roguelycan

While I am not a big fan of Pewdie it was funny that you could actually see the moment he went from just reviewing a game he expected to be boring to actually enjoying it. It seems like that first time you get into space thinking youve done it to suddenly falling back towards kerbin that ignites the spark. You suddenly realize there is a lot more to space travel than video games or movies had previously led us to believe.

I work professionally in IT but have very little actual modding experience outside of modifying some part configs and making small changes to other peoples work. Is this idea something simple enough to create with a little bit of research or am I looking at a significant amount of time to figure out.

You wouldn't just be using fuel recovered from space. You would still have ore on Kerbin. You would use aircraft to mine ore and could return the ore/fuel to KSC or recover from the mining site for a % based on your distance form the KSC. A large cargo plane full of empty ore containers would recover a significant amount of fuel if recovered full of ore. The idea is that it would add a level of difficulty to the sandbox mode for people that wanted to use it. It wouldnt be a mandatory feature of sandbox mode.

Maybe not stage recovery so much since this would be a sandbox feature and thats a career mode mod.

There was a mass relay mod made quite a while ago that was part of Kerbtown (or something similar). In fact i think it was one of the very first objects that used it. It was placed at the end of the runway and once you got within a certain distance it would launch you into space pretty much instantly. Or blow you, one or the other.

I think this would be the perfect thing to add into the game now that resources have been added to stock. It would create an entirely new game mode with minimal work having to be done on squads side. The only thing that would need to be done is coding in a limit to the fuel storage at KSC and include resource recovery to the vehicle recovery option. All of the mechanics and features are already in the game.

Being able to recover mined ore and fuel would be CRITICAL for this game mode to work. As to the difficulty question that is why this would be an optional sandbox option with options to adjust its difficulty. If you like the idea of limited resources but without the possibility of "losing" you could simply keep ore enabled underneath the KSC and just build a miner on the launchpad, then recover it for more fuel. The "resource management mode" is a good idea but would only work in career since funds dont exist in sandbox mode.

Lol while it is a little more than I was imagining with this idea that does sound pretty awesome. It feels a little outside the scope of stock KSP though but could make an interesting scenario or mod type of game mode. I am thinking of something more in line with the regular sandbox mode but with just enough of an objective to give your designs some purpose without limiting creativity too much.

The Scenario After years of Jebediah being allowed to run wild with his pursuit of space, snacks, and explosions Kerbin is now suffering from a wide scale fuel shortage. The local 7-11 has officially run dry and all that is left is the fuel stored in the tanks at KSC. Bob has now taken command of the KSC with a bold plan to supply their own fuel through widespread mining operations. The Idea An optional difficulty setting to start out in sandbox mode with a limited amount of fuel requiring mining and recovering resources to keep your rockets fueled up. The Execution There would need to be an option under the Sandbox difficulties that you could enable to start the game with finite resources. The starting amount would be adjustable depending on the level of difficulty you want. This could range from allowing a Mun/Minmus mission or 2 to only having enough for atmospheric flight with jets. Options for removing ore from under KSC as well as a range around KSC should also be included. Ore and fuels recovered on Kerbin would be added into the tanks at the KSC but would fall under the same recovery rules for parts in career mode so Ore/Fuel recovered from far away will only give you a percentage of it. There would be an ISRU at the KSC to handle on the spot ore refinery. This could run at less efficiency than the actual ISRUs which would make refining the ore into fuel before recovering beneficial in some situations. I would love to hear peoples ideas and suggestions for my idea. I only ask that we keep the topic on this idea for sandbox and not on ideas on how to make this work for career mode. The amount of changes that would be needed to make this work in career is enough to warrant a separate thread.

Re-entry with a shuttle type aircraft must be done differently than with pods. To make up for not having ablative heatshields they have higher heat tolerance than most pod parts.

I have often times thought how cool a open world game like Eve and a physics construction game like KSP would mesh. I dont think current PCs could handle something like that yet but when we get there it will be a cool game.

if this got added as a vanilla feature i wouldn't want it on by default. Just as an added difficulty option.

True, it wouldnt be hard to move all the necessary mining equipment into the first node or 2 in career mode if you enabled the mod for it. Wish I knew enough about modding to try to make it myself.

Lol figured that would make it sound more fun than angry.

Im calling it now. You miss the soi change and fly by.

Darn you forum. I told you to email me when people commented. I just thought this thread died. - - - Updated - - - By the way everyone, great comments. To the mention that my topic thread was a little condescending I didnt mean it that way. Was a little hot when I created it but wasn't trying to incite anything. If we were talking about permanent features then the realism over fun discussion is warranted because its addition will affect everyone regardless of game mode. When you are talking about optional features, or mods, then it makes less sense to just give a blanket "I dont like this idea" because even if its introduced you could just simply ignore it. If you dont like the idea of a Limited Fuel (or whatever) option in difficulties then just leave it off. Now ideas on how it could be better or different are typically welcome ideas. - - - Updated - - - Changed the title to something hopefully seen as a little more fun.

Good points Renegade. If I knew how to mod myself I would have already started on it. Unfortunately my job in IT doesnt give me as much free time right now as I would like and I would have to quit playing the game in order to learn to code for it lol. Mostly just hoping someone else likes my idea enough to decide to make it themselves. If that doesnt happen then oh well.

Lol was mostly just frustrated because I have had several posts recently get completely sidetracked by people arguing over aspects of my suggestion that didnt even matter. If I said I wanted to make a more realistic aerodynamics mod then absolutely realism is a major aspect of the suggestion. Its right there in the name. But if I am talking about a GAME feature, for example the limited fuel idea, then whether it is realistic is inconsequential because the idea isnt to make anything more realistic. It is about adding objectives to game modes. It doesnt bother me if people disagree with my idea or don't like it. Thats why I post these to get peoples opinion. What does annoy me is when they argue something that has nothing to do with the idea itself. "Hey guys I want to add a new engine into the game" "OH YEAH WELL I DONT LIKE THE COLOR BLUE SO THAT IDEAS STUPID"

After a few frustrating posts on Reddit, and to a lesser extent here, I have ran into some responses from the community that is honestly quite frustrating to many people. When someone posts a suggestion for a mod or an optional feature (example - something in difficulty settings) and the goal of the mod is not to specifically recreate a realistic situation (FAR, DRE, Life Support) maybe the best first response isnt about whether this is "realistic" or not. I posted an idea on reddit about a game mode where you could choose to have a limited amount of fuel to start the game with therefore putting a heavy focus on having to mine and recover fuels and ores to keep your space program running and could be a fun Sandbox type game mode. The very first response was about how unrealistic that would be because real LFO can be created using seawater and electricity. HOW DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH MY IDEA! Sometimes it is appropriate but most of the time that argument is just frustrating for people who dont care if the idea is realistic. Rant over.

If I were to try to come up with something like this for career I think your idea would work pretty well. The fact that all the mining stuff is at the very end of the tree makes doing this in career or science mode difficult.

While I am sure it could be done fine for career mode with a few tweaks the whole point of wanting something like this is to avoid a money based economy. I dont want to have to do contracts to earn money just to pay more for fuel than we do already. Career is fun but I have unlocked the tech tree enough times. I want some objective gameplay for use in the sandbox mode. Of course before people start yelling about "Thats not sandbox mode then" remember that this would be an optional way to play. The mode I am suggesting makes purchasing fuel impossible. You either have some in reserves or you dont. If you have no fuel then your not launching any ships. The starting volume of fuel would be adjustable depending on peoples desired difficulty level would be. This way people will actually need to recover fuel and ore to refill the KSC reserves as well as having refueling stations in orbit and around the solar system.

Lol that is kind of the opposite of what i want. Kspi is fun though

I would imagine just a simple option in the difficulty settings with something like "KSC has infinite fuel reserves" that could be turned on or off for any mode, and a slider to adjust starting amounts. Also an option for removing ore from underneath KSC and a slider stating the minimum distance from KSC where ore will generate. Maxing the slider would remove all ore from Kerbin. No reason this couldnt be something used in any of the other game modes.

As far as roleplaying goes you are right that the tanks on site can already explain that part of the scenario. One thing is I don't want this to be just another mod for career mode, the contracts and economy are fine but I am looking for something outside of the money based career mode. I want fuel to be the only real limiting factor in this mode. I dont want to deal with tourist and satelite contracts but I do like the idea of maybe an occasional special mission that comes up that would reward the player with a gift of fuel. Not that this idea wouldnt work in career or science mode, but I am more interested in something closer to the sandbox mode but with a vague objective.

I agree. It seems like something that would be easy to implement just by adding limitations into a sandbox environment. I'd be happy with it as a mod if i knew how to do it myself.