KSC Overheads and running costs

[nine_iron]

One of the recent timewarp and interplanetary threads got me thinking.

Some people run just one mission at a time, warping months or even years.

Others run multiple missions, passing the time of interplanetary by doing things closer to home, while KAC ticks the months down to the SOI change.

For the one at a time people, what is the KSC up to in the mean time? Surely it has running costs? Admin, electricity bills etc, or do all the staff just go into hibernation?

Should this be simulated? Does anyone do something to "fake" the costs?

It doesnt seem right to me that we have the same money after 2 years when all we have done is wait!

This might also encourage career players to run a space program rather than a series of missions back to back.

[Guest]

Running costs would just increase the terrible grind of career mode right now. Add more ways for the player to make money than "fetch" quests, or just fix the grind, and then we can talk about costs over time actually making sense.

[Randazzo]

Nothing will encourage other players to adhere to your preference except their own desire to do so.

I much prefer to follow a mission through to completion rather than starting new ones in the middle. I will, once in awhile, launch another vessel mid-mission to meet a transfer window.

[AbacusWizard]

Once I advance far enough (in money and tech) to go interplanetary, I almost always have multiple missions en route at once, because it's really boring to just wait as the timewarp fast-forwards through two years or whatever. It feels more worthwhile if those years of fast-forward are progressing several vessels towards their destinations.

[yardpup01]

Should this be simulated? Does anyone do something to "fake" the costs?

It doesnt seem right to me that we have the same money after 2 years when all we have done is wait!

You can check out Kerbanomics. It implements a periodic budget and salaries for hired kerbals. Seems to fit your bill.

Edited March 4, 2015 by yardpup01

[Wjolcz]

Actually electricity doesnt seem to cost anything in KSP. I was once curious if by emptying all batteries and attaching solar panels I could break the game by earning monies for literally doing nothing but launching and recovering this stuff, but noticed that doing so doesnt change the cost at all.

I like running many missions and accepting many contracts at the same time but the lack of KAC in stock game doesnt help.

[Merinsan]

All the people working at KSC are just doing it as a hobby. Once they send an interplanetary mission off, they go on holiday, until they are needed again. And they run the place with those really efficient solar panels, and cheap lights.

[Specialist290]

Looks like this is a suggestion for a future game mechanic. Moving the thread to the appropriate place

I personally like the idea of adding time-based components to funding, as I think that a lot of the grind other users are complaining about comes about through the very steep prices for facility upgrades. I think that replacing those with permanent monthly operating costs while at the same time enabling contracts that provide constant income over a long-ish duration (though still needing periodic replacements) would go a long way to alleviate that, as it would reduce a good bit of the burden on players to do absolutely everything manually.

Of course, I'd have to sit down and actually work out the details to fully do the idea justice.

[Arugela]

My first thought was, "Kentucky Shock Chicken!" The new way to fry! I'm not familiar with terminology in this game as you can see. But the answer is obviously, "The cost is low, they lie, and they don't pay you crap... 8p"

Maybe that is a real fast food restaurant in Kerbal space program. And they really use cattle prods to cook your chicken. And it's eaten whole.. bones and all! I"m against add placement though(You know, squelching money and selling your games soul to a large company!). So, please, don't ever add that in that manner! 8( I think I would be sick! 8D (pun about kerbals devouring whole chickens like they were tiny nuggets.)

Maybe it could be called "Kerbal Shocked Chicken!" They look at it with their eyes and it just goes poof and is instantly fried chicken.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Arugela

[tater]

Time needs to matter, but continuous expense is not the way to do it, IMO. I'd rather see payments over time to create time as a thing that matters. Have a mission to build a station and maintain it for a year. Instead of a bulk payment upon placing the station, you get paid 2000 funds a month. When that expires, it might make the contract/mission system create a new mission to add on tot he station, resupply the station, rotate the crew, etc. (creating a new revenue stream dealt out by the month). Other missions might deal out the money as larger sums in fewer months (remember a Kerbin month is only ~6 days as I recall).