Grinding your way to $$$$ in KSP . . .

[Johno]

I have noticed that rescue missions seem to be the simplest way to earn extra dosh quickly in the new career mode. It's better than "Bring me 400 boars' tails," of course!

One thing, though - suddenly I've realised that somewhere along the line, rendezvous without mechjeb has become a trivial operation . .

What have other people noticed about how to grind for cash? Are there any other methods people have found that work?

[Red Iron Crown]

Parking satellites with an antenna and a single piece of science equipment around different bodies makes "Return science results from orbit around x" contracts trivial. Any time you visit a new body, bring a small satellite to leave behind for this purpose.

[ratchet freak]

Some just put a satellite around each close body with some science gear and a antenna for the "quick send science from X"

[Random Tank]

Meh, I don't find that you need to grind for cash in KSP... I find it's actually more fun not to, as it means you have a money limit you have to worry about, especially with revert turned off! Grinding your way up to 2.5 million funds means you might as well play science mode, as you will never spend that much money. Oh, and well done to you OP for learning how to to rendezvous without MJ, it's a useful skill to learn and means you can do so much more!

Also, this:

4.9 mill to carry a 10t payload to Eve? Who needs money?

Edited September 13, 2014 by Random Tank

[Taki117]

While I don't grind for funds I do use the satellite launch contracts from Fine print to build up my remote tech communication network.

[Sky_walker]

That bug where you simply spawned huge spacecraft on a launch pad, reclaimed it, and got paid additional cash still works?

If so - then do that.

Besides - it's not like money matters in KSP. You cannot go bankrupt. So just take all contracts, build spacecraft for all your money, put it on a launch pad, go back to the space center, cancel all of the contracts, go back to the launch pad and reclaim your craft. Bang! You're rich.

[Pecan]

Edit persistent.sfs

	SCENARIO
	{
		name = Funding
		scene = 7, 8, 5, 6, 9
		funds = <================ Any value you like here
	}

Huh, cheating? No - I only use career mode to check the tech and cost requirements for things.

[Wjolcz]

Besides - it's not like money matters in KSP. You cannot go bankrupt. So just take all contracts, build spacecraft for all your money, put it on a launch pad, go back to the space center, cancel all of the contracts, go back to the launch pad and reclaim your craft. Bang! You're rich.

Oooooh, that is evil!

I've had already like 3 contracts about planting a flag on Duna, and since I have a base there I just keep taking down the old one and replanting it. Ka-ching!

Also not really a bug, but reusable SSTOs are pure money factories when Fine Print and NEAR installed.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Veeltch

[Red Iron Crown]

Edit persistent.sfs

-snip-

Huh, cheating? No - I only use career mode to check the tech and cost requirements for things.

If you're going to do that, may as well use the built in cheat menu.

Space Center -> Alt-F12 -> Press Left Alt until money/science/rep button appear -> Profit!*

*Only tested on Windows, results may vary on Linux or OS X. Please check your local laws regarding the penalties for cheating before use. Void where prohibited.

[r4pt0r]

I had one mission to put a satellite around jool, and each of its 5 moons. those 6 probes= nigh infinite funds. I've stopped accepting those contracts because its not worth my time. I have too much money.

[O-Doc]

Are you short on cash? How did that happen? Seriously, if you need to "grind" cash then throw up a cluster of escape/re-entry pods into LKO and park a science satellite around every Kerbol body.

[Wanderfound]

There are a long list of ways that make acquiring vast amounts of √ trivial, many of them already mentioned: thermometer-laden satellites, scamming contract advances, budget reentry pods, Munar flag forests...but, really, none of them are necessary. Just do whatever you want, and if money runs short, go do a contract or two.

The pay from a quickie Mun landing or similar is so generous that it's hard not to make a massive profit on it. And that's using rocketry; if you can do spaceplanes, you can deliver bulk cargo to pretty much anywhere for √10,000 or so.

The economics of SSTO spaceplanes are massively broken; 100% recovery is much too generous. They're going to have to get a lot harsher in general (and, yes, make bankruptcy a genuine threat) if they want KSP to work as a Railroad Tycoon style game. As with Kerbal fatalities, funds lose their meaning when you know there's an infinite supply available.

There's no blame attaching to Squad for this, because the contracts/funds/rep system of .24 was only ever intended to be a bare-bones framework...but that is what it is. The current funds system is the economic equivalent of soupmosphere aero; it's a barely-functional placeholder, which should (and will, I expect) be developed into something much better before 1.0.

In the meantime, I'm having plenty of fun running a spaceplane design shop on the forums, creating silly screenshot picture stories in the challenge threads, and exploring the potential for what contracts should turn into by playing around with Fine Print.

Fine Print's aerial survey waypoint missions are heaps fun; a much better reason to fly all over Kerbin and see the sights than biome science grinding ever was. Trickier than you'd think, too, if you want to hit all the waypoints in a single smooth pass; sharp turns at Mach 5 take a delicate touch. But although Fine Print is a big step up over the limited range of stock contracts, it doesn't touch the "rivers of gold" issue.

[magnemoe]

Are you short on cash? How did that happen? Seriously, if you need to "grind" cash then throw up a cluster of escape/re-entry pods into LKO and park a science satellite around every Kerbol body.

You can not do that, I have patented it.

Fun thing is that after I did this I stopped getting rescue missions, also have two spaceplanes in orbit ready for rescue. No I have none rescued kerbals on missions.

You can run out of funds for very expensive ships if you have an chain of accidents, happened to me at one point then I lost a 1.5 mill orbital shipyard.

It was however launched just after I unlocked all needed parts and I had just launched an expensive miner, however I still had an millon left so it was not an major task to get the money back.

Edited September 9, 2014 by magnemoe

[eataTREE]

There's always the "Test $SOMETHING_ENORMOUS in high Kerbin orbit" missions. I've seen those pay out > $750,000 on completion. Even if you have to build a $200,000 launcher to get it up there, that's still half a million Kerbobux in profit for a single launch to orbit.

[SelectHalfling0]

I force myself to have to put space stations and bases up in order to farm "science from x" contracts. Adds a little more challenge, and practices self control.

[Kasuha]

I never had cash shortage in the career run. Up until the moment when I got the turbojet, I used SRB-lifted rockets. SRBs are cheap so writing them off was no major problem and then I made sure I'll return the rest of the rocket to KSC or as close as possible. I usually ran several contracts in single mission, usually three or four. Sent two scientific missions (again with suitable testing contracts), one to Mun, one to Minmus. Then I concentrated purely on contracts giving science and stopped running science missions at all. When I unlocked turbojets I built jet-powered lifters and starting there all my costs were for fuel only. Every time I returned from a mission, there was about a million more on my account. I finished the tech tree using science from contracts and only after that I started taking "send science data from..." or "plant flag on..." contracts just for fun.

[cantab]

A possible "quick patch" to the tricks with leaving ships in orbit and flag-planting kerbals on the ground might be for some (but not all, because let's make stations and bases worth doing) contracts to specify they must be done with a new vessel.

[Wanderfound]

A possible "quick patch" to the tricks with leaving ships in orbit and flag-planting kerbals on the ground might be for some (but not all, because let's make stations and bases worth doing) contracts to specify they must be done with a new vessel.

...which is what Fine Print does, BTW.

Seriously worth checking out. Very impressive mod.

[SkyRex94]

I actually never ran out of money since the funds have been implemented. I barley need any contracts at all, just the Explore 'body' contracts yield a lot more than the mission itself needed to be pulled of. My Jool 5 costed 1 million and with explore Jool and Bop (the only ones that were active during it) i earned i think around 1.7 million. No need to grind anything.

With the new easy option to turn reverts off i'm thinking of using that in my 0.25 career. So ship testing and engineering phase will cost a lot more as you probably crash 2-3 ships during developement, so funds might finally become an issue if every mission goes the 'no way back' way;)

[Redd]

Fun thing is that after I did this I stopped getting rescue missions, also have two spaceplanes in orbit ready for rescue. No I have none rescued kerbals on missions.

O.O! I haven't seen any kerbal rescue contracts either since I launched a few of these. They're on to us! - I can't design space planes, so sadly my solution was a bit less cost efficient than yours by the looks of it.

On topic: Ehm, yeah, I can't really add anything without repeating other people. I use the 'have satellites orbiting celestial bodies' method myself. Bit unfair and it basically turned my career save into a sandbox save, so I try not to waste funds based on principle rather than to prevent myself from going bankrupt.

[Stealth2668]

I use the stage recovery mod so I don't lose much, if any, money on staged parts. Money is no longer a problem

[Renegrade]

O.O! I haven't seen any kerbal rescue contracts either since I launched a few of these. They're on to us! - I can't design space planes, so sadly my solution was a bit less cost efficient than yours by the looks of it.

I've been doing a stock playthrough lately; I haven't seen any rescue missions in a long time, and it just keeps on wanting me to plant a flag on the Mun over and over (with occasionally 'Science from Kerbin orbit'), and part testing contracts (which I refuse to do until that obscene science payout is nerfed out of existence ENTIRELY).

What happens to those rescue missions? The premise of them is ridiculous, but they're actually fun to build rescue craft for.

[tater]

I've had troubles with the in flight testing contracts. Everything checked green, and activate via staging (as it tells me), and doesn't satisfy. As result, I decline most of those. I'm unwilling to build some odd contraption, get it to the exact velocity/altitude range, then have it not work X times in a row. I'll do landed, splashed down, and orbital. I'd do a planetary space or landing if it could be incorporated into a normal mission profile, but I'm unwell to spend the time on something that won't be completed even if I do what it tells me to do.

Regarding money, I find it hard to believe it's even possible to be low on money in stock KSP. I could build a 1-off rocket for hundreds of thousands every time I get a rescue mission and not even notice the cash was gone.

[O-Doc]

You can not do that, I have patented it.

Well it's good thing I have a backup vessel, which obviously, I should patent.

It uses the three sizes of SRBs to push a basic capsule with RCS fuel and thrusters into orbit. I believe you can do it with two BACC's by tweaking the thrust but I'm lazy. You can pick up stray kerbals that way at very low cost. You can also put a kerbal on nearby planetary bodies for capture the flag missions.

[Wanderfound]

And just to throw in a bit more of my usual spaceplane advocacy...a small, well-built, well-streamlined, and well-flown spaceplane can make it to orbit on a single turbojet and a weak sneeze's worth of rocketry.

Mk 1 cockpit, probe core, mk 1 fuselage, a pair of swept wings and some control surfaces, a battery, landing gear, a radial intake, a turbojet, a small LFO tank and a few of the tiny Rockomax radial engines will let you collect Kerbals from orbit for the cost of a night at the pub.

Satellite pods will get it done quicker, though.