´Man the stations´ - an alternative post 0.22 science-concept

[Mr. Scruffy]

I have posted the following in the grand 0.22 discussion thread, but i feel it kinda gets drowned out there - so here it goes (again):

I know, it´s been a deliberate design decision to not make players wait for science. I am very much on the fence, if i can agree to that decision, though. I dont quite see the difference between waiting and repeating.

Take EVA-report for example - the first time you are orbiting the mun with a manned capsule, you will, most likely, repeat the following steps, for about 5 (give or take) times:

- click EVA on the pilot´s portrait

- tilt the cam, so that you can actually see the pilot hanging onto his ship

- right-click the pilot

- click EVA-report

- choose ´keep data´ from the pop-menu

- press ´f´ to bord the ship

- right-click the capsule

- click ´review EVA-report´

- click ´transmit data´

YMMV, but i find that pretty tedious, and while it does give me something to do, i dont think it´s much fun doing it.

Now, the suggestion is to leave the pilot out there, and he´ll keep two data-counters increase their value. The first counter displays the amount of all data gathered on this ´experiment´ (/´report´ or whatever) ever, and is never reset during the same game. The second is the amount of gathered data on this EVA (in this case). Both would rise as time passes during EVA, with a speed depending on the first (if its low, increase will be faster - and vice versa). Once you are not satisfied with the increase anymore (or the experiment had to be broken off, due to change in the environment - e.g. you´ve left orbit around the mun, while the EVA was still ongoing), you go back inside the capsule, and the gathered data (2nd counter) can be sent with one order.*

I´d ´balance´ this in a way, that after a couple of minutes (2-5, maybe, depending on player preference and playstyle, and the experiement at hand, as well as possibly kerbal-skills), you´d find the yield not being worth the waiting time, unless you really dont have anything better to do and really want to squeeze the last bit of science out of this experiment. And you know what - i´d simply make it not being affected by time-warp. Yeah, i know, doesnt seem logical. But this is a game. So: When you switch to time warp, everything may go faster, but your data-accumulation rate would remain the same. Gameplay reason:

If you end up switching time-warp on and off, it´ll not improve immersion (compared to non-effect data-accumulation) and just throw you back from where we started: Pushing a lot of buttons.

You know what else? If experiments took time, each kerbal (/probe core) could run one at the same. Meaning a fully manned 3 men capsule could have two goo-containers and a materials bay running and accumulating data at the same time.

So, in detail, it would go like this:

- Not only crewmen, but also probe-cores get a representation in the lower right - add scrollbuttons that hide when they are not needed.

- ´IVA´ in those representations becomes ´PIL´ for piloting.

- Each science module gets its own 3-letter-abbreveation and gets intergrated into this IVA/EVA button array of the crew portraits, if noone is assigned to it (e.g. have one button for each type on board with at least one of its type being ´vacant´).

- Assign a crewman or probecore to any free science module by presssing the corresponding button in the portrait - that´s basically starting the experiment.

- Each science module also becomes part of the part-list on the left-side (stages). Accumulation of data is being presented here for any active module, pretty much akin to heat-bars. Tooltips tell details.**

- Click the part (or bar) of any active module to transmit the data it accumulated since last transmission.

- End data-accumulation by simply reassigning the crewman/probecore

- Pilots gather crew-report data automatically as long as their are not busy flying (e.g. for any 10 second interval without steering input the required pilots gathers some, the idle pilots always do).

- Science modules can be used to conduct another experiment and hold its data, even when the store is filled with the data of a previous one.

- Once an ongoing experiment´s conditions have changed (altitude, SOI, etc.) the untransmitted data gets stored and the assigned crewmen/cores start working on a new experiment. If there are untransmitted ´left-overs´ again (e.g. when the storage of the corresponding module has already been used up), the one of higher science-value gets stored, the other discarded. If you hit the module´s icon or bar for transmission and there is a ´leftover´ in store, you get prompted wether you´d like to send this as well and thus empty storage.

Result: Assign everyone to his/her/its station and let things run pretty much automatically. No repeated clickfests. No right-clicks at all. Almost no pop-ups. Some sort of point to skylabs and space-stations. A nice tie-in for a skills-system and ways to differentiate kerbals from cores***. A pilotless (because its pilot, man or machine, is doing some experiment instead) vessel cannot be controlled. And Squad wouldnt need to make up hundreds of little ´flavor´ texts. ;D

So what do you think?

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footnotes:

*It´d be especially nice if this was implemented, but otherwise too, to be able to set a ´reserve energy´ which the antennaes were not allowed to tap into.

**For the bars i´d suggest: Total length represents all science to be had from this particular experiment (but all would be the same length - so scale inwards). The bar itself would be divided into two colored segments: The science gathered on this type of experiment before and since the last transmission of data concerning it.

The tooltip appearing when hovering the mouse over either bar or icon should give

(- the name of the module? Though the icon should tell you.)

- the current experimental conditions (´low kerbin orbit over ocean´ or whatnot) and the exact numbers of what the bar says,

- the current accumulation rate with its modifiers,

- who or what is assigned to the module,

- if and/or what the storage is occupied with and its scientific value,

- the time and amount of energy it would take to transmit the second segment of the bar (turning into part of the first) and its scientific value.

- if applicable, the time and amount of energy it would take to transmit what´s in store.

*** ´Observant´ kerbals could run expierments faster and thus accumulate data more rapidly than other kerbals, for example. Simple probecores could suck badly in accumulation rate while using a lot of energy when conducting experiments. And so on.