Mobile Science Lab Scientist Upper Limit?

[Duke Leto]

So I have a station in LKO with literally all the science on Kerbin getting milled into Data and more science by 19 1 Star Scientists in lab equipped facility with seats for 30.

And I figure, "What the Hell, let's make it an even 30 before sending them to the Mun, Minmus and Solar Orbit to get them all up to 3 Star."

So I rescue 3 scientists from wrecks in LKO and take them back up to the station and bring the total up to 22, and nerf the data total up to 500. I am a bit surprised because the processing rate doesn't seem to go up much. I bring up another 3 Level Scientists and can then confirm that they have had no effect on the science processing rate, which has maxed out at 3.375 science a day.

At first I think it's a fault in recognizing what does and does not constitute a part of the station, that it is only counting the 15 scientists in the pods that were directly connected to the lab in the same stack, rather than the 10 in another part that is docked to it. But I moved Bob Kerman from one part of the station to another and this did not affect the processing rate at all.

I did the math based on the data provided in the wiki, and 500 data and 0.0675% per day per level 1 scientist with an output of 3.375 per day matches the output of 10 scientists.

So are the number of scientists who can work a single lab capped at 10? I can't see any variables in the largeCrewedLab.cfg file that would indicate that is the case, and it isn't mentioned in the wikis...

?

[basic.syntax]

I think it should be capped at 2... try testing by starting from no scientist kerbals, then add one at a time, check the % each time.

According to the v1.0.3 patch note:

* Fixed potential exploits with sci lab.

[Duke Leto]

Have not run the incremental kerbalziation test yet because (to be frank) shuffling 25 kerbals off of and onto a station is a bit tedious. I will run it soon though. Want to set up my Minmus fuel mining project to get the ridiculously large craft ferrying groups of 30 kerbals around the system economically fueled.

I think it should be capped at 2... try testing by starting from no scientist kerbals, then add one at a time, check the % each time.

According to the v1.0.3 patch note:

Yeah, I saw the patch note. Just wondered if there was any more detailed knowledge.

It makes sense though. 50 Level 5 scientists would have a throughput of 14.175% of the stored data per day, which would take 500 points of data down to nothing in about 50 days. That does feel a bit exploity.

10 seems like a good compromise number. It'd feel more natural, truer to the economics of multi-person teams, if the addition of each kerbal caused less and less of a throughput increase, until it peters out entirely.

On the brighter side, it means I can run my little 30 3 star Kerbal scheme on three labs simultaneously, which amounts to the same thing as 1 with 30.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Duke Leto

[Ripper2900]

Well only if those scientists are philosophers who can sit in their living quarters and come up with new results. Otherwise they'll need a workstation to generate science, and the lab has only two of those.

[Sharpy]

OTOH they aren't superkerbals who can work 24/7. So, it comes to reason that three shifts of two scientists each will utilize the workstations to maximum, allowing time for proper rest, recreation and work that can be done outside the workstation (planning, analysis, brainstorming, reading materials on the subject). Additional one assistant per shift will further improve the efficiency, and one "backup" for when a scientist is sick, or otherwise occupied, or just for filing reports and bookkeeping, fills the 10-kerbal quota.

[FancyMouse]

superkerbals who can work 24/7.

Wait what does 24/7 mean on Kerbin?

[Duke Leto]

Wait what does 24/7 mean on Kerbin?

6/1.58333 Then.

Or (probably more likely on a world where the short munar orbit makes a week a rather pointless concept...)

6/6