Use of basecost instead of cost, for Balancing easiness.

[Gfurst]

Hello fellow kerbonauts.

I'm here to bring attention a serious balancing issue that some people noticed but still didn't care much for:

The Issue

The 'mass' entry in parts configs, accounts as a base mass, as such, final mass is the sum of part's mass and resource's mass.

Unlike that, the 'cost' entry, in part's config, is actually the final cost of the part, and so it doesn't count as a base cost, but also includes whatever resources costs are.

Final Mass = (part mass) + (resource quantity*density) ~different from~ Final cost = (part cost) = (resource quantity*cost) + (part 'basecost' which is only assumed)

This means some major gameplay and balancing discrepancies:

• Makes it a lot harder to balance parts out, since it means you need to account for whatever resources are included.
  
• Technically makes it possible, by adding a part and removing resources, to make a negative cost, subtracting from the overall craft's cost.
  

Suggestion

This is something that should be done rather soon than later, since it will allow for much easier balancing of parts, both for the stock game and for modders. I'm quite surprise why it hasn't been handled yet.

But there is an easy solution that will make current balance still valid. Making an additional Part entry to the config 'basecost', this will work the intended way as a base cost, and still allow for the existing cost the persist.

So if a part doesn't have the 'basecost' entry it remains the same functionality, but if a 'basecost' exist it calculates the new way: basecost + resource cost = final cost.

[MatterBeam]

I applaud the idea, but I see it being a huge amount of work. Also, it seems few people care much about the cost of parts.

How much work will it take you to implement?

[Gfurst]

I applaud the idea, but I see it being a huge amount of work. Also, it seems few people care much about the cost of parts.

How much work will it take you to implement?

Hey krakenfour, thanks, but its not a mod idea but a stock suggestion.

It wouldn't be that much work, considering it would only affect fuel parts at the moment.

Plus the way I suggested gives backwards compatibility, so things don't go ballistic crazy for all modders.

[MatterBeam]

Hey krakenfour, thanks, but its not a mod idea but a stock suggestion.

It wouldn't be that much work, considering it would only affect fuel parts at the moment.

Plus the way I suggested gives backwards compatibility, so things don't go ballistic crazy for all modders.

Seems legit then.

[Gfurst]

Just bumping up, see if it gets any attention.

[KrazyKrl]

I would suggest that the "cost" variable be the one that overrides any others. It should be pretty trivial in-game to do

If %cost = null then { %cost = 0; For each %resource[i] in %partcfg { cost = %partcfg.drymass.cost + (%partcfg.resource[i].unitcost * %partcfg.resource[i].totalamount); }}

Edited May 26, 2015 by KrazyKrl

[Gfurst]

@KrazyKrl

Mod suggestion?