What you do after complete the tech tree in your carrer/science save?

[Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut]

Well, basically this is the question. After complete the tech tree, you still play in the save or you just stop? And why?

[The Aziz]

There are people who complete the tech tree without even leaving Kerbin system, so...

[Francois424]

I copy my end-game parts mod into the KSP folder which unlocks those nice powerful engines (ONE can replace almost 32 nukes, how's that for parts count?)
and start designing a Mothership to explore the entire Kerbol system.
I also design some pretty wild rovers and just go anywhere I want.  When tech tree is finished, you can make some awesome crafts !
And yeah I usually manage full tech tree unlock after Mün / Minmus.  

Another reason for wanting OPM stock.  Just more stuff to do

[Agustin]

I had just completed the career save, and I was wandering this question very vividly in my mind. I clicked on All Acivity and there it was, second post. My question

[Corona688]

KSP career mode does have an endgame of sorts, "the ultimate contract", which you get offered when your reputation is really high:  Visit every single body in the system with the same craft.  I've never seen it before, but this time I plan to play it until I do.

[nascarlaser1]

2 hours ago, Francois424 said:

I copy my end-game parts mod into the KSP folder which unlocks those nice powerful engines (ONE can replace almost 32 nukes, how's that for parts count?)
and start designing a Mothership to explore the entire Kerbol system.
I also design some pretty wild rovers and just go anywhere I want.  When tech tree is finished, you can make some awesome crafts !
And yeah I usually manage full tech tree unlock after Mün / Minmus.  

Another reason for wanting OPM stock.  Just more stuff to do

which mod does that???

 

Also, I mostly end up just deleting my save and moving on to sandbox mode.

[Eric S]

It depends.  I usually have some idea of where I want to go with any given career save.  Some times (usually right after a KSP update or mod that radically alters the tech tree), it's just complete the tech tree.  Sometimes it's build a huge space station around X.  Do a mothership mission to Y.  Take advantage of some new mod I've installed.  When I reach the goal, encounter some bug that makes the save unplayable or goal unreachable, or do something so stupid that I'm offended,  I ask myself if there's any learning-related low hanging fruit left in the save, and if not, start a new career mode.  I usually don't delete them until the next version of KSP is released, as I like being able to refer back to the craft I designed in previous saves.

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I would argue that your Career game hasn't even really started until you complete the tech tree.

Once you have all the parts, why would you stop suddenly? Don't you want to use said parts?

I mean, having said that; I restart all the time mid-tree whenever there is a new patch..but that's a different sort of thing.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Urus28]

It really depends of what you like in the game. I like big rovers so I decided to launch a large mobile base to Duna with everything necessary to study the Duna system and bring my Kerbals back. One of my past ideas was to build a space line company with several space ports and transport ships.

After my big mission on Duna I will probably restart a career but with mods for colonisation and more realism, so this will require to learn a lot of new things.

[Shadowmage]

34 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Once you have all the parts, why would you stop suddenly? Don't you want to use said parts?

^^^

If KSP is 'done when the tech-tree is finished'... then I've been playing very wrong.

Or (and this takes discipline/patience), once the stock tech tree is finished.... install CTT and some of the 'Future-tech' type mods, and just keep on going.

 

38 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

I mean, having said that; I restart all the time mid-tree whenever there is a new patch..but that's a different sort of thing.

Yeah, or whenever I decide to change my mod-loadout, or whenever I develop some 'big-new-game-changing-feature' in one of my mods.  Or randomly because I took a break and forgot what I was doing in my last game.

[ARS]

COLONIZE EVERYTHING by

BUILDING BIGGER STUFF and 

ATTACH MOAR BOOSTERS to

MAKE GIGANTIC EXPLOSION all

FOR TEH LOLZ 

Edited November 30, 2017 by ARS

[Superfluous J]

When I start a new career, I have a goal. May be to land everywhere. May be to make a base everywhere. May be to complete the tech tree.

Except in that last case, I either don't actually complete the tree or when I do complete the tree I'm not at my goal so I continue toward it. In the last case, of course, I stop playing because I achieved my goal

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

When I completed my tech tree I decided it was finally time to start sending out manned interplanetary missions.

[Francois424]

9 hours ago, nascarlaser1 said:

which mod does that???

I got 2 discontinued mods as of 0.22/0.23, and really went all in back in 1.02 (I think, or was it 1.1/1.2?  I don't remember, was last November/December).  Managed to fix most of I with help from a few forum members.
Since the mod creators both went AWOL and are totally unreachable, I am not allowed to distribute it.  I also bundled together parts of a few mods I always use, and sometimes replace them when mods updates

So it's not a specific mod I can redirect you to...  They used to be "Kommit Nucleonics" ( or "FTmN Atomic Rockets" )  and "Ion Hybrid Electric Pack"  but I've balanced them tremendously so that even in the endgame other parts still have use. 
These 2 mods really cannot handle atmospheric worlds at all, especially with >0.45 gravity so I still use the vector and others.
But when I gain access to these things in end game, I can make some pretty neat Motherships (see my Jool-5 mission in Mission reports).

I also have occasional parts from NearFutureSolar, B9 Aerospace, SxT, Old Interstellar (new one no longer features the part I have), AresExploration, KAX, KOSMOS and FireSpitter.  
They obviously get broken every now and then.  1.22 took me almost 2 weeks to fix everything at about 1-3 hours a day.
So yeah my own personal repository of the stuff I use to complete missing stock parts.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Francois424

[NSEP]

I never completed a career save, but what i would so is just to have fun like a sandbox game i geuss?

Maybe explore the places i haven't been to?

[Dilli]

Tech Tree complete is usually just a means to an end, once complete I usually try:

1. Visit missing biomes

2. Build long term kerballed missions to planets to do some rovering, flying (if atmosphere) and poking any anomalies

3. Build better / new craft, or continue incrementally updating older ones

While picking up the occasional contract

[Spricigo]

I setup the strategy that converts science to reputation. Otherwise nor much of a difference.

 

[eddiew]

13 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

When I start a new career, I have a goal. May be to land everywhere. May be to make a base everywhere. May be to complete the tech tree.

Except in that last case, I either don't actually complete the tree or when I do complete the tree I'm not at my goal so I continue toward it. In the last case, of course, I stop playing because I achieved my goal

This is definitely the correct mindset for KSP, otherwise you unlock the tree in Kerbin's SoI and stop playing

That said, I do understand the OP's sense that in many games, arriving at the top tier of a research tree is accomplished quite late in the game - such that it can feel like you must be nearly finished.

My response to this was threefold:

1. Start with a low science multiplier; e.g. 20%
2. Community Tech Tree, plus some mods to deepen the tree: Near Future and SpaceY at the forefront, since these add larger and more efficient options, but also Kerbal Foundries and DMagic Science for things to do.
3. Rebalance the costs of that tree so that it's just plain harder to unlock everything, specifically stretching it out at the back. The front is untouched so the pre-Mun days don't drag forever, but the 1000-science nodes now cost 5000, and the top tier CTT nodes are a scary 24,000. This forces me to play with the mid-tier items more and I'm experiencing more of the mods I've installed because of this. Usually I breeze past the first engines from Near Future because they usually get unlocked in sync with the next tier - now I straight up drained Mars dry of all its science, and still can't afford the 2nd gen parts  

Alternatively consider the tech tree as an MMO levelling system. First you reach level cap, then you start the game  

[LordFerret]

I play a science game, have been since day one I started playing. Completing the tech tree is just the start of the game. It's that finished tree that allows me to more or less play as though it were sandbox mode... or in setting my own goals, a kind of career mode. Because of 'updates', I've completed the tree 4 or 5 times now... plus having added SCANsat to the mix. I do what would be done in real life; I start with probes, doing science, mapping, scouting out, then sending Kerbals, then on to bases and space stations and such. But, that's just me. You can go anywhere with it. Take / make your pick.

[Snark]

18 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

When I start a new career, I have a goal. May be to land everywhere. May be to make a base everywhere. May be to complete the tech tree.

^ This pretty much exactly describes my own way of playing KSP.

I start every career game with a definite "story arc" in mind.  There's a definite goal, a particular set of gameplay mods and/or "house rules" for the career.  There's an idea of what the "plot" will look like, in broad outline, as I work towards that goal.  And, crucially, it's by definition a final goal:  i.e. I have a very specific "I'm done" condition in mind. 

So I spend the whole game working towards that goal.  When I accomplish the goal, then I'm done, I give myself a high five for a job well done, then I archive the folder and move on to a brand-new career with a different goal.  It's how I keep KSP fresh for me; I'm a very goal-oriented person, and I'll happily plow endless hours into a task if it's working towards a goal, whereas if it's "just puttering around" I tend to get bored quickly.  So I keep myself happily engaged by continuously inventing new goals for myself.

Getting back to the OP's question,

On 11/30/2017 at 8:20 AM, Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut said:

After complete the tech tree, you still play in the save or you just stop? And why?

As I mention above:  my career is working towards some particular "end goal."

The goal may be something very ambitious (if I'm in the mood for an epic saga), or it might be something a lot more modest (if I'm more in the mood for a "novella", i.e. a short, quick-and-fun career.)

So, "how long will this career be" is kinda baked into it when I start playing, based on the ambitiousness of the goal I chose.  This means that the milestone of "I completed the tech tree" might fall just about anywhere in the career.  For a really long drawn-out career, it might happen in the (relatively) early stages, and most of the career happens after that point.  On the other hand, for a quick-and-fun career with a very limited goal... I might reach the goal before I've even completed the tech tree, and it never even comes up.  So completing the tech tree (or not) is basically just an irrelevant side issue-- acquiring tech is simply a means towards and end, rather than an end in itself.

IIRC, the very first time I played a career in KSP, it turns out that basically what I had done (though I didn't really think about it consciously at the time) was set the goal as "complete the tech tree."  I didn't realize that that was what I was doing, subconsciously... until I completed the tech tree and was astonished to discover that suddenly I had gotten completely bored and un-motivated to play any further.  Took me a bit of "what just happened?" introspection to figure out why I reacted that way.  Once I figured out what was going on, though, it was easy.  I just decided to call it "done" for that career, pulled the plug, consciously set myself a different goal, and started a new (and different) career.

That was three years ago, haven't looked back since. 

[regex]

In my science mode saves I set an overall goal and play towards that. Whether I finish the tech tree is moot.

In my career mode saves I set an overall goal and wonder why the game doesn't let me guide it towards that, and then I start a new science mode save.

[tater]

While I end up playing how I would anyway (which is functionally just sandbox), the lack of the ONLY reward system in the game is clearly a game design problem that shows how poorly thought out career mode is.

Science mode has an implicit goal of "getting all the science," though that goal might be better illuminated with a read out that shows what % of available science you have actually gained (people have been shown to unconsciously play games to "fill in" these kinds of requirements).

Career mode has no implicit goal at all, and no way to establish a goal within the game structure at all (only via the player roleplaying in their head). Hence my complaints with career mode. The usual response is a version of "then don't play it, it's fine," but I post about it because I think it is actually possible (though difficult) to create a good career mode that would be worth playing inside the KSP universe. I don't think it will ever happen, however (and sadly, the problems are deeper than mods can fix, IMO).

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Just now, tater said:

Career mode has no implicit goal at all, and no way to establish a goal within the game structure at all (only via the player roleplaying in their head). 

Umm...isn't completing contracts the goal?

Saying that maxing the tech tree and is an implicit flaw would be like saying attaining max level in an MMO is an inherent flaw, it's not. Just because you can't gain XP anymore doesn't mean the game is over, in fact for most examples of this; the game is just beginning when you hit the cap. So in the MMO example completing quests/raids is the goal, gaining XP to level up is an incidental goal that helps you achieve the real goal. Likewise in KSP career mode I would argue the tech tree is an incidental goal that helps you complete contracts.

I think this is an issue more-so with how different players view Career mode and their varying expectations for what it should entail. You just can't make everyone happy.

[tater]

10 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Umm...isn't completing contracts the goal?

I suppose that's possible. It's a terrible goal though, since the contracts are so very, very stupid.

Test part X on a suborbital trajectory over the Mun, for example, when you have not unlocked parts required for X to be used reasonably.

1. A suborbital Mun trajectory is identical to any trajectory outside the atmosphere. so why the specificity? 

2. The test of, say an engine, on a suborbital path is completely meaningless. If it was in an atmosphere, then it's supersonic retropropulsion, but the requirement should be to test retrograde, at an alt, and a velocity. Which it isn't. Why not just "test in vacuum?"

3. They almost all end up being "contraption" contracts.

Another peeve, hauling ore by the ton. Sample return makes sense. Hauling ore from Duna to Ike when I have nothing on Ike set up to process ore, and if I did, I'd process Ike ore, not Duna ore... Right.

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Saying that maxing the tech tree and is an implicit flaw would be like saying attaining max level in an MMO is an inherent flaw, it's not. Just because you can't gain XP anymore doesn't mean the game is over, in fact for most examples of this; the game is just beginning when you hit the cap. So in the MMO example completing quests/raids is the goal, gaining XP to level up is an incidental goal that helps you achieve the real goal. Likewise in KSP career mode I would argue the tech tree is an incidental goal that helps you complete contracts.

Except virtually all the contracts are goals I have no interest in playing. Career implies someone's career. It's in the name. You are suggesting it is "contraption"or "contract" mode, in which case you should be forced to take all of them, perhaps. I ignore all contracts not specifically related to space exploration goals. So I take various surface exploration contracts to provide a reason t go to place X on whatever world (I role-play that the KSC science team says this is where we need to land to get data that is important---which the career mode should tell me, instead if done right).

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I think this is an issue more-so with how different players view Career mode and their varying expectations for what it should entail. You just can't make everyone happy.

I'm honestly surprised that career mode could make anyone happy. I'm not expecting to make everyone happy, I want a good career mode. Current career mode is not good, indeed it's hardly even adequate. KSP is a great game, and it could be possible to have a great career mode, not the slapdash version we have. Ideally I'd like a career mode that meets what this cool game could deliver.

I usually add that making a good career mode is far, far harder than everything else in KSP to actually do.

Edited December 1, 2017 by tater

[Rocket In My Pocket]

7 minutes ago, tater said:

I'm honestly surprised that career mode could make anyone happy. I'm not expecting to make everyone happy, I want a good career mode. Current career mode is not good, indeed it's hardly even adequate. KSP is a great game, and it could be possible to have a great career mode, not the slapdash version we have. Ideally I'd like a career mode that meets what this cool game could deliver.

I usually add that making a good career mode is far, far harder than everything else in KSP to actually do.

It's not perfect by any stretch, but what game is? I think you have to remind yourself that what you envision as a "great career mode" may be another player's worst nightmare.

On that note; what we have isn't even the Career mode I would have made certainly, but it works and it is fun in it's own way.

Hopefully the upcoming Historical missions and the Mission editor will allow for more tailored/focused experiences that will appeal more to the different play styles and expectations of everyone.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket