Suggestion for a mission based mining/harvesting/building game ecosystem.

[taukarrie]

I know that resource gathering is a planned feature and that the upcoming career mode will likely have missions of some kind and there have been suggestions related to both. But I wanted to put this idea out there since i haven't yet seen any suggestions that really illustrate both systems working together.

The Kerbal Space Program is presumably an operation sustained by a Kerbal nation of some kind. And like any space program here on earth they probably need to show results to earn continued support from their parent nation. This situation would present enough reason for the space program to receive requests from the government and/or private corporations to obtain resources from space and bring them back home. These organizations may also have interest in more private space ventures and could contract the space program to launch satellites or build space stations and planetary bases. In return for the KSP's services they would receive "support" from these organizations in the form of currency, tech, personnel, or any other kind of home-based resource that would contribute to the space program's growth.

Ive been having a ton of fun building ships and exploring space. But a mission system like this would significantly extend a player's interest in the game by offering a more tangible incentive to explore worlds and build bases. It could also offer another layer of strategy when accepting multiple missions that could be completed in a single flight if a flight plan is calculated carefully. i.e. A mission to recover Mun rocks and a mission to build an outpost on the Mun could both be completed on the same flight, completing multiple missions at once, potentially earning additional rewards for efficiency.

The mission interface itself wouldnt require much. Maybe it could be facilitated by a new Space Center building, like a business office or something. But the mission process would just be a series of checks to see when/if you complete specific tasks in a given period of time or during a given flight.