Configure upgrade level for buildings at start

[Marclev]

I don't know about others, however it can be very little fun to need to grind away at missions at around Kerbin to upgade the buildings to a good enough state where you can start doing inter-planetary stuff beyond basic probes (as in, more than 30 parts, manoeuvre nodes, etc...).

It would be great to have some level of configurability over what upgrade state the various buildings start in, as in some sort of "accelerated start" feature. That way people who want the beginning of the game to last as long as possible can do so, but for those of us that want to start doing the interesting stuff sooner, we wouldn't have to grind away for a long time to get the chance to do so.

[DBT85]

I agree, though you can set the failure setting to like 10% and then all building upgrades are dirt cheap.

I'd like to see missions that when completed get you a new building or at least a discount, say govt funded.

[Torquemadus]

The cost of the building upgrades is currently controlled through the Failure Penalties slider. Pictured below are two examples of the cost to upgrade the Launchpad to tier 2, with the Failure Penalties slider set to minimum and maximum settings respectively.

Having set the cost of the building upgrades to whatever levels you require, you can then give yourself extra starting cash to buy upgrades at the start of the game.

[Marclev]

The cost of the building upgrades is currently controlled through the Failure Penalties slider. Pictured below are two examples of the cost to upgrade the Launchpad to tier 2, with the Failure Penalties slider set to minimum and maximum settings respectively.

http://i.imgur.com/ZGrxJCK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/m02hEXO.jpg

Having set the cost of the building upgrades to whatever levels you require, you can then give yourself extra starting cash to buy upgrades at the start of the game.

Thanks, I had no idea this existed. But "Failure Penalties" doesn't sound like it should have anything to do with building upgrades though, what else does this affect? If all it does is control upgrade costs, it needs to be renamed. Else a standalone slider should be introduced.

It would still be cool to control starting upgrades, as per my OP. I don't want to remove building upgrades completely by making them dirt cheap, just have them all start at Level 2 or something like that to remove some of the initial grind.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Marclev

[ghpstage]

Manned missions to a number of extra-Kerbin moons, as well as to Duna are more than possible with fewer than 30 parts. You won't be able to take much in the way of science equipment, but if you could then it would make the tech tree utterly pointless.

All you need are manoeuvre nodes and a launchpad upgrade, and enough science of course.

Thanks, I had no idea this existed. But "Failure Penalties" doesn't sound like it should have anything to do with building upgrades though, what else does this affect? If all it does is control upgrade costs, it needs to be renamed. Else a standalone slider should be introduced.

It would still be cool to control starting upgrades, as per my OP. I don't want to remove building upgrades completely by making them dirt cheap, just have them all start at Level 2 or something like that to remove some of the initial grind.

Starter cash would be a much better option then. Simply give yourself enough extra to cover the upgrade costs. Edited January 18, 2015 by ghpstage

[KSK]

I'm honestly not trying to be snarky, but what about Science mode? Doesn't that do much the same thing that you're looking for? OK, you don't get *any* building upgrades that way, but if you want to cut out the Tier 1 to Tier 2 upgrades anyway, you've already got rid of much of the gameplay involved in building upgrades. As far as I can see, the buildings go a bit like this:

Tier 1. LKO reasonably straightforward, anything beyond that is a challenge.

Tier 2. Most things are now possible including interplanetary.

Tier 3. Go nuts.