[0.22] Kerbal Economy 1.1.1

[cybutek]

Kerbal Economy 1.1.1

DESCRIPTION

With the 0.22 release bringing a new scope of play to the table, it is still not fully featured. This plugin mod will give an extra dimension to the science system that has been implemented. It will keep track of your science flow and transactions via a ledger. Science is directly equal to money and the amount of money per science point is determined by the cost ratio. It will cost you money or science points to launch crafts from the SPH and VAB.

BASIC

Whenever you launch a ship or plane from the editor it will deduct science points from your overall pool, based on the cost ratio.

There are 3 difficulty settings which change the cost ratio, and these are available via the ledger.

- EASY = 2,000

- NORMAL = 1,000

- HARD = 500

The ledger will record transactions such as:

- Ship/Plane construction.

- Science gained on missions.

- Science spent in the R&D department.

Ledgers are available within the 'GameData/KerbalEconomy/Ledgers' folder, and are stored in a tab separated '.csv' files. The files are named after the associated save which is used within Kerbal Space Program.

Note that the remaining parts of vessels are recovered along with any stored science, making it worth while to create re-usable crafts and getting them back to Kerbin intact.

ADVANCED

Settings are adjustable in the 'Settings.txt' file. I recommend starting the game, going into the space centre and opening the ledger first. That will create the settings file with all values that are adjustable.

- Cost Ratio (for something other than default difficulties).

- Ledger sizing (width/height).

Settings changes need to be done whilst KSP is not running.

API

There is currently no documentation, but it will be alongside the project on GitHub in the near future. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to ask.

CHANGES IN 1.1.1

- Fixed positioning of button in editor at low resolutions.

CHANGES IN 1.1

- Added vessel recovery.

- Added in-flight display.

KNOWN ISSUES

Editor pop-out flickers when scrollable area in the ledger is interacted with (looks like a Unity bug).

SpacePort

Alternative Download

Source code is available on GitHub

http://i.imgur.com/2RBAj8B.png

http://i.imgur.com/pkVFyoK.png

http://i.imgur.com/jvTPqQf.png

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

Edited October 20, 2013 by cybutek

[astropapi1]

This sounds like a huge thing, but... pics?

[cybutek]

This sounds like a huge thing, but... pics?

Not much to the actual visual elements of it at the moment, just what you see in the screenshot. How visual can an economy mod be? The main point is that whenever you launch ships from the SPH/VAB, it will deduct science based on the cost of the craft. That is real science, not fake science, the same science that you spend on R&D. So building a big craft could eat up all your science making it not possible to do any more research until you get more of it. Right now I've just been just working on getting a base that functions, and will function well. When 0.22 is released, it will only need minor changes in the code to link into the real science pool. Thus it will be a quick release for one of the first 0.22 plugins

[Seyvern]

I think you and blizzy (achievements mod) should get together and create a joint economy mod. MIssions randomly pop up w/ payouts. (e.g. put a satellite w/ these 3 parts into an orbit within these bounds). Do that successfully you get $$. Get $$, lets you fire off more rockets.

Combine that w/ the existing science system, and you have something to bridge the gap till squad implements same.

Just my 0.02. Between the two of you, I think you have all the code you need to implement it.

[NathanKell]

Or you could look at Mission Controller's code base. Does real similar stuff.

What are you using to calculate the cost of parts?

[astropapi1]

I can't see any pictures, anywhere.

Imgur is kinda broken, at least to me.

[cybutek]

Or you could look at Mission Controller's code base. Does real similar stuff.

What are you using to calculate the cost of parts?

It gathers and uses the cost value that every part has. So it will work with stock and mod parts alike, but it will be down to whoever created the part to make sure it is balanced though. It is then converted by using the current cost ratio to get a value in science points. At the back-end everything is stored in science points and the money values at the front-end are all dynamically calculated.

I can't see any pictures, anywhere.

Imgur is kinda broken, at least to me.

I've updated the main post with an imgur link under the image, hopefully it'll work. Fingers crossed

[astropapi1]

It gathers and uses the cost value that every part has. So it will work with stock and mod parts alike, but it will be down to whoever created the part to make sure it is balanced though. It is then converted by using the current cost ratio to get a value in science points. At the back-end everything is stored in science points and the money values at the front-end are all dynamically calculated.

I've updated the main post with an imgur link under the image, hopefully it'll work. Fingers crossed

Nope, won't load.

Thanks for trying.

[theSpeare]

So everything is science-based currency? Does this mean, say if the ratio for science to money is 1000 and your science was 50 (so $50,000) - if you spent that $50,000 would your science go down? Likewise, if you spent that science researching something, would it drop your cash as well?

[KhaosCorp]

So everything is science-based currency? Does this mean, say if the ratio for science to money is 1000 and your science was 50 (so $50,000) - if you spent that $50,000 would your science go down? Likewise, if you spent that science researching something, would it drop your cash as well?

Science IS cash.

[cybutek]

Yup, you've got it!

Spending cash reduces your science, spending science reduces your cash. Likewise gaining science increases your cash. All based around the ratio which is a direct conversion of science into a cash value, and vice-versa. It is what makes it easy or hard as the lower the ratio, the more science it costs to purchase parts. I'm sure that there will be someone who's mental enough out there who will try to run a space program with a 1:1 ratio

[theSpeare]

I was worried about this, I initially hoped it'd be something like Mission Controller I suppose - where every time you gain science, you gain money as well; then they reduce and increase separately. I suppose this system in itself is quite interesting though, that way Science and Money have to be managed perfectly - Science can't be farmed infinitely and the tree-end is hard to reach.

May I suggest that instead of having a "currency" you might as well just keep it as "science"? e.g. when you see the "cost" for your ship, it's already converted to science, and there's no display of money whatsoever. (Spend 50 science to launch this ship!)

[dlrk]

Is there any chance this could be made to deduct the cost of reusable spacecraft?

[rebelcommando1807]

Just a (sudden) thought.. Perhaps having an exchange system between SCIENCE! and money? So that way you could have a starting pool of money to pull from, possibly have a money reward in addition to the SCIENCE! one for stuff, and being able to have a rainy day fund for when you lack enough SCIENCE! for stuff?

Just a thought - Would make things a little more interesting, in a way.. Plus, you could have objectives (Non-stated ones) for money in addition to the kinds of things you do for SCIENCE!.

[p1t1o]

Or you could look at Mission Controller's code base. Does real similar stuff.

It gathers and uses the cost value that every part has. So it will work with stock and mod parts alike, but it will be down to whoever created the part to make sure it is balanced though. It is then converted by using the current cost ratio to get a value in science points. At the back-end everything is stored in science points and the money values at the front-end are all dynamically calculated.

Is there any chance of a link between Mission Controllers financials and Kerbal Economy? You could lower the MC rewards so that you have to construct a research network to supplement your income, i dunno....

[cybutek]

Right now the system is fairly simple because it has been made with the idea of a quick change on 0.22 release and it's ready to use. Everyone has been giving a lot of great ideas and all of them are viable, from Mission Controller to currency that is separate and not linked to science. The reason that I made it link directly with science is to give it some worth. If you are good, it is apparently completely possible to unlock the whole tech-tree in 3-4 launches, at which point there is no use for science any more. Once the system can actually be used properly, is when balancing changes and non-essential features can be sorted out. This is by no means the end product, just the first step in a long line of many.

Just to answer a few questions:

1. I am hoping to get mods such as Mission Controller, Achievements and others linking into the Kerbal Economy system. This will be easily accomplished with the release of the KerbalEconomyAPI.

2. Vehicle recovery where the costs are put back into the system for recovered parts, will be one of the things worked on after the post-0.22 release.

Thanks

[Blaer]

REALLY looking forward to vessel recovery implementation...

Once that plays... it's pretty viable in my eyes...

Only worry is if science IS finite... then so will program be...

[dlrk]

Does the science as currency functionality work in sandbox mode?

[ymir9]

This sounds perfect, looking forward to the release.

It would be nice to see hiring new astronauts cost money in the future.

[ymir9]

REALLY looking forward to vessel recovery implementation...

Once that plays... it's pretty viable in my eyes...

Only worry is if science IS finite... then so will program be...

With Kethane and a very smartly designed reusable program you should be able to get quite a bit of mileage.

[Blaer]

oh for sure... but only once reusable/recovery works.. as it stands, alas... I can't seem to make it quite work and stay in the black.... :/

could be a failing of mine though...

[cybutek]

Version 1.0 the post-0.22 non-showcase release is now available!

ENJOY!

[dlrk]

Does this work in sandbox mode?

[cybutek]

Does this work in sandbox mode?

Sorry, it wont work. The only reason is because squad have decided to disable research and development as well as the science gathering system in sandbox mode.

There may be a way to unlock it though. Something to have a look at whilst working on the extra features and API.

Edited October 17, 2013 by cybutek

[dlrk]

^Yeah I figured as much. No idea why Squad made that bad decision.