"High tech" career mode

[Pds314]

Have you ever wanted to do everything in the most technologically advanced way possible?

The goal of this challenge is exactly that.

Run a career mode using only the "most technologically advanced" parts you have available.

It comes in three difficulties:

 

Simple:

Unlocking all "child" techs of a given tech bans you from building parts gained from that tech. You lose the starting parts if you unlock Engineering 101 AND basic rocketry.

 

Tough:

As simple, but unlocking even one "grandchild" tech and the corresponding "child" tech will ban the parts from a tech. You lose the starting parts if you unlock Survivability, Stability, or General Rocketry.

 

Horrible:

As simple, but unlocking even one "child" tech will ban the parts gained from the parent. You lose the starting parts if you unlock Engineering 101 OR basic rocketry.

 

Note that ALL difficulties have serious potential for softlocking your game if you're not careful what techs you pick up.

 

In case you need a reminder what techs do what, the Wiki is very helpful:

https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Technology_tree

 

[Nazalassa]

My ideas for Horrible mode: get as much Science! as possible with the start node, and then unlock : Engineering 101 -> Survivability -> either Basic Science or Flight Control as they both contain command pods.

As soon as possible, get docking ports, and make reusable ships.

[Pds314]

On 11/4/2022 at 4:39 AM, Nazalassa said:

My ideas for Horrible mode: get as much Science! as possible with the start node, and then unlock : Engineering 101 -> Survivability -> either Basic Science or Flight Control as they both contain command pods.

As soon as possible, get docking ports, and make reusable ships.

I feel like aviation might be a bit better than flight control, as it gives you the ability to at least do something without any other tech, albeit that something will not be in space. You'll need some kind of rocket engines for that.

Basic science you will need either way if you want junior docking ports. Though once you get them, on Horrible, that kills your ability to make Stayputniks.

I think the best start depends on how much you care about docking ports, but that it might be better to go

Start

Basic Rocketry

Stability

Aviation

At the cost of 68 science.

And then spend 20 you get from having a biome science plane on General Rocketry.

You don't get any decouplers or science parts this way, but you can potentially grab engineering 101 and survivability for 20 and get heat shields that have an integrated decoupler, and barometers.

At this point I think the tools for most early game mission profiles are at hand. Reliant isn't the best engine but it is cheap, relatively lightweight, and powerful. You do have some lander legs if you need them. And you also have parachutes and heat shields. Mk1 aircraft cockpit is fairly heat resistant but heavy, so I think Munar grade and even interplanetary reentries are possible, Certainly with a heatshield. And parachutes mean no need for a spaceplane design. The bad news is that there really isn't a whole lot of science besides what Kerbals can do themselves on the Mun and Minmus. But then again, that hardware is perfectly capable of going to Duna with enough brute force.  It could go to Eve but... I suspect getting back isn't so easy.

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Pds314