Sand box or Career?

[LoSBoL]

6 hours ago, regex said:

Sandbox or science mode. I stopped playing career a while ago, it's just really bad all around. I like to actually direct my space program and do interesting missions; career instead demands that l do a ton of random, uninteresting crap first.

Sounds like KSP is pretty much mimicking real life careers here 

[regex]

Just now, LoSBoL said:

Sounds like KSP is pretty much mimicking real life careers here 

That's true. Unfortunately it's a very poor choice of design for a game.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I've been playing science mode because I find it's hard to find a balance in career that I like. Contract Configurator helps a ton in eliminating spammy and unwanted contracts though. I feel as though career has three resources that really don't matter very much once you hit the Mun and Minmus. Science mode gives me freedom with some sort of progression, both science points and now allowing Kerbal experience in SciMode in recent versions.

[klgraham1013]

4 hours ago, Ed Jaws said:

That's a great idea for a career mode.

Squad's biggest mistake when designing career mode was their complete disregard of time-based mechanics.

[xendelaar]

career all the way.

 it's a great way to learn each part you unlock and it gives a bit more of a challenge to the game.   on harder difficulty levels you really have too weigh your options like which building should i upgrade. also with the tech restrictions you're forced to think outside the box which makes everything much more fun. 

i do agree the whole random contract pop ups feels a bit uninspiring. but in my opinion it's way better than sandbox mode. i use sandbox mode sometimes for challenges though

off topic:

i would love to see more of campaign like scenarios that tells a story and dynamically adapts on the behaviour of the player. perhaps throw in a competitor if that would be possible. 

would that be difficult to code? maybe i could give it a try it myself.

Edited June 13, 2017 by xendelaar

[Alshain]

I go back and forth, but if I'm playing career, it's heavily modded.  New Tech tree, new contracts, new strategies.  It's hardly the same game anymore.  Stock career is full of nothing but tedium.  The strategies are worthless, the tech tree is badly organized, and the contracts are usually so ridiculous (in the sense that while achievable, they serve no actual research value toward a real space program or manufacturer).

I only started using Strategia recently, but I've found it to really work well for allowing me to choose my own direction while still having to be careful about that direction.  Since milestones are one time only, you don't want to run off and complete all the Mun milestones while you have a Minmus project active (you lose 80%!).  It certainly makes the game more interesting.

There are several tech trees out there.  I use CTT.

I use the contracts for the various other mods I have installed (RemoteTech, ScanSAT, etc.) as well as a few of @nightingale 's wonderful packs (Anomaly Surveyor, Field Research, etc) and that helps to mitigate any need to complete too many of the annoying contracts from stock, other than the World's Firsts (which you also have to balance with your Strategia projects).  There are lots of great contract packs out there, as long as I don't have to test an engine at 40km while traveling 100m/s.  Those part test contracts are so stupid.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Alshain

[xendelaar]

49 minutes ago, Alshain said:

I go back and forth, but if I'm playing career, it's heavily modded.  New Tech tree, new contracts, new strategies.  It's hardly the same game anymore.  Stock career is full of nothing but tedium.  The strategies are worthless, the tech tree is badly organized, and the contracts are usually so ridiculous (in the sense that while achievable, they serve no actual research value toward a real space program or manufacturer).

I only started using Strategia recently, but I've found it to really work well for allowing me to choose my own direction while still having to be careful about that direction.  Since milestones are one time only, you don't want to run off and complete all the Mun milestones while you have a Minmus project active (you lose 80%!).  It certainly makes the game more interesting.

There are several tech trees out there.  I use CTT.

I use the contracts for the various other mods I have installed (RemoteTech, ScanSAT, etc.) as well as a few of @nightingale 's wonderful packs (Anomaly Surveyor, Field Research, etc) and that helps to mitigate any need to complete too many of the annoying contracts from stock, other than the World's Firsts (which you also have to balance with your Strategia projects).  There are lots of great contract packs out there, as long as I don't have to test an engine at 40km while traveling 100m/s.  Those part test contracts are so stupid.

these mods sound really interesting! thanks for sharing them i will definitely check them out

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Career with the Strategia mod. 

It just focuses on mission types and allows you to largely ignore the contracts and just go with the Strategia objectives if you so wish.

I'm looking forward to Making History. Hopefully the touted features make stock career progression less of a grind.

Edited June 13, 2017 by T.A.P.O.R.
typo

[swjr-swis]

TL;DR: Career, for the main reason that it takes but a few clicks to turn it into science/sandbox, without the arbitrary restrictions of either of them.

When I have a KSP game running, I like having ALL the game options and space center facilities available to me, and you can only get that in a career game, whereas the other modes require you to stop and reload a different game from the main menu if you want to use/access/check the stuff they forcibly disable.

Whenever I've had a sandbox game on, inevitably I read something in the forum or I want to do a quick check of something and I get the 'Keep your sandy shoes out of R&D' or 'No contracts for you, you filthy casual' messages. Ironically, that makes me feel like it's not a sandbox at all... it's imposing restrictions I did not ask for and do not want. While with career, it literally takes just a few clicks in the debug menu to turn a running career game into a 'SandBox++': unlock all R&D, facilities and progression, add a generous amount of funds if needed, and you have all the freedom of sandbox with none of the restrictions, you can still generate and run contracts if and when you feel like, and R&D is open.

Sandbox does have benefits sometimes: it's simpler to set up for quick tests and challenges, or for testing performance-killing huge contraptions, so I do still sometimes use it for random stuff. But career mode is for all my 'actual' play and persistent universes, and for what I feel is the 'real' sandbox mode - freedom to do *anything* and everything in the game, whenever I feel like it.

[wumpus]

I'd recommend that anyone thinking about sandbox, to start in "career" and then keep applying cheats until everything is unlocked.  That way you have the missions if you want them (you probably don't) and you also get reports on science and recovery data (I'm annoyed that I can't test recovery systems in sandbox that tell me how many credits/roots returned by recovery).

I play career.  I think it is a mistake (but I started playing before science mode, so why not).  I tried the "milestone strategy" in hopes to turn the game into a "boldly go where no kerbal has gone before game", but it has some nasty prereqs and costs.  Google around before trying that method.

[GoSlash27]

Career with occasional testing in sandbox.

I find career far more challenging and that's where the fun comes from. I don't find myself grinding for cash on unwanted/ silly contracts. About the only time the game slows down for me is waiting on transfer windows.

Best,
-Slashy

[Jimmidii]

Hardcore career, unless I'm using the sandbox to design and test something (aka my simulator save)

[Kerbal101]

I play hardcore career with some modifications. I allow quicksaves because first planes with community tech tree are manned and tend to kill the crew.

I also use a mod that grants money daily based on reputation (KerboKatz DailyFunds), but I reduce the default value to 10% (around $500 daily at the start, where average contract gives $10-20K and lasts few hours).  As you probably remember, the reputation at start is zero and builds up pretty slowly. I think of it like having an additional funding from the government, which totally correlates to how successful the space program has been. Further into the career, it helps to stop relying on contracts for money (but always come to them - for fun) and work on your projects (bases etc).

On 9.6.2017 at 11:20 PM, regex said:

That's true. Unfortunately it's a very poor choice of design for a game.

Well it depends.. I got a contract to test rover wheel.. in the water, with a 5 year testing period.

A free unlock at a cost of contract slot.  

[FungusForge]

Seems like a perfect 50/50 with the community.

Sandbox player myself. Just like being able to send up whatever.

[KerbMav]

Sandbox was nice for the first years I played.

It is still good for after a big update or to test out modded parts, but Career feels a bit more gaminglishy.

[memes in space]

I mean I actually never play career. If I want to play a career type thing, I play science mode. But other than that I usually play sandbox

[Just Jim]

Almost exclusively career, I only use Sandbox every now and then if I need to test something new and super expensive.

[matthomas7]

Both, now. I initially played career but wasn't getting missions to do the things I wanted. So I went to science sandbox and did my own thing and eventually I did everything I wanted to do. Visited every planet, whether manned, unmanned, or both. Built a space station around kerbin, refueling station on minmus and Ike, and all of that fun stuff. 

Then I ran out of direction and started a new career and am about halfway through the tech tree and thoroughly enjoying it. Now i dont mind accomplishing seemingly pointless tasks, like a space station around kerbol. Although, I don't do rescue operations unless im in the neighborhood and need a kerbal. If you send them up you better be able to get them back. Your incompetence is not my problem.

 

[Bill Phil]

I play sandbox and career. Sandbox for goofing off, and career for trying to do cool things with constraints, and to just complete the tech tree for once. How did I escape the grind? Simple. Custom difficulty. Start with a lot of money, enough science to get your hands on certain valuable parts low in the tree, and a lot of rep. Skip the early career and get really high value contracts just in the Kerbin system. I wanted to put a base on Minmus, and while it is still waiting for the nuclear tug and propellant, I also got a contract for a Minmus base, and designed my base around the contract. I get what I want as a mission and a million funds. Doing stuff on other planets will pay quite a lot.

[Gordon Fecyk]

The list of parts and options is overwhelming to a new player. You can even see me fight through the list of things in early videos on my channel; that's me not being familiar with the parts and not knowing what fits to what.

This is why I believe Career mode on Normal difficulty is the best first start for a new player. I really couldn't get a handle on things when there were so many things to get a handle on. I did my first play-through in 1.0.5 before starting the A E K proper in 1.1.3. Once I had a handle on things, I started recognizing where they best fit together and could cause some serious damage in Sandbox mode.

If having to manage funds, buildings and such is still too much at first, maybe Science mode would be good for starting.

[Bill Phil]

3 minutes ago, Gordon Fecyk said:

The list of parts and options is overwhelming to a new player. You can even see me fight through the list of things in early videos on my channel; that's me not being familiar with the parts and not knowing what fits to what.

This is why I believe Career mode on Normal difficulty is the best first start for a new player. I really couldn't get a handle on things when there were so many things to get a handle on. I did my first play-through in 1.0.5 before starting the A E K proper in 1.1.3. Once I had a handle on things, I started recognizing where they best fit together and could cause some serious damage in Sandbox mode.

If having to manage funds, buildings and such is still too much at first, maybe Science mode would be good for starting.

Yeah. Of course now there are better tabs and of course you can organize by size, name, and so forth. As bad as it is now, it used to be a lot worse.

[XLjedi]

I find myself playing a LOT in sandbox because mid-way thru career I started wanting to dabble in the last 2 tiers of the tech tree...  figured I'd test a few things to see which tech box I might want next.  Months later, I have built all sorts of cool stuff in sandbox and can't remember now where I left off in career mode?   I think I was maybe trying to land on Minmus?

It actually has led me to want to be able to create some custom missions for career mode, and hence this post today in the add-on dev forum:

 

[DocMoriarty]

I play nearly exclusively career. The only reason i once started a sandbox after career was introduced was when i tested something for the bugtracker. For completely new users i actually recommend to start a sandbox for just trying out stuff, career can be somewhat tough until you know what you are doing.

[RW-1]

Career, but with cheats to open it up a bit so I'm not starting from scratch each time ...

I think its the enticement of points, science and rep rewards for completion.

Nothing wrong with sandbox, great for testing out stuff.

[Tyko]

What about Science mode? That's my fav because I enjoy tech progression but not budget management