What settings to use?

[Benji13]

I am planning to start my first proper career save once 1.2 and my mods drop. As I have not played a career save for more than 3 launches before, I am unsure as to what settings I should use for my game (funds return, science return ect). 

The main gameplay mods that I will be using are:

•Kerbal Construction Time

•Stage Recovery (for spaceX style recovery)

•Kerbal R&D

•Kerbal Inventory System

•The 1.2 Commnet feature at full difficulty

•Rald

•OPM with Sigma Binaries. 

I also have mkIV spaceplane parts (minus the engines. I only use the fuselage pieces). 

Thanks to any help, I may or may not add other mods to this list that I have forgotten. Thanks,

Benji13

[JTpopcorn]

Game difficulty settings should really be based on how how want to play, and your current ability. A higher difficulty will be more challenging, but maybe more rewarding. An easier difficulty is less stressful.

It's all about what you like.

[Chakat Firepaw]

If this is your first career game, it's probably best if you go with the default normal settings.  This will give you a feel for what you want to adjust.  (e.g.  You might find that money is coming too slow and science too fast for your tastes.)

The only real settings questions are respawn? revert? and quicksave?  Those are up to you and if you feel comfortable with them on or not.  I would leave revert and quicksaves on and just self-restrict their use, (e.g. only for recovering from problems caused software side[1] or entirely external to the game).  Respawn is something I keep off, recruiting enough people through rescues isn't that hard.

One thing I would suggest that isn't in the settings is that you say no to the KSC science rover thing.  If you really want to skip the early science grinding, just give yourself some starting science in the settings.  Not that you really need it, you can do a Munar flyby by launch 4 at normal difficulity, (although you may have to do it without a manoeuvre node, but that's money rather than science).

 

[1] Things like crashes or, as happened to me once, a Kerbal on EVA getting stuck at an odd angle that caused him to go flying off each time he attempted to board a capsule.

[Norcalplanner]

Keep in mind that not all mods will get updated right away, so it may be worthwhile as suggested above to try a stock "throwaway" career to play for a bit just to get a feel for the pace and the mechanics.  Have everything at 100% (science, funds, rep, etc.) then look at what you're getting way too much of too easily, then crank it down.  Part of it also depends on what you want to be constrained by - for example, I want my 1.2 career to be more constrained by science than by funding, so I plan to keep funding at 100% or higher, while reducing science to 60%.

Kerbal R&D in particular brings with it the possibility of making the game much easier, so long as you have the science to spend.  (Take a look at eddiew's Mission Reports thread to get an idea of what can happen.) Using Stage Recovery will make your launches cost less in the long run, so there's a real possibility that you'll be swimming in funds if you're not careful.  Make sure that you have "unlock part costs" or whatever it's called enabled, otherwise the money side becomes way too easy.

Also decide if you're going to use an alternate tech tree.  I'm a fan of Community Tech Tree in part because I love Nertea's and NecroBones' mods, and they're all supported by it.  It takes a lot more science to buy all the nodes in that tree, so I'll also generally do DMagic Orbital Science.

So I guess it all depends on the mods you're going to use and what kind of a game you want.  So I guess I'll offer up my plan that you can consider, adopt, reject, or somewhere in between:

 

Science 60%, Rep 60%, Funds 100% or higher (with my own special rule that if funds get above 5 million, I have to drop what I'm doing and launch things until it's back down under 4 million, since I want to build a lot of infrastructure in this save)

Yes to quicksave and revert (largely because of bug potential)

No to respawning kerbals and stock craft availability

Sigma Dimensions at 3.2x or larger (to make things harder initially)

Kerbal R&D (to make things slowly easier over time in a larger universe)

All of NecroBones' and Nertea's mods (go big or go home)

Community Tech Tree

Some sort of life support (I'm partial to USI-LS)

DMagic Orbital Science and ScanSat (more fun things to do)

KCT and Stage Recovery (to encourage time planning and make things more strategic)

Add other mods as needed once it's time to start building really big stations (Station Science) or surface bases (Pathfinder, MKS/OKS, KPBS)

 

Whatever you decide, remember to have fun.  Don't be afraid to decide that a particular mod or setting isn't fun, and then change it.  It took me a long time to truly understand what I do and don't like.  For example, I had a negative association with KCT for a long time, but that was because my initial experience was in the context of RSS/RO.  Now I happily use it without worrying about major plan change concerns, fuel boiloff, or any of the other things that irritated me at the time.

Be sure to post some reports once you're going, especially once you get further than you've ever gotten before in career.

And good luck!