Extremely slow science progress

[Didaskalos]

It seems to me that the amount of science offered for contracts in 1.0.2 is 1/5 to 1/10 of that in 0.90. Has anyone else noticed this? I'm flush with cash but scraping up enough science to make the next discovery is grueling. I'm trading rep for science in the admin just to get a little for each contract.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Didaskalos

[KerbMav]

Contract science has been lowered significantly, yes.

Build a lab in orbit?

Also if you are swimming in funds, maybe you should convert them to science instead of rep?

[Arsonide]

Contract science was rebalanced to supplement experimentation rather than replace it. You'll need to work some experiments into your missions. There are more experiments lower on the tech tree to help you out with this, and the revamped lab and extra scientist abilities help as well.

[Claw]

Seems science was actually put back more how it was in 0.23-ish. Where the primary way to gain science is by getting out and doing experiments (as Arsonide says). The other thing you can do to get a little boost is using the science lab. You can now stuff it full of experiments and it convert it to more science.

It might be tough to get started, but once you can get onto and easily around on the Mun/Minmus, science will really start to rack up. And all the planets have a lot of biomes now, which they didn't back in 0.23. So light and cheap probes that transmit science can be your friend.

Cheers,

-Claw

[Didaskalos]

OK. Thanks! I was thinking also that letting rep build might make more lucrative contracts available. Sounds like I need a SkyLab

[Geschosskopf]

Contract science was rebalanced to supplement experimentation rather than replace it. You'll need to work some experiments into your missions. There are more experiments lower on the tech tree to help you out with this, and the revamped lab and extra scientist abilities help as well.

I wouldn't call it "rebalanced", I would call it "eviscerated". Instead of doing actual R&D on experimental parts to later have access to production versions of said parts, now unlocking the tech tree has been reduced to looking for missing part blueprints hiding in all the biomes on the surface of Mun and Minmus. It's illogical and grindy.

[Laie]

looking for missing part blueprints hiding in all the biomes on the surface of Mun and Minmus. It's illogical and grindy.

Unrealistic? Yes. But still, I like it rather well. I still think of career as a kind of tutorial mode that gradually introduces you to parts and game concepts (yes, you can actually fail -- but if you play without reverts, I assume that you want it that way). Putting the parts you have to good use unlocks new parts, that's quite sensible from a gameplay progression point of view.

The grindy part is more problematic -- on the one hand, just doing a single sucessful Mun and Minmus landing each isn't enough to proof your mettle; but the current requirement to turn around nearly every stone is a tad much.

[MechaLynx]

I didn't play much career in .90 but I can say I like career science scarcity as it is, although I am playing on hard and looking for a challenge. What I do, is exploit the little science around KSP and on Kerbin and I launch a couple of missions just to get pilot experience and science from low and high orbit around Kerbin. It's got me to the point where I have enough funds for a lvl2 landing pad and enough parts to flyby the Mun (in fact, enough ÃŽâ€v to escape Kerbin), so I'm probably close to landing, which should yield a truckload of science and It's been around 3-4 missions (I think) plus 2-3 weird launches to get cheap science from the launch pad and surrounding area.

[tsotha]

I think this was a good change. In 0.90 I stopped using materials bays, goo containers, and science bays altogether. It was easier just to knock out contracts, and money was always the bottleneck.

[panzer1b]

While career in .90 game lucridious science for everything including most contracts, now its more reliant upon stuff such as science labs, the experiments, ect.

While i barely touch career, i actually have a career save im working on in 1.0, and sofar the best way to get science is to place one lab per body you visit, and then have experiments you can feed up to the lab to get the whole science over time. It takes some effort to set up, but its nolonger do contracts exclusively and always get a crapload of science stuff.