.24 reusing ships?

[Sigma117]

I might have missed this in a dev discussion or some such, but since money is coming into the game next patch I'm wondering how reusing ships will work.

I hope they'll let you have a ship storage of sorts. That way landing an ssto/shuttle lets you reuse it for just fuel costs/repairs, with an option to scrap it for some money back at a slight loss. This would have the added benefit of giving your ships a history if/when you reuse them, it'd be nice (but not really expected) to see textures wear as you use the ship

If they don't do that I'm guessing they'll just give you the value for any parts you manage to land, though my idea would encourage making reusable designs in career which is more lifelike.

[Shuttle]

I think that player should also pay for delivering his landed shuttle/rocket back to the VAB. Also, if you are developing a reusable rocket, take a look at Energia-Uragan (Energy-Hurricane in russian):

Trajectory: http://i.imgur.com/nq2CPV0.jpg

More pics of launch vehicle:

http://i.imgur.com/kXxSc7y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/avaZyRx.jpg

[7499275]

I agree with the OP, I would like to be able to land an SSTO and have it refueled and everything and when I want it. Click a building and it goes to the runway. It should cost money of course to move it to the KSC (dependent on distance landed away) and cost to refuel.

[katateochi]

I totally agree with the idea of having somewhere to store craft that have landed, SSTO's, planes and also ground support crew. I really like the idea of being able to service an SSTO on the tarmac and send it off again, without completely reloading the craft. But having support vehicles and other parked craft round KSC gets so laggy. It would be nice to be able to park them in hanger and have them unloaded from the scene but preserving their state (fuel levels, missing/broken parts, etc).

[Prince of Rockets]

Forgive me if this is mentioned somewhere, but how will income work? Will successful missions grant additional funding? Or is it like real life where you have to justify the expense in front of a committee or board of directors? Haha

Edited February 1, 2014 by Prince of Rockets

[Sigma117]

Forgive me if this is mentioned somewhere, but how will income work? Will successful missions grant additional funding? Or is it like real life where you have to justify the expensive in front of a committee or board of directors? Haha

I think you get contracts and can exchange science for money (and vice versa)

[Prince of Rockets]

Whoa... Being able to exchange science for money is a great idea! It would make progression slower in career mode it seems like, but would allow you to keep making progress after all the research nodes are unlocked. Neat.

[Rickenbacker]

The simplest way would be to just store any craft that you recover, adding a larger and larger fee for recover the further away it is from KSC. So landing within the immediate area would recover for free, landing on the other side of the planet might get expensive . Then just add a "garage", kind of like the tracking station, where you could get your craft out of storage, refit and refuel them for a modest fee and send them back up.

[minerman30]

I wonder if there could also be a fuel depot that you could fill with bulk purchases, maybe $1 a unit for LF and $1.5 for oxidizer. You would use it to fuel up your ships, and would be warned when you were running low.

Edited February 1, 2014 by minerman30

[SkyRender]

My suspicion is that, at least at first, they will use a generic model of "x% of cost of surviving recovered parts' value goes back into your budget", where x is some value that makes the most sense gameplay-wise (my bet would be around 70 to 80%). Over time they'll likely refine that model, and eventually implement a "reclaim/reuse" option that lets you launch a previously-flown craft for a fraction of the cost of recovering and basically re-building it.

[RocketPilot573]

I think "reusing" ships will just be recovering the ship, and getting some money back.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

Another way to do this would be allowing you to recover the science from a craft without recovering the entire craft. If you can land your space shuttle at KSC, you could drop off the science, and refuel it using docking ports, KAS stuff, and a fuel truck thingy. It wouldn't be as as smooth and easy as what was previously suggested, but it might be easier for the developers to add in, instead of a garage, vehicle depot, etc.

[WafflesToo]

Another way to do this would be allowing you to recover the science from a craft without recovering the entire craft. If you can land your space shuttle at KSC, you could drop off the science, and refuel it using docking ports, KAS stuff, and a fuel truck thingy. It wouldn't be as as smooth and easy as what was previously suggested, but it might be easier for the developers to add in, instead of a garage, vehicle depot, etc.

You can do that now. Just part a small capsule next to the runway, take the science out of the landed space vehicle, put it in the small capsule, and recover the capsule. Refurbishing your spaceplane is another matter.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

^ never thought of that Might start doing that now.

[Sigma117]

You can do that now. Just part a small capsule next to the runway, take the science out of the landed space vehicle, put it in the small capsule, and recover the capsule. Refurbishing your spaceplane is another matter.

Depending on how costs are done, that's a good idea for .24

[SkyRender]

The logic behind a re-use system would actually be very simple to code. If vessel is recovered for re-use, move its vessel data to a separate section of the save data for recovered-for-reuse vessels. Add feature to launch vessels from this pool instead, and set the cost of doing so as a factor of fuel remaining to fuel capacity. A system like that is so simple that a user-made mod to add that functionality could come into existence within a few days of 0.24 coming out if it's not in there already.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

In some of the methods that have been suggested, would people just continuously reuse any recovered crafts or parts? What about capsules? Can one reuse those? That seems somewhat unrealistic

[Javster]

I usually use a plane with a huge KW Rocketry booster underneath.

EDIT: Sorry wrong thread, I guess it's kinda relevant?

Edited February 1, 2014 by Javster

[Sigma117]

In some of the methods that have been suggested, would people just continuously reuse any recovered crafts or parts? What about capsules? Can one reuse those? That seems somewhat unrealistic

With capsules and the like, I imagine they'd get added to a stockpile of some sort so you're not buying it again maybe?

Another idea would be to have rescued craft available in a tab similar to subassemblies. Obviously needs thinking about, but I'd still like to see something similar in the game.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

With capsules and the like, I imagine they'd get added to a stockpile of some sort so you're not buying it again maybe?

Another idea would be to have rescued craft available in a tab similar to subassemblies. Obviously needs thinking about, but I'd still like to see something similar in the game.

But doesn't it make sense to have to buy capsules again? It's not as if they sent up the same command module for the various Apollo missions

[SkyRender]

In some of the methods that have been suggested, would people just continuously reuse any recovered crafts or parts? What about capsules? Can one reuse those? That seems somewhat unrealistic

That's part of the fun of a simple vessel recovery and re-use system, though. If only the capsule survived, reusing it wouldn't do any good: you'd go to the pad with a capsule sitting there, no rocket underneath. Oops! Should've chosen to recover and not re-use, so you can reclaim some of the value of the part instead (perhaps donating it to the local museum?). Well, you'd probably still be able to do that from a recovered vessel menu.

[Sigma117]

That's part of the fun of a simple vessel recovery and re-use system, though. If only the capsule survived, reusing it wouldn't do any good: you'd go to the pad with a capsule sitting there, no rocket underneath. Oops! Should've chosen to recover and not re-use, so you can reclaim some of the value of the part instead (perhaps donating it to the local museum?). Well, you'd probably still be able to do that from a recovered vessel menu.

That's probably the simplest solution, either recover or scrap the part. The issue there is if you launch something off a rocket, reusing wouldn't give you the launcher back.

[Cupcake...]

I've been trying to develop systems to re-use my vessels for a while now, the furthest I've got is with my latest design; the Equinox which can be re-fueled from a tanker and have its drop tanks reloaded. Will hopefully save a few $$ once the currency system goes live.

Cupcake...

[SkyRender]

That's probably the simplest solution, either recover or scrap the part. The issue there is if you launch something off a rocket, reusing wouldn't give you the launcher back.

Presumably there would be the option to recover landed "debris"-flagged items from Kerbin as well. That would help with some of that.

[Sigma117]

What I mean is that if you launch on a rocket, and reuse the payload, it'll be useless without the rocket for the initial stage.