Science points beyond tech tree

[Pthigrivi]

Hmm... I know a lot of people really want like a million different options to tailor the game to every kind of playstyle, but I think this could end up becoming a monumental fools errand. Rather than spreading development time and energy trying to specifically please every player's idiosyncratic wish, I'd prefer they devote energy to just doing the one thing right. If there's grind, identify where its happening and alleviate it. Start by taking some of the clickiness out of experiments and make them more fun and involved in some other way. If people want to have the choice of where to go, make those contracts automatically available. This doesn't require completely re-writing the game, just a few, incisive changes to streamline the way career mode progresses. Much of what the game is missing right now is clarity, making some hard and fast defined goals that everyone can understand. If World Firsts were the defined main quest of the game players wouldn't worry so much that they'd completed the tech tree before making it to Duna. This would simply be a strategy they employed to achieve the greater goal of sending their kerbals deeper and farther into the kerbol system. Others might employ other strategies, racing toward larger rewards with lower tech earlier, or taking their time building stations and setting up satellite networks. If the overall goal were something pretty easily agreed upon (like exploration) and the ways to get there were flexible enough I think they would end up with a game that was both broadly appealing to the vast majority of players as well as a more focused, cohesive gaming experience. 

Edited January 16, 2016 by Pthigrivi