How do you play Career?

[Nazalassa]

When I play Career, I generally start by making all the Science! I can at the KSC, then go suborbital and orbital.

After some contracts, I generally either do a lot of touristic missions or I send some probes ands Kerbals to Mun and Minmus (and I always start with Minmus).

I do a lot of these missions to bring back a maximum of Science! and to start to create a network of ships (orbital stations, bases, shuttles, SSTOs...) in the Kerbin System.

After doing all that, I sometimes do the maximum of contracts within the Kerbin system, before being full of money and using it to create a network, first to Eve and Gilly, and Duna and Ike, and then to Moho and Dres, then to Jool and Pol and Bop. Then I do some contracts!

If I don't do that, I try to complete the tech tree.

 

What about you?

[Beamer]

I always set up orbital refueling as fast as possible. Get a station in Minmus orbit, put down a miner/refinery and use a tanker to ferry fuel up to the station. Stations around Kerbin and Mun and a fuel tanker or 2 to distribute fuel to them from Minmus orbit. I include a science lander on the Minmus and Mun stations to farm science points, usually I can get enough science to build miners by the time the stations start running out of their initial fuel reserves. Meanwhile I get every single "Save Kerbal from LKO" contract I can and start rotating them through Kerbin/Minmus/Mun to plant flags. That makes them level 2 and they will be level 3 as soon as they reach solar orbit. Mun and Minmus ferries can be incredibly cheap because they can refuel after every transfer.

At this point I can start re-using ascent booster stages as interplanetary stages by refueling them in orbit which saves a lot on the cost of launches, the boosters typically end up as orbital tugs, fuel storage for stations, communication relays or seismograph science impactors. The only things I throw away from this point on are stage 1 SRBs or spare fuel tanks. I'll also start aggressively hunting for Class E asteroids, usually I put a bunch of them in Kerbin orbit and plug a refinery in them so I don't have to ferry fuel from Minmus anymore. I'll keep taking all "Save Kerbal" contracts but extend it to Mun and Minmus.

During the early phases I will send a resource scout to any planet/moon I get a transfer window for so by the time I have the refueling infrastructure around Kerbin in place I start sending stations and miners to Duna/Ike (mobile miner/refinery on Ike + STO fuel tanker), Dres (Asteroid miner/refinery + tug + orbital fuel tanker), Moho (mobile miner/refineries + STO fuel tanker), Eve/Gilly (Stationary refinery on Gilly + fuel tanker). This is usually well underway before my first probes even reach the outer planets. Once I've got sustainable refueling going at a planet I will take tourist contracts and save Kerbal contracts for it and of course each station comes with its science lander. Empty seats on tourist flights I fill with Kerbonauts to rotate crews and build up levels. Interplanetary ferries are always fully reusable thanks to being able to refuel at every destination.

Then it's pretty much end game with all science unlocked. Do the same for Jool and Eeloo when launch windows are available and start using the millions I have in the bank by that point for crazy projects

 

[N_Danger]

 I hate farming KSC for science after doing it for so long so I give myself 350 sci.

Turn science gain down to 20%.

"Personal settings"

Never use Kerbin surface Biomes for sci unless called for by a contract. Always go orbital or beyond for gathering science.

Never use the Science Lab for anything other than cosmetic proposes , unless called for by a contract.

Never use the headquarters where you can trade resources.  

And then see how far we can get before going bankrupt.

Goal (not full filled as of yet in career. I did it in Sci sandbox)

Land  a kerbal on every surface where it is safe to do so. And then return them to Kerbin, alive.

Preferably. 

Edited August 27, 2022 by N_Danger
Grammar is hard

[Beamer]

1 hour ago, N_Danger said:

 I hate farming KSC for science after doing it for so long so I give myself 350 sci.

Turn science gain down to 20%.

"Personal settings"

Never use Kerbin surface Biomes for sci unless called for by a contract. Always go orbital or beyond for gathering science.

Never use the Science Lab for anything other than cosmetic proposes , unless called for by a contract.

Never use the headquarters where you can trade resources.  

And then see how far we can get before going bankrupt.

Goal (not full filled as of yet in career. I did it in Sci sandbox)

Land  a kerbal on every surface where it is safe to do so. And then return them to Kerbin, alive.

Preferably. 

I rarely use Kerbin for science either (I take a crew report and surface sample if I happen to splash down far enough from KSC to be in another biome and may test a science lander on the launch pad). The airplane parts are the last ones I unlock. But the labs, I couldn't go without them. With them you can unlock a huge part of your science tree on Minmus/Mun and Kerbin orbital science before your first transfer window to another planet. Once science is maxed out, I use the HQ contract to convert all science to reputation, my goal is to reach 100% one day

Only personal setting I use is that I increase the max contracts from 15 to 45 by the time I start taking tourists, otherwise it's just not profitable to do so. I've never ran out of money though, I usually can't spend it fast enough. Stacking station contracts is a gold mine in the early game (like getting orbital station contracts for Kerbin, Kerbol, Duna and Ike and fulfilling them all with a single station) and since I get all my personnel from rescues I don't need to pay the exorbitant hiring costs.

 

[Nazalassa]

3 hours ago, Beamer said:

I increase the max contracts from 15 to 45

You mean the available ones? That's a good idea, it raises the odds of having a decent number good contracts.

[Beamer]

5 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

You mean the available ones? That's a good idea, it raises the odds of having a decent number good contracts.

Yep. A typical tourist contract is for 4 persons (6 if you're lucky, 2 if you're not) and takes multiple years to complete. With only 15 contracts and wanting to keep a few slots for short term stuff like rescues, it simply isn't worth it to take a tourist on a multi-year trip. You could make double the money and rep if you just used those slots to constantly fulfill "Get science from orbit/surface of X". Upping that to 45 allows me to take enough tourists to fill up ferries and still have some slots left for short term contracts. Also, when you get close to the max, the number of offered contracts shrinks dramatically so it takes much longer for decent contracts to pop up.

In case you're wondering, it's the "AverageAvailableContracts" setting in \GameData\Squad\Contracts\Contracts.cfg. I've actually set it to 30 (from default 10) I saw, but there is a multiplier based on how far the facility is upgraded (FacilityProgressionFactor = 0.2) that means you can get up to 45-50 contracts at max upgrade.

 

[dci]

Settings for game: allowed reverts and saves, dead Kerbals do not respawn.

First making everything to reach Mun orbit with mapping satellite, ship, lander and fuel tank. Do every possible science, repeat this with Minmus and set lab module there, if possible. These two bodies + Minmus Lab are able to give all science needed. Then game really begins.

Science in KSC minibiomes is gathered later with fully equipped rover, except e.g. crew report from launch pad, which is usually first science in game.

[Guest]

In my case (Modded career) I play with a heavy focus on planes, rovers and probes, barely ever doing kerballed missions or contracts.

I start with planes and rovers to gather science from Kerbin and when possible probes to Mun and Minmus. Then one or two big rovers on each one of them.

By the time I finish with both I've, generally, unlocked the entire tech tree and can focus on exploring or doing self-imposed challenges like making a self-sustainable colony on Eeloo/Plock-Karen or making an underwater base on Laythe for example.

[DeadJohn]

Each career game is different for me because I like trying different planet packs, part mods, and science trees. I like uncrewed probes and piloted planes.

Typical progression for me is to reach orbit, send probes to the homeworld's moon(s), then send crew to moon(s). I mix aircraft in as needed to get past science plateaus, try new parts, and just explore if I'm using a different planet pack.

Orbital labs get built if I want to speed up science progression. It depends on my mood and I'll shutdown the lab if I climb the tech tree too fast.