Funds and Possible Career Mode

[Lach_01298]

Introduction

So while I wait for KSP2 to be actually playable for my PC and because I can't stop thinking about KSP2 and it future content which greatly excites me. I have been thinking about the topic of Funds (money) and Career Mode. I know that as of current there are not really plans for funds or a Career Mode as stated in an interview with Nate Simpson and Chris Adderley by Scott manly https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1628840207368990721?s=20, there is instead Exploration Mode which is more based around utility to the player and resource acquisition. This sounds like an interesting mode (and doesn't necessarily rule out funds) but I want to share some ideas that would be to me interesting and fun based around funds that could be part of a separate Career Mode or possible part of Exploration Mode.
 

So to start lets list current problems with KSP1's implementation of career mode:

• It can be very grindy requiring you to do multiple very similar contracts  to just fund your "Real" progression mission.
• You can get yourself stuck in a funds hole essentially ending your play through
• The reputation system doesn't really do a lot
• The Administration Building strategies aren't that useful
• Overall isn't that fun and was bolted on as an after thought

My ideas are based around funds and I completely remove reputation and Admin strategies, so won't be talking about them. 
 

Base concepts and philosophies for my ideas:

• It has to be Fun and not grindy
• It should reward players doing their goals and not just some random contract's
• It should encourage building efficient cheap solutions such reusability and not the use of many massively over capable expendable rockets for every problem.
• It should connect with other systems in the game like colonies, ISRU and interstellar travel not be a bolted on after thought
• It should create new and interesting challenges and solutions to play

Now that's the intro done let me explain my ideas and feel free to add, change or even explain why my ideas are bad in this topic.

 

Ideas

Funds

You might wonder why do we need funds, especially for late game when I'm building rockets on other planets from local resources? Well there are a few situations where funds would be nice.
Funds represent the value of things (parts and resources) to external entities to your space program like governments, civilians and companies. Initially you will be buying everything from these entities, fuel, rocket parts, etc. You don't need to wait for the things your buying from them, unlike if you would have to create them yourself internally in your space program. Got a rocket that needs some fuel? You could make the fuel yourself but that can take some time especially if you need a lot or you could buy some immediately to fill you rocket from a company. In most cases I see that everything from Kerbin will cost funds. You will still need to transfer the stuff from Kerbin but you buy it at Kerbin. Possibly quite a bit later after colonising a certain planet or moon sufficiently that you have a large civilian population (possibly sold some colonies off) you can buy some things from them on that celestial body, no need to get Kerbin involved.

 

Income

First start with a base  weekly or monthly income. When ever I have played career mode in KSP 1 I found having a mod like Monthly Budgets or Bureaucracy a must. It stops you getting in a funds hole because you can just wait to gain the funds for you next mission not having to do a contract that you already don't have the funds for. This income needs to scale with your current state of progression e.g. now that you have proven your space program can land kerbals on the Mun the government have now granted you additional funding. You also need to be able to add additional sources of income to this. Examples:

• Some civilian kerbals would really like to have satellite communication so they can watch their favourite shows anywhere on Kerbin. You could build a communication satellite or even several to cover Kerbin and civilian kerbals and companies will pay you an income for the use of your satellites.
• Some civilian kerbals will spend good funds to visit a space station or even a ground base on the Mun. You can fly the tourists to your stations or bases and let them rent out habitation modules and then fly them home. You will only have to do this once as a proving mission after that this particular tourists trip/route will automatically happen giving you a income based on how much the kerbal pays minus the cost of the rocket (not recovered or reused). This should be possible from what I have heard in various interviews and dev videos using the system they are going to make for recording and creating automatic resource transfers trips between colonies and stations.
• Some civilian kerbal scientists would like to use your science equipment (telescope, space station  lab, etc) and will be willing to pay for it. You can rent these out for some income.

An additional note is you can always come back and upgrade things. Got better tech for communication? Upgrading or replacing existing communication satellites gives you more income. Got a better cheaper transport system that can transport more kerbals than your old tourist route? You can update the old one with the new one for a better profit margin. etc.

 

One Off Payments

Need funds more quickly or now? There can be a few options:

• You get one time payments for completing progression goals e.g. first time to orbit, first Mun landing, etc. These are in KSP 1 and it is nice to get rewards for doing things.
• You could sell off you assets. Got a satellite or space station that still works  but you don't use anymore or don't care about? Well you can sell it to a company for some funds. This can be a bit of a trade off though say you have a communication satellite that you are already making money off on a monthly basis. You could keep the satellite and continue getting that constant income or you could sell the satellite for a large immediate payment but lose that constant income.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Lach_01298

[The Aziz]

11 minutes ago, Lach_01298 said:

You will still need to transfer the stuff from Kerbin but you buy it at Kerbin

I'd bet that manufacturing anything will be faster than transferring anything across the solar system, making that buying system pointless in the long run, aside from the very start of the save. Once you establish first manufacturing base on other planets, money will be irrelevant. And we're heading to other stars, so funds would be worth anything only for a fraction of playthrough. 

Money is a human concept, Kerbals can live without it.

[TomKerbal]

44 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

I'd bet that manufacturing anything will be faster than transferring anything across the solar system, making that buying system pointless in the long run, aside from the very start of the save. Once you establish first manufacturing base on other planets, money will be irrelevant. And we're heading to other stars, so funds would be worth anything only for a fraction of playthrough. 

Money is a human concept, Kerbals can live without it.

Live long and prosper !

[Ultragamer2000]

Yeah I like the idea of a resource economy much more then funds, seems more relevant to this game, have to agree with the above posts