Launch Complexes and Programs Conversion Guide
Note: this page may replace an older guide.
This page is intended to outline the differences between an old RP-1 career and the developmental programs and launch complexes (P&LC/PLC) career. Launch complexes replace the old pad system to tie together vehicle construction and integration with pads. Programs replaces the old contract system with a pseudo-budget system.
- Instead of having a single monolithic VAB capable of building any rocket you like, you must create an LC to build, integrate, and launch a specific launch vehicle (LV). You can build additional pads for an LC, but those pads cannot be used by another LC. You can, however, build identical LCs if you want to increase your launch rate of that particular launch vehicle. Efficiency (see below) is shared amongst these LCs.
- Currently mass and propellant load are used as a proxy for LV detection. A LC allows for a range of variation to accommodate modest changes in LV configuration.
- Each LC will also have limited dimensions and will only have the ground support equipment for certain propellants. These will be auto-selected based on the rocket you design the LC around, and can also be expanded later without too much cost.
- A LC can be modified from its original design to accommodate larger or smaller LVs, but only by so much. You should not expect to convert a 20t LC into a 500t complex. Instead, you will have to build a new complex.
- The upgrade point system is gone. Build rates and research times are now tied to staffing individual LCs and the R&D center with engineers and researchers. There is a significant salary cost associated with staffing in addition to an upfront hiring cost. When an LC is idle, however, its engineers cost only a quarter their normal amount.
- You can fire engineers and researchers to reduce your upkeep
- Each LC has a maximum build rate defined by its efficiency and its staffing limit which scales with the tonnage limit. At a fixed BP cost per LV mass and maximum staffing a LC with a higher mass limit will build slower than a LC with a smaller limit.
- Each staffed LC (including the Hangar) can build craft simultaneously, allowing earlier access to multiple build queues. However, it is important to note that each LC will only be able to build 1 craft at a time.
- There are no longer R&D upgrades.
- LCs have individual efficiencies that naturally increase over time as the engineers there work (it doesn't increase when the LC is idle). Gaining efficiency in a LC will also increase it in similar LCs--identical LCs gain the full amount, while only partly-similar LCs (for example, human- vs non-human-rated Titan pads) gain a portion of that increase.
- The minimum and maximum efficiency of LCs is determined by Materials Science nodes. Researching improved materials science can dramatically improve your LC efficiency. See the 'upgrades' in the Materials Science nodes for details.
- Researcher efficiency is purely tied to Electronics nodes. See the 'upgrades' in the Electronics nodes for details.
- Rushing is no longer an instantaneous price. Instead, you can set an LC to rush in the management window. Rushing will increase build rate by 50%, double LC costs, and the LC will not gain efficiency while being rushed.
- Programs adds a pseudo-budget system where income and most costs are distributed over time. While part/upgrade unlock costs and tooling costs must be paid at once, a portion of researcher salary is used to subsidize these costs.
- Programs are activated in the admin building. Each program takes up a given number of slots, and the maximum slots is determined by the admin building level.
- Income is based on which programs are active at a given time as well as the current rep level.
- There is an annual subsidy that increase over time. The annual subsidy eventually plateaus. Gaining reputation through completing contracts can increase the subsidy to an extent.
- Each program pays out a specific fixed amount over a fixed time window. The funding paid per month varies over the nominal duration of the project; some pay more early and less later, some pay less early and more later. If the objectives are not completed when the program duration runs out, funding will continue at a decreasing level for a bit longer.
- A program unlocks a specific group of related contracts that include optional contracts that reward reputation and confidence, and contracts whose completion is required to complete the program and reward only reputation.
- Completing a program early will lose some of the potential income, but will yield bonus reputation and let you take a new program.
- Programs can be accepted at three speeds: Normal, Fast, or Breakneck. Fast and Breakneck cost confidence to unlock, but offer faster access to funds (at the cost of tighter deadlines).
- Starting off, optional contracts give confidence and reputation at a ratio of 5:1, and confidence is gained from science at a ratio of 4:1. Later-game contracts will have lower reputation-to-confidence ratios, and more science will lower your science-to-confidence ratios. (for science, >150-600 = 3:1, >600-3100 = 2:1, >3100 = 1:1)
- You can also appoint various leaders to run parts of your space program. New categories of leaders will unlock as you progress.
- Leaders will offer various bonuses and costs. Try to pick them around what you have planned for your space program.
- Leaders can be removed at the cost of reputation, but this cost will go down over time.
- After 10 years, leaders will retire. They'll go inactive for a year and then be available again.
- Sometimes it's okay to not have a leader selected for some departments if none have benefits that seem useful to you.
- Minimum fairing density is now tied to your materials science research.
- After 3000 km downrange, there's a new contract for 5000 km downrange that also requires you carry some sounding payload.
- You can no longer double-dip with sounding contracts, except for the first launch and Karman line contracts, which can be completed simultaneously.
- There are some newspapers that will pop up after completing certain milestones, though the late-game ones have not yet been written.
- There are new contracts to prove to the public that your rockets are reliable enough to carry crew. Look for them in the crewed orbit program.
- The crewed supersonic science requires a speed of at least 450 m/s.
- You start with two science points.
- The very first nodes in the tree are slightly more expensive, while the early crewed era stuff is slightly cheaper.
- You will get an unlock credit for unlocking parts, part upgrades, and tooling based on the amount you've spent paying your scientific team to do the research. (35% of their salaries) This is to simulate that new parts, configurations, and LV design costs are based on the R&D costs to develop them, but you're already paying for R&D. You can see how much unlock credit you have by hovering over your current science when not in any building, clicking on a node on the R&D screen, or the Integration Info window in the editor. You can also see how much unlock credit you're getting over time in the RP-1 Budget menu.
See https://github.com/KSP-RO/RP-0/wiki/New-Career-Settings for new career setup. Tutorials are gradually being adapted for PLC