A curiously rewarding mission

[RocketBlam]

I just flew a mission that was, strangely, quite rewarding.

First, let me tell you a little about myself. I'm the guy who did the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.

Actually, I've played through the campaign, I think, 4 times now, in various versions. I've returned Kerbals from the surface of Eve and Tylo. I've visited every single planetary body, and returned Kerbals from everything except the sun and Jool.

This is not to brag, just to show you that I've basically done it all. But this was a pretty exciting mission, even though it all happened below 11,000 meters on Kerbin.

I figured I'd go hardcore mode on this run-through, so I have disabled save and reload. Also, science and money are somewhat reduced. So here I am, pretty early in the tech tree, and I need to earn 45 science so I can research the Stayputnik probe, and batteries, so I can at least fly by the moon. I'm sort of stuck in a rut, is what I mean. I have already gotten all the science I can get from the atmosphere and from the space near Kerbin, so the only way for me to get science is to troll the various Kerbin biomes for science.

So I've done the Highlands, Shores and Grasslands. The next nearest biome is the desert, and I had to fly all the way across the sea to get to it, with only the Wheesly jet engine.

I time-warped through some of it, I admit, but it was still strangely rewarding just to fly across the sea to a biome on Kerbin. It was exciting to go that far and land on basic wheels just to get 12 science from a few basic experiments.

Anyway, the good news is... I made it!

[PTNLemay]

I really want to love the airplane missions, but the rewards-to-costs ratio is too... low, in my opinion. Especially when you need to pin-point a dime-sized area with a plane that needs 100 meter to fully stop. They are fun, but they really dial-up the grind parts of the game when you need to complete 6 of these kinds of missions to match one simple satellite positioning. Both in terms of monetary reward and in terms of science returns.

[RocketBlam]

Well, I say "mission", but it wasn't a mission from mission control. It was just me flying to a new biome to get more science.

But I mostly agree with you, flying to certain altitudes and doing scans there is not really that rewarding.

[ghpstage]

How much did you tone down the science and cash rewards to need to do that?

[RocketBlam]

It's just the "moderate" setting, except with saving turned off (although "revert" is left on, because I tend to make stupid mistakes that cause catastrophes in the early parts of the missions).

[cantab]

I really want to love the airplane missions, but the rewards-to-costs ratio is too... low, in my opinion. Especially when you need to pin-point a dime-sized area with a plane that needs 100 meter to fully stop.

The key advantage of planes is that you don't. If you miss your landing site you can simply taxi round.

[GoSlash27]

RocketBlam,

There's a closer desert biome on the same continent as KSC. You didn't have to cross the ocean.

I also hit up the Kerbin biomes in early career to jump- start my tech tree.

Best,

-Slashy

[RocketBlam]

I thought there was a closer biome, but it was night time and I couldn't see it. Wait around for daylight? Are we not Kerbals?!?

I'm actually looking forward to a mission to the polar caps, but I can tell you, I'm not doing it on Wheesleys.

[PTNLemay]

If you miss your landing site you can simply taxi round.

It's hard to taxi when your target location is on a mountain-side with a 40-degree inclination, lol.

Also sometimes the target location isn't actually on the ground, but hovering awkwardly a few hundred meters above it, so you got to find this tiny perfect window of air-space and do the mission-reports there. I'm not complaining for the sake of complaining... I love good hard challenges in KSP, it's just... it needs to have an appropriate reward at the end.

[cantab]

I'm actually looking forward to a mission to the polar caps, but I can tell you, I'm not doing it on Wheesleys.

Could be worse, you could do it on solar-electric.

It's hard to taxi when your target location is on a mountain-side with a 40-degree inclination, lol.

Also sometimes the target location isn't actually on the ground, but hovering awkwardly a few hundred meters above it, so you got to find this tiny perfect window of air-space and do the mission-reports there. I'm not complaining for the sake of complaining... I love good hard challenges in KSP, it's just... it needs to have an appropriate reward at the end.

Fair point. I guess I got lucky with my contracts.

In terms of how much imaginary money and science you get for the time you spend playing, planes don't tend to fare well. But that's not what the game should be about. It should be about enjoying yourself, and I personally like flying planes in KSP.

[Mipe]

Uh, guys... There's tundra biome near KSC(just go NW until you leave the KSC land, there's a patch of tundra biome near water northwest of KSC) and on the airstrip island (a small part of the strip).

Then there's a whole crapton of biomes just at the KSC: the launch site, crawlerway, VAB, SPH, runway, mission control, administration, R&D, the infamous flag pole, top of that corner building, astronaut complex, top of the VAB...

Just sayin'.

[Starhawk]

RocketBlam,

There's a closer desert biome on the same continent as KSC. You didn't have to cross the ocean.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g13/GoSlash27/KerbiLab/Kerbilab1/KerbiLab114_zpstto6ijvx.jpghttp://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g13/GoSlash27/KerbiLab/Kerbilab1/KerbiLab114_zpstto6ijvx.jpg

I also hit up the Kerbin biomes in early career to jump- start my tech tree.

Best,

-Slashy

There's a small section of Badlands near the southern tip of the continent where KSC is. Also, there's a patch of tundra just west of KSC.

Don't know of any exploity patches of Ice Cap, though.

Happy landings!

[Anthlon]

I do love plane missions also, but this would be greatly enriched by adding somehow more landings strips at least, lets make other minibase.. etc, as it its presented on other many threads. Btw i do similar things as you, i like to do that.

[RocketBlam]

Is there some plugin that tells you what biome you're in?

[Superfluous J]

Is there some plugin that tells you what biome you're in?

Many of them. Kerbal Engineer and ScienceAlert are two I use. KER is nice because it tells you all the time, and will tell you the biome you're projected to land in. SA is nice because it only tells you when there's new science to do, and can stop time warp to give you time to do the science.

[Randazzo]

It's hard to taxi when your target location is on a mountain-side with a 40-degree inclination, lol

Those contracts do have the uncanny tendency to direct you to mountains, or hills, or a valley surrounded by mountains on four sides.

"The way we would often be unintentionally performing high-demand stress-testing was making a visitor passing by Maxco Construction Toys feel positively idiotic. That (eventually) made it clear that it was definitely hard for us to tell if Kerbin was in fact perfectly round, and not an oblate spheroid as some lunatics suggest. So, this is where you come in."

"What?"

"Money and science."

"Got it!"

Edited September 8, 2015 by Randazzo

[samstarman5]

I thought there was a closer biome, but it was night time and I couldn't see it. Wait around for daylight? Are we not Kerbals?!?

I'm actually looking forward to a mission to the polar caps, but I can tell you, I'm not doing it on Wheesleys.

I love a nice hop to the poles, but I always do them with a rocket. A sub-orbital jump is definitely faster than a jet, and gives you a bit of practice on working on your re-entry when you want to land at a more specific area. My last hop had to have put me within single digits of kilometers from the North Pole.

And it might just get paid for with a polar-orbital satellite contract. Just put a satellite with a lander attached into the proper orbit, and once that is done, bring the lander down on the pole to check out all the ice, snow, and cold. Then leave it up to the KSC's Ninja Retrieval Squad to bring the lander back home. Or attach enough fuel to bring the lander back to the KSC for a bigger retrieval refund.

Sometimes it is not about what you can do for the contracts, but how you can make the contract work for you.

[Johnny Wishbone]

I don't mean to sound all snooty or stuck up, but is it really necessary to do all this biome grinding at the start of a career game? I read threads like this and watch a lot of youtube videos where experienced players spend a lot of time grinding science from all the biomes around KSC before even launching a rocket, and I just don't get it. I play a career game on the same difficulty settings as the OP, and I have no problem getting science and unlocking tech tree nodes just from flying missions. My usual career path goes like this:

- low altitude launch into Booster Bay gets me 53 science

- launch into high kerbin orbit and recovery gets me around 160 science

- launch to orbit around Mun and return gets me 350-400 science usually

- one or two satellite contracts to generate funds

- landing on Mun, hitting 2 biomes, and return gets me 800-1000 science.

From just those 5 missions, I have no problems unlocking most of the first half of the tech tree and I never feel like I needed more science points to do anything. Yet I see people grind away at the biomes around KSC like science points are the most precious resouce available and they need to get every single one. Am I missing something?

Again, I'm not trying to be all 'high-and-mighty'. I'm genuinely curious why so many people choose to grind away like that when there is more than enough science points to be had from just flying missions.

[regex]

Nice.

One of the most rewarding things I ever did in stock was to circumnavigate Kerbin, hitting all the biomes, in an electric prop plane (KAX parts). I didn't really need the science but it was neat to be flying so low and catching all the "sights" along the way. Don't think I ever went higher than 4km.

[windows_x_seven]

I recently did a "scan temperatures around Kerbin" on my Hard Career save, it was incredibly lucrative.

My landing skills are getting better now that I've started playing serious career. It's actually more fun than easy/normal Career.