Greetings Kerblings...

[Hidden Gunman]

Hey all, picked up KSP a fortnight ago and have developed something of an addiction to it.

Quick question though - I'm running through on 'career mode' and am finding that there seems to be an imbalance between 'science points earned', and 'science points required', for researching tech and unlocking new components. For example, I've launched five or six successful Mun missions - fly-by's, 'stayputnik/probe hybrid' landings, and am now ready (skill wise) to conduct a manned landing, but I haven't scored enough science points to unlock some fairly essential gear to do so (primarily docking gear). I am doing experiments whenever possible, but it doesn't seem that the returns are sufficient to match the requirements needed for higher tier gear.

Are other players finding this? Or am I missing something?

As a suggestion, it seems that the 'science points earned' could be increased by 50%, and 'science points required' could be decreased by 33%, both across the board, to raise the rate of tech and equipment advancement. Plus there are only so many times you can do similar things without boredom or repetiveness creeping in.

[Vanamonde]

There is a certain pool of points to be collected by performing each kind of experiment in each of several regions. Repeating an experiment does not gain as many points as the first time you do it, but you can just keep performing that experiment until you've collected all the points available for that test/location. So have you tried re-doing missions/experiments? Have you looked for different places in which to perform experiments? (There are some lists you could find of all the locations, but I don't want to spoil it.) Also, once you research solar panels and a probe core, you can start flinging one-way missions around with abandon, and those can be worth a lot of points. And by the way, this is the first iteration of the science system, and it is already scheduled to be substantially re-worked in the next version of the game.

[Hidden Gunman]

Thanks Vanamonde, I've been doing that, it's a bit like 'science point farming', although I understand that there may well be tweaks to the system. Definitely needs a little bit of re-organisation and rebalancing, but nothing too drastic.

Cheers

[Keithz15]

Have you tried fly-bys or landings on minmus?? I find it easier than the mun and have gotten like 900 science from a single mission.