The Great Gravoili Con

[Aristarchus]

The other day I had Gus Kerman (Operations) get on the phone with our supplier at Probododyne and order their entire stock of GRAVMAX Gravioli Detectors. A little taken back by such an extravagant order by my normally exconomical space program, the sales rep started to tally up the total bill. Just as he was about to give the quote, Gus--who can be a real hardS when he needs to be--interupted him. "By the way, you should know that we have had a shift in management philosophy at the KSC. We are now the big space agency in town and we will pay what we think is fair." With that he dropped 60% of the funds on his desk and wheeled out the detectors.

You see Bob thought that the gravioli detectors worked by amplifying the force of the negative graviolis, and by bringing enough of them together on the launch pad they might levitate. One day leading to booster free spaceflight (Jeb was horrified). Bob carefully oversaw detector placement in the VAB.

The device was moved to the launchpad and activated but nothing happened.

About this time Probododyne called and indicated they were having trouble fulfilling their other orders and wanted their instruments back. They were horrified to learn that Gus would only sell them back at full price, turning a tidy profit for the KSC.

Kerbal space enthusiasts everywhere were horrified by this abuse of power. Inquiries were launched and politians swore they would put an end to this disturbing new practice. That is, until news of an asteroid being captured and brought into orbit arout Minmus caused a wave of enthusiasm for the space program that swamped any outrage.

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Aside from this explolt, I have found that the aggressive negotiation strategy combined with science to rep is good almost to the point of being overpowered. Instead of 10:1 science to funds conversion ratio I can 500:1 for a modest 150k funds launch. Contracts late game also offer so much rep and science that I can barely launch enough rockets to keep my reputation well under the 1000 ceiling. The only problem is that it completely destroys the desire to build economical launchers in favor or outrageous bohemoths because that gives me the best value.

So how have the admin strategies changed the way you play KSP?

[Vrana]

I mostly play carrer these days and other then the inital few clicks on the building I have ignored strategies almost completely.

Exploits and lack of balance aside... They do not offer anything, as Harvester would put it, fun to me.

[quasarrgames]

I once used the funds to science strategy. people are right- it is overpowered by a factor of 3! so to compensate, i made it so that the R@d facility went on strike, and from now on i have to pay for every unlock i make.

[Norpo]

Thing is, now your reputation is tanked, and I believe I remember reading one of the devs saying (I can't remember where) that running out of reputation would be a losing condition (and even if it doesn't become one, it still affects your contracts).

Still, with this, who NEEDS contracts? You can get science with science modules (and you don't even need to do that if you've already maxed the tech tree) and this gives you funds.

I mainly avoid career since it needs balancing, so i'll just wait until they balance it out a lot, and hopefully most exploits like this will become useless (or dangerous)

[Aristarchus]

Thing is, now your reputation is tanked, and I believe I remember reading one of the devs saying (I can't remember where) that running out of reputation would be a losing condition (and even if it doesn't become one, it still affects your contracts).

Still, with this, who NEEDS contracts? You can get science with science modules (and you don't even need to do that if you've already maxed the tech tree) and this gives you funds.

I mainly avoid career since it needs balancing, so i'll just wait until they balance it out a lot, and hopefully most exploits like this will become useless (or dangerous)

True, my reputation looks like it is tanked, but I finished a contract immediately afterward that gave me 1500 rep, I am actually holding off on recovering a lot of science because I am close to the 1000 rep limit and it will be lost if I don't "spend" some first. Using this exploit I can print arbitrarily high amounts of funds for a fixed hit to reputation. Maybe if reputation was penalized proportionaltely to launch cost after a certain point that would balance it somewhat.

Once I finally manage a Tylo return mission, I will probably do what most of you are saying and mothball the Admin building until it is rebalanced. Although I have to admit I like the idea of being able to tweak my rewards to better suit my needs, which is really the purpose of the building as I understand it.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Aristarchus
Completing my thought.

[SkyRender]

This can be even more profitable at a lower reputation cost if you use the Mk3 spaceplane crew cabins. Granted, that does require some launch clamps, but the overall hit to reputation is less doing it that way. I'd guess that fixing how aggressive negotiations work is definitely on the "to-do" list, along with re-balancing the rest of the Administrative Facility strategies.

[Aristarchus]

This can be even more profitable at a lower reputation cost if you use the Mk3 spaceplane crew cabins. Granted, that does require some launch clamps, but the overall hit to reputation is less doing it that way. I'd guess that fixing how aggressive negotiations work is definitely on the "to-do" list, along with re-balancing the rest of the Administrative Facility strategies.

Your idea intrigued me, so I decided to open a new tourism wing of my space program. The crown jewel of this empire will be the Hotel Kerman. Live like your Kerbonaut heros only with more gravity! This 210m tall structure will sleep more than 850 space lovers and provides a spectacular view of the KSC even as you reach for the stars. Guaranteed to be perfectly safe as long as nobody pushes the big red "LAUNCH" button.

Oops. At least it happened before the grand opening.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Aristarchus
How do you embed an album?

[SkyRender]

Hahaha. Yeah, you generally should not build something that tall without supporting side structures, launch clamps, struts, etc.

[archnem]

I don't use strategies at all. Funds to sci is ridiculously overpowered. And conversely, all the other strategies seem to be ridiculously under-powered. For example, once I maxed the tech tree, I tried diverting all science into funds. Oh gee, thanks for all the science; have a few nickels. Oh and I don't get reputation at all. I set a 25% rep to funds strategy and it was taking 100% of rep gains (and still giving me pocket change). The whole admin building seems to need some work.

[LordFerret]

??? How do you build something that tall and get it out to the launchpad without building down into the floor of the VAB?... or is that what you've done here?

[SkyRender]

??? How do you build something that tall and get it out to the launchpad without building down into the floor of the VAB?... or is that what you've done here?

The ceiling height limit only applies to the camera. You can use Alt+click to move the entire craft from the lowest piece of the craft upwards, and then continue building well above the maximum VAB height.

[Aristarchus]

??? How do you build something that tall and get it out to the launchpad without building down into the floor of the VAB?... or is that what you've done here?

Yeah, I just pushed them into the ground as I built. It drifted off the launchpad as I went so I had to use the translation gizmo to keep it centered.