How to fix overpowered Admin cash to science.

[Talavar]

I recently posted on how OP the cash to science ratio is.. So I went looking around in the game and figured out how to fix it..

1: go into your KSP folder and locate the strategies folder.

2: open strategies folder and edit strategies CFG (open with notepad or something similar)

3: Find this strategy:

name = OutsourcedResearchCfg

4: Find these lines under it (highlighted in blue):

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

name = OutsourcedResearchCfg

title = Outsourced R&D

desc = Why do all the data-crunching ourselves when we can contract external research labs to help us process the data we receive. These services aren't exactly cheap, but their R&D facilities are very impressive.

department = Science

icon = Squad/Strategies/Icons/OutsourcedResearch

groupTag = Basic,C

minLeastDuration = 60

maxLeastDuration = 100

minLongestDuration = 1200

maxLongestDuration = 1600

requiredReputationMin = -500

requiredReputationMax = 750

initialCostFundsMin = 8150.0

initialCostFundsMax = 170000.0

initialCostReputation = 0.0

initialCostScience = 0.0

hasFactorSlider = True

factorSliderDefault = 0.05

factorSliderSteps = 20

EFFECT

{

name = CurrencyConverter

input = Funds

output = Science

minShare = 0.0

maxShare = 1.0

minRate = 0.027778

maxRate = 0.0347

// ignore income from recovery, because funds recovered were ours to begin with, therefore not income

AffectReasons = ContractReward, ContractAdvance

effectDescription = Income

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5: Change those lines by 1 decimal point (or more if you want it ridiculously hard)

So minRate = 0.027778 Would become minRate = 0.0027778

maxRate = 0.0347 Would become maxRate = 0.00347

6: close and save.. boot Ksp. (Note): I did this without already having any Administrative perks active in game. If you do, I'd shut them off before changing this (just in case))

This will change the amount you are allowed to get per mission to 10% of what it normally is. Which seems pretty balanced to me in my game.

Have fun guys!

PS: Im not responsible for anything you mess up if you do this and change the wrong stuff.. This is all on you.

Edited November 15, 2014 by Talavar

[Talavar]

After a few hours of play, It's much better, but not "perfect", anyone else tried this?

[SkyRender]

I just changed the minRate and maxRates so that science->funds and rep->funds are 10x more valuable, and funds->science + funds->rep are 10x less valuable. It's a pretty solid fix.

Edited November 15, 2014 by SkyRender

[Aragosnat]

Or an even easier approch would be. Don't use it. But, glad to see what part of the file changes what if one wants to try and create custom admin stuff..

[LethalDose]

I've done something similar, but set the variables even lower to (0.0015, 0.0025) I think. I also remove the "ContractAdvance" trigger from the conditions in the following line.

I've also reduced the modifiers from the unpaid intern program, to (0.1, 0.12)

[Talavar]

I've done something similar, but set the variables even lower to (0.0015, 0.0025) I think. I also remove the "ContractAdvance" trigger from the conditions in the following line.

I've also reduced the modifiers from the unpaid intern program, to (0.1, 0.12)

I just changed the minRate and maxRates so that science->funds and rep->funds are 10x more valuable, and funds->science + funds->rep are 10x less valuable. It's a pretty solid fix.

both good ideas, I think I'll mix them up a bit and see how it works out.

Lethal, How long have you had it set up that way? Does it balance out well?

Skyrender, I really don't use the others "Yet" I suppose I will late game though. I may just do the same.

Edited November 15, 2014 by Talavar

[LethalDose]

both good ideas, I think I'll mix them up a bit and see how it works out.

Lethal, How long have you had it set up that way? Does it balance out well?

Skyrender, I really don't use the others "Yet" I suppose I will late game though. I may just do the same.

I've only had it for a few launches, haven't even activated the strategy yet, but it doesn't seem disgustingly over-powered as has been described. I'm trying to finish off my dissertation, so I havent had a lot of play time. I'm hope to get more next month.

[ArmchairGravy]

I would like to know who is pointing a gun at you all and making you use a completely optional feature.

[Talavar]

I would like to know who is pointing a gun at you all and making you use a completely optional feature.

That makes perfect sense.. Add a feature in the game, and make it so broken that a person who actually want's to play a career can't use it.. So basically the whole administration building was a waste of time. OR you can simply change the CFG and make it not broken, and a decent feature. Change it to 10% .. then its not an in-game cheat anymore. I like the idea of having an administrative perk. However, It shouldn't speed up progression so much that you might as well play sandbox. WELCOME TO THE NEW MODE! CAREER-BOX!

Edited November 15, 2014 by Talavar

[moon80]

After a few hours of play, It's much better, but not "perfect", anyone else tried this?

Can it be converted?

[Torquemadus]

However, It shouldn't speed up progression so much that you might as well play sandbox.

It turns out that when you use very low difficulty settings such as Normal, Moderate, and Hard, the game gives you effectively unlimited resources. I applied this simple in-game fix to solve the problem.

Playing at this level slows down game progression considerably. It is still possible to use Outsourced R&D, but the start-up costs are a major drawback, and diverting more than a modest amount of income is impractical. I managed to get by on 10% commitment without hurting my finances too much.

[Talavar]

OK.. after a Day of play, I've found that the mid game missions still just DUMP science all over you.. So I scaled it back another decimal point.. so 1% of original.. At 10% it still gives you 500 science on mid game missions. So I dropped it down again and took those funds conversions to 50 science.. So early game, it's very low output mid game it gives 50 per mission, + whatever you collect on your own.. So it seems pretty good there. Mind you this is on normal mode and my conversion is 50% of funds. Hard mode would be extremely hard at 1%. Although still not impossible. If you were looking for realism in science investments, I'd say that 1% would probably about nail it on hard mode.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Talavar

[Talavar]

It turns out that when you use very low difficulty settings such as Normal, Moderate, and Hard, the game gives you effectively unlimited resources. I applied this simple in-game fix to solve the problem.

http://i.imgur.com/G0KEP9g.jpg

Playing at this level slows down game progression considerably. It is still possible to use Outsourced R&D, but the start-up costs are a major drawback, and diverting more than a modest amount of income is impractical. I managed to get by on 10% commitment without hurting my finances too much.

http://i.imgur.com/wYJd2SI.jpg

Man that is a hard-core start! lol .... I like it

[Talavar]

Can it be converted?

Could you iterate on this a bit? What exactly are you asking can be converted? If you're asking if I can scale it back more.. yes.. Already done.

[panzer1b]

I agree this needs to be officially implemented, i was just messing around, and WOW, its bloody insane, made 8000 science for a minor mission (test 2 engines on escape trajectory, both happened to be the same altitude too lol). 8000 bloody science IN ONE MISSION, unlocked the entire right half of the tech tree after this, and i only set it to 30% commitment, not exactly bad if i do say so myself!.......

I mean i enjoy campaign the bets with all stock (no modifiers on anything), makes stuff actually hard but not impossible either. Ofc its nice to be able to speed up teching, but WHY 8000 SCIENCE IN ONE MISSION?!?!

[thereaverofdarkness]

I think 100x less science is more reasonable. Getting 10% is still way too high, you'll be getting a very significant chunk of your science from the excess cash even though you're not putting much cash into it. And then if you tried to get cash for excess science, you'd be getting very small amounts of cash, not worth the large amounts of science you're giving up.