Slitherine

A few slightly odd things from a game I was playing last night, in NASA campaign mode. Bugs? Features?

I was allowed to open the Gemini lunar flyby program, despite not having opened the Gemini program. I assumed I was developing the tech to send people on a lunar flyby, but when I launched the manned mission I found I had a completely undeveloped Gemini capsule on the end of a very efficient rocket. Presumably, someone at NASA was saying "OMG, we forgot to build the capsule! Knock one together in your shed, quick. If we paint it nicely, no-one will notice." My astronauts noticed as they died.

There were also a couple of occasions where a manned flight failed in orbit, or in translunar space, and didn't come back to Earth, but the crew somehow survived.

And lastly, I was told I needed a Saturn V to get the Viking Lander to Mars - that's not what was used in the real world.

I had my Crew survive some dire moments as well. I always imagine a "whoop whoop" sound as a blue police box materializes next to my Spaceship, a friendly young man opens the door and shouts "Allons'y" invites the Spacefarers in and returns them to Earth.

So for me it is a feature...

Hello carandol,

carandol wrote:I was allowed to open the Gemini lunar flyby program, despite not having opened the Gemini program. I assumed I was developing the tech to send people on a lunar flyby, but when I launched the manned mission I found I had a completely undeveloped Gemini capsule on the end of a very efficient rocket. Presumably, someone at NASA was saying "OMG, we forgot to build the capsule! Knock one together in your shed, quick. If we paint it nicely, no-one will notice." My astronauts noticed as they died.

This is a feature, yes. There's nothing stopping you from opening a variant of a lunar Gemini program, though you'll probably need to open the regular Gemini program at some point in order to build up the reliability of the spacecraft.

carandol wrote:There were also a couple of occasions where a manned flight failed in orbit, or in translunar space, and didn't come back to Earth, but the crew somehow survived.

Notice that regular failures are not catastrophic so, even though the flight failed in translunar space, you can assume that it was a non-catastrophic failure and that the crew managed to come back to Earth.

carandol wrote:And lastly, I was told I needed a Saturn V to get the Viking Lander to Mars - that's not what was used in the real world.

This one is a bit puzzling, what do you mean by 'you were told you needed a Saturn V''? The game will allow you to use any rocket provided it has enough capacity to lift the payload.

Cheers,

"This one is a bit puzzling, what do you mean by 'you were told you needed a Saturn V''? The game will allow you to use any rocket provided it has enough capacity to lift the payload."

I was told I didn't have a rocket capable of lifting the Viking Lander payload, and asked would I like to open a new rocket program. When taken to the rocket screen, the only rocket program available capable of lifting the Viking was the Saturn V.

Hello carandol,

I've tested it here and I can confirm that you can also select the Titan IIIE-Centaur booster, see the pic below. Can you check that on your end?

Cheers,