Apollo-Soyuz Project: Rocketry
almost 5 years ago – Mon, May 13, 2019 at 09:14:40 PM

Hi,

... and welcome to the latest installment of the Space Race command center briefing! First of all, we’d like to respond to the feedback and suggestions about the rocket miniatures from your comments and private messages. On top of that, if you’ve been enjoying Dalibor’s (the Space Race illustrator) art, definitely take a look at the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project story and the unlocks that come with it today!

•  Rocketry – your feedback and suggestions concerning the rocket miniatures.
•  Apollo-Soyuz Test Project continues with more narrative unlocks!

Your feedback and suggestions

We’re reading all your wonderful feedback and suggestions from the comments section. Since the last daily update, many of you have asked about the color-coding and stability of the rocket miniatures.

• Regarding the color-coding, we've checked out more possible solutions (such as a different color for every model, stickers, decorated launchpads) and finally sticked to using standard colored snap bases for the rockets so that every faction's rocket can be easily recognized.
• Speaking about stability, we should say that we haven't noticed any significant issues during our playtests so far. However, going for the colored snap bases implies that we will have to adjust and increase the size and shape of the rocket bases. These larger bases (widened even further by the thickness of the colored snap bases) will, naturally, make the models even more stable when placed on board.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: Mission Conclusion

The story of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project from Update #3, #4, #5, and #7 continues with more narrative unlocks!

After undocking, both Apollo and Soyuz remained in orbit to conduct scientific experiments. While the Soviets were focusing on studying microorganisms and fungi, the Americans were searching for extreme ultraviolet radiation (among their 110 observation tasks, most of which were successful). Mission completed!

While the Soyuz spacecraft had landed without difficulties, the Apollo crew faced a serious problem: because of all the noise during reentry, one item on the reentry checklist was left out, which caused toxic fumes from the Apollo propellant getting sucked into the cabin. Commander Stafford was able to redistribute oxygen mask to his fellow crew members, one of whom had already passed out. Luckily, a two-week hospitalization was enough to get them back on their feet! This marked the last flight of the Apollo spacecraft, as it was superseded by the Space Shuttle.

What’s that? Time for a space race horror story on the side! Apart from serving as the commander of the Soyuz crew during the ASTP, Alexei Leonov (above) is also known for managing the first spacewalk in history. It lasted more than 10 minutes and turned out to be a quite scary and life-threatening experience! Leonov realized that his spacesuit inflated and became stiff because Soviet engineers didn’t properly manage the lack of atmospheric pressure. He ended up floating within the deformed spacesuit (hands out of the gloves and feet out of the boots) without the ability to get inside the Soyuz airlock. His only option was to open a valve in the suit to let enough oxygen out so that he could eventually make it back inside! And we’re glad he did; otherwise, Dalibor’s illustration of the handshake in space would feel really lonely!

Access the digital reward by following this link.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project story thus concludes, and we really hope you’ve enjoyed it! As our flight together continues, a different story of quite the opposite will take place. A story of perhaps the largest, and most dangerous rivalry in the modern history! Stay tuned.

We hope you’re having a great time! Thank you for your amazing support on this flight!

Jan, Michal, and Marek

Space Race Mechanics #2: Flying Solo
almost 5 years ago – Sun, May 12, 2019 at 07:14:14 PM

Hi,

A lot of you have been asking about details on the Space Race solo variant. This update is dedicated just to fighting for the universe on your own!

The solo variant of Space Race closely replicates the experience of playing the game against other people, and involves all the strategic decisions and player interaction from the multiplayer game (no beating your own high score)!

Solo challenge: You will face mighty solo opponents who won’t give you anything for free! These opponents are controlled through simple mechanics so although it feels like they are reading your intentions and going straight against you, it won’t take too much time for you to upkeep them so you can focus on developing your own space agency.

Playing time: 45 minutes

Victory conditions: Just like in the multiplayer game, you win the Space Race if you end up further on the progress tracker than your opponents after the end of the seventh round.

Your gameplay: You play a normal game of Space Race according to the standard multiplayer rules.

Your opponents are controlled by a system that tells you a few simple steps that you do to upkeep their agencies every round! Just like normal players, they use a Control Card each round, add cards into the Unexplored Universe, and compete with you throughout the 4 Stages of the game in order to thwart your plans and grab the important discoveries for themselves. They also score the Stage Output for the cards they have in their Agency.

Upkeep: To keep the upkeep of your opponents as short as possible and to make up for the fact that their actions are automated, parts of their gameplay is simplified compared to a regular player’s turn. They don’t use abilities on cards, and they do not pursue government Projects in the same way you do. If they are able to complete at least a part of a Project before it is closed, they will score the Project. Your job is to complete the projects before them in order to minimize the Progress they gain.

The Breakthrough mechanics in the solo mode is updated so the opponents can compete with you in dominating the Breakthrough Zones. And they’ll give you quite a hard time if you allow them! They place their Astronauts on the Zones just like a normal player would, and every time the Breakthroughs are scored or their faction is dedicated, they move one Astronauts from the Launch Pad into a Zone they are able to dominate.

Lab scoring: Since the opponents do not activate abilities, their Laboratories consist of all their Propaganda action cards. Whenever the Laboratory is scored, they will get points for these instead.

Altogether, the solo variant of Space Race allows you to compete against one or several opponents at once while preserving the same feeling that you would have in a multiplayer game against your friends. Every round, you play according to the standard rules of Space Race and do simple upkeep for the opponents that compete against you.

Components and expansions used in the solo variant: All game components from the base game and both expansions (The Rockets, and the Cold War) are used when playing the solo variant. Playing with both expansions will boost the number of options you have during the game both for you and the solo opponents:

•  New cards – for a wider variety of combos you can exploit
•  New missions – to unlock different viable strategies and tactical choices based on the mission you play
•  New projects – for wider variety of combos you can exploit
•  Faction specific Control Cards – to render your opponents less predictable because you wouldn’t be able to count with the fact that they only have 3 Control Cards of each of the 4 stages

What do you think? Stay tuned for another update about new stretch goals and more narrative unlocks, which is coming in a few hours!

Thank you very much for your support!

Jan, Michal, and Marek