Way to skip Kerbin exploration?

[fommil]

Getting Science points for exploring your own planet is kinda annoying for me. I find these initial point-farming tasks actually take away from the awesomeness of the game.

Is there any way to remove the points awarded for kerbin biome/situation data retrievals? And bump the amount of points awarded for low/high/orbit data collections instead. That would be much more rewarding.

[LordFjord]

Do some Mun / Minmus flybys, with some science equipment + EVA from orbit that should be able to get enough science points to unlock stuff where you can actually land on both bodies.

From there, things should be easy again.

It is not too hard to build some lowtier rockets that can do this.

[technion]

There's no reason you have to hit all Kerbin's biomes. I don't enjoy it - I did one polar landing, and one grasslands, and had enough at that point to concentrate on the mun.

[Pecan]

Remember that big changes and development to career mode are promised for version 0.24 - it probably isn't worth you tweaking and setting-up too much for the current version.

[asb3pe]

Remember that big changes and development to career mode are promised for version 0.24 - it probably isn't worth you tweaking and setting-up too much for the current version.

Does anyone have anything I could read on the proposed upcoming changes? I'm new to the game and didn't know this, although obviously I'm hoping for more to come - most especially I think they need "real" re-entry physics most of all. Is that coming in 0.24?

P.S. Yes I do know there are mods out there for "real" re-entries... but since I'm new I've decided not to get into any mods yet, I want to learn the "vanilla" game first.

[Taki117]

I don't farm Kerbin Biomes at all. (It won't stop me from doing science if I land in one though) My first mission is a "Capsule and Suit functionality test" where I sit a capsule on the pad, do a crew report. then get out, take a surface sample and EVA report from the pad and then just off the pad, and do an EVA report while hanging on the ladder (It counts as flying over) after that I have enough tech to make a Sub orbital rocket capable of making High orbit (250km) which is mission 2, and mission 3 is my first orbit where I do lots of EVAs over all the biomes on the Equato rand then land.

[asb3pe]

I'm following the Scott Manley tutorials on youtube and he skipped all the biome science without any apparent troubles in career mode. Every episode he's unlocking a new high level with his career points, and he also is showing the apparent strategy - you should focus on unlocking new scientific experiments which means your points keep piling up at an increasing rate. I'm on episode 8 now, at the end of each episode he takes the points he earned during it and spends them to unlock a new level, then the next episode is a mission using some of the newly unlocked items.

Skipping all the biome science doesn't seem to be slowing Scott down at all, and he does mention that the science is there and available if you need those few extra points to unlock a new level, that's probably where a small "side mission" to a biome could come in real handy. Kinda like reserve points for when you really need a few of em.

[Superfluous J]

Check out The Celestial Body Science Multiplier Editor. Set Kerbin to 0 multiplier and bam, no science.

You may want to give yourself at least 5 science to start though unless you think you can get to Minmus and back with the handful of teir-0 parts you're given at the start

(I just re-read your first post, and you want low/high/atmo stuff. I think that mod won't do that but you can set all surface and splashed to 0 which does 90% of what you don't want).

Edited June 8, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[Pecan]

Does anyone have anything I could read on the proposed upcoming changes? I'm new to the game and didn't know this, although obviously I'm hoping for more to come - most especially I think they need "real" re-entry physics most of all. Is that coming in 0.24?

The devs discuss such things in the "Announcements" and "Daily Kerbal" sections of this forum. Career mode is set to get a contracts system and money, meaning what you do and why will be about much more than just grinding science to get parts. I don't know of anyy other planned features for the game because I don't keep up with it all the time; I'm happy to wait to see what we actually get, not what was planned :-) As far as I'm aware though, there have been no announcements about changing the aerodynamics, including re-entry.

[ThermalShark]

The thing i hate the most about the current science is that EVA reports from space are biome-based. It is stupid to spend 20 minutes in Mun orbit, getting your kerbal out of the capsule each 10 in-game minutes, hoping you will be over a different biome each time.

There are also too much biomes in all bodies (that have them). Squad did this because otherwise there would not be enough science, but the way to fix this is not to add more biomes, because that turns science into a boring grind: land, get science, jump to another biome, get science, jump...

Instead, science should be time-based. With current science, stations, bases and even satellites are completely useless*. The key to making good science rockets is to make them get the most science in one go, but there shouldn't even exist a 'go'.

*Fuel depots not included. I don't consider them "stations" or "bases", as the only thing they need to have is fuel tanks and docking ports. That is a lot different from the ISS, for example, which is pratically made of labs.

[WanderingKid]

You can easily build a Mun/Minmus/Return Orbiter with two "systems check" command pods on the runway/launch pad/KSP and a single tank/engine/Command Pod bird to poke at shores/ocean/grasslands nearby. Takes a whole 15 in game minutes, cracks open the separation components, struts, and whatnot you'll want for your first serious liftoff.

That trip can easily get you a solid amount of science if you polar orbit Mun, Minmus, and Kerbin (on the way back, or liftoff at 0 for initial) and EVA the biomes during orbit. With wise electrical usage you can even grab most, if not all, of your crew reports too.

[Lanzfeld]

I made another thread on this very topic.

The absurd part of getting science from the grasslands/highlands/icecap/etc. of Kerbin is you could just drive there in a car to collect science. Not launch and land a rocket!

[Dire_Squid]

I made another thread on this very topic.

The absurd part of getting science from the grasslands/highlands/icecap/etc. of Kerbin is you could just drive there in a car to collect science. Not launch and land a rocket!

>drive a car to the icecaps/desert/badlands

Good luck not falling asleep in your chair.

[cantab]

Bear in mind Kerbin's surface already has an extremely low science multiplier, just 0.3. The atmosphere is better at 0.7, and orbit is 1. But then make Munar orbit and you're getting 3 times the science.

With that in mind, it shouldn't be hard to complete the tech tree eschewing science from Kerbin's surface and atmosphere. You can certainly make space with the tier 0 parts, even if you don't exploit explosive decoupling.

[Lanzfeld]

>drive a car to the icecaps/desert/badlands

Good luck not falling asleep in your chair.

Riiiiiiiiight.

[Superfluous J]

The absurd part of getting science from the grasslands/highlands/icecap/etc. of Kerbin is you could just drive there in a car to collect science. Not launch and land a rocket!

No, the absurd part is that if you think about it, to recover that rocket they'd have to send some sort of vehicle out there. Why not just skip the whole rocket part and have the guy driving the recovery vehicle take a surface sample?

[Dire_Squid]

Riiiiiiiiight.

You're the one suggesting slow, ridiculous ways of getting science on Kerbin. Don't scoff at me.

Suggestion: Make a lab-truck mod and make us BOTH happy!

Edited June 9, 2014 by Dire_Squid

[Lanzfeld]

You're the one suggesting slow, ridiculous ways of getting science on Kerbin. Don't scoff at me.

Suggestion: Make a lab-truck mod and make us BOTH happy!

No... what I was saying is what 5thHorseman said......but he said it better. The whole idea is absurd that there are not Kerbals in these biomes already to collect samples and do science. Kerbals inhabit the planet already. If I live at the Cape and I need samples from Denver I just have my Denver crew collect them and Fed-EX them to me. I don't mercury-redstone a mission to Denver.

[wasmic]

No... what I was saying is what 5thHorseman said......but he said it better. The whole idea is absurd that there are not Kerbals in these biomes already to collect samples and do science. Kerbals inhabit the planet already. If I live at the Cape and I need samples from Denver I just have my Denver crew collect them and Fed-EX them to me. I don't mercury-redstone a mission to Denver.

Mercury-Redstone: now as a verb!

[cantab]

If you really want to rationalise it: what matters is not what you learn about the biomes on Kerbin, but what you learn about how the science instruments (and the astronauts) behave after having endured a rocket flight.

[Claw]

...and to remember that it's just a game.

When building/testing bimes, it's probably easier to start with that planet that the rockets come from, then build out from there.

Besides, biomes on Kerbin give you something to do with those fancy airplane parts. Even if it's too late in the science tree to make the low science points helpful.

[iStickyDuck]

With enough practice, you can get to orbit around the Mun with the starter parts. If you are new, then Kerbin is the only way forwards

[allmhuran]

Heck, with enough practice you can research the whole tech tree on your first starting parts launch. The question is how patient you're willing to be regarding your ship construction and your orbital dynamics.