Career mode suggestion from a new player

[ruairiau]

As a new player, I've been enjoying what KSP has to offer over the last few days. However, career mode seems a bit wonky, so here's my thoughts...

What's wrong:

There's no clear progression.

It feels like I'm being forced to find unique ways to obtain 'science' just to progress through the tech tree and it has little to do with the career task.

How can it be fixed...

Scrap the tech tree and purchasing building upgrades. Career tasks should unlock new technology or facility upgrades which helps accomplish the next tasks. Each career task should guide the player through expanding their space program starting off small, e.g. exploring kerbin and conducting experiments, some basic flight tests. Then work up to achieving orbit, getting a satellite and space station into orbit etc. Then on to more advanced stuff.

The guts of this seems to be there, but the progression of technology seems to be very detached from achieving the objectives and very reliant on me clicking goo (or whatever) and doing EVA's in various bioms. This would be fine if they were mission objectives, but right now it's just an invisible checklist that I have to figure out to get some science; it doesn't feel like a mission goal.

[Hcube]

- - - Updated - - -

I think that you understood most of what's wrong with career in just a few days playing

Although some contracts DO give you science to unlock nodes in the tech tree, i agree with you : the science and the contract progression are not related enough

Edited May 19, 2015 by Hcube
double post -_-

[Sky_walker]

I'm not a big fan of locking progression to objectives.

IMHO choosing your own objectives and your own flow of the game is a large part of what makes career fun. I would really hate having that cut down to much more linear progress.

Tech tree does require a huge revamp and re-thinking along with contracts (I like suggestion someone gave for starting programmes - eg. Mun landing programme, Duna exploration, etc.), but really, building career around linear progression doesn't really work beyond atmospheric->suborbital->orbital flights at a very beginning.

[Orionkermin]

I don't like the tech tree either. Ultimately it should work as a means to an end and not an end unto itself. Right now if you remove the tech tree completely what is left in career mode? Basically just a financial grind that leads the player into a slightly restrictive sandbox mode. Career needs more meat.

[tater]

There are almost too many things wrong with career to mention...

One thing to remember is that we also have "Science" mode, so I think that complaints about a progression don't hold up, as Science mode could be reworked at the same time to provide a mechanism for science-seeking, progressive sandbox play if done right. If that wouldn't work, then career could have some options for play style as well.

The entire paradigm of (mostly planetary) science to unlock rocket stuff is absurd. Missions are chosen, and tech is designed to meet the requirements of the mission, KSP has this exactly backwards.

Time needs to matter. Squad has said that they don't want warping to be an exploit to get funds, etc, but it's NOT an exploit, as time will pass. Once time is meaningful, passing time matters.

I would scrap the current mechanism in favor of a system where you set a broad mission goal for your program (in the Admin Office, instead of the dumb "strategies"). There could be sliders with Space Exploration (science), Commercial Space (satellite launches, then maybe bases, etc, for 3d parties), and Tourism. They add up to 100%, so you might select 80% Exploration, 15% commercial, 5% tourism, for example. This influences what "contracts" you see (along with your Rep) by that percentage. You can adjust these settings each new year (maybe by a certain percentage, based upon your Rep, so a bad-rep program cannot go from 100% commercial to 100% Exploration on a dime).

Space Exploration is a budgeted program (think NASA/ESA/etc). You'd have missions to chose from as your current focus (starting would be "Achieve Spaceflight"), and they'd pay up front as the budget you have to accomplish this task. A simple time mechanic would be for the budget to be doled out every 50 days or so (a Minmus-month, a munar month is short at 6 Kerbin days, but that could work, too). If you blew up a rocket, using all this month's funds, there can be a "warp to next month" button next to the warp to next morning. This is GOOD. It means that the first Duna window you can realistically use is not year 1, for example (when is entirely adjustable by Squad, BTW, by initial position of the planets). Missions would be generated not from external parties, but from your program, and would include many that are now contracts, though redone to not be dumb (survey contracts, etc). These missions would come with science paid up front, perhaps, and even parts (as per parts testing). The idea is that you get a budget for tech to invest in as well. Wanna go to the Mun? You get funding, and a certain number of tech unlocks.

Commercial launches would be a way to get extra funds, beyond the budget. Often no new tech, though some contracts might be for payloads that require something new, so that can be there as well. I'd have the player lose ownership of them as soon as the contract is fulfilled, BTW. Old sats, etc, would then be open to repair/resupply missions, etc.

Tourism is pretty self-explanatory, but it's another cash business, no budget. Instead of random kerbals wanting rides, I would have their version of "explore" contracts be stuff like "Intercontinental Hotels wants to build an orbital hotel with you. Place a station in LKO that can house 5 Kerbals, and has a viewing cupola, docking, power, etc." Then there are repeat contracts to deliver and recover tourists from that location. Plus suborbitals, etc.

Parts testing could be part of any of those, but all the dumb testing needs to go away. Test a part on a suborbital Mun trajectory? That is different from LKO how, exactly? Part testing could be part of the tech unlock mechanism.

[herbal space program]

Basically, I think what happened is that the devs just ran out of time (i.e. money) before they could really properly finish the career part of the game, so they basically left us with a placeholder. I assume that they decided that if they're going to spend a lot of time creating quality content to go with this giant space sandbox, they are going to have to monetize it by offering it as an expansion pack or a 2.0 version. That is OK by me, as I have already gotten my original $24.95's worth out of the game many, many times over and would gladly pay them more to finish the job. But I sure hope that after they've all spent a couple of weeks lounging on the beach, they do come back and get to work on the next phase. For them to walk away now would just be very sad.

[Mr. Scruffy]

Another -maybe additional- way to climb through the tech tree could be ´part expirience´ by which i mean that just using parts would accrue points that would allow you to unlock the next node beyond a threshold. Like in: Use the smallest SRB for say 500 seconds (off the launchpad only) and that will unlock the next bigger SRB. Maybe further differentiate between use in atmo (unlocking paths to plane-parts) and in vacuum.