Slitherine

Suggestion: Just -10% as a reliability penalisation for going straight from lunar probe to manned landing seems.... an underestimate. If I were controlling things in the 1960s, I'd want more than a single probe flying past the Moon off into deep space before I'd send guys up there.

Description of the relevant game playthrough is in this post.

I like your idea. There was a NASA documentary where Gene Kranz stated that nobody knew what the surface of the moon was going to be like - it could have been 4 feet of soft snow-like powder that a manned lander would sink straight into. It wasn't until the landing on the Surveyor probe that the moon was confirmed to be acceptable for landing manned craft.

I recall hearing the same thing.

So there'd be a malus for not having at least a lunar impactor.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm thinking about it and will send a proposal to the Lead Developper and will send a proposal to him about this.