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[alway]

Isn't this the game where Putnam asked for mod ideas? I think so, but regardless, here is my little mod idea anyway for anyone who can do such things.

Basically I just got the idea of a newspaper or tv program or somesuch that you can view somewhere that show's the public response to the space programs achievements.

So for example if you complete a contract to put a satellite in orbit there might be a tiny article or mention about it but landing on the Mun for the first time gets a full front page splatter.

And if you really wanna go far with it you could have the response depend on your current reputation. So while a high rep program will get a inspiring article about how awesome they are for landing on the Mun a low rep one will get a blurb about how "it was totally staged" and such.

Well there's my idea for making Kerbin feel less lifeless. Hope someone runs with it or posts about it in the actual KSP forum or something.

You could go the route of Sim city 4 and have a ticker somewhere that scrolls flavour text that's appropriate to whatever's going on, modified by your reputation.

YES

Could modify it with funds and science/tech unlocks too. Adverts for things like "Mystery Goo Shampoo: Space goo for you too!", "Rockomax Poodle Brand BBQ: Cook your hot dogs like John Carmack*!" or stories like "Penniless scientist caught pilfering lab equipment."

_{*This may be a bit obscure, but it refers to a video from when he was making liquid fuel rockets, in which they roasted their labor day hot dogs by putting them next to the test area they were flying a rocket at. So using rockets as a BBQ is something which actually happens, and not just in flavor text.}

[BigD145]

0.90 has new biomes! I totally forgot this was a thing. I waited until this year to start back up from scratch. I've just been mining Kerbin for science and money with some ScanSat and comms sats so I can go abroad.

[puke]

I've been waiting to do any serious science mining until my kerbals got to level2. 

Orbiting each body in the kerbal system accomplishes this, so I sent up a mission with all 9 of my 1-star kerbalnauts on it.  It would:

Deploy a munar commsat to a specific orbit, place a crewed station around the mun, perform a "gather science" mission, test one of those heavy dual-engine fuel tanks on munar escape trajectory, and bring everyone (all 9 of my kerbals) home with their second star.

About 100k to launch, 500k in payouts.

Landed on a moyntain slope, tipped over, both hitchhiker cans exploded.  Everyone but Jeb died, he was piloting from a lander can on top, and was shielded by a wall of ablative radial parachutes (and the coushioning explosion of all of his brothers and friends)

[puke]

Some complaints about the experience system:

First:  It only tracks a single achievement for each planetary body.  It is fine that it only gives experience for your greatest accomplishment at each location, but I would still like to see a full career record for each kerbalnaut.  Something like 5 Flights at Kerbin, 2 Orbits of Kerbin, 1 Flyby of the Mun... that sort of thing.  Even if you only get points for 1 Orbit and the Flyby, I'd like to see the history of each thing

Second:  It does not track the expereince of lost Kerbals at all.  Once they die (or presumably are otherwise lost -- like if you deleted a crewed flight or something?) all their stars and achievement history stops being displayed.

Your fallen heroes should have all their decorations!  this is a travesty!

On a related note, I've found that it doesn't matter to my how many white-shirts meet their end in the service of !!Skience!!, but if any of the three original stooges are lost I have a /strong/ urge to restart the career.

[BFEL]

You think those are issues with experience system?

What about the Engineer Master Race problem?

I.E. Pilots are useless once you get probes that can do their job, and scientists are useless once you unlock everything (or just in general, seeing how much faster it is to just throw money at science)

Basically, late game the only kerbals who matter are engineers.

[puke]

Well, the science thing isnt an issue for me since I tend to get bored and restart once I unlock all the science anyway.

And as for Pilots, I play with remote-tech and it is neigh-impossible to land on a vacuum planetoid or pilot an aerodynamic craft over a high-latency connection.  I guess you could just bring a remote control station into the local area, but for some reason flying is more fun with Pilots.

I'm not sure what you could ask scientists to do besides gather science points... maybe working towards some sort of achievements by having high ranking scientists run every experiment on every biome, for completionist types?  What about scientists generating funds through 100% research-to-funds policies?  That adds some value if you are making a habit of launching extravagantly expensive rockets.

[BFEL]

Well I AM making a habit of launching extraordinarily expensive rockets

I would imagine for the scientist thing that maybe they could do something like Interstellar does, where you "upgrade" already unlocked parts with sweet magical science to make it better. And you have to do that for every iteration of said part. Or something.

I DON'T play with remote-tech and thus have no idea how to make pilots not redundant after you science a bit.

[puke]

Well with RT you need a nearby crew to remotely pilot a probe, otherwise you have a large delay if the probe is some light-seconds or -minutes from the control center... but nothing says that crew could not be a crew if engineers with their own probe piloted ship.

In an age of self-driving cars and drone warfare, I have to wonder what if anything will keep real pilots relevant.

In terms of game balance, it used to be that if you wanted a surface sample or a flag planted, you needed to crew the ship.  I'm not sure what could make pilots relevant now, except that they can still perform that function for some weight and cost savings on a single-kerbal ship.

Otherwise, I think you'd have to give them a special EVA ability (maybe something like navball/map/SAS use with jetpack?) Or you'd have to nerf probe cores.

[BigD145]

I DON'T play with remote-tech and thus have no idea how to make pilots not redundant after you science a bit.

Pilots keep your part count low when going out beyond Duna. Solars are less efficient out there and batteries are parts. High part counts eat fps.

[BFEL]

I DON'T play with remote-tech and thus have no idea how to make pilots not redundant after you science a bit.

Pilots keep your part count low when going out beyond Duna. Solars are less efficient out there and batteries are parts. High part counts eat fps.

Ah, this is one problem I'm NOT going to encounter. I use Interstellar, which gives me access to fission/fusion/antimatter generators that make concerns about electricity absolutely moot.

[Graknorke]

Probes can plant flags and take surface samples now?

[Glloyd]

Probes can plant flags and take surface samples now?

Wait, what?

[Graknorke]

Probes can plant flags and take surface samples now?

Wait, what?

In terms of game balance, it used to be that if you wanted a surface sample or a flag planted, you needed to crew the ship.  I'm not sure what could make pilots relevant now, except that they can still perform that function for some weight and cost savings on a single-kerbal ship.

I don't know either.

[BigD145]

I DON'T play with remote-tech and thus have no idea how to make pilots not redundant after you science a bit.

Pilots keep your part count low when going out beyond Duna. Solars are less efficient out there and batteries are parts. High part counts eat fps.

Ah, this is one problem I'm NOT going to encounter. I use Interstellar, which gives me access to fission/fusion/antimatter generators that make concerns about electricity absolutely moot.

For a couple years, yes.

[BFEL]

I DON'T play with remote-tech and thus have no idea how to make pilots not redundant after you science a bit.

Pilots keep your part count low when going out beyond Duna. Solars are less efficient out there and batteries are parts. High part counts eat fps.

Ah, this is one problem I'm NOT going to encounter. I use Interstellar, which gives me access to fission/fusion/antimatter generators that make concerns about electricity absolutely moot.

For a couple years, yes.

The smallest fission reactor/generator combo is 62cm, outputs roughly enough power to run an entire city of ion engines, and can easily last upwards of TEN YEARS.
How many missions do you go on that last longer then TEN YEARS?
Answer: NOT FUCKING MANY!