Has anyone else not bothered with career mode?

[Bandus]

Career mode really helped me after being away from the game for awhile. I had last played before all the physics changes and as a result alot of the knowledge I had about rocket design was no longer valid.

Career mode helped me to learn how to build smaller and more efficiently for a given payload. 

I did find, however, that once I had learned launching, rendezvousing, landing, and the other basic skills, I was ready to move back into sandbox and add mods as it felt like the contracts became a bit pointless and random.

[worir4]

It would be good if they made a mode for just funds. I always add my self a 1000 science points to get past the grindy first stages of career. After that it is fun and just turns into sandbox with funds which i like.

[Majorjim!]

Career mode is not what people wanted before it arrived.. We where expecting something grand and exciting, where we would be doing real science and exploration and actually feel like a real space program. Sadly Sqaud just tacked on a part unlocking mechanism. career as it stands today is a massive wasted opportunity.

 Sandbox forever! It is what the game is, a sandbox. To say otherwise is.. well..

Edited December 20, 2015 by Majorjim

[TheSaint]

I almost always play sandbox. Every once in a while I'll play through a career mode game, just to make sure I still don't like it. So far I haven't been wrong. 

[Guest]

I actually enjoy career mode since it encourages you to build logical designs and expand upon them as you get new parts. It also forces you to think about the costs and purposes of your ships rather than "adding more boosters." With such a wealth of parts, you actually question which of them you need most. I agree that it could still use more work in terms of balancing and contracts, but I think the system is solid nonetheless. Once you've made it into late career mode and have tons of funds, it's pretty much the same as sandbox anyway.

Without career mode, I think it's safe to say that new players would just strap Kerbodyne tanks and engines together and wonder why they'd explode.

[katateochi]

I have really tried to like career mode, I wanted to enjoy it and I stuck at it for a while, but recently I decided to return to my native habitat of the sandbox and I'm now rediscovering my love of KSP again. 

I do like the beginning of it, the challenge of getting as far as you can on limited parts is enjoyable. But that's it's only challenge, "can you get to Mun on low tech parts?". Answer; yes, and now it has nothing interesting to offer.  I actually enjoyed the earlier versions of career more, when you could do more daft things like complete it in two launches. I don't enjoy the design "challenges" the current career offers, its missions seem boring (even if 'spiced' up by doing multiple contracts in one mission) but far worse than that; I haven't liked (or enjoyed building) a single one of the craft I've made in career.
And that's what KSP is about for me, making craft for no other reason than it seems like a cool idea at the time (and then spending days/weeks and sometimes months building it). I always used to say that the best thing about KSP was that it had no defined point and it was up to you to invent one.  That got lost in my attempts to play career, but now I'm back in pointless sandbox, the point of the game has returned!  

[McFarnsworth]

I haven't started a new career in 1.0.5, might try again once 1.1 is out. For me career mode is only fun when I can complete several complex contracts in one go and have to build some absurd contraptions with low tech parts to overcome the challenges that entails. This does mean I need to contract spam a lot, which the new rep mechanic punishes. I also find the initial grind for science really boring so I'm never too motivated to start a new career.

I've had my fun with it, and it taught me how to play without MechJeb again as I started relying on that far too much, but I pretty much only play sandbox now.

[Wjolcz]

Huh. I don't remember replying to this thread. What was I thinking saying the career is alright?

 

Ok, so the tech tree changed again and I can't launch some of my vessels because the parts they contained are beyond my reach (550 SP nodes and later).

 

I'm torn apart now. Not sure if I should try to grind my way throuth the tree to them or start a new one with a modded (and more sane) tech tree. And I'm not torn because I like the grind, but because I have already so many flights in my career and don't want to abandon them ;_; I'll miss you, Laythe Pigeon you were my favourite *creepy smooch*

Edited December 20, 2015 by Veeltch

[nosirrbro]

I used to play it but recently I just cant be bothered. Personally I like setting my own constraints rather then having the game make them for me.

[NeMeSiS]

I did it a while back just to prove to myself that i could easily unlock everything in a few flights. This was a few versions back and i havent bothered with it since, i prefer building cool stuff without arbitrary restrictions.

 

EDIT: Also, i really do not enjoy having to actually manage a space program. I love doing individual missions and building stuff, but keeping track of several different missions at the same with time with kerbal alarm clock just gives me nightmares.

Edited December 21, 2015 by NeMeSiS

[AlamoVampire]

Career mode isn't doing it for me either. Just not engaging enough. 

[Teilnehmer]

On 02.05.2015 at 9:19 PM, J2750 said:

Has anyone else not played the career mode?

Sandbox only!

Money-schmoney — not for me.

[Death Engineering]

Maybe already covered, but yeah stock career is a little flat. However, with the right set of mods Career is much more challenging and entertaining. Adding parts from Ven's Stock Part Revamp and Station Science, and the contracts from Tourism Plus and Kerbin Space Station, encourage a reasonably paced, incrementally more challenging game with rewards for building with re-use in mind.  Adding in RoverDude's USI Life Support also adds a little realism to the challenge without making missions just all about the life support.

Those mods, plus Stockalike Station Expansion, is how I play lately and the career I just wrapped up was the most enjoyable I've had in KSP. I especially enjoyed all the time spent at Jool performing Quark science/tourism combo missions. The utterly massive parts in Station Science along with the challenges of life-support made for some real white-knuckle moments.

Edited December 21, 2015 by Death Engineering

[pandaman]

I really, really like the idea of career mode,  but the few times I tried it I found myself just working to complete the tech tree.  I know that is largely down to the way I played, but something still felt 'missing' from the game.

It does feel to me as if the whole career mechanic need a rework. The science and tech tree progression and Kerbal XP in particular.

 

[Andem]

I tend to stick with sandbox. At first career freaked me out a little, hearing of how terrible it was on the forums, all the management wasn't what I wanted KSP to be. then I tried it. Not as terrible as people make it out to be, but also not great. I actually want to see some things in current career that I actually want in sandbox as optional things.

 

Here's the thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/131061-career-lite/

[Elway358]

I'm a very new player to KSP (about 2 or 3 weeks) and I can tell you for a fact that I would never have touched this game if it weren't for career mode. I don't ever see myself just doing sandbox as I like to have goals set for me to achieve. career mode does a great job with having to unlock things and set the pace for you IMO.

[pandaman]

3 hours ago, Elway358 said:

I'm a very new player to KSP (about 2 or 3 weeks) and I can tell you for a fact that I would never have touched this game if it weren't for career mode. I don't ever see myself just doing sandbox as I like to have goals set for me to achieve. career mode does a great job with having to unlock things and set the pace for you IMO.

Career as an idea is great, like you I sometimes like to have goals and limitations that I haven't set for myself, but for me it's just the current implementation that puts me off.

 It just seems a bit disjointed, and place holder like to me.  But now squad can see what the current career mode plays like over a long time for a lot of different players they can see where they think it needs work and address it over time.

[Overland]

Ive had KSP since 0.20.. Ive driven trains since 0.25.. In 0.90 I brought a proper steering wheel and throttle..

 

Trains are a sandbox thing.. Im still 2 years on trying to complete my own contract.. Drive to KSC 2

 

Career for me is like taking away my toybox and not getting it back until im a good boy

Since smashing things in protest doesnt get it back... I never touch it

 

When im restricted I tend to push boundries outside of the contract..

 

This is why we cant have nice things.... In limited quantitys

Edited February 1, 2016 by Overland

[Ehco Corrallo]

I didn't use to play career. Sandbox is plenty difficult without limitations like money and science and unlocked parts. I started a career game recently though, and I've had fun with it, mostly only because it gives a point to the science parts, which are very cool, and add another layer of planning to an otherwise simple mission: "Go here, land here, go home." Having to build up to bigger missions is nice too.

That said, of the 350 odd hours I've played, perhaps 10 of them have been in career. 

 

[Luis]

I definitely think that the game mode missing from KSP is a campaign story mode. In my current save, I am role playing a series of missions that has the Kerbals gradually learning about a threat from beyond Kerbin, centred on the easter eggs. Each mission gives them a specific task (eg send rovers to photograph each of the Munoliths) and I write them up in a notepad file to build an ongoing narrative. At the successful completion of each mission I award myself one or two new pieces of technology. These are always key pieces, like engines or fuel tanks. I assume that the little things like girders and adaptors are always available. Certain tech advances require some extra havesting - the uranium for the LV-N can only be mined from the Mun, for example.

I'd dearly love it if KSP added a framework for campaign mode that allowed the community to write linear sequences of missions with their own briefing text, completion requirements and rewards. This would override th tech tree, because the missions would determine which parts were available. Money could exist as a limit to the total amount you could spend for that mission, but a new revert mode would always allow you to revert back to the start of the current mission, so you'd never bankrupt yourself into a dead-end.

[flintlockmusket]

17 hours ago, Luis said:

"I definitely think that the game mode missing from KSP is a campaign story mode."

Well said Luis. 

I myself have not had fun using career mode as presented in the stock game.  Instead I use a custom made tech tree, and make up a set of missions to discover something or other in the system.  I don't use the contract system built in the game, as I don't feel the contracts really match what I trying to do.  By the way, I play in sandbox, with limits set by me, plus use a mod to give some chance of random failure.  Works out good, cause I get to plan everything out, then they to execute, with failure being a real option.  

Who said fun came in a box.   

[Exploro]

if it weren't for career mode I wouldn't have found use for planes. Planes made a lot of the survey contracts a lucrative thing.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Career mode does a really good job of teaching you how to use all the parts you never tried in Sandbox.

Or trying things I didn't think of before, like putting things in particular orbits.

Budget limits add a bit of realism too.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[Evanitis]

When science mode was introduced, I only played science mode. When career mode was introduced, I only played career mode... until very recently. I kinda' forgot that stuff like RTGs or nukes or generally the whole end of the tech-tree exist. When I unlocked everything, I restarted with different mods and / or starting conditions and self-imposed limitations.

I just recently rediscovered the joy of launching a craft in sandbox while bits of the last one are still impacting around.

Though if 1.1 arrives, I guess I'll just play career mode again. I like to do stuff I don't like to do.

[Just Jim]

Honestly, I've never bothered with Sandbox or Science Mode.
I'm a career player 100%