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Has anyone else not bothered with career mode?


J2750

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I do like the career mode, though I am stuck with the science, I don't have enough points earned the missions I that requested are go rescue Kerbalnaught from sun... I can barely get a satlight to the mun... No heavy rockets, don't see much of way of earning new science.... frustraiting. I am kinda at a stand still. Money flows well enough to keep my projects funding. Well off to go see if I can build a small enough ship and return from a mun orbit... :)

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I haven't bothered with it. Like Red Iron Crown, I'm used to setting my own goals and challenges, and I found having to launch a bunch of completely useless satellites or ferry around some rando Kerbal in order to fund a trip to Duna to be pretty much the most boring gameplay KSP could saddle me with. There are no elements of managing a space program to make it interesting, no budgets, no mission proposals, no higher-ups to get approval from, no salaries, etc... There's only these tiny little pre-packaged bits of artificial goal to gain money from. I'm so disappointed I haven't even checked to see if the previous paywalls are there.

If I want progression I'll play SCIENCE! mode, but otherwise sandbox is where the game is fun for me.

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The thing i dont like about career and science mode is the grindiness of them, having to do experiments again and again and again. I do much rather enjoy creating massive ships that aren't aerodynamically stable and attatching 50 trillion SRB's to them, and then seeing said boosters strewn all over the KSC. And I just dont get that sort of enjoyment out of the career and science mode.

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Sandbox here. Career just isn't my brand of whiskey. And that's one of the things that appeals to me about KSP. You can play it as you like it - sandbox, science or career. It's whatever lights your boosters.

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If i want the simulation of a space program my first port of call (usually) is the new buzz aldrin space program manager, but I see kerbal as a game to mess about making stupid ships with a stupid amount of rockets and trying to get said ship remotely close to an orbit. 9/10 i fail but that 1 time makes the whole trial and error phase worth it. And i don't think that is possible when you're held to a budget and have to complete contracts to fund your next venture.

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restarted career with every major patch since it was introduced, the grindy-ness combined with the erraticness of contracts was finally too much for me, and from 1.0 on i'm going back to science mode. i much prefer challenging myself with collecting all that science from all the biomes, at least the view changes instead of the same contracts over and over.

the 'progression and dificulty' scales much better that way too. just my 2c

- - - Updated - - -

I just wish there was something like science mode, only instead of science, you had to deal with funds.

i think there's a mod for that, it removes contracts from career, and makes science reward funds.

edit: here it is http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/102911-1-0-Science-Funding-career-mode-with-no-contracts!-%2827-april-2015%29

Edited by BobsYerUncle
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Before career mode was implemented, we all had to set our own goals and objectives. Now that some objectives are given to us, they feel a bit hollow and not overly interesting. For me, career mode just makes me do a bunch of missions I'm not all that interested in to get the science and funds to do the ones I am interested in; I just roleplay that I've flown those missions and do the interesting mission in sandbox. /QUOTE]

This is also my main problem with career.

If they made a game mode where they did away with the need to grind and unlock everything, removed the contracts which feel like they're directing the space program, (like the explore, base, station, ones, etc.) but left in the ones that add to something you couldn't do other wise(for example, the requests frm tourists,, and added another, more flexible way of getting funding, plus had long term uses for stations and bases, plus a rewarding ground exploration mechanic, that would be worth playing.

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I think the critical thing about career mode is playing it wrong. This isn't the player's fault, and SQUAD should fix it... but for the meantime, I think career is a lot more fun if you just don't get distracted by the contracts. It's tempting to take contracts and develop a Capitalist Space Program, but this just results in a loop of constant grinding. In reality, there's little need to do contracts at all - exploring places will grant TONS of funding anyways. Just go with the flow and enjoy the added limits of science and funding :)

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I think a few of you have essentially nailed the problem. I recall the Devs saying that contracts would be optional in your path to unlocking the tech tree/exploring. But now you pretty much need the contracts to ensure you're still bringing in enough funds to explore. I don't think the system is entirely broken, but needs to be tweaked. Taking most of the science out of contracts is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough by itself. Perhaps with a better Admin Building with a better support structure for repeat funding or long term contracts the system wouldn't seem as grindy.

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I tend to go for Career over a Sandbox mode for this kind of game. Sandbox is fun, but I enjoy having an extra constraint around what I can do at any given time. I have my own goals and things I want to do in the game, but having a set of other rules to follow along with my guidelines pushes towards a different kind of creativity. I would happily play a far more polished career mode that worked differently than the current version, but what we have now is still enough to make things interesting.

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I just wish there was something like science mode, only instead of science, you had to deal with funds.

That would be nice. Instead of having the 3 exclusive options now have 2 options that are inclusive and not required, and on by default

[x] Science

[x] Funds

Turning both off is Sandbox. Turning both on is Career. Turning Science on is Science. Turning Funds on would be what you want.

Instead, I would suggest you start a career game and make sure you have "automatically unlock items as you buy tech nodes" (or whatever it's called) checked. Then hack in a ton of science. Then manually buy all the tech nodes with that science until they're all unlocked. Then (and this is the most important step) back up that persistent.sfs file so you never have to do it again. :D

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I've got over 1,000 hours in KSP according to Steam, and I never really touched career mode. I didn't like the contracts, and I REALLY didn't like the idea of having to upgrade buildings when that was introduced. I always played either on career, or science hard mode when I wanted a challenge.

I started a new career for 1.0 though, and I've progressed to the point where I'm about to unlock ISRU. It's not perfect, and it's not particularly difficult, but I've actually been enjoying it a lot. I would still probably recommend that new players start on science or sandbox, but the money and contracts are ... interesting.

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This is also my main problem with career.

If they made a game mode where they did away with the need to grind and unlock everything, removed the contracts which feel like they're directing the space program, (like the explore, base, station, ones, etc.) but left in the ones that add to something you couldn't do other wise(for example, the requests frm tourists,, and added another, more flexible way of getting funding, plus had long term uses for stations and bases, plus a rewarding ground exploration mechanic, that would be worth playing.

This is the sort of game mode Id probably play, I do like the challenge of having to, say, rescue kerbals from space, or taking kerbals to space stations/bases, it would give something more to do during the lull of 'good' ideas, if the career mode had on option like this, I'm sure I'd play it more.

Edited by J2750
Capitalisation
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Select career mode.

Alt-F12 for 5 seconds.

Cheat in 300,000 funds every 30 Kerbal days. Ignore contracts.

Use "Note+" mod (or spreadsheets, paper, etc...) to keep track of goals, cheapest craft that accomplished a given task, etc.

My current setup is to build three different craft by three different "companies", designed to accomplish the same mission, launch them all at once, and then see what works best/cheapest. Even without throwing in stock missiles or BDArmory, competing with yourself helps make things more interesting. Trying to do the same thing three different ways also helps me find surprisingly efficient methods I normally wouldn't try.

PS Yes, I do attach stock missiles to competing designs on occasion...

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I like to play on the line between sandbox and career. I crank all the sliders to 1000%, basically making it a sandbox game in regards to science and funds, but I can still level up my Kerbals and do any contracts that sound fun.

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Just bought the game a few days ago and have only done the training and played career mode. It is engaging and addicting from that perspective. Every contract is something I haven't done. Getting rewarded for each milestone pulls me along and gives a sense of history of the space program (first a then B). My ignorance of orbital mechanics makes it challenging.

Overall, I'm having a blast with this game. It's among the more addictive games I've ever played.

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I like playing career, and have done since it was introduced. There's the strategic element of choosing which contracts to accept (especially at the start when you're limited) I like the challenge of having only a limited selection of parts to begin with, and again the strategy of which science nodes to unlock when. In sandbox it's far too easy to build a giant mega-launcher that can go anywhere, whereas with career you have a greater element of realism.

One thing I've never bothered with is any of the strategies. Early in the career, you don't have enough of either science, funds or reputation to trade one off against another. Later, you have plenty to go around and none of them are really worth bothering with. The only time they're useful is when you've completed the tech tree and you can trade 100% of your science for funds.

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The problem with career mode is that it often firces you to build bizzare and unrealistic crafts to perform bizzare and unrealistic missions to meet bizzare and unrealistic requirements. Real space programs don't earn money from their own missions, they get money from the government and lose it on their own missions.

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That said, career mode is great for those who want a little more structure to the game, or aren't experienced enough yet to set their own goals.

So much this. Yet still, I made it a habit to start every new version in career mode, just to see what it's like. This one seems a lot more balanced, IMO. I didn't analyse too deeply, but they seem to have cranked up the funds so that you don't have to grind as much for the building upgrades. Tier2 just happened -- by the time I needed the building upgrades, I could afford them.

As to hollow contracts: everything I don't have a mind doing is a chore, it's as simple as that. But it's truly surprising how much tourism adds to career... I'm not sure, it may be just because it's another high-paying contract at a stage where previously you had no choice but launching one satellite after the other. This gives you at least some variety where previously there was none at all.

Overall, I still think that career mode is mostly suitable as a prolonged tutorial. Which ain't bad: it provides the right kinds of challenge in the right order.

I think career could gain a lot if you were not only provided with tasks you can take or not, but could somehow affect what kind of contracts you are given. Like "we're not going to Duna, Eve or Jool in the foreseeable future, but will gladly accept missions within Kerbin or Moho's SOI". Or, god forbid, even devising your own set of goals (four-man station around Duna, landings on Duna and Ike, ..) and have the game come up with a price tag (or should it be prize tag?) for the mission you want to do anyway.

Edited by Laie
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