[1.8.x] Monthly Budgets 5.0.1 (22/12/2019) - UP FOR ADOPTION

[Beetlecat]

Totally going to try this out in my next run. Time to grind that Rep!

[severedsolo]

Monthly Budgets 4.2.1 Released

• Recompiled against KSP 1.4.3
• Fixed bug where if costs exceed funds in hand, budget allocated would be higher than expected (literally have no idea how this one flew under the radar for so long).

AVC will not inform you about this update. I re-arranged my Git environment, because it was ridiculous that I needed to create a new solution everytime I reinstall Windows. By doing this I had to break the existing paths to the online version file. Normal service will be resumed from the next update.

I've also updated the OP because last time I did that was when 2.0 released (in October 2016 would you believe!) - so it was massively out of date.

Edited May 12, 2018 by severedsolo

[Kwebib]

Decided to try this mod and I think it's great! I love your and Magico's gameplay mods. I do have a few questions.

1) How did you decide on the 2227 multiplier for reputation to funds?

2) Also, how did you decide on the 10,000 fund cost per active vessel? That means if I had 3 satellites around every body (16) in the stock solar system, I would be spending 480,000 funds per "month" in upkeep, correct?

[severedsolo]

11 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

1) How did you decide on the 2227 multiplier for reputation to funds?

The primary reason is because that means you need exactly (I think, it's been a long time since I did the maths on this) 750 rep to get the Tier 3 R&D unlock. Ie difficult, but not impossible (although that's moot now that Big Project Funding is a thing, at the time it wasn't). At the time I released this (I haven't changed those numbers since release) it happened to nicely coincide with the fact that with my particular playstyle and modset, the default starting funds gave me exactly enough funds to reach space, and then the next budget gave me exactly enough to reach orbit. That doesn't happen any more, and actually i turn rep gains down.

11 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

2) Also, how did you decide on the 10,000 fund cost per active vessel? That means if I had 3 satellites around every body (16) in the stock solar system, I would be spending 480,000 funds per "month" in upkeep, correct?

I did a highly complex calculation taking into account multiple factors, and then screwed it up, threw it away and plucked that number out of my backside

In all seriousness, there's no actual balancing reason for this, but it's not massively difficult to get over 1,000,000 in budget every month, so having a high maintenance cost offsets that. The fact the number came out of my backside is a big reason why it's configurable.

Edited May 12, 2018 by severedsolo

[Kwebib]

Oh ok. Good to know. I actually haven't got far enough to get 1 million in budget so I wasn't sure how the balance was there. I suppose by the time you have satellites on every body, you should definitely have well over 500 rep.

[Kwebib]

@severedsolo Small feature request: could we get a configurable cost for the KSC? I would see this as maintenance costs and payment for the Kerbals working in all the buildings.

You could even make it a function of how many building upgrades you have to simulate costs going up. One could balance this with the active vessel cost multiplier.

 

[severedsolo]

6 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

 Small feature request: could we get a configurable cost for the KSC? I would see this as maintenance costs and payment for the Kerbals working in all the buildings.

I've been considering this for a while actually, so it will probably happen (as soon as I figure out why my budget is coming in constantly over the estimate in my modded install, but not my stock one). #2 raised so I don't forget about it

[Kwebib]

2 hours ago, severedsolo said:

(as soon as I figure out why my budget is coming in constantly over the estimate in my modded install, but not my stock one)

Interesting. I hadn't noticed this before.

By using the cheats menu to give myself different reputations, I do notice that the estimated budget seems to be this:

estimatedBudget = ( fundsMultiplier * (reputation-1) ) - costs

Is the reputation - 1 intended?

[severedsolo]

26 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

Interesting. I hadn't noticed this before.

By using the cheats menu to give myself different reputations, I do notice that the estimated budget seems to be this:

estimatedBudget = ( fundsMultiplier * (reputation-1) ) - costs

Is the reputation - 1 intended?

Half right. I figured it out just before you posted. Reputation is stored as a double, but I was casting it to an int before doing the calculations. As your reputation is never an integer, i was losing anywhere up to 2226 funds in the estimate.

[severedsolo]

Monthly Budgets 4.3 Released

• Fixed estimated budget consistently reporting too low.
• Added costs for KSC buildings
• Added costs for launchpad/runway reconditioning

 

[Beetlecat]

Hey -- now this is cool!  I was worried I would start making *too much* money after my first month's budget #s came in. I see you've given us more to spend it on...

Edited May 13, 2018 by Beetlecat

[Kwebib]

Between this and KCT we pretty much now have a management game haha.

[GJNelson]

10 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

Between this and KCT we pretty much now have a management game haha.

Totally love this mod, plus KCT and KRASH. Feels like a good challenging career campaign now. I've added CSS (Crowd Sourced Science) also, for it's cool missions. Thank you for the KSP v1.4.3 update. Awesome mod!

[Beetlecat]

1 minute ago, GJNelson said:

Totally love this mod, plus KCT and KRASH. Feels like a good challenging career campaign now. I've added CSS (Crowd Sourced Science) also, for it's cool missions. Thank you for the KSP v1.4.3 update. Awesome mod!

 

13 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

Between this and KCT we pretty much now have a management game haha.

It's KSP's missing economy model, for sure.

[severedsolo]

7 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

I was worried I would start making *too much* money after my first month's budget #s came in.

Yeah I really dislike how high the defaults are, but it's needed to offset KSP's ridiculously high building upgrade costs (which are only set that way because it's ridiculously easy to make money in career). That's mostly the reason for hardMode - if you aren't spending it, the mod will take it away again.

One of these days I'll get round to writing a CustomBarnKit config for the upgrades.

Edited May 14, 2018 by severedsolo

[Kwebib]

Quick question: does the reputation decay before the budget is awarded or after?

[severedsolo]

17 minutes ago, Kwebib said:

Quick question: does the reputation decay before the budget is awarded or after?

Man, don't ask me questions about code I wrote two years ago XD

Just checked on github and it looks like it's after for standard rep decay, before for hard mode.

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by severedsolo

[Austinator48]

Why haven’t I seen this mod, literally run all the KCT, stage recovery, and other “realism” mods beside actually going full realism overhaul for years. Downloading!  (For tourism contracts does it work with tourism plus and other contract packs with tourism?)

[Beetlecat]

@severedsolo have you ever considered a monthly statement popup or GUI screen to browse current expenses, etc.? I've been playing a lot of xcom / battletech lately, and the little summaries add so much flavor -- not to mention a great way to provide a snapshot of your current space program activities.

[Austinator48]

11 minutes ago, Beetlecat said:

@severedsolo have you ever considered a monthly statement popup or GUI screen to browse current expenses, etc.? I've been playing a lot of xcom / battletech lately, and the little summaries add so much flavor -- not to mention a great way to provide a snapshot of your current space program activities.

Been Loving Battletech. And a summary window would be a great addition.

Out of curiosity what do people put for the configurable,I'm playing beyond hard difficulty so I'm looking to have to manage my funds efficiently 

[severedsolo]

5 hours ago, Austinator48 said:

For tourism contracts does it work with tourism plus and other contract packs with tourism?

It supports Contract Configurator fine, but you'll probably find that the Contract Interceptor will pick up the Tourism Plus contracts - basically, stock Tourism Contracts are weird, their rewards are parameters of parameters. MB looks one parameter deep for rewards, so doesn't pick up the stock Tourism ones, AFAIK most Contract Packs only have their parameter rewards one level deep, so the Interceptor will pick them up.

4 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

have you ever considered a monthly statement popup or GUI screen to browse current expenses, etc.?

It's a good idea, but at the moment with the way it's set up not practical until I get around to moving the UI to PopUpDialog and away from OnGUI, because it would cause massive GC issues. To be honest, it needs to be done, but I hate writing the UIs anyway (it's really difficult to visualise what it's going to look like when you are writing it in code) - so add to that the learning curve of a whole new UI system my motivation to do it is low.

Having said all that, if you throw an issue up on Github it may motivate me to actually get around to re-writing the UI.

Edited May 15, 2018 by severedsolo

[Austinator48]

13 hours ago, severedsolo said:

It supports Contract Configurator fine, but you'll probably find that the Contract Interceptor will pick up the Tourism Plus contracts - basically, stock Tourism Contracts are weird, their rewards are parameters of parameters. MB looks one parameter deep for rewards, so doesn't pick up the stock Tourism ones, AFAIK most Contract Packs only have their parameter rewards one level deep, so the Interceptor will pick them up.

RIP, ya it’s intercepting the Tourism Plus

Edit: I wonder if it would be possible to make exceptions for Contract Interceptor on a contract by contract basis or just an entire agency

Edited May 15, 2018 by Austinator48
Adding Additional Comment

[severedsolo]

47 minutes ago, Austinator48 said:

RIP, ya it’s intercepting the Tourism Plus

Edit: I wonder if it would be possible to make exceptions for Contract Interceptor on a contract by contract basis or just an entire agency

It's possible, but would need a code change. I'll probably make it doable with a MM patch

[Kwebib]

Or you could just view the whole space program as entirely government subsidized, so tourists don't pay.

[Austinator48]

1 hour ago, Kwebib said:

Or you could just view the whole space program as entirely government subsidized, so tourists don't pay.

But then how are the tourists decided in this world, by lottery and the government pays for it? IE A service provided by the government that you might get lucky and get to go to outer space? Interesting....

In the US, lottery is regulated by the state, IE Oregon lottery etc, so in this case instead of winning money you win a trip to space.... 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Austinator48