Race Into Space

[Scruce]

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.

Download Link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/raceintospace/

Screenshots:

Looks like a landing failed (oops!):

Seems JFK dosen\'t like me:

[SmiteZero]

Sourceforge? What\'s this? A remake of the 1993 original? 'Buzz Aldrin\'s Race Into Space'. It certainly looks very similar, although with the obvious omission of the astronaut\'s name.

[Scruce]

Sourceforge? What\'s this? A remake of the 1993 original?

Yep, a team of highly trained space mokeys were dispatched to turn BARIS into RIS.

Or more seriously, some fans of BARIS decided to update the game, fix bugs and the like.

[jgjiscool]

I\'m gonna have to try this!

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I have been looking for a game like this, other than this for the last 2-3 years.

[Guest ThatCrazyPilot]

What do i do? How do i build a rocket? This game is confusing...

[JupiterII]

I\'m going to try this sometime, maybe tomorrow.

[SmiteZero]

What do i do? How do i build a rocket? This game is confusing...

It\'s archaic, yes. I Googled and found enough help to be able to figure it out.

[NovaSilisko]

I don\'t exactly feel proud.

[jgjiscool]

I think I\'m winning! Not. I lost my crew...

[mincespy]

Could someone PLEASE post a tutorial? I got the game and I have no idea how to do anything and it\'s kinda annoying.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I need to make a remake of this. But I am too much of a perfectionist. When I start, I start with making the AI rocket development cycle, and I run into a brick wall. Basicly I want the player to put in the specifications and the companys come up with soultions, but I need to figure out how to random generate the engines, so the burn time of each stage can then be calculated, then I know the weight, but to know that I need to know the burn time reletive to the amount of fuel to 100 N.

So I go around in circles and get nowhere. Could anyone help me?

[Lunniy Korabl]

I don\'t exactly feel proud.

Look on the bright side, at least Michael Collins finally got some glory!

[jgjiscool]

I killed them... I won\'t even post a screenie...

[Alchemist]

Finally made it!

However setting the same values for Soviet and USA crafts is good only for easy balancing, not for realism.

[lopiko]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LErKIffYoGg& - That's how 99% of my attempts of lunar landing ends.