Possible use for Monoliths?

[shoe7ess]

I apologize if this exact use has been mentioned, but I could find no history of it when searching this forum for this idea (I'm surprised there are as few ideas for the Monoliths as it stands).

Anyways, I love the easter eggs scattered throughout the Kerbal universe, but I think a use to the Monoliths in particular could be one worth investigating, and the idea I have follows the origin (i.e. 2001) of the Monoliths a bit closer than the ideas I've read.

Mainly, I feel the discovery, or taking it a step further, the physically touching (or jumping into I suppose) of a Monolith should benefit science only. Although various interpretations of the metaphor of the Monolith may be vast, there's no denying that it gives the being that comes in contact with it knowledge (or as Kubrick described it as an "advanced intelligence teaching machine").

Among the ideas I have for it, they are fairly limited and I'd love some input, but I've narrowed it down to two ideas. Either:

1) Touching a monolith gives a certain value of science to the kerbal (if something like this couldn't be implemented, I suppose an EVA report in close proximity to one could suffice), a fairly large boost in fact considering the source material.

Or...

2) Touch a monolith grants a free science tech point, that can be used to unlock a node in the tech tree without reducing science (rather randomly or manually). This is tricky as it could mean that the monolith could essentially be worth a ton of science, but I like the idea of a tech node unlock again because it can fit the source material.

I prefer the second idea more, however I'm not sure how it could be implemented without cause unbalance within the game. Ideas that could fix this include visiting all of the monoliths on Kerbin in order to unlock a single free tech node (five free tech nodes seems like a lot, especially if the user waits until later on in the game to accomplish this, not to mention there is one within walking distance of the KSC itself).

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[Tex_NL]

I like the way DMagic's Orbital Science does it. It treats anomalies as separate biomes that give science. It even gives missions to rough coordinates to explore anomalous signals.

[shoe7ess]

I like the way DMagic's Orbital Science does it. It treats anomalies as separate biomes that give science. It even gives missions to rough coordinates to explore anomalous signals.

Yeah I always include DMagic in my game, and I've heard an idea of integrating the anomalous signals for Monoliths into the game on another suggestion which could work, I'd just like to see this as Kerbal canon (if there is such a thing), since it was added by devs and has been a part of KSP for awhile now. Dmagic has the right idea, I'd just love to see it taken a little further.

[shoe7ess]

Another idea i have is by possibly adding small custom biomes to all the easter eggs placed by the dev, and science can be collected by atmosperic/surface experiments. It would actually encourage making rovers earlier on.

Hell i may go ahead and add that to my biome maps

Edited January 7, 2015 by shoe7ess

[StrandedonEarth]

2) Touch a monolith grants a free science tech point, that can be used to unlock a node in the tech tree without reducing science (rather randomly or manually). This is tricky as it could mean that the monolith could essentially be worth a ton of science, but I like the idea of a tech node unlock again because it can fit the source material.

I prefer the second idea more, however I'm not sure how it could be implemented without cause unbalance within the game. Ideas that could fix this include visiting all of the monoliths on Kerbin in order to unlock a single free tech node (five free tech nodes seems like a lot, especially if the user waits until later on in the game to accomplish this, not to mention there is one within walking distance of the KSC itself)

I would go with this, and make it so a given monolith unlocks a specific tech. If that tech has already been unlocked, then too bad, so sad. On second thought, that may lead to disappointment, and the game guides would definitely say "....don't forget to visit this monolith before...." So I'll suggest that a few non-essential techs can ONLY be unlocked by 'sampling' a monolith. Might I suggest LV-N's are unlocked by 'sampling' the monolith above Minmus (if it's still there)? Maybe unlock wheels at the KSC monolith?

[shoe7ess]

I would go with this, and make it so a given monolith unlocks a specific tech. If that tech has already been unlocked, then too bad, so sad. On second thought, that may lead to disappointment, and the game guides would definitely say "....don't forget to visit this monolith before...." So I'll suggest that a few non-essential techs can ONLY be unlocked by 'sampling' a monolith. Might I suggest LV-N's are unlocked by 'sampling' the monolith above Minmus (if it's still there)? Maybe unlock wheels at the KSC monolith?

I like what you're onto. Perhaps base this around the difficulty to getting to the monolith. Since the closest can literally be walked to, it would make sense that it would unlock a tech node for quicker land travel. Another idea would be giving bonus experience to a Kerbal that touches the monolith, but that wouldn't benefit "kerbal-kind" like the monolith (depending on interpretation) tends to do.

[SmashBrown]

I'd like I if there was some sort of "story missions" and your idea sounds like it would be a good fit for them.

[RainDreamer]

What do you get then when you touch

the dead space kraken on bop?

[shoe7ess]

What do you get then when you touch

the dead space kraken on bop?

Maybe extra science based on biological data of this unknown extraterrestrial species? That, or you find that it's really just sleeping, in which the answer is: eaten.