7.25 General Comments and Suggestions

[stilicho410]

Hello,

I've just completed my first 7.25 game, and greatly appreciate all the enhancements done over the past few months.

General Comments
- I really appreciate that successful missions are giving a substantial boost to reliability. That provides some interesting decisions, such as when a test flight might be more profitable in reliability gain than waiting for another season of research, or whether additional test flights might be more prudent than that first manned flight.

- I also appreciate the "saving throws" when a step failure comes, that results in interesting decisions on how much to train the flight controllers before a critical flight.

Question on Catastrophic Failures:
- If one of the LEM/Lunar EVA steps has a catastrophic failure, are just the 2 astronauts in the LEM killed? (All my Apollo disasters were with the CSM, so I would have expected to lose all 3 in those cases.)

Assorted Notes and Suggestions
I expect some of these suggestions may have been made already.

- Enhance the Vehicle Assembly Building to display all missions scheduled for launch this season, providing a single list the player could use to finish assembly, scrub, or simply view missions.

- Someplace to view a list of multi-season missions in progress. Perhaps a new selectable building next to the Flight controllers building.

- Mission Configuration List: For programs with multiple configurations, the current list always comes up showing the first configuration in the list. I often absent-mindedly click the "Schedule Mission" button for this first configuration, even though I meant to schedule a later configuration.
-- Instead, could this display be altered to intially display the first mission configuration with unachieved goals? That is generally the next mission players will generally want.
-- If all program goals have been achieved, then the last mission configuration would be initially displayed.

- While running a mission, "Astronaut Involvement" split nearly evenly for all mission steps, 34%, 33%, 33%. Could this allocation be custom-defined for some of the steps? For example, in an Apollo Lunar Landing Mission:
-- Step 8 and 9 (Transposition and Docking) the Command Module Pilot would have the largest involvement.
-- Steps 15 - 20 (All the LEM steps and Lunar EVA) the Commander and Lunar Module Pilot would have the largest involvement.

- Apollo Lunar Landing with Surface Rover (Type J): A couple of extra steps might be added, to differentiate it more from the "Type G" mission.
-- Orbital Observation: Inserted between current EVA steps, to simulate CMP's observations froM CSM. Animation could include the launching of the PFS sub-satellite from the Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) on one side of the Service module. Reliability check against CSM, Crew Involvement against CMP.
-- EVA to retrieve film from SIM. Inserted before current Trans-Earth Coast step. Reliability against CSM and Space Suit, Crew Involvement mostly CMP.

[Nacho84]

Hello stilicho,

Glad you liked the improvements made to the game [:)]

ORIGINAL: stilicho410

- Enhance the Vehicle Assembly Building to display all missions scheduled for launch this season, providing a single list the player could use to finish assembly, scrub, or simply view missions.

- Someplace to view a list of multi-season missions in progress. Perhaps a new selectable building next to the Flight controllers building.

You'll get both features in the next patch. I wrote the code for them in the last two days and now the VAB displays a list of scheduled and ongoing missions. You'll now be able to assemble/scrub scheduled missions and review all missions in progress when visiting the Vehicle Assembly Building.

ORIGINAL: stilicho410

- Mission Configuration List: For programs with multiple configurations, the current list always comes up showing the first configuration in the list. I often absent-mindedly click the "Schedule Mission" button for this first configuration, even though I meant to schedule a later configuration.
-- Instead, could this display be altered to intially display the first mission configuration with unachieved goals? That is generally the next mission players will generally want.
-- If all program goals have been achieved, then the last mission configuration would be initially displayed.

Yes, sometimes I find this annoying myself. I'll try to fit a fix for this in the next patch.

ORIGINAL: stilicho410

- While running a mission, "Astronaut Involvement" split nearly evenly for all mission steps, 34%, 33%, 33%. Could this allocation be custom-defined for some of the steps? For example, in an Apollo Lunar Landing Mission:
-- Step 8 and 9 (Transposition and Docking) the Command Module Pilot would have the largest involvement.
-- Steps 15 - 20 (All the LEM steps and Lunar EVA) the Commander and Lunar Module Pilot would have the largest involvement.

Indeed, yes, the involvements are read from script files. Notice that the files still need to be tweaked a little bit. We are aiming to release the fixed versions in 0.7.27.

ORIGINAL: stilicho410

- Apollo Lunar Landing with Surface Rover (Type J): A couple of extra steps might be added, to differentiate it more from the "Type G" mission.
-- Orbital Observation: Inserted between current EVA steps, to simulate CMP's observations froM CSM. Animation could include the launching of the PFS sub-satellite from the Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) on one side of the Service module. Reliability check against CSM, Crew Involvement against CMP.
-- EVA to retrieve film from SIM. Inserted before current Trans-Earth Coast step. Reliability against CSM and Space Suit, Crew Involvement mostly CMP.

I'll add this to the wishlist, they are certainly cool ideas. I cannot promise them for release, though, since we're entering the final sprint and we still need to finish some core game features. In any case, it can always be added in a post-release patch.

Cheers,

[kokubokan25]

Just aquick question: the museum feature will be implemented in near future?

[Nacho84]

Yes, I'm writing the code for it right now [:)]

It will be included in 0.7.26 and you will be able to review stats about your personnel, prestige, employees (including fallen astronauts/cosmonauts), etc.

Cheers,

[kokubokan25]

Great!!

When the detailed report in failures will implemented, the game willbe perfect IMHO!

Thanks!

[stilicho410]

Nacho84:

Thanks for the quick reply on my suggestions! The next patch will be something to look forward to.

No problem about putting the last suggestion on the "wish list", I'm grateful you're still considering enhancements after the Release! I expect my other thread on Veteran Astronauts would also fit into that category.

Good luck on the "crunch" before Release!

Is there a tentative schedule yet for when the expansion(s) for Space Stations and Mars Missions will be? [;)]

[Nacho84]

ORIGINAL: stilicho410

Is there a tentative schedule yet for when the expansion(s) for Space Stations and Mars Missions will be? [;)]

Not for the moment. Now that we've departed from the idea of making SPM about the Global Space Agency only, I'll need to sit down once part 1 ships in order to think about what will parts 2 and 3 be.

I'll surely open a thread in the forum at some point in order to gather some feedback from all of you first.

Cheers,