falconek

As I see it, it forces you to engineer simpler and more redundnat solutions. If you take into account, that a part may fail, you may want to consider backup systems, or emergency scenarios. Also, there is risk magement involved. You can run short, easy missions, untill certain part will reach decent level of reliability.

In real life one of the biggest problems in space missions is malfunctioning equipment. Virtually every mission has bigger or smaller technical problems, and it's no wonder, considering what extreme conditions this equipment needs to survive. How about you copy a nice idea from Buzz Aldrin Race Into Space, and add reliability rating to every part. This rating could be improved by research on certain parts and by using them more (for instance if you have several succesful launches with LV-T30, the next batch of LV-T30 will be more reliable). Then you can add different types of malfunctions with different effects (premature ignition of a stage, engine didn't fire, leak of propellant... and many more, including malfunctions or science and communication equipment). Some of these would be fatal, and some would let you recover and continue mission with limited scope (like you won't have enough dv to reach that planet AND it's moon, but you can still reach the planet). Of course this feature could be optional, and adjusted in game options even to the point of competely turning it off. Similar features can be seen in flight sims, like Lock-On, where you can even set probability of colliding with a bird.

At this moment, rovers are kinda useless for science, unless you land a rover on the edge of two biomes, so you can drive to another biome in managleable time. My idea is to implement following experiment: Drive a rover for X meters to complete the experiment and collect science points. Experiment would yield diminishing returns, so driving another X meters in the same biome would return less points, down untill 0.

you should decide, if you don't want time - based experiments because you find them boring or because you think, that others will exploit them. If the first is true then, the solution is simple: noone would force you to perform those experiments. You could still go to Eeloo in tier 1 ship, and clear all science tree in one go, if that's fun for you. If you fear about explotinig, well then it's not really exploitinig. The point of this type of experiments is not in waiting till the experiment complete. It is in prooving, that you can keep stable conditions (orbit, resources etc) untill the experiment complete. It doesn't matter if you time - warp and you don't need to. I for one enjoy managing full - blown space program in my KSP, not running single missions one after another. At this time I have 28 missions running simultaneously. I need to manage arrival times, mid-course burns, launch windows etc. When I'm done with let's say mid-course burn on one flight I switch to next one, that is about to land somewhere. Thus, with time experiments I wouldn't need to "wait" till they complete as in staring at them on time warp. I have plenty to do meanwhile. With time experiments, finally I would have a reason to place things on orbit, other than my own satisfaction. And they would blend VERY well in my play style. If they don't blend well in your play syle, then once again, noone forces you to do anything in Kerbal Space Program.

I will post another attempt later when I find some free time, I developed a system for safe landings (aka parachutes) so I will show this off

Thanks! Unfortunately not, I crashed it. Simply my piloting skills were not up to the task ><

Here's my entry with Bon Bon Mk2: One pilot, 3 engines, enough fuel to get to orbit, return and find place for landing.

This rover delivery system is officially endorsed by Jeb Kerman (because it involves explosions and objects flying in random directions)

Hello! This is my first rover. It uses space crane method of descent, is realtively lightweight (800 kg) and carries some scientific equipment. on Mun orbit descent and landed I also made this, but I have no idea what to do with it ;P