Another career overhaul suggestion

[todofwar]

So, I have yet another career overhaul suggestion that tries to add a touch more realism. It's always bothered me that you get science by putting mystery goo on Mun and that somehow let's you build a better rocket, as I'm sure most people agree. My thinking is to tie research to how many flights you've had certain parts which would unlock further improvements. So you start with very basic 1.25 m tech, and each time you launch more 1.25 m flights with the latest equipment it gives you more science towards the next level. But to get better 2.5 m tech you have to use more 2.5 m parts. And to get more solar panels you need to deploy more solar panels, etc. Going to different planets and moons would give a boost, but maybe not biomes. And each part progression is independent, but can be simultaneous. However, you have to cough up some money to actually purchase the next upgrade once you have the science for it.

This has probably been suggested before, but I want to add one more component: money. Basically, you will have a budget that you can assign to rockets or to improvements or to science, so that you can get quicker science progression at the cost of not investing in other improvements. And your budget goes up with reputation, but you can supplement it with private sector contracts. The science experiments would contribute to rep allot, which means biomes remain an important part.

Also, your rep would fall pretty quickly if you don't launch anything or only launch to Mun a million times (repeated launches to the same body would give a penalty to any rep you gain, that goes away as you launch less to it). So if you try and cheat by just time warping until you get money you'll see your overall budget grow slower and slower until it's 0. 

[Wjolcz]

Yes, I agree. But the career can be overhauled without the need of science points AKA "The Closed Loop Career".

Science experiments feed into reputation, reputation feeds into annual income, annual income feeds into science experiments (you build vessels that can perform science with and get you rep that way).

I will draw it at some point just so it's easier to understand

EDIT:

OK, so here's the explanation:

1. - Using money you build and launch vessels capable of doing science experiments
2. - Science experiments show the HQ that you are not passive (useless); reputation increases
3. - Reputation proves you useful; annual funding increases

MONEY - You get more cash for accepting programs; spend it (and time) on tech (parts' research).
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - No longer rewarded with science points (now they get you rep); each experiment is weighted based on how hard it is to perform (the closer to the surface of a planet/moon it's performed the more rep it gets you).
REPUTATION - If you do experiments, then it means you are not sitting on your butt all day long; income increases.

Programs - this is what is offered in the Admin Building instead of strategies; programs influence the theme of your missions (if you've picked the Jool Exploration Program then you should expect missions to be based around Jool's SOI).
Missions - Those are what you get based on what kind of program you've picked (previously called 'contracts') .
Tech - The tech "tree". Now more of a loosely connected set of groups of parts which you can research without caring much about previous steps (takes money and time to research).
Failed missions and time - The reputation goes down with time; failed missions have much worse consequences and hit your reputation harder.

 

Did I miss anything?

Edited June 10, 2016 by Veeltch

[todofwar]

On 6/10/2016 at 2:46 PM, Veeltch said:

Yes, I agree. But the career can be overhauled without the need of science points AKA "The Closed Loop Career".

Science experiments feed into reputation, reputation feeds into annual income, annual income feeds into science experiments (you build vessels that can perform science with and get you rep that way).

I will draw it at some point just so it's easier to understand

EDIT:

OK, so here's the explanation:

1. - Using money you build and launch vessels capable of doing science experiments
2. - Science experiments show the HQ that you are not passive (useless); reputation increases
3. - Reputation proves you useful; annual funding increases

MONEY - You get more cash for accepting programs; spend it (and time) on tech (parts' research).
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - No longer rewarded with science points (now they get you rep); each experiment is weighted based on how hard it is to perform (the closer to the surface of a planet/moon it's performed the more rep it gets you).
REPUTATION - If you do experiments, then it means you are not sitting on your butt all day long; income increases.

Programs - this is what is offered in the Admin Building instead of strategies; programs influence the theme of your missions (if you've picked the Jool Exploration Program then you should expect missions to be based around Jool's SOI).
Missions - Those are what you get based on what kind of program you've picked (previously called 'contracts') .
Tech - The tech "tree". Now more of a loosely connected set of groups of parts which you can research without caring much about previous steps (takes money and time to research).
Failed missions and time - The reputation goes down with time; failed missions have much worse consequences and hit your reputation harder.

 

Did I miss anything?

I think this nicely summarizes what I was going for, but I like the idea of leveling up different parts classes by using said parts in missions, not just getting them through unrelated science experiments

[Panel]

On June 10, 2016 at 11:46 AM, Veeltch said:

Yes, I agree. But the career can be overhauled without the need of science points AKA "The Closed Loop Career".

Science experiments feed into reputation, reputation feeds into annual income, annual income feeds into science experiments (you build vessels that can perform science with and get you rep that way).

I will draw it at some point just so it's easier to understand

EDIT:

OK, so here's the explanation:

1. - Using money you build and launch vessels capable of doing science experiments
2. - Science experiments show the HQ that you are not passive (useless); reputation increases
3. - Reputation proves you useful; annual funding increases

MONEY - You get more cash for accepting programs; spend it (and time) on tech (parts' research).
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - No longer rewarded with science points (now they get you rep); each experiment is weighted based on how hard it is to perform (the closer to the surface of a planet/moon it's performed the more rep it gets you).
REPUTATION - If you do experiments, then it means you are not sitting on your butt all day long; income increases.

Programs - this is what is offered in the Admin Building instead of strategies; programs influence the theme of your missions (if you've picked the Jool Exploration Program then you should expect missions to be based around Jool's SOI).
Missions - Those are what you get based on what kind of program you've picked (previously called 'contracts') .
Tech - The tech "tree". Now more of a loosely connected set of groups of parts which you can research without caring much about previous steps (takes money and time to research).
Failed missions and time - The reputation goes down with time; failed missions have much worse consequences and hit your reputation harder.

 

Did I miss anything?

This is almost exactly what I would want out of Career Mode! If there was anything I would add, it would be a different set of programs for crewed and and uncrewed missions, and being able select multiple programs at a time. 

[Wjolcz]

13 hours ago, Panel said:

This is almost exactly what I would want out of Career Mode! If there was anything I would add, it would be a different set of programs for crewed and and uncrewed missions, and being able select multiple programs at a time. 

Yep. Multiple programs is what I would also like to see. The Mission Control would simply get multiple tabs. One tab per one program and in those tabs there would be as many missions as possible. This closed loop idea is also good, because  it fuses the Science Mode and Career Mode into one and adds a new one: Commercial Mode. It all depends on what the player wants to do.

If you want to play the normal Career Mode then you do missions and science experiments. It works the same way as in the Career Mode we have now (except we don't have to deal with science points anymore).

If you want to do science only (like in Science Mode) you still progress, because science feeds into the system without the need of missions. Science experiments feed into reputation and thus you also get money. We simply exclude the missions and the loop is still closed.

Now for the Commercial Mode: If the tech is money-dependent then there's no need for science. All you have to do is pick programs that interest you, because that also closes the loop by giving you reputation, which influences your money income.