[GMP-SUGGESTION] Troublesome (random) events on hard level

[KaiFiebach]

Hi, I am new to this game, and as a space geek I like it a lot. However, I noticed that you hardly face any risks if you research your stuff carefully and train your personal well. This is ok for an easy level, but on hard level, I would expect some troublesome events to happen as in real life.

Troublesome events that could happen on the end of a quarter:

1. Bad weather (launch impossible)
In real life, we often hear in the news that a space craft launch had to be delayed because of bad weather. For the game this could mean that even if you scheduled the launch of space craft, it cannot not be done because of bad weather and it has to be delayed to the next quarter.

2. Sickness (staff member absent)
In real life, even the fittest person can catch a serious sickness. For the game this could mean that a member of the staff is absent (in hospital) for the rest of the quarter due to sickness. So if you scheduled the launch of space craft, you hopefully trained some staff to act as replacement, for example a reserve pilot to replace a sick pilot, or a reserve flight controller to replace a sick colleague.

3. Material defects
Even the best research cannot prevent material defects. For the game this could mean that during a mission even a 100% researched component could suffer an unexpected failure. Some component failures can be detected before launch, so the launch can be cancelled and delayed to the next quarter. Some component failures happen during missions and can be crucial, so the mission fails.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sp ... _incidents

Regarding point 3 above, I would suggest giving players some influence on material defects on assembly: The player could have the option to pick one of three (finance) levels of quality checks. The more money players spend on quality checks, the less likely material defects become. For example, you could build a very cheap satellite without much quality control where not much harm can happen to humans, however you probably want a very rigorous (and expensive) quality control if astronauts are involved.

[Sabratha]

Hello and welcome to the BASPM forums!

Some of what you mentioned was already suggested, in particular the crew and staff absences as a result of injury, disease, events in their private life etc.

Material defects, well I have yet to see any of my components reach 100% reliability, so afaik there is always a chance for an unexpected failure. I remember a component with an reliability of over 94% failing on a mission with the crew efficiency being 98% or so. So yeah, the game can always deal you a wildcard.

AFAIK nobody mentioned weather in particular before, which imho is a very good sugestion and also something that I remember from BARIS.
I'd also would myself suggest that in the moon race campaign, bad weather events should happen more often (like 4 or 5 times more often) to the US side than to the soviet side. Cape Canaveral is in an entirely different climate than the dry, extremely continental and predictable climate of Baikonur.

I have forwarded your suggestions to the devs.

[kokubokan25]

Weather effects and some "side" issues as suggested i think will be implemented when the detailed failures information is finished.
I'm now working in some of this "side" events.

[KaiFiebach]

Weather effects and some "side" issues
i think will be implemented when the detailed failures information is finished.
I'm now working in some of this "side" events.

Great, thanks for sharing this information!

Similar events could also affect the budget. Currently the budget only is depending on personal prestige; this is extremely simplified. In reality, the NASA budget is dependent on many factors, for example the national prestige (race to the moon), national economy and national events (for example national catastrophes or expensive wars).

So instead of only technical events affecting missions,
there also could be political events affecting the budget.

[N_Molson]

Random events will indeed add dynamism to the campaign, and will contribute to make each game different (what I loved the most in BARIS). I'm sure we'll start a list soon, and feel free to suggest your own ideas !

Of course, events should be different for the USA / NASA, USSR / RKA, and World / GSA campaigns. Here are a few ideas :

USA : astronauts private life & medias overexposure (would make one astronaut leave abruptly), political scandal at the White House (would freeze your budget in one way or the other), KGB infiltration of the R&D departement (R&D setbacks, scientists kidnapped or assassinated...), bad work from a contractor (R&D setback or hardware delivered in late) etc...

USSR : bad planning of the quinquennal plans (some hardware unavailable or much more expensive for some seasons), political military coup (budget freeze), popular enthusiasm for the glorious space program (extra funds), CIA infiltration (R&D setbacks, scientists kidnapped or assassinated...), corruption (funds lost)...

GSA : worldwide political tensions (less funds, US or Soviet hardware unavailable), countries becoming uncooperative and not giving access to their tracking stations (reliability penalties for interplanetary missions), adoption of a worldwide currency (hardware cheaper), scandal/corruption in USA/USSR (hardware cheaper)...

etc...