Are EVA landings a science mining exploit?

[Majorjim!]

I think the difficulty of the landing and rendezvous easily make up for the science gain.

Well done man, it really does sound tricky!

[Kuu Lightwing]

It might be an exploit, but honestly it's not a big deal. Put a science station into the orbit of Minmus and a lander with enough fuel to do some landings - Science Lab will get you ridiculous amounts of science over time. And to fill it with 500 data (which will convert into 2500 science) you don't even need to land. Some reports, low orbit scans/goo/bay - and voila!

[Wesreidau]

Val spent every ounce of fuel getting herself into an ugly little orbit early on in my career, and found no way to get down.

Magy Kerman landed her little tin can on the Mun and thought, you know, I could hop my lander for a second biome right over that crater... Unfortunately this left her unable to circularize following her second ascent.

The answer was "get out and push". Oh yeah, its cheating. But we can't simulate Bill cutting chunks off the hull and kicking them retrograde, can we?

[zarakon]

Minor exploit of infinite EVA fuel, but really not a big deal, especially since a lot of the science gathering game feels a bit exploity when you're just repeating the same thing in different biomes. If you want to clear your conscience just bring along a small round monoprop tank and pretend you're using that. 60 units of monoprop in there is enough for 12 full EVA refills.

[Prepper-Jack]

Well, wouldn't it be better to land and get access to more data via thermometer/barometer/seismograph/materials bay/goo/crew report? It's not like landing on Minmus takes vast amounts of fuel. Think I made 5 landings in one trip last night on a mid-game lander.

I mean, I suppose it's a fun thing to do - but... if you can't land it seems more an act of desperation than an exploit..

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

If you want to justify your EVA-Fuel exploit, you should take a look at the Mod-Forums. I am pretty sure there was a Mod that took the EVA-Propellant from the RCS Fuel of the Capsule.

Other than that, I dont see any exploit here.

The ones where I was near a hill and had to take off more vertically where harder

Did you try to jump first? Just kidding

Edited May 19, 2015 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[Guest]

There is no cheating in this game.

That said, EVAing down to Minmus and back up to an orbiting craft (I've done it) is hard enough to justify the "free" 190 science you got.

Technically you could walk/swim to every biome on Kerbin and get "free" science too. I wouldn't consider that cheating either

I'm with 5th Horseman on this one. If you can EVA to the surface and back multiple times without screwing it up then you deserve the science you get. If you're worried about the amount of science you receive, you can always reduce the science awards in the career options menu. I usually set my science rewards to 50%.

[Superfluous J]

Why did they add monopropellant into capsules but didn't make it to convert into EVA fuel?

To give us something to (forget to) remove before every launch.

[Wallygator]

Although it's clearly not a cheat, it is similar to flailing yourself with a cat-o-nine tails.

If the physics allows it, then someone will likely attempt it at some point. Not me. :-)

[KerikBalm]

I do it... nor do I consider it that hard once you get used to it.

What I find annoying, is that under some conditions, you can thrust while in map view, under other conditions, you cant.

The work around is to used the [ or ] key to switch to a nearby vessel, and go to map view and bring up the nav ball, then switch back.

Switching to the kerbal from the tracking station at the space center doesn't work, and you have to tap the RCS, look at map view, exit map view, tap the rcs again... and so on.

Also... I just got a contract for a surface base.... while the eva prop can be a bit tight to deorbit and reorbit... if your kerbal can get in a pod or hitchhiker container.. its super easy.

No crew shuttles from the surface for me... just EVAs

[Snark]

Heck, you think EVA-landing on Minmus is a challenge? You can EVA-land on Kerbin. From Minmus. (Or munar orbit, for that matter.)

It's not even hard-- is considerably easier, in fact, than EVA-landing in a vacuum. Just lower your Kerbin periapsis to ~45km and go get a cup of coffee. No re-entry heat, just kerplunk in the ocean and they're fine. (Just discovered this today, much to my dismay.)

Since it's a "sandbox" game (in the general sense, like SimCity), there's really no such thing as an "exploit" or "cheating." You play the game because it's fun. If doing a certain activity is fun for you, then it's serving it's purpose.

For myself: I want Kerbals to be fragile, and I want them to need spaceships. I don't want to EVA-land on Minmus (or Kerbin) because I want to have to make repeated vehicular landings and figure out all the fuel logistics around that. To paraphrase Kennedy, I play KSP not because it is easy but because it is hard... and that's the particular form of "hard" that appeals to me. So when I play, I just pretend that they only have 1.0 units of EVA fuel, and won't ever use more than that.

But that's just my own play style, and other folks enjoy different challenges. Nothing wrong with that. The only real measure is: after you pull something off, do you feel amused / rewarded / accomplished, or do you feel kinda let down? That's the only metric that matters.