What was your hardest KSP career?

[Kyrt Malthorn]

I'm not usually much of a challenge seeker.  But even so, the incredible successes of NASA, the Russians, and the bright future of other space programs inthe face of difficulty can be inspiring.  The more I learn about the perils of space travel, the more impressive it gets.  And it makes me want to be bold in my Kerbal career games, sometimes!  I've seen a lot of ways to make things harder on onesself in pursuit of realism or raw challenge.  I recently started a stock gameplay career on Hard mode.

What about you?  Tell us all about YOUR most daring, most teeth-grinding, most successful hard career!

 

Or if you like taking it easy, just check out what we crazy people do to ourselves.  

Edited February 21, 2016 by Kyrt Malthorn

[the_pazter]

I'm just more of a Sandbox guy

[Evanitis]

I also constantly think of ways to make a hard career game. Though I feel the stock 'hard' setting doesn't really make the game hard, just grindier, so I'm trying to be creative.

In 1.0.4, I had a horizontal launch only career. That was pretty fun, though once I got to the Mun, unlocked turboramjets and made a design that could get a lander with 3.6k dV to orbit I felt I'm done with the hardest part and lost interest with the rest.  But I wonder how would it be today with the Junos and Panthers around.

The current career I'm playing is the very first one for me without reverts and quicksaves. Though I'm using KCT for it's simulation mode. I detailed the rest in another post:

On 2016. 02. 20. at 7:35 AM, Evanitis said:

I took control, and kinda' ditched the funding system altogether. Started the game with 30-30% gains. (That's abysamal - I think the 'hard' preset has 40-40%) On 30% payouts from the start, a mission needs to be really efficient to even turn a profit. Taking 8 tourists to orbit with 30 parts... damn, that was challenging. It brought 50k profit (minus simulation costs - 100 funds/safe test-launch is a -lot- in these circumstances). BUT I add my own rewards. About a minor tech-node for minor contracts, and a building upgrade or an expensive node for complex, multi-contract missions.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Evanitis

[Kuansenhama]

Twas' my Uuuokozetistan Space Program. I actually documented some of the missions on a thread in the mission reports thread *nudge nudge*. Hard Career with no quickload/reverts. Managed to never lose a kerbal despite a couple of really hairy situations. Had bases on the Mun and Minimus. I had just stranded Jeb and two others on Duna with just the command pod and landed on Ike when the save file. I had probes at Dres and Eve and one on the way to the Joolian system. Then all my contracts disappeared because of a glitch and I threw my computer in the air and gave up.

Uuuokozetistan space program will fly agian in 1.1. Next time we plan on using fewer Misplaced Odd Device Schematics, or as we like to call them around here, M.O.D.S. And maybe our lawyers won't take away all of our contracts.

Next time I might adjust the science and funds rewards to make getting the higher teir space center facilities a little less grindy. Always had too much science and not enough money.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

1 minute ago, Kuansenhama said:

Then all my contracts disappeared because of a glitch

That happened to me too! I'd gotten back from docking another module to my Minmus station (as part of a mining mission contract I'd spent hours working on) but got back and the contracts were gone. I got them back by reloading a prior quicksave.

[Kuansenhama]

Just now, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

That happened to me too! I'd gotten back from docking another module to my Minmus station (as part of a mining mission contract I'd spent hours working on) but got back and the contracts were gone. I got them back by reloading a prior quicksave.

I guess the moral of the story is... there is no moral. It just sucks. Did you have contract configurator or stock?

Well I was playing on hard so no Quickloading. The worst part was I kept thinking I should make a copy of the save file anyway in case something bad happened to it, but I never did. I don't like to let things like this get me too upset though, so I just figured I'd play some sandbox until 1.1 comes...

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

Just now, Kuansenhama said:

I guess the moral of the story is... there is no moral. It just sucks. Did you have contract configurator or stock?

Well I was playing on hard so no Quickloading. The worst part was I kept thinking I should make a copy of the save file anyway in case something bad happened to it, but I never did. I don't like to let things like this get me too upset though, so I just figured I'd play some sandbox until 1.1 comes...

Just stock contracts.
But yeah, losing contracts and not getting them back... that sucks :/
I'm the type who upgrades mission control to the max and accepts every single contract that comes my way

[Kuansenhama]

2 minutes ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

Just stock contracts.
But yeah, losing contracts and not getting them back... that sucks :/
I'm the type who upgrades mission control to the max and accepts every single contract that comes my way

Enh. Its fine. I'm the type who has an astronaut complex with 30 kerbals yet has never hired a single one of them.