Night time science

[horndgmium]

Since everything in the universe is different when the sun is not shining on it, we should be able to do two experiments at every location that can be shielded from the sun. One with sunlight, one without, at night.

[Sevant]

I agree to a point, but there are some points to consider here.

First, would this mean that you only get half of the current science bonus for doing each half of a day/night experiment?

Second, this is essentially a form of monitoring short term changes in an environment. To get a truly accurate idea of short term changes you shouldn't simply run the experiment once during the day and once at night--you should run a continuous experiment for an entire period of revolution.

Third, how far do you want them to take this line of thinking? Wouldn't reading also change during different seasons (i.e. as the planet/moon/whatever orbits the Sun)? Logically, yes, and new data could be gathered at different times, but it is either going to be tedious going back to the same spot on each planet four or five times to get all the research credit, or it is going to be tedious to run the same experiment four or five times in the same spot to get all the research credit, or it is going to be cheap to simply time-accelerate for 2 minutes to get 4 or 5 times the research credit you deserve for getting there once.

My two cents: I think it makes more sense to add a new kind of experiment all together. Currently, all experiments are instantaneous (ignoring the time it takes to open the goo capsule or science bay). You could add experiments that take a certain amount of time to complete. If you wanted to prevent time-accelerating past them, you could even make the experiments run on real time instead of game time. Alternatively, once life support systems are added, you could require that a Kerbal is present, such that the difficulty of the experiment is designing a craft capable of supporting your scientific hermit until the experiment is complete (time acceleration would be allowed in this type of experiment).

[horndgmium]

To address your points:

1. I don't see a reason why each should only give half value. In the rest of the solar system (especially planets with no atmosphere) the night and day are nearly entirely different biomes.

2. That is true, and while I think long term monitoring should be implemented into the game, night and daytime biomes vary drastically (think Mercury. Even Earth changes 15C sometimes overnight). This just allows you to get more science if you take the time to do experiments under different conditions in the same locations.

3. I want to say yes to seasons, but we don't have axial tilt so that's pretty much out of the question (currently).

It certainly does make sense to use a new type of experiment at night, that way it wouldn't be senseless grinding (literally day and night) to get all the science value from a spot, you'd have to bring more equipment. However, some experiments would make sense using the same equipment (thermometer, barometer, seismometer, etc.) because these experiments can be done to see changes that occured from the day to the night, and don't require monitoring.

I'm all for a more intuitive system of science, where rather than just looking at something and saying science, you have to actually have some sort of experimental process (maybe simplified to comparison) along with bringing back science samples. Right now, you just go and click a button, and boom science. It's just too bring because it is way too easy. We've already figured out how to get to other planets, doing an actual experiment or two might be nice.

Squad seems to be afraid to make the game too hard.

[Sevant]

As a way to possibly make science more interesting, what would you think of having science "quests" in addition to individual experiments? For example, the Kerbin Meteorological Society could offer money (when implemented) and advances in science if KSP gets a temperature and pressure reading from every planet/moon with an atmosphere. Other ideas would be seismograph readings from each moon around Jool, temperature readings from each ocean, etc.

I can't say I think this is a perfect idea, but it might add some challenge and direction to the game.

[horndgmium]

I absolutely love the idea of quests for science. It could even have a use: if you determine the gravity/temperature on some planet, you would bring the proper amount of fuel to get off it, or bring the right kind of space suit for the environment (hotter on planets like Eve). Instead of having all of the information about the planets from the start, you have to go figure it out yourself by going to the planets, running experiments, and making a database.

A quest idea:

The science foundation asks that you visit Duna in order to map the topology. Needs equipment, like an orbital telescope. You get science for mapping Duna, and credits. But by doing this you also can visualize in more detail where you want to land, so you don't make it to Duna just to crash on a mountain. You are also able to see an in-depth map whenever from the science archives.