Why time-based experiments are worth it.

[pigletx2]

Well, I guess that's a perfectly logical conclusion...

And yet, you're this site's biggest advocate for gameplay designed around waiting and doing nothing. One mission at a time, hundreds and hundreds of days of coasting to your destination, nothing to do but time-warp.....

You know why timewarp was created? TO REDUCE WAITING. Your argument is invalid, please try again.

[tetryds]

Refueling may not be a fun task, but it is a break from the science farming.

Yeah, maybe requiring a satellite relay to run the experiments can be better.

This way you would run faster the more support you have, and you would be abble to add more modules to boost it up (or for when it stops being worth).

[Dunbaratu]

Anyone arguing that time-based experimentation shouldn't be in the game would bolster their argument better if they also addressed those things that are causing a lot of people to want time-based experiments. The chief reason for wanting time-based experiments is that it seems to be the most obvious way to make satellites, space stations, and rovers actually meaningful.

So to argue why there should never be time-based experiments, you do that best by coming up with other ways to reward the player for implementing a good satellite, space station, or rover. If the fact that those are currently useless without time-based experiments is ignored, then you're selfishly ignoring gameplay other people like and looking for a solution that only makes you and you alone happy.

For one suggestion, some type of distance-travelled requirement for certain experiments would be handy. i.e. for mapping experiments, make it care more about how much ground is covered rather than how long it took to do it (i.e. a low orbit accomplishes it faster). For a rover experiment, require X number of kilometers of travel in Biome Y to obtain science, and so on.

And make them have a max science cap like any other science biome return value does. In other words it's not "you get X science points per Y kilometers travelled, up to infinity if you warp long enough" but rather it's "There are a max of 100 science points obtainable via rover traveling in the "Mun Farside Crater" biome. Once you've mined them out you can't get any more in that location."

[tetryds]

Hey Steven, that is about what I suggested before, but in a more restrict and simple manner.

What i suggested would be "take off up to outter atmosphere from x biome to make a full research about the atmosphere", what you suggest is like "to reasearch about the atmosphere you have to study it at different heights above this biome, standing still for a full reading", and I like it.

It doesn't need to be a very long mission either, but gives a point to several things on the game.

Mostly rovers and stations.

So "analyze the soil in 3 different points within y meters of each other at biome x" or "analyze the atmosphere for x time flying a plane at y altitude" becomes an option, and it makes things much more interesting. (The missions mod added challenges like this, and everyone must agree that it is really cool to achieve such mission tasks).

I'm sick of getting to Minmus 6 times for 450 points each having the tech to go around and make a lot more stuff in there (I don't bunnyhop with tons of science equipments because I keep my rockets low-budget)

[Dwight_js]

You know why timewarp was created? TO REDUCE WAITING. Your argument is invalid, please try again.

Sorry piglet, but from within the context of the game, time-warping for hundreds and hundreds of days while doing nothing while your Space Program sits there completely inactive, for me that constitutes waiting. It might only be for a few minutes of real time, but it's a huge chunk of game-time wasted. It's also overly simplistic (ie, boring) game play, and if it ends up being the core of Career Mode, should be considered a dismal failure.

For those who don't want constraints and pressures to shape their game-play, I suggest that you will not be very happy with any implementation of Career Mode.

Your argument is very eloquent, by the way. "invalid!!"... lol. You don't happen to work in a big government bureaucracy, with a giant stamp with the word "REJECTED" that you gleefully thump all over people's carefully filled out forms? Try not to bring your work home with you so much.