How bad can it get?

[Palaceviking]

I'm wondering if anyone has had a career game go really south on them.

Reason being is I've taken on about a dozen high rep high payout contract to do some pretty tuff stuff like flags on eve etc, however several years have passed and after killing several kerbals i gave up  and decided to go science the jool system,  then i heavily scienced duna and I'm currently sett up a pretty comprehensive logistics and life support network in the kerbin system.

Obviously all of these things have eaten into my millions considerably but I've still got loads left and I'm thinking if I blow the lot before the bailiffs turn up I could probably have a couple good ssto's out around the ksc and then........what's the worst that could happen?

Oh and i still have six tourists stuck around from various uncompleted contracts(one of them is a level three!).

[DD_bwest]

so are you in need of cash to finish the contracts?  or are you worried about the rep hit for not finishing them?

[Kerbal Fried Chicken]

I ruined my first career. Before I understood the vagaries of the contract system I took contracts I didn't have the skill or the tech to handle, or failed to read the fine print on height and speed of a parts test, or a 3-tourist contract but they all wanted to go different places. (Usually places I hadn't learned to go.) So I ended up with all contracts I couldn't do and no room for new ones that I could. I abandoned that career. But I learned to read the fine print. And later learned I could have rescued my game with judicious use of alt-f12.

[bewing]

Yeah, that's the extent of it: rep and kash. Look at the contracts in Mission Control -- they will tell you exactly how much money a "failure" will cost you. The reputation penalty is going to be huge. You obviously have a very high rep, being out at Jool -- and the rep penalty (which will look small on the contracts) gets multiplied many times over. I doubt it'll take you much below 250 on your rep, though. If you really want to try to precalculate it, you can do it in the debug menu.

 

[Palaceviking]

I really want to focus on my infrastructure now and ignore the contracts without cheating, the world firsts are still trickling in kash and I still have over 19mil in contract advances and I'm thinking about becoming an asteroid wrangler,  if the failures cause massive rep loss will I still be offered contracts? I kinda like doing the low key kerbin system missions. 

[bewing]

Yes, you always get contracts, but the types of contracts you are offered depends on your rep. Low rep means tourist, survey, and part testing contracts only. It'll be like you're back at the beginning of the game as far as contracts goes. You end up with the same problem if you kill a kerbonaut or tourist.

Edited January 5, 2017 by bewing