how to reduce science processing time?

[Laie]

I'm slightly fed up at how long it takes to process some experiments.

EDIT TO CLARIFY: I'm talking about the time it takes to feed data into the lab.

Gravimeter readings take on the order of 30 seconds each, more than a minute for an atmosphere analysis. Timewarp doesn't seem to affect this, so every time I want to add data I'm spending considerable time looking at a progress counter.

How can I speed it up?

Edited July 7, 2015 by Laie

[Snark]

A few things:

- Different antennas have different transmit speeds. Pick a faster antenna.

- Use multiple antennas. This won't make any individual experiment faster to transmit, but it does allow you to transmit in parallel. Thus, for example, if you have 2 antennas and start transmitting an atmosphere analysis, it's not blocking you because if you want to transmit something else, they'll use the other antenna.

- Don't have KSP in front of me right now, so I don't remember this for sure, but have you tried physics warp to speed it up? (Normal timewarp doesn't make it go faster, but I think physics warp may.)

[Laie]

Ahem. This wasn't about transmitting the results but about processing. Filling up the lab, before the scientists may get to work, and topping it off every so often.

Incidentally, multiple antennae don't help in this case. The (up to) 500 science are a single transmission. Do I need to mention that I've grown quite fond of the asteroid day high yield antenna?

[Snark]

Ahem. This wasn't about transmitting the results but about processing. Filling up the lab, before the scientists may get to work, and topping it off every so often.

Incidentally, multiple antennae don't help in this case. The (up to) 500 science are a single transmission. Do I need to mention that I've grown quite fond of the asteroid day high yield antenna?

Ah, sorry, my bad-- you didn't actually mention the lab, so I saw "process" and just read that as "transmit". Yes, you're right, the lab's processing is maddeningly slow. As far as I can tell there's no way to speed it up. I tend not to encounter it much because I never bother with science labs anymore, the new mechanic is useless for me and I have no reason to use them, ever.

(Not saying "they're useless", just that they don't work for my play style.)

[pearldrumbum]

What level are the Kerbals inside? Higher level scientists will process faster, but it's still pretty slow. It does process in the background though, so I usually do other missions while I wait. A little more realistic anyway, IMO.

[Geschosskopf]

I'm slightly fed up at how long it takes to process some experiments. Specifically, gravimeter readings and especially atmosphere analyses(?).

Timewarp doesn't seem to affect this, so every time I want to add data I'm spending considerable time looking at a progress counter.

How can I speed it up?

Welcome to the dirty little secret of 1.x, which is that MPLs are utterly worthless. You confine top-rated scientists to the MPL for like a year. Meanwhile, life goes on pillaging Mun and Minmus for science. By the time the MPL finishes processing data, you've already finished the tech tree. Your top brains would have been better employed on those other missions buffing the science yields instead of trying to puzzle out the intricacies of the 1st surface sample you obtained.

[ajburges]

Welcome to the dirty little secret of 1.x, which is that MPLs are utterly worthless. You confine top-rated scientists to the MPL for like a year. Meanwhile, life goes on pillaging Mun and Minmus for science. By the time the MPL finishes processing data, you've already finished the tech tree. Your top brains would have been better employed on those other missions buffing the science yields instead of trying to puzzle out the intricacies of the 1st surface sample you obtained.

That's why you keep accepting rescue contracts. Get enough brains to pillage and research. My best scientists lead the pillage. Others are trained in a leap frog manner to fill new research stations.

[Viragos]

From what I've been seeing with mine (Running a training mission to the Mun, had a 3 man command pod and a lab on the tug with a lander to take down crews for training) having extra scientists in the command pods increase science per day. I don't know if Hitchhikers work but if so having a couple of those hooked to the lab would let you run like 10 scientists.

[Sharpy]

IIRC...

- processing experiments speeds up with phys-warp (alt+.)

- sending data speeds up with normal warp but only the first notch (x5).

[Itsjustrocketscience]

The more stars a science Kerbal has, the more effecient the la is and the more of them there are, the better aswell.

[Geschosskopf]

That's why you keep accepting rescue contracts. Get enough brains to pillage and research. My best scientists lead the pillage. Others are trained in a leap frog manner to fill new research stations.

Having more than 1, maybe 2 scientists, is a waste because they soon work themselves out of a job. If you've got a roster full of scientists when you finish the tree, the only practical value they then have is to be tossed out the airlock every month or so on long interplanetary trips, as sacrifices to the Kraken so that the mission might succeed .

There's no way to speed up the time it takes the MPL to process data up front, which is what the OP was interested in. But even worst-case it's only a few seconds so what's the big deal? Where the MPL fails is the interminable time it then requires to convert data into science, which is measured in many months. This presents the player with a choice:

1. Do nothing at all in the game except warp ahead all those months to get the payout from the MPL. Meanwhile, transfer windows pass by, contracts expire, etc. OR,

2. Let the MPL just sit there while you go on with life, doing contracts and conventional science-return missions, usually warping no more than the few days it takes to get to/from Minmus. And before you know it, you've finished the tech tree and the MPL still hasn't completed processing the data.

Option #1 is for people who want to play a sandbox game except with functioning (but meaningless) science parts for roleplaying and screenshot purposes, and are unwilling to actually play through career mode.

Option #2 is for people who actually play career mode, which the MPL is supposed to be a part of. But the ridiculous time it takes to do its job makes using the MPL pointless.

[KerikBalm]

Your top brains would have been better employed on those other missions buffing the science yields instead of trying to puzzle out the intricacies of the 1st surface sample you obtained.

I don't think those buffs actually apply to anything. A lvl 3 scientist (which you can have by a mun + minmus flag + breif trip just outside the edge of kerbin's soi) does result in a not pathetic science lab output (lets assume the lab is landed on minmus, with 2x lvl3 scientists.

Science-> money strategies make this a small passive income... .but ISRU on kerbin seems better

[Sharpy]

Actually, 1) there's a bunch of mods that expand the tech tree, 2) it's a reasonable idea to consider Science to be the game's Score.

eh, gotta upgrade SPH and landing. The launchpad (top tier) collapses under the weight of my ISRU setup if I come out of time warp before all the ore is processed. And I'm still running against the 255 parts limit.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Sharpy

[Laie]

So far, Sharpy is the only one who even tried to answer the question.

---

@Geschosskopf: I happen to have a lab on my vessel. Having the lab, I want to use it even though I've filled out the tech tree already. Why? Because.

I also put every Kerbal I have on that ship, including several scientists. Turns out that they don't need to be in the lab... the more scientists you have on your vessel, the faster the lab will work. In my case, it will fill up every 20-25 days or so. Which means that even the return trip from Duna will turn into a stop and go. However, raising the lab's limits is easily done, so I can stuff it once and don't need to worry about it mid-flight.

However, it turns out that "stuffing the lab, once" is a quite time-consuming process. Feeding data into the lab takes time. It seems that the lab will accept data at a fixed rate of 2-3 data points (Mits?) per second (I didn't time it precisely). A gravimeter reading is 60 points (20-30 seconds), an atmosphere analysis even 200 points (go figure). I'm currently looking for ways to make that go faster as well.

Eventually I may decide that it's not worth the hassle even then: all the speeding up only further underlines the clickyness of the whole proposition. As I don't need the science, I may get fed up and stop using the lab. But I'm not there yet. Just telling me to not bother with the lab is not helping.

---

Edited July 7, 2015 by Laie

[Methusalem]

Having more than 1, maybe 2 scientists, is a waste because they soon work themselves out of a job. If you've got a roster full of scientists when you finish the tree, the only practical value they then have is to be tossed out the airlock every month or so on long interplanetary trips, as sacrifices to the Kraken so that the mission might succeed .

My Science Lab has 10 Scientists (all 3-star) and it produces 40 science per day. I've dumped the full set of Minmus experiments into the lab and every 10 days the science gets transmitted to Kerbin and a couple experiments converted into data. It's a matter of a minute or two (you can process them in parallel if the science station has enough energy) and 400 science every 10 days is not exactly pocket change.

If you play stock on normal difficulty, then you are right and the lab is useless. I'm playing right now with only 25% science gain and use mods (UKS and KSP-I) that triple the necessary science to unlock the full tech tree. Pretty much ALL my science comes currently from the lab until the new ship arrives at Duna/Ike and can me get science from there.

[Viragos]

Misunderstood your original question Laie. Sorry 'bout that

[Geschosskopf]

My Science Lab has 10 Scientists (all 3-star) and it produces 40 science per day. I've dumped the full set of Minmus experiments into the lab and every 10 days the science gets transmitted to Kerbin and a couple experiments converted into data. It's a matter of a minute or two (you can process them in parallel if the science station has enough energy) and 400 science every 10 days is not exactly pocket change.

Look at it like this. Whether you use the MPL or not, you still have to go biome-hopping to get the science in the 1st place. So that's a wash. It's also enough, by itself, to do the tech tree with just a few well-planned missions (1 or 2 to Minmus, a few more to Mun). This is made possible because EVA scientists can now reset Goo and Material experiments and pods have no limit on how much data they can hold. So now you have a choice. You can just do this and be done with it, using just Bob (who will acquire 2 stars along the way but it really doesn't matter), and have the tech tree done in time for the 1st Duna window, maybe even the 1st Jool window. Or you can decide to spend a lot more money and a lot more of both game and real time acquiring a large staff of scientists and training them up to 3 stars, then building a huge science base for them, moving all the scientists to this base, and then waiting for months for them to generate the same amount of science you'd already have if you didn't use MPLs. And then when the tech tree is done, you have 10 unemployed scientists and their huge lab, in which you've invested all this time and money, but which are now only useful as sacrifices to the Kraken for the success of your interplanetary ventures.

Used to be, the MPL was a vital tool because it had the exclusive ability to reset experiments. You had to do this after visiting each biome, so biome-hopping required either lots of time and fuel to return to the lab repeatedly, or a big ship carrying the lab itself. But now that EVA scientists can reset experiments, a small lander with a single 0-star scientist aboard can hop directly from biome to biome for as long as its fuel lasts, VASTLY increasing science per mission and VASTLY reducing the time and money required to hit all the biomes, with no need for the MPL at all. The rate of science acquisition this way greatly exceeds what an MPL can do, even your 10-seater with all the 3-stars on it, without having to invest in that crew or the lab.