What gameplay rules do you impose on yourself?

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

While I haven't played career mode in a while, I believe these were my rules.

1) I can do as many simulations as I want, but when I decide to do the real flight, it's the real flight. No going back after that. This can be done in sections. As in I can do simulations of reentry for a vehicle before doing the actual reentry, but before, once I say "this one will be the real one," there is no going back.

2) There must always be an available return vehicle for any kerbals staying at a space station.

3) Any vehicle on which kerbals will be staying for more than a few weeks or so (eg: space stations, bases, and IPVs) should have significantly more crew space available than there are crew. Kerbals need their space!

4) If at all possible, vehicles should be tested unmanned before a crew is put at risk. If this is not possible, only one kerbal pilots and an emergency escape plane is made.

5) All crewed vessels should have abort methods.

There are probably some others, but I can't think of them at the moment.

In sandbox on the other hand I don't always play by these rules.

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, Curveball Anders said:

I do that all the time.

Rescued Kerbals are free kerbonauts and free money.

Rescuing Kerbals is a great way to pad your astronaut corps for better than free.

Rescuing EVERY Kerbal that comes up in Mission Control is an exercise in madness.

[kerbiloid]

0. No career. Only sandbox.

[Randox]

Simulated construction time and planning.

In lieu of a mod for this function, I am limiting the pace of my launches based on Monthly Budget. Launches from the VAB and SPH for new designs and space missions are limited to one per 7 days, and a quarter of the budget (so if something costs more than a quarter of my budget, it will be delayed). Woomerang and Dessert can be used for extra launches, at the rate of two per month each. I use Woomerang a lot for probe launches, and Dessert is typically reserved for things like rescues or resource replenishment.

[Sergei Kerbalev]

I try to play to some extent in real time. I avoid time warping unless it's just for a few minutes where I can't do much else. Otherwise, when I get to the waiting phase in a mission, I switch over to another concurrent mission.

Sometimes this causes problems when you get unlucky and have multiple maneuvers line up at the same time. Then you have to juggle which ones can be delayed, like a mid-course correction, and which ones are critical like crew re-entry.

My goal is to see how much I can get done in x calendar years.

[Chel]

I impose a rule where when my crew return back to Kerbin, I must travel to the location in a vehicle from the KSC, go to the site, pick up the crew, and go back to the KSC. It doesn't matter if they are half the planet away, or even if they are in the ocean. I will only use Recover Vessel if they land around the KSC area. I have everything from a jet boat for those in the sea, to a 1,000m/s+ 8 crew shuttle (reaches the North Pole in about 10 minutes, no time warp needed). It certainly adds some difficulty, but I enjoy it. It's realistic.

[ExtremeSquared]

Only take "Science data from XXX" contracts if you have some fresh science to sell.
 

I don't care that those contracts feel like an exploit. This provides a reason to park a science base on bodies, and NOT immediately collect all experiments. Over the next few years in game, that base gets fully paid for by all these companies wanting to lease its capabilities. It forces me to not abandon surface bases. Also, capitalism.

Edited August 1, 2018 by ExtremeSquared

[LinksSpaceProgram]

1. Don't strand your plane on purpose again.

2. Rescue every stranded plane's crew

3. Check staging

4. Don't build excessively large planes
 

Sounds simpler to hold than it is.

 

[Billanater1]

My only real rule.

Go big, or go home...

(I.e. If making a Mun rocket, don't make it a really small margin. Just overdo it.)

[Adstri]

I usually always send probes/landers to planets before I actually send kerbals there.

[Thygrrr]

Unmanned before manned.

Build as cheaply as feasible.

150% reentry heating. (requires config file edit and really helps)

Additional launch sites, but no additional ground stations, and 1.0/0.9 occlusion and 0.5x antenna range.

0.5x science and 0.5x funds.

Plasma Blackout.

Missing crews dead. (Though sometimes I do a long respawn)

My own mod that nerfs reaction wheels and adds significant EC consumption to all crewed modules.

No space debris (pretty hard)

No clipping of parts unless absolutely necessary. 

The last one is a bit of a soft rule.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Thygrrr

[klond]

 Stock parts only.  It pushes me to think harder about how certain things should be done.  It also maximizes who I can share craft with.

 Avoid floating parts, or at least make an attempt to look like everything is attached.  Helps with realism IMO.

[Klapaucius]

1 hour ago, klond said:

 Stock parts only.  It pushes me to think harder about how certain things should be done.  It also maximizes who I can share craft with.

 Avoid floating parts, or at least make an attempt to look like everything is attached.  Helps with realism IMO.

I have a no floating parts rule as well, but I broke it once as a lark, and a bit of a nudge at all the floating parts planes I saw.  I built a fighter and then created this exploded diagram variant.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Klapaucius

[Geonovast]

No non structural part clipping.  Ever. 

I honestly have a hard time looking at other people's crafts that have clipped moving parts.

I have aborted entire missions because of 1 or 2 pixels of accidental clipping.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Geonovast

[Eriksonn]

I never kill kerbals obvously. I actually like to launch sattelites and probes instead of crewed missions on almost everything further than duna.(this also means less science in the mid-game so more intresting flight paths will be needed)

I use the principia mod and i love to make really complex gravity assists to save every dv of fuel as i can, even if my craft has 5 times more than needed.

I like ion Engines, and planning the burns with limited solar Power and unreliable Connection near sarnus is challengeing.

I have a very strict "no space debris" policy. I always plan my stages so that they wont run out in the middle of a long transfer burn.

I usually have the option on so that ksc is the only sattelite Point on kerbin. This creates interesting problems since almost all my ships are probes so i need alot of relays. I like to place relays in the L4 and L5 mun points as then they can always reach ksc.

I also use OPM to give a Little more variation to where i can go. Sarnus moons were a bit wonky with n-body gravity so i had to move them about a little, that was also quite intreresting. At one point Tekto was kicked out into interplanetary space, that was fun.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

-Extra ground stations turned off.

-Only one science lab allowed; must be in Kerbin orbit.

-No duping science results.

-No losing a Kerbal, ever.

-No "extreme" part clipping.

-No "gameplay" changing mods. (Only visual and "quality of life"/UI stuff.)

[HobbitJack]

I play with the following very-loose rules:

1): A body (With the exception of Kerbin and its moons)must have at least one science point collected from it before Kerbals are allowed to enter its sphere of influence.

2): All launched ships must have an antenna.

3): If I forget to open the solar panels before the battery dies, I may turn on infinite electricity to open the solar panels but must subtract 10000 funds.

4):  I refuse to have floating parts in career games.

5): At no point may any extraplanetary craft crash into another body (All about preserving the natural characteristics of the bodies ).

6): Before R&D can be upgraded, all possible nodes MUST be upgraded

7): 100000 funds can be purchased for 1000 science or 200 reputation (Thru Alt-F12).

[OrbitsR4Sissies]

I'm still a bit new, but with all this space history in my head, I've found myself developing some guidelines that increase my fun as I play  in Career Mode only for now.

• Reduce the Science reward to 50% or less. This makes it really challenging to scrap for points every place you can with very little resources. This also forces me to do missions as I wait for transfer windows, earning me more money and points to get things designed and built right the first time.
• No use of the science lab module. That was fun at first but it really makes your game unlock a lot of stuff before you even leave Kerbin.
• Probes over Kerballed missions first. This is cheaper, obviously.
• Give your Kerbals some space. I'm not yet using realism mods for food and water, but it's not realistic to lock a Kerbal in a Mercury-sized can for more than 14 days.
• Use Experiment Storage Units. These are godsends for farming science around the Mun or Mimmus with a returnable probe. You can send far more delta-V on a lightweight probe that can bounce to several biomes and gain points with even the simplest experiments. This idea doesn't seem practical for interplanetary trips, but it earns the science points needed to unlock the tech to get there but without having most of the tree opened before you fly to Duna or Moho.
• Mimic how NASA and JPL did stuff. At least at first. I've loved Marcus House's videos, which show great economy in going to Eve and Duna without opening your whole tech can with a 200 part mission. Simple is best. Can you live without a big can of fuel hanging off your tail just to orbit? Can you just plot a dive to the surface for a lander/rover, especially for dV-saving places like Eve? Why does your spacecraft look like something made by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell's acid-tripping opioid-addicted one-eyed depth-perception-deprived lovechild? KSP doesn't require me to do it NASA-style, but it introduces complications that make things interesting.
• Ion engines are cool. I try to make relays for interplanetary missions with these and would love to duplicate a Grand Tour-like mission, only I won't wait for a perfect alignment.. I'm still enjoying the first missions I've ever sent to places and I'm old, so I have patience.
• Reverts and quicksaves aren't always good. If I'm going to learn, I have to suffer complete failure from time to time. I have probes in orbit that I can't land because I didn't plan. NASA couldn't revert their missions or losses, so emulate the bad with the good. I will revert if a Kraken eats my mission and it's a bug, not a serious design fault.
• Pretend you're NASA with that unlimited budget. That means you fill as many hours and days with missions and cause Kerbal Alarm Clock to smoke with counters.  Explore what's out there and prepare, send lots of stuff and enjoy the richness of stuff.
• Spaceplanes, meh. SSTOs are the one concept that throws me out of my suspension of disbelief in playing KSP. I see them as overpowered. I'm liking reusable rocketplanes or space-gliders (think Dyna-Soar or Dream Chaser-types) to make great LKO ferries, fueling and small probes and will probably start there once I get going.
• Elegance over power. KSP lets you go very big, but small can be a fascinating way to get around. I'm learning its easy to throw parts at something but that doesn't make it better for enjoying things over time.

[Klapaucius]

On 10/4/2018 at 6:39 AM, OrbitsR4Sissies said:

I'm still a bit new, but with all this space history in my head, I've found myself developing some guidelines that increase my fun as I play  in Career Mode only for now.

• Reduce the Science reward to 50% or less. This makes it really challenging to scrap for points every place you can with very little resources. This also forces me to do missions as I wait for transfer windows, earning me more money and points to get things designed and built right the first time.
• No use of the science lab module. That was fun at first but it really makes your game unlock a lot of stuff before you even leave Kerbin.
• Probes over Kerballed missions first. This is cheaper, obviously.
• Give your Kerbals some space. I'm not yet using realism mods for food and water, but it's not realistic to lock a Kerbal in a Mercury-sized can for more than 14 days.
• Use Experiment Storage Units. These are godsends for farming science around the Mun or Mimmus with a returnable probe. You can send far more delta-V on a lightweight probe that can bounce to several biomes and gain points with even the simplest experiments. This idea doesn't seem practical for interplanetary trips, but it earns the science points needed to unlock the tech to get there but without having most of the tree opened before you fly to Duna or Moho.
• Mimic how NASA and JPL did stuff. At least at first. I've loved Marcus House's videos, which show great economy in going to Eve and Duna without opening your whole tech can with a 200 part mission. Simple is best. Can you live without a big can of fuel hanging off your tail just to orbit? Can you just plot a dive to the surface for a lander/rover, especially for dV-saving places like Eve? Why does your spacecraft look like something made by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell's acid-tripping opioid-addicted one-eyed depth-perception-deprived lovechild? KSP doesn't require me to do it NASA-style, but it introduces complications that make things interesting.
• Ion engines are cool. I try to make relays for interplanetary missions with these and would love to duplicate a Grand Tour-like mission, only I won't wait for a perfect alignment.. I'm still enjoying the first missions I've ever sent to places and I'm old, so I have patience.
• Reverts and quicksaves aren't always good. If I'm going to learn, I have to suffer complete failure from time to time. I have probes in orbit that I can't land because I didn't plan. NASA couldn't revert their missions or losses, so emulate the bad with the good. I will revert if a Kraken eats my mission and it's a bug, not a serious design fault.
• Pretend you're NASA with that unlimited budget. That means you fill as many hours and days with missions and cause Kerbal Alarm Clock to smoke with counters.  Explore what's out there and prepare, send lots of stuff and enjoy the richness of stuff.
• Spaceplanes, meh. SSTOs are the one concept that throws me out of my suspension of disbelief in playing KSP. I see them as overpowered. I'm liking reusable rocketplanes or space-gliders (think Dyna-Soar or Dream Chaser-types) to make great LKO ferries, fueling and small probes and will probably start there once I get going.
• Elegance over power. KSP lets you go very big, but small can be a fascinating way to get around. I'm learning its easy to throw parts at something but that doesn't make it better for enjoying things over time.

You may be new, but I saw your posts on the "Show off your awesome pictures" thread. There are some pretty impressive stations going up.

[WWEdeadman]

I didn't really implement any personal restrictions, up until my current career, that I have not used a single capsule in, but only the Command Seat. I even made my own module manager config to make the Command Seat be in Tier 0 for that. The set goal is to land on every body in the stock system (except for Jool, for obvious reasons of there not being a surface) manned, and return the Kerbal safely. The ships to Duna, Ike, the Jool moons, Dres, and Eeloo are currently on their way, and the Eve lander still needs some more in-orbit assembly. Again, all without capsules, so the stuff ends up looking real... kerbal.

Apart from that I'm planning to do a 100% reusable career next.

[Sufficient Anonymity]

Uncrewed first.

Crew to only be launched in crew-rated rockets with LESs (with no black zones), or in SSTOs.

USI life support (though I'm a bit soft and only have them turn into tourists rather than die).

Missing crews die.

Everything must look like it could fly - no abusing janky physics systems.

Plasma blackout.

Reusability where possible.

Standardised launchers to be used where possible.

[SpaceMouse]

Hmmm, some good ones here i use and aren't really worth repeating. I'm a big believer in Kerbal's are people and everything must be done to keep them alive.
As far as craft design, no clipping unless the tanks would fit IRL. I've been trying to stay away from Gyro's after learning how inaccurate they are in KSP. Have a few exceptions though, like one is a aircraft I build to fit in a mk3 cargo bay that wouldn't change direction any other way.

[Triop]

F-5 is poison to me.

It's why I'm still here.

 

On 6/27/2018 at 10:54 PM, Hans Dorn said:

No quicksaves.

 

I started playing that way because I didn't read the fine manual, and I like the suspense.

If you mess up, it's back to the launchpad.

That.

[CaelumEtAstra]

0. Stick to realism as much as possible.

1. Be sure to follow Akin's Laws. (Within reason, of course.)

2. KISS: Small, efficient spacecraft and rockets can do a just as good if not better than an oversized capital ship. (Alternate formulation: AVOID SCOPE/FEATURE CREEP.)

3. Keep debris to a minimum.
  a. All upper stages must have capability to deorbit after payload is released.
  b. If deorbit is not possible, it must be on the surface of an object, on a trajectory that impacts an object (like Mun or Minmus), in a graveyard orbit, or placed into a heliocentric orbit.

4. All space stations must have at least one spacecraft per visting crew docked to act as a lifeboat in the event of an emergency.

5. Quicksave excessively, but quickload sparingly. Also, no reverts. (Unless it's something stupid that "would never happen to NASA", like a bungled launch profile or game glitch.)

6. Cheats are for simulations ONLY.

7. Never ever ever use fuel ducts. They get stuck on parts they shouldn't for good no reason when loading in.

[Tyko]

On 10/3/2018 at 10:39 AM, OrbitsR4Sissies said:

I'm still a bit new, but with all this space history in my head, I've found myself developing some guidelines that increase my fun as I play  in Career Mode only for now.

• Reduce the Science reward to 50% or less. This makes it really challenging to scrap for points every place you can with very little resources. This also forces me to do missions as I wait for transfer windows, earning me more money and points to get things designed and built right the first time.
• No use of the science lab module. That was fun at first but it really makes your game unlock a lot of stuff before you even leave Kerbin.

<SNIP>

That's a great design for a new player! Congrats 

On Science Labs - there's a fun way to incorporate them and just requires a couple of rules. Rule 3 requires a mod, if you're not using mods you can still get labs a lot more balanced using the other rules. 

1. Limit yourself to running any given piece of science through only one lab, ever - no grabbing a dozen copies of an experiment and flying them to a bunch of labs
2. Drop your science reward to half of what you're currently using - you'll get that back over time as your labs work, but it'll take time and effort.
3. Use a life support mod - this adds a real cost to doing the ongoing research and usually requires some extra flights to bring up supplies and change out weary crews

 

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by Tyko