Ideas on career mode.

[tetryds]

Lately some people asked for science points being tiered, there has been also a discussion about some sort of engineering points. Well, at this point (keeping in mind its an unfinished game ofc.) there is this feeling that playing skills are worth nothing other than where you can get the science grind running. I like the science system though, the fact that you are not forced to do anything you don't want to and still be rewarded is great. But, as said above, there is something missing.

My idea is similar to that about Engineering Points (i couldn't find it). The thing is that science and engineering are two separate things, even if interdependent. I purpose a 3-way income management system, which would be a balance of money, science and engineering. These Engineering Points would be tiered and related to what you do whilist playing other than which experiments you run. The tech tree parts are already planned to require money to be unlocked, then they would also require that specific kind of engineering.

But there are people who like to play the game on their own way, for example bringing a rover and making experiments at several biomes nearby wouldnt benefit from engineering nor money income, but a lot of science. To solve that, these three resources would be interchangeable (just like in real life!). It would work like this:

The Science Center of KSP would display 3 options

Tecnology Research - Earns: Engineering Points; Costs: Science Points and Money.

Run Experiments - Earns: Science Points; Costs: Engineering Points and Money.

Develop Private Projects - Earns: Money; Costs: Science Points and Engineering Points (set kind, have a list or earn generic EP).

The game already keeps track of your achievements, and thats exactly what would trigger the EP rewards. Bringing a spaceship back to Kerbin is worth no science after done so many times, but bringing back an interplanetary ship that has a bagage of successful missions or a probe that has orbited for a long time teaches a lot of lessons about how to develop the next ones. At moment, airplanes are worthless until you have enough science and skill for SSTO's, but getting these airplane parts just by running experiments does not make much sense.

Engineering points could be tiered into 4 or 3 kinds:

Rocketry Engineering - Aquired by running engines, orbiting, landing and maybe reaching some place; Unlocks fuel tanks and rocket engines (the Advanced Rocketry part of the tech tree)

Aircraft Engineering - Aquired by flying time, reaching altitude with airbreath engines, landing after using airbreathing engines for some time; Unlocks airbreath engines and aerodynamic parts (the Flight Control part of the tree)

Scientific Engineering - Aquired by sending science data using antennas, running experiments, basically earned together with science in most cases (the Science Tech part of the tree)

Composite Engineering - Aquired by reentry and most ways above, in a balanced ammount; Unlocks more complex pods, structures, separators, fuel ducts, etc (the General Construction and landing gears, rover wheels)

Composite Engineering could fall with Scientific engineering, but that would unbalance the tree setup a bit. There can be also Generic Engineering points, which can be earned by missions or trading off, and would be used to unlock any part of the tree. Some hibrid parts could require more than one EP kind, but that's not really necessary.

The only complaints i can think about this system are that it's not very user friendly, and some people may think that it forces you to play in a way. About user friendlyness, Kerbal Space Program is not an user friendly game yet, the plans (i heard of) are to add more tutorials and documentation to the player, thus minimizing this issue. About forcing the game style, you are going to unlock more stuff for the things you do the most, i belive it will both reward you for your favorite gameplay style, yet encouraging you to explore different manners to play the game as those are needed to unlock the specific parts. At the point the game is now, its basically only giving one option for the player, which i belive is not what the devs want.

Another idea is about how currency will work on the game.

I see two possible ways of implementing the money, via government funding or private company.

When you run a "Government Funding" based space program, the missions you receive aim for scientific exploration, there is a total budget for an aircraft, if you accomplish the mission or return scientific data you increase the next mission budget and receive harder tasks. If you fail too much your budget decreases and you get less budget for the next launch, but also receive easier tasks with higher profit (yey for newbies!). There can be independent budgets for spaceship and aircraft, as well as different missions. Kerbal Kind achievements like landing on another planet are better rewarded. To unlock the tech tree you would require Engineering and Science Points, but no money.

The "Private Company" way would work like a hard mode. Your space program will be aimed for engineering, develop new tech and earn more money. You can take loans at the begin so you can fail some times until you get it running. The achievements aren't so important, but what you do with getting to that place. To unlock new parts you will require Engineering Points, Science Points and Money.

These two modes would satisfy the newbies by leting them learn with the mistakes since they will also get some points when failing. And also the most skilled veterans by offering them a challenge, you want to launch a refuiling station, better be worth it, want to go Duna with a knife and some pieces of bamboo, go ahead!

Tl'dr:

-Add tiered Engineering Points along with the science ones to unlock new parts

-Add two ways of currency (government or private) for normal and more skilled (or not THAT skilled) players

*English is not my main language, sorry for the typos.

[Hanoj]

While I do think this is is a cool idea, I feel the complexity of balancing money, science and engineering points would turn career mode mode into a tycoon type game instead of building and launching rockets.

[tetryds]

Hanoj, i don't belive that would happen.

Since there is the possibility to exchange the points, the only balancing needed would be in the game itself.

Sure there would be some losses on that exchange but it would be also a game balancing factor.

[Hanoj]

After reading your post again, I now see what you originally had in mind. I miss read it and thought career mode would be half focused on money and profit.

[tetryds]

Ah, okay.

It's just about adding a new point system to increment the already running science system