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Economy Game (self imposed ruleset).


boolybooly

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I am making a report here of a career game I am playing in which there are rules about how much you can spend on building a rocket.

  • The game starts with a credit of 2500K where K=Kerbils (made up name) not 1000's!
    • Overdraft is 10% of highest cash total to date, starts at 250K.
    • If you overdraw past your overdraft you go bust and you lose the game.

    [*]Credit is earned by science returned at a rate of 50K per science point.

    • eg 9 points is worth 9x50K = 450K

    [*]Part costs are subtracted from your credit total according to their stock cost value.

    [*]Parts recovered can be reused for free with the following exceptions.

    • Rebuilding recovered boosters / decouplers costs half their price.
    • Refuelling recovered liquid tanks costs 0.5K / litre, only for the fuel required.
    • Refuel is charged relative to the last mission end state.
      • eg If the tank is half full when recovered you are only charged for half the fuel cost.
      • eg Recovered unused decouplers can be reused with no cost.

    [*]Recovery is charged at a rate of 10K per item recovered outside KSC, plus 1K for every km travelled to the recovery sites (you need a flag at KSC to measure this).

    • For multiple recoveries count the distance to KSC once and add the distances between items per item.
    • eg 2 boosters 20km from KSC & 2Km apart = (2x items @10K ) + (20km+2km)x1K = 20K + 22K = 44K
    • Recovery from KSC entails no charge.
    • Recovery is charged for the current mission when totalling the mission.

    [*]Components can be rearranged at no cost, but extra copies are charged per copy.

    • So if you switch symmetry from 3 to 4 you must pay for the extra one.
    • If you dont use a component previously paid for and recovered it is held in reserve ready to use later.

With these rules it has been impossible to build big first mission ships and has become imperative to make reusable craft and helpful to recover craft from as close as possible to KSC. It has been a narrow squeak a couple of times but I am continuing with the missions.

This is the mission log with running economy totals on justpasteit. It is purely a text summary of the missions and the economic results, research and purchases, refuelling and recovery costs. Should be self explanatory if you've read the rules.

These are craft illustrating the way the game has required interesting reusable designs to break even and build capital for larger craft. I am preparing mission 24 and I have not yet made a full orbit or visited another SOI because I cannot afford to, its much more testing than career mode and demands all your ingenuity

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. Edited by boolybooly
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I added the latest mission to the log, which I will show here as an example, see also the 6th Imgur image for a screeny of "Orbiter 5" in the VAB if you want an example of the desperation an economy sim can bring to KSP!

Mission #24 as below, KSP spent all its capital and went 95 Kerbils into debt for a shot at the big time. It paid off when Jeb made high orbit and brought back a full set of experiments.

ADD, to build Orbiter 5

LV-909 small LF engine 750K,

5x FLT200 1125K,

2x Mk2 R chute 1400,

Telus ladder 440K,

2x FLT100 220,

1x TR18A decoupler 600

total 5645 -750 -1125 -1400 -440 -220 -600 = 1110

24- Failed Orbiter 5 Mun SOI attempt - high kerbin orbit

refuel = 505K LFT + decoupler 300K + SRB 400 = 1205

Total = 1110 -1205 = -95K *overdraft*

(overdraft max = - 828.9 K)

recovery 0

bet with Jeb he couldnt land at KSC = -20k

Sci + 90 = 4500K

Total -95 -20 + 4500 = 4385

sci 230

PS also added a rule change, making all liquid refuelling charged at a rate of 0.5k per litre to make an even cost for fuel (including oxidiser) because otherwise there is a big disincentive to invest in larger fuel tanks which is just no fun plus the previous balance was just a little too harsh.

On discovering the accounting error KSP were pleased they were never overdrawn in the first place and wrote a very dignified letter to their bank manager to let them know.

The log is corrected all the way through for the new rules now as I am using it as a kind of experiment to think about economy balance in general over the course of a career but I am leaving the quoted example above (which no longer applies) in place as a salutory reminder of what can happen if you are careless with fuel !

Edited by boolybooly
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Orbiter 6 was constructed using Orbiter 5 (see Imgur album in OP) by adding 6 FLT200 tanks, 3 to each side. It needed struts because the craft would break up on decoupling without them due to the wobble of all those nice cheap tanks in a row suspended from an inline decoupler because KSP could not afford radials. After refuelling there were only 799 Kerbils left which would only buy one radial, not much use when you are needing a pair!

Orbiter%206.jpg

At one point I thought the craft and Jeb were lost and possibly the game, when in Mun orbit with only 13.4 L of fuel to get back (as below, see Imgur screeny for Orbiter 6). However Jeb left the Mun orbit very elliptical so he could get some biome EVA and other data close to the surface (>60km) for part of the orbit but still get out of the SOI easily. He couldnt get any craters but got the north polar biomes and materials and goo, enough to pay for the mission.

0r2OVnN.png

Orbiter 6 burned at PE to leave Mun SOI and was adrift without enough fuel to drop onto Kerbin. The solution strangely was planning a slight change of Kerbin orbit to maximise a slingshot from a second encounter with the Mun so that it put the craft just outside the edge of Kerbin SOI, where Jeb was able to acquire Kerbolar orbit data for all experiments on the craft, giving a very big boost to the total science for the mission. From here the required dV to hit Kerbin was also much lower courtesy of the Mun's slingshot boost, so Orbiter 6 was able to make a small burn which returned it to Kerbin SOI to splash down 200km to the south west of KSC, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat!

Sci 230

unlock General construction -45

sci 185

ADD 6x FLT200 1350K , 2x (TT18-A) gantry 400, 2x EAS strut 500 = -2250

total 5149 -2250 = 2899

25 - Orbiter 6 polar orbit mission to munar SOI, successful, utilised slingshot to enter Kerbolar orbit and return to Kerbin with much more data than anticipated.

refuel LFT 1100 + SRB 400 + 2x TR18A 600 = refuel 2100

recovery lander 10 + 200, SRB 0, LFT 10 + 600 = 820

sci + 1096 = 54800K

total 2899 + 54800 - 2100 -820 = 54779K

Sci 1281

Edited by boolybooly
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I have one rule for me in career mode: I can't shut down first stage engines and re ignite them at any point as most RL rockets don't have that capability, second stage engines I can ignite 3-5 times, third/final stages I can ignite as many times as I want.

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Interesting idea 1D-1()T, would be glad to know how it plays out.

For my latest report, the Orbiter 6 mission changed the game as it allowed the use of much more expensive hardware to make Landers 1 & 2. Lander 1 visited Minmus surface and low Mun orbit to get 3000 science and even more money and then a beefed up and thoroughly redesigned Lander 2 with new capsule and nuclear engine made a series of 6 Mün landings in different biomes in a single mission to net nearly 4000.

This should be enough to open up Duna and the other planets though a lifter powerful enough to get the Lander in orbit with enough fuel to make the journey will cost big bucks. Interestingly though a reusable lifter opens up the possibility of sending multiple mission craft since you dont have to pay for the lifter each time just new components for the relatively smaller mission craft and lifter refuel.

The Imgur album features this screenshot taken of Lander 2 while in mid suborbital hop.

uRU5qMMh.jpg

Edited by boolybooly
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Final report... The first 24 missions were difficult financially and there were times when it seemed more than possible to go bankrupt and lose. The KSP finally broke through in the last dozen to complete the tech tree after 36 missions with over 400,000 Kerbils to spend on the next rocket.

Lander 3 returning to KSC terrain

2PPGevRh.jpg

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