Wow, what a grind – Science is not coming easy

[Xwingace]

Is it just me, or is gathering enough science a real problem in 1.0? I'm having to grind out testing mission after testing mission to get little 1 and 3 science point nuggets. I've already gotten pretty much all the science I can orbiting Kerbin and Mun orbit/flybys.

Don't get me wrong, I know getting to the Mun isn't supposed to be easy, but it seems pretty tedious.

[kurja]

Science from contracts isn't supposed to be much. If you've already orbited the mun you should also be able to land though, what's keeping you? What have you unlocked so far?

[Chyort]

Skip the mun and go to minmus. Lower gravity makes it all so much easier, not to mention all the perfectly flat biomes. Yeah it takes a little more DV to get an intercept, but you save so much on all the landings.

You don't even need landing legs most of the time, just balance on the engine.

Personally i try to rush the gravity scanner as well, once you get that you can grab a report from high/low orbit over every biome with a polar orbit. Huge science without ever having to land, and if you throw it on a disposable probe with an antenna you don't even have to worry about bringing the ....... back.

[basic.syntax]

You've stumbled into the great "contract science nerf of v1.0." Exploration is now the main way to get it, which makes much more sense, followed by uploading experiments into the big mobile processing lab. New Mobile Processing Lab mechanics

[Tex_NL]

Have your contracts pay for the mission, get science from experiments.

As Chyort said Minmus is a great source of science. Thanks to the low gravity if you plan you landings wisely you can even do two or more biomes in a single mission. And don't waste fuel on getting to biomes you've already milked dry. Place flags to mark visited biomes and/or keep a scorecard.

- - - Updated - - -

The Mobile Lab is indeed a great science multiplier. Just make sure it's staffed by well trained scientists and supplied with plenty of power.

At first my lab performed very poorly. Despite the 8 gigantor panels it quickly ran out of power each time it passed Kerbin's night side. Now with more, better batteries it churns out science like a machine.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Tex_NL

[Asharad]

get a science lab, put it on the ground on Kerbin, collect a little bit of science, and turn ont he lab. It will generate more

[magnemoe]

Skip the mun and go to minmus. Lower gravity makes it all so much easier, not to mention all the perfectly flat biomes. Yeah it takes a little more DV to get an intercept, but you save so much on all the landings.

You don't even need landing legs most of the time, just balance on the engine.

Personally i try to rush the gravity scanner as well, once you get that you can grab a report from high/low orbit over every biome with a polar orbit. Huge science without ever having to land, and if you throw it on a disposable probe with an antenna you don't even have to worry about bringing the ....... back.

My favorite is to use an 1+2+2 drop tanks on my minmus lander, you want the legs then doing highland, midland, slopes and lowland then do seas until its time to return.

And yes you can do almost all biomes for the dV cost of one mun landing

[Alshain]

I agree with Minmus. You can biome hop and grab all the science you have from every biome in one trip if you are a good pilot, if you aren't you should be able to grab all of the flats at least. Just don't forget to bring a scientist along to reset the goo and materials bay. If you get every biome and as you said already have the in space data from Kerbin and the Mun, it should get you pretty close to the end of the tech tree for a level 2 R&D center.

[bakanando]

Don't forget about the EVA reports on mun orbit differ between different geological regions/biomes, you can get about 300 just from milking those. I've finished the 90 science mark without even landing on mun, which is the next project you should aim for.

Contracts won't give you enough science to advance much.

[Shyrka]

In my current career game I've not had too much trouble gaining science. It was slow going to start with but doing orbital eva reports on every biome I could find eventually got me through. Currently I'm doing rather well for science thanks to a pair of orbital stations, munstation and minstation, which have science labs and small, lightweight landers so I can visit all the biomes and process their data. As Tex_NL said, if you do go down the lab route, make sure you have enough batteries on the station to get you through the night.

Finally, converting funds into science via the admin building was always a good way of progressing your tech pre-1.0. I've no idea how it performs in the current version (I got the impression it had been nerfed heavily when I looked last) but it may help to net you the science you need to progress to the next stage.

[magnemoe]

I agree with Minmus. You can biome hop and grab all the science you have from every biome in one trip if you are a good pilot, if you aren't you should be able to grab all of the flats at least. Just don't forget to bring a scientist along to reset the goo and materials bay. If you get every biome and as you said already have the in space data from Kerbin and the Mun, it should get you pretty close to the end of the tech tree for a level 2 R&D center.

Yes, after doing this and unlocking rover wheels go to the east west canyon who intercept an crater. here its 7 biomes within 5 km.

For me it was funds who was the limiting factor not science.

[scola_p]

And don't forget you can sacrifice money or reputation for science in the admin building.

I personally give up 5% or my reputation as that can't buy MOAR BOOSTERS!

P

[Geschosskopf]

Don't get me wrong, I know getting to the Mun isn't supposed to be easy, but it seems pretty tedious.

Yes, stock career mode is now a serious grind of repetitive, boring, time-consuming, expensive landings on different biomes on Mun and Minmus, all paid for by doing repetitive, boring, time-consuming, rescue and tourist contracts, with the odd building of a useless station or base thrown in.

"Doing science" is now rather less logical than before. The purpose of science is to develop new and better rocket parts. Instead of actually testing prototypes like before, now it's "The Great Blueprint Scavenger Hunt", turning over every pebble on Mun and Minmus in hopes that some lost blueprint is hiding underneath.

Fortunately, there are better ways. First off, get DMagic Orbital Science. This gives you a boatload of additional science parts so you can gather more science per mission. Also, this same mod includes contracts to use these parts, which not only pay lots of cash but include substantial science rewards.

And there is also Contract Configurator, which allows you to specify the frequency of contract types, so you can get back to doing actual R&D work. This also lets you get a variety of contract packs to suit your style. This, along with Contract Rewards Modifier should enable you to remove all traces of grindiness and play the game the way you want to.

[Two]

Aside from the KSC "biome" "exploit" science farming - which is really tedious - you can just send a space probe to orbit Mun or Minimus and have it send the science data back home. That should give you enough science to buy more science gathering tools, which you can then send to other planets.

With the right build you can send a sat to Jool, have it gravity-turn around all planets (so without wasting any fuel) and scan each one. That mission took some time (mostly waiting), but gave me over 2000 science total.

[waterlubber]

Honestly, I started getting 2k science in one mission for a few reasons:

1. Install lots of science mods. It's not cheating.

2. Rovers. I threw a rover on the Mun and hit three biomes.

3. Scientists. Reusable Mystery Goo and Materials Bay. Do this in one or two biomes and your set.

I had 3megaroots because I went on a contract binge and still haven't finished my modded tech tree, even with 2000 science per mission (3 missions of this type sofar). I'm going to Dres next.

[KerikBalm]

Is it just me, or is gathering enough science a real problem in 1.0? I'm having to grind out testing mission after testing mission to get little 1 and 3 science point nuggets. I've already gotten pretty much all the science I can orbiting Kerbin and Mun orbit/flybys.

Don't get me wrong, I know getting to the Mun isn't supposed to be easy, but it seems pretty tedious.

I've just got 3 biomes left on the Mun to get data from (some of them I have partial data from earlier contract probes that I was able to deorbit) - southwest, northwest, and polar basin.

I have basically no surface gravity data from the Mun yet. I'm missing a lot of the space-grav scans

I've done all them minmus biomes for everything, except some grav scans (and also some high-space grav scans - but I've got most of it)

I have 3 techs left to unlock, and 300 science in reserve (something like that).

1000 science to get the large ore can and narrow band scanner - Meh

1000 science to get the 2.5m probe core - meh

550 science to get the mk2 probe core - meh

So... basically, I'm done.

For most of career mode, I've been running 25% rep-> science, and 25% rep -> funds.

Go to Minmus... its not much harder to do a flyby of minmus than the Mun.

You should be able to achieve orbit more easily as well.

From a low orbit of minmus, you can have your kerbals use their RCS pack to land on the surface, get an EVA report and surface sample, and then rendevous with your craft -> free RCS pack refil... repeat until you have EVA reports for all biomes (you can even transmit the surface samples, and get them again, for more total science).

Then you should be able to come back with a lot of science, to make your mun landings even easier (I don't get why you can't just go now).

Also come back with a proper lander and get temp, pressure, seismic, goo and mat lab reports - ideally grav scans as well, but I didn't want to grind longer before launching my missions.

It was only later, with ISRU, that I included a grav scanner... land on a biome, run the surafce scan to get a better ore map, and run the grav scan at the same time.

Soon, I'll be running 100% science -> funds (I already cancelled the rep-> science).

[Wjolcz]

Contracts are meant to be the main source of money, not science. If you want science go places and gather it, or use a strategy that multiplies your science income.

[Wanderfound]

As everyone has said: contracts for money, exploration for science.

If you can EVA, you can farm EVA reports from every biome you can orbit over (i.e. all of them). And there's always the early game science missile: Stayputnik, parachute, science gear, thrust-limited RT-10, fins. Can hit half a dozen biomes from KSC.

[Xwingace]

Thanks for the tips guys! Time to send an orbiter to Minmus...