I not being the "to the moon" variety whereas the V was

SPM approaches the missions in a different way than BARIS does. In BARIS, you choose a type of mission and then decide which hardware to use, whereas in SPM we have the following hierarchy:

Program Categories -> Programs -> Mission Configurations.

'Program Categories' are high level groups of programs (e.g., lunar expeditions, Mars probes, etc).
'Programs' are individual programs inside the category (e.g., Direct Ascent, Three Crew LOR, Mars flyby, Mars orbiter, etc).
'Mission Configurations' are the different mission profiles contained inside a program. Some programs contain many mission configurations. For example, the "Gemini program" contains more than 20 configurations.

The hardware used for the mission configurations (and thus for the levels which are above in the hierarchy) is fixed. Nonetheless, the great amount of programs available ensure that you have plenty of options to choose from.

ORIGINAL: RLA

I got again some questions, but this time not much:

1. What become early, solid rocket parts or liquid rocket parts? And can you early launch a satellite orbital with solid rocket tech or with liquid rocket tech?

The first rocket available is the Jupiter-C. The components used in the mission configurations is fixed, so you won't be able to choose a different one. We made this decision early on in order to keep the renders used to depict the progress of the mission consistent.

ORIGINAL: RLA
2. What for type of unmanned moon missions become available? Only a fly-by and a landing, like BARIS. Or also Orbital, rover and sample-return?

For the Moon missions (i.e., the "Lunar probes" program category) you will be able to choose from lunar flybys, impactors (based on the Ranger program), orbiter, landers (based on the Surveyor program) and sample returns (based on the Luna 15 soviet probe). Part 2 of the game will also feature an "Advanced lunar probes" program category, which features more contemporary missions such as LCROSS, LRO and even some which will be launched soon, such as LADEE

ORIGINAL: RLA

Is there any plans to add more craft with later updates? I really want to try and win the game using mostly Russian made craft like have a LK-700 landing, then launch the Mir and use the Buran to supply it.

Well, So far I read there comes no Buran or other russian / europe spaceplanes in it. But I think there add sure more stuff later in the game [:)]

Indeed, if enough players request them, we will consider adding more missions [:)]

Update: a screenshot from the "Lunar Probes" program category!

Nice picture, I like the artwork that has went into this game.

ORIGINAL: EleSigma

Nice picture, I like the artwork that has went into this game.

Aff, agree.[&o]

ORIGINAL: Nacho84
Just kidding, here's the mechanism we use: when a new game is created, we generate a unique random seed for it. We then keep that seed as part of the save information along with a counter that indicates how many times the pseudo-ramdom number generator (PRNG) has been invoked. When a saved game gets loaded, we initialize the PRNG with the seed and invoke it "counter" times in order to take it to the same state it was when the game was saved. That way, we ensure you'll always get the same outcome every time, irrespective of how many times you attempt to reload the game.

Well, it is not very ideal solution as it it will not be lose rocket every time despite you having 97% on it. I think that some variety during (re)load should be allowed. And just dont make RNG to much random - so lauchich sucesfull mision with average 30% safety will be very unlikey to suceed even after 50 loads, then you will have realy big chance of suces with average 95% safety. (even without reload).

ORIGINAL: czert2

ORIGINAL: Nacho84
Just kidding, here's the mechanism we use: when a new game is created, we generate a unique random seed for it. We then keep that seed as part of the save information along with a counter that indicates how many times the pseudo-ramdom number generator (PRNG) has been invoked. When a saved game gets loaded, we initialize the PRNG with the seed and invoke it "counter" times in order to take it to the same state it was when the game was saved. That way, we ensure you'll always get the same outcome every time, irrespective of how many times you attempt to reload the game.

Well, it is not very ideal solution as it it will not be lose rocket every time despite you having 97% on it. I think that some variety during (re)load should be allowed. And just dont make RNG to much random - so lauchich sucesfull mision with average 30% safety will be very unlikey to suceed even after 50 loads, then you will have realy big chance of suces with average 95% safety. (even without reload).

We can certainly introduce something like you suggest during the beta testing process and see how it pans out. At the moment, the system forbids the player from cheating by reloading the game and that's really what we wanted to achieve. That being said, maybe there can be room for two reloading modes? Maybe we can rename the existing solution to "Ironman Mode" and introduce the one you suggest as a separate mode? We'll see during the beta.

Cheers,