Improvement nodes for the tech tree.

[Juanfro]

Hi.

I have an idea that could help with the sensation of grinding for science and generic Science points used just as currency to buy parts.

The idea is to have nodes that don't allow you to use new parts, but improve the parts you already have.

Somthing like this (behold my drawing skills):

The difference is that you don't unlock these nodes with generic Sciences. You would have to use the parts that the father node have given you.

Per example, if a node gives you a parachute, an engine and a fuel tank you would have to use them to get specific Science points (SSP)

Then you could have a couple improvement nodes coming from the one you have unlocked, something like "Fuel storage", "Engine Thrust" and "Soft landing" that could improve the ISP of the engine, the dry mass of the fuel tank and the drag of the parachute.

Each one would affect all similar parts so thrust and efficiency would improve in all liquid fuel engines with one node and SRB with other, RCS with other and the same for structural parts weight, solar panels efficiency, batery capacity etc. And there could be diferent tiers like "Engine Thrust I", "Engine Thrust II", "Engine Thrust III" etc. each one improving thrust a small percentage.

Now let's talk about those Specific Science Points

I would like to have some kind of random variable so you won't know exactly how many more launches you have to do to get an improvement, and when you recover a vessel or transmit the data you get an unexpected message saying "Thanks to the analisis of your previous missions you can now research "Fuel Storage".

For this to be more "uncontrollable" the SSP could be hidden so you don't know how or when will it happen just like in real life we can't know when a new tecnology will appear.

The way those points can be earned would be related with the use of the specific part they will improve and how it is being used. You will get more info about how to make better parachutes using them in an atmosphere instead of looking at them in the vacuum. And you could learn more about how to make better landing legs landing on a high gravity planet.

Also you will get much more information if you can recover the parts you are trying to improve so return missions will be more valuable.

The last thing I would like to see are prototypes. They would work just a the normal part, but would give you extra SSP. They would be more expensive (once we have an economy) and you would need to take them back to Kerbin to get the data.

The possibilities are as big as the tech tree itself: better air intakes, faster rover wheels, lighter aircraft... the SOI of Kerbol is the only limit for now.

Thank you for reading.

PS: Please tell me if I have written something wrong, you will help the rest to understand the text better and you will also help me to express myself better in english

Edited October 14, 2013 by Juanfro