Nasa Campaign Objective?

[nats]

I have just started playing this game again after a lengthy time away to give it time to mature and I have some questions. I have started playing the NASA campaign and expected it to be a race to the moon. However I cant remember seeing this objective actually mentioned anywhere in the intro screens (it probably was) - its certainly not in the game goals list (there aren't any goals listed for this campaign, strangely). I do have a list of succeeded missions so I can compare how I am progressing next to my Russian rival. But some of these missions would not seem directly relevant to the moon landing (from memory - I could be wrong there).

So is the campaign objective to get on the moon before 1973? Is it to get the first man on the moon? Or is it to complete all of the listed missions before the Russians? Or is it all three?

I do wonder if it would be useful adding the main game goal of this campaign into the 'goal panel' because its obviously the point of the whole game and seems to be missing completely unless I am being extremely stupid and just not seeing it anywhere obvious.

[KyleS]

Get to the Moon first.

You'll find that when you or the other side land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth, the game ends.

The game's mention of "other short-term goals" is a leftover from playtesting when they had things like "get 10 people in the astronaut corps by end 1960," that sort of thing. They either forgot it, or have left it, since the shell of this game will be filled again with the sequels (shuttle, space station, then part III, manned mission to mars).

[nats]

It is certainly confusing, when the whole objective of the campaign should be made very clear to players. There is no need for seeing that 'missions succeeded list' if it has no relevance to the game objective, it just confuses the issue further. Now if it was a list of the crucial missions you need to do as a minimum to reach the objective of getting the man on the moon (ie as a hint to new players of the necessary progression) then that would be fair enough. But I seem to remember seeing probes etc in that list (I will have to check) that have no relevance to the objective of reaching the moon.

[KyleS]

Yes, but those other missions do two things.

Firstly, they help you develop the technologies for the main mission. You can't open up Saturn V and Apollo in 1955 and expect to have much success. You go through all the steps of increasingly powerful rockets etc, and experience the carryover of reliability.

Secondly, they give you prestige, so that when you have the budget review, you get more income - income which you can put towards the main mission. Success leads to more success.

[nats]

Yeah I know that but my point is they should not really be in that 'goals satisfied list' if they are not directly relevant to the Moon landing progression. Although it is interesting seeing how your opponent is doing generally this is also pointed out in the seasons bulletin anyway. I dunno maybe just a way of highlighting the crucial moon progression missions using a star on them or something? Just so you have some way of telling how far they are ahead/behind in terms of just the main goal of landing on the moon would be nice. But it is that thing that you really want to know in order to be able to determine if you need to skip a few test missions and jump ahead to some crucial ones to gain some progress fast, or whether you can slow down and take some time to train your staff a bit more. The probes are nice to know but not crucial to the goal.