Vehicle storage and re-usablity

[xenomorph555]

Okay so this is just spit balling here. Many people ask for things like "a proper feel for re-usability" instead of just relaunching a vehicle, however for most of the time there are no ideas for how this will work. This is my idea:

It revolves around a new building for which I am going to call the Vehicle storage building (VSB), when you create a vehicle in the VAB or SPH these will become "blueprints" so to speak, instead of a launch button there will be a build button and a display showing the price of the rocket (linking into currency). Once clicked you will lose however much it cost to build it and one of said vehicle will be built and placed in the VSB, here you cannot edit the vehicle, only place in pilots. There will be a launch button here which will of course launch either your plane or rocket. Once launched the vehicle cannot be reclaimed in the sense that it will be placed in storage, you can recover it to get the science plus crew but the craft is overall disposed of.

However what if you wanted the craft back, well in the VAB or SPH there would be a selection button [Expendable or Reusable], in early game expendable would be the only option available and would be free. After going through a few tiers of science you would eventually unlock reusable craft, this would cost more money to build (but could be worth it if the craft is good). If a craft was reusable then when it launch's, does it's mission and lands, whatever survives such as a capsule or spaceplane can be reclaimed. The surviving parts would be in the VSB where you could click a "refurbish" button, this would rebuild and refuel the craft for whatever the price of the missing peices was. Then you can go and fly again.

To give an example of this in-game: I design an american shuttle in the VAB, I click the reusable button and click build (imagine this costs $100,000, $60,000 for the booster and $40,000 the shuttle). This is built and stored in the VSB, I enter the VSB and scroll down my list of ships and find my shuttle. Very simply I load Jeb into the ship and launch discarding the booster along the way (this explodes on the ground and cant be recovered). I do the mission and land on kerbin, I click the reclaim button and get the science I made, when I click on the VSB again my shuttle is there without the booster, I click refurbish and lose $60,000 to rebuild the booster. I then launch again.

In total this gives the player a sense that it's the same ship, adds more depth to the game and can be a way to save money. Thank you for reading, please discuss below.

PS: sorry if this was bad, this is my first idea post.

[Taribu]

I think this is a wonderfull idea. I had similar thoughts about this. The thing I would change is that "refurbish" thing - i think every part that lands safely on the ground, for example used tanks equipped with parachutes, should automatically show up in the VSB. And if you are building a vehicle, you have the choice to use recovered parts, similar to how you use subassemblies. This gives you the ability to combine recovered assemblies or add new parts to recovered assemblies/ships. This also enables you to use different and new payloads in recovered vehicles, for example shuttles.

The problem that parts(like empty tanks) unload in 2.3 km distance could be solved with a "speculative" algorithm, for example if you ditch a part while in an suborbital trajectory(Or if you "push" the periapsis of that part inside the atmosphere with sepatrons), the game automatically looks for activated parachutes on that part and checks if that part could land savely with its mass/drag(parachute) ratio. So the game can automatically recover the part after a certain time, even if that part is unloaded at that point.

[xenomorph555]

That was actually the plan for all stuff that lands safely to be reclaimed (I should have wrote it better, oh well). Thank you for being positive

[Serratus]

I support this with one change - no Vehicle storage building - they get stored in space hangar (because you keep planes in hangars), and VAB (just like IRL). Instead the new building to make blueprints would be Engineering or maybe in current R&D building?

Once the vessel is built it's added to storage list (with possibility of giving a unique name to it). Once You click on SPH/VAB You can choose SPECIFIC vessel, set crew, fuel levels, ect.

After vessel is retrieved You could click "retrofit" next to its name on that list, and it would put all parts that are missing from the mission back on, at a cost obviously

[xenomorph555]

Yeah that could also work

[Nemrav]

What about fuel costs ? and an option to simply launch directly from the vab (skip a few loading screens)..

[Tery215]

Being allowed to modify currently stored ships is probably just as hard if not easier for the Kerbals as refurbishing it from a parachute or a stick you recovered.

Therefore, refurbish should just be fancy words for modifying currently stored ships.

[Master_Evar]

The launch pad and runway can already start without you having to go through VAB or SPH, if you want to skip a few loading screens. But the idea of reusable parts would be quite good for career-mode when money is implemented. You cold have a ´scrap´ tab which shows you recovered parts, and you could maybe repair them there, making it become stocked, since there was a in stock count before the last update.

[Nuke]

im all for a vehicle service, storage, and refueling facility. of course using the facility would cost money, but not nearly as much as building a new one would.

[Capt Snuggler]

I support this with one change - no Vehicle storage building - they get stored in space hangar (because you keep planes in hangars), and VAB (just like IRL).

I think the KSC could have some general purpose Hangers and buildings dotted around, to at least suggest that there are craft stored away somewhere.

[Nuke]

have separate construction and storage hangers.

[xenomorph555]

What about fuel costs ? and an option to simply launch directly from the vab (skip a few loading screens)..

There would be a small amount of cost each launch for refuelling. Simple launch could be added somehow...

[xenomorph555]

im all for a vehicle service, storage, and refueling facility. of course using the facility would cost money, but not nearly as much as building a new one would.

Yeah, like that.

[meve12]

Could we use stored craft as subassemblies? So you can build a reusable rocket and then add it to a payload.

Also, how do we assess reusability of, say, boosters?

[xenomorph555]

Could we use stored craft as subassemblies? So you can build a reusable rocket and then add it to a payload.

Also, how do we assess reusability of, say, boosters?

That might work possibly, boosters and other parts can be reused as long as they land intact, if they survive they are taken to the VSB and lower the cost of refurbishing/rebuilding the craft.

[KASASpace]

Well, maybe in the VSB you can make changes to the vehicle.

Like in IRL they upgraded the Shuttles after the fact.

So, why not here?

[xenomorph555]

Well, maybe in the VSB you can make changes to the vehicle.

Like in IRL they upgraded the Shuttles after the fact.

So, why not here?

That way the buildings are separate.

[KASASpace]

That way the buildings are separate.

No no. Just little upgrades. Like tiny parts and tweakables.

[xenomorph555]

oh, yeah that sounds good

[meve12]

Do we need a seperate building? Just have the recovered vehicle be accessible from the VAB/SPH as a craft file or subassembly(To modify, reattach boosters, etc) or the launchpad/runway(it would get refurbished automatically, naturally.)