An idea to make (unmanned) rovers interesting

[nikokespprfan]

ROCKS!!!

....

ok, admittedly it's not the faciest and most inventive of an idea, but still. My idea is that there would be small rocks present an the surface of all celestial bodies. These rocks would have spots on them with a cetrain colour, indicating that there is a certain mineral present in said rock.

What can you do with those rocks

1)You can get contracts asking you to bring back these rocks (for funds, of course), (specific colours, or rocks from a specific biome or just from the body itself).

2)You could also science these rocks by performing experiments on site or by bringing them back to kerbin.

Science would work per type of rock per biome per planetary body.

This prevents the player from entering a biome, doing science and getting out again. Noo, you need to drive around and search for these rocks, you gotta do something for your science and your funds.

For the game these rocks could be seen as normal parts, just like the asteroids (correct me if I'm wrong on that), this would also allow asteroids to have these rocks on them as well.

I personally think that this would make it a lot more interesting to launch an unmanned rover mission.

[wasml]

I think this is an excellent idea and it's come up at least once before http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/80322. I had hoped something would come of it but it seems to have died. It would make rovers much more useful/interesting.

[nikokespprfan]

Well, lets hope that a mod-maker revives this mod then (HINT...HINT), scince there is not much else to do that go to biome, press button, recieve science.

[CaptainTurbomuffin]

This is one of the things that can make stock gameplay interesting, unque, and also planets more unique. Not to talk about rovers! I am planning to list features that can improve gameplay, and I planned this to be the most important one!

[JPLRepo]

TST (see my sig for link) has a chemical cam that you can attach to rovers and do biome science with, includes contracts.

Edited September 7, 2015 by JPLRepo

[Coyote27]

So what would we need here to make this workable?

-Rocks present on surface, like ground scatter but you can interact with them like parts

-Kerbals can pick them up by hand and store them in their capsules, or perhaps a dedicated "sample-storage bin" part

-Unmanned probes need a part to study rocks with, a movable extendable arm of some sort would be awesome - if you could set a rock (or anything else really) as Target and extend the arm to sample it, that could work.

This would probably need to wait on the regular ground-scatter rocks to become solid real objects first.

Alternatively, why not make the existing ground-scatter boulders interactable part-like objects so sample pieces could be chipped off? This would probably be easier.

[nikokespprfan]

So what would we need here to make this workable?

-Rocks present on surface, like ground scatter but you can interact with them like parts

-Kerbals can pick them up by hand and store them in their capsules, or perhaps a dedicated "sample-storage bin" part

-Unmanned probes need a part to study rocks with, a movable extendable arm of some sort would be awesome - if you could set a rock (or anything else really) as Target and extend the arm to sample it, that could work.

This would probably need to wait on the regular ground-scatter rocks to become solid real objects first.

Alternatively, why not make the existing ground-scatter boulders interactable part-like objects so sample pieces could be chipped off? This would probably be easier.

I understand your idea to have those rocks be present and solid anytime. It's the most straitforward solution.

I think however that that's a thing that you should not ever do, as you would be able to land on these rocks. With them being relatively tiny, it could srew up your whole mission. Instead, (like what I read on the forum of the dead mod mentioned above) its maybe a good idea to let a kerbal (in his/her right-click menu) shearch his/her suuroundings for rocks, and let that trigger the spawns of rocks. You don't want your ship breaking on a stupid little rock when you didn't anticipate for that.

[Wjolcz]

I like the idea, but would also like to simplify it a bit.

How about we get this adapted to already existing system rather than creating a new one:

-You land a rover that is a rover indicated by the map view icon, wheels and with some experiments.

-Once it is landed you get a bunch of contracts regarding the vicinity in, let's say, 1km radius around it

-If you accept the contracts some points of interest (the ones that tell you to do things in the location) spawn around the said rover.

-You go there and do the experiments. Bam! Science and funds!

I really hope something similar is coming in 1.1 since we've been promised contracts like this.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Veeltch

[legoclone09]

Maybe just have a movable tiny claw that connects to the rocks only? Or just you right-click with that part on your ship/EVA Kerbal to gather a chip of it.

[monstah]

Veeltch has is spot-on IMO; I'm in for anything that reuses existing framework.

The thing that will still be needed is a stock version of the Waypoint Manager mod. Pinpointing 100m-precise locations without it is insane!

[monstah]

Been thinking more about this.

There should be incentives for exploring. Late game, incentives are (AFAIK) Ore hotspots and Funds for more rockets. Funds can be acquired indirectly by selling Science, which is itself an early game incentive. That and the satisfaction of seeing something you made grow and evolve ('depth over breadth'). Let me muse on that for a while (if you'll indulge me).

Prerequisite: having scanned a body

Objective: perform orbital measurements (temperature, gravioli, etc.)

Same old 'perform experiments in space over ...', but include in the description a mention of 'possible measured ore hotspots' for continuity

Prerequisite: having performed orbital experiments in a scanned body

Objective: land something with wheels and some sensors on a specified location, generated below one of the places where orbital measurement was made

Again, mention the place by name. Enforce continuity, describe it as a follow-up on the most promising spot

Prerequisite: having a rover with a Surface Ore Scanner landed in the vicinity of a 'promising spot'

Objective: Have your rover activate its scanner in specified places around the landing site. Ask for some sensor readings at those places, too.

Now we begin reaping what we sowed: this contract might give massive rep, massive science, or, my favourite, spawn an absurdly high concentration ore hotspot in one of the sites

That's the basic logic I think of: use the history of achieved contracts and their waypoints to generate new contracts in the vicinity; reward player with Resources (Science, Funds, Ore, rare resource from Community Resource Pack...).

Other options include:

-new orbital experiments on the same place, as new experiment parts are unlocked

-landing scientists on specified places; taking samples, having them stay there for X time

-low orbit crew reports of potential landing sites

-landing a lab in promising hotspots

The key here is: build upon previous achievements, escalate rewards, and always mention previous achievements to give a sense of growth.

Oh, for that to work, there's also the premise that the descriptions are actually something you'll want to read, not walls of gibberish text Talking about which, I am very sorry to use bold, italics and underline in the same post. I tried to make it better, but it seemed the best way to get my idea across...