Just started a new Career and it's great!

[Rocket Farmer]

So new career mode is great. Lots of options right off the bat with little parts that can still do a lot (broke atmosphere and survived on my 2nd flight. Could probably manage that 1st flight with some tinkering. In 2 flight I also had 230k in the bank and lots of science (100+ again easy).

But the best part was my 3rd flight. I opened up the first plane mode as I had a couple of science observations to get under 20km altitude. Usually this meant launching planes off gantrys and landing with parachutes (we used to not have landing gear early on).

Now I built a great little plane in about 5 minutes. I assumed the little Jets would be low thrust so stacked on 4 (2 by the tail and 2 under wing). Boy was I wrong. 300m/s+ easy at the surface and huge range (only burned 5% of my fuel on a 50km flight including landing on the island runway for laughs. Short landing, quick turning etc.

It's nice to see they don't cripple you early game. Really enjoyable play.

[Norpo]

Out of curiosity, what difficulty are you playing on? I'm assuming normal or easy, i'm playing on a custom difficulty (mid-way between moderate and hard science/funds wise), and I'm also enjoying the progression so far (just made first orbit), It feels like career mode has gotten better, but I haven't gotten past early game yet so I can't say anything about stuff past that.

Hopefully contracts for space stations/bases feel better now that they're more "expand existing space station" rather than "build another one even though we already have 50 of them".

[Just Jim]

I with you all. I'm about a week (game-time) now into a new career (moderate-custom), and just opening my tier 5 techs. In spite of the decline penalty, I think the contracts have been much better, especially the surveys and temp scans. Before you had to fly halfway around Kerbin to do some, now they're much closer to the KSC, and actually do-able.

So far so good!!!

[EBAO]

I've decided to start a new 1.0.5 career. It will not replace my massive original one, but will be a quick challenge.

I'm trying to get to the moon and back on max difficulty (no mods) as the end game. No reverts, quick saves. Lose all your kerbals and can't afford new ones... Game over.

Lost Val, and Jimbe. Forced Bill and Bob to fly a few test flights they were not qualified for. Jeb just did a dry run half way to Mun and back to test Dv, and heat shield.

Val died when an underpowered booster went off course, not enough control, seperator failed to clear pod from active rocket, crashed into ground at high speed. Design error.

First recruit Jimbe, had his pod smashed by jettisoning side boosters early flying ahead and back into the rocket. Pilot error.

Need a a bit more cash for building upgrades for larger ship. 5 failed launches. 2 KIA. Getting close.

Edited November 12, 2015 by EBAO

[WinkAllKerb'']

Before you had to fly halfway around Kerbin to do some, now they're much closer to the KSC, and actually do-able.

combining survey mission in single flight, mostly doing that too, both situation can happen: either very close to ksc or medium long range distribution ; ) (while writing that i m flying over the north pole with my science plane)

game time @ day 3, 130 mission, often done in 3 to 6 package per flight. very very relax mode and approach, only launched an unmanned core outside the atmo for now.

spaced survey distribution

close to each other and ksc distribution

Edited November 12, 2015 by WinkAllKerb''

[Mister Spock]

Glad to hear you guys are enjoying it. Can you comment on the new contracts more generally? Are you enjoying them?

[Streetwind]

I'm very pleased with the more clear distinction between contracts and passive milestone achievements, and the greater varieties thereof. Largely because it is reminiscent of a suggestion I made a few months ago I'll probably never know if Arsonide and the KSP team drew inspiration from it, but even if they didn't, the fact that their thoughts went into the same direction already feels very validating.

Now all we need is a better way to display milestones in the UI... which the suggestion post also deals with... and the Unity5 UI rework is currently underway. Who knows what we might end up with?