My space ship flew into the sun

[JedaiNait]

In my last BtS game I built the space ship and sent it to Alpha Centauri. The victory counter slowly goes down to "one turn left for victory" and the next turn (in which I should have won) I get the following message (more or less):

"Mission failed all progress towards space race victory lost"

So I did not win the space race and must build another one?

Can anyone tell me what the f*ck went wrong? Is this some random event or can I prevent nonsense like this?

I don't like the fact that I must wait for my space ship to arrive with BtS, but this makes it a lot worse!

 

[TheLastOne36]

how much SS Casings did you put on this ship? since you said only 1 turn was remaining i believe you put in 4/5 Casings.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

You did not build all the spaceship parts and launched early, so there's a chance of failure. Not a random event or UN

 

[Refar]

They were really slappy with those "New all improved and unbelieveable cool" Spaceship screen. There is no indication how high your succes chances are, no reason is given when a mission fails...

This is why people keep asking that...

Should be patched.

 

[loki59]

You have to make sure you have all parts built for 100% success. I wasn't paying attention in my first game in BTS when I built the spaceship. I had just finished both engines on the same turn and thought I was done, the launch button was active so I launched the ship. When it failed, I reloaded to before the launch to see what happened and then discovered one missing casing.

 

[JedaiNait]

Indeed I did not build all parts, but I understood that it would only affect the time it would take to get to Alpha Centauri, not the change of arrival...

This should be more clear!

 

[TheLastOne36]

Indeed I did not build all parts, but I understood that it would only affect the time it would take to get to Alpha Centauri, not the change of arrival...

This should be more clear!

from what i understand, if you have 1/5 casings = 20% of success
2/5 = 40%
3/5 = 60%
4/5 = 80%
5/5 = 100%

 

[Way_Traveler]

The casings affect the probability of success. The thrusters affect how long it will take to get there.

The theory is to create same additional strategy-- e.g., it is possible to launch second and still win the space race-- but in reality, it's almost never worth launching early. The parts you can skimp on are the cheapest, and you can just put your biggest production cities on the job and it'll only take a couple more turns.

 

[digitCruncher]

Wait... there ISN'T a warning??



Casings are normally the FIRST thing to be built, at least for me, and its always FASTER to finish building thrusters than to launch early (again, at least for me)

(PS. That screeny was made in a game based in 250 AD P) but I think that nothing would disappear when you start building. In fact, the launch button appears, the time to launch is actually ADDED to tell you how long it will take...

 

[Refar]

Never seen this "Mission Success" text yet

This is how the Spaceship Screen looks to me:

There is ETA and the Launch button, yes, but no word about succes chance

I never looked in the Spaceship screen before building it - did not expected to see nothing surprising there...
It seems it actually does disappear once you start build parts

 

[obsolete]

They were really slappy with those "New all improved and unbelieveable cool" Spaceship screen. There is no indication how high your succes chances are, no reason is given when a mission fails...

This is why people keep asking that...

Should be patched.

No kidding, there is a lot that needs fixing here. Even the AI has been known to not even bother launching after completing EVERY unit! Now I wonder, why would you every want to possibly delay a fully launched ship for anyhow!?

The docs, also seem to explain very little info on how many turns a piece saves you. I see people asking info on this, but no real solid answeres given. I think the reason is nobody really knows yet!

And why can't you work on spare parts, considering you must re-build a ship if it fails? That should be allowed. In fact, I get my second ss-engine removed from my que without any gold payment the second I launch. That is just plain wrong.

 

[Refar]

I took some notes on this - not enought for a water tight proof tho - and it seems that every engine part / thruster takes 2 turns of the time... Which is of course a bit ridiculous, as engines are far more expensive...

 

[Bushface]

Refar's screen shot shows what comes up when you've got a component ready to add: digitcruncher's is what you get when you choose "view" from the victory screen. Or so I believe: I don't have any SS saves available to verify if that's why one shows success chance and the other doesn't.

EDIT: Found suitable save: I was right. There's no warning of possible failure when you add a component, but could launch; the warning does show when you "view".

 

[obsolete]

The ss-engines seem to be at the end of the tech line too, meaning they get built lastly in most cases. Which means, you'll have the cheaper thrusters/casing done anyhow. So why the hell, would the average person spend extra turns on SS engine, the ends don't justify the means.

Now I understand, if the SS engines can come online earlier, a person may want to suck 1.6K hammers into them because, he has to wait until he gets the other stuff online as well, which would take a while.

I don't know what to say... maybe it's one of those red-herring things. Analogous to taking insurance in a black-jack game, only a fool or a card-counter would take it.

Anyhow, I am glad they changed the space race to not be so linear and boring. But seems some adjustments may be needed somewhere to make more sense. Perhaps, having up to 4 SS engines, and making them even more hammer heavy (but allowing them to come online earlier) could really add a lot of strategy in the mix. Now you have a lot of more timeing/judgement calls by those building the pieces. More (sane) choices = more strategy, which is what the game is supposed to be about.

Hell, you can even scale the engines/thrusters so the time isn't linear, but there are boosts or some sort of exponential bonus according to the total you have.

 

[Minmaster]

yea if the 2nd engine takes too long after the 1st engine, it would be a good idea to just launch the ship after first engine is done. it's only about 3 turns of difference with the 2nd engine i believe? i think i've seen the AI launch the ship with 1 engine, but i've only seen that once when we were in the heat of the space race.

 

[Refar]

Refar's screen shot shows what comes up when you've got a component ready to add: digitcruncher's is what you get when you choose "view" from the victory screen. Or so I believe: I don't have any SS saves available to verify if that's why one shows success chance and the other doesn't.

EDIT: Found suitable save: I was right. There's no warning of possible failure when you add a component, but could launch; the warning does show when you "view".

LOL... I could as well think of it my self... but i didn't...

I think i never bothered to just open the "View" screen - allways just click launch after the last component has been built/added - seems many people do the same, so the warning about less than 100% success chance often goes unnoticed...

 

[Kadasbrass]

See this is what happen when you outsourced your navagation to China whom also wants to win the space race...