What human equivalent decade would you want the Career game to start?

[John FX]

Just a poll to gauge opinion on the level of technological development you would like to start a career game.

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

My preference would be unmanned rockets that would not reach space. Career starts with giving you a 5000m record to beat and simply to launch a rocket. Doing that gives you the next tech node so IMHO there is no reason to not have the very first tier be sounding rockets and look like the 1930s.

Edited December 18, 2014 by John FX

[Hannu]

About beginning of 1950s would be good. First rockets could be unmanned suborbital flights, but one generation of suborbital rockets is enough. Then one unmanned orbital test flights and maybe other more scientific mission before mk1 pod is unlocked.

[[email protected]]

Its sad how the leaps and bounds made in manned spaceflight in the first 3 decades suddenly flatlined. I'm hoping the next decade will rejuvinate that.

[Slam_Jones]

Late 40's, early 50's. A manned Mk I pod as your first payload to space seems silly... even if Kerbals are expendable.

I'd like it if you had to launch a few cheap, low-mass satellites before sending up Kerbals. This would help new players learn the ropes, and allows better diversity (hopefully) when you finally do get to manned spaceflights.

Just my two cents

[cptdavep]

I'd like to start with tiny unmanned rockets, would also have the benefit of giving us more tiny parts like in RLA stockalike.

[John FX]

I completely agree that one node of tiny rockets is enough. Even in the 30`s they went from pretty much fireworks to things four times the size of a man. After one tier of those you get rockets that can get into space and then the next step would be sputnik.

It seems there is no kerbal analog of laika so jeb will have to do it and so we get manned pods around tier 3.

Of course all this may have to arrive in the form of a mod.

[cantab]

I dunno, I've gotten used to the whole starting out with manned pods thing. And it is a game after all.

In terms of capabilities, at the moment we start out with more or less Mercury-Redstone, which is basically a manned sounding rocket. No staging and most players won't make orbit until they get decouplers.

Small sounding rockets aren't going to be very interesting to most players I don't think, and missiles aren't really in keeping with the tone of the game. Not to mention unmanned stuff in general doesn't necessarily imply smaller rockets. The Sputnik rocket was about twice as heavy as the Mercury-Atlas.

So I think where we have it now is about right.

[r_rolo1]

Its sad how the leaps and bounds made in manned spaceflight in the first 3 decades suddenly flatlined. I'm hoping the next decade will rejuvinate that.

TBH I would not say that it flatlined, just that a new direction was needed after going in a wrong direction ( I'm from the opinion that the Shuttles the USA and the USSR made in the 80's were a terrible idea that made the space exploration go sideways for a couple of decades ). It is good to see that people started to worry about making better rockets again, though

[wolfedg]

1950s Sputnik(57)/Explorer(58) Era

PS to OP:EDIT REMOVED Due to Fix

Edited December 18, 2014 by wolfedg

[xub313]

I'd rather KSP wasn't based on historical accuracy. This is Kerbin and not Earth after all. I think the current tech tree progression is pretty fun, starting manned and all.

[John FX]

1950s Sputnik(57)/Explorer(58) Era

PS to OP:Why is a Gemini Pod in the 1950s category? Gemini didn't get off the ground till like 64.

Oops, totally right, the first manned orbit was 1961. I`ll change it and put sputnik there.

EDIT :

A snapshot of the results so far at 25 votes

1940s 48%

1950s 24%

1930s 20%

1960s 8%

Edited December 18, 2014 by John FX

[J.Random]

16th century.

[Nemrav]

16th century.

Looks like we need a new poll option...

But that does look like its possible with sepatrons (although they are much bigger)..

[CaptainKipard]

40s I guess, but quickly moving towards 50s type technology.

[NathanKell]

I realize there is a ~sokerbal~ charm in starting with crewed pods, but there's also something amazing about starting small, rather than smaller-than-1.25 being harder/later than larger-than-1.25. For an example, just look at the popularity of RoverDude's Sounding Rockets mod.

Besides, ain't nothing more ~sokerbal~ than building a stick-o-boom, angling it with a few surveying sticks, and shooting it off into the sky while Jeb runs for cover.

[MKI]

Start with 1940 tech but with manned flight. More or less how it is now. This is a video game now, not a representation of how we did it. Kerbals invented rocket flight before electricity. It only makes sense to have manned missions before unmmanded, at least on kerbin it does.

[CG_Kerbin]

16th century.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Wan_Hu_large.png

XD would be a long game XD why not 15th Century

[thyriel]

I think early 50s is fine. There shouldn't be too much suborbital stuff involved. So i think that part is fine as it is now in the stock game. Only thing that i would improve around that is the availability of planes. The X15 was around 1959, and currently you get pretty basic stuff like landing gears at a time you can already visit other planets. Especially with all the new contracts i think it would really be more fun if we could fly around a bit with a plane before spending a couple dozend hours in the game.

[OhioBob]

Late 40's, early 50's. Quickly moving on to late 50's, early 60's tech after successfully completing some early milestones.

[Kar]

About the same time to launch a KerbalDog into space to see if he lives or not!

Oh....wait....we have Jeb.

[John FX]

So after 27 votes it seems that voting has ended although the poll is still open it seems 22% want 30's or 50's with a peak in the 40's

My preference would be sounding rockets so you can get the 5000m record and so forth with tech advancing so that the career game plays roughly the same as it is now leading to a manned pod around the time you need to orbit to finish a contract.

[Brotoro]

I think the technological limitation on making a big, complicated space program is NOT the rocket technology...it's the electronics/computer technologies. If you start too soon, your only option for complex control systems is kerbol brains onboard (such as they are).

[Frozen_Heart]

I'd like it to start late 40s, early 50s. End of tech tree should be 2020-2030s. (Aka LV-N, Rapier)

[regex]

I'd like it to start late 40s, early 50s. End of tech tree should be 2020-2030s. (Aka LV-N, Rapier)

LV-N is '60's tech.

I vote for late '50's. Sounding rockets are boring and I'd rather start with a Vostok/Mercury style launch, although that's 1960...

Edited April 19, 2015 by regex

[GusTurbo]

I think 30s or 40s makes sense. Starting unmanned is good because it makes your first manned flight seem more meaningful.