[1.2.2] Realistic Progression Zero (RP-0) - Lightweight RealismOverhaul career v0.53 June 12

[chrisl]

@przybysz86  That's an interesting design.  Unfortunately, I don't have Sergeants.  Not sure which mode those come with but apparently not one of the parts mods I'm using.  And I don't really want the sounding rocket contracts just to make money.  They were simply the only contracts I really had available.  Once I managed to finish researching the tech node that gave me access to the A-7, X405 and AJ10, it because less of a problem.  A spin stabilized "dumb" Vanguard with a baby-Sergeant (from Juno 1) in place of the proper third stage was hitting right around 5800km and was costing me about $1800 per launch.  They were more expensive than your setup, but I still made enough that I'm a bit ahead of the game after finally getting my first satellite into orbit.

[przybysz86]

6 hours ago, chrisl said:

I don't have Sergeants.

I meant baby-sergants that comes with stock RO/RP-0 -as used here: https://github.com/KSP-RO/RP-0/wiki/Tutorial%3A-Reaching-Orbit
 

I just used them to built my own clusters similar to one built by NathanKell here - check part 2:

Spoiler

 

 

 

but instead of AJ10+RD103 I used Vanguard + Aerobees. I believe all parts except Vanguard engines are stock to RO/RP-0. Possibly baby-sergeants clusters from juno are more expensive. I also find them "cheaty" as they either fail all or non whil hand made clusters can fail partially and add spin - add more flavour if you ask me

 

Edited October 21, 2016 by przybysz86

[Maxsimal]

18 hours ago, chrisl said:

@przybysz86  That's an interesting design.  Unfortunately, I don't have Sergeants.  Not sure which mode those come with but apparently not one of the parts mods I'm using.  And I don't really want the sounding rocket contracts just to make money.  They were simply the only contracts I really had available.  Once I managed to finish researching the tech node that gave me access to the A-7, X405 and AJ10, it because less of a problem.  A spin stabilized "dumb" Vanguard with a baby-Sergeant (from Juno 1) in place of the proper third stage was hitting right around 5800km and was costing me about $1800 per launch.  They were more expensive than your setup, but I still made enough that I'm a bit ahead of the game after finally getting my first satellite into orbit.

You can get much cheaper by using the a-4 engine as your first stage, not sure why noone is mentioning it here.  In RP0, all the solid-rocket engines are not price-efficient for the net impulse they deliver, compared to liquid-fueled engines, IMHO, and due to the interaction of test-flight burn times and rocket mass, you don't need any sort of booster or kick when using it, your rocket should have decent TWR if you're using a 70second burn with the A-4 and put reasonably sized, aero-bee based 2nd & 3rd stages on top of that.

My sounding rocket high rocket was coming in at less than 800 for a 5500km rocket.  I'm sure you can manage something similar.

[chrisl]

6 hours ago, Maxsimal said:

You can get much cheaper by using the a-4 engine as your first stage, not sure why noone is mentioning it here.  In RP0, all the solid-rocket engines are not price-efficient for the net impulse they deliver, compared to liquid-fueled engines, IMHO, and due to the interaction of test-flight burn times and rocket mass, you don't need any sort of booster or kick when using it, your rocket should have decent TWR if you're using a 70second burn with the A-4 and put reasonably sized, aero-bee based 2nd & 3rd stages on top of that.

My sounding rocket high rocket was coming in at less than 800 for a 5500km rocket.  I'm sure you can manage something similar.

Hmm.  I'll have to look at that.  I have a Bumper (V-2 with WAC 2nd stage) but it can only reach 480km.  And I have a "Bumper III" (V-2 with Aerobee 150 2nd stage) which can reach 1600km.  But I hadn't tried creating my own A-4 powered first stage.

[EliasDanger]

Launch a one stage v2 with thermometer, barometer, and three bio samples. Put a chute, a decoupler and fairing on there to reduce drag, protect the science, and detach and recover avionics with science. That gives you plenty of science to unlock first tier Tech which will give you better avionics and better engines to get higher and even get to orbit. 

No real reason to use aerobees until you unlock that first tier rocketry and can upgrade them. All it takes is one v2 launch with all that science. Transmit the temp and pressure for low, high, and space, recover bio samples for the same, and you have all the science you need to unlock and progress.

Here's an album with pictures: http://imgur.com/a/aQ6HB

Use that and you'll have plenty of science to unlock first tier tech.

Edited October 22, 2016 by EliasDanger

[przybysz86]

14 hours ago, EliasDanger said:

Launch a one stage v2 with thermometer, barometer, and three bio samples. Put a chute, a decoupler and fairing on there to reduce drag, protect the science, and detach and recover avionics with science. That gives you plenty of science to unlock first tier Tech which will give you better avionics and better engines to get higher and even get to orbit. 

No real reason to use aerobees until you unlock that first tier rocketry and can upgrade them. All it takes is one v2 launch with all that science. Transmit the temp and pressure for low, high, and space, recover bio samples for the same, and you have all the science you need to unlock and progress.

Here's an album with pictures: http://imgur.com/a/aQ6HB

Use that and you'll have plenty of science to unlock first tier tech.

Yup - I use similar design to grind science for early orbital but question was about rockets capable of "high sounding rockets" contract that you can do while waiting for new tech so that you earn SL rather than skip time. Aerobee-bumper as far as I can tell will give you only low "high" contracts (2000ish km) at best (if you use smart A.S.S.  to compensate for lack to lead ballast in the nose) but high contracts are up to 5000km if memory serves and it just won't get there.

 

 

21 hours ago, Maxsimal said:

You can get much cheaper by using the a-4 engine as your first stage, not sure why noone is mentioning it here.  In RP0, all the solid-rocket engines are not price-efficient for the net impulse they deliver, compared to liquid-fueled engines, IMHO, and due to the interaction of test-flight burn times and rocket mass, you don't need any sort of booster or kick when using it, your rocket should have decent TWR if you're using a 70second burn with the A-4 and put reasonably sized, aero-bee based 2nd & 3rd stages on top of that.

My sounding rocket high rocket was coming in at less than 800 for a 5500km rocket.  I'm sure you can manage something similar.

Thanks fore the tip - I will have to check it. I neve use rockets just to fulfil sounding rockets contract but it would be nice to have a cheap backup just in case contract is about to expire and rocket I tested just experienced total failure of 1st stage 10s after lift-off

[Maxsimal]

On 10/21/2016 at 10:09 PM, chrisl said:

Hmm.  I'll have to look at that.  I have a Bumper (V-2 with WAC 2nd stage) but it can only reach 480km.  And I have a "Bumper III" (V-2 with Aerobee 150 2nd stage) which can reach 1600km.  But I hadn't tried creating my own A-4 powered first stage.

Yeah, make your own a-4 stage, the V-2 is not at all an efficient design compared to what you can get with a little customization.  I didn't have a lot of my old sounding rockets, cleared them out to reduce clutter, but here's an example that does 4.2k km for 355 credits.  You can easily add another stage to go much higher if you want for not much money.  It's not pure T0 since it uses the service module/default tank types, but again, just an example.

 

[Lilienthal]

Adding small solid rockets to get the steeringless stages spinning helps a lot.

 

[chrisl]

15 hours ago, Lilienthal said:

Adding small solid rockets to get the steeringless stages spinning helps a lot.

 

I actually created by own "spin motors" to handle this.  It is based on the small separation motor but with 1/10th the thrust and fuel.  I usually mount at least two at a 45 degree angle, then cut the thrust and fuel down further.  Gives a modest spin, especially on lighter stages.

For sounding rockets, in the end I just ended up using my Vanguard which can consistently hit 7800km going straight up.  It's a bit expensive (1800) but I added a recovery shoot to the first stage which effectively cuts the cost in half.

The trouble I'm facing now is that all I'm doing is Medium and High sounding rocket contracts.  I've done at least 15 so far and estimate I'll be doing at least another 5 if I don't want to just skip time.  There just aren't any other doable contracts at this early stage.
I did manage to completely the "atmospheric analysis" contract but I think it's requirements are set just slightly too high for Vanguard/Juno era rockets.  Trying to get 560km x 3200km when you only have about 10km/s dV available is really not viable.  It's the 560km periapsis that's a bit much.  I could reach that altitude, but rarely had enough dV left to complete orbit let alone push apoapsis to 3200km.  The difficulty is you pretty much have to do everything with a single burn and have limited control by the time you get to you last stage.  I only managed to do it by taking my Vanguard rocket and attaching eight Aerobee 170 SRBs to it, then firing those in succession.  It was completely unstable and took me several tries to complete.  Any mistake during the flight would either cause the rocket to go out of control or miss it's target.  I'm sure there are any number of rockets I could put together using Vanguard/Juno era equipment that could do the contract, but if you're trying to go with more or less historic rockets, this contract is extremely hard to complete.  Maybe reduce the periapsis to 350km.  A 350km x 3200km orbit is hard but at least doable.
But once you complete the "atmospheric analysis" contract, the next type of satellite contract you get have requirements that are impossible (or at least beyond extremely difficult) to accomplish with Vanguard/Juno era parts (let alone with actual Vanguard or Juno rockets).  I have two satellite contracts available: "Meteorogical Satellite" and "Micrometeorite Measurements".  Both of them have periapsis and apoapsis requirements that are too strict for Vanguard/Juno era equipment.
I know all three of these types of contracts are completely doable once you have Thor/Atlas/Titan era equipment.  It's just getting to that point that I'm finding very repetitive.  I just think we need a few satellite contracts that can be completed with Vanguard/Juno era rockets (i.e. single restart and limited upper stage control).

[Phineas Freak]

FYI the mid & high Sounding Rocket contracts are there as a means of earning a quick buck or two (like a side quest) on top of a normal mission. When you know that you are going to GEO, Lunar or interplanetary orbits then you can accept them since you are going to complete them easily. Focus on the "big" missions (reach the Karman line, enter Earth orbit, flyby/impact the Moon etc.) to get the money required to build the infrastructure and the flight hardware.

Also, be aware that the generic "position a satellite into a specific orbit" are not controlled by RP-0 so you could find yourself in a situation with an contract like that but without the ability to actually complete it.

[przybysz86]

I agree - sounding rockets are not the way to progress career. you will get stuck due to lack of RP sooner or later.
I used medium and high contracts combined with science from space to cut on my losses when testing new engines, etc. At early stages of your career (up to lunar imapctor/flyby) you can actually test rockets and earn money that way but later on those contracts usually just make you break even or with minimal loss instead of loosing money each time.
Just keep 1-2 proven rocket built and ready to roll out just in case your tested design fails every single time and you are getting close to contract deadline.

 

[Maxsimal]

@chrisl     Trying to play with purely historical rockets is definitely making this a lot more rough on you than necessary.  Maybe give yourself a little more flexibility?  Another option, if you're bored at this stage, is to install the historical missions for RSS mod, that'll give you some other targets to shoot for.   Also, at that point, you can quite reasonably do the 'manned' contract missions, as well as breaking the manned speed/height records.  Trying to go historical with a realistic X-15 drop/flight is quite rough, but there are lots of other ways to kick an x-15 style plane up to altitude before yous tart flying it.  

Overall though, I agree there's a lack of mission variety.  I must have put 50+ moon satellite missions by now.  But somehow I still enjoy it.

 

[chrisl]

I have trouble building and flying planes so I don't take those contracts.  I know that handicaps me a bit (more than a bit?) but it is what it is.  Besides, I love rockets more than I love planes. 

I agree that sounding rocket contracts are really just fillers.  But those are basically the only contracts I can do right now.  I wasn't getting any other contracts that were doable with my tech level.  Like I said previously, I did get the "Atmospheric Analysis" contract and while I think the specs for it are a bit high for historic early era rockets (i.e. Juno I/Vanguard), it is doable if you throw history out the window.  But you only get offered that contract once.  As soon as you complete it, the next satellite contracts that come up (disregarding the non-RP-0 "position a satellite into a specific orbit" contracts) are "Meteorogical Satellite" and "Micrometeorite Measurements".  Both of those contracts again have rather high periapsis requirements for such early era historic rockets, and they require a level of upper stage control that you don't really have in the Juno I/Vanguard era.  You also get the Moon Orbit, Flyby and Impactor contracts, but again those really aren't doable in the Juno I/Vanguard era.  They should be perfectly doable in the Thor/Atlas/Titan rocket era since you have a bit more upper stage control (and dV for the moon contracts), but that basically means you only have two contracts available during "Early" rocketry (First Satellite and Atmospheric Analysis).  And, at least for me, that meant having to rely on sounding rocket contracts to make the funds needed for new parts and site upgrades (I'm still working on the funds to improve my launch pad).  Just seems to me we need some repeatable early era satellite contracts (i.e. contracts with only minimum periapsis and apoapsis requirements).  Maybe with a new Milestone contract that has you put a satellite into a more controlled orbit (i.e., min/max peri/apo requirements, possibly with mid inclination requirements) before you start getting "Meteorogical Satellite" and "Micrometeorite Measurements".

@Maxsimal  I wasn't aware that there was a contract pack for "historical missions for RSS mod".  I'll have to look for that.  Is it listed as a suggested mod for RO/RP-0/RSS and I just missed it?

[Maxsimal]

@chrisl No it's not.  The mod is on ckan and it's here on the forum

I dunno why it's not recommended or suggested, tbh, I'm sure the mod authors know.  It's not perfect, but then again, all of RP0 is a work in progress too.

 

 

[przybysz86]

Historical Missions are great - give you purpose but what I find boring in the long run is that it give contracts for failed missions too . It's fine at first but then making a rocket just to fail mission is little boring in long run. Especially if failure is not say impact instead orbit but it's about suborbital and crash back to Earth instead something interplanetary.

It's not a huge problem but more inconvenience for someone with contract OCD like me who want to make them all

[przybysz86]

16 hours ago, chrisl said:

I agree that sounding rocket contracts are really just fillers.  But those are basically the only contracts I can do right now.  I wasn't getting any other contracts that were doable with my tech level. 

Lunar Flyby/impactor can be done with RD103M, 1st AJ10 and baby sergeants using levl 1 launch pad and level 2 tracking station and mission control.
If you do them you should have plenty of tech and funds to get better rockets capable of shooting probes to Mars.

In fact in my game (difficulty on hard but with 100% fund reward) I had enough science to get me most of those tech nodes after first satellite contract.

16 hours ago, chrisl said:

I have trouble building and flying planes so I don't take those contracts.  I know that handicaps me a bit (more than a bit?) but it is what it is.  Besides, I love rockets more than I love planes. 

You can get some early plane contract using rockets. You can go into suborbital and get safe reentry using X1 cockpit and A4 + some lead to prevent over-G. Or A4 initial + XLR11 sustainer as it has option to deep throttle - with option to reignite it can be used to slow down reentry. All it require is investing 1 science to unlock 1st plane node.
I've done lot of plane contracts using simple rocket plane (or rather winged rocket with Vanguard engine which is nice as it can control roll with verniers. And if you are bad at landing (frankly KSP is lacking a lot in this area) it's just matter of fitting 2 parachutes (one on each end on top of fuselage). Fly low over spot where you want to land and just open them.

You can just skip contracts that require you to maintain certain speed and/or altitude for certain time. Everything else is achievable with rockets and even A4 have enough thrust and burn time to get manned capsule into space which I guess is historically correct as it was able to do so with 1t of a warhead/lead ballast:
http://www.astronautix.com/m/mannedv-2.html

[chrisl]

@przybysz86 I know they CAN be done.  Hell, I could put together a monster sounding rocket that could complete the early lunar missions.  My point is, you can't complete them with historically accurate rockets until you get to the Thor/Atlas/Titan era (i.e., "Basic" rocketry, construction and avionics).  And there just aren't enough contracts available to get you through the earlier Juno/Vanguard rocket era (i.e. "Early" rocketry, construction and avionics).  I don't think we need a ton of contracts for that era.  But I do think we need more than the two (neither being repeatable) we currently have.

I hadn't thought about using chutes to "land" a rocket plane.  I may have to give that a try.

As for the Historical Missions contract pack, my only question is, is it compatible with RP-0? 

[chrisl]

I seem to be encountering a problem with the "Lunar Flyby (Uncrewed)" contract.  I've finally put a satellite up that has made the trip to the moon and is going to pass within 5000km (4412.62km periapsis).  I'm currently at an altitude of 4922km and looking at my active contracts:
Launch a new vessel is flagged as true
Vessel State: Destinate: the Moon; Altitude: Below 5,000,000 m is flagged as true
Crew: Unmanned is flagged as true
Collect Science is not flagged
Destination: the Moon is flagged as true
Experiment: Any is not flagged
Recovery: Recover or transmit is not flagged

So I tell the probe to "Analyze Telemetry".  So not I have a windows saying "[1/1] Telemetry Analysis while in space high over the Moon".  Now the contract info reads as above but instead of "Destination: the Moon", I now have:
Telemetry Analysis while in space high over the Moon, which is flagged as true.

So now all I should have to do is transmit the Telemetry Analysis.  As soon as I start to transmit, the contract stats go back to what they originally were, even after the transmission is complete.  It took a lot of effort to get to this point so I'm really hoping someone has an idea what is keeping this contract from completing.

 

EDIT: After some further testing, it seems this is a RemoteTech 1.7.1 issue.  I removed RemoteTech, then reloaded my save and this time when I transmit the science, the contract completed.  So I'll check on the RemoteTech thread and see if this is something that's been reported.

Edited October 26, 2016 by chrisl

[Maxsimal]

13 hours ago, chrisl said:

@przybysz86 I know they CAN be done.  Hell, I could put together a monster sounding rocket that could complete the early lunar missions.  My point is, you can't complete them with historically accurate rockets until you get to the Thor/Atlas/Titan era (i.e., "Basic" rocketry, construction and avionics).  And there just aren't enough contracts available to get you through the earlier Juno/Vanguard rocket era (i.e. "Early" rocketry, construction and avionics).  I don't think we need a ton of contracts for that era.  But I do think we need more than the two (neither being repeatable) we currently have.

I hadn't thought about using chutes to "land" a rocket plane.  I may have to give that a try.

As for the Historical Missions contract pack, my only question is, is it compatible with RP-0? 

it doesn't cause any bugs to use both.  The pacing can feel 'off' sometimes between the two though.  RP-0 just hits you with a new goal as soon as you finish a previous one (or occasionally when you unlock a particular tech or part).   Historical contracts are instead paced to the space programs of primarily US and Russia - I think there's an option to just do one or the other, but I'm doing both.  And it occasionally inserts some time requirements between giving you new contracts for realism's sake, so you're not given the next Vostok mission the second you complete the previous one, for example.  So you may end up, like I have, having the RP-0 manned moon landing mission while still being quite far from that in historical.  

Also, sometimes there'll be incidental mission overlap between the two - you could complete the RP-0 lunar flyby and 'Luna 1' at the same time, for instance, and thus get a double reward. But there aren't that many RP0 contracts, compared to the hundreds from Historical, so that's not a big deal .

Back up your save, install it, and try it out, is what I'd say.

[przybysz86]

16 hours ago, chrisl said:

@przybysz86 I know they CAN be done.  Hell, I could put together a monster sounding rocket that could complete the early lunar missions.  My point is, you can't complete them with historically accurate rockets until you get to the Thor/Atlas/Titan era (i.e., "Basic" rocketry, construction and avionics).  And there just aren't enough contracts available to get you through the earlier Juno/Vanguard rocket era (i.e. "Early" rocketry, construction and avionics).  I don't think we need a ton of contracts for that era.  But I do think we need more than the two (neither being repeatable) we currently have.

I hadn't thought about using chutes to "land" a rocket plane.  I may have to give that a try.

As for the Historical Missions contract pack, my only question is, is it compatible with RP-0? 

Historical Mission is fully compatible with RP-0 as far as I've checked and if you aim toward fully realistic recreation it's definitely mod for you. Not sure if adding it would corrupt your save but seem like you are not far into it so it would be better to just start anew - there are some V2/R1 contracts in historical mission for just those early phase too.

As for playing historically accurate vs manned V2 - there were plans for such vessels so it's more of a "what if" scenario and if you want your 1st suborbital flight to be proper around the earth one then just cut engine when your apoapsis hit 139km so that you just end up passing Karman Line - I did it that way in my current career.
BTW that is one of the reasons why I play it on hard (lower science reward) but use 100% fund reward - I like to play more mission rather than be forced to do 3-4 contracts at the same time.
For example I try to get lunar flyby in separate contract to lunar impact despite the fact that impactor will fulfil flyby too and I use the same design in both missions.

 

[chrisl]

@Maxsimal, @przybysz86 I know I will be starting over again when RO and RP-0 are updated for 1.2, so I may hold off trying out Historical Missions until then.  It's definitely on my list now, though.

And I still think RP-0 needs a repeatable contract similar to Atmospheric Analysis.  Just maybe with a more doable minimum periapsis. 

[Maxsimal]

13 hours ago, chrisl said:

@Maxsimal, @przybysz86 I know I will be starting over again when RO and RP-0 are updated for 1.2, so I may hold off trying out Historical Missions until then.  It's definitely on my list now, though.

And I still think RP-0 needs a repeatable contract similar to Atmospheric Analysis.  Just maybe with a more doable minimum periapsis. 

I don't disagree with you. Even with historical, I kind of miss some of the 'test' contracts from the base game, things like that.   Historical helps a lot though - without it, there's too much grind of using the same rocket design to complete satellite contracts.   For me the fun is designing rockets that efficiently get the job done, once that's done and I've flown it a few times, it loses a lot of its luster, and I want the next challenge.  But I also don't like letting heaps of time go to waste while I'm waiting for new tech so... historical fills that gap.

[chrisl]

Just came across another contract I have a concern about.  I recently completed the "Achieve Geostationary Orbit" contract.  I found it to be a fairly difficult contract using more or less historic rockets, primarily because I misread it and therefore took it too soon.  When I saw the contract, I thought it was a Geosynchronous Orbit.  My mistake for not reading the particulars closely enough, and in the end I was able to do the contract.  But it got me thinking.  Shouldn't there be a "Achieve Geosynchronous Orbit" contract before you try preforming a Geostationary orbit?  If you're playing with RSS, Geostationary is another level of difficulty above Geosynchronous.  Or does RP-0 not distinguish between these two orbit because you might not be using RSS?

[MatBailie]

1 hour ago, chrisl said:

Just came across another contract I have a concern about.  I recently completed the "Achieve Geostationary Orbit" contract.  I found it to be a fairly difficult contract using more or less historic rockets, primarily because I misread it and therefore took it too soon.  When I saw the contract, I thought it was a Geosynchronous Orbit.  My mistake for not reading the particulars closely enough, and in the end I was able to do the contract.  But it got me thinking.  Shouldn't there be a "Achieve Geosynchronous Orbit" contract before you try preforming a Geostationary orbit?  If you're playing with RSS, Geostationary is another level of difficulty above Geosynchronous.  Or does RP-0 not distinguish between these two orbit because you might not be using RSS?

Ummm, a Geostationary Orbit is a type of Geosynchronous Orbit (in the same way that a square is a type of rectangle).  It's just a Geosynchronous Orbit with an inclination of 0 and an eccentricity of 0.

Being that the contract orbits require specifics (certain AP and/or PE and/or inclination and/or eccentricity) what specific Geosynchronous Orbit would you consider to be easier than a Geostationary Orbit? 

Also, I'm not sure that the constraint of "All RP-0 contracts MUST be achievable with historic rockets" is a valid one to assert.  It may be your preference, but RP-0 isn't an infinitely detailed simulation of reality.  It's still a game, and as the OP points out it's "light weight".  The fact that these contracts Can be achieved within the tech-tree given seems appropriate to me.

Perhaps you could, instead, look to building your own contract pack?

[chrisl]

1 minute ago, MatBailie said:

Ummm, a Geostationary Orbit is a type of Geosynchronous Orbit (in the same way that a square is a type of rectangle).  It's just a Geosynchronous Orbit with an inclination of 0 and an eccentricity of 0.

Being that the contract orbits require specifics (certain AP and/or PE and/or inclination and/or eccentricity) what specific Geosynchronous Orbit would you consider to be easier than a Geostationary Orbit? 

Also, I'm not sure that the constraint of "All RP-0 contracts MUST be achievable with historic rockets" is a valid one to assert.  It may be your preference, but RP-0 isn't an infinitely detailed simulation of reality.  It's still a game, and as the OP points out it's "light weight".  The fact that these contracts Can be achieved within the tech-tree given seems appropriate to me.

Perhaps you could, instead, look to building your own contract pack?

When you're playing with RSS, Geosynchronous requires extra dV to acheive.  Anywhere from 900-4000 depending on the number or restarts your engines have and that's assuming a launch from Canaveral.  I'm assuming if you launch from a site in Russia, it would require even more.  I'd suggest that an initial Geosynchronous contract would not include an inclination requirement.  Just an AP, PE, Ecc and Orbital Period.  Then have a second contract that added the inclination requirement since that adds an extra level of difficulty.

Historic rockets are a legitimate frame of reference that everyone has access to.  Even if you're not creating your own Vanguards, Junos, Thors, Atlas', Titans, Sputniks, Voskhods or Soyuz (or any other historic rocket), you can still figure out the dV, twr and carry capacities of these rockets with a quick internet search.  Therefore they are a good frame of reference to use when setting up RP-0 contracts.  For instance, if the "First Artificial Satellite" contract can be completed with a Vanguad, Juno or Sputnik rocket (which it can), then a player who has never played RO/RSS/RP-0 before can at least estimate the dV required to complete the contract with their own non-historic creation.  Same goes for pretty much any RP-0 contract.  If it's setup so that a historic rocket of the appropriate era can complete it, then a similarly powerful "fictitious" rocket should also be able to complete it.  I'm not suggesting contracts that require specific historic rockets.  That's beyond the "light weight" scope of RP-0.  But if the contract is meant for "Early Orbital Rocketry", then I think it should be doable with Vanguard, Juno and Sputnik rockets as well as "fictitious" rockets.