skwij

So loving .24 update, still need some work (not that thats a bad thing) on stations, bases, satellites and rovers. These things although fun and the current platform has the ability and parts to build such things, in career mode there is very little if any use for them, especially since for most things you want to recover them. I posted a thread a while ago about an idea that transmissions require line of sight, thus requiring you to set up relay satellites. and I've seen other posts on ideas to use contracts as reasons for lots of the above, as well as some other creative ideas for long term research stations. I however have an idea on how rovers could be used more efficiently. So what we could have is a new tool. one that cannot be used by kerbals, so it has to be mounted, will act like a ladder and its simply a drill that does underground samples. much like a surface samples just you require this tool to do it. anyway the idea is like a surface sample you get science for one sample, if you get more from nearby locations you get the same amount of science or even perhaps more for subsequent samples up to a total say 4 or 5. this could also be implemented into the contract system simply by "acquire 4 underground samples within 800 - 1200 meters of each other" im sure there are more creative ideas on this. of course this set up will allow for massive science from a single mission however thats the reward for building a return craft with a stable rover which of course will cost more and requires you to advance down the rover tree. yes you could also simply take of and land a bit further away and have the tool mounted to the lander but that uses fuel and is not as fun.

ok so i have a few ideas that im going to run through i apologize in advance for the length of this. transmission, the way you transmit and antenna's. ok first thing, transmissions, i understand why a transmission would only grant 40% of the original amount of science, without the actual sample why would you get more. however thats still a massive drop, i have never transmitted anything except crew reports because i refuse to loose that science, so the question is how do you increase the percentage without increasing it. answer, 'research module'. so at some point down the tech tree you unlock this module that allows you to research/study your experiment that will increase the amount of science awarded then transmit, this would however increase the amount of data to transmit and thus more power. so now lets say rather than only 40% you now get 60, but why stop there, further down the tech tree you could unlock ether more advanced modules or just simply upgraded modules which would then apply to any rocket built after that tech was unlocked. then percentages could increase to say 75 then 90, each upgrade would of course require substantially more time and power for the more massive data. now that transmitting is a more acceptable option people will have reason to build long term basses for experiments. secondly currently we have 3 antenna but other than power use and speed there really isnt any difference or incentive to think about which one other than look. ill get back to this. my third thing is the kicker. transmission requires line of sight to transmit. so you cant send your results back to Kerbal Space Center if its currently on the other side of the planet or something else is blocking it. how this would work is up to the dev's, an idea is when you transmit you open up the main map and ether a red hugh shows where the signal can reach or simply the ships and stations around are highlighted if they can be reached, then you select the ship and any further ships to bounce off and so on or you may have to switch to and then transmit again, would be a little annoying but each transition requires monitor of power usage. now why goto this complication. other than it makes things more interesting, challenging and realistic it also opens up reasons to advance the kerbin space program. till now there isnt really any use for satellites and probes other than for the hell of it. well now with point of sight there would be. you send up satellites to orbit kerbin, thus you transmit to the satellite then to another if necessary then down the the surface. with the upgraded research module you decide to build and base on mun, from there you can send out eva's on rovers to collect samples from difference craters and from the edge and center of them. the rover if designed as such could have a container to store say up to 5 samples, then returns to the base, loads up the samples ether by docking the rover or simply the kerbal caries it over then its studied, currently for argument at this point the base is on the far side of mun, well you transmit to a low mun orbiting satellite then when its insight it transmits to the the space center directly or via another satellite. now back to the antenna, we have three, how to make them different. well firstly we turn one into a receiving rather than transmitting. now what to do with the other two. well at this time i only have one idea. one uses substantially more power. now why, well you decide once you have these upgrades to send a permanent research base to eve. because loads of science to collect. now for added challenge you have an issue with transmitting, the atmosphere has a data loss. try to transmit with the cheaper/earlier unlocked antenna and say only 40% of the transmission reaches. so instead you attach the more powerful one. or of course you could send a second building to land near the base which could you then transmit to with the cheaper antenna then use the power hungry one to transmit of planet. well that about covers is. sorry its so long. i figure if these ideas were implemented you'd give people reason to build more advanced and complex space programs with satellites, bases and rover missions and even focus their progress through the tec tree down specific paths. hope you like the ideas. regards Andrew.