Career-mode and Mods

[The_Rocketeer]

Does anybody have a successful, persistant stock/"non-cheaty" Career-mode save that includes game-altering/feature mods like KAS/KIS, LS or functional parts packs? I always feel like my expectations are dashed whenever I try to start a new career game integrating some sort of mod - the features are locked away too high up the tech tree and I'm railroaded into playing someone else's way to unlock them.

Am I missing something, or is Sandbox just the way?

[Geonovast]

Aren't there tech-tree altering mods?

You could also write a series of MM patches that relocate the parts you want to be earlier in the tree.

[kerbonara]

One option is to create a new career and in the difficulty options increase the science return rates, allowing you to research these techs earlier. Another one is using DMagic orbital science, which has new experiments and will boost your science return, allowing you to research more tech in less time as well. Also, there are many tech tree mods as well, perhaps one can improve your game too.

[CobaltShock]

KRnD is a good mod for being able to use your science on the parts you already own. It's much better for scaled up games (so it isn't just a cake walk), but the right parameters in your career save could make this a fun addition

[suicidejunkie]

Why not simply start the game with 500 or so science points, whatever gets you into the meat of your fun?

You can then set the science income slider to 20% or 10%, so you stay in the zone while making progress via interplanetary missions.

[Pthigrivi]

Im playing career with USI-LS, reactors, and a bunch of Near Future stuff (plus KAC and a bunch of flight data mods) and I've loved it. I did tweak up some of the difficulty settings, mainly lowering the funds penalties which reduces some of the building upgrade grind. Im not always 100% on board with RD and Nertea's career game balance but its worked out. Next save I'd like to play with KCT and see how that effects things.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Pthigrivi

[JetJaguar]

Yes, Kerbal Construction Time adds depth by making time a commodity that you have to account for in your planning.  I was first drawn to this mod because it didn't feel right that you can go from nothing to landing on Mun in like two game weeks.  In my current game, I just noticed the transfer window to Duna is opening up, and the mission is going to be constrained by what I have time to build and the relatively early state of the tech tree at the moment.

Though I primarily use them for roleplaying purposes, the Orbital Science and Surface Experiment Pack mods also help speed up the tech tree.  I don't reduce the science payout with these mods because that just makes the grind longer, but I can understand why some would want to do that.

Edited May 22, 2018 by JetJaguar

[Blue_J]

The mod set I run with has a pretty good balance. Key points:

1. Use DMagic orbital science and SCANSat to give you extra experiments that you can run, so that the early part of the tech tree feels like less of a chore.
2. Community Tech Tree makes the tech tree longer, giving you a gameplay reason to go to other planets for that sweet sweet science.
3. Overpowered and/or futuristic technologies (such as Near Future Propulsion, Karbonite Plus, and even an Alcubierre Drive) give you a reward for unlocking those 5000 and 10000 science nodes at the far end of the tech tree. Yeah, some of them might be a little game breaking, but by the time you get there you've probably explored everything legitimately anyway.

For mods like KIS/KAS, you basically start unlocking parts like that around the time you start thinking about your first Mun mission, (which is where you start to get fun toys in an unmodded career save anyway.) 

 

[Dman979]

Moved to Add-on Discussions.

[General Apocalypse]

Yea what you want is a ye old tech tree mod . Plenty of those around and they are quite good.

[DeltaDizzy]

On 5/22/2018 at 9:52 AM, The_Rocketeer said:

Does anybody have a successful, persistant stock/"non-cheaty" Career-mode save that includes game-altering/feature mods like KAS/KIS, LS or functional parts packs? I always feel like my expectations are dashed whenever I try to start a new career game integrating some sort of mod - the features are locked away too high up the tech tree and I'm railroaded into playing someone else's way to unlock them.

Am I missing something, or is Sandbox just the way?

How high is too high in this case?

[The_Rocketeer]

10 hours ago, DeltaDizzy said:

How high is too high in this case?

Having given this some thought, in the majority of cases I'm gonna go with any height at all. I should set out my stall by saying that to start with stock Career grinds my gears a lot, but by far the worst thing about it is how much I want it to work. So I'm trying mod/career combinations to try and make it a more compelling, more rewarding and all-round more satisfying experience. The mods I use/that I'm talking about aren't supposed to be shortcuts to anywhere or anything, they're supposed to add depth - in many cases actually utilising their parts ought to make the game a little harder by increasing your payload costs. As such locking that depth away up the tech tree is just frustrating.

The broader, underlying point is I just don't like how stock Career plays out. Goodbye imagination, hello budgetary constraint and dictatorial mission parameters. Adding mods ought to help, but when they're keyed into the same system of constraint it just doesn't work.

And just to clarify, I've been around long enough to know that there are a lot of ways I could try to help myself (I know this because down the years I've tried many of them). My question here is deliberately narrow.

Edited May 31, 2018 by The_Rocketeer