Big™ updates to balance

[siimav]

NK sez:

Balance Changes

• AC now has 5 levels (base, suborbital, orbital, EVA, lunar). Level properties now explicitly defined in cfg. Upgrading levels is on balance faster than it was before these changes, despite their being more levels. Close Add new AC levels #2202
• Trainings require the appropriate AC level, courses for parts that are locked due to AC level are highlighted in a different color from courses for researching parts
• Proficiency training is required for all parts on a vessel (excepting clamp/MLP parts, or things below them in the vessel part hierarchy), and a naut cannot be transferred into, or board, a part for which they do not have proficiency training. As before however, a naut only needs mission training for the part they are placed in at launch
• General Aviation parts now do require training (a course existed for them, but it was never required, leading to training misunderstandings). It only lasts 1 day however!
• X-Plane training now depends on General aviation
• Rework naut upkeep for baseline, when training (and based on training course type!), and when idle
• Remove RnD upgrades and researcher caps. Instead, researchers cost a bit more per year in salary, and base research rate is a bit slower. Close R&D building upgrades are useless and should be removed #2075
• Science earned above 30 now increases researcher efficiency, and this efficiency is split out from efficiency from electronics bluesky nodes and both are shown on the tooltip for the Available Science widget
• Lower some program funding mid-lategame to balance no more RnD upgrades
• Staged (ORSC and FRSC) and hydrolox tech nodes depend on the previous level of generic Rocketry node.
• Integration pauses while any rollouts, rollbacks, airlaunch mounts/unmounts, or recoveries are in progress. Reconditioning can still occur during integration, however. Engineering resources are apportioned between these blocking projects based on their total time requirements (i.e. build points)--not their current time remaining. This means that if all projects are started at the same time they'll all finish at the same time, but if some projects are started later, the earlier-started projects will still complete earlier. Close We should sort out the 'double duty' that engineers do when a rocket is being both integrated & rolled out #2085
• Lowered starting LC efficiency cap slightly, rejiggered some efficiency increases
• Confidence gained from science and from contract rep now uses input science and rep, respectively, not leader-modified science/rep
• Sounding rocket programs now have mildly backloaded funding
• Increased 4.5Mm contract to 5Mm contract
• Engines and tanks now support dynamic tags, and BP cost will be increased for engines that use cryogenic, toxic, or both-cryogenic-and-toxic propellants.
• Formulaic engine pricing #2166 (with changes)
• Added difficulty settings to change build rate and research rate, increased them to 1.5 at Easy and 1.2x at Normal
• Tweak the Crewed Lunar funding curve so the funding starts higher and ramps up faster
• Includes Allow only EC to be added inside procedural avionics. #2236
• Includes RP-1 Contract Satellites #2249
• Includes a redone version of Film Rework (Do not merge yet) #2069 that doesn't kill the starting experiment (because that didn't have a starting experiment yet). This should be only minimally save-breaking now (will only affect folks who have done a ton of photo2).
• Rollout and airlaunch costs are halved
• ROTanks interstage/decouplers (Hollow Interstage e.g.) now use ProcFairings rules for mass and cost. Needs ROLib v1.9
• Hypersonic Flight experiment is now a flying-low experiment

Misc

• Added gameplay tips around training (warning to hire & train nauts on accepting a crewed program, warning when trying to launch a crewed vessel with no nauts even training for it, popup when naut fails to board a part, highlight and 'semi-valid' (as if full) color for untrained parts when Crew Transfer is up
• Non-upgradeable buildings now get the average visual look of the space center
• Most RP-1 popups now hide the RP-1 and the Space Center Management (KCT) windows so that the popup can be seen (this is because the popups use the new GUI system introduced in KSP 1.0, and the other UIs use the old IMGUI system from before then, so the latter always render on top)
• Show program slot cost on program card in Programs list in admin building
• Patch KSPWheel to attempt to fix an issue where wheels could get damaged for no apparent reason
• EC rates are now displayed in Watts throughout Kerbalism displays
• Fix some bugs around crew training
• Attempt to catch issues when warping to funds when funds increase for only a short time and then decrease
• Bunch of backend improvements/refactors to support the changes (or just because I wanted to and took the opportunity while changing things)

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• RP-1.zip