Another way to make transmission more difficult - Line of sight (or relay)

[allmhuran]

There has been many a thread pointing out that with the current (0.22) implementation of science, transmission makes things a bit too easy. Once you have solar panels you can just keep repeating an experiment and retransmitting the data back to Kerbin until you exhaust the available points for that experiment, which, to use the wording of another thread, nullifies the need for sample return.

It is claimed (and I agree) that a better solution would look something like this (the precise details can be found in other threads):

- Total science available for any given experiment = X

- Returning data rewards you with 100% of the experiment value. If you have previously transmitted the data, it rewards you with whatever remains up to 100%

- The reward for transmission is capped at 50% of X with no diminishing returns. Just a flat 50%. A second transmission would give you 0%.

But I think this still leaves room for making transmission a little more challenging. Apropos, I am reminded of a mod, whose precise name I cannot recall, but which did something that would work *really well* with career mode.

It implemented a communications relay, whose base station was the KSC. If you wanted to remotely control craft you either needed line of sight to KSC, or line of sight to some other satellite which in turn had line of sight to KSC. Relays could be daisy chained to arbitrary lengths.

Imagine what this would bring to career mode science transmission: It would mean there would be a big advantage to having a geostationary satellite above the KSC. And, ideally, two more 120 degrees apart. It would give you a good reason to put a small satellite into solar orbit. These are not very difficult things to accomplish, and it wouldn't make it any more difficult right at the start of the tree since most people are simply orbiting Kerbin or the Mun and will have line of sight to the KSC anyway. But it would add a significant barrier to a mission to Duna, or the Jool system.

Right now all you need to do is have the delta-V to get there and then you can easily spam the transmissions home and earn many thousands of science. Requiring a satellite relay network would ramp up the difficulty in a much more appropriate way.