[Question] Can parts have attribute updates?

[SyberSmoke]

Science...stock or modded there is a point where once you get enough, there is no need for more. You have unlocked everything...there is little compelling you to go get more and parts that generate it become...redundant.

So I am curious if a mod can update part values/attributes with out making a new CFG for the part? The thought is the creation of a mod that does not any any parts. Instead you use science to research upgrades to parts based on your discoveries. Nothing over the top, more like small incremental upgrades. Give the PB-Ion a small boost to thrust, make tanks fractionally lighter with better materials (The tank not the contents), upgrade the mk1 command pod with better batteries.

Basically the sort of thing that we do with science all the time. Look at what is happening with the F-1 engines used in the Saturn V Rockets. After all this time, a team has taken one of the engines apart, redesigned it, simplified it, and used modern rapid prototyping techniques (Selective Laser Melting Technology) to make an updated and more efficient version.

So...I ask...can it be done?

Edited April 27, 2015 by SyberSmoke

[sumghai]

I personally don't like the idea of parts with upgradeable stats, since this makes craft sharing much more difficult.

For instance, a veteran may have built a really nice stock SSTO craft that he claims can get to the Mun and back. A newbie downloads the craft, not knowing that they need to upgrade the parts in their own game to Tech Level X, and as a consequence, the craft does not have enough delta-V to actually reach the Mun, causing the newbie to accuse the veteran of false representation.

[NathanKell]

Easily. KSPI has done it for years, so has RealFuels.

[StahnAileron]

I personally don't like the idea of parts with upgradeable stats, since this makes craft sharing much more difficult.

For instance, a veteran may have built a really nice stock SSTO craft that he claims can get to the Mun and back. A newbie downloads the craft, not knowing that they need to upgrade the parts in their own game to Tech Level X, and as a consequence, the craft does not have enough delta-V to actually reach the Mun, causing the newbie to accuse the veteran of false representation.

You can always have it set to lock craft files if the parts in it don't meet "tech level" requirements, both for part unlocking (current) and stat growth (this proposal). I know of other games, like Galactic Civ, that let you re-use designs from game to game, but lock designs whose parts have yet to be unlocked.

[SyberSmoke]

Easily. KSPI has done it for years, so has RealFuels.

Last I saw for Interstellar, unless they changed it, the upgrade was done as a separate tech and then applied on a part by part basis. The idea was more to research the upgrade tier (to a limit) and it apply to all parts.

I also understand the concerns concerning part sharing. The file could be locked of coarse, or the files could just use the stock values and the person sharing could say "this is this tier". The potencial is there to get better then stoke values, but it should not be so much better as to make past craft completely obsolete. Say after four tiers the NERV would get an extra 10 ISP in space going from 80 to 90.

It would be a science sink, a reason to keep experimenting with out being over the top.