Do Scientist still provide science bonuses in 1.1?

[Omnifarious]

Hi, sorry for asking here, but I've been looking all over the Internet, and I can't seem to find definitive proof one way or another. Everyone says they do, (even in-game) but I saw one snippet in the wiki that said as of 1.1 they do not provide a bonus to science gained from using recovering a vessel with data on it. (like a science jr with high orbit science data on it) I tried searching for answers in Google within the last month and week, but I wasn't getting a straight answer. I'm going to finally head to the Mun for the first time, and need to know whether I should bring a scientist or not. Don't want to waste a whole bunch of science! It's already hard enough to get science as it is... Can't even get a rover or lander for the Mun landing without like 500 science! I've only gotten like 100 total so far after like 30 hours and two restarts on my career!

Edited August 5, 2016 by Omnifarious

[MiniMatt]

I'm almost certain they don't - the scientist career description's been problematic for a while now. However they do provide a bonus to the rate of data-science conversion when operating a Mobile Lab.

And crucially, another benefit is that on EVA they can clear out science containers like the goo & junior materials bay - so it may be worth bringing a scientist along anyway. You can gather (eg) goo science in high Mun orbit, eva your scientist out to collect and reset the data, then use the same goo container to gather low Mun orbit science, and again for a surface reading. Store your goo science results in whatever can is returning to Kerbin and you've got three times the science gain.

edit: welcome to the forums btw, the Gameplay Questions & Tutorial section will be your best friend in your early kerballing

Edited August 5, 2016 by MiniMatt

[wumpus]

Note that non-scientists can take data from goo and junior materials bay if you don't think they will make it back.  They can also take data from thermometers, barometers, and anything else that self-resets.  But for something like your first trip into space it is often a hard decision between Jeb/Val (who can hit the SAS button and make it easy) and Bob who can grab science from the lower atmosphere for everything, wait until reaching space, EVA and grab all the data from lower atmosphere, reset and run all the experiments again, grab all the science from space, and then reset all the experiments for the upper atmosphere on the way down.  With 1.1.3 (and standard re-entry) I'd recommend letting Bob do his thing on the "going into space" mission, and then let Jeb/Val do the fancy flying into orbit.  Once you have unlocked the Octoprobe you can put Bob back into space (and let the probe handle SAS), so you can go to Minmus/Mun and grab the data for *lots* of biomes.

[Omnifarious]

13 hours ago, MiniMatt said:

I'm almost certain they don't - the scientist career description's been problematic for a while now. However they do provide a bonus to the rate of data-science conversion when operating a Mobile Lab.

And crucially, another benefit is that on EVA they can clear out science containers like the goo & junior materials bay - so it may be worth bringing a scientist along anyway. You can gather (eg) goo science in high Mun orbit, eva your scientist out to collect and reset the data, then use the same goo container to gather low Mun orbit science, and again for a surface reading. Store your goo science results in whatever can is returning to Kerbin and you've got three times the science gain.

edit: welcome to the forums btw, the Gameplay Questions & Tutorial section will be your best friend in your early kerballing

Thank you for the information, MiniMatt! I wasn't aware that you could take and store multiple experiments using a scientist! I was just going by the assumtion that I could only have one stored, like a crew report/EVA report. Thanks for the advice!

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[StrandedonEarth]

18 hours ago, Omnifarious said:

Thank you for the information, MiniMatt! I wasn't aware that you could take and store multiple experiments using a scientist! I was just going by the assumtion that I could only have one stored, like a crew report/EVA report. Thanks for the advice!

One pod can store unlimited experiments, as long as no two are exactly the same. Changing the biome or location makes it a different experiment, so you can collect goo in both high and low orbits, for example. You can get different EVA reports for different biomes in low orbit, but just a single non-biome-specific report in high orbit. Also, you can store multiple crew reports by going EVA, right-click the pod and 'take experiments,' then store them back in the pod. You can then collect a new crew report. Of course, if you have an antenna and power you can just transmit crew and EVA reports for 100% science.

Edited August 6, 2016 by StrandedonEarth