Gaming Race Into Space discussion thread

[N_Molson]

The 92% max safety of the Voskhod is nasty. Be sure to put a capsule pilot with 4 points in Capsule & some Endurance, those points sum up to the safety factor.

 

[astrosammy]

Soviet lunar landing in 1974... I had some nice LEO missions, but most of my astronauts are stranded in lunar orbit... poor guys

 

[N_Molson]

I beat you :

All difficulty levels set to level 1 for both sides, historical settings. I was fairly lucky, but also played very "safe", with unmanned flights and always selecting the best cosmonauts for the missions.

30 November 1970

My most prestigious cosmonaut (and he didn't went on the Moon !). He was the first man in space (I skipped suborbital, it's where I got lucky !)

Some statistics

Casualties : 0 :thumbup:
Average safety of the landing : 95% (this include the cosmonauts bonuses)
Missions : 38
Attempted/Successful manned missions : 19/15
Director rating : 198
Average budget : 92 M.B.
Prestige total : 185

---------- Post added 08-17-11 at 01:08 PM ---------- Previous post was 08-16-11 at 10:09 PM ----------

Also a small tip for Race Into Space players :

Here's how you can evaluate your chances on a mission :

P = Probability of success

P = Step1% /100 * Step2% /100 * Step3% /100 * StepN% /100...

If we take a simple exemple, the Orbital Satellite :

P = Launch % /100 * Orbital Insertion % /100 * Hardware Power-on % /100

Let's say we are playing USA in historical mode with max R&D :

P = 87% (Atlas Rocket) * 95% (Explorer Sat) * 95% (Explorer Sat)

P = 0.87 * 0.95 * 0.95

P =~ 0.78

That mission has 78% chances to be a success.

With the hardware maxed up to the max safety factors :

P = 0.98 * 0.98 * 0.98

P =~ 0.94

The mission has 94% chances to succeed.

-> Theorem : the more steps the mission, the more dangerous it is !

---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 PM ----------

A little better with the USA, "Buzz's revenge" :lol:

Difficulty settings to level 1, Historical mode. Had a lot of failures, luckily not too much deadly ones, and I was able to maintain my objectives. I followed quite closely the true historical timeline.

3 December 1969

And Buzz E. Aldrin got his revenge from Neil ! The fact is, he always has very good stats :

General statistics

Casualties : 3 (1 Mercury, 1 Gemini, all total parachutes failures).
Average safety of LL : 90% (rushed a little bit towards the end and got lucky), but my main weakness was "safe" (docking 70%).
Missions : 32
Attempted/Successful manned missions : 12/3 :shifty: (lots of "yellow" failures)
Director rating : 162
Average budget : 88 M.B. (not that great !)

 

[Scruce]

I am thinking of trying this, can anyone give me some tips or what to look for?

 

[N_Molson]

I am thinking of trying this, can anyone give me some tips or what to look for?

Of course, but be a little more specific.

The rules :

- You start in Spring 1957.
- Your goal is to land a man (or a woman !) on the Moon and return him/her safely before 1978. The choice of the method to achieve this is yours. You have 20 years, or 40 turns.
- 2 turns / year (Spring / Autumn).
- Your government (USSR or USA) give you a budget each year.
- Successful missions earn you prestige points, that increase the next budget. Failed ones have the adverse effect.
- Random events happen each season, you can see them in the news broadcast screen. There are positives (discounts, R&D boost, spying, budget increase...), neutrals (no effects) & negatives (supply shortages, training accidents, sabotages, budget diverted to the military...).
- The earlier you win, the best score you achieve.
- You start with 1 launchpad, but can buy two other (for a maximum of 3 missions / season, 6 / year). With 2 launchpads you can launch joined missions (2 launches for 1 mission).
- You have to buy programs (like Mercury capsule, R-7 rocket...) and then pay engineers & scientists each season to improve the safety factor. Some programs are safer than others, and have their limits (you have no docking port on Vostok / Mercury capsules).
- If you bring a program over 75% of safety, you have a R&D start bonus on the next program. Exemple : if you directly buy the Apollo capsule, you start at 5% safety. It will take forever to bring it to its 89% R&D max. If you have Mercury & Gemini over 75%, Apollo starts at 40% safety. Much better, and during that time you flew useful missions.
- There are steps you need to accomplish to perform the Lunar Landing. Buying & Researching the stuff isn't enough, you have to reach milestones. The initial safety malus of a Lunar Landing is -45%. That's suicidal. To lower it to an acceptable -1% -4% range, you have to achieve (from memory) :

Milestones

Each one earns you a bunch of prestige points. You can combine more than one in a mission (exemple : EVA on first manned mission).

* Orbital Satellite
* Manned Mission (Suborbital is OK)
* Man in Earth Orbit
* EVA
* Lunar flyby (Hail Probe !)
* Duration D (8-12 days), to safely make a duration D mission you have to fly duration B & C missions before.
* Manned Lunar Pass (Duration C)
* Manned Lunar Orbital (Duration D)
* LM tests (specific rule there)
...

Lunar recon :

- Just before the LM lands, a lunar recon check is performed. If failed, the mission can still succeed (heroic pilot), abort or crash into a mountain.
- You start with a level of 55% (what telescopes can see). You have to unveil the far side.
- Each Probe successfuly sent unveils 5% more. A robot lander unveils 15% (5% if it orbits but fails to land).
- Manned Lunar Pass unveils 5%. Manned Lunar Orbit unveils 10%.

Docking

- You start with a safety of 40%. This is very low. You can only improve this by experience, manned or unmanned. A successful docking adds 10% to the safety. A failed one still adds 5%.

LM Tests

- Without LM Tests, you have a -9% penalty on every step using the LM during the Lunar Landing. Very dangerous.
- You have to earn 3 points to cancel the penalty, each points removes -3% of penalty.
- LEO LM Test : +1 point
- Lunar Orbit LM Test : +2 points
-> So different strategies are possible to get those 3 points...

The different approaches

- Historical Manned Landing : 1 launch (usually SaturnV/N-1), 1 spacecraft, 1 LM are required. Additionnal components may be required depending of the hardware (Centaur stage for Gemini "Kicker-B", Docking Module for the MiniShuttle...)
- Lunar Landing - LOR : 2 launches, rendez-vous in Lunar Orbit
- Lunar Landing - EOR : 2 launches, rendez-vous in Earth Orbit
- Direct Ascent : the ultimate stuff. 1 SuperBooster and 1 Capsule/Lander. No LM, no docking, the spacecraft is able to land entirely on the Moon. Very expensive.
- Soyuz Landing : "Soviet Special". You have a "Kicker-C booster" in the Soviet inventory. The Soyuz can dock to it, and the Booster/Lander brings it to the Lunar surface. Docking required, but no LM.

That should get you started.

+ : The "optional" missions

Those can earn you prestige, but beware, they won't close you from the Moon (except from testing the hardware). Don't fall into the trap of spreading. Planetary missions are great when you are in trouble with manned mission, you can rebuild some prestige that way.

Probes

Missions to gas giants take more than 3 years (7 turns). You'll have a line in the news that will tell you if your probe suceeded or failed its flyby when the target is Mars or farther away.

- Planetary Flybys : Mercury 5 pts, Venus 7 pts, Mars 7 pts (2 seasons), Jupiter 8 pts (7 seasons), Saturn 9 pts (7 seasons).

Manned Orbital Laboratory

- You need to dock two spacecraft together, and they have to perform a "joint duration" level C. 6 points, puts a lot of people in orbit, 2 launches required.

 

[orb]

And some tips:

- 2 turns / year (Spring / Autumn).
- Your government (USSR or USA) give you a budget each year.

Save some money for Autumn.

- Successful missions earn you prestige points, that increase the next budget. Failed ones have the adverse effect.

Not all successful missions give you prestige points every time, some of them only if you do them first, but anyway if they fail the prestige will drop the same (at least such was in v. 0.4.8).

- You start with 1 launchpad, but can buy two other (for a maximum of 3 missions / season, 6 / year).

You plan missions for the next season. You need to have available astronauts / cosmonauts in the selected program in the current season to assign them to manned mission in next season, as well available pads. You don't need to have parts on stock to assembly hardware in next season, but it's better to have them because of the possible:

supply shortages

 

[N_Molson]

Save some money for Autumn.

Oh yeah, know there is a rare but extremely powerful event : "50% cost cuts to all programs". Adapt your strategy and buy everything you need for the next years. A SaturnV at half-price is a bargain !

And this event can happen in Autumn, so if you have no money left at this moment : :facepalm:

 

[astrosammy]

I beat you :

All difficulty levels set to level 1 for both sides, historical settings. I was fairly lucky, but also played very "safe", with unmanned flights and always selecting the best cosmonauts for the missions.

30 November 1970

My most prestigious cosmonaut (and he didn't went on the Moon !). He was the first man in space (I skipped suborbital, it's where I got lucky !)

Some statistics

Casualties : 0 :thumbup:
Average safety of the landing : 95% (this include the cosmonauts bonuses)
Missions : 38
Attempted/Successful manned missions : 19/15
Director rating : 198
Average budget : 92 M.B.
Prestige total : 185

---------- Post added 08-17-11 at 01:08 PM ---------- Previous post was 08-16-11 at 10:09 PM ----------

Also a small tip for Race Into Space players :

Here's how you can evaluate your chances on a mission :

P = Probability of success

P = Step1% /100 * Step2% /100 * Step3% /100 * StepN% /100...

If we take a simple exemple, the Orbital Satellite :

P = Launch % /100 * Orbital Insertion % /100 * Hardware Power-on % /100

Let's say we are playing USA in historical mode with max R&D :

P = 87% (Atlas Rocket) * 95% (Explorer Sat) * 95% (Explorer Sat)

P = 0.87 * 0.95 * 0.95

P =~ 0.78

That mission has 78% chances to be a success.

With the hardware maxed up to the max safety factors :

P = 0.98 * 0.98 * 0.98

P =~ 0.94

The mission has 94% chances to succeed.

-> Theorem : the more steps the mission, the more dangerous it is !

---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 PM ----------

A little better with the USA, "Buzz's revenge" :lol:

Difficulty settings to level 1, Historical mode. Had a lot of failures, luckily not too much deadly ones, and I was able to maintain my objectives. I followed quite closely the true historical timeline.

3 December 1969

And Buzz E. Aldrin got his revenge from Neil ! The fact is, he always has very good stats :

General statistics

Casualties : 3 (1 Mercury, 1 Gemini, all total parachutes failures).
Average safety of LL : 90% (rushed a little bit towards the end and got lucky), but my main weakness was "safe" (docking 70%).
Missions : 32
Attempted/Successful manned missions : 12/3 :shifty: (lots of "yellow" failures)
Director rating : 162
Average budget : 88 M.B. (not that great !)

Hehe, nice to see that Apollo 8 was your lunar landing...
BTW, I forgot to say that I played as US in my last post... I tried to send a Nova + Minishuttle + Eagle to the lunar surface... after one succesful Docking/EVA mission...

Everytime I play nearly all unmanned docking attempts fail, but at least they increase the safety...

 

[N_Molson]

Everytime I play nearly all unmanned docking attempts fail, but at least they increase the safety...

Don't forget that a 'naut in the right seat (commander/pilot for Gemini) with 4 points in docking will add 4% to the docking safety. Not much, but still, it ease things (but of course, each manned mission is a calculated risk).

Which is the realism I love so much in this game.

 

[Scav]

Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Now I've got one more thing to completely suck the life out of me.

 

[N_Molson]

Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Now I've got one more thing to completely suck the life out of me.

You're welcome. We're here for that. :lol:

I think I bought the CD version back in 1994, I was like 11. Knew nothing to rockets before that, it was my "dark age". The Probe began to enlighten me with this game. I wanted to know more. I seen Orbiter on a M6 (french TV channel) TV show, t'was in 2001 or 2002, the all-beginnings. Tried it. Ended up there. And still playing Race Into Space besides.

A 17-years addiction. Wow. :shifty:

 

[astrosammy]

Wow, 1994... I guess I didn't know what space is at that time... or what a computer is... :lol:

---------- Post added at 09:54 ---------- Previous post was at 00:48 ----------

Ok, now I'm in fall '66. I was second at manned flight, but first at satellite, 2 man crew and EVA. Looks good, I used the easiest settings.
Just lost Armstrong and his crewmate during entry after the first EVA, but RTF mission was succesful.

 

[N_Molson]

Mmh, prepare the Lunar Pass and don't forget the LM. I often start the LM developpement too late, and lose time while it has to be R&D-ed (it starts at 5% !).

 

[astrosammy]

7 losses now. Made some Earth Orbit LM EVA Duration missions, after that lunar pass, lunar orbit LM EVA test, and finally made it to the lunar surface and back to Earth! Because I had some money and a pad left I also send a probe to Mars.

First man on the moon was RL STS PLT and CDR Karol Bobko, his crew mate Michael Adams (never went to space in RL, died in X-15 crash), launch vehicle was Saturn, spacecraft was Gemini and LM Cricket.

 

[Wally]

Seeing again this game and recently playing with Hearts of Iron III (probably the most realistic, complex and tactical game ever done) I fantasize about a game that combines the realism and complexity of HoI3 with Race into Space. It wouldn't be hard to be done, just some menus, resource allocation and tech trees, with some fancy space pics for achievements. It could stretch from 1960 until the present or even in the foreseeable future, keeping it believable and realistic.

I was even thinking on some tech tree for the game, but it gets too complex very quickly. Anyone would be interested on working on/playing this?

 

[Urwumpe]

Hmm, from the first test, I have the feeling the failures have become a bit less dangerous in general, with me only having lost a crew to injury in 8 years of testing

 

[Chub777]

Just tried this game. It's really addictive!

 

[Scruce]

Historical Lunar Landing on the 13th April 1967 aboard Voskhod V

Historical Lunar Landing on the 13th April 1967 aboard Voskhod V:



First on the Moon was [url=""]Aleksei Gubarev[/url]. He had only one mission before which was Voskhod III. (A Lunar orbital mission):
[IMG]

[url=""]Vladimir Dzhanibekov[/url] has accompanied Aleksei Gubarev on every mission as the mission commander. (Voskhod III & V):
[IMG]

[url=""]Yuri Gagarin[/url] was originally going to be the first on the moon but retired a month before his mission:!
[IMG]

[url=""]Vladimir Komarov[/url] would have accompanied Yuri Gagarin to the moon but the mission was scrubbed due to Yuri's retirement, this mission (Soyuz XIII) was 6 months before Voskhod V:
[IMG]

The only person who died was [url=""]Pavel Popovich[/url] in a train accident:
[IMG]


[U][B]Other Stats/Facts[/B][/U]

[url=""]Alexey Leonov[/url] was to stay in Soyuz XIII while Gagarin & Komarov went down to the Lunar surface, he later flew in the actual Soyuz XIII in a Lunar orbital LKM test, he served as LM Pilot/E.V.A.

Only two people out of the 16 Cosmonauts never flew a mission: [url=""]Leonid Kizim[/url] & [url=""]Vladimir Lyakhov[/url].


[B][U]Space Firsts[/U][/B]

USSR: 12
USA: 4

Orbital Satellite: USA
Lunar Flyby: USSR
Mercury Flyby: N/A
Venus Flyby: N/A
Mars Flyby: N/A
Jupiter Flyby: N/A
Saturn Flyby: N/A
Lunar Probe Landing: USSR
Duration Level F: N/A
Duration Level E: N/A
Duration Level D: USSR
Duration Level C: USSR
Duration Level B: USSR
One-Person Craft: USA
Two-Person Craft: USA
Three-Person Craft: USSR
Minishuttle: N/A
Four-Person Craft: N/A
Manned Orbital: USSR
Manned Lunar Pass: USSR
Manned Lunar Orbit: USSR
Manned Lunar Landing: USSR
Orbiting Lab: N/A
Manned Docking: USSR
Woman In Space: N/A
Spacewalk: USSR
Manned Space Mission: USA

[B][U]Missions[/U][/B]

[U]1958[/U]
Sputnik I - Orbital Satellite (Failure)
Sputnik II - Orbital Satellite (Success)

[U]1959[/U]
Sputnik III - Orbital Satellite (Success)

[U]1960[/U]
Sputnik IV - Orbital Satellite (Success)
Vostok I - Manned Orbital (Success)
Soyuz I - Unmanned Orbital (Failure)

[U]1961[/U]
Soyuz II - Manned Joint Orbital Docking Duration (EVA) (With Soyuz III) (Failed Docking) (Partial Failure)
Soyuz III - Manned Joint Orbital Docking Duration (EVA) (With Soyuz II) (Failed Docking) (Partial Failure)
Cosmos I - Lunar Flyby (Success)

[U]1962[/U]
Soyuz IV - Manned Joint Orbital LKM Test (Failed Docking) (Partial Failure)
Soyuz V - Unmanned Lunar Flyby (Success)

[U]1963[/U]
Soyuz VI - Manned Joint Orbital LKM Test (Success)
Soyuz VII - Manned Joint Orbital LKM Test (Failed Docking) (Partial Failure)
Voskhod I - Unmanned Lunar Flyby (Success)

[U]1964[/U]
Soyuz VIII - Manned Orbital (EVA) (Failed EVA) (Partial Failure)
Vostok II - Manned Orbital (Success)
Luna I - Lunar Probe Landing (Success)

[U]1965[/U]
Soyuz IX - Manned Lunar Pass (Success)
Soyuz X - Manned Lunar Orbital (Failed Launch) (Failure)
Soyuz XI - Manned Joint Orbitals Docking Duration (EVA) (With Voskhod II) (Success)
Voskhod II - Manned Joint Orbitals Docking Duration (EVA) (With Soyuz XI) (Success)
Luna II - Lunar Probe Landing (Success)

[U]1966[/U]
Voskhod III - Joint Lunar Orbital (EOR) (Failed Docking) (Partial Failure)
Soyuz XII - Joint Lunar Orbital LKM Test (Success)
Voskhod IV - Lunar Orbital LKM Test (Success)

[U]1967[/U]
Soyuz XIII - Joint Lunar Orbital LKM Test (EVA) (Success)
Voskhod V - Historical Lunar Landing (Success)

 

[N_Molson]

Wow... how did you get the money to launch a manned Soyuz in 1961 ?? :blink:

 

[Pyromaniac605]

How do you play as USSR instead of USA? I can't figure it out.