Implement a repeat experiments delay / cool down timer on science modules.

[Oddible]

This would a) reduce the grinding feeling of repeatedly running experiments in succession on long journeys when trying to maximize science, and would encourage longitudinal types of studies, space stations.

[allmhuran]

I'd rather the mechanics were changed so that this was a non-issue. There are several good suggestions floating around that would do it.

If you introduce an artificial thing like this to slow down the player, they'll just be annoyed that they have to wait for no reason (that's how it would feel to me). It wouldn't make things any more fun, it would just mean I'd have to sit around doing nothing for a few more seconds/minutes between each transmission, or be constantly hitting time warp for brief periods to warp through the delay.

[Oddible]

This suggestion is not to implement something artificial, it is to resolve something that is completely unrealistic and artificial. Imagine if the ISS reported the same exact results for the same experiments 100 times each day. If you examine the goo then examine it 2 seconds later not much is going to have changed. Another option would be a significantly diminished return if unless you wait a specific amount of time. So for instance you get 40pts for examining it, if you examine it again 1 minute later you get 2pts. If you wait an hour or two you get 4pts. If you wait a day you get 20pts. etc.

[allmhuran]

I 100% agree that repeating transmissions over and over is silly, grindy and tedious. I just don't think a delay makes it any less grindy, and just makes it more tedious. Better, I think, to come up with a mechanic that just removes the grindiness altogether!

[Goobest]

Would you first remove the Transmission Loss to make this work?

I like the time delay concept on research for a variety of reasons. However, the reason you spam transmissions now is to overcome that transmission multiplier. =\

[DAVIDESCOTT]

I would do it completely differently and associate the science to the actual experimental apparatus. So in your save-file the craft would list the parts, and the parts would list all the places that the experiment was performed. Once performed at a location by a particular part it cannot perform that experiment at that location again by that same part.

An example of a low sub-orbital flight with 3 thermometers (called A, B, C).

On the launchpad you perform a reading of all three and transmit A and B but store C.

While in flight you read A and B but only transmit A (storing .

In the upper atmosphere you expose and store the results of A.

On landing your payouts are something like:

1/3 from each stored result, 1/6th from each transmitted result.

You have 2/3 of the total available science from the on Kerbin surface.

1/2 the total available from the Atmosphere

1/3 from space.

On your second flight of the same type you expose and transmit all three on the surface and all three while in the atmosphere, you then store all three form orbit.

You payoffs from this flight would be 1/2 on the surface, 1/2 in the atmosphere, and 1/1 in low space. This would give you: 4/3 from the surface, 1/1 from the atmosphere, 4/3 from orbit but when calculating the payoffs it simply caps the payoff to the maximum so in two flights you have maxed out the thermometer experiment.

I would make one further change, instead of requiring the player to interact when he performs an experiment I would make the readings and experiments automatic, and make transmission automatic provided the antenna is deployed. The player would manage their power usage by deploying or retracting the antenna, they could also prevent transmission by clicking on an experimental apparatus and saying "Save next result."

The benefits I see to this are:

1. Less player interaction. You could just make 6 flights with the antenna deployed and forget all about doing experiments. You would automatically get the full science just being in the right place at the right time.

2. No grinding for fractional points. One of the more annoying things is when you have 119 science and need one more you don't want to regret not performing experiment X an additional 3 times.

3. No ridiculous completing the entire tree in 2 flights.

I think the grinding is a byproduct of their silly formulas for diminishing payoffs which ensure that you almost never get 100% of the science of a particular experiment. They spent all this time thinking about series that sum to 1 without using a simple min() function.

Edited October 19, 2013 by DAVIDESCOTT