Career Mode End Game - Experiment Reports in Knowledge Base

[Wayfare]

0.22 is going to bring a fundamental change to KSP. With the first part of an open-ended Career Mode implemented, KSP will have -gasp- an end game.

An end game is a powerful thing that can make or break your game as a whole. It's something to shoot for. It's also something to fear. It's what makes people grind through 85 levels of repetitive WoW quests only to arrive at the summit of their powers, blinking in the cold harsh light and thinking... OK, now what? The game is not over - there's no final cinematic, no rolling credits, only the vast expanse of well-traveled land behind you and the knowledge that you're going to have to find something else to do with all that stuff you worked so hard for.

In 0.22, end game content will consist of basically anywhere you haven't been yet and every experiment you haven't run yet. I'm really impressed by the granularity of "scientific regions" I've seen so far. Flybys, high orbits, low orbits, sub-orbital trajectories and surface landings - as well as the depth of interplanetary space - are all defined, as are biomes on Kerbin and the Mun. With nine different scientific experiments to run (crew report, EVA report, goo container, materials bay, thermometer, barometer, accelerometer, gravioli detector and atmosphere analyzer) that translates into a lot of science you can do. Conducting every experiment in every region is going to keep players occupied for a while. The experience will, however, ring a little hollow because there doesn't seem to be a tangible record of these experiments yet.

Here's a couple of ideas on making something more out of this.

#1 Encyclopedia Knowledge Base entries

A fairly simple idea - include the scientific reports in the celestial body's encyclopedia Knowledge Base window. Being able to see your collected body of knowledge grow over time and being able to read back the superb feedback from your crew and instruments should really help in giving players a sense of accomplishment, even when the tech tree is all filled up and excess science is piling up without purpose. Plus it means those neatly written reports don't go to waste!

#2 Scientific programs

More involved: have specific sets of experiments unlock a new level of understanding of the body in question. Show what research is still needed to unlock the next tier and you've got a gameplay driver right there. For example, the fairly simple "Conditions Near the Mun" program might require a Goo Analysis, Materials Analysis and Instrument Readings (thermometer etc.) from both high and low Munar orbit. Completing all these experiments gives you a text blurb about what you've learned about the conditions in the Mun's SOI. Done! It's essentially another tech tree but the only rewards are text-based scientific understandings. A program could have various tiers of completion and you could even nest various programs into larger, over-arching programs. For example, completing the "Conditions Near the Mun", "Conditions Near Minmus" and "Conditions in Kerbin Orbit" programs would fulfill the "Conditions in the Kerbin System" blurb. This idea would lend itself well to modding and (monetary?) rewards could be attached once Career Mode is more fleshed out. It would take a lot of writing but, from what I've seen so far of the science system (which already tracks experiments in a great level of detail) not an awful lot of coding. And I, for one, would love to undertake a decades-long program to uncover all the secrets of the Kerbal solar system

Edited October 15, 2013 by Wayfare

[DevoidLight]

I really like the first idea of compiling all your collected data into an encyclopedia type thing. It could almost function as an achievement system letting you know where you have achieved orbit, landing, manned landing, ect. Also not sure if this is exactly what you meant but completing and retrieving experiments should also affect the information box you can open when you click on a planet in map view. Seeing information about soil composition, atmosphere, gravity and temperature that you gathered slowly build up would be extremely immersive.

[Requiem762]

Love your ideas and the debs have talked about like doing stuff later on where to unlock heavy landing legs or some other part not only must you tea search them you must complete certain missions like landing a probe or a fly by

[JumpsterG]

I'm on board for both suggestions. Anything that incentivises exploration and prompts the player to do things for curiosity's sake instead of resource gain is excellent in my opinion.

[Wayfare]

Also not sure if this is exactly what you meant but completing and retrieving experiments should also affect the information box you can open when you click on a planet in map view. Seeing information about soil composition, atmosphere, gravity and temperature that you gathered slowly build up would be extremely immersive.

That's exactly what I meant I called it the Encyclopedia but it's actually called the Knowledge Base. Duh is me. But the idea is the same - fill up that knowledge base with player-run experiments.

[Specialist290]

I'd be all in favor of something like this. It's a great way to encourage exploration, even after you've already unlocked all of the parts.