My Personal Sweet spot - Career mode settings

[tranenturm]

I've been "playing" KSP since the steam launch, but didn't really get into the early game.  It should enough promise but without a career mode it never really grabbed me.  I jumped back in when 1.0 hit and played a series of "normal" mode careers to learn how to fly (again), (and again and again as the updates came).  Part of me thought I couldn't really play without being able to revert, but the normal mode science progression was too quick and easy.  I considered just playing straight Hard mode, but what I didn't want was a money grind.  So I came to my personal sweet spot of the following settings:

No mods

Click on Hard,

Set funds back to 100%

Reduce Science from 60% to 50%.

Keep the rest like hard.

I'm LOVING this!  For me the joy of the game comes from new and interesting decisions.  Have some constraints around funds forces some tough decisions.  I care about unlocking parts.  I care about relative costs.  I have a reason to build reusable vehicles and to keep from over engineering.  The hard mode increases in unlocking building plus having to pay extra for the first part already put more stress on funds than normal.  However, having 100% funds rewards means I haven't had much in the way of repetitive grinding for the purposes of funds only.  Instead, gathering science is my primary motivator with funds merely being a check on the outlandish.  I don't mind "grinding" for science for 2 reasons.  First, science generally requires you to keep going to NEW places.  I want a nice reason to go new places so its not a minus, but a plus.  Second, it makes the use of the Science Lab a balanced part of the strategy and not just "easy mode".  (I refuse to fast forward time for the sake of science alone)  Finally, I feel like a see MORE of the science tree.  I used to click through nodes purely on the way to latter nodes.  With slower science, every science expenditure NEEDS to get me something useful AND/OR I'm pressed into making use of stuff that's merely "on the way" to the "good stuff."  

On the part of no reverts, I'm pleasantly surprised to find the game is BETTER without reverting.  I think when learning the early part of the game when you're new, reverts make good sense.  But once you're able to do the basics of orbiting, I like revert going away.  First, I like how it forces me to do a better job thinking through the missions, double checking everything.  Second, I enjoy how it forces me to consider the cost of testing new ships.  Going from 1.25 rockets to 2.5 is not straightforward.  Sure, some things are still relevant, but until you launch a few new rockets you don't really know how they will fair.  I guess you could cheat and actually do math, but that's not the Kerbal way!  Fund concerns combined with no revert and permadeath for my pilots, means I actually have to consider what might go wrong before hitting GO!  I'm actually putting probe cores onto to rockets to launch before putting crew on.  Crew safety is actually a concern!  With revert (and MIA instead of KIA) I had never considered the launch abort system.  Now I'm considering it.  (Considering, I still haven't actually used it...)  Finally, I like how I no longer "need" to do missions in one sitting anymore.  Sure I could have saved instead, but I always preferred the revert function.  Now that its not an option, my only concerns regarding in-game vs real-world times is during launches and burns.  Otherwise, its always a pretty quick exit.

Just wanted to share!

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I really like the idea of no quick saves/reverts but after trying it myself I realized (at least for me personally) it doesn't mesh well with the games tendency to crash or screw you randomly.

I've seen way too many Kerbals fall through the ground, or poof into non existence for no reason, ships randomly exploding, crafts and Kerbals getting flung out of the solar system by phantom forces to trust the game that much lol.

Glad to hear you've found something that works good for you though! May the Kraken never cast his shadow on your doorstep. 

[nosirrbro]

Interesting setup, however with the no reverts or quicksaves it becomes quite punishing with 0 way to run simulations, and while mods for that exist, they add an extra level of boring-ness with the need to do everything a bunch of times, and the reverting ability is what gives you testing without boredom. But, I'm not really a career guy anyway so it's not much of an issue with me, and maybe if I played with these settings I'd like them.

[tranenturm]

Knock on wood, the kraken has been kind to me. I'm also not trying 500 part space stations. I also tend to exit the game every now and then, particularly when I see signs of code being broken (after a while clicking on the buildings at KSP stops working, stuff like that). Next start I will enable auto save for the sole purpose of kraken insurance. 

 

As as for punishment, the 100% funds helps make sure I have extra cash to run new ships for testing. Most of the time I'm making profit even with screw ups and testing. So I'm not hesitant to test. It does mean I'm unlikely to try more outlandish configs. But if I'm cash poor but really want to try something unconventional I can always "simulate" in sandbox mode. So far though, I haven't gone far enough off the scales to warrant that. It also makes me think about "safe" testing. I've never really done space planes but I'm going through a testing phase to make a space bus. I'm getting science stations around the Kerbin system and want a way to transfer crew. I'm currently too low tech for a true SSTO so by strapping on some kickbacks to the wing tips (and then ejecting them) I can make orbit. In figuring this out, I both made sure I had a probe core driving (and not Jeb or Val) and plenty of radial parachutes. I recovered a fair number of mistakes during the process for a percentage of funds back lessening the sting. In some ways it drives my science research as I know once the tree is done I'll be converting the science into funds for the more crazy expensive tests. Currently my tech level is too low for most things. I'm close to the 3 mil in funds needed for the level 3 R&D. Only a couple of 300 sci techs, lots of holes at 160, and even a few 90s are missing. 

[WuphonsReach]

No way I could function with no reverts - too many bugs.  But I do make extensive use of KCT (Kerbal Construction Time) to test out vehicles prior to assembly + launch.

My ideal start would be "moderate" difficulty with 2500 science and 3 million in funds.  That's enough to upgrade most buildings to level 2, plus get mid-deep into the 160/300 science tech tree nodes, and have enough left over to start putting up meaningful vessels.

(KCT also has an auto-save feature - which works as well as the auto save add-on.)