Simulate Missions + better science

[PG123]

(Copied from my discord thread)

In KSP I always test my crafts before doing the actual mission to avoid wasting hours of my life just to find out the lander didn't have enough delta v to land. At the same time I always disliked using cheats in KSP to teleport my crafts around the solar system to test them. It just feels too close to actual cheating.

So I propose an official option to simulate your crafts! In simulation mode, you would be able to teleport and cheat but everything done in the simulation mode is only temporary. Once you exit, everything you did would be reversed/deleted.

This simulation mode could also incorporate the gathered science (assuming there will be a future science mode). The more science about the planet you have gathered the more detailed the simulation! For example, if you didn't do a scan of the mars surface yet, then the planet mars in the simulation mode would have no surface features. Just a smooth ball. And no atmosphere (or just a default atmosphere) if you didn't gather any science about the atmosphere yet.

This would encourage you to do risky unmanned missions into the unknown to gather the necessary science to do detailed simulations for your manned missions! Science wouldn't just be points. The type of gathered science would be important as well!

 

[BadSoap]

I like this idea. There was a mod for this in KSP, wasn't there? Perhaps in career mode, you'd need to buy a (super) computer to run the simulation on, and investing more in the computer as you progress would produce better simulations, and have it cost to run the sim too. So, you could start with really low-res sims that, if you cut something too fine, turn out to be wrong.

If you wanted to play a hardcore no-revert-to-launch career game, you could spend money to sim a launch first.

 

[Jacob]

I like this idea. What you mentioned about gathering science to create a more accurate simulation is really cool. It gamifies something that we have all done. I wouldn’t want to cheat to test my craft if there was an in game way to simulate it.

Next to the “launch” button there should be a “simulate” button. The sim button should prompt you to select a celestial body and scenario (i.e. Mars decent, Jupiter orbit, etc.).

There should be very low fidelity terrain maps in sim mode around a planet unless you have sent a craft before that has a radar. or like you said no textures unless you have gotten a space telescope or camera in range of the planet. Aerodynamics should be inaccurately modeled unless you have studied the atmosphere.

There are so many cool ways to implement this, and it would help gamify things.