Contracts and Part manifacturers

[tutrakan4e]

What if the prices of parts go down or up depending on which contracts you accept. If you accept some sort of a Rockomax contract, the parts they sell you go down and if you fail the contract or choose a contract from another manifacturer the prices of the parts they sell to you go up.

Discuss.

[Superfluous J]

I doubt that will happen. So far, Squad has avoided making parts change based on any sort of "experience" or "reputation." There's no way to research the mass of a part lower, or the efficiency of an engine better, etc. Sure, there are tweakables but with those you're directly modifying a specific part, not changing the fundamental values of all parts in that class.

I'd like to be proven wrong, of course. Anything that gives us more to do is welcome, so long as that "more to do" is fun.

[Winter Man]

There's no way to research the mass of a part lower, or the efficiency of an engine better, etc.

Wait, what? You're talking about currently, in game, right? Because in real life that's exactly what rocket scientists are paid to do. I think it's a good idea, kind of fits in with economies of scale.

[SofusRud]

I'm all in favor of this. I think it's a clever way to make the player consider different and more varied design solutions. In a way its not actually altering the way the parts themselves work but rather a matter of incentivizing the player to use all the different tool available. As for "changing parts", I think this is an acceptable place to do it, because the economics of the parts is a career-exclusive feature.

This is of course dependent on how this is implemented, but I for one think this could be a valuable addition to career mode.

Edited July 4, 2014 by SofusRud

[CaptainTurbomuffin]

Useless until infinite ammout of bought, available parts are removed from career mode.

[SofusRud]

Useless until infinite ammout of bought, available parts are removed from career mode.

I was under the impression that you'd be charged on a craft-by-craft basis, in which the price of the craft is equal to the sum of the price of all its' parts (maybe with some unlockable modifiers perhaps?)

[Red Iron Crown]

I suspect the good captain hasn't read about the changes coming in 0.24.

[Kegereneku]

I see no reason the price couldn't probably change as production process get better, but changing their specifications would imply parts to be upgradeable, last time I tried to discuss the idea of part upgrade as a mechanism to balance difficulty it was a cluster of misunderstanding and personal attack.

[MKI]

There is a difference between making a part cheaper, thus allowing you to get more "bang for your buck" and changing the balancing of the part itself.

Adding ways to get "cheaper parts" is fine in my book, it would throw in a new strategy of company competition. For instance Rockomax parts would become cheaper if you use them more, thus your inclined to utilize their parts more often. This could add a new element into the game where Rockomax(for example) parts as a whole would be cheap by the end game, and the end game competition has better, but less used and thus more expensive parts (Kerbodyne). Same would go for the weaker parts earlier in the tech tree, such as the lv-t45 from Jeb's company.

I actually feel if this isn't implemented in one way, it should be HIGHLY considered for its addition into the stock game. This is of course if it would fit within the contract system without complicating things. As i do know when "Testing" parts for certain contracts, you get a limited amount, and if you fail with the limited amount you lose reputation. Maybe this sort of "cheaper parts contract" could only come into play once you have a stable use of the part, thus giving you reason to utilize the part MORE if you like it, as it would get cheaper over time. (to a degree obviously)

The addition of this mechanic could represent real life. With contracts acting as a way to improve production through field testing.

Finances in KSP should be the most fluid portion of the game. As it fuels the real game play, but also limits it. So creating multiple ways to play with your own funds should be of high priority. As just like real life, the biggest issue with our travels to the stars is funding.