Is Normal career mode too hard?

[herbal space program]

It's not too hard, it's just not developed in a way that makes it as fun as it could be. The building upgrade system gives way too much too quickly for some things (like the VAB and Launchpad), and keeps some things out of reach for far too long (like the maneuver node and surface sampling). Also, the tech tree doesn't have nearly enough flexibility, with two giant across-the-board building upgrade walls basically defeating the purpose of having a tree at all. I believe the devs really need to re-think a lot of this, and should not have jumped to calling this game 1.0. Looking up the thread I can see that this is a widely held sentiment among experienced players.

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From Minmus, I used the rest of my fuel to zero out my periapsis, and fire straight down into kerbin. I hit atmosphere at over 3600m/s, got the temp gauges to a dark green on a solar panel, a goo canister, and the engine(I entered butt first), and....that was it. I slammed into it trying to cause a failure, and then fell essentially unharmed until I hit the ocean at a gentle 140m/s.

Whats up with that? Sure its normal difficulty I'd still like a bit of danger.

That's really weird. from LKO I've exploded a couple of times coming in far slower. One time I flipped my command module for just a few seconds before righting it and it then blew up in the lower atmosphere. Any engines and tanks I've had mounted also pretty consistently explode off if they are the leading parts. Clearly something is screwy about the way they calculate this.

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What gives? I try to post new replies and no matter what I do they get appended to my first post.

Edited May 6, 2015 by herbal space program

[Geschosskopf]

It's not too hard it's just not any fun.

Agreed. Even Easy mode isn't fun.

As I see it, there are 3 interrelated reasons for this:

* 1. The vast increase in the total amount of science needed to unlock the tree, due to all the new nodes. And of course the higher amount of science needed to go up a size in rockets due to their parts being spread over more nodes than before.

* 2. The nearly complete elimination of science rewards from contracts, meaning the only way to get all the science you now need is to grind out repeated landings on Mun and Minmus biomes.

* 3. The financial rewards for going to Mun and Minmus essentially cease once you've been there once (assuming the Explore Minmus contract ever appears, which isn't likely). Therefore, the only real way to get the money necessary to grind out the Mun and Minmus biome missions is to grind out scads of satellite and ferry contracts.

The upshot is, career mode is now pretty much a lock-step grind of seemingly endless repetition. I call it the "Great Blueprint Scavenger Hunt". Rocket plans are now scattered all over Mun and Minmus so if you go there enough, you'll collect them all. Gone is the meaningful R&D of getting science for testing the parts you hope to have in the future, along with the associated thought-provoking, complicated, ship and mission design process to test a bunch of parts on the same flight. This used to be a stimulating and challenging alternative to the Great Blueprint Scavenger Hunt. I'm sad it's no longer with us.

All I can say is, thank the Dark Gods for DMagic Orbital Science. This provides not only lots more science from new sources, but offers contracts that pay handsomely (both in cash and extra science) for using them. It's about the only way to escape the Great Blueprint Scavenger Hunt these days.

[EvilKyote]

All I can say is, thank the Dark Gods for DMagic Orbital Science. This provides not only lots more science from new sources, but offers contracts that pay handsomely (both in cash and extra science) for using them. It's about the only way to escape the Great Blueprint Scavenger Hunt these days.

Personally I like the career mode and prefer it to sandbox - i like the challenge it gives. For me I think even Hard mode is too easy. I enjoy the science collecting very much have have installed Dmagic for it's additional science experiments and contracts, but I think with this you can gain too much science too fast which in effect you could unlock the entire tree without leaving kerbin/Mun/Minmus.

And with 1.0.x comes an easy solution to re-balance the science - adjusting the science required for each node. For me I made it more challenging by changing the following:

Tier 0 start

Tier 1 unchanged

Tier 2 unchanged

Tier 3 increased from 45 to 80

Tier 4 increased from 90 to 180

Tier 5 Increased from 160 to 350

Tier 6 Increased from 300 to 750

Tier 7 Increased from 550 to 1300

Tier 8 Increased from 1000 to 2500

Personally I think to rightfully unlock the whole tree you must explore on most of the other planets and moons to do so Once the tree is unlocked you a pretty much like in sandbox just with money management which I enjoy as well.

EK.

[nohelmet]

I've played KSP for a while (since before the destructible buildings) and I'm trying career for the first time with 1.0. I haven't made it super far yet (Mun orbit is the furthest I've been so far) but so far I'm finding that career is fun. Of course I can't just go land on Pol right away but I'm enjoying the change of pace. The missions are varied and so far I've never felt like I had to do one that wasn't appealing to me.

[Fraggle]

The science can be a bit of a Grind, but "hard".. No not so much.

[almagnus1]

Another mod I'm awaiting for update is Station Science, as I liked having that as the core of my station.

[jdmgto]

It's not too hard, but for someone who's already very at home in KSP it's just too damn SLOW. I've put space stations around Laythe, built fuel mining and refining infrastructure on Ike, sent Kerbals to the surface of Eve and got them back. Sub-orbital tourist trips for cash or flying a plane to take a few readings is mind numbingly boring. I've tried to get a career mode game going twice and have given up on it both times. Sandbox all the way.

I've got some ideas. One of my favorite mods in .90 was a one click, grab all the science mod. Instead of having to EVA to grab everything I could just click the button in the command pod and suck all the science out of all the instruments and into it. Having to go fetch the science manually is annoying busywork, especially when you're doing a Minmus flyby with about 16 instruments.

Edited May 8, 2015 by jdmgto

[Jarin]

[mid-game] Science is maybe too easy still, but facility prices are still irritating as hell.

[tater]

[mid-game] Science is maybe too easy still, but facility prices are still irritating as hell.

Mid game? I started a moderate career with 1.0.2, and I have intentionally waited to unlock a mk1-2, lander cans, and clamp-o-trons to land on the Mun Apollo style. I am working on the 160 tech tree items, and have upgraded the VAB/Pad/tracking/R&D, some all the way. I have 5-6 million in the bank.

It is more grindy, but still trivial, honestly.