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In game newspaper for career mode


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Something i was thinking about earlier, was what if in career mode we could read a Kerbal newspaper that updated every week?

It could do a bunch of randomly generated articles based on launches you've completed, parts researched and contracts completed. Maybe even reflect public opinion on the space agency in some articles. Also as a bonus maybe some ridiculous non space related articles. Just something I thought that would be nice to have.

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What game purpose would this serve? This just sounds like a vanity feature that doesn't add depth or complexity to game play. Considering how much money and developer time is already being wasted spent on animations and models based on the weekly devnotes, I wouldn't want any more effort spent on something that doesn't progress the game.

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It would make the game world less sterile. Right now everything about Kerbin itself (and everywhere else) is completely static.

Well, OK, I guess the tracking station radars change position every so often, and you've got a few engineers moving about in the VAB. The newspaper is the same kind of idea, but on steriods. It serves to liven up the game world a little, making it more engaging and immersive (particularly if it responds to the players' own activities rather than just throwing up random headlines)

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What game purpose would this serve? This just sounds like a vanity feature that doesn't add depth or complexity to game play. Considering how much money and developer time is already being wasted spent on animations and models based on the weekly devnotes, I wouldn't want any more effort spent on something that doesn't progress the game.

It would be funny

Though making a news ticker can't be difficult to code. I imagine the hardest part would be to come up with text to put in it

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What game purpose would this serve? This just sounds like a vanity feature that doesn't add depth or complexity to game play. Considering how much money and developer time is already being wasted spent on animations and models based on the weekly devnotes, I wouldn't want any more effort spent on something that doesn't progress the game.

Double ninja'd, but hey...

The same purpose as the Kerbal expressions, voices, and contract text. They are not functional, but they make the game feel more alive and enjoyable.

The SQUAD members who make animations and models are not coders or testers, they are 3D artists. If they weren't making animations and models, they still wouldn't be coding or testing, so they're not wasting development time.

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It would make the game world less sterile. Right now everything about Kerbin itself (and everywhere else) is completely static.

This.

Heck, even Buzz Aldrin's "Race into Space" had Carter Walkrite video to add to the immersion level. An occasional newspaper popup or ticker wouldn't be a bad idea.

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Something i was thinking about earlier, was what if in career mode we could read a Kerbal newspaper that updated every week?

It could do a bunch of randomly generated articles based on launches you've completed, parts researched and contracts completed. Maybe even reflect public opinion on the space agency in some articles. Also as a bonus maybe some ridiculous non space related articles. Just something I thought that would be nice to have.

This is a great idea. And until the debs consider this, this would also make an excellent mod idea as well.

What game purpose would this serve? This just sounds like a vanity feature that doesn't add depth or complexity to game play. Considering how much money and developer time is already being wasted spent on animations and models based on the weekly devnotes, I wouldn't want any more effort spent on something that doesn't progress the game.

Purpose? Immersion in a game is everything; break the immersion, you loose players (aka, customers. Aka, money). It could also add additional rewards to the game, which as every good game developer is aware of, is how a game progresses. Building a video game is all about rewards and discipline, you reward the player for playing the game well, and you punish the player for playing the game poorly. This is basic psychology. Some players will view the newspaper idea as a reward, as there is feedback on the things that they are doing in the game. Some personality types need the reassurance of this feedback, and would help these players stick to the game longer as they are getting rewards that matter more to their particular personality type than, lets say, an additional part that was unlocked.

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Great idea!!!!!!!!

It would specially make the reputation system more organic.

As it is, the rep is only a number that increases or decreases. It's intended to mimic the general public reaction to your successes and failures, but may feel disconnected.

If you fail a mission or kill a Kerbal and get a newspaper headline along with the rep hit, it would feel more of a reaction than only a math calculation.

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This idea reminds me of that old encyclopedia idea someone came up with a while back...where you'd start the game with an encyclopedia you could flip through. Its pictures and descriptions of planets would be really vague and blurry until you built your observatory, space telescopes or sent probes and stuff to these distant bodies. The most detailed information you could get for the encyclopedia would be from sending actual kerbonauts to do experiments and take pictures and stuff. That was always a really good suggestion for an immersive(and undoubtedly silly/kerbal) way to showcase the player's progress. Would've gone very well with the museum thing people talked about way back when too.

This newspaper idea...would be perfect to go alongside those two, giving us some insight to the kerbal world and their take on the space agency. Could even throw in silly ads for the different companies that provide contracts as well as a handful of fluff articles to take up the page space. I imagine it'd just be like...once a week or once a month(in-game time, of course), you get this newspaper and the headline might feature something your space agency had done that week...along with the aforementioned silly advertisements or 1-3 paragraph long fluff articles surrounding the main headline story(especially if you didn't do anything that week).

Would be very interesting, amusing and...just very fitting to a silly game like this. I mean, the rocket science is pretty serious and realistic and all, but the kerbals themselves...everything about them screams outrageously silly shenanigans.

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Not sure if this is appropriate, but Hitman IV: Bloodmoney had a pretty interesting way to use a newspaper article after each mission.

The title would be according to the way you played the mission. The text would be in journalist-written-like summary (though a real newspaper never does it this way.)

edit: link to hitman wiki with images http://hitman.wikia.com/wiki/Newspaper

Example:

"The Ghost strikes again!

The victim died horribly by gunshot. Forensics say the bullets seem to come from a colt something. There were no witnesses and everybody say they heard nothing at all."

Kerbal variant:

"Experimental Escape system failed during latest test!

The SpaceshipnameHere lifted off and managed to reach 9001 meters of height before there was a sudden breakage between a fuel tank and a decoupler. There was a little explosion that detached the craft into 3 pieces.

It was impossible to save the victims/volunteer experimental pilots. Luckily there are at least 6 new candidates eager to try again!

If the space program cannot pull this mission off within 3 weeks, the contractors will be displeased."

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newspaper would be neat but give it a toggle, not everyone wants popups all the time, newsticker seems less intrusive. Id also like it to say something if you revert a game. "Rumors of a catastrophic explosion on the launch pad are apparently false."

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