set a cash limit

[The_Baby_Cheeseus]

I would love an option to set a cash limit that can be turned on or off and is completely customisable.

This would be a great feature for challenges. Like getting the fastest jet for the cheapest price.

Thanks,

The_Baby_Cheeseus

[cicatrix]

In harder modes this can be extended a little. Imagine you've got a fixed budget, say, 140K funds and you got a contract - send a Kerbal on the Mun. What I mean - you cannot spend more.

[arkie87]

In harder modes this can be extended a little. Imagine you've got a fixed budget, say, 140K funds and you got a contract - send a Kerbal on the Mun. What I mean - you cannot spend more.

Yes, you are saying that one of the requirements of the contract is to be within budget. I think that would be a cool idea, especially for harder modes i.e. rescue X kerbal from LKO spending less than 20k$....

One potential serious impediment is docking-- if you dock with another craft, to refuel, say, then how will it calculate your budget? I suppose it can require that you never dock the craft...

[MKI]

Implimenting cash limits on flights or anything else is to hard to impliment. As said above what stops you from docking, or clawing, or EVAing or transfering your way to the goal? All of which exploit the fact you can run multiple missions at one time.

The only way I can see this working out is extensions made to the game outside of career mode alltogether. A whole new section of the game thats akin to the tutorials. With mission that act like stages in career. Take for instance you have a single mission(contract) to do something within a select budget. Many other simulator games have scenarios that you can play out. This game should be no different. The main difference is you can design your ship and plan out your mission from the start. But everything else can be set.

Cash is just to similar to time in the game. The way it impacts you is important, but you can always play around it to the point its never the most direct issue in MOST cases. (time goes on forever, but you still need to gain funds first to spend)

[Vallius]

Would such a limitation actually make KSP more fun? I think the rewards (when they aren't ridiculous) offered by a given contract already give players a good reason to keep their mission costs under control, at least on average. Plus the more efficient I am at fulfilling contracts, the more play money I get to have for my personal projects.

Maybe the real problem is that near-Kerbin missions deadlines are extremely lax, allowing players to grab the money and ignore missions for a long time. Seriously, I should get only days to save a kerbal in orbit, a couple weeks for test contracts, and maybe 60 kerbal days to go to minmus and back.

[Mazon Del]

I'm not really sure you should be that concerned about the player taking advantage of their other spacecraft. It's not like NASA is prohibited from doing so, they are just rarely in a position to be able to do so. An example from the current situation exists. They want to put a space station at the lagrange point on the other side of the moon to shield it from the Earth's radio signals and such. Their plan to reduce costs is to disassemble the ISS, and take the modules they own (or can buy), reassemble them into a new shape, then push it into position. It would save billions instead of setting up a new one from scratch.

One of the reasons why I think you shouldn't be concerned is that if there is a system for ISRU in the game is that it would allow the player to utilize the 'free' resources available to them. Hmm. If I ever make my 'Wear and Tear" mod (equipment slowly degrades) then that would be your 'cost' for utilizing ISRU (for fuel anyway). The wear and tear on your engines and other systems.

I think I might revisit that mod once I get to winter break.