I remember hearing something about resources

[Whirligig Girl]

It's been a long time since anyone discussed resources, hasn't it?

Back before they pushed back resources, they were talking about how it would work. They said that it would take some time to mine and convert resources (and that the vessel had to be loaded). But now, HarvestR has said that you can not "Give the player controls to the TARDIS and a time limit" (not exact quote)

So when science was implemented, there were no long duration science experiments. Problem is, with ore scanning, you have to have long durations for orbits, and you have to wait for stuff to be converted. I think that SQUAD may change their mind on that.

How to fix it:

Ore Scanning: Ore scanning satellites can scan while not focused.

Mining/Converting time: Easiest solution is to make it happen instantly, the other solution is to timewarp or have the mining/converting work.

[Superfluous J]

Requiring you to orbit the planet a few (okay a lot of) times to fully scan it is not "setting a time limit" like Squad means it. What they mean is, "This science experiment takes 1 day to perform" type things. THOSE are silly because you can just warp (though I still disagree with this. You can't "just warp" if you're trying to keep your space program under budget, if the budget is tied in any way with time).

Orbiting (and getting to, for that matter) takes time because of the physical rules of the universe. "X experiment takes Y time" takes time because someone decided that experiment X would take Y time to perform.

[Mefi282]

Where are the resources actually???

I thought they where pretty much finished with it so didn't we heard anything about that later on?

[Roderik]

This will alreading be implemented!!!!!!!!! Cheeezzz go check the ksp wiki

[Guest]

I think the best way to manage resource scanning is to have a wide-scan satellite that can do a whole planet in a few good orbits. This satellite would give a general idea of where resources are located but not necessarily the quantity. Once an orbital scan is run you would have to land and run sesmic scans to reveal quantities and locations. The sesmic scan doesn't have to be tiny and tedious; you could have several sizes for anything from a 1km radius out to 100kms, maybe with less rssolution near the edges. Of course, you could also rely on the obvious resources like Eeloo's ice and the Duna polar caps.

[boomerdog2000]

I think the best way to manage resource scanning is to have a wide-scan satellite that can do a whole planet in a few good orbits. This satellite would give a general idea of where resources are located but not necessarily the quantity. Once an orbital scan is run you would have to land and run sesmic scans to reveal quantities and locations.

That's a good idea. It doesn't need to be too wide though, since if you optimize your orbit you can achieve a full scan fairly quickly.

[Scoundrel]

Err, actually, that little animation of your kerbal collecting a sample? That's likely how we're going to discover where resources are... if we ever get resources.

[Guest]

That's a good idea. It doesn't need to be too wide though, since if you optimize your orbit you can achieve a full scan fairly quickly.

Sure, just as long as we don't have the current Kethane or MapSat paradigm of setting an orbit and doing the timewarp while I watch the football game. I'd prefer a more active method of playing KSP.

[boomerdog2000]

Agreed those take a little too long, but at the same time if it doesn't take some amount of time people will probably complain.

[Whirligig Girl]

This will alreading be implemented!!!!!!!!! Cheeezzz go check the ksp wiki

I know it will be implemented, I'm asking to discuss this, not suggest it. Don't be rude.

[Pulstar]

Sure, just as long as we don't have the current Kethane or MapSat paradigm of setting an orbit and doing the timewarp while I watch the football game. I'd prefer a more active method of playing KSP.

IIRC in one of the dev streams from earlier this year HarvesteR said he doesn't think such scanning is a fun mechanic. But my memory could be off on the details. To be honest current Kethane scanning wouldn't be that time consuming and dull if there was a wide scanner scanning three or more hexes wide at a time as it passes over them.

Overall I think that mining/converting and time-warping is not much of an issue. It is an issue for things like getting income or science or tech every X days since the player can just warp and get stuff with no effort while still on the launchpad. With mining and refining the effort is finding the deposit, landing there and using those resources for bigger things (like refueling or possibly construction). Mining and refining could be instantaneous, but having it work while warping like kethane mining/refining does now would have little negative effect on gameplay if any (other than still having to wait, but not much). Also push button>get resource would work oddly with power generation, you would need to stack batteries, recharge them, dump power into conversion/mining, recharge again. Click, click, click, click until you get the desired ammount. Doesn't really eliminate the warping issue as you still need it if the mining/refining uses power, not making it use power would be plain silly and inconsistent. Clicking once to turn on the drills or the refining module and warping is less mindless busywork and like I already said it isn't really a "press one button, get rich with no effort" button.

Also I just remembered how lovely Nova's models for the resource parts looked. That water-pump drill and rock drill for instance. With the biome system implemented you could do some pretty cool stuff with random resource generation.

[DaRocketCat]

FYI, recources/mining got delayed in favor of career mode.

A lot of work was done though, including a bunch of scanning parts, pumps, drills, etc...as well as a system detailing the distribution of recourses in a planet.

[allmhuran]

Sure, just as long as we don't have the current Kethane or MapSat paradigm of setting an orbit and doing the timewarp while I watch the football game. I'd prefer a more active method of playing KSP.

I agree, and I think my preferred solution to this is to allow the player to do something else while their satellite is scanning.

You mission should be to get the satellite into the orbit you need and, basically, leave it there to scan. Meanwhile you should be able to head back to the space centre, build your next ship, play around with aircraft, whatever. Eventually get ready to launch another mission to the place you are scanning. By the time you get there the scanning should be pretty much done.

This is, in my opinion, the most natural approach, because that is, of course, what happens in real life. People don't have to sit and watch automated processes to make sure they keep being automated.

The limitation right now seems to be with the game engine / game design, because as far as I know KSP can't keep track of the activities being performed by a non-focused craft on rails. However, I don't think it's actually necessary to keep track of its activities the same way the game does it for other ships. Rather, there could be some simplified "remote autonomy" code that is simply aware of a few base properties (altitude, speed, eccentricity, etc) and some autonomous function that simply operates on timer ticks. Rather than simulate the whole operation of the craft, you simplify it down to a deterministic result. Have the automation module run the automation function of any autonomous craft once every game heartbeat, and let the craft define the result of that function. Ultimately all it comes down to is, say, populating text files revealing scanned areas, resource quantity mined/remaining, etc.

Edited October 29, 2013 by allmhuran

[Merinsan]

I very much doubt there will be a need to do scanning for resources. I expect the resources will be linked to biomes, so on Duna if you want water you need to be on the poles, etc.

Also, I expect there will be infinite resources (though it might take time to get a good quantity).

Whether or not these things make for a good game play, I don't know, but I am sure once they are delivered, there will be a lot of feedback taken and some used to refine it.

[Luis]

I very much doubt there will be a need to do scanning for resources. I expect the resources will be linked to biomes, so on Duna if you want water you need to be on the poles, etc.

Also, I expect there will be infinite resources (though it might take time to get a good quantity).

Whether or not these things make for a good game play, I don't know, but I am sure once they are delivered, there will be a lot of feedback taken and some used to refine it.

The partially completed resource system that has already been shown in dev streams, has both scanning and finite resources. They could of course change their mind about this, but there's no particular reason to assume that.

[Pulstar]

Well the resources will be random with random locations, so while biomes will be "biased" towards having certain kinds of them (water ice being more likely to appear at Duna's poles in larger quantities, heavy metals at impact craters and similar), it does not entirely eliminate the need for scanning. Also scanning is good for exploration, since you want know what resources you can expect where at first and even then you want know which deposit is the best. Some deposits will overlap with deposits of other resources. Sure knowledge of where the game is most likely to spawn some resources will be helpful but it won't tell you exactly where the deposit is, apart from seas, oceans and polar ice caps most biomes are defined as being primarily made of resource X or Y.