[plugin concept]Science by racing

[LordFjord]

I had the base idea while discussing making rovers useful in this thread: Rovers Improved

Now, I actually want to turn the idea into a mod. I have looked up some documentation about the API, I'm familiar with C# so I should be able to create a plugin. Before that, I would like to collect some ideas and feedback. I also will need a bit brainstorming to find a good formula to calculate the science earned.

The basic idea

Give players a fun challenge to deploy rovers and drive them around in order to gain science points. All within the spirit of doing science the Kerbal way. The faster, the heavier the vessel is, the more science it will create. Bringing Kerbals to join the ride is also encouraged.

Driving long passages on time warp is boring, so the distance traveled and the average speed will play a lesser role (but won't be neglected).

While this also works for tiny unmanned rovers, the goal would be to encourage building big fast vehicles.

It's all about building badass monster trucks of Kerbal awesomeness.

The part

As a placeholder (and the fact that I am utterly useless at modelling and texturing), I will use an existing science part and clone it, probably gravioli detector or something. It has to be light and small. It will be unlocked in the science tree along the first wheels.

Science gathering

The player activates the part, which will start "recording". Activating will only work when the vehicle is stopped. It will drain electricity based on the vehicle's mass. This is in order to let it scale without creating multiple parts for small and heavy vehicles. A flat electricity drain would penalize small vehicles.

The item will record some driving parameters.

I am pondering if the recording should only be stopped when the vehicle is stopped and if it resets or shows an error when the altitude over terrain is above a certain value, based on the gravity of the celestial body where all this took place. Then jumps would be allowed, but lander transfers would be voided.

Once the recording is stopped, a science value will be calculated based on several parameters. Just like with any other (reusable) science part, the data can be sent back with a penalty, or processed in a lab for less penalty, or brought back to Kerbin for maximum points.

I will try to make this data non-transferable to the manned capsules. You will really need to bring back the part for maximum effect.

The formula

I am trying to find a good formula that is both balanced (effort-result) and hopefully not exploitable.

It should include the following parameters:

- maximum ground speed

- total mass of vehicle

- traveled distance and average speed. I would tie these together, these should be not so significant because of time warp. Distance would be calculated from start and end location, endless driving in circles shouldn't be encouraged.

- passenger bonus for each live Kerbal on board

I do not want to give a flat science limit on the result, as this would discourage improving vehicles once the "perfect rover" has been built.

On the other hand, it should not be a way to "cheat" science points. The points are also dependent of the current location (biome), I want this to scale just like the other experiments.

I would try to reward people who max out either of the parameters and also those who can mix them perfectly.

The ideal thing would be a monstrous-dragster-Kerbal-bus. If you can deploy and drive such a thing, then the science would be well earned.

Any comments, additional ideas and formula proposals are welcome

LordFjord

[Champ]

The faster, the heavier the vessel is, the more science it will create.

While this also works for tiny unmanned rovers, the goal would be to encourage building big fast vehicles.

It's all about building badass monster trucks of Kerbal awesomeness.

This sounds strange to me. The amount of science should depend on the number of scientific instrument the rover carries (not it's weight) and the distance travelled (not it's speed). That seems more logical, and it would still encourage to build big (because they have many instrument) and fast (because you must be able to go far in a minimum of gamer's time).

Nobody would put more weight on a rover just for the additional weight : we add weight because we need one more feature, or more power, or anything else.

Weight should always be seen as a problem, not a solution. Weight in itself does no good.

[LordFjord]

You have a point there, incorporating weight directly into the science gain is not very good.

However, I still want to keep the max. speed component for fun/gameplay reasons over realism. Kerbal's ain't dead serious/realistic when it comes to science, so it would be a fun way to encourage doing risky things.

I do not want to limit this to small racers though, hence the initial idea with weight.

I also want to see those huge rover wheels mounted on a mobile base as a valid experiment platform for this.

Maybe with some adjustable "power level" for the new science part, where you can pre-set its power consumption.

Higher power levels -> more science.

More Watt (kW or MW) selected over the active time of the item in seconds would give a result in Joules, which gives all this a nice pseudo-scientific explanation.

This could make bigger rovers with huge power supplies and reserves also useful.