Red Cloud

I like the concept. I don't like my habit of resetting the flight to launch every time if fails, but that seems "the right thing to do". This might encourage me to "live with failure". I may try never reverting to launch to see how it plays out...

In a previous post I commented about the unmanned stuff, so I agree with Nuranon, it would be nice to see more of that unmanned probes used at the start. Honestly I have never used the stayputnik simply because I get given a manned capsule first, so why go backwards? I definitely think more could be made of the early stage, I'd even consider switching the order for planes first, then space. So, you test high altitude flight first...with the slight caveat that so far my planes suck even more than my spaceships, but still, it's not that hard, and I would be happy enough with a few missions involving flight to work on the research needed to unlock the first space stuff. And just like the famous wernher von braun, i'd be launching rockets (which do explode) before I stick a man or two on the top of my bomb (rocket)... This is definitely for career mode, not for sandbox, so hopefully everyone is happy.

Hmm, I think there's some nice ideas here. I think they go into the group of ideas from those people who want to see a more meaningful career, as opposed to the space engineers who excel at the actual spaceflight part of the game are happy to just build & play. I love the idea of more meaningful science. I'd love to see putting kerbals into Uni, and choosing research. And I'd love a more meaningful set of science (such as "mission" we need some core samples from x site about a new mineral (e.g. aluminimum, uridium, whatever - somethign useful to the program)), rather than me just going around randomly sampling stuff because it gives me science in a pokemon "gotta collect em all" style. I will ponder your idea along with some I am mulling around for an alternative career mode.

To be honest, I think they should tie this idea to the idea of research over time. So you get funding, and you spend funding on research (and parts). They could even add in the ability to build factories & research labs, so you can choose whether you are producing more or researching more. To me the career mode progression just doesn't seem right at the moment. You should start in x date (1961) and then have milestones such as "reached the moon in 1967", rather than "reached the mun on the second day". Arguably waiting for time to pass is like watching paint dry, but then there is a time setting, and you could advance time in increments, or just like x-com hit turbo until the next even puts you back into normal time (such as monthly funding, or research completed). I like the fact that you gain science from missions, but I think there should be another way to do it, and I don't really like the unlock groups as it still comes in big rushes of funky stuff, I'd rather see stuff come bit by bit, based on the focus of my research.

I like the milestones, but as I suggested elsewhere I think they could make something more out of the mission control. So, first orbital flight it should cut to mission control cheering (perhaps better after you land & recover the crew?). Given how cute the kerbals are, it's a shame they don't do something with this. They could do the same for the first Mun landing given how important it was in human history & space travel (in theory once on the landing, and once on the return from the Mun). Perhaps the same for subsequent successful major firsts (like first return journey to Minmus).

So, I made the mistake of speeding up time as I was trying to do a Mun landing with a new design of rocket ship, with the three kerbal capsule. When I realised at about 1,000m that there was no way I could slow down enough I tried to hit F9 to reload the game, and oops, I hit F5. So, I had a rocket, doomed to crash! I tried a couple of escape ideas, nothing worked, so I let it hit, and the only good news was the crew capsule survived! Hurrah, time for a rescue mission. So I designed a rescue rocket with the 3 man empty can underneath a command capsule, got it to the moon, and landed too far from the crash site. I tried jet packing my way from the crash site to the rescue rocket, but not enough jet pack fuel. And of course, I didn't put ladders on the rescue ship. After a few attempts I decided the only thing for it was to abort the rescue and try again. I flew the rescue ship back to Kerbal, only to discover I had maybe had a lucky escape. The rescue cannister exploded on landing, so all three of the rescued kerbals would have died! So, I added more parachutes to the rescue can, thought I should really test it before going to the Mun again, but didn't bother (oops). This time the Mun mission was better, I landed closer to the crash site, got all three kerbals to the rescue ship, climbed the newly added ladders, all good. Home time! So, I saved before re-entry, landed in the ocean, and oh no, the rescue module exploded again!! I tried reloading, redoing the entry, keeping the engines attached & firing them before impact, but that didn't work. I tried again, this time I detached the engine again, and thought I'd get the rescued kerbals to abandon ship just above the ocean. My idea was to get three of them on the ladder, then all jump off at the right moment, but I cocked it up, only one could go on the ladder. In desperation I jumped him off before impact, and lo and behold, both him, and the rescue capsule all survived the impact! 6 kerbals, all safely home. What began with a failed save, turned into an epic rescue mission, with the total joy of success when I finally brought them all home safely!

I think reply comes the closest to getting the idea. It's possibly just one or two tech sections nailed before the current first one. Like you said, a basic flight with a mission to gather some data seems in the vibe of the game. Another might be the need to unlock the SAS component in the first couple of techs. Let's face it, with SAS most flights are very controlled, without it there's that element of greater chaos, which is what makes me laugh the most. I think another part of one of the replies touches on the idea that more kerbals should die in the early stages of the game. Maybe it's my own fault for saving alot and reloading, but I never lose a kerbal. This seems like a bit of a shame. As someone said, once you have a parachute, it's easy. Maybe you unlock the parachute, but start with kerbals having parachutes, so they have to bail out of the first couple of flights to survive...or the first flight doesn't even have a personal chute, it's something the great kerbal scientists think of after the first death! I just thing the "home made space flight" nature of the game and the charm of the game could be added to with a bit more badly functioning low tech kit in the early stages. I don't think it goes as far as strapping a kerbal to a chair with a load of fireworks tied to him, but it's that kind of vibe.

So, I am not sure how to express this correctly, but I think there could be some fun had with adding a few more "pre space flight" bits & bobs to either the tech tree, or the contracts. I am not suggesting that the game begins with the Wright brothers, or indeed with apes tossing bones into arcs suggestive of space flight, but it seems that within a jiffy you are in space, and well, poor Kerbal is left behind, and that this misses out on some of the potential fun/crazyness of the early days of space flight. It also seems that a cardboard box & jiffy tape element of design really suits the games vibe, where failure is to be expected, and laughed at. Perhaps the planes should come before the rockets? Perhaps the first flights should be unmanned, followed by sending up dogs & chimps (as you don't mind losing them), or perhaps you should be losing a few kerbals along the way? I guess what I am suggesting is also a kind of a nod to the X1, X15, and Sputnik, or indeed back to Werner Von Braun, but without necessarily needing or wanting historical accuracy, just a bit more before the space stuff. At the end of the day, players wouldn't spend long in this phase, but it might be a nice extra layer at the start...

Mine was small and sweet. Restarted the whole game due to the challenges being added. Made the first rocket = 1 parachute, 1 fuel can, 1 engine...went rushing to launch pad. Fired it up, and wtf is this crazy spinning chaotic scene?! Ah...it's a failure to separate the staging...fired engines and parachute at same time. *facepalm* KSP I am home...

So, first off, I LOVE the new "missions", they really add something to the game, as well as offering people who are struggling a quick way to get science. I have found myself avoiding repetitive missions to sample Kerbin or the Mun, in favour of attempting challenges, and some of these have taught me new strategies for spacecraft construction. Great stuff. I would say, their progression seems a little odd...I would have expected some more basic challenges for new players that might help them learn (such as an EVA on the surface of Kerbin, and a soil sample from the surface of Kerbin). This could be implemented as the basic first mission set, before going on to the randomly generated or selected challenges. My only suggestion regarding this new feature, and what it adds, was that it made me replay the game from scratch, which was fun, BUT it made me think... Can we have some sort of cinematics, an inset window or cutaway to the mission control room (the kerbals are so damned cute, i'd love to see an inset window with a cheering mission control room), or even just some sort of sound effect or pop up messages from mission control (surely very easy to add) when for example: You achieve your first orbital flight around kerbin. It seems like a milestone in kerbin space history, so shouldn't there be a wee cheer? I know for 99% of players who know the game, this is probably nothing, but I know that new players will be very pleased with themselves when they get to orbit. You achieve either your first orbit around Mun, or landing on Mun...after all, it's a famous "one small step for kerbal, one small step for kerbalkind" You successfully return from your first Mun landing to kerbal. Time to wave the stars & stripes (insert flag of your choice), get the ticker tape parade, etc. I'd suggest that probably landing or landing & returning from other worlds would trigger the same sort of "events". And I think rescuing your first kerbal should be another similar milestone, after all it's the sort of thing that would be in a movie...brings a tear to the eye when they all group hug on the kerbals return to kerbal. Now, I know the player will cheer their own achievements, but I think it would be nice for the game to cuddle the player a little bit more...and even better if it means we get to see some kerbal characters and animations.

Lol, I am sure I am a newbie, but dear god, I can barely rescue a kerbal in a normal orbit...this is one I would almost certainly skip.