A natural and easy-to-implement way to make game time count for something in career mode

[herbal space program]

Hello all,

There's been a fair bit of discussion on this, mostly revolving around the idea of having an AI competitor agency in the game, but I don't think I've seen this idea come up yet in the discussions of this question. It seems fairly obvious though, so my apologies to OP(s) if it has been discussed at length before. How about having your space agency require a certain amount of funds annually to maintain operations, based on the level of the buildings you have? I've heard it discussed before that there should be an annual budget for the agency, but as funds coming in not going out. With that type of system, there would be a real incentive to meet ambitious time lines in the game, mostly as you start exploring other planets, but possibly earlier with some other minor tweaks. There would also be no need to implement anything nearly as complicated as a rival agency, which I can't imagine the devs even considering for quite a while. It could of course be a toggleable/slideable option in the game config, but would be part of at least the default moderate and hard modes. I think that type of system would add an interesting new dimension to both the time and money aspects of the career game. Thoughts?

[Tw1]

So.... basically, make the space program pay rent?

(Or maybe it's periodic maintenance costs.)

IDK. Yes, it would add time preasure, but I'm not so sure it would add it in a useful way.

It would add preasure to keep doing stuff, and maximise how make use of time. It would add consequences to liberal use of timewarp.

Interplanetary missions are still mostly constrained by launch windows and transfer time, so there, it mainly just adds to the cost of a mission. Hmm...

Nothing to stop you launching lots of subsequent Kerbin SOI missions to grind for cash....

Maybe. I'd prefer something more sophisticated, geared towards letting the player establish an elaborate, multifaceted space program, but it would be a start.

I don't think adding time pressure for the sake of time pressure is the best idea. It's space program, not space race.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Tw1

[Murph]

I've thought about this quite a few times as career mode has progressed since first introduced. On balance, I have to say an emphatic "NO!!!" to this. It makes a little sense in the earlier stages of career mode, but becomes nonsense in the later stages, once you've fully unlocked the tech tree and naturally your focus has shifted towards long range missions (having likely got to the stage where the local system is no longer that much of an appeal).

It would have to be set at such a low level of funds needed, that it would be basically irrelevant and pointless. If it wasn't set at that low level, people would just abandon career mode in favour of science or sandbox mode, or just hack the funds. Personally, I'd probably just hack the funds for it. I quite like playing career mode "end game", where the focus is on interplanetary, and this suggestion would be pure annoyance, taking away from the fun of the game.

[Tankman101]

Adding rent doesn't add anything meaningful to the game, it just forces you to keep doing missions you have no interest in simply because you have to.

Literally grinding.

[Laie]

Career could be more than a preliminary to sandbox play, and upkeep would surely play some part in this. But I don't know how to get there, and merely adding running cost to career-as-it-is...? What Tankman said.

[Guest]

If we had budgets and alternative means of funding other than grinding uninteresting missions, actual space programs and stuff, then rent and salaries make sense. How career is now? No.

[herbal space program]

Adding rent doesn't add anything meaningful to the game, it just forces you to keep doing missions you have no interest in simply because you have to.

Literally grinding.

Actually, I think it would be much more about forcing you to have multiple missions going simultaneously later in the game rather than forcing you to do more missions overall, but clearly it's not a very popular idea anyway.

Edited May 27, 2015 by herbal space program