Sandbox , Career Mode, or other rules?

[AeroGav]

I bought KSP two weeks ago and am absolutely loving it, spent virtually every free minute of free time on it so far. I've got two different games running however, which reflects the dilemma I find myself in.

In my Sandbox game, I've been building, testing and flying space planes, which is the main thing I love about this game (not that there aren't other attractions!). I've been using those spaceplanes to set up an In Situ Resource Utilization base on Minimus, which will then allow my aircraft and probes to reach the rest of the solar system with ease. It's taken ten flights of my MK2 space plane to put all the pieces of this base, the orbital resource scanner and an ion thruster space tug up in mid Kerbin orbit, and i'm just finishing off docking the pieces of the Minimus IRSU rover together, and the boondoggle is almost ready to set off. Assuming it all goes my way, I'll achieved exploration of the Kerbol system with reusable vehicles only and without having to bring interplanetary fuel up from ground level. Should be good for the budget, in the long term.

The problem with this game mode however, is that being sandbox I already have unlimited funds and when i actually reach these outer worlds, i can fly around a bit and see what they look like, but ultimately won't be able to do any science on them (will i?) and won't have anything to spend the points on anyway.

For this reason, I started a career mode game, but it's taking so long to tech up, furthermore, my beloved space planes are right at the far end of it. By the time i'm able to do what i have been doing in Sandbox, i'll have had to have explored the entire system anyway, just to earn enough blue points. Career mode is all about rockets, but i don't find them as interesting and besides , i'm horrible at both building and flying them. Most attempts, even with stock vehicles, end in a huge fireball and KIA.

Is there a mod or game mode where you are strictly limited for reputation and funds, already have the tech tree open, or some mod that adds near-future sci-fi items i can work towards once i cheat my way to supersonic/hypersonic aircraft tech?

[Clipperride]

Welcome aboard! You seem to be getting the hang of the game and the sometimes tricky art of aerodynamics.

Have you tried science mode? It gives you unlimited funds, but you still have to unlock the tech tree. Although that means no Space Planes for a while, it does introduce the parts in a way that means you end up having used most of them.

You'll find that you unlock the tech nodes fairly quickly in Science Mode as you don't need to repeat flights to earn money. You can also choose which branches of the tech tree to unlock first so, to a certain extent, you can concentrate on the plane parts. You will certainly have all the planre parts before you need to set off for other planets.

I'll leave to others to advise on the Mods available.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Clipperride

[FancyMouse]

But currently blue points can only open tech nodes, and if you want them to be open upfront, blue points will be useless.

One option would be, get CTT, give yourself enough initial science (you know this is adjustable when creating a new career, right?) to unlock your spaceplane, then start career from there.

Or you can do your own science in sandbox. Doing science isn't the same as earning blue points, especially those real science.

[JTpopcorn]

Look for custom tech trees that people have made. Some of them follow a more realistic flow of tech with planes then rockets then nukes/rapier. You can edit your save to give yourself however much funds or science you want, so you can unlock certain things to skip the beginning tech grind so you can get to the fun stuff. Also if I recall, nearly all tech in the science tree can be obtained in the Kerbin Sphere of influence.

If you want of video on how to edit a save file pm me, I can probably make one this weekend.

-JT

[Mastikator]

You could start career with maxed out science and science rewards. You won't get all of the things directly but you'll cap out after you return from the Mun.

[legoclone09]

I'd go for a 'logical progression Sandbox' where you start with less powerful rockets and eventually get bigger and better and change cfgs to show it being better.

[AeroGav]

Thanks for the replies. I got a 4 day work shift coming up so won't get to look at any of this for a few days unfortunately. Yeah, I'd like to give myself more starting science especially in the aircraft side of things , but give myself a tight budget where i'm forced to bring everything back and cut down on unnecessary launches.

In my career game, i've beelined airplane tech hard, as you might expect, yet despite being able to put men in orbit (1960s tech) , my airplanes still don't have retractable undercarriage (1920s tech), and am stuck with jet engines that won't exceed 8000m / 240 m/s (think we managed to beat that in 1940s). The Wheesley's seem to have been nerfed in the last few updates.

[TrueProphet]

For this reason, I started a career mode game, but it's taking so long to tech up, furthermore, my beloved space planes are right at the far end of it. By the time i'm able to do what i have been doing in Sandbox, i'll have had to have explored the entire system anyway, just to earn enough blue points. Career mode is all about rockets, but i don't find them as interesting and besides , i'm horrible at both building and flying them.

I was in the exact opposite position - loving rockets, hating space planes. Turns out my solution was simple: career mode, in easy rather than normal. No need to do the contracts that don't interest me (visual survey of X locations etc), but still unlocking parts at a slow enough rate I actually use most of them rather than just skipping to the end of the tech tree, and still a structured progression (Mun, then Minmus, then Duna etc). The other perk of easy rather than normal is less need to grind missions. Now, for spaceplanes, you need more techs just to get going, so I'd suggest easy career with giving yourself enough of a headstart to unlock the minimum viable spaceplane.

[Sanic]

Hmm... What about a rocket/spaceplane combination?

You can also make tiny planes very early on, but they'll be rocket powered.

I recommend science mode, you don't have to spend 2,000,000 kerbucks to unlock the nodes past nukes.

But remember... starting science up the wazoo!

[FlyingPete]

I like career mode as more of a strategic gameplay- maximising profit through finding well-paying contracts and organising missions that can fulfill several objectives (e.g building a spacecraft with a spare seat so you can cart a tourist along on a Mun survey.) You have the training of crews to consider too- again, this makes it worthwhile to have spare seats on Mun/Minmus flights so your rookies can gain experience.

Sandbox is good for when you want the challenge to be actually building and flying the spacecraft, without having to worry about funds. Most of the grand adventures get carried out in sandbox.