Depleting science?

[Zosma Procyon]

When I send a mobile base into a new biome and run the full batch of stock science experiments and transfer the data to a processing lab, is that biome's science value depleted for the whole duration of my game, or would a new base be able to get new data there later?

[4x4cheesecake]

Once you picked up some science and put it into a lab or transfered it in any way back to the KSC, it is gone. Some experiments can be run mutliple times and you will still get a tiny amount of science from it, but you have to recover the experiment on Kerbin...even the Lab will not accept the same experiment data twice.

IIRC, the R&D building also provides an Archive to keep track on which experiment ist already done (for each Planet/biome).

[Foxster]

1 hour ago, Zosma Procyon said:

When I send a mobile base into a new biome and run the full batch of stock science experiments and transfer the data to a processing lab, is that biome's science value depleted for the whole duration of my game, or would a new base be able to get new data there later?

AFAIK its a one-off thing but you do get a little more from repeating an experiment in the same location. It's not nearly as much as the first time and might not be worth the trouble.

I suppose the idea is to keep you moving onward.

You can get a lot more science from an area by processing in a science lab and radioing it back. 

[PrvDancer85]

1 hour ago, Zosma Procyon said:

When I send a mobile base into a new biome and run the full batch of stock science experiments and transfer the data to a processing lab, is that biome's science value depleted for the whole duration of my game, or would a new base be able to get new data there later?

If your new station also has a siencelab it will work. U can unlock the hole techtree from just one biom if u wish so. A siencelab can process siencedata once but if u send a new one it will process the same sience for the same siencepoints as the 1st one did.

[4x4cheesecake]

1 hour ago, PrvDancer85 said:

A siencelab can process siencedata once but if u send a new one it will process the same sience for the same siencepoints as the 1st one did.

A new lab can process the same data again? Wow, I have to try that

[StrandedonEarth]

If you put the data in a lab, you can then rerun the experiment and send it back to KSC for full science. Similarly, you can take, for example, a crew report and radio it home. Take another crew report, which is now worth nothing to send home, and put it in the lab for its full data value.

[PrvDancer85]

2 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

A new lab can process the same data again? Wow, I have to try that

Any experiment can be processed once per lab. 

[Superfluous J]

47 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

If you put the data in a lab, you can then rerun the experiment and send it back to KSC for full science. Similarly, you can take, for example, a crew report and radio it home. Take another crew report, which is now worth nothing to send home, and put it in the lab for its full data value.

Correct, but you cannot take a 3rd crew report and process it in the lab again for more science.

I'm not sure but I think you can't even take it to another lab.

5 minutes ago, PrvDancer85 said:

Any experiment can be processed once per lab. 

Oh. Never mind then. So as soon as you get a lab you can unlock the entire tech tree from the launch pad. I never thought it could get worse than it was with just double dipping but there it is. Worse than I thought.

Edited November 9, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[Snark]

15 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

So as soon as you get a lab you can unlock the entire tech tree from the launch pad.

Yep.

15 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I never thought it could get worse than it was with just double dipping but there it is. Worse than I thought.

Well, "worse" isn't the word I'd use.  "Different", certainly.  But saying "worse" seems to imply you think it's... bad, somehow.  Is there a reason for this?

I think the MPL is probably one of the most misunderstood parts in the game.  It fills a very important and crucial niche.  The thing is... the niche that it fills is for certain types of players, so it ends up looking unreasonably overpowered to the folks like you and me who aren't in its "target market", so to speak.

Here are some categories of KSP players:

1. Players who go out and explore the solar system.
2. Players who go out and explore Mun and Minmus, but never leave Kerbin's SOI.
3. Players who never go beyond LKO.

The important thing to realize is that there are lots of players in all three categories-- and they're all equally valid.  Designing KSP to cater to all of these groups is a serious challenge.  The fact that you can max out the science tree just by going to Mun and Minmus, for example (even without using the MPL) isn't an oversight-- it's a way of catering to group #2, so people who don't go interplanetary can play the game to the end of the tech tree.  And in a similar vein, the MPL is for the folks in group #3 (and, to a lesser degree, for the #2 folks who don't feel like having to strip-mine Mun and Minmus exhaustively).

Also:  There are people who love gathering science and will dig and dig and dig and dig... but then there are the people who want some of it, but who find it a tedious grind after a bit and want a way to accelerate it.

Detailed discussion here:

...and even if you don't want to read my blathering, do absolutely give the following incredible thread a read-- not just the OP, go  through the comments:

It was a major eye-opener for me.  Made me view KSP (and its player base) in a whole new light.

What it boils down to is:  if you're the kind of player that ventures out into the solar system to explore and gather science... then the MPL is not targeted at you.  So just pretend it doesn't exist, and don't use it.  That's what I do.  It's there for other users.

And as far as I'm concerned... that's absolutely fine.  I don't mind if there's a part in the game that's vital for other players but is useless to me.  After all... here are all these high-powered CommNet antennas that are vital to me, but useless to people who stay inside Kerbin's SOI.  So it all comes out in the wash, as far as I'm concerned. 

Overall, I think KSP does a pretty good job of having a wide selection of parts that are useful to just about everyone, regardless of their play style.  However, with a "sandbox" style game that offers so much opportunity for personal creativity, enabling such a wide variety of possible play styles... it's awfully hard to design a game that can accommodate everyone.  So I don't begrudge them slipping in a part or two that's there mainly to bridge the gap across play styles.

[Superfluous J]

52 minutes ago, Snark said:

Well, "worse" isn't the word I'd use.  "Different", certainly.  But saying "worse" seems to imply you think it's... bad, somehow.  Is there a reason for this?

I have thought science was too easy to get in the game since they added biomes to Mun. There is a perfectly usable mode for those who don't want to leave Kerbin's SOI or even Kerbin itself, and you don't even need to unlock anything.

Edited November 10, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[Kryxal]

I'm running a 20% science game this time around, and the lab would be great if only I had it ... maybe I should look into a science mod instead, straight multiplier seems to make the early game a huge grind.

[magnemoe]

On 11/9/2018 at 10:04 AM, 4x4cheesecake said:

A new lab can process the same data again? Wow, I have to try that

It work, note that its an good idea to have an small ship jumping around collecting science from other places, you can even export science if your Mun and Minmus base run out of science you can swap even bring some back from duna or other places. 
If you send an lab to other planets you can preload it so you can do science on the way.