TIL: Playing it out makes for better gameplay than reloading
relatively new to the game and started a career mode. having fun, building rockets, doing contracts, all nice. however I usually reverted the flight or reloaded a quicksave, as soon as a mission did not go exactly to plan.
Fast forward to me accepting a mission in which I have to save an engineer stranded on the Mun. Reaally weird location, somewhere close to the South pole. Whatever, let's send an unmanned lander with plenty of dV for the Inclination correction.
I don't know why but suddenly during my low orbit aiming for a landing, I realize, that there is no heat shield on my lander, thus making a return very hard or even impossible (I do not trust myself to aerobreak). Somehow I also cannot revert back to the VAB, well guess I'm fucked.
Decide to send Bob and Jeb up there with an additional heat shield for the lander. Bad thing is: I cannot detach and attach the heat shield, due to some "parts connect" whatever. Let's send bob and jeb back, thanks guys, but this will not work that way.
Let's try go in there with a new unmanned lander; also, while I'm going anyways, I might as well set up three satellites around the mun, as I was having issues on the first unmanned lander with the SatCom.
Alright let's go gang, unmanned lander and three satellites are on their way. The satellites have each an unmanned probe, thrusters, fuel, SatCom etc. nice. I Eject them in high mun orbit and place them evenly in a triangle at about 350k above mun. looks pretty, eh? start to feel proud about myself and go back to the lander, let's get that poor engineer. Lander looks solid, still plenty of dV. but it wont react?? Oh shit, the lander itself has no unmanned Probe core, the moment I ejected the satellites, I lost all controll over it. Well fuck me. Usually this would also be a point, where I revert or load a quicksave, but not this time. I really started to like the way of "playing out" my mistakes.
Hey, Jeb, Bob, you guys fancy another trip to munar orbit and attach a probe to the unmanned lander? thanks guys.
Alright, jeb and bob did their work and are headed back to KSC. the lander goes for the stranded engineer. Engineer currently in a sunny spot on mun, let's go. However what I did not account for, is the munar rotation and by the time I get to my suicide burn, it's all pitch black (might also have something to do with my screen, idk).
I guess it's gonna be a no visuals, instruments only landing. Somehow I miraculously pull it of, the lander is on a slope but stands. even got within a kilometer or so of the engineer. However, while trying to board, this ungrateful guy has nothing better in mind then tipping over the lander??? Ok, let's try and make it a horizontal take off. somehow I manage still and get the corpus delicti in munar orbit and sent back to KSC.
Now, idk, how common such fuckery is and how much luck I really had, or if those are rather "normal" things to pull off, especially with the no visuals landing and horizontal take off, but I had quiet a lot of fun doing so and a great story in my head, thanks to "just playing it out" instead of reverting or loading a save file, as soon as the mission goes ever so slightly sideways.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.