Tourism....

[Rocket Farmer]

So I know they are trying to bring in an economic model and it occurred to me tourism might be a great option.

Imagine being able to send aloft blue kerbal uniformed tourists. They wouldn't be able to fly anything (useless in a pilot seat) and wouldn't have thrusters on Eva but (like science) in each area they visited would they would earn you cash. Also you could have a space base / hotel that generated cash for a period of time whenever new blue suits showed up from the surface.

The best part of this would be it could truly make SSTOs a part of the game as they would by far be the most economical to put blue suits into space.

Given the way space is going this might actually be the future too.

[DisarmingBaton5]

HOCgaming is exploring this concept as we type.

[CalculusWarrior]

That's a really neat idea. I'd be surprised if SQUAD hasn't already considered it, but who knows?

[SkyRender]

Heck, I made a Kerbal Tourist Program way back in 0.18. It's where I got the name for my Kerbal Space Program agency, Escape Velocity.

[User Unrelated]

That'd be fun!

That would couple well with the other thing that I've been sort of wanting... a "harder" sort of game, as in, after your flight lasts, say, 30 seconds, you can no longer revert...

ascent vehicle full of tourists blew up? Oops... no reverting!

it'd make you think about your designs more when civilians (an your space budget) are hanging in the balance.

[rpayne88]

So I know they are trying to bring in an economic model and it occurred to me tourism might be a great option.

Imagine being able to send aloft blue kerbal uniformed tourists. They wouldn't be able to fly anything (useless in a pilot seat) and wouldn't have thrusters on Eva but (like science) in each area they visited would they would earn you cash. Also you could have a space base / hotel that generated cash for a period of time whenever new blue suits showed up from the surface.

The best part of this would be it could truly make SSTOs a part of the game as they would by far be the most economical to put blue suits into space.

Given the way space is going this might actually be the future too.

SSTOs are not necessarily the most economical way to place things in orbit. If you use reusable systems such as SSTOs, IRL you would have to maintain them. II don't know if Squad is going to implement a maintenance feature into career mode.

Also, I think Squad should implement some sort of penalty for killing a tourist. I mean, they were not subjected to the same training as your Kerbals. Also, their surviving family members may be tempted to sue the space program for their loss.

[SkyRender]

The main roadblock to sustainable space tourism in KSP at this point is that you can't get any extra fuel from locations besides Kerbin. Kethane is pretty much a must-have as a result. Once you can raid the Mun (or Minmus, if you're very patient) for your fuel stores, it's a simple enough matter of just making a series of purpose vehicles that stay in space and constantly get refueled after each trip they take.

[Tw1]

If they do do it, I hope that the tourists just pop up in the crew list, then you can include them when you're ready. Bases and stations as well as planets, could be used as destinations.

[scootersoup]

I think space tourism would be an exciting element, if implemented right. Remember, space agencies have more than just one pilot. There would need to be a balance between realism and playability. Ferrying a constant stream of people to and from space could become tedious. Perhaps you could pilot the initial flight and if you were satisfied with the flight plan and result, you could schedule automated flights that would either be simulated by something like Mechjeb or just be represented by numbers (profit/expenditure). So, each time you want to expand your tourist trap, you must pilot the tour, but from then on it becomes automated (ie, your pilots take over and follow your course).

[CalculusWarrior]

I think space tourism would be an exciting element, if implemented right. Remember, space agencies have more than just one pilot. There would need to be a balance between realism and playability. Ferrying a constant stream of people to and from space could become tedious. Perhaps you could pilot the initial flight and if you were satisfied with the flight plan and result, you could schedule automated flights that would either be simulated by something like Mechjeb or just be represented by numbers (profit/expenditure). So, each time you want to expand your tourist trap, you must pilot the tour, but from then on it becomes automated (ie, your pilots take over and follow your course).

Or you could just pilot tourists up whenever you feel like it, and the returns you get for different locations diminishes like the science system (the novelty wears off travelling to LKO after a while and the kerbals want to go to the Mun)