Thoughts on Science

[Brickyard]

Greetings folks. Here's my thoughts on how the game is progressing and how it might go.

Science

The addition of science has changed the dynamic and put us in for the long haul to get farther out into the kerbol system. It's not enough to just know how to make a good rocket. I found myself following NASA's mission history rather closely. There was a lot of science to gather from the Mun and plenty of reason to find a way to get there and back.

My problem with science is right now.

1: Once you visit a place, you milk it dry and never need return.

2: There is no reason to send more than one of everything on a one way trip, and since probes cannot preform a number of tasks that kerbals can, landers start to look exactly the same.

I'd like to suggest a way that science might work better.

Probes can preform simple tasks. They get one large payout for each new data. If it is not new they get nothing. The logic being: they are limited in what they can preform but can last indefinitely.

Kerbals however, gather science continuously at a much slower rate. The value of this being that making a giant science station would have a point. This is hard of course because of Time Warp. Now we get to a sticking point, and I'd have to say it's time to add life-support.

Giving the the kerbs limited time to preform a mission brings in many real world problems with space travel and in a lot of ways exactly the step we want to improve on the immersion and mission complexity.

Life Support

This would mean that ships and stations would need to have enough air and food stores to keep them going. Often requiring restocks. Docking missions now becoming paramount. With the upcoming addition of money, and skills, I imagine kerbalnauts will become something much more valuable and necessary steps be taken to keep them alive and get them back after a mission.

Of course as the tech tree grows, you'll see larger life-support pods, more efficiency, hibernation chambers for long trips, and large sub-sustainable life support which require massive energy, harvest resources and/or man power.

I'd also go so far as suggesting that kerbs have a life span. That would suggest that if you could keep them alive forever they would eventually die of old age. (or have children?)

Science Devices

Ideally, as the game progresses we will see variations of the existing modules so we can build different ships from them the same way that there is more than one battery.

In addition to this I might suggest things like,

a robot arm, so surface samples might be gathered without a kerbal in the lander,

or large or small drills for getting under the surface for further examination of a planets surface.

Perhaps a water sampler that could be dropped in one of the few planets with with standing water or ice.

Com Systems

We've seen now that coms are very useful and I like the way they work. I noticed though that the step between the first battery and the first solar panel is very small. Ideally there would be a point when sending data was possible but extremely delicate.

Additionally it might be interesting if each com was given a minimum range. This would mean that getting data back from Duna or Laythe might require a network of relay satellites. I don't know the exact details of radio waves. However my understanding is they continue going forever if now blocked or bounced away. Because space is space I'd say it'd be more likely that the message would travel fine. The only issue might be distortion. If my suggested change to Science was done, this might be measured in 1 point per minute for distorted signal or 5 per minute for a clear signal.

It also might be fun if you had to point your coms at target to send and receive.

Money

Since we've made the leap from sandbox game to more of a goal oriented game I think it's important to discuss what money will change and how it is rewarded differently.

Obviously science often has real world application and is worth money and will likely be added as well too. However there are other things which are worth money which might be important.

Initially I imagine it'd be possible to fail a new game if you ran out of money. However if you do the right things early I imagine a growing sustainable income.

For example: mapping Kerbal or other planets via satellite. This would only require a telescopic camera part be added. This also might lead to creating a Hubble-like telescope for viewing stars and planets.

Another thing might just be launching satellites to get income from say, cell phone companies for example.

Additional Thoughts

Landing gear spike clamps for low gravity landings would be nice.

Freely attachable fuel or power (or oxygen) line via Kerbal for systems which require more power or fuel transfer without needing to directly dock. (EVAs can be fun!)