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So career seems to have its problems. The following thread is one of many complaints I've seen.(http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127964-my-disappointment-in-career-mode-and-10-in-a-whole/&page=1). The following posts in that thread got me thinking: (by archnem) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127964-my-disappointment-in-career-mode-and-10-in-a-whole/&page=2#comment-2325754 , (by tater) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127964-my-disappointment-in-career-mode-and-10-in-a-whole/&page=2#comment-2325821 , (by pthigrivi) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127964-my-disappointment-in-career-mode-and-10-in-a-whole/&do=findComment&comment=2339140. This is the result of that thinking. I have an idea to tie up all the loose ends of career. It will work alongside with the current contract system and the future contextual contracts. World Firsts -> milestones If you were to order all the world firsts in order of achieving them, you get a tree. Let's call it the progression tree. This is already in the game. Now, imagine an extra tab in mission control that shows you this tree, and expand it to contain all possible milestones (I call the world firsts from now on milestones) that you could achieve in the game (for example: achieving stable orbit, getting a Kerbol escape trajectory, enter the SOI of Jool or landing at Eve and coming back safely). A milestone that you have passed will be shown in a different colour. Now you can easily see your progress in the game and the game will always show you new possible challenges to do. Missions But why is a progression tree useful, why put in time to make this? because missions. Missions are the game's equivalent of NASA saying "We are going to the Moon within this decade" or "I want to send a probe for a fly-by mission of the Pluto-Charon system". This means, you get to decide what YOU want to do. You choose ANY one or multiple milestones from the progress tree and set them as your end goal (ANY, its a sandbox game after all, the progress tree wont stop you from doing too ambitious missions). Ten you specify some more things (type of craft crewed/not crewed and deadline for example), it will all go in a mission contact and there you go. You will see a mission contract appear in the contract menu. These missions will generate contextual contracts within the lines of the mission, and thus you will have to do less boring contracts to pay the bill. Reputation So you will get these contracts, but the quality and quantity of those contracts will depend on how seriously all the companies take your mission goals. This is determined by the ambitiousness of the missions, but also by reputation. This balances the entire mechanic and makes reputation worth more. More reputation means more thrust in your capability's means more better more useful contracts means less boring sidequesty ones. This mechanic shows the player what he/she has achieved, and will show more possible challenges to undertake. You decide what mission (you design your own mission, even) you want to do, and then you find contracts that pay for that mission (you could now too, but that isn't very apparent, as some players saw contracts as missions). What do you think, is this a good idea?