sputnikhead72

First of all, I want to say that I do enjoy the current (as of 0.24) science/rep/money/mission mechanic. However, I had an idea for a new way to do things that I think would both be a bit better and would more accurately reflect how it works in real life. I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. In real life, the science being done by NASA/ESA/JAXA/etc. is more about the investigation of how nature works. Science done in space does not often directly inform the technology that they use to get there. The way they improve their rockets and life support and such is by studying it, testing it, and, ultimately, actually using it, and considering how it could be improved or altered to fit various needs. What I propose, therefore, is a separation between science and technology. I still think collecting science is important; but I think science points should act more like science in real life, in which proposals to do science are what get money to space agencies. Collecting science, then, should be what gets you money (I think a mission proposal system might be too complicated, so maybe you just have a pool of science that gets you money and depletes over time). Missions should be focused on science objectives (they sort of already are, but I mean that science missions could be focused on doing specific science, say, temperature readings at a specific altitude or some such). So as you do science, you get money to do more missions. And, of course, the flashy missions, like Mun landings, would also be cash earners. Technology would work differently. The more missions you do, the more parts you unlock. For example, if you use a basic Rockomax engine several times, eventually Rockomax will develop a more powerful or more efficient or larger-diameter or gimballed engine. If you use one of their small fuel tanks, eventually they'll build a bigger one. I think it would be cool if the part itself became more efficient or more powerful each time it's used (as that does happen with real-world rockets), but I'd be happy if you just unlocked new parts that way. To sum up: Science gets you money. Money allows you to do more launches; every launch is a step toward new/improved/upgraded parts. And new parts allow you to do new and different missions and get more science. Lastly, I am a big advocate for science to be an over-time thing for most science parts. E.g., if you launch a satellite that takes temperature readings, it should give you more science if you leave it up there for a year to study temperature, as opposed to just doing an instantaneous temperature reading and being done; or if you put a gravioli sensor in orbit, it should be more like a mapping tool, and map the gravity over the whole planet. But that's a separate issue.

I know there's an add-on for this, but I'd like to see larger xenon fuel tanks in the base game. I like to build refueling stations, so I'd like to be able to have a single large tank for xenon instead of a bunch of little tanks mounted radially. It would probably reduce mass to have one tank, too. Besides, I often have to stack several xenon tanks for outer-system probes. I picture tanks of similar size and capacity to the medium and large monopropellant tanks.

I generally agree with tntristan's suggestions. One thing I would suggest in addition is to make some experiments long-duration. For example, temperature is worthless if you just check it once a year; wouldn't it make sense if the barometer and thermometer were simply "set running", and continually generated science (with diminishing returns over time)? These are more stationary tools, which would act more like a weather station than a space probe. Maybe throw in a wind speed/direction meter. I would also suggest making the gravioli detector a mapping tool, instead of a biome-based tool. When real satellites and space probes measure local gravitation, they generate a map of the gravity of a celestial body over its whole surface. I picture something like the kethane scanner, but instead of finding kethane deposits you get science points for each grid block you scan. There could be several similar science tools of this sort, like radar/laser elevation mappers, infrared remote thermal scanners, and probably lots of others based on real science tools that I'm not even aware of.