[ALPHA]Space Race

[johnqevil]

MEGA EDIT:

The Alpha release is ready and waiting for you!

https://github.com/EvilCorp-ksp/SpaceRace/releases/tag/0.01

Source: https://github.com/EvilCorp-ksp/SpaceRace/tree/dev

-------------

A teaser on what I'm currently working on.

Space Race, where you no longer run the ONLY agency on Kerbin!

There is new player in town. They'll take contracts from you, they'll outdo you at collecting science, they'll beat you to Jool!

Train your kerbonauts before sending them to their doom!

Force your engineers to work 6/426 on experimental hardware!

Beg your scientists to research future technologies for personal gain!

Beat those commies at their own game in SPACE RACE!

Project Goals/Status:

-Adding the need to assign a Kerbal Scientist to a research node to unlock it over time, dependent on Kerbal level. 100% complete.

-Adding the need to assign a Kerbal Engineer to design parts from researched nodes, dependent on Kerbal level. 100% complete.

-Adding ability to rush both of the above jobs with either science or funds, respectively. 100% complete.

-Adding Mission Simulators for some missions to level up Kerbals to level 3. Levels 4-5 will need to be earned the old fashioned way. 100% complete.

-Last but DEFINITELY not least: Adding a Rival space agency, that can take non-essential contracts and steal your people away. 15% complete

I'll release the pre-release plugin once the Science, Engineering, and Training modules are done.

Edited April 9, 2015 by johnqevil

[Whirligig Girl]

Not just an empty promise, he did already make a plugin.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104000

[MK3424]

Neat! Now we finally going to have competition in KSP!

[rabidninjawombat]

Nice! I've already used your kerbanomics mod for my career Looking foward to this!

[tygoo7]

Awesome idea! I love your Kerbanomics mod and I look forward to see what this will bring!

[johnqevil]

Added a poll to get a little input on one of the planned features.

[Akira_R]

Question regarding the poll, if scientists were assigned to researching a node how would that factor into the science system?

Would you need to acquire the needed science and then send them off researching?

[johnqevil]

Question regarding the poll, if scientists were assigned to researching a node how would that factor into the science system?

Would you need to acquire the needed science and then send them off researching?

Even the planning on that section is WIP. My original idea was to have them accrue science that counts towards that node when you buy it, or if they accrue enough to unlock it during that time it just unlocks. The downside is, I'd have to hook into the event that fires when a node is unlocked (if there is one) and override it.

The secondary idea was simply to have the science the Kerbal accrued in that time "lost" if the node is purchased before he unlocks it, but I was kinda iffy about that.

The third idea is just assigning Kerbals to a "research" task that accrues general science over time. The easiest and probably the smoothest to implement, if the least interesting.

[rabidninjawombat]

How about kerbal espionage, stealing idea from the other space agency Not sure if that is even implementable.

[Akira_R]

Even the planning on that section is WIP. My original idea was to have them accrue science that counts towards that node when you buy it, or if they accrue enough to unlock it during that time it just unlocks. The downside is, I'd have to hook into the event that fires when a node is unlocked (if there is one) and override it.

The secondary idea was simply to have the science the Kerbal accrued in that time "lost" if the node is purchased before he unlocks it, but I was kinda iffy about that.

The third idea is just assigning Kerbals to a "research" task that accrues general science over time. The easiest and probably the smoothest to implement, if the least interesting.

I see, out of the above options then the one I would choose is having them gain science points.

However, just as a suggestion, I think it would be pretty cool to have it so that in order to "unlock" a node you must use science points, but then you need actual scientists to do research to actually get the node and it's parts, if that makes sense. Essentially making a timer that is based on the number of scientists assigned and there respective levels, and the cost in science points of a node, that must complete before you actually unlock said node.

(from a role play perspective the science earned would represent all the raw data you have collected from experiments and such, this would keep experiments, planning missions to go collect science, as a still necessary game mechanic. The scientist would then be taking this data and performing analysis and such on it in order to apply the findings to newer and better components)

Something like this should be somewhat doable, of course the most I have ever done coding wise was JAVA and a little C++ in highschool, so I really don't know what I am talking about.

Kerbal Construction Time has a similar thing where there is research time associated with actually unlocking nodes. You can go into the R&D building and unlock nodes, but then once you leave the R&D building it has a timer that counts down before the node actually becomes unlocked, the time is based on the expense of the node and an upgradable research speed stat.

Some thing else that could be cool as an additional hard mode, like the stock games setting where you can research a node but then need to pay to unlock each individual part, would be using my above suggestion with scientists researching and unlocking nodes, but then needing scientists and engineers to actually develop the parts in that node.

Anyways just some ideas and suggestions that I'm tossing out there

Edited March 13, 2015 by Akira_R
I can grammar

[daniel l.]

Are you going to add military contracts? You know "Construct a military base on duna" or something like it, Maybe you could set it up to be compatible with bdarmory and require you to put turrets and missiles on your base, Maybe even construct space battleships, Then there would finally be a use for bdarmory in career mode, In fact how about "Destroy the Enemy" contracts, Where you have a enemy ship in orbit already set to the enemy team and you have to destroy it.

[johnqevil]

Are you going to add military contracts? You know "Construct a military base on duna" or something like it, Maybe you could set it up to be compatible with bdarmory and require you to put turrets and missiles on your base, Maybe even construct space battleships, Then there would finally be a use for bdarmory in career mode, In fact how about "Destroy the Enemy" contracts, Where you have a enemy ship in orbit already set to the enemy team and you have to destroy it.

I don't know about military contracts. It'd be doable once I can figure out how to spawn spacecraft into orbits, though. Might add that as an optional module so the people using BDArmory can use it too.

[tater]

A space race requires time as a meaningful concept. That means KCT, or some other mechanism that is similar. I proposed in another thread a simple mechanism to make time matter. Have contracts (really "missions")---in this case the "explore" type that generate the successes in the space race---dose out funds over time (if that is even possible). You might then need to warp to get enough funds for the next build. Each explore contract has a budget, and you get so many per XX days to work with.

KCT obviously makes more sense for this. Have reverts, etc disallowed.

Failures---part failures---should be a thing. I have tried Dangit, and my real issue is that stuff fails too often and it gets tedious. Something like that would be good, though. The competing program should also have failures, and the possibility of rescuing them would be a cool addition (massive rep gain for not only beating them, but saving their bacon).

I would also think a simple life support mod would be good to support.

[johnqevil]

A space race requires time as a meaningful concept. That means KCT, or some other mechanism that is similar. I proposed in another thread a simple mechanism to make time matter. Have contracts (really "missions")---in this case the "explore" type that generate the successes in the space race---dose out funds over time (if that is even possible). You might then need to warp to get enough funds for the next build. Each explore contract has a budget, and you get so many per XX days to work with.

KCT obviously makes more sense for this. Have reverts, etc disallowed.

Failures---part failures---should be a thing. I have tried Dangit, and my real issue is that stuff fails too often and it gets tedious. Something like that would be good, though. The competing program should also have failures, and the possibility of rescuing them would be a cool addition (massive rep gain for not only beating them, but saving their bacon).

I would also think a simple life support mod would be good to support.

My goal is to make this compatible with both KCT and my other mod Kerbanomics. Since KCT and DangIt are already really well done, I'm not going to be covering the same ground there.

The rival agency is going to be more background, but somewhat intrusive. Here are the goals for that aspect:

-One random "Rival" event every 10-40 days, that ranges from reaching another body first or beating you to a tech node. This is more "flavor text."

-Any none-permanent contract (part testing, surveys, etc) could be taken by the competition first, removing it from your available pool and giving the rival a bonus in both funds and science.

-The rival can steal science points from your available pool.

-The rival can steal any unassigned employee from you, except the big 3. This includes any that you've paid to train up or leveled up on mission.

-The rival can experience many setbacks, including catastrophic failures.

-If I can figure out how to spawn a ship directly into orbit, then I think we can get the "save their bacon" contracts done. We could at LEAST do a "save their stranded Kerbal" contract since that would just be attaching to an existing system.

Some of those are not going to be in the initial release(s), but are specific goals.

[johnqevil]

Still alive, just had to go out of town for a few days. Currently working on the Research code. Being more....difficult than I anticipated.

Edited March 26, 2015 by johnqevil

[johnqevil]

Updated main post with more project information and current development status. On another note, anyone have an idea for the rival agency's name?

[johnqevil]

Getting closer! Finally got the Research module working just about perfectly, working on the Training module now. Once that's done, it's off to Engineering and then the first release!

[johnqevil]

The alpha is out now, check the main post for the download!

[MK3424]

Maybe a small idea to think about: can you use some sort of news reporting system like in BARIS to see the progress of the 'other agency' (this should be more later on)?

By the way, great to see it released and having more uses for Kerbals.

[johnqevil]

Maybe a small idea to think about: can you use some sort of news reporting system like in BARIS to see the progress of the 'other agency' (this should be more later on)?

By the way, great to see it released and having more uses for Kerbals.

I'm unfamiliar with BARIS, but I like the idea.

[MK3424]

I'm unfamiliar with BARIS, but I like the idea.

Watch this video about the glorious game i mentioned:

and the original game has been made open source:http://www.raceintospace.org/

Edited April 9, 2015 by MK3424

[Solarspaceprobe]

Can't wait to beat commies!

[ChrisSpace]

I am quite excited for this mod. just wondering, who will the 'enemy' be like? will it be one single backwardsy country like in the space race, or will it be a competition between several nations like the 'space race mkII'?

[johnqevil]

I am quite excited for this mod. just wondering, who will the 'enemy' be like? will it be one single backwardsy country like in the space race, or will it be a competition between several nations like the 'space race mkII'?

The way I'm putting it together, it will (eventually) be configurable. I'm still putting together the rival framework. It's definitely going to be more of a "cold war" type feel, with notifications that your rival accomplished something or has a big project in the works. There'll also be an industrial espionage system, though mostly automated right now, where both the player and the rival steal science point/part blueprints from each other.

[FreeThinker]

I hope the enemy won't be simply a timetable. Preferably they dynamicly scale with the achievements with the player with some big random factors. It would also be nice if you somehow can see the enemies progres.

Edited April 14, 2015 by FreeThinker