What are your key tech unlocks in career mode?

[KerikBalm]

I'm just curious, what do your guys consider key techs to acquire to advance onwards in career mode?

Ie, techs that provide a large increase in capability, or allow you to undertake missions yu simply couldn't before.

Techs that lead to rapid progress after unlocking

Here are mine:

- OX-stat panels: Missions can suddely be much longer in duration, science output is increased and comes immediately, not at the end of a mission. Probes become viable, and combined with another tech, SAS on everything.

- Docking ports: Orbiting fuel depots make biome harvesting much easier and more economical

- LV-Ns: Suddenly, dV isn't so hard to come by. In particular, these make spaceplanes viable for a lot of tasks in kerbin's SOI

- Turbo-Ramjets: The basic jet is useless for spaceflight as far as I can see. Sure its good for exploring kerbin, but I could already do that with a ballistic rocket.

The rapier is too far down the line.

but Turbo-Ramjets... with these, I can cheaply haul large amounts of fuel up to orbit.

I can launch a large manner of craft that I might need: Science lab and half orange tank fuel depot? Check. Munar lander? Check. High-dV interplanetary probe to a destination outside the launch window? Check

I don't even need the mk3 parts or to upgrade either facility (runway or sph) to lvl 3.

My cost of getting things to orbit just plummeted.

Combined with the Nuke, the cost of getting things to the moons has plummeted, the science farming of kerbin's SOI is in full swing, and I simply need the fund to upgrade the R&D facility to level 3 to unlock....

- ISRU: Getting ISRU going, is pretty much conquering Kerbin's system.

Are any of these not that useful to you? any that you feel I've overlooked?

[regex]

I was going to say the "orange tank node" but, in reality, it was the 2.5m tank node that greatly increased the payload I could bring to space. That was a real breakthrough moment for me, although my first launcher to take five tourists to the Mun and then Minmus in one go pushed the 255 part limit, had to make a few compromises.

[cybersol]

Its really a no-brainer but worth stating explicitly, that basically any node giving a science instrument is a key node to unlock.

Others that pop to mind...

Fuel Lines - Moving fuel to your next stage allows SO much more range

Structs - Struts will let you do more with everything you have

A few of my favorite engines: Terrier is key when you are near that stage of the game. Mainsail is a beast of an engine in 1.0.2.

I also fully agree with your suggestion of docking ports

[nadreck]

Actually the AGU instead of the docking port. Allows fuel and crew transfers too. The fuel duct is also a key one, then concentrating on science capability.

[ghpstage]

The LV-909 Terrier is my major early target, I beeline it immediately after picking up the two 5 science techs. Its the engine that opens up serious Mun and Minmus exploration, including landings which is a critical turning point in funds and science income potential.

Edited May 11, 2015 by ghpstage

[AcidSludge]

Solar Panels. First and foremost.

After that: everything regarding rovers. I like to throw rovers at everything. Rovers covered with solar panels. Vroom, vroom.

[Freshmeat]

OX-STAT panels, struts and fuel lines mark the difference between start and midgame for me. It makes the trip to the Mun a routine flight instead of a dangerous experiment, and once you can get science from the Mun, the rest is easy sailing.

[celem]

First solar panel > 48-7S > Fuel Lines.

I often dont unlock nukes, just build bigger and thrustier.

[Andrewx21]

First aircraft node, to make cheap re usable planes to grind surface report missions. Then eletrics, and due to remote tech, the 300 science eletric node for interplanetary dish's

[zarakon]

Early game: Solar panels for sure, since they enable the lucrative satellite contracts

Mid game: Fuel lines, 2.5m tanks, mainsail, and the gravioli detector

Late: LV-N engine

[Aragosnat]

OX-Stats longer duration and probe contracts

lv-909 for the huge saving in weight and most used for Mün and Minmus landings till I get sparky

basic jet to do the local 100 km contracts on Kerbin. Come on. If I can get the plane back. I save even more funds and gives me something to do while waiting for my other craft to reach their destations

docking ports and fuel lines both of these will open up interplanetary when I get around to doing them as well ashelps get any craft that did not make it back get back.

[KingWolfWorm]

Please forgive me, as I am a moron, but how are fuel ducts on everyone's list? I tried googling how to use them and only came up with asparagus staging and a video that is 4 years old. How do you use them?

EDIT: I understand HOW to use them, I just dont see the trick in using them. How do they improve your range?

Edited May 11, 2015 by KingWolfWorm
I was not clear with my question.

[vicwarrior]

Every tech that gives more scientific instruments.

fuel lines and the space-grade duct tape (struts).

2,5m partsl.

[ghpstage]

Please forgive me, as I am a moron, but how are fuel ducts on everyone's list? I tried googling how to use them and only came up with asparagus staging and a video that is 4 years old. How do you use them?

EDIT: I understand HOW to use them, I just dont see the trick in using them. How do they improve your range?

They allow you to add tanks radially that do not require their own engines and that can be staged upon emptying in a way that vertically stacked tanks can't. At the most extreme this does lead to asparagus staging.

The weight savings from staging the fuel tanks (2 empty FL-T400 weigh half a ton) as they empty can lead to some surprisingly large improvements to dV.

Edited May 11, 2015 by ghpstage

[Ridge363]

I typically go for solar panels and science. After that, the 2.5m parts.

More science parts means faster research.

Solar panels allow for longer missions.

With longer, high science missions now available, the 2.5m part open up the solar system

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Science Experiments

Struts

Fuellines,

Solarpanels

[amorymeltzer]

Rover wheels, so I can get all that sweet sweet KSC science!

[Captain Sierra]

In terms of science:

1) The first electrical node, the one that has the OX-STAT panels and the 100Ec batteries.

2) Fuel lines.

3) The LV-909 "Terrier".

Give me those three and I can go to the Mun and back pretty comfortably. Once I can go to the Mun and Minmus, it slingshots me up the tech tree with the returns from a few moon landings. That marks the end of early game and pushes me to the later half of the tech tree.

In terms of funds:

1)Stayputnik

2)Basic aero components

3)Landing

4)Same electrical node as above

1 and 4 go together to allow satellite contracts (I actually shoot these up on top of a manned pod because dammit I want SAS*) which pay pretty damn well. (It also lets you do interplanetary probe shots for decent transmitted science returns but thats a whole different focus)

2 and 3 let me make planes to handle aerial survey contracts much cheaper and with very high recovery percentages, making me almost always able to pay the bills when funds get short. (this can get tedious but its still a very efficient way of making money in early and mid game, and I tend to need to do that as I'm running multiple not-inexpensive moon landings around that time)

[Maolagin]

2 and 3 let me make planes to handle aerial survey contracts much cheaper and with very high recovery percentages, making me almost always able to pay the bills when funds get short. (this can get tedious but its still a very efficient way of making money in early and mid game, and I tend to need to do that as I'm running multiple not-inexpensive moon landings around that time)

PSA: I've seen several people say this. Spare yourself the tedium. Park someone in a capsule with a thermometer in a low polar orbit of Mun or Minmus and rack up the "visual surveys" and "temperature scan" contracts. Since you can timewarp over airless worlds, and they pay out several times as much, you can generate Kerbucks at a phenomenal rate with fairly early tech if you need to.

[AbacusWizard]

For me the big ones have always been atomic engines and (large) docking clamps, because once I have those I can build huge orbital cargo tugs that can tow space stations, surface outposts, spaceplanes, crew transports, etc. anywhere.

However, 1.0's changes--in particular the atomic engine's new heating problems and use of LFO only, and the movement of large docking clamps to the far end of the tech tree--are causing me to rethink things. Once I get more tech (especially large LFO tanks and large docking clamps) I think it'll return to normal.

[Wjolcz]

Fuel lines help a lot.

[Joonatan1998]

Getting the ISRU allows you to start Kerbal Ore Refinery Program.

Funds suddenly become free.

[Sky_walker]

Solar panels, fuel lines, different parts for making small probes.

[LostOblivion]

Since I play with life support, solar panels for electricity was important, but before that the Terrier for simply getting to orbit with a cheap design. After that I started looking at plane parts for visual/temp contracts close to KSC, and then parts for making space shuttles so I can start setting up my first RemoteTech comsat networks, and (since 1.0) bring back the lost-in-orbit kerbal husks to the ground. After this initial infrastructure is done, I will unlock more solar panels and probe parts for interplanetary probes.

[KerikBalm]

So my thoughts in response to a few ones brought up so far:

Pretty much every unlock adds some new capability, so I suppose something can be said for every node (although you'd be hard pressed to argue for somethings that just add new structural parts)

* The LV-909: yes, its a good little engine, and with the rebalance, not just an interim until the 48-7s.

Its definitely a step up in capabilities, as its my early orbital insertion engine, lander engine, etc.

That said, I feel its more of an incremental increase, and not such a giant leap.

The Swivel is also a nice upgrade, more Isp, more control authority, less thrust.

The LV-909 has a worse TWR than the swivel, and less than 8% more Isp. It allows you to build *smaller* by having a liquid fuel engine that is only 40% the weight of the reliant/33% the weight of the swivel.

Its not such a huge improvement IMO

* The advanced grabbing unit/ large docking ports: Sure its nice, but everything said for it, can also be said for the docking ports. Its a bit more convenient and versatile, but the earlier small docking ports can give you the same fundamental capabilities (minus asteroid attachment, which for me is pretty late game and a small niche)

* The fuel lines: I would have agreed back in 0.23.

Since then, the funds have changed things.

SRBs are cheap, decouplers, liquid fuel engines and tanks... are not. There are also part limits - its cheaper to upgrade the launch pad and maximum tonnage, than the VAB and maximum parts. SRB launch systems have far fewer parts than cross feeding liquid fuel boosters.

Then there's the new aerodynamics to consider... I rely more on the tall SRBs than asparagus designs now.

Sure I use some cross feeding (often two radial LFO boosters feeding to a core stage, with SRBs also attached ot the core stage)... but again, I don't consider it such a huge leap in capabilities.

Not at the level of turboramjets and LV-Ns, or the efficiency gains from dedicated landers+orbital rendevous+ fuel depots, etc.

* 2.5M parts: They help get around part limits, making it easier to get more tonnage to orbit, but they don't feel like a huge leap to me.

* Plane parts, pre-turboramjets: Meh... sure good for exploring kerbin, but I often find those contracts to be more time consuming than they are worth.

They don't help me get to other celestial bodies, or get tonnage to orbit cheaper (which helps get to other celestial bodies)

* Science insturments: yes, they are a priority. Spending science to get more science... they all pay off in the end... but... its not really what I'm talking about.

Unlocking the seismic scanner doesn't directly help you get to *insert destination here*

Indirectly, it does, by letting you get more science to unlock a different node, that will help you.