Rid of the tech tree! Rid of pointless contracts!

[Shaun]

I love KSP, and finally career and science makes playing the game worth something, however I find the current tech tree system appalling, and those pointless contracts are so annoying; declining one spawns a new pointless contract...

So here are my suggestions for unlocking parts (kind of a war thunder system):

1. All locked parts show up as faded in VAB/SPH

2. Mousing over a part brings up info and tab on bottom says 'Research'.

3. When clicked, all available science will be put towards unlocking the part.

4. Once enough science has been put into a part, there becomes an option to 'buy' the part.

5. Buy the part, part unlocked.

Research and development:

The tech tree goes and instead a list of unlocked parts is present. Additional science can go towards improving parts. Here's a list of what they could be;

Engines; increase in thrust, ISP or max temperature, or decrease in mass.

Fuel tanks; slight increase in max fuel load, or decrease in empty mass.

Cockpits, Pods, SAS; more torque or lower power usage.

Monopropellant; higher ISP, tanks hold more or weigh less.

Aerodynamics; increase in lift.

Air intakes; more air flow.

Science parts; increase in transmittable amounts, less power usage etc.

Wheels; higher speed before breaking...

Of course these improvements would be very expensive requiring science and money. Must research and buy each improvement.

Contracts:

Before career mode came about, a certain mod called Mission Controller Extended gave so much meaning to the game; Several first launches into space before science missions, manned missions, docking, landing, and even crashing probes into surfaces. Now it's just a case of 'get to orbit', 'land on mun' and it's just terrible with testing parts at altitudes and speeds... I want contracts for Geostationary satellites, comsats, science sats, space stations and docking, colonies where you have to have a certain amount of kerbals on a planet or moon, and missions to expand, resupply, return kerbals to Kerbin...

Currently I find myself launching things to space for no reason, but KSP has massive potential, and the keyword here is immersion.

[Kerbal007]

Supported. Science seems a bit redundant if can collect alot just by getting to minmus. Would love to see more enjoyable parts tests like crash a kerbal into eve or something, or In the name of science send a kerbal on a one way trip to kerbol

[Wallygator]

Yup. I also suggested this in a separate tread. I support this.

[Red Iron Crown]

I dislike the idea of upgradeable parts, makes it hard to tell how a ship will perform just by looking at it. I prefer unlocking of more sophisticated parts instead.

More granular unlocking of individual parts seems like a good idea.

[CaptRobau]

Supported. Science seems a bit redundant if can collect alot just by getting to minmus. Would love to see more enjoyable parts tests like crash a kerbal into eve or something, or In the name of science send a kerbal on a one way trip to kerbol

Getting all science points without going beyond Minmus is simply a result of the lack of biomes. Since they just have three bodies with biomes, either they nerf all experiments and make it work for Kerbin's SOI correctly but make it not worth going to biomeless bodies or they do it the other way around (as it is now) and make Kerbin overpowered, but biomeless planets won't be as useless. With biomes coming for 0.90, they can balance it out once and for all and make getting all techs require some planets for you to visit.

[Wallygator]

I dislike the idea of upgradeable parts, makes it hard to tell how a ship will perform just by looking at it. I prefer unlocking of more sophisticated parts instead.

More granular unlocking of individual parts seems like a good idea.

I would propose that part are NOT upgradable, but rather that the "reliability" of parts is increased by research and by testing.

[Dodgey]

I would propose that part are NOT upgradable, but rather that the "reliability" of parts is increased by research and by testing.

How do you have reliability without random failures?

[Technical Ben]

Getting all science points without going beyond Minmus is simply a result of the lack of biomes. Since they just have three bodies with biomes, either they nerf all experiments and make it work for Kerbin's SOI correctly but make it not worth going to biomeless bodies or they do it the other way around (as it is now) and make Kerbin overpowered, but biomeless planets won't be as useless. With biomes coming for 0.90, they can balance it out once and for all and make getting all techs require some planets for you to visit.

This. Once the game is past feature complete, they can balance a little. So that each part will have a rough science requirement to a rough planet/moon visit. That way progression will be a bit more fluid. The best option is to make the simple things "easy" to get, and make the more exotic/powerful things need more science (so return trips) rather than low science (that can be spammed by a minmus visit).

[Alshain]

Sorry to say it's a bit late in the game to be ripping out massive features like the tech tree. I give this a 3% chance of actually happening.

[Wallygator]

How do you have reliability without random failures?

Probabilty?

[Pthigrivi]

You mean the probability of it randomly failing?

And relax. There will be more and better contracts. They're just roughing out the mechanic. Also you don't have to do all the contracts. Just pick the ones you like and do them. I hardly do any part test contracts, I just design for the big missions and if a part test happens to coincide I sign it.

[Shaun]

Problem with the tech tree is the player's limited choice to choose what to unlock when. Perhaps the part improvements is a bit far but if players could unlock parts when they want, I bet most rocket builders would buy the small cubic struts pretty damn early.

The advantage of choice creates diversity in order of unlocking; some players will opt for big, power rockets with dozens of boosters to get 15 kerbals into space, while others would opt for sending small unmanned

missions into deep space.

[Dodgey]

Probabilty?

It is still RNG which is the issue.

[prophet_01]

I'm just not happy with the current layout of the tech tree. Aside from that I'm fine with it. The part unlocking feature added the depth I wanted.

What I would like is a seperate tech tree for advanced players. Parts could be spread more on a biger number of nodes, which increases the total amount of points for the tech tree and forces you to build up strength and weakneses for specific technologies. I would also like to have the basic plane parts and the battery pack (for life support mods) unlocked a lot earlyer. It would support a more historic progression, but that's more of a personal preference

The contracts just need some polishing. But since we don't even have upgradable buildings and aerodynamics yet the final balancing would be rather pointless atm. Play FAR and go for a srb approach (no gimbal). you will see how much of the price is determined by tail fins. Also SSTO's will require balancing at that point.