System Failure Kerbal Space Program Mod Planning Document Concept Version 1 By Sky Render Overview System Failure is, at its core, an expansion to the existing KSP part system to allow for more varied and interesting missions based on the potential for parts failures. In the spirit of the main game, there are no random elements to these failures, either. As well, there are ways to address part failure, including repairing and replacing parts. New Mechanic: Quality and Discounts New to Build Mode is the Quality setting. Adjust this to any percentage you like between 10 and 100%, and you will see a corresponding price change of up to an 80% discount on the stock part. However, there comes with this a price to pay: the various parameters of the part will be lower than listed once you launch. You will NOT be able to tell what these lower parameters actually are until you launch, although they are determined when you add the part to your craft. Not all attributes that can be altered will necessarily be altered. On top of this, there is now a modifier system in place for certain parameters of parts. Parts can exceed stock values for many parameters by as much as 100% for some traits, to as much as 10% for others. A 100% quality part will NEVER go below the stock values, but can have the values unexpectedly turn out to be higher. Again, you cannot know for sure if these qualities are higher than normal until after the parts have been put into operation. Discounted parts can also get these bonus modifiers. The impact of Quality on performance can be adjusted in the Difficulty settings, separately for improvements and detriments. New Mechanic: Part Lifespan Parts now have a finite expected lifespan, after which point certain components of the part will begin to naturally deteriorate. What this means varies from part to part, but one universal aspect is that the part's impact tolerance will begin to go down. Once the part has been around for twice of its lifespan, the impact tolerance will be down to 0m/s, and the part will fail completely and be destroyed. How long a part will actually last versus its predicted lifespan can vary by as much as 100%. The Estimated Lifespan value will read Unknown if a part exceeds its stock expected lifespan. Part Lifespan can be disabled in the Difficulty settings. New Mechanic: Repair and Analysis Kerbals now have two new skills: Repair Skill and Analysis Skill. Their Repair skill will allow them to fix faults in parts and bring them up to stock standards, and higher Repair skill will allow them to get closer to stock standards with their repairs and shorten the time it takes them. This skill will also allow them to make repairs to parts that are in failure state. A Kerbal will NEVER be unable to perform a repair successfully unless you choose Allow Repair Failure; it will simply take much, much longer for an unskilled Kerbal. Analysis will allow a Kerbal to assess the actual parameters of a part versus the reported parameters, and update the displayed part data accordingly. Higher Analysis skill will increase the accuracy of their prediction and reduce the time it takes to make the analysis. A Kerbal will NEVER give a less accurate prediction than the currently listed values; at worst they'll leave the data unchanged. This can be altered in settings by choosing Allow Incorrect Analyses. There are also two new parts available: Repair Unit and Analysis Unit. The former can repair damaged parts on vessels that it is NOT attached to, while the Analysis Unit can perform analysis on parts of vessels it IS attached to. The quality of these functions is, appropriately, affected by the same Quality parameters as other parts are (so a heavily-discounted Analysis Unit is probably not going to give you very good data, and a heavily-discounted Repair Unit will take forever to finish repairs; also, either one could potentially fail themselves if they exceed their operating capacity). The Allow Incorrect Analyses flag also affects the Analysis Unit, and Allow Repair Failure flag also affects the Repair Unit. Note that the Repair Unit and Analysis Unit are prohibitively expensive at 100% Quality (100,000 Funds and 150,000 Funds, respectively), and both appear deep in the tech tree. New Mechanic: Failure States and Damage Certain parts now have failure states. Scientific instruments can now become Jammed, engines can go into Damaged state, utility parts can become Unresponsive, and so forth. These are NOT caused randomly, but rather as a natural side-effect of operating outside of their parameters. These parameters are hidden and will NEVER affect an item of 100% quality. They can be revealed with the Analysis skill. A part in a failure state can be repaired by a Kerbal back to functionality. On top of this, all parts now have a damage tally. A damaged part will lose a portion of its current impact tolerance relative to how damaged it is. This can be especially devestating for very old pieces of equipment, since they will naturally have lower impact tolerances. New Parameters Parts can now feature a number of new, hidden parameters that determine how well they operate. These parameters will ALWAYS be set to infinite for 100% Quality (ie. stock-priced) parts, except for Damage. Use Frequency: How many times a part can be activated OR deactivated per minute before it enters a failure state. Use Duration: How long a part can be in Active state before it enters a failure state. Total Use: How many times the part can be activated in total before it enters a failure state. Heat Tolerance: How high of temperatures a part can experience before it enters a failure state. This is separate from the stock Temperature Tolerance value! An object can survive high temperatures and malfunction, yet still not be destroyed. G-Force Tolerance: How much G-force a part can experience before it enters a failure state. This is separate from the Imapct Tolerance value! A part can suffer a hard impact and malfunction, yet still not be destroyed. Damage: How much cumulative damage a part has taken from impacts, overheating, and use wear. As Damage rises, effective Impact Tolerance drops; at 100% damage, the part is destroyed. All tolerance values are listed as Untested for parts below 100% Quality, and can be revealed through either having a Kerbal use Analyze on the part, having an Analysis Unit perform a scan, or by reaching the tolerance limit of the part and causing a failure state via a tolerance (doing this will reveal the range of ONLY that tolerance). The accuracy of tolerance analysis depends on the skill of the Kerbal performing the analysis, or on the quality of the Analysis Unit being used.