Rebalancing needed

[Myslius]

*Science from space contract needs rebalancing (rethinking)

*Boosting science from money is OP (around 10 times)

I do play on hard mode: "Science from space" contract gives 22k$ and 1 science. Heres the thing: you can build early game bullet (costs 2k$) with: thermometer+antenna+probe+2solid fuel boost engines+separator. By going directly up, you reach a speed of 2800m/s at 50km altitude, also you can time warp to do it faster. It takes about 15-20 seconds to complete this mission from launch! Including measuring temperature and sending a report.

After you complete this contract, it's possible to "respawn" this mission again (endlessly). To do that you need 1) go to contract center 2) map 3) contract center again. (no need any time warping)

If you have science boosting from money enabled, you can earn 70 science per launch. Or somewhere 5000 science points in an hour. Basically in 3 hours of such "playing" theoretically it should be possible to research everything and upgrade almost/every building (hard mode). Doesn't seem right.

Surely, i haven't tried it tried to do it for 3 hours, because it ruins the game, only did it for like 30 times in a row, but i think the problem remains. Anyone willing to "play" for 3 hours to confirm?

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Some other things that i would like to see in game:

#1 In-game parts editor.

#2 Resources extraction: how about, extracting some metals and building ships from it? Maybe even ability to build ships anywhere you like (if you have a factory)

#3 Colonisation parts.

#4 Delta v info panel from building upgrade.

#5 How about Kerbo women? Right now, crew for colonisation are like: bill and bob

[Myslius]

Oh and almost forgot one more important thing: When you dock a ship, or a station, only 1 connection is made, you should be able to make multiple connections, same applies to ship building. Basically you can't create closed loop, this highly limits creativity. From programming point of view: atm, the structure of parts is a tree, it should be a graph.

vs.

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Ah, #2,#3,#4,#5 are in not to suggest list. I understand now... you have others works to do.

Edited January 8, 2015 by Myslius

[vexx32]

Er, actually, you can dock multiple ports like you're suggesting. It's not really a true graph structure, though; the additional docked ports have a connection that really is more similar to how struts work in the code, but it's a closed loop for all intents and purposes.

You do, however, have to be quite precise to make it work, so it might take a couple of attempts to get it right.

You can't do it in the editor, though. If you want to do that, you'd need to line it up just right in the editor with docking ports placed either side of the gap you want to bridge. Upon loading the craft, the pair of docking ports should close the loop.

[prophet_01]

Er, actually, you can dock multiple ports like you're suggesting. It's not really a true graph structure, though; the additional docked ports have a connection that really is more similar to how struts work in the code, but it's a closed loop for all intents and purposes.

You do, however, have to be quite precise to make it work, so it might take a couple of attempts to get it right.

You can't do it in the editor, though. If you want to do that, you'd need to line it up just right in the editor with docking ports placed either side of the gap you want to bridge. Upon loading the craft, the pair of docking ports should close the loop.

Interesting, I've done that a couple of times and wondered about how it works. Thx for clearing that up.

on topic: yep, it is overpowered. My suggestion for an easy fix: you have to complete another 2 contracts before the next gather-science spawns. That would force you to do other stuff. Maybe it's even a good idea toinclude plant-flag in that mechanic. Thoughts?

[vexx32]

Well, it's one way, but that feels a bit more like a bandaid-fix than anything else, so to speak.

Re: the Admin Building's Money -> Science strategy, I agree it is /entirely/ OP. I completed one Minmus sat contract with that strategy active at 50% effectiveness, and I suddenly had 2k science, upfront. Similarly, a single 'build a station in solar orbit' contract garnered 5k science. I have more science than I can use, quite literally, because the cost of upgrading the R&D facility is so out of balance with science gathering.

[prophet_01]

Yeah i've noticed that imbalance aswell, at least in mid game (hard settings). Many contracts give way too much science atm. Most of them should permanently give a reduced amount of science if you repeat them, too. You are not going to get that much new data from doing the same stuff over and over again.

I know it's not an eleagant solution, but I don't rly see that many options tbh The timewarp mechanic makes everything cooldown related usless, unless upkeep costs were included and I'm not a fan of that either... And reducing the amount of money gathered for each return is poison for all efforts to get back on your feet after a huge failure.

How about this? If you do the same type of contracts over and over again theire payment will be severely reduced, like 50%. And the payment will only get back to normal/profitable if you do a number of other contract before accepting one of that kind again.

Edited January 8, 2015 by prophet_01

[BudgetHedgehog]

Science from orbit around X shouldn't reward any science at all and for it to trigger successfully, the science transmitted must be a non zero amount. When there is literally no more science to get from orbit around any X or Y, the contracts should stop appearing. You don't need them any more (already got the science) and there are many other ways to get money by the time you exhaust every single orbital science available.

That's my opinion on balancing them.

[SmashBrown]

I tend to convert a lot of my science into rep and money because of this.

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Science from orbit around X shouldn't reward any science at all and for it to trigger successfully, the science transmitted must be a non zero amount. When there is literally no more science to get from orbit around any X or Y, the contracts should stop appearing. You don't need them any more (already got the science) and there are many other ways to get money by the time you exhaust every single orbital science available.

That's my opinion on balancing them.

+1 to this idea also.