Career or science as main game?

[ToukieToucan]

So most of my time I've been messing around in career but when I got to Duna and Ike my science was basicly maxed out.

I do want to have a nice main game with some stations (and go past Duna)

 

pros of career:

You need to manage your money

You need to upgrade buildings so you can make better rockets

 

cons of career:

Most contracts dont suit me

Some contracts can be OP

 

 

Pros of science mode:

 

No contracts (also kind of a con though)

 

Cons of science mode:

All buildings upgraded (infinte parts in VAB)

No real goals

Maybe a bit to easy

 

 

So should I choose Career or Science and at what difficulty? I do want to visit Jool in the end game (instead of Duna *cough* easy mode)

 

 

[tranenturm]

Play custom settings on career. 

I set things to hard, put science rewards to 50% and money rewards to 100%. I also check quick save for kraken insurance. 

 

I really like it. I don't find it to be a money grind. The science is my main constraint but funds are still relevant particularly around upgrading buildings 

[ToukieToucan]

4 minutes ago, tranenturm said:

Play custom settings on career. 

I set things to hard, put science rewards to 50% and money rewards to 100%. I also check quick save for kraken insurance. 

 

I really like it. I don't find it to be a money grind. The science is my main constraint but funds are still relevant particularly around upgrading buildings 

Sounds good, I currently have my science at 30% but that might be a bit too low.

[Wonky kergineer]

What tranenturm said i find valid, as "difficult" means different things for each person, you can always tweak the difficulty options to suit your taste.
I personally find the normal settings in Career a good challenge, but that's me right now, maybe in the future i'll find it too easy.

[stenole]

I would say science mode is the main game if you have just started playing the game. That way you can't lose because of repeated disasters. In early career, you are always just a couple crashes away from bankrupt. Science also has the added benefit of gradually getting you into the game instead of dumping the entire part library from the very beginning. I might change my mind if career mode becomes more forgiving. Technically the main game is sandbox with a boatload of mods though, but that comes after learning most of the basics.

[Foxster]

17 minutes ago, stenole said:

I would say science mode is the main game if you have just started playing the game. That way you can't lose because of repeated disasters. In early career, you are always just a couple crashes away from bankrupt. Science also has the added benefit of gradually getting you into the game instead of dumping the entire part library from the very beginning. I might change my mind if career mode becomes more forgiving. Technically the main game is sandbox with a boatload of mods though, but that comes after learning most of the basics.

I agree with this. I like making my own challenges in the game and find the contracts pretty boring and repetitive anyway. 

[Nich]

Default hard is a grind.  Contract after contract while only making 10k.  I like doing speed runs and the most profitable was the suborbital trip.  Cost me 1-2k (depending on recovery) and paid 12k and only took 7 minutes of game time.  Orbital, Mun, and Minimus paid more per trip but they took 30 min, 8 days, and 25ish days.  When your limited to 2 contracts it is about how fast you can pump a mission out.

Sadly I have no desire to do 70 suborbitals to upgrade my launch pad.

I like a normal game and if I am in the mood for a challenge no save no revert.  3 landings on Kerbin, 3 landings on Minimus, 3 landings on the Mun and off to Duna

 

btw the new upgrade station contracts are awsome. although do the bare minimum.  I upgraded an 8 kerbal station to a 32 kerbal station so I would be ready for the next upgrade contract (when I only needed 7 more)  Sure enough next station needs 45 kerbals and sadly the station is already nearing 300 parts

Edited February 6, 2016 by Nich

[Findthepin1]

I only play sandbox

Bwahahahaha

[luizopiloto]

SANDBOX \ /

[rustysocket]

Sandbox

[Evanitis]

Career.

It's pretty fun if you don't make your main goal to fulfil missions. I usually play 'normal' with various ways to decrease science gain, so the low-tech times last longer. Tried 50% and 25%. The first still unlocked the tree pretty quickly, the second felt grindy on the beginning.

The most ideal stock-alike career setup I came up with was starting with 100%, but decreasing it by 15% every time I orbited, or landed on a new body (Kerbin included). This way the start was fast, but I only got 10% science once I was ready to do interplanetary.

[Dfthu]

I pretty much only use sandbox.

[GluttonyReaper]

Yep, been playing almost entirely sandbox since 0.18

[ToukieToucan]

1 hour ago, GluttonyReaper said:

Yep, been playing almost entirely sandbox since 0.18

But sandbox takes away the whole challenge of using whats available...

[GluttonyReaper]

20 minutes ago, ToukieToucan said:

But sandbox takes away the whole challenge of using whats available...

Not really, you just have more stuff available, in terms of parts. I've never really found the funds aspect of career that interesting, since after the initial phases, you almost always have enough money anyway. I know I could just turn fund rewards down, but then it just feels grindy...

[Curveball Anders]

44 minutes ago, ToukieToucan said:

But sandbox takes away the whole challenge of using whats available...

Sandbox allows you to define your own challenges and restrictions.

[ToukieToucan]

24 minutes ago, GluttonyReaper said:

Not really, you just have more stuff available, in terms of parts. I've never really found the funds aspect of career that interesting, since after the initial phases, you almost always have enough money anyway. I know I could just turn fund rewards down, but then it just feels grindy...

Filled in your google document btw, but back to the toppic: I like having a bit more realistic small rocket go to the mun instead of a warp drive going to the mun...

[Nich]

My major problem with career is the contracts are way too easy to make a profit on but the profit is so small that upgrades to facilities are an enormous cost. I would much prefer that contracts are much more challenging to do profitably and facility upgrades are cheaper or given / accomplishment in space gives a new launch pad orbit gives a new Control Center mun a new tracking center and minimus a new command center