Cheapskate Space Program

[TotallyNotHuman]

Chapter 1: Beginnings

Some time ago, a band of Kerbs founded their own Space Program. These Kerbs were poor, and had only raised so much money to buy a plot of land as a base for their endeavors.

A few phone calls later, an employee of KerbEstate Inc. led them to a potential base site. When they arrived, they were quite appalled. Basic buildings, dirt launchpads, and all sorts of junk and snack wrappers scattered all over the place. Nevertheless, the price was attractive, and they honestly couldn't have afforded the other choices.

After a few cans of hydrazine and many suitcases of fresh cash were exchanged, the deal was sealed.

Difficulty Settings

Behold, the difficulty settings. It's pretty much all Normal Difficulty, save for a select few options (Missing Crews Respawn and No Entry Purchase Required on Research disabled, notably), and the Funds. The Space Program will start off with only K$1000.

List of Mods (in alphabetical order)

• AutoAsparagus
• BetterBurnTime
• BetterCrewAssignment
• Chatterer
• Graphic Memory Monitor
• Kerbal Alarm Clock
• KSP AVC
• MechJeb 2
• Module Manager
• RCS Build Aid
• Take Command
• Trajectories
• Waypoint Manager
• WerhnerChecker

The First Flight

The Boss ordered the workers to design and build a rather primitive rocket. They bolted a primitive solid rocket booster and a parachute to a crew pod, which also had a container of "Mystery Goo" attached to its rear. With that done, he ordered it taken to the pad... wait.

They were K$1,000 short. The Boss, therefore, made his way down to Mission Control and got Gene Kerman to accept some contracts that this craft was certainly able to fulfill, and to solve the funding problem.

With the funding problem solved, the boss ordered it to be rolled out onto the pad. Actually, the pad was just a small circle of grass-lacking dirt and concrete with the charring of rocket propellant splattered everywhere.

The rocket booster ignited and it propelled the crew pod upwards. The booster burned out at about 3,500 meters traveling at 600 m/s, and the canister of "Mystery Goo" was now revealed to be a science experiment.

The now-spent rocket booster, along with the crew pod, began to fall back to Kerbin after reaching an altitude of 9 km. The parachute was deployed, but at this height, it would act as a drogue chute only.

Just a few seconds before impact, the parachute fully deployed, and everybody cheered as it returned to Kerbin.

Just a while after the Science One was recovered, a Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society representative showered the boss with funds and other things. Along with the contract money, they had now K$80,000, and 30 science points. He headed down to R&D to research some new parts to build better rockets, and to fork out K$12,000 to buy the rights to use those parts.

Edited January 22, 2016 by TotallyNotHuman_

[Mister Dilsby]

Fun way to run career, starting with only $1000--c'mon, go all the way masochistic and reduce the funds paid per contract to a pittance as well  Anyway interesting read, good luck with the career!

[waterlubber]

Yeah, I'd agree with Mr. Kuzzter over here, reduce that payout!

[TotallyNotHuman]

@Kuzzter and @waterlubber I agree, payouts should be less at the start (small company = less payouts, no?) and then grow as the Program grows bigger.

I wonder if you all would consider adjusting payouts as the game progresses as cheating...?

Next chapter will be coming soon... hopefully tonight.

Edited January 22, 2016 by TotallyNotHuman_