Career or Sandbox??

[DuartePires]

Hey there guys, I'm not really new to KSP but I'm facing a question some of you may already asked.

I like the "heres a mission do this for science and stuff to get more parts" but... hate the inicial griding to make sat's... and stuff.

On the other hand, I enjoy the sandbox but I'm overwelmed with all the parts since I've not yet know them from career mode..

What can I do?! lol

[Hodari]

Well first of all, if you're playing on normal difficulty(and higher difficulties really just seem to add more grind rather than actually making the game HARDER), it's not really THAT much of a grind in order to get up to a level where you can reach the Mun or Minmus and once you reach those, you can unlock the rest of the tree very quickly.  If you need to learn the parts anyway still, your best option might be just to grind it out at least one or two times until you do feel like you know the parts well enough to just jump into a sandbox mode game.

If funds are the main thing slowing you down, you could also use Science Mode instead which still makes you unlock the parts, but removes the cost and contracts part of career mode.

Or you could start a Career mode game and just use the alt-f12 menu to give yourself enough money and science points to skip past the "initial grind" part and go to the parts you find more interesting.

Or of course, there's always mods to change the progression around a bit.

[bewing]

If you enjoy sandbox so much, then it's probably best to stick with that. So then comes the question of learning and choosing the parts. I would think that exploring KerbalX might be a good idea. You could see what other clever people have done with each of the parts, and get ideas that way.

 

[steuben]

use both. They are not in opposition to each other, they complement each other.

use sandbox to futz about and learn the parts, be creative, make stuff go boom in spectacular ways

use career to learn how to build rockets, planes, landers, stations.

[Biggen]

I used sandbox to learn the game.  When I was comfortable I went to career.  Once you know what you are doing career is super easy.  You will be rolling in money and science in no time...

[Snark]

+1 to @Hodari's suggestion of trying a "science" game.  It's a handy step in between career and sandbox.  It means you need to explore, do research, gather science, etc., but you don't have to grind contracts because money isn't a thing.

It was these two statements of yours that caught my eye:

3 hours ago, DuartePires said:

hate the inicial griding to make sat's... and stuff.

This says to me "I hate having to worry about money."  In other words, "this is a thing I don't like about career."

3 hours ago, DuartePires said:

I enjoy the sandbox but I'm overwelmed with all the parts since I've not yet know them from career mode..

This says to me "I like starting with limited parts and gradually unlocking them."  In other words, "this is a thing I don't like about sandbox."

Well, if I'm correctly reading what you said, then a science game sounds like it might be right up your alley.  You get the best of both worlds, from your perspective:  don't have to worry about funds, but you do gradually unlock parts.

 

Another option would be to do a career game, but set it on really easy difficulty options, as Hodari points out (for example, set it to big financial rewards so you don't have to do many contracts).  Or even just use the cheat menu to award yourself free cash when you want, though if you take that approach, you might as well play a science game. 

 

 

 

[Foxster]

+2 on doing a Science playthrough. It's the sweetspot in KSP for me. I don't think I've ever finished a Career playthrough because its so tedious. 

[DerekL1963]

4 hours ago, Hodari said:

If funds are the main thing slowing you down, you could also use Science Mode instead which still makes you unlock the parts, but removes the cost and contracts part of career mode.

+3 on Science mode...   That lets you learn the tech tree and the parts without being swamped right out of the starting gate (as in Sandbox) or having to deal with the additional hassles of Contracts and funding (as in Career).

Edited March 2, 2017 by DerekL1963

[Cubfan]

4 hours ago, DuartePires said:

I enjoy the sandbox but I'm overwelmed with all the parts since I've not yet know them from career mode..

In the VAB, you can filter parts by tech level. This will help you to become familiar with all the different parts. This was helpful for me because, in my career game, I unlocked the entire science tree before I began building planes. When I tried to, I was overwhelmed with all the parts and control surfaces and whatnot. Filtering by tech level allows you to become familiar with the progression. It might make things easier. It did for me.