Buzz-hard Soviet Campaign (BASPM)

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 12:20:32 AM

I, Iason Prattovksy, hereby assume command of our glorious Soviet National Hero Project!

Comrades! Do not mistake the propaganda of the capitalist West for mere bluff! We are now at war! -- not a war with guns and tanks and ships and planes, for mere land or oil or even for freedom -- but a war for hearts and minds of all human race! Deeds not words prove truth of reality!

We have struggled in revolution against the tyranny of false systems of human government, and have shed the blood of tens of millions in defense of our scientifically perfect society against barbarism and superstition. But lies can be forced at the point of a gun, as the Huns attempted in the Patriotic War, to our great national sorrow -- though also to our triumph.

As in that war of blood and smoke and steel the common Soviet people rose up from poverty and mud on wings bestowed by our scientific realism, proving by deeds against the worst advantages of our enemies in money and perverted technology and fear, that the ascendancy of the people in perfect communism cannot and shall not fail; so in this new war against the wealth-hoarders of the West, a war of peace but a war nonetheless, we must prove with our Russian hearts and our Soviet way of life, that we bring new light and hope to all human race! We shall call upon our solid, doughty union of comradely workers and by selfless direction achieve a feat beyond all previous human capabilities: we shall send men from the Earth to the Moon and back again!

And when we do so, before eyes of the decadent pigs of the West, who set themselves above the eyes of the world to have so many advantages, all the oppressed workers of the world will flock to our golden hammer and sickle -- not through a tide of blood, though our flag shall never forget those sacrifices, but in love of truth and justice which this deed shall blaze across heaven! And man shall finally be at peace as the Moon looks down upon us all -- the Heaven mastered at last by Man!

This is our dream! This is our future! Let us forge it now, comrades, together!

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 12:23:43 AM

Q1 1955
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Comrades! Welcome to our glorious city of space!

Already our noble citizens have achieved so much! But more must be done! Yes, we could recline in our shining city of ultimate technology and science, while earning two billion rubles a quarter; but what would our lives be worth if we acted like capitalist thieves? Only the cost of nine millimeters of steel jacketed lead, yes? Hahahahahahaha! To steal from the people is a crime you would be lucky to die from, but that is not the Soviet way, so we need say nothing more about it, yes?

No! -- what our lives should be worth, is INDESTRUCTABLE GLORY! -- and the honor of all human history!

But, if you insist on an actual number: $12.5 billion rubles with an extra 2.5b per season, for now. Minus current expenses, a little under 2b. For now. Soon it will be much less for we shall spend this money, not on ourselves or for our own luxury, but efficiently propelling our destiny into the sunlight between the stars!

If we earn honor in our work, we shall be given more with which to earn more honor for ourselves and for the Soviet Union. But to him who will not have it, even what he has shall be taken away from him. So in his wisdom and genius taught Karl Marx and his heir Lenin, the servant of the people.

Let us then consider: what is the most cost efficient way to proceed? With expensive missiles to launch around our planet things that have never been placed on a missile before?

No, comrades! Instead, we shall call upon our pilots, and our history of upending the expectations of our enemies! Thanks to our glorious Patriotic War, we have the technology already to begin putting pilots quickly into space by aircraft.

True, we shall need rockets later; but first let us prove the heroism and ingenuity of our people, and of our way of Soviet life!

Instead of building expensive rocketry first, we can put our money toward hiring pilots sooner, and toward upgrading our facilities sooner, and hiring new Space Exploration Technicians to research our science faster. This will give us an advantage which only shall grow as time marches onward, upon which we can build our starlit future.

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

[Gamenote: the game randomly switches back and forth between day and night art for the facility.]

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 04:24:01 PM

Q2 1955
-------

Comrades! The utter superiority of our scientific process has been proved by the choice of our opponents to follow our lead in opening an experimental space plane program as well! Fortunately, we secretly set up plans to build our vehicle assembly and mission control centers early, so that we shall stay ahead of their sad attempts at learning our secrets and dogging our steps.

[Gamenote: I went ahead and bought those, too, before ending my turn, but after posting a Q1 entry last night.]

Mission control has already been finished this season, thanks to our undefeatable workers! By next season other improvements and construction shall surely also be laid and raised!

Our brave General Secretary of Communist Party of Soviet Union has stood up to all the world and announced our fully public intentions:

We must not and shall not disgrace him, nor the will of Soviet peoples!

With this resolution, I have chosen to dismiss Vaclav Treschev, a man hired under my esteemed predecessor who, though I shall praise him for bringing our glorious cosmic city almost to completion in time to begin our heroic race, did not have the same high standards I insist upon for our comradely union.

I know this has been a slight blow to your morale, but let it inspire you to learn your tasks better so as not to follow Vaclav. Also, for security purposes, I recommend you refrain from trying to contact him to carry on any comradely fraternity, proper though that would otherwise be. Instead, I suggest you think of Vaclav as having wandered into the wilderness outside our city, where he died of exposure and was devoured by vultures and wild dogs. Let that image, extreme though it is, dissuade you from regarding him as someone you can ever contact again; and also let it linger in your mind as an example of what could easily happen to any lazy worker who demands more pay. He shall be missed, but new SET technologists are in training as we speak, to arrive this autumn, and they shall eclipse Vaclav and his memory among us! To the future with them! -- to the past with Vaclav and all who would ride our project in laziness!

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

[Gamenote: I don't know if SET personnel are randomly assigned at the beginning of the game, but this guy was toxic: an average skill of only 32.54, not offset by any good competency anywhere, and a monthly cost of $59. His cost/skill ratio was by a far margin the worst at 1.63. Unfortunately I'm limited to hiring only 2 SET techs per year, but last season I've already picked up 2 fine workers with strong skills everywhere. Morale took a small hit when I fired him, but the alternative was to spend more money training him for some actual competency somewhere.]

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 04:51:29 PM

Q3 1955
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Comrades! The rumors that we have now begun running a deficit each season here at Cosmocity are greatly exaggerated, and should be no cause for alarm, morale, or defection.

Instead, look around at our growing city, now at last complete -- though still with far to grow!

Look, and let your hearts rejoice with terrifying gratitude, for being chosen and allowed to bring this Hero Project to its first completions!
Our flight controllers continue their training, and without going into details for security reasons of course we have chosen our first pilot whom we shall meet next year once he passes basic training: for what is elite among our noble combat pilots is less than basic for this grand struggle!

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 05:16:13 PM

Q4 1955
-------

Comrades! This winter we shall put our flight control officers into rigorous advanced training unequalled in the decadent west! Meanwhile, our research continues rapidly not only into the great spaceplane, but also for the Molnya booster which is far beyond the payload capacity of the poor Western scientists, in order to allow us to more quickly reach space with human pilots!

Let me now take an opportunity to welcome our comradely sisters who have bravely settled into a high-technology village across the river; carefully selected from all across our vast nation out of millions and millions of applicants to support your needs in so many ways! -- for I understand that being isolated even in such a glorious enterprise as our Cosmic City, makes for difficulties which you bear for the sake of our Motherland. May our new comrades as they visit us day and night look up to the stars which, in their own way, they shall help our nation to reach in these first infant months of gestation!

To the future of all humanity, and to the future of new humanity!

SOON WE SHALL BE VICTORY!

[Gamenote: no, there's no in-game function for that little settlement across the river; but it shows up nicely in the random night screen, so I invented a plausible function for it under the high-security circumstances. ;) I presume the women actually volunteered, by the way. And nothing really happened this turn other than the usual quiet advances.]

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 05:57:44 PM

Q1 1956
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Comrades! For a year we have toiled in this grand project now! Let us celebrate with an announcement!

The morale from, I presume, the improvement of local comradeship last season, has given birth, not yet indeed to new little Soviets, but to a series of technical achievements by our SET teams! I cannot go into details for security reasons, of course, but I also cannot fully express in words my pride in their work, which shall boost our research and development progress by twenty percent per season for the foreseeable future!

[Gamenote: good random event gives me 19.7% progress boost to R&D for five seasons.]

[It has also just occurred to me to wonder if the little settlement across the river is supposed to be the eventual launching sites. That doesn't seem likely, as the bridge would prevent vertical rockets from crossing, much moreso their crawlers (do we get to have crawlers? -- no research for that yet). We'll see I guess.]

Q2 1956
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Comrades. It is true that human weakness leads to breakdown in relationships even when special comrades have been carefully selected for your best consolation. However, this must not be allowed to affect our progress. Remember, if you must, the man you may have properly forgotten already, as if his bones were crying out from the surrounding wasteland scattered by dogs: "DO NOT BE DISTRACTED BY WORLDLY THINGS WHEN WE ARE RACING FOR THE HEAVENS!"

[Gamenote: bad random event, RD will suffer a 7.1% penalty for 1 season.]

Q3 1956
-------

Comrades! First, I must chastise you, to my regret and to the regret of us all, for the inevitable result of last season's domestic dramatics. The distractions led to unreliabilities being introduced into our PKA Space Plane design. These have most fortunately now been revealed through an increase in zealous focus after the removal of that distraction, but the pain of the setback may be felt in other ways soon. Do not be lax in the future!

[Gamenote: random bad event, spaceplane reliability degrades by 7.6 %.]

Still, let us put away gloomy thoughts and rejoice to welcome two new SET technicians who shall fill our research slots for maximum progress henceforth! And our flight controllers have graduated from their first round of advanced training!

And best of all, the first Soviet cosmonaut stands up among us proudly! -- the man who shall be our speartip stabbing upward into the future! -- the first of many more to come, soon to be the greatest modern hero of the Soviet Union!

Let us all welcome Stanislas Zverev! -- and engrave his name in our hearts for history to come!!

[Gamenote: he was the best available pilot, and has some pretty good stats otherwise, too; but he'll be flying that one-man spaceplane a lot. Yuri Gregorin was available, but not as statty.]

Now he shall lead the way by accepting advanced piloting training!

Q4 1956
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Comrades! -- Let us continue forward into the new year to come, for the Great Two Year Plan, at the end of which we shall be prepared to do things no human has ever done before! Do not despair at cowardly rumors we shall fail our goals: what are mere "economics" compared to the grand thrust of human will to rise from our home in firey triumph, to stand above our planet and look down on all those who oppose us?

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

[Gamenote: I'm pretty sure I messed up a while back by choosing to start a rocketry program; now although I have a rocket advanced enough to carry the spaceplane up, and it is steadily gaining in mission readiness, we're running at a deficit of 310.1 per season. We won't even last the 9 seasons to budget reappraisal, and even if we did it might not matter if they don't increase our budget significantly or if I don't decrease it. Going with the spaceplane on Buzzhard difficulty, with such a small initial budget, may have been the original mistake, alas.]

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 06:20:03 PM

Note: at this point I seem to have run into a fatal bug in scheduling a mission: not kidding, it goes to a blank black screen (or to a screen with rolling background photos depending on how I get there).

Will research and/or wait for a fix.

Update: this is a recently discovered bug, and will require a patch. The problem appears to be one for peculiar resolutions -- I'm running the resolution one step lower than full 1080 so I can take screenshots, as the Win8 screenie button doesn't work in full screen (and going 1080 in a window is counterproductive; and the game doesn't seem to have an integral screenshot button).

Staggerwing · November 09, 2014, 06:49:20 PM

What about a 3rd party screen-capture utility?

JasonPratt · November 09, 2014, 09:01:27 PM

I'm not that technically sophisticated.

Staggerwing · November 09, 2014, 09:32:19 PM

There's a free version of FRAPS that lets you take screenshots in BMP format as well as record 30 second video clips.

http://www.fraps.com/download.php

JasonPratt · November 10, 2014, 07:54:34 PM

Dear diary,

What a terrible nightmare! I dreamed I had cleverly and wisely advanced study on a strong rocket to later take our spaceplane into orbit and perhaps even to the Moon; and then had prudently put that research on hold when funds would clearly run low before the end of our first funding review. Upon which notice, our technicians cheerfully burned all notes and equipment related to the project, returning us to nothing! -- as if we had never started at all!

The insanity! I awoke screaming and cursing; to find I had only just been assigned to run the space program after the dismissal of my predecessor for not being entirely ready with the facility on time. Probably that made me nervous of a similar fate, and thus the dream.

I shall resist the temptation to start my rocketry program so early with a relative lack of funds -- but not because of a nightmare of fools burning all our progress if we have to pause in its research for funding purposes! What "lunacy"! Hahaha!

JasonPratt · November 10, 2014, 10:14:28 PM

Q2 1955
-------

Comrades! The utter superiority of our scientific process has been proved by the choice of our opponents to follow our lead in opening an experimental space plane program as well! Fortunately, we secretly set up plan to build our mission control center early -- not expanding SET and not building vehicle design center yet, ha ha! -- so that we shall stay ahead of their sad attempts at learning our secrets and dogging our steps.

[Gamenote: I'm only building a mission control center and pilot center right now; I won't need the rocket until later, and I have a plan to train my SET guys. It'll cost money, but not as much as the maintenance costs per month of the previous plan.]

Mission control has already been finished this season, thanks to our undefeatable workers! By next season other improvements and construction shall surely also be laid and raised!

Our brave General Secretary of Communist Party of Soviet Union has stood up to all the world and announced our fully public intentions:

We must not and shall not disgrace him, nor the will of Soviet peoples!

With this resolution, I have chosen to dismiss Vaclav Treschev, and two other technicians hired under my esteemed predecessor who, though I shall praise him for bringing our glorious cosmic city almost to completion in time to begin our heroic race, did not have the same high standards I insist upon for our comradely union.

I know this has been a slight blow to your morale, but let it inspire you to learn your tasks better so as not to follow them. Also, for security purposes, I recommend you refrain from trying to contact them to carry on any comradely fraternity, proper though that would otherwise be. Instead, I suggest you think of them as having wandered into the wilderness outside our city, where they died of exposure and were devoured by vultures and wild dogs. Let that image, extreme though it is, dissuade you from regarding them as someone you can ever contact again; and also let it linger in your mind as an example of what could easily happen to any lazy worker who demands more pay. They shall be missed, but new SET technologists are in training as we speak, to arrive this autumn, and they shall eclipse the memory of Vaclav and the others. To the future with them! -- to the past with Vaclav and all who would ride our project in laziness!

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

JasonPratt · November 10, 2014, 10:17:55 PM

Q3 1955
-------

Comrades! The rumors that we have now begun running a deficit each season here at Kosmosgrad are utterly false, and should be no cause for alarm, morale, or defection.

Instead, look around at our growing city, now at last complete -- though still with far to grow!

[PHOTO REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES PURSUANT TO APPROVAL]

Look, and let your hearts rejoice with terrifying gratitude, for being chosen and allowed to bring this Hero Project to its first completions!
Our flight controllers continue their training; and without going into details for security reasons, of course, we have chosen our first pilot whom we shall meet next year once he passes basic training: for what is elite among our noble combat pilots is less than basic for this grand struggle!

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

JasonPratt · November 10, 2014, 11:06:46 PM

Q4 1955
-------

Comrades! This winter we shall put our flight control officers and SET technicians into rigorous advanced training unequalled in the decadent west! -- a process pioneered by our first graduate, Nonna Filipova, the most accomplished woman among our scientists! Meanwhile, the sexist misogynist West refuses to allow their women to do much more than fetch their coffee! And as a result, our research into our great spaceplane accelerates!

As does our morale; for during the winter season we have authorized comradely sisters to take up residence here in Kosmoplatz (please note the new official change of name on all internal memos and stationery); carefully selected from across our vast nation out of millions and millions of applicants to support your needs in so many ways! -- for I understand that being isolated even in such a glorious enterprise as our Cosmic City, makes for difficulties which you bear for the sake of our Motherland.

To the future of all humanity, and to the future of new humanity!

[Gamenote: I guess I can confirm now that the "settlement" across the river must be where the rockets are expected to fly, though how they could cross the bridge over the river from the currently-non-existent vehicle assembly plant, who knows? The "special comrades" must move into the barracks for closer and more effective activities now, eh? ;)

As to personnel and the new training regimens: every three seasons I will be spending $800, or $9000 with our pilot to arrive next year, on cycling three SET techs and all five mission control techs (who have nothing better to do yet) on advanced training. But I currently earn $966.4 a season, so I'll actually be gaining money all the time! This will supercharge our research program after a slow start necessitated by sending away the worst pre-hired SETs (no one else having been hired yet fortunately) and replacing them with the best from the pool: for three seasons the four best at "crewed spacecraft" will research it while the weakest three advance-train, then the new weakest three will shuffle off to training. Once max training for this has been achieved we'll start over again on rockets. Meanwhile each mission control member was selected for specialization in one skill apiece and we'll keep working on that. Piloting for our pilot when he arrives of course.]

Q1 1956
-------

Comrades! For a year we have toiled in this grand project now! Our project PKA has reached just over 30% reliability in only one year, and we expect this rate to actually increase for the forseeable future!

For this result, our worker's paradise gladly gives rewards: your monthly bonuses shall be significantly increased! Rejoice and be glad!

[Gamenote: I'm dubious this is how the economy of the Soviet space program actually worked, but anyway I can easily afford to increase everyone's salary until morale is 100% -- and still have $756.7 income every season.]

Q2 1956
-------

Comrades. It is true that human weakness leads to breakdown in relationships even when special comrades have been carefully selected for your best consolation. However, this must not be allowed to affect our progress. Remember, if you must, the men you may have properly forgotten already, as if their bones were crying out from the surrounding wasteland scattered by dogs: "DO NOT BE DISTRACTED BY WORLDLY THINGS WHEN WE ARE RACING FOR THE HEAVENS!"

[Gamenote: bad random event, PKA spaceplane reliability drops back by 12ish percent. I can't tell if it's a stable random seed or just coincidence that last playthrough on this quarter we also had a bad random event, though not this one.]

Q3 1956
-------

Comrades! First, I must congratulate you for the inevitable result of last season's resolution to discipline yourselves against domestic dramatics: we have reduced fixed costs by 6.4% for the next seven seasons! -- a true economic miracle! No, true economic heroism!

[Gamenote: random good event.]

Still, let us put away gloomy thoughts and rejoice in applause for our first SET technicians and flight controllers graduating their advanced training classes! -- the superstitious West won't even be able to comprehend the trash they we let them steal from us for counter-intelligence purposes!

And best of all, the first Soviet cosmonaut stands up among us proudly! -- the man who shall be our speartip stabbing upward into the future! -- the first of many more to come, soon to be the greatest modern hero of the Soviet Union!

Let us all welcome Stanislas Zverev! -- and engrave his name in our hearts for history to come!!

Now he shall lead the way by humbly following our technicians into the next round of advanced training!

Q4 1956
-------

Comrades! -- Let us continue forward into the new year to come, for the Great Two Year Plan, at the end of which we shall be prepared to do things no human has ever done before!

Do not despair at cowardly rumors we shall fail our goals: what are mere "economics" compared to the grand thrust of human will to rise from our home in firey triumph, to stand above our planet and look down on all those who oppose us?

But for those who insist on economics -- and is not all human history and society based on economics as Karl Marx taught? -- we have a grand surplus of almost TWELVE BILLION EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION RUBLES! And adding around another SEVEN AND A HALF HUNDRED MILLION RUBLES every quarter!

It is possible of course that the West has passed us in some categories: a drunkard staggering back and forth across the street may make more progress than the man who patiently plans his way -- before he steps! But it is mathematically impossible that they should be ahead of us in designing our spaceplane project; and they will be bankrupting themselves out of the war altogether if they have been trying to pass us in other regards.

Make no mistake: we are winning this war! I can tell by the regular technological breakthroughs you are making! Just this quarter, our SET crews have developed a way to speed our research by 18% throughout all next year!

The foolish Americans should have been putting little radio beepers into space instead, achieving shallow praise in the eyes of the world. Now they will only be able to eat the scraps we leave behind in the dust!

SOON WE WILL BE VICTORY!

[Gamenote: and that, I think, catches me back up to where I was before I learned that if I pause a research project the game will balefire its progress totally out of existence.]

JasonPratt · November 11, 2014, 10:24:21 PM

Q2 1958
-------

Comrades! Over the past year you have grown more skilled with every season! Now the time of our first triumph approaches; but we look ahead also to triumphs beyond. Consequently we shall be starting construction on our vehicle assembly plant this season, in order to research rockets for our space plane later.

Do not be dismayed by news that the Americans have already completed their plant and are starting a rocket program. We shall soon outstrip them, I promise, as they lurch back and forth on the road we are running toward the Moon above!

For now, focus on our final training before the first launch of our PKA, and let the Americans worry how they will explain their sad failures later! Hahaha!

[Gamenote: what the Director isn't telling anyone, is that a very promising new recruit (no not Gregorin) washed out of basic training, so if Stan dies on his flight there is no one to replace him for a long time.]

Q4 1958
-------

Comrades. Do not be alarmed at the hoax being currently perpetrated by the decadent Americans who, in their desperation, which to demoralize us by pretending they have launched a satellite beeping over our heads, laughing at us. They could not even drop their test plane properly! -- the idea that they could launch a bottle rocket is laughable! Hahahaha!

[Gamenote: they totally test dropped their X-plane, too. :P I don't understand how this is possible -- well, the X-plane yes, but not the Explorer satellite, since they only started their Mercury rocket project a couple of seasons ago, and the game didn't tell me of other rocket projects! Did they just throw a hail Mary, or did the computer fill that throw with grace by a providential miracle? Arghhh...]

Let us focus on reality instead: the reality that this season, we shall drop test our own spaceplane!

Assemble and prepare -- FOR VICTORY!