Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager - BARIS 2013?

[Alfastar]

http://matrixgames.com/news/1007/Next.Destination:.space.

Well, did we have a new BARIS after 20 years from the release date of BARIS?

My opinion: It sounds very great and awesome to see a good relive of BARIS, I like it much, and its sometimes fun to play. I hope this relive of this game become awesome, maybe sneaky become better then the old. Very good to see this back in 2013 :thumbup:

 

[Scruce]

Some images:

 

[Cras]

Bring it. This looks like it is going to be tremendous fun.

 

[4throck]

Looks good, but visuals are not the core of the original BARIS. I'd very much like to see some actual gameplay screens...

 

[wehaveaproblem]

I'm interested to see how this turns out, I was playing BARIS again only the other week. Great game, but bloody hard! Hopefully this one will be more user friendly. But, that said, my worry is that the competition aspect of BARIS may be lost without the cold war space race thang. And with it some of the challenge/fun.

This bodes well though (if the opposition is included):
"Manage all aspects of your fledgling space agency from the 1950’s through to the Lunar landings in the first episode"

Battling against bureaucracy is a little less appealing though...
"In Campaign Mode, manage your agency while pandering to the requirements of government to keep your position as Director!"

Cheers for pointing this out, Alfastar, will keep an eye on it.

 

[Napalm42]

I'm interested, but I hope the above screens are for iPad, as I would really like to see some legitimate graphics used, like..... well, Orbiter.

 

[mojoey]

Is it free or will there be some sort of 20$ price?

 

[N_Molson]

From the screenshots it seems a bit simplistic, even compared to the original BARIS... But of course there is little material there to speculate about. Wait and see.

 

[Alfastar]

Some small updates about Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager, aka BASPM:

. There is a plan for the future (Not direct in the game on the release date) to add a cold-war space race.

. There are rumors that BASPM maybe become released in the summer.

. Its become a solo-game.

. The moon race become in-game (First stage), but the ISS and Manned mars part (Second and third stage) become paid expansions.

. The game starts in 1955, 2 years early then in BARIS.

. And if you ever plan to doing the safe-cheat in BARIS, then it works not in BASPM.

 

[Staiduk]

Wow - BARIS was one of the great old games; don't know how many astronauts I killed trying to beat the Soviets to the first manned shot. I liked the fact there was a real stark reminder of the cost of failure; the Arlington video was a serious reality check; IMO.

 

[sorindafabico]

. And if you ever plan to doing the safe-cheat in BARIS, then it works not in BASPM.

Well, so I expect a more realistic astronaut death rate. :shifty:

 

[blixel]

I just heard of Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager today after running into this recently posted youtube video.

 

[Athena]

:jawdrops::OMG:

Looks like i'm going to have to kill a few naut's of my again...

 

[N_Molson]

Today, Slitherine Limited released Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager v0.7, Chapter 1, that covers the Moon Race Era. As the version number implies, it isn't a finished product, but from another hand, I got it for 19,99€. The online payment process is serious and you can get a very detailed copy of the transaction.

So I've been testing it a bit, and more than a bit in fact, and my overall impression is very good. It clearly seems to me that the educational value is more than great. The programs are very, very detailed and numerous. In 4 hours of play, I haven't got further than the first Mercury-Redstone unmanned test.

So here are my first thoughts about it :

Pros :

- Amazing historical accuracy of the programs and great 3D renders of them, which is very interesting for the early programs where photographs are extremely rare and of low quality.
- The spirit of the original "Race Into Space" is clearly present. The basics are the same. But it goes much more in-deep.
- Still the same stress during the launches, with those success/failure % !
- It is very easy to spend your budget in a wrong way and to get fired, so a long-term vision is clearly necessary. Right now you have no deadlines, but landing on the Moon in 1969 seems quite a feat to me.
- Real serious management game.
- Runs perfectly, provided you didn't bought your computer by an antique dealer.
- You start with the X-15, way back in 1955, and Mercury really seems a very advanced program at this time.
- The way mission control works. You have to assign (or can auto-assign) everyone in the Control Room. The most complex mission I did was a Mercury-Redstone unmanned test, and it took no less than 11 mission controllers. FIDO, GUIDO, Flight Surgeon, everyone is there. Now I don't know exactly how it impacts the success/failure ratio, but I must say I haven't read the manual, too.
- Still turn-based, 4 rounds by year.
- Works well in windowed mode.
- With 2 more episodes to come (Shuttle to now Space Stations Era and future Mars Exploration Era), the level of complexity is going to be really amazing.
- Nice soundtrack.

Cons :

- No carreer mode now, only a "Sandbox mode", which is a bit KSP-inspired, I find... Still, you get fired if you spend all your budget.
- Failures are not well implemented, I hope it will be fixed. No specific animations ; I failed 2 X-15 missions and the pilot always survived (well, in the both cases, the spaceplane was still attached to the B-52, so...). No details about what gone wrong, etc...
- Weird mix of American and Russian hardware. I must say I don't like too much that story of a "GSA" (Global Space Agency), but well, given how the AI was random in the original Race Into Space, I understand. I guess it's hard to make a credible AI in this kind of games. KSP eluded the problem too, until now. But the Cold War background was definitively fun in the original RIS.
- Which leads to no multiplayer. Which is a pity, because a turn-based game is perfect for hotseat or online gaming.
- Some lack of variety in the soundtrack.
- Of course, a lot of not-yet-implemented features, lacking descriptions, photographs or renders for personel faces, etc... That's not too nasty if there is a serious developpement line like in KSP.

The way I see it, this new game adds a very interesting perspective to the spaceflight topic. Orbiter is focused on the physics simulation. KSP is intended to be a fair mix between simulation and management. Buzz's Space Program Manager clearly focuses on in-depht management, strategy and planning. So between those 3 games, any space enthusiast is almost certain to find its poison !

The GSA spaceport at its very humble beginnings, in 1955...

 

[romanasul]

Good to hear, I've been contemplating whether to buy this one.

 

[N_Molson]

Some screenshots I took :

What I call a decently detailed diagram.

Block-DM / Zond config.

Retrofire !

Go for TLI.

The famous Proton rocket.

Mission type selection.

 

[blixel]

A video I took of my first 30 minutes with this program. Note that this was literally my first time seeing and using the program, so at this point, I know nothing about it. Near as I can tell, there is no documentation for this Early Access version. There are 2 PDF's in the Manuals subfolder, but both PDF's are just advertisements for other games.

 

[N_Molson]

I think that upgrading buildings has no point right now, except draining your budget

 

[Alfastar]

I don't would give really a personally opinion about Buzz Aldrin's Space program manager (BASPM) because two main points.

1. The game can be played now at this point, but still its in a very early (pre) alpha stage. That means still that much things need still to be updated to make it stable and/or fix errors. And what I see and hear is that only a part of the game (the sandbox modus) is only accessible, and still some things are not done yet.

2. I don't got the game now, and I don't would give really a opinion about something what I self not tested/played.

But still that don't means that I want to tell what I already miss a bit in BASPM, and not in BARIS. That is the competition between two sides. That don't means however that I don't like the game or something, but its just something what I miss in it. It triggers less to make serious choices. Let me explain this:

You can choice to do a manned orbital mission to the moon, but you R&D rate for lets say the spacecraft is only 71%. You can choice for delay the mission for a year and higher you R&D rate for the spacecraft for higher the chance that the mission would become not a (dramatic) failure, but with delay the mission, you would take the risk that you rival would doing it before you would launch the mission.

Scenarios like that would make the game more exciting, but I surely bet the budget and prestige goals would be not a bad alternative. However, its still feels less exciting to have a monopoly, and not have a rival what cause you must make serious choices also on crucial moments.

 

[N_Molson]

The game can be played now at this point, but still its in a very early (pre) alpha stage.

Yeah, that's a point. I think we all have now KSP as a reference, and Squad decided cautiously to call their releases "alpha". Technically, they are now closer to "beta", because though features are missing, the game is very stable and playable.

So, clearly, Slitherine ltd & Squad don't have the same definition of "Alpha" and "Beta" version concepts. I'd say that Squad is a bit cautious by calling current KSP state an "Alpha", and Slitherine is a bit hardy by calling current BASPM state a "Beta". :2cents:

Scenarios like that would make the game more exciting, but I surely bet the budget and prestige goals would be not a bad alternative. However, its still feels less exciting to have a monopoly, and not have a rival what cause you must make serious choices also on crucial moments.

From what I understood, the campaign mode is going to fix that, by setting strict schedules and objectives to meet. Still I agree, the mix of US & Soviet hardware is a bit weird. I think that, if in an ideal world USSR & USA had joined their efforts, you would have had like frequent meetings between Von Braun & Korolev, and the designs would probably have merged : it would have been a waste to develop concurrent programs.