Life support and remotetech. should I do a career without these before install them?

[omelaw]

it's my first career and I haven't visit any other planets yet, but there are two unmaned probes on the way to duna. and I think I have full time-ish remotetech network around kerbin, but it looks like pain to install a relay on every planet...

 

is it good idea to use them in one's first career?

Edited May 31, 2016 by omelaw

[Slam_Jones]

I'd say to do a few Manned inter-planetary missions before you decide.  Figure out just how hard it is to do already.  If you find it too easy, then yeah, totally.

But of course, what really matters is whether you're having fun or not.  That's what really defines how you should play.

[magnemoe]

Problem is that you can not install TAC life support while you have manned missions the crew will die, think they survive one hour without resources. 

[ZooNamedGames]

I would suggest not.

Indeed it is a pain and probably your biggest issue is choosing to use RT and then deciding you don't like it and then removing the mod, but thankfully there's a mod called "StockRT" which lets you use the stock communication parts for RT without all those additional parts which will lead to your crafts being deleted once you remove the mod.

As to life support- I HIGHLY suggest against it. 

Unlike RT, it isn't just an inconvience at the worst of times, but a constant mission failure if left unmanaged. It requires planning and if forgotten will kill the crew and waste your funds- or worse, you thought your interplanetary mission wouldn't take as long, and you need to send a probe full of life support, but by the time it'll get there, it'll be too late!

I suggest you create a sandbox with these mods (I again suggest StockRT so you can save the probes) and slowly attempt larger and larger missions. Like first try to go to the Mun, then Minmus, then build a station. If you feel you can manage the LS, then rock on  . If not, then at least you tried! Honestly, LS isn't for everybody, but if you can do it, then that's awesome.

[stibbons]

I've never played a career without TAC-LS. And I've never sent a manned mission further than a couple of asteroid intercepts just outside Kerbin SOI.

These two facts are... not entirely unrelated.

[eddiew]

My 2p; don't install them on your first game. At least get the hang of going to Duna and back before you consider whether you want to make the game harder

Life support can be interesting, but... choose wisely. Crew capsules are usually very crash tolerant and it's common to botch a landing, and be left with just the capsule sitting on the ground. Unless you're on Mun, rescue is physically impossible before the crew dies, so you either lose them or quickload. For this reason, I recommend USI Life Support specifically because it does not kill the crew. This means that a crash is a prompt for a rescue mission!  

RemoteTech... honestly, only if you're into the realism factor. If you just want to send things to places it doesn't half get in your way. Speed of light and line of sight mean having to plan manoeuvres way in advance, and you can basically forget the idea of landing probes on vacuum bodies. I certainly think it has its niche, but it's probably best saved for when you want to do a Real Solar System hardcore realism run  

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, stibbons said:

I've never played a career without TAC-LS. And I've never sent a manned mission further than a couple of asteroid intercepts just outside Kerbin SOI.

These two facts are... not entirely unrelated.

The life support demands are not overwhelming if you anyway use living quarters in ships, not just a kerbal in an pod. 
Yes it increase weight and put an upper limit on your mission. Main problem however is that it makes most fails lethal, your pod might survive the crash but not your life support. 

[Kerbonaut257]

I'm not a fan of life support because it just means increased mass for all manned missions and nothing too much more interesting than that (IMHO). I do love remote tech though, but I would play without it at first. You have to be really good at establishing various satellite orbits, understanding distances, etc.

[beelzerob]

The reason I want to use life support when I start a career again is because otherwise, if I set up several science labs, they're then a zero cost endless steam of science points.  With life support in the mix, I can't just forget about them...some upkeep is required.

[Gotmachine]

I would advise not using RemoteTech for a first career. RT demands a lot of micromanagement and adds some very specialized gameplay elements, overall adding a lot of complexity and difficulty for unmanned missions, making them very unbalanced against stock manned missions. To make things even, you need to use a life support mod.

However, I do recommend a life support mod even for a first career. The whole point is to turn time into an important resource, making the game dependant on two resources (mission duration and payload weight)  instead of only one.

I don't recommend TAC-LS which adds too many resource and is made more for realism that anything else gameplay-wise. Same thing for USI-LS, it is of no interest without the whole USI package. Snacks is probably the best for a first career as it is simple, integrate well with the stock game and is more forgiving (Kerbals won't die, you will only loose reputation).

Another option is Kerbalism which is a all-in-one communications/life support/quality of life/radiation/malfunction mod. It does all these things in a very coherent, straightforward and stockalike way, not adding too much complexity but adding a lot to the stock gameplay, both for manned and unmanned missions. It feature a nice mission planner to ease things and integrate well in the career progression.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Gotmachine