low but constant income generation (career mode)

[Nemrav]

I was thinking, for career mode, maybe it could be possible to put up sattelites and stations etc that give you a steady science/money income. Like for instance a "communication" satellite for a company that, gives you not a single money grap but rather a steady trickle of money until say your old antennas become outdated because you researched new ones through personal exploit. This could be useful if a player gets stuck, as he will only have to wait rather than start all over. And same thing for "patents" (squad said that you could exchange science for money in this way). But as soon as you get past a certain stage in research your trickle stops.

and expanding on this guys idea . Maybe be able to put an old used space craft on display in a museum building for "reputation" But again when that craft becomes insignificant (its achievement is dwarfed) then your reputation trickle stops.

[regex]

This is a very popular suggestion but to me it feels so much like "getting something for nothing", like I could set up twenty satellites, set time warp to 1000x, go to work, and when I get home I have piles of cash, science, and reputation. I much prefer mechanics that give the player incentive to get out and explore, and try daring things, and learn from mistakes made in the process.

[Supernovy]

From what I've seen in MCE, the long-term payouts that you can get are capped, e.g. you get 500 K per day for a set amount of days, which adds up to a total comparable to a single other satellite mission.

If there was a similar thing in stock, time warping would only get you the reward faster in real-world time, and perhaps your reputation would decay over that time too.

[Specialist290]

Sort of along the lines of what Supernovy is discussing, I could see a place for a per-time payment that gradually tapers off over time (until it stops entirely) unless / until you send another mission to "refresh" the cash flow stream. While it wouldn't provide as much total cash as the initial one-time bonus (at least for the first mission by itself), it might be useful for such a mechanic to act as a "safety net" to keep your space program afloat until you can scrape together enough cash to reach the next milestone.

EDIT: I could also get behind the system Tw1 has elaborated below.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Specialist290

[Tw1]

I support long term payouts, but not in this form. I'd prefer a base level of funding from "Sponsors" (Deliberately undefined, so the player can imagine being whoever they like) that would be linked to your level of reputation, so it will rise and fall based on your levels of success or failure. Timewarping for ages will only yield so much, as the supporting kerbals would loose interest due to your inactivity.

However, once we see the contracts system at work, he monetary system the game needs will be clearer. If contracts are diverse enough, you might be able to support the space program by doing constant little tasks on your space stations. We will see.

Although I wouldn't mind having manned stations and bases improving your base level of reputation. (If reputation is a fluctuating level, rather than something you just collect.) Though each station or base would have to meet occupy certain criteria for its existence to have a significant boost to your reputation.

IRL, more stations = more science (or in this case, reputation as science in KSP is collectible points), but this may not be the best idea for KSP. I think a balance must be achieved between giving the player the opportunity to run the space program as their imagination pleases, (e.g, establishing lots of stations and things within the one planetary system) and pushing them to explore new places.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Tw1

[regex]

If there was a similar thing in stock, time warping would only get you the reward faster in real-world time, and perhaps your reputation would decay over that time too.

I don't like time-based resource degradation because I feel it promotes a very frantic sort of gameplay. In KSP especially it could put the player into a mindset where they are afraid to timewarp to a launch window instead of doing the things they want to do. One of the neat things about sandbox games is they allow the player to set their own goals but if they're worried about losing resources because they're timewarping to that Eeloo transfer, they may never bother with that Eeloo transfer. It locks the player into a certain way of playing.

[Justin Kerbice]

I have had similar idea and also a solution which makes degradation not so bad), stay tuned and watch for add-on showcase and release soon...

[Justin Kerbice]

Here it is, guys take a look at it please.

[coolitic]

This wouldn't work because of time warp and the ability to cheat the game by changing your date and time settings.

[Justin Kerbice]

This wouldn't work because of time warp and the ability to cheat the game by changing your date and time settings.

Too pessimistic I think, time warp is just what it is, and why doing such complicated cheat when you'll have an infinite money build-in cheat (my guess).

[Joonatan1998]

Constant income?

I think that there should be constant costs to discourage excessive timewarping.

(Not very high, so that eeloo missions are possible, but having a craft orbit for 70 years before getting an ecounter with eeloo shouldn't be possible)

The same effect could be achieved by some implementations of a life support mechanic.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Joonatan1998

[Shna_na]

I'm all for this, provided that there's a cap. For example - a TV satellite, "Kerbal Broadcasting Company", that pays you 25000 credits up-front to launch and orbit, and a further 500 credits per day for 50 days. This way it isn't a huge amount per day and you're only payed half up-front and receive the other half in long-term payments. I'd also like to see a break between launches, as I'm only on day 21 (I believe it's something around the 3-week region) and have almost exhausted science on Mun and Minmus. Maybe a 3-hour delay due to launchpad cleaning, during which time you could launch from the runway. This would give the player an incentive to explore more of Kerbin, as well as giving the research a little more realism and exhausting it slower. It'd also encourage the player to build more efficient crafts or multiple missions into one launch (such as sending a rover up with a space station core so that when the core has reached its destination the rover can be flown to its destination). The issue is that you can still launch rockets from the runway, and some players would abuse this. I say let them, unless you can come up with an idea on how to prevent it, because they're only ruining the game for themselves.

[Nemrav]

They plan to implement building damage, I guess maybe there could be damage to the runway if there's a big launch, (then you have to repair it)

[Shna_na]

They plan to implement building damage, I guess maybe there could be damage to the runway if there's a big launch, (then you have to repair it)

That's awesome. I hope it's cosmetic as well, I'd love to be able to explode the VAB or terrorise the R&D center while it crumbles helplessly under the might of the kerbals who once built it. On sandbox of course, career is safe. Imagine breaking off that bridge on the R&D centre... Who wouldn't want to do that?

[Nemrav]

They said it would cost money to repair them after a rocket crash... I'm guessing that it would be pretty expensive....

[Shna_na]

They said it would cost money to repair them after a rocket crash... I'm guessing that it would be pretty expensive....

Not in sandbox mode... Destroy what you want and don't pay a credit. Perfect.

[Justin Kerbice]

They plan to implement building damage, I guess maybe there could be damage to the runway if there's a big launch, (then you have to repair it)

Then, players will have to REALLY care about drop of lower stages ! Imagine a crazy aspartagus style vessel, like 150-200 tons, lot's of tanks and engines to drop before even reaching upper atmosphere, the space center will looks like Mun (craters from "bombs") or a nuked city.

The issue is that you can still launch rockets from the runway, and some players would abuse this.

Again, you are too much focused on morons. They shot themselves in the foot by cheating, cause they'll get bored soon enough.

[Nobody]

Something I have said before on funding. I think there should be 2 income streams for players when money is added.

One is private contracts would be per mission payments(x up front and y when complete). For example a TV station wants you to launch a broadcast satellite into a specific orbit.

The other is government budget that is paid in regular intervals but changes depending on what government issued mission milestones you are completing. Just time warping and waiting for cash would mean you not doing any research so your budget would get cut back to almost nothing.