Reusable Craft

[Tebok]

Currently, once a craft is landed on Kerbin and is recovered, you get funds back into your bank from all the craft's parts.

I think the best way to go about this is have a folder in the parts menu where any craft that is recovered will be put there. From there you can select to save it for later use again or scrap it for funds.

If you have say a shuttle or a sophisticated lander that gets into space by being attached to rockets, once you land it back to Kerbin there is no way to get it back into space again. Your only option is to scrap it (automatic when you recover it). With the ability to reuse it, you can recover the craft, go to one of the design bays, select the craft and just add more rockets to it for relaunch. You would also require fund to re-fuel the craft and repair any damage before relaunching.

With this idea there is also the possibility of giving the craft a service history.

Another possibility is the option to 'retire' the craft which will place it in a Museum yard (A new part of the Space Center) along with the option to add a plaque with text.

This will give the game more depth, realism and make losing a craft more heartbreaking to the player, especially if it has been in service for a long time.

[SofusRud]

Assuming you kept the craft file, how is this different from what we already have? A recovered craft that's been refueled is identical to what you'd get if you scrapped the old one and bought a new one.

[Sirrobert]

You get less money the further away you land from KSC, because it costs funds to recover the craft. So the result of your suggestion would only add an extra step for those that don't want to reuse a landed craft, and do nothing for those that do (cause you SHOULD have already saved it anyway, so you can relaunch it)

[Tebok]

Assuming you kept the craft file, how is this different from what we already have? A recovered craft that's been refueled is identical to what you'd get if you scrapped the old one and bought a new one.

When NASA's space shuttles landed back on earth, did they scrap them and get a new ones with the money? No, they reused them.

By reusing the craft, you can build up history behind it and it becomes more sentimental the the player. You could see how many missions it has flown, what worlds it has visited, etc.

Would be more fun to land a craft on Kerbin and prep it for another launch rather then scrapping it.

[Sirrobert]

When NASA's space shuttles landed back on earth, did they scrap them and get a new ones with the money? No, they reused them.

By reusing the craft, you can build up history behind it and it becomes more sentimental the the player. You could see how many missions it has flown, what worlds it has visited, etc.

Would be more fun to land a craft on Kerbin and prep it for another launch rather then scrapping it.

And what is the EFFECTIVE difference between recovering and loading up an exact copy, or recovering and loading it from your 'special map'?

That's right, zero

[Joonatan1998]

If they add this they should reduce the amount of money you get from scrapping craft so that you don't get 100% even from the runway.

Support.

[Tebok]

And what is the EFFECTIVE difference between recovering and loading up an exact copy, or recovering and loading it from your 'special map'?

That's right, zero

Yes, as it stands now, there is no real difference, but if this idea was implemented, don't you think they'd make it so there was a difference?

You have to look at the bigger picture.... like I said, in terms of realism, you should have the option to reuse the craft. Look at it this way, you design a ship (Lets say a shuttle) and save it. Now you make and launch a total of 5 shuttles and you decide to give them the names of real shuttles like Atlantis, Challenger, Discovery and so on. When you land one of the craft back on Kerbin, it would make more sense to reuse it, rather than scrap it, load up another one, and name it Atlantis again.

And like I said several times already - it will give the game more depth as craft develop histories and players grow attached to the craft that have seen a lot of service. They might be just a collection of pixels on a computer screen, but people will grow fond of their craft, the same way Warcraft players grow attached to their characters and so on. Having a craft that has seen a lot of service will be more devastating to the player over a craft that is just going to be scraped at the end of its mission.

[prophet_01]

I kinda like the idea behind that although it doesn't require an entire new mechanic to do that. The current system works (I am not saying it's balanced!). A simple button in the VAB to determine it as a reusable craft would be enough to me. It could let you name the specific ship, keep track of it's acomplishments and so on. You have to select lets say at least 5 non-physics-less parts of the ship that you are not allowed to change and get an additional small bonus on reputation for each successful mission that increases with the number of missions. The recovery balance is already unbalanced, I don't want it to be worse.

Imo the thing ksp lacks right now is that I don't rly identify with my missions. I always have the same 3guys I killed like a million times before. I already do something like commitment to a certain design that doesn't change all that much over time, but I would like that to be more than just a roleplay aspect