Do you use strategies?

[Dizzle]

With the recent tweaks to the administration building, I decided to take another look after never really using it. To me, none of the strategies really seemed any better than just collecting science and funds myself, but I thought I might be missing something. So my question is, do you use strategies? If so, which ones, and why?

[Masetto]

Yeah, I think they may have overnerfed strategies a bit.

I'm not at end-game, where I might look at money-saving strats, but in terms of accumulating science... strats don't seem worth it. Too expensive, especially since everything else in the game feels a little more expensive now.

As another poster pointed, you're giving away major fractions, like 25% of your cash-earnings, and getting basically nothing in return.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Masetto

[Godot]

Only rarely

[Temeter]

I usually take science, but it seemed to be bugged. Removed money but didn't actually give me science points in many cases. So I reloaded and just ignored contracts.

[ArmchairGravy]

I spend 15% rep for science early, 15% funds for rep in mid-game, and then 100% science for funds after the tree's done.

[Tex_NL]

Early career mode: No. I need the reputation to ensure rewarding contracts. I need the science to unlock the tech tree. And I need the Funds to upgrade KSC and launch rockets.

Late career mode: Yes. When reputation nears the maximum I use Unpaid Research to exchange some of the rep for science. And depending on my finances Fundraising Campaign to exchange some rep for funds.

End career mode: Hell yes! Once the tech-tree is fully unlocked I'll use Patents Licensing at 100% to gain maximum funds from science and Fundraising Campaign at a high %. I keep some rep just to make sure it stays at near maximum.

[Skyentist]

Only when my strategy calls for strategic use of strategies.

[katateochi]

Early career mode: No. I need the reputation to ensure rewarding contracts. I need the science to unlock the tech tree. And I need the Funds to upgrade KSC and launch rockets.

Late career mode: Yes. When reputation nears the maximum I use Unpaid Research to exchange some of the rep for science. And depending on my finances Fundraising Campaign to exchange some rep for funds.

End career mode: Hell yes! Once the tech-tree is fully unlocked I'll use Patents Licensing at 100% to gain maximum funds from science and Fundraising Campaign at a high %. I keep some rep just to make sure it stays at near maximum.

Exactly what I do too.

[EtherDragon]

I do use strategies to balance out various gains as needed. For instance, I need Science more than anything currently. So I have both Funds and Rep going to Science.

[johnnyhandsome]

I can never figure out strategies, they seem overly complex.

[spinomonkey]

Strategies seem to have such a low return that I'd rather not screw with them. I do like the 'bailout' option. That was a nice touch. But the strategies in general should be a bit more creative and powerful. I shouldn't feel like I'm being screwed when I use one.

[almagnus1]

On hard mode, I clicked on the Rep => Funds as I needed to grind out a lot of money to get the building upgrades, and I have been running this at 25%.

There's still one more to go before I feel OK with going to the moon, as I don't want to lose science.

[PTNLemay]

I always set it to exchange reputation for science. It's not much of a boost, but... reputation is so useless it seems silly not to trade it in for extra science. I like going towards the late game techs as quickly as possible.

[Joonatan1998]

Early on in hard mode, I used the instant rep > funds when I almost got stuck due to a few failed test rockets.

The only non-exploity way to survive I had.

But low reputation = bad contracts...

[MacroNova]

I usually take science, but it seemed to be bugged. Removed money but didn't actually give me science points in many cases. So I reloaded and just ignored contracts.

They nerfed the Funds -> Science strategy because it was too overpowered in .9. The issue now is that due to rounding errors you can lose the money but receive no science.

I'm still in the relatively early game and I'm not messing with strategies. Part of that is because the setup costs are too high.

[Laie]

Not before I have filled in the tech tree.

Reputation determines how many good contracts will be on offer at any given time. I find that having any kind of rep-for-something strategy will ultimately cost me money. The amount of grind has been reduced drastically (mostly because tourists, which can easily be combined into a single mission), but it's not as if cash was lying by the wayside: no funds-for-something for me, either. And of course, I need every point of science.

I guess that means that career mode is pretty balanced overall. Eventually I will pipe all science into funds, of course, but I wonder if that will ever be necessary. I suspect that even the "fine, I was doing this anyway" kind of contracts will keep me afloat. Every mission will begin as a station around Kerbin, after all; that's ~100k then and there.

[Reddeyfish]

Once I fill the tech tree on career mode, I suppose I'll activate science>rep and science>funds at max.

[Kerr_]

My first few starts on 1.0 hard career I automatically put rep > science at 25%... BUT Later I realized that it keeps you from getting good contracts! not only that but the rewards round down. So a 1 rep no science mission would end up providing no rep or science

Up until 4 rep you just lose one rep and gain no science doing that ...

[zarakon]

Still early in career mode, none of them are attractive to me.

I suppose I'll probably use funds->science if I end up overflowing with cash at some point, and science->something after completing the tech tree

[dryer_lint]

I usually trade rep away for Funds or Science, unless it's really low. But I agree they over-nerfed strategies a bit...

[JAD_Interplanetary]

I set up Rep-for-Science right away, at maximum. Unlocking the tech tree is important, as that determines the types of missions you can do. With low rep, you get lots of similar missions, but doing similar missions several times means getting to go back to already visited places with new science equipment, yielding even more science. I've almost unlocked all the 300-level nodes, so I'll probably stop using any strategy until the entire tree is unlocked, at which point I'll start trading Science-for-Funds.

[Caelib]

I don't really find the need to use them in Normal career mode ... but I would imagine they are pretty handy for Hard-mode.

[JedTech]

Strategies are overly complex and I feel like they offer no benefit. I think the game balancing extremists may have asked Squad to balance strategies to the point of uselessness.

Would be better if I could make one time investments for continual return.

Edited May 5, 2015 by JedTech

[SelectHalfling0]

I've never found a time to explore them, as in early career sacrificing too much of one thing can be detrimental.

[ghpstage]

I never used then in 0.9 as everything sucked bar science from funds, which was utterly broken and completely unnecessary.

Now the only strategy that looks like it may pay back its investment in a reasonable time is Rep->funds, but with so little rep given in most contracts it would take forever to achieve anything of significance.

Bailout is a nice touch and the only thing that has any meaningful purpose, while the two science->funds things are only noteworthy because science eventually becomes useless.

Science can be gathered with experiments in very, very large quantities now due to the scientists ability to reset material bays and goo pods.

I don't really find the need to use them in Normal career mode ... but I would imagine they are pretty handy for Hard-mode.

Nope. Still useless on hard.