What are your house rules?

[TotallyNotHuman]

• No kerbal gets left behind. Rescue missions galore!
• No quickloading unless the Kraken pays a visit.
• Revert Flight can only be used for such missions designated as tests.
• No crewed vehicle may be launched without uncrewed tests beforehand.
• NTRs may not be fired in any world with an atmosphere.
• NTRs may not be deliberately deorbited unless they have not been fired before.
• MechJeb may not be used unless absolutely necessary.
• Part clipping is not allowed unless the parts are structural.
• The "Crew Transfer" function may not be used unless the crew modules are adjacent.
• If crews need to be transferred to a nonadjacent module, I must use EVA.
• I cannot Terminate debris in the Tracking Station.
• If an interplanetary transfer will last longer than five minutes, I use periapsis kicking. Otherwise I do it in one go.
• A periapsis kick burn may not last longer than 1/2 of the full burn duration.
• No HyperEdit/Debug Menu/cheating.
• All stages that will enter orbit MUST have a probe core on it to facilitate deorbiting.
• Research labs must have crew rotated once the science produced reaches the limit.

That's all for now. If I recall any more I will add it here.

[Curveball Anders]

I have very few.

• Have fun.
• No repetition of tedious and/or boring manual flight (unless it's fun).
• Have fun.
• No grinding for science or funds (unless it's fun).
• Keep all Kerbals alive, always revert or rescue when needed (unless it isn't fun).
• Have fun.

That's all I think, and of course, have having fun, it's a game after all.

 

[AeroGav]

My house rules change from game to game, depending on what aspect of the challenge i went for.   I just started a game with Kerbal Construction timer, for instance,  which encourages re-use because building vehicles from scratch takes a long time,  and tech doesn't become immediately available after unlocking the node - forcing you to keep playing with low tech parts until the new stuff is developed.

I think it's a case of making the mission challenging enough for yourself without pushing it beyond you completely.   So, if possible I like to give some kind of safety option to my crew,  try to ensure that every mission failure needn't always result in fatality.    I also like to give them a reasonable amount of living space if leaving Kerbin SOI -  if  your vessel has three times the crew capacity that is actually being used, for example, you can say the crew have reasonable opportunity to stretch their legs.  However, I did just do a Minmus -> Duna -> Laythe -> Pol -> Eeloo tour on a MK2 IRSU space plane.     The ability to reach Minmus direct from Kerbin without resorting to in-orbit rendezvous to refuel (i hate docking in orbit !) would have been in jeopardy if i added more crew cabins.

This is how Kerbals should be able to experience long duration missions.   Unfortunately I'd have had no room for the IRSU gear...

Used that plane to lift this Ion Minmus probe to orbit.  One crew, who has a lander can and mk 1 cabin (3 seats) to live in.  As you can see, the drive section detaches and has a command seat to accomplish the landing.  A bit of roughing it at the climax of the mission, but at least you get to walk around a bit if you manage the landing.

A few constants though - biome farming is off, unless the challenge specifically is to build a rover.   Otherwise you can unlock the entire tech tree without visiting anything other than Minmus,  and spending hours driving a rover over every square inch of that moon is hardly fun.

My aircraft are built with stability and crew protection as a priority.    As soon as I unlock the inline cockpit,   I build it into the middle of the ship and surround it with crumple zone.  I have plenty of wing area so the crew have a chance to survive forced landings and misaligned landing gear incidents (by far the worst hazard faced by Kerbal aviators),  use dihedral, plenty of vertical stabilizer (s) and conservative centre of gravity placement ,  and design so there is insufficient control authority to cause departure from controlled flight or structural breakup, whatever the cost in agility.

As for rockets, excitement is surely part of what you're paying for.  But I'm an airplane guy so these things need to be easy to fly if they're to be usable by the likes of myself.

A Kerbo-NCAP rated cockpit from a career game.   Can also undock in orbit.

 

[Alpha188]

Max 1 mission to the Mun and Minmus, so I must got o other planets to harvest science and my tech tree isn't unlocked even for half. It's much more fun (and hard) to go to other planets with crappy technology!

[guitarxe]

Wow, very varied! Some common themes, but mostly very different from player to player.

[SSgt Baloo]

I have a few issues that I deal with in-game by always ensuring that nobody dies (it's surprisingly stressful for me when that happens). Whenever I start a new game, I make a couple of files. One is SBAF (Saved Before Any Flight). Another one is NDY (Nobody Dead, Yet). NDY gets updated every time I complete a mission and get all the crew back alive (when I can remember to ). If someone dies, I'll load SBAF or NDY and continue from there, depending on circumstances.

[KerikBalm]

No part clipping.

No "littering" (a few of my early missions broke this)

No long missions for kerbals with just a command pod.

No long missions without a mixed gender crew.

No use of the small ISRU

No fuel/hyperedit cheating (except for tests that will get reverted regarless of the outcome)

Space/shielding between kerbals and LV-Ns

No ISRU on Moho/Eeloo/Tylo to preserve the challenge

OPM because otherwise I'd basically be "finished" by having been to every planet, and fuel producing bases on Gilly/Mun/Minmus/Duna/Ike/Laythe/Val/Pol

Mostly stock...

Mods:

Kerbal Engineer

1.25m rescaled goliath -> electric fan

Ballast tanks for subs

A second large ISRU -> produces Xenon only on worlds with atmospheres, and Oxidizer only on worlds with O2 in their atmosphere.

Modified fuel cells: Consume intake air and liquid fuel instead of liquid fuel and oxidizer... for nighttime operations on laythe or kerbin

I can't decide on if I want to use the air augmented rocket I made or not... its tempting to use on Tekto... but it would make Eve too easy.

 

[Dres]

None . I treat KSP as a true sandbox, and I will gladly use HyperEdit or the F12 if I want. Though I make my designs so that they would work without "cheating", I don't like constraints.

[McFarnsworth]

a) Death is permanent.

2. Only plausible part clipping, so no fuel tanks within fuel tanks or anything.

- No mods apart from visual mods, Mechjeb and/or KER for the main career and sandbox saves.

IV. Wing it. Apart from some rudimentary dV calculations provided by Mechjeb/KER, I don't do math.

* No autopilot except for the routine or boring parts.

# Kerbfleet Order Zero: no Kerbal gets left behind. There will be a rescue mission of the rescue mission if needed.

G. No physics exploits.

[SpaceMouse]

Generally, as many other people have mentioned:

 Kerbals are not disposable and must be saved at all costs!

If they couldn't pass through it IRL they can't in game. (i'm not very strict about this)

Part clipping is a no-no, with limited exception to make things fit flush. (I'm working on some parts to address this.)

Mods are Ok as long as they don't effect game balance.

Other rules i can't think of right now. quicksave and quickload are Ok. A engineer i am not. Ties into the first rule.

Admittedly 99% of my missions have been in creative and are effectively testing mods or other things.

Edited April 16, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[the_pazter]

1. Mod it till it crashes

that's it

[PanzerAce]

Once something reaches orbit, I don't revert. Forgot parachutes? Better launch a rescue. Forgot solar panels and batteries to run a lab in orbit? Better send some up with a claw to attach it.

F5/F9 spam totally allowed.

[ag3nt108]

One simple rule for me - have as much fun as possible

[Starhawk]

On 2016-04-15 at 10:36 AM, Streetwind said:

Oh dear. 1.1 is going to be hard work for you, what with the game generating more contracts of the types you always accept...

My space program is now focused on rescues while dabbling in a bit of science on the side, so it should work out okay.  I'm about to go and recover debris from Vall and then go and rescue a Kerbal from the surface of Eve.  Check out my sig to see some rescues.

Happy landings!

[Rainbowtrout]

(I mostly play sandbox)

1. Progress realistically. No immediately jumping to Eeloo.

2. Don't kill kerbals on purpose.

3. Rockets must look real.

[TimePeriod]

1. Zealous part limitations.
2. Over-zealous cost-restriction.
3. Morbid fascination with weight reduction.

[KryoWorks]

On 4/15/2016 at 9:42 PM, guitarxe said:

In other words, what self restrictions and limitations do you put on your games just for the heck or fun of it?

For me I have a few, some more successful than others. I always try to grab as much science as possible from Kerbin before going elsewhere.
Another one I like, but never really seem to be able to enforce on my self, is to never revert to launch/hangar from any mission and continue with the failure.

How about everyone else?

I wont launch anything if the parts are clipping. I dont know why but it bothers me lol

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Destroy the Vab and launchpad.
No rockets.
*Determination.
 

[max_creative]

General order zero, no f9 or f5 (because of Mac controls), no f12 (Mac controls), rebuild stuff, and always blow something up. And everyone is required to love Dres or get defenestrated from whoopstootall base (base on the highest point on mount whoopstooshort)

[nathan8rr]

On 4/15/2016 at 8:48 PM, IncongruousGoat said:

Rules... Always go for the more ambitious missions, and prioritize small, efficient design over big dumb boosters. Oh, and don't go to Eve unless absolutely necessary. That place is evil.

I landed on Eve without doing ANY research. tried to take off using a "Skipper" Engine, got to the super fast speed of 0.2 M/S!

[elpollodiablo]

"Realism" (or whatever you want to call it):

• Always with a life-support mod (and obviously permadeath)
• Any mission longer than ~100 days (basically outside Kerbin's SOI) needs a gravity generator (via mod or fake ones)
• "Proper" science (aka biome runs) have to be done via an extensive operation (orbital base for ground control, some base of operations on the ground, etc)
• And, as a result of that, overengineer everything

[lude]

Sometimes when I have reinstalled or modded heavily or stuff, I play by the rule that being able to circulize a certain orbit allows to refill by hyperedit until I am in the mood to put a spacestation to refuel, but this only applies to SSTO.

Using as many 'realism' mods as possible.

Never playing without mods! And not under a hundred. (tho this rule is true for many games, kerbal is the first I'm playing vanilla currently, but also only for the challenges, not having KER sucks)

Try to replace rockets with SSTOs in as many ways as possible.

No fuel lines, they look awful and are outside.

 

looking at some other rules: for me it's impossible to lift a 200+ ton SSTO without using the full length of the runway, they can however start easily if they carry no monoprop and oxidizer.

[IncongruousGoat]

17 hours ago, nathan8rr said:

I landed on Eve without doing ANY research. tried to take off using a "Skipper" Engine, got to the super fast speed of 0.2 M/S!

Heh. Yeah, Eve is... challenging. If you're still trying, a) good luck and b) try Vector and/or Aerospike engines.

[adsii1970]

Wow, this really required some thought... But since you asked, here it goes:

I play sandbox, and even though the brave Kerbalnauts start out maxed on all their abilities, I still require each new Kerbal to undergo flight training. Now I have my normal sandbox game on hold until 1.1 is officially released, but normally, I have them make two flights to the island runway, one during the day and one at night. Then they have to fly through the mountains to the west of the KSC, and literally run the ridges in aircraft. Once they are "certified", they are added to the Kerbalnaut roster.

From there, they serve as a junior member of a space crew for at least two orbital missions, then from there, they serve on a station for six months. From there, they rotate to manned missions outside of Kerbin's SOI.

I always have a rescue craft in orbit controlled by a probe core; no kerbalnaut gets left behind...

[alacrity]

My rules...

1. Play career stock until USI, KAS/KIS, RemoteTech, are updated. Then restart a new career

2. Missions fail. I don't use perma death, but when my missions fail I so them righter the second time... Fail is always an option.

3. Life support always, either simulated with part weight or when a mod becomes available to do the math for me.

4. Orbit then station then mun then minmus. ALWAYS. these are the stepping stones of flight. And no sneaking off to Duna until the Minmus fueling station and mining base are built.

5. Probes are good. Probes go first everywhere except orbit... (contractual obligation with Jeb... don't ask)

6. Contracts are meant to completed, do them all. Other then "Test part X in.." all contracts are to be persued... except rescue missions... they annoy me. I got too many of my own kerbals to save without cleaning up other peoples screw ups

7. Testing is allowed. No one ever sent a human or even an expensive probe into space without ground and step up testing and even sims. Finding out after four days of flying ships to layth is not the time to deal with a misaligned landing leg, or mistimed stage.

8. Everyone flys. No hiring a pile of kerbals just to fill up ships. Every star is gotten by every kerbalnaut. Even Jeb needs a day off.

Alacrity