Certification

[Semmel]

Dear Modding community. I would like to ask for a mod with a small, but I believe very interesting impact: Certification.

The story is this: It is very easy to build rockets for contract satellites and VIP Kerbals. Thats all fine and dandy, but I would like to have some extra that makes the player think more and ultimately streamline the game more.

I would like to have a mod that makes contracts of placing satellites into specific orbits only available for _certified_ launch vehicles. Likewise, VIP Kerbals should only be able to go around on Kerbal-rated launch vehicles.

How to implement:

* A parts sub-assembly can become a certified launch vehicle by successfully putting a certification-dummy mass into a larger than 100x100 km orbit. By doing that, the sub-assembly becomes certified and can be used to launch any contractual payload. Subsequently, the satellite that is to be launched needs to be lighter than the dummy mass and needs to attach to the same node as the dummy mass, no other changes to the rocket are permitted.

* For Kerbal rating a launch vehicle, it needs to be certified and it needs to make at least 5 successive successful launches, that is, bring its payload to orbit without parts failure.

* The capsule needs to fulfil the following tests: (Kerbals associated to the KSC are allowed to board during tests of course):

-- Pad abort: Test a launch abort system while landed at the launch site: detach transport vehicle while landed at the launch site and land without parts failures on solid surface or water.

-- Launch abort: Test a launch abort system while flying at Kerbin: above 1000 and below 3000 m, speed above 300 m/s.

-- Re-entry test: Land on Kerbin after being in Kerbins Orbit.

* Make contract reward for VIP much higher than it is in 1.0.2 to rebalance certification costs and make the process less grindy

Impact on Gameplay:

* The player will think about creating launch families. This makes games easier because certified launch vehicles are less likely to fail because they are unaltered. Fiddling with the launcher to make a unique launcher for every satellite is prohibited.

* In longer games, player spends less time designing rockets and more time designing payloads to fit in available certified rockets.

* New contracts might emerge to create a certified launch vehicle that is capable of bringing x kg into Kerbin orbit, to reduce certification costs

[hab136]

Have you seen TestFlight? It gives you a serious incentive to re-use existing designs.

I don't think TestFlight has a "certified" marker, but you could either just implement that yourself (rename your craft "certified" in the editor once you've flown it enough) or ask the author about it a certification program being implemented.

[Semmel]

Thx for the hint, no I was not aware of TestFlight. I will check it out, looks pretty good.