Science transmission with relay bonus

[jirka828]

Hello everybody,

can anybody explain, why I am getting 40% transmit bonus on science data transmitted directly from KSC launchpad? I am using only Comunotron 16(-S) antenna, transmitting Mystery Goo or Thermometer data and no other vessel or satellite is in the game. I haven't installed any game mod.

I've read many wiki pages (of course https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CommNet and https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Science) and I've searched for information here on forum and generally on the www, but all I found is that the transmit bonus applies only while transmitting through any relay antenna. I think that this isn't my case. I suppose the transmission goes directly from the vessel to the KSC.

Can anybody explain what's going on here? Thank you!

[Fierce Wolf]

It's on purpose, the game rewards you for having a good relay network of satellites

 

Edit: On re-reading, i have no idea!

Edited January 13, 2020 by Fierce Wolf

[AHHans]

Hi @jirka828 Welcome to the forums!

Are you sure that you get the relay transmitting bonus? Or is it only the fraction of the full science that you suffer for transmitting and not recovering?

[jirka828]

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

Hi @jirka828 Welcome to the forums!

Are you sure that you get the relay transmitting bonus? Or is it only the fraction of the full science that you suffer for transmitting and not recovering?

Thank you for your reply. Well....I'm not sure, but I think so. See the picture below.

There is +40% bonus displayed on the blue transmit data button. According wiki the Mystery Goo gives 30% of science if transmitted. So if the transmit bonus is added, it gives 42% what is also disaplayed on the blue transmit data button (30% * 1.4 = 42%). Real science points income also conforms to this number. Moreover if I disable Comm Network in Game Difficulty settings, transmitting Mystery Goo gives only 30% of science points as expected (without 40% bonus, which is no more displayed on the blue transmit data button). This applies also to other science experiments.

[AHHans]

59 minutes ago, jirka828 said:

Well....I'm not sure, but I think so. See the picture below.

Yupp, looks that way. I never paid much attention to that before.

O.K. From what I've seen in a quick test it seems that the wiki is plain wrong. Signal strength does have an effect on how much science is transmitted: at 100% signal strength you get that 40% bonus, at a lower signal strength (through a relay or whatever) this bonus is reduce by the signal strength. The scaling is approximately linear for high (>50%????) signal strengths but falls steeply for low signal strengths. (At 38% I didn't get any bonus anymore.) Another fun fact is that in my simple test the CommNet preferred to take the direct connection even if the signal strength would be better when going through the relay. (I.e. I got better signal strength by going into the shadow of the Mun.

Edited January 13, 2020 by AHHans
Changed wording to improve clarity.

[severedsolo]

21 hours ago, AHHans said:

Another fun fact is that in my simple test the CommNet preferred to take the direct connection even if the signal strength would be better when going through the relay. (I.e. I got better signal strength by going into the shadow of the Mun.

That's just how Commnet works, it will always prefer a direct connection home if it's available.

[jirka828]

On 1/13/2020 at 9:31 PM, AHHans said:

O.K. From what I've seen in a quick test it seems that the wiki is plain wrong. Signal strength does have an effect on how much science is transmitted: at 100% signal strength you get that 40% bonus, at a lower signal strength (through a relay or whatever) this bonus is reduce by the signal strength. The scaling is approximately linear for high (>50%????) signal strengths but falls steeply for low signal strengths. (At 38% I didn't get any bonus anymore.)

Yes, you're probably right. As I can say after a few experiments the behaviour of signal strength bonus is same for me. So it really looks like the wiki is wrong. I supposed wiki to be most relevant information source but it seems to contain many inaccurate or even wrong information which are hardly distinguished without experimenting.

 

On 1/13/2020 at 9:31 PM, AHHans said:

Another fun fact is that in my simple test the CommNet preferred to take the direct connection even if the signal strength would be better when going through the relay. (I.e. I got better signal strength by going into the shadow of the Mun.

I didn't notice such behaviour and unfortunately I currently haven't any game in such progress to be able to experiment with this.