10 Million Fund Career Speedrun

[Ksp Slingshooter]

Backstory

The Kerbal Space Agency suddenly felt the urge to make money as fast as possible, once they heard that the government would start to decrease their annual budget funding in exchange for a better military in these wartimes. Initially, KSA employees were so infuriated that some of them were already working in secrecy to deviate some near Kerbin orbit asteroids to "end it all".
Fortunately, Wherner von Kerman, Chief Rocketry Engineer at KSA, managed to stop this insane evil plan and change his co-workers mind stating that he had a plan: Raising 10M funds as fast as possible with the help of ... well ... you, in the position of General Manager, Mission Designer and Lead Flight Director at KSA.

Objective

This challenge is pretty straightforward: Get 10M funds and be the fastest (have the lowest in-game time)

Rules

1. Start a new career mode in normal difficulty and take a screenshot for proof (F1 key)
2. Do NOT change any other parameter in the difficulty menu (such as rewards, penalties, ore abundance, etc)
3. Cheats (alt + F12 menu, hyperedit, exploits, and other cheats considered to defeat the spirit of this challenge) are NOT allowed
4. Mods that change intended solar system size, change celestial bodies science gains, add overefficient engines/overpowered parts are NOT allowed
5. Accepting contracts just for in-advance contract money is allowed (even if you don't do them) (just keep in mind that not doing contracts won't refresh the available contract list)
6. Informational mods such as Kerbal Engineer, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Mechjeb (as long as you pilot your rockets manually) are allowed and will be counted towards a stock leaderboard
7. Aesthetic mods such as Scatterer, EVE, SVE, Astronomer's Pack are allowed and will be counted towards a stock leaderboard
8. DLC's are allowed and will be counted towards a DLC leaderboard
9. Rebalancing mods such as Strategia, [Any mod that adds new planets], Contract Configurator Packs, FMRS are allowed and will be counted towards a modded leaderboard

Note: As a rule of thumb, any mod that gives you a slight advantage over other players (as long as it isn't crazy overpowered or unrealistic) is allowed to be installed. The reason being that I want to see how fast this challenge can possibly be done.

Note: These rules are subject to change since I don't know yet how these will affect gameplay, therefore I'm open to suggestions to improve this challenge.
Note: I might do a selective mod leaderboard in the future to make the speedrun feel more static and less mod advantageous (depends on feedback)

Tips and Tricks

Spoiler

Plan your strategies ahead, since this challenge uses UT and not real time, you can pause and have all the time in the world to think.
To be the absolute fastest you will need to get creative: maybe doing some strategies in the admistration building, maybe mining ore from the moons/local asteroids and selling it to Kerbin (the possibilities are endless).
Generally, the more 'low-tech' your rocket is and the more contracts/world-first it acomplishes, the more profitable you are.
Think of an outside of the box strategy to complete the objective proposed.
Upgrading the KSC buildings is allowed, but do keep in mind the money you spend. Same with R&D, you can spend science but keep in mind that science can be converted to funds, even if inefficiently.

Submition

• Describe every mod/DLC you've used
• Take a screenshot of the difficulty screen and of the 10M fund mark with the UT (universal time)
• [Optional] Take screenshots of pertinent missions you've done/strategies you've taken (any screenshot you consider cool in your way to 10M)

Stock Leaderboard

Spoiler

Playing in stock KSP this challenge was completed in

Year 1, Day 76, Hour 3, Minute 38 by Ksp Slingshooter
Year [ ], Day [ ], Hour [ ], Minute [ ] by [Username]

DLC Leaderboard

Spoiler

Playing in stock + DLC KSP this challenge was completed in

Year [ ], Day [ ], Hour [ ], Minute [ ] by [Username]

Modded Leaderboard (Free to choose)*

Spoiler

Playing in KSP with free to choose* mods this challenge was completed in

Year [ ], Day [ ], Hour [ ], Minute [ ] by [Username]

Selective mods Leaderboard

Spoiler

Playing with custom selected mods (to decide later) this challenge was completed in

Year [ ], Day [ ], Hour [ ], Minute [ ] by [Username]

* -> Check Rules

Also, is there a difference in advantage of a DLC over the other in this challenge?
If so, should I split the DLC leaderboard?

Edited August 16, 2020 by Ksp Slingshooter
New rule (number 5)

[Pds314]

Another lowest in-game time speedrun? I'll definitely be trying this. Almost by it's very nature though going to other planets is probably not a good strategy in this run.

 

I assume mining on Kerbin to sell on Kerbin is considered an exploit?

Edited August 11, 2020 by Pds314

[Ksp Slingshooter]

I've never thought of that, but yeah, mining ore on Kerbin to sell it back is a money exploit (it doesn't give much effort for a huge profit, besides KSA is a Space agency not a mining company so it kinda defeats the point of this challenge).

Despite of that, it's a great strategy to save a backrupt space agency. (If you want to, you can do a separate savefile using only that strategy and tell me in the comments how much time it took) 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Ksp Slingshooter

[Ksp Slingshooter]

On 8/11/2020 at 4:17 AM, Pds314 said:

I assume mining on Kerbin to sell on Kerbin is considered an exploit?

 

[Ksp Slingshooter]

Using stock KSP with no DLC's and only informational/aesthetic mods, I've managed to complete this challenge in 76 Days, 3 Hours and 38 Minutes

 

 

 

[ralanboyle]

I'm slowly working on this. Can we get more info about your completion? You didn't share any of your missions. 

[Ksp Slingshooter]

I'm not home now, I'll reload my save points and describe some of my missions/strategies in more detail once I get home 

[Ksp Slingshooter]

I'm gonna be honest I didn't take pictures on the go. I am just reporting back what happened on those 76 in-game days the best I can remember. And since I usually save the game once I'm finished with a critical mission, you guys aren't going to see much mission activity.

Either way, here's the imgur album: https://imgur.com/gallery/RUBLqxv

And BTW, accepting contracts just for in-advance contract money is permitted because it happens naturally, because it is a variable I can't control and because almost every contract gives it.
I used it in the end to reach 10 Million.

[ralanboyle]

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed it. So, you just made the one trip to minmus? I'm trying to decide if I should just neglect minmus all together due to the time it takes verses Mun. 

[Ksp Slingshooter]

1 hour ago, ralanboyle said:

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed it. So, you just made the one trip to minmus? I'm trying to decide if I should just neglect minmus all together due to the time it takes verses Mun. 

I went multiple times to Minmus doing landings, satellite missions, space station missions and science reports, so yeah you shouldn't neglect Minmus, you should instead control multiple missions at the same time and accept the contracts that give the most money, otherwise this speedrun would feel really grindy. For that I would advise getting Kerbal Alarm Clock mod.