Transmission destination

[ohlookabirdie]

i didn't see this on the already suggested list so i hope im not repeating what someone else has said.

I think it would be good if you could choose where to transmit science data to, like either to the space center to add directly to your science, or to a space station/satellite with a the lab part on it so you can boost the science score from it a bit, and help negate a little bit of the lose during transmission.

[BudgetHedgehog]

But.. if you transmit to a science lab to boost transmission value.. you've already transmitted it.. Which means that to take advantage of the boosted science lab value without a science lab onboard, there'd have to be no loss during transmission to it, which this raises the question of 'why would you ever do anything else?'. Just put a lab into orbit around wherever you are and go down to the surface and transmit away with the bonus of being lighter and still getting the science lab boost. It removes the need to dock and everything (except for the goo and SciJr)..

Part of the point of losing some value during non-lab transmission is that it's more beneficial to Science if you boost it with a lab - but to not make it OP and too easy, you have to either carry the lab round with you or rendezvous and dock with it to take advantage of it.

[Capt Snuggler]

personally I think the whole transmission system needs a re-work. something kinda like Remote Tech but maybe a bit friendlier or more intuitive.

maybe some transmitters work better in atmosphere but are narrow band and are slow to transmit, while others work better in a vacuum and are wide band, or something like that. you should have to have communication relays too. transmitting through the planet is kinda wrong.

this would give reason to have more satellites and launch more rockets = a good thing.

[Sky_walker]

personally I think the whole transmission system needs a re-work. something kinda like Remote Tech but maybe a bit friendlier or more intuitive.

(...)

this would give reason to have more satellites and launch more rockets = a good thing.

+1.

Preferably it should be something that you don't need to worry about as long as you stay within Kerbal SoI and it's moons - but once you go further you'd need proper long range transmitter satellites.

It'd make learning curve much more forgiving.

[Kasuha]

i didn't see this on the already suggested list so i hope im not repeating what someone else has said.

I think it would be good if you could choose where to transmit science data to, like either to the space center to add directly to your science, or to a space station/satellite with a the lab part on it so you can boost the science score from it a bit, and help negate a little bit of the lose during transmission.

The idea is, once you transmitted the data, you already lost some of its scientific value. The purpose of lab module is to prepare better transmission, i.e. better quality information to transmit.

personally I think the whole transmission system needs a re-work. something kinda like Remote Tech but maybe a bit friendlier or more intuitive.

Some improvements would be welcome, such as higher level antennas transmitting to larger distances. Or perhaps even increasing the portion of science that's transmitted. But I don't really like the whole Remote Tech system with necessity to deploy "beacons" all around the place to have the space "covered" - all it is about is sending out some space junk that sits there without needing any further maintenance and obstructs the map view.

If that becomes reality, people will start asking for a feature to hide their retranslation satellite orbits from map view.

[Guest]

Full-blown RT2-style transmission networks are unrealistic and not at all fun to set up, especially the third time around. I don't think they belong in stock KSP. OTOH, a system that dealt with antenna ranges and relays would be interesting, and open up gameplay opportunities.

[Kegereneku]

Myself I'm not so interested by a line-of-sight RT2 network, it won't interesting for most to have to launch 10 satellites on very precise orbit just to never lose contact.

However I think a basic system of "transmission range" would greatly improve the game, including non-line-of-sight relay for satellite so that you can use rover without a huge antenna.

In any case the way antennas are treated now have to change.

[Capt Snuggler]

I'm not sure how it would work, but id like it if you needed some kind of orbital relay satellite. I don't think my tiny Duna rover should to be transmitting directly back to Kerbin.

[rkman]

But I don't really like the whole Remote Tech system with necessity to deploy "beacons" all around the place to have the space "covered"

Full-blown RT2-style transmission networks are unrealistic and not at all fun to set up, especially the third time around. I don't think they belong in stock KSP. OTOH, a system that dealt with antenna ranges and relays would be interesting, and open up gameplay opportunities.

Myself I'm not so interested by a line-of-sight RT2 network, it won't interesting for most to have to launch 10 satellites on very precise orbit just to never lose contact.

RT can be used with just a few ground stations on Kerbin, but then it still has a lot of network management overhead (manually setting up connections between comm sats, probes etc), and relays need multiple antennas.

The mod "Antenna Range" does away with that, and otherwise does essentially what RT does, with some options to make it harder or easier.

Having (at least) one relay sat in orbit around a body where you have landed a small probe or rover is more or less inevitable, but is not problematic. A network of relay sats near Kerbin is not necessary.

I agree it would be nice to have something like that in stock ksp.

[LethalDose]

I think it could be interesting to have transmission range tied to transmission loss. If done correctly, this could support the OP's recommendation.

For example, you could use a short range, high-fidelity (low loss) antennae to transmit data from a body's surface to an orbiting vessel. There it could be either:

• Stored and returned
  
• Analyzed and then transmitted (analysis could produce science beyond what is already lost)
  
• Transmitted for additional loss
  

Alternatively, a probe landing without an orbital support ship could simply be designed with a long range, low fidelity antenna to broadcast data back to KSC at higher losses.

This provides an easy way to get data from surface probes back to orbiting ships for return, but still has some loss associated with it, which is what I think the OP was driving at.