Science is too click intensive/tedious : please fix

[BrickedKeyboard]

I feel that science, as currently implemented, encourages rather tedious repetition of tasks. Specifically, how you can repeat the exact same experiment and get a smaller amount of science, and you have to repeat it several times to get the max. It's even worse with transmissions.

Instead, here's how it should work :

a. Every science activity can be done only once, after that, it's 0 science.

b. If you choose the transmit option, some of the science is lost permanently. Obviously, the losses need to be made smaller, perhaps only 20-40%, depending on the activity.

This would cut down the tediousness of science by a factor of 5. There's nothing wrong with having to return to the Mun many times to max out all the science, what I have a problem with is when I'm in an area I have to repeat the same experiments over and over and over to get all the points out of them. That is not fun.

Also, it would be nice if I could hotkey the experiments to both perform and transmit them, without a popup.

[Superfluous J]

They're toning down the repetition (at least, according to what they're saying about 0.23) but really, you don't have to do any experiment more than a couple times. There is FAR more science out there to get than you need to unlock the tree. Just transmit a couple times per biome and bring experiments back when you can and you'll be fine.

And you can hotkey the doing of experiments. I set them up as action group 1. You can't transmit (though that would be nice) but it only takes a second or two to click click click in the exact same spot on your screen 5-10 times.

Edited November 7, 2013 by 5thHorseman

[Madrias]

Actually, I agree, Science was too tedious to poke at over time. Given that there's no plane parts early on, it makes it harder for those like me who learned to make planes as soon as the Spaceplane Update kicked in, and never looked back. Even with Action Groups, it was tedious. Poke button, click click click, adjust course, poke button, click click click, readjust course, poke button, click click click, repeat endlessly.

Plus, you can't Action Group a Crew Report or EVA report, last I checked.

[Sof]

Science should increase on repetition because that is how it works IRL.

[earth]

Nope, IRL, if you do do the same experiment over and over again in the same conditions, you get the same results over and over again, and you can not get more science. All the interest is in making it in different places to compare the results.

[OrtwinS]

Science should increase on repetition because that is how it works IRL.

Increase for a few rounds, and then decrease. Because that is how it works IRL

[Richy teh space man]

And you can hotkey the doing of experiments. I set them up as action group 1. You can't transmit (though that would be nice) but it only takes a second or two to click click click in the exact same spot on your screen 5-10 times.

This really saves on a lot of the repitition. A couple of my Mun rovers have this set up so they do a whole batch of experiments without manually clicking each science device.

[vidboi]

Nope, IRL, if you do do the same experiment over and over again in the same conditions, you get the same results over and over again, and you can not get more science. All the interest is in making it in different places to compare the results.

This isn't true at all, repetition of experiments under the same conditions is one of the key requirements of the scientific method. It's what reliability depends upon.

[bludy]

This isn't true at all, repetition of experiments under the same conditions is one of the key requirements of the scientific method. It's what reliability depends upon.

this is true..one of dogma of scientific method is being able to repeat an experiment. it would be more realistic to have to recreate exact conditions and repeat an experiment to max science output!!

and i didn't find it tedious..i just did stuff a couple of times and even discarded data..just leave a probe to transmit for that time you'll need 2-3 points

[DevoidLight]

b. If you choose the transmit option, some of the science is lost permanently. Obviously, the losses need to be made smaller, perhaps only 20-40%, depending on the activity.

Absolutely not. At the very least returning to repeat the science and bringing the results back yourself should grant the remaining science points.

[SunJumper]

What if science experiments give a stream of science that exponentially decreases? You can sit in your pod sleeping while your gravimeter relays gravity data back home automatically. Clearly you need a large battery space and large power input, but that adds some challenge.

[Scrogdog]

Yeah, but you guys are talking about specific science conducted with a purpose. That's not quite what we have here.

Given that, I think that transmissions should be logically limited by the nature of the experiment. Crew reports, EVA reports, temperature readings... in other words science based on observations, should have little to no penalty for transmission. Physical things that are collected need to be returned, although one might say that the observation of the goo in certain environments is a valuable part of the experiment. In that case, some can be transmitted, but once a certain point has been reached, you must return the sample to get all of the available science.

Not sure how to make it less boring.

[superm18]

it's gonna change in .23

[dazhat]

I feel that science, as currently implemented, encourages rather tedious repetition of tasks.

If you find it boring, send different missions. They are stopping the repeating tasks as a way to get more science in the next update anyway.