Making mid and end game carreer more difficult (and risky)?

[paul23]

Well on my current playthrough I started at 30% money and 20% science yield. This made the start of carreer mode very very hard. Probably too hard to bear (had to do a lot of launch-pad tests to earn a good sum of money). However I'm now approaching midgame, and suddenly I notice myself swarming in money suddenly I see missions where I have to rescue a kerbal - those earn me upwards of 30k money. While I can do them using a standard (not even optimized per mission) spacecraft worth ~11k. Realistically I might get all those done within a 9k budget.

Now as said next time I'd probably start with 50% money at least, which would give a nett profit of around 50k per mission. And this is just "conquering" LKO etc. Not even attempting Mun missions or beyond.

So I'm wondering: would there be options that keep the start equally difficult: but increase the difficulty of the later missions? Maybe make some missions high-reward but need to be done very fast (so not allowed to spend ~4 hours in orbit before aligning)? Or are there other things that could make KSP more difficult near the end game... Yet still give an incentive to actually do those rescue missions instead of completing the simple test part landed/in flight missions?

PS: just for reference, using above settings, I do those rescue missions using 3 thumpers and a swivel, so still very early in the science tree).

Edited October 19, 2015 by paul23

[Goomblah]

If you don't already, using a life support mod will make later-game missions more difficult and expensive, because visiting other planets will require lots of additional life support, while missions in Kerbin's SOI (early game) generally don't need so much extra mass. It also makes time management much more important, as opposed to stock where it's more or less irrelevant.

[paul23]

Hmm life support might indeed be a good thing to look at. Just I am wondering if those mods are balancing themselves well. (Having played minecraft a lot, I notice that mods typically tend to unbalance themselves to make them "better" than others providing even more equipment etc).

[Joonatan1998]

Hmm life support might indeed be a good thing to look at. Just I am wondering if those mods are balancing themselves well. (Having played minecraft a lot, I notice that mods typically tend to unbalance themselves to make them "better" than others providing even more equipment etc).

I agree that some of the Minecraft mods have silly competition, but don't think that has been an issue with KSP, with many mods being very realism-oriented. Usually it also is easy to change the numbers used, either in a settings menu or in the config file. Non-visual, non-part mods often make the game harder.

If you are looking for difficulty, I think TAC-LS may be the best LS mod. (also the most realistic one)

KSP has a very unusual difficulty curve, the begining can be hard with some settings, then it becomes much easier after Mun/Minmus landing, and then some end game challenges can be very hard again.

Some techtree mods could help, but I don't know any specific one that would make the mid-game harder.

The main issue is the huge amount of easy but boring science from mun/minmus biomes.

Or just non-kerbin biomes in general.

I think most experiments should be biome independent, but give a bit more science than they do now. Would make the game more balanced and less grindy.

With minecraft most people who use modpacks use some pre-made, pre-balanced(or not) modpack for easier multiplayer and installation etc. KSP doens't really have modpacks, and generally players can easily/have to balance the game for themselves by choosing mods and settings to play with.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Joonatan1998

[monstah]

Agreed, Life Support. Also, the Kerbal Construction Time mod: it makes building ships take time. Need a rescue now? Not happening unless you planned for the possibility beforehand.

[legoclone09]

Why not get the contract reward modifier by Dmagic? You can chnage the yield after you start swarming in money. Or just change amount received in the savegame's persistent.sfs file.

[paul23]

@lego: that would then feel as "not progressing" - it makes you feel like you are worse than when you started. Where even lategame the early missions are still best to do considering money/science/reputation per minute playing.

[Blue_J]

In addition to Life Support (as has already been suggested,) I would suggest installing CTT and playing with tech buy-in on. This will not preclude you from running a bajillion LKO rescue contracts, but it will provide you with mid-to-late-game money and science point sinks, which will encourage you to take higher-risk, higher reward missions just to keep it interesting. Moreover, you'l probably wind up running these missions with lower tech than you might otherwise - no more filling up the tech tree before you shoot for Duna!

(This strategy works even better if you add mods that actually put stuff in the higher CTT levels. You want to actually get something cool in exchange for that 5-biome Duna mission.)

[Death Engineering]

As mentioned, LS; tried several, but keep coming back to RoverDude's USI Life Support. It's balanced, the math is easy and some really interesting things for the future are in the works for this mod.

Lately, I've been playing a career with contract packs for tourism and extra science (namely Kerbin Space Station, Tourism and Station Science). I've also added the Stockalike Station Parts Expansion to add some flair to the Space Station contracts. I've found that for the first time, I'm building stations in orbit and on the surface (to a lesser extent) that I expand on and continue to use later in the game when more complex science contracts come up.

The science contracts in Station Science add a lot of depth to the game and along with life support needs, makes for some interesting missions. For example, I just finished a Jool 5-moon flyby tourist mission with a stop at Vall's science lab to complete a research contract.

The tourism contracts are fun as well, with the 'Space Casino' being the only time I really bling'ed up a space station.

The requirement included the asteroids, requiring a total of 10 launches to build.