Mission Control Building - Reputation and Income Management

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Introduction

It has been stated that, in a future version of Kerbal Space Program^®, there will be three currencies available in Career Mode™: Science(!), Money, and Prestige, of which we alterady have Science(!). My idea is that we have one building which takes care of Science and Money, and other that takes care of Prestige and Money. The former we alterady have; the Research and Development facility, in which you invest science and money into new parts.

But what about the latter?

I present you the Mission Control building.

Overview

"What is the Mission Control building? Does it work like the tracking station?"

Mission control actually has two functions. The first, available both on sandbox and career, is that it provides the full log for each flight(Flight Logs). The second is only available on career mode; it is where you manage your space program's reception with the rest of Kerbin(Publicity).

"And how exactly does it work?"

Well, the layout will be somewhat similar to the Science Logs; a small, rectangular screen with an image of Mission Control's interior, and Gene Kerman(for Publicity window) and Bobak Kerman(for Flight Logs window) will greet you instead of Wernher von Kerman. The Flight Logs look and work pretty much similar to the Science Logs, but instead of selecting planets, you select vessels which you have flied. If you flew a craft multiple times, it will appear with tags such as (1), (2), and so on.

The Publicity window, on the other hand, has a somewhat different visual. There will be a newspaper on the lower left corner, depicting several messages which will be pre-loaded from your latest achievement. For example, if you recently landed a probe on Duna, the newspaper's headlines will be "SPACE PROGRAM LANDS PROBE ON DUNA! Will the next big leap have Kerbals set their own foot on the red planet?", followed by illegible text below, and a couple of other non-significant news titles, such as "TEA DISCOVERED TO MAKE KERBALS 13% LESS VULNERABLE TO BLINDNESS".

Clicking on the newspaper will open the main tab regarding reputation of your space program around Kerbin. A basic summary of your reputation is also given by Gene, in the form of dialogue lines such as "the population seems to mostly support the space program" when your reputation is high, "I don't think many kerbals are aware of the space program" when your reputation is medium or otherwise near zero, and "maybe we should please the crowd, I can almost hear a mob of angry kerbals outside" when your reputation is deep into the negatives. Of course, there will be more lines, but the main three categories are these; Respected, Neutral and Hated. On the lower right corner is the space center's bank account, as a way to manage your money.

"How do we exactly manage our reputation and income?"

There will be two ways to make each of the three currencies with Mission Control. I'm going to describe all of them.

As you know it, Science is gained in the current game by performing experiments with vessels out there using science-yielding parts. However, you'll now be able to invest in on-Kerbin science experiments. Basically, you exchange money for science. But of course, that WILL end up overpowered if you have insane ammounts of money, thus the science investments are expensive and won't yield much science. For reference, the exchange is in a 10 to 4 ratio.

Money can actually be earned fairly easily. The first method is through natural donation. Based on your reputation, every time you sucessfully retrieve a craft that has went to space, whether it's to an orbit around Kerbin or to Eve's sea level, you'll recieve donation from the public, who want more exploration. The donations are higher in value depending on your reputation and location(Going to Moho will yield you a lot more money than going to Duna, and landing a manned craft yields more cash than an unmanned one). The second method involves actually asking for donation, in order to fund for deeper projects. The higher your reputation is, the more money you will get. However, if after the donation you don't build and launch a craft within a time threshold(five days is my bet), your reputation will drastically fall apart for lying.

Reputation, possibly the most critical currency in career, isn't actually that hard to gain. It can primarily be gained by recovering a craft that sucessfully made it through a space trip, similar to money. And if that doesn't work, you can exchange money for reputation. Pratically it works by donating to projects and foundations across Kerbin, whether they're about developing a faster-than-light warp drive or to save children from starving in poor Kerbin countries. It will boost your reputation through a 10 to 6 ratio.

"But what if I need a way to earn money AND reputation in one go?"

Then you'll need to have a company to aid you in your space race.

Contracts and Sponsors

In your run to conquering the Kerbin system, and eventually the entire Kerbol system, you'll need a few other companies to support you by recommending you to the public and giving you a fair share of cash. However, as in our world, no CEO in their right mind would outright give you money with nothing in reward. Thus you need to sign a contract from them, where you'll complete a task(or multiple tasks, it depends on the contract), and if you accomplish it, you earned yourself a sponsor.

Contracts work in a similar way to missions. There are three types of contracts: Quest, where you need to accomplish an objective, sometimes with a craft only available during said mission which you can edit; Advertsiment, where you need to advertise a part by making a rocket which stars that part; and Payload, where you need to carry an object to a designated location. The specified part is located in a new section, named 'Special', and is only available during that mission.

An example of missions from each type:

Quest: The Kerbin Global News Center's satellite has malfunctioned, and they need a new satellite in an equatorial orbit between 125km and 150km.

Advertsiment: C7 Aerospace and Rockomax Conglomerate have just announced their new R.A.P.I.E.R. Engine! They want you to get to orbit using a spaceplane with this engine.

Payload: A nuclear bomb has been found being developed by terrorist Kerbals! The government needs you to haul it to Eve. (Only available when next to an Eve window)

"But won't that ruin the sandboxy feel of Kerbal Space Program^®?"

Not exactly, as these contracts are not required. Additionally, if these missions are not your cup of tea, or you think they're just basically boring 'ferry Derp Kerman around' missions, then feel free to suggest better ones, as I'm not that great with missions.

[xenomorph555]

This is very good, I support it!

[Nemrav]

A lot of these are good ideas, but there already is a mission control building in the game (clicking on it just redirects to vab) and the devs are already planning to add function to it in the next update (0.24)... and yes, they intend for it to work on a contract system....

There is no plan to add any kind of weapons into the game, except through unofficial mods.

before posting ideas, I recommend simply checking the initial 2 posts in the already suggested and what not to suggest.

or even quicker read this articlehttp://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Planned_features

[Commissioner Tadpole]

A lot of these are good ideas, but there already is a mission control building in the game (clicking on it just redirects to vab) and the devs are already planning to add function to it in the next update (0.24)... and yes, they intend for it to work on a contract system....

Yes, I have seen it, I was just giving a couple of more ideas to the pool of alterady-existing ideas. But I haven't seen the 'mission control' building in KSC yet.

There is no plan to add any kind of weapons into the game, except through unofficial mods.

That isn't a weapon, it's just a decorative part which is supposed to represent a bomb, and is just to be used as some sort of 'payload' in which you need to carry. The bomb would have an 'instability' field which is triggered by massive G-Forces. But other than that it's just a decorative, harmless part.

before posting ideas, I recommend simply checking the initial 2 posts in the already suggested and what not to suggest.

or even quicker read this articlehttp://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Planned_features

I alterady did, there was nothing about suggesting for a Mission Control building.