I need science! (or "how to use the admin bldg.")

[strider3]

I seem to be able to take contracts and make enough funds to continue my career. My problem now is getting more science points. I'm wondering if the answer lies in the Admin Building? I can't find enough info to make me "pull the trigger" on anything there, however, as it seems to be irreversible, once chosen in Career mode? My need for science points is not being met by Contracts (the high science reward contracts are usually beyond my current abilities...and they ain't that "high" LOL). Is there a use for a Admin Bldg program (I forget what they are called), or should I just keep going out into the system, on my own, to gain science?

Vic the Newbal

[ghpstage]

Science experiments are the main source. There's enormous amounts available closer than you think, you just need to get used to how the biomes work with science.

Most experiments done in a new biome will count as a new experiment and give a bunch of extra science. One particularly good source is the KSC, which uniquely features a huge number of biomes in a small, easily accessible area that many people like to gather for an early head start using some kind of science hopper/roller/buggy

There is a an admin building activated 'strategy' that uses funding obtained from contracts to get science, and it used to be absurdly, brokenly powerful, but its been nerfed into oblivion now. Your much better off using funds to upgrade structures to allow you to get newer, and larger quantities of science from new locations.

Edited April 22, 2016 by ghpstage

[Hodari]

You shouldn't need to touch the admin building at all, actually.  Maybe on higher difficulties, it might be useful(not even sure then), but definitely not needed on normal difficulty.

The most important thing is to plan ahead for how you're going to spend the science points you do get early on and make sure you unlock the nodes you absolutely NEED first.  Once you're able to land on the Mun and/or Minmus, you'll have all science points you need for the rest of the game available, but until then things are a little bit trickier.  Your top priorities should be any nodes that give new science experiments, the node for your first solar panel and batteries, and better rocket engines.  Larger fuel tanks will also help, especially if keeping your part count under 30 is an issue before you can upgrade the VAB.

And as noted above, there's a lot of biomes available on Kerbin, especially right in the KSC.  You won't get a lot of points from them, but if there's an early node or two that you still need, or you're just a few points short on something, make sure you get all the available science from them.

[Streetwind]

None of the KSC biomes are actually required for progress, though. In fact, you need zero science from the surface of Kerbin to get through career mode. It can be a helpful extra, but if you find yourself running out of science, you have a different problem that you need to address. If you don't address it, farming the KSC biomes will merely be an onerous short-term bandaid, and that problem will come back to bite you in the hindquarters again and again as you continue playing.

Namely one of these three:
- You consistently miss out on performing your available experiments in all of the situations they qualify for.
- You consistently ignore tech nodes that include science experiments when choosing what to research next.
- You are unaware that a large amount of science is locked behind building upgrades.
 

Case 1: A "situation" is comprised of two different things: your location, and your altitude. The location part can be general ("at Kerbin") or biome-specific ("at Kerbin's Highlands"). The altitude generally includes "landed", "low above", and "high above". On a planet with an atmosphere, there also exists "flying" and "upper atmosphere". On a planet with a surface liquid, there also exists "splashed down". You can see your current situation when you perform a science experiment. For example, triggering a crew report halfway through a launch will tell you "Crew report while in Kerbin's upper atmosphere", meaning that this report is specific to this exact situation. You can get science for it just once, but you can still get science for crew reports in other situations.

The tricky part comes when you want to know where all the possible places to perform a crew report are.

For starters, you'll want to know where altitudes change - where you go from "flying" to "upper atmosphere" to "low above" to "high above". You won't be told where these thresholds are; and for every celestial body, they are different. You will have to explore and pay attention to find them yourself. That's how science is done!

Additionally, you'll want to know in which situations an experiment is even valid. For example, a crew report is valid at all altitudes, but there exist experiments that are not. A seismometer, for instance, obviously cannot measure anything if it is not landed on something. Again, apart from a few helpful hints you occasionally find in a part's flavor text, it is up to you to discover (or reason out) these details.

Finally, you'll want to know if the experiment is general, or biome-specific. In the example above, collecting a "Crew report while in Kerbin's upper atmosphere" tells you that it is a general experiment. There's no need to repeat this experiment again elsewhere on Kerbin, because it doesn't matter what part of the surface you are above at this altitude. But beware! After returning from your spaceflight and preparing to recover, you might decide to collect one last report... and suddenly receive a "Crew report from Kerbin's Grasslands". So while the "upper atmosphere" altitude was not biome-specific, the "landed" altitude very much is! You'll find this repeated, in various combinations, across all of the other experiments as well. You'll have to test them at various altitudes and check whether or not you can extra science from another biome.

This is the science and exploration gameplay of Kerbal Space Program. It is up to you to discover what works where in which capacity. But because this is reasonably complex, new players often miss out on science because they don't perform their experiments in all available places. They'll unlock the EVA report, take one on the launchpad, one in space low above Kerbin, and one while landed, and call it a day... when in fact they could have taken up to nine of them in space low above Kerbin (plus one in space high). Even in an equatorial orbit, which doesn't catch all biomes, there's six (missing only tundra, poles and badlands). Missing this much science hurts progress, and if every single experiment misses a lot of science due to failing to check all situations... yep, you get stuck.

If you do not care to do all of the discovery yourself, there's a mod for that (which may or may not already be updated for 1.1 by the time you check it out)... just don't later come to the forums to complain about there being too little gameplay in the science system
 

Case 2: New players often think that they need to push the rocketry nodes in order to be able to go to more destinations and thus collect more science. This is a misconception. As soon as you have unlocked the Terrier, you can reach all destinations in the KSP solar system without too much trouble. Further progress in the rocketry nodes only gives you parts that allow you to reach those goals more easily, with less parts and less design effort. This is why, after making a beeline for the Terrier, you should consider focusing more strongly on unlocking new science experiments instead, while practicing to construct more efficient rockets with the parts you already have at your disposal (as well as learning to fly them better).
 

Case 3: Once you get into orbit for the first time, there is a glut of science to be had from biome-specific EVA reports. However, to be able to take EVA reports, you need to be able to go EVA in the first place. This capability needs to be unlocked by upgrading the astronaut complex. With 33 biomes between Kerbin and its two moons, simply collecting EVA reports at various different altitudes will unlock you several new tech nodes.

Once you start making plans for your first Mun or Minmus landings, you will want access to one of the highest-yield science experiments in the whole game: the surface sample. Not only does each sample pay out a huge amount of science, but they're also biome specific, meaning you can do them in many different locations. This obviously also requires you to go EVA, necessitating the astronaut complex upgrade. But on top of that, your R&D facility needs to be upgraded in order to be able to unlock these experiments. Think of it as installing extra equipment to be able to examine these samples.

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Streetwind

[Wemb]

11 hours ago, Victor3 said:

 should I just keep going out into the system, on my own, to gain science?

If the contracts aren't there, sure.  You will need to generate cash to do this, but that's what tourists and satellites are for.  

If you can build a craft capable of sending a crew to Minmus and back again (or the Mun, but Minmus is easier), you'll find all the science you need. If you can send a scientist and bit more fuel than you need, you can produce collosal amounts of science for very little outcome - enough to fill out most of the tech-tree with only a few repeat visits.

Like Streetwind has suggested, once you've got the terrier (and maybe the spark), then you should be able to get to Kerbin's two moons - and that that point, concentrate of getting the science experiments out there to collect data. 

One thing that I didn't see mentioned are Scientists - their special skill is that they can turn the one-shot goo and SciJnr pods into reusable experiments. If you can fly them safely, take them instead of pilots or engineers, and that'll allow you to collect even more valuable science from multiple places while in space. 

Wemb

[wumpus]

Admin building: how this works is that it converts cash to science.  The catch is that it "rounds down", so if your mission doesn't give enough funds to supply a single "science" you still lose that amount of funds for no science.  I set it to the lowest setting and forget it (I like to build on a shoestring budget, so also set the the thing to "convert cash to reputation" as well).  Don't expect to get much back, and understand that you will always be losing that percentage of cash.

Spamming science around KSC: Booooring.  For a quick hit you can always take any new scientific instrument and test them at both the launchpad and the runway (don't forget the runway).  Building a "science car" is always slow and tedious.  As of 1.x, it seems the earliest way to do this is by using a jet engine and aircraft landing wheels.  Not recommended.

Minmus science spam: There is something like 3500 science waiting on Minmus.  Obviously, this takes a ton of delta-v plus careful planning to grab it all in one go (hopefully you leave an orbiting fuel tank and dock with it).  The important bit here is that Kerbal-to-1-Minmus-biome gets you ~500 science and takes ~5000 delta-v.  Going from Minmus biome to Minmus biome takes a few hundred or less delta-v, and nets you ~500 science per biome.  You can do similar things with the Mun, but it takes a *lot* more fuel, and most of those places aren't flat (which means you can't assume a minimum delta-v per biome).

Science space station spam: Putting a MPL-LG-2 science lab in space lets you multiply the science returned from your science spam.  Note these need lots of solar power (i.e. put them in high orbit) and one or two scientists (preferably leveled) on board.  Suggestions: put one around the Mun if you want to grab science from orbit (of Kerbin, the Mun, possibly with a smaller craft to Minmus), or put one around Minmus if you want to land on Minmus, do science spam, and return with the bounty to orbit.  Serious masochists might want to put it on the polar regions of Minmus (for "landed" bonus and 24-hour solar power): warning: finding such a spot requires some tricky searching and harder landing (I don't think I can do it without mechjeb).  IMPORTANT: try not to turn this into a "total science spam" game instead of a game of exploration.  There is always "one more mission" that is extra long that improves this type of thing a little bit, and will take over your game.  Building a science station system pretty much burned me out of the game.