Anomalies: Rewards for maintain orbiting satellites

[UberFuber]

Currently, there's fairly little reason to maintain a network of satellite system (once you "harvest" all the science from near/far space of a planet, no reason to keep orbiting it). However, having a constant reward for just having something orbiting lends itself to too much possibility of farming.

This idea also incorporates the proposed science categories system in this.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55410-An-Open-critcism-of-the-early-model-for-the-Science-System?p=734479&viewfull=1#post734479

Electronics (Blue)

Aerodynamics (Yellow)

Materials (Orange)

Fuels or Chemistry (Red)

Life Sciences (Green)

Information Sciences (Purple)

So, what does this suggestion involve?

Scanning Instruments

There should be several scientific instruments with the purpose of performing long-ranged analysis of the planet surface. The following are some of the possible ones.

1. Visual: Basically, cameras. Cameras are directional, and using it requires the player to aim it at an object of interest for it to work

2. Gravitational: The GRAVMAX Negative Gravioli Detector. Again, possible to have different range requirements.

3. Magnetic: A magnetic sensor that detects changes in magnetism. Again, possible to have different range requirements.

All scanning instruments have a resolution, measured in distance(kilometers)/size(meter) for ease of understanding. The ratio basically states the distance requires to resolve an object of the given size. So for example, a camera with a resolution 1 can successfully image an object requiring 1 meters of resolution from of up 1000 meters (1 kilometer) away. A camera with 1,000 resolution can image an object requiring 0.1 meters of resolution from up to 100 kilo-meters away.

So, once you have these instruments, what can you do with them? Here where the "anomaly" system comes in.

Anomalies

Anomalies, in an abstract ways, are a temporary, circular biome about 100 meters across where science/RP and money (once financial aspects of Kerbal Space Program is in) can be "mined" from. They're "mined" by having different instruments scanning them, with each type of instruments only capable of "mining" a specific amount of science from it before they become useless.

Anomalies may have "specialization", so some anomalies can yield mostly Material RP, while other may yield mostly Life Science RP. Science/RP of an anomalies are broken down into two types.

1. Research Data: These are RP that can be collected remotely, by data transmission. An anomaly can have multiple pools of Research Data that requires specific instruments to "mine" them. These can also be collected all in one bulk by Kerbalnaut collecting it and returning it to the Space Center.

2. Research Sample: These are RP that can ONLY be collected by Kerbalnaut collecting it and returning it to the Space Center. Unlike Research Data, player can "choose" to apply the Research Sample to a list of random selection of science categories. For example, once returned, the player can choose to apply the research from the anomalies to Life Science, Electronics, or Aerodynamics.

So how are anomalies generated/found? Well, this is where satellites come in.

Once you have achieved orbit around a planet/body, there's a chance over time that a scanning mission will trigger on said celestial body.

"Scanning" Missions

A scanning mission indicates that an anomalies have spawned. At this point, the anomalies won't be visible, but player will be given a coordinate to "scan" for a possibility to discover it. The scanning mission would have a structure like this.

"Requst image of coordinate (Long,Lat) with a resolution of 0.1 meters." - This mission requires a camera, and requires player to point that camera at the coordinate and take a picture. Also, depending on the camera's resolving capability, require the player to adjust the satellite's course to achieve a closer pass to.

"Request gravity/magnetic scan of coordinate (Long,Lat) with a resolution of 1 meters." - Same as above, but just require satellite to pass with range of the coordinate with the gravity/magnetic instrument on.

Once a scanning mission is completed, the player is rewarded with a small amount of science/money. There's a possibility that a physical anomalies will spawn in the vicinity of the scanned coordinate (the rest of the time, the anomaly is a dud). Once spawned, the player will have a possibility of studying further by sending scientific instruments to it or sending a Kerbalnaut to retrieve it and bring it back to the space center.

Edited October 31, 2013 by UberFuber