What gameplay rules do you impose on yourself?

[FinalFan]

Right now just a few:  

--Stock, and no cheat menu.

--Use kerbals as much as possible.  They are in it for the lulz.  

--Mission Control gets bored.  No 100 year missions to Eeloo with nothing else happening.  (This is probably stunting my progress.)  

[Hans Dorn]

No quicksaves.

 

I started playing that way because I didn't read the fine manual, and I like the suspense.

If you mess up, it's back to the launchpad.

[JoeNapalm]

-- Never leave a Kerbal behind or stranded (though they may have to be patient...very very patient...I recommend they bring a book, or something).

-- Never build a manned mission without abort/rescue/escape/survival mechanisms in place.

-- Never build a manned rescue vehicle, if feasible to avoid it.

-- Never build anything without a Drone core, if feasible to avoid it.

-- Never build anything without a 2ndary power source

-- Always test manned vessels unmanned (see 2nd rule) when feasible.

-- There are three ways to do things: the right way, the Kerbal way, and the way that works. Choose any combination of the three.

-- There are no real rules except for the rule after this one

-- Do what's fun

 

Oh, and I just found these in an old post of mine:

On 6/6/2017 at 10:47 PM, JoeNapalm said:

- Jeb and/or Bill do not get to have an opinion on what constitutes "science"

- "Truth or Dare" is no longer allowed as an activity participated in by KSC personnel, guests, pets, or otherwise anywhere on KSC grounds

 

 

-Jn-

Edited June 27, 2018 by JoeNapalm

[Cavscout74]

On 6/24/2018 at 7:49 PM, RoboRay said:

1. No deliberate space junk.  I drop all spent stages on impact trajectories, or give them the means to set themselves onto an impact trajectory if it's not feasible to just drop them on one.
2. No suicide missions.  Every crew-member has a way to come home.
3. No reloading to avert a disaster or screw-up.  Problems happen and I deal with them. 
4. Every manned launch needs an in-flight abort capability to save the crew.  See #2 and #3.
5. New launchers get unmanned test flights before carrying crew and new manned spacecraft get low-orbit tests of all features before leaving the SOI.  See #2 and #3.
6. Probes go everywhere before people do.  See #2 and #3.

Pretty much what I do with a few exceptions:

1) I started using Tac Self-Destruct even though its a far cry from realistic, it does save a good bit of time.  Prior to that, I probably spent close to half my game time recovering launch stages.

3) I will quickload/revert game glitches or real-world induced accidents, but not flawed designs or bad piloting.

5)  Simple crewed rockets don't usually get an unmanned test.  Jeb and/or Vall frequently get to test the launch abort system first flight, then test the craft in LKO for the second flight.  Strange/oddly-shaped or otherwise unpredictable craft DO get unmanned tests first - or just get launched unmanned every time then crews launched on something less strange.   Every once in a while, I'll toss high-G tourists on board for launch abort tests also. 

6) I usually follow this one, but do make exceptions.  It's not uncommon for my crewed Jool missions to launch before the first wave of probes arrive.

Rather than add more mods, I've also started adding two other restrictions to my careers:

1) Launch time restrictions in 1.4+ based on craft mass.  Anything <18 tons has to wait one day till another launch, anything 18 - 140 tons waits 10 days and anything >140 tons has to wait 20 days.  Runways are not restricted, so it also encourages me to use spaceplanes more often.  My 1.3.1 game I just wait at least one day since I only have the one launch pad.

2) Quarters: Any crewed long-duration mission requires some form of living space in addition to any command capsule.  So I don't send Jeb off to Eelee in a Mk 1 pod anymore.  I may squeeze them a little - I assume at least one crew member will be in the command pod at all times, so hot bunking is allowed for smaller vessels. In other words, if I have 5 or 6 crew, I'm ok with a single hitchhiker can.  But more than that, I'll add more living space.

 

[JoeNapalm]

That's a heck of a signature fruitsalad, there, @Cavscout74.

 

-Jn-

[Zeiss Ikon]

Well, this is interesting.  I've got a couple widely disparate setups; an old stock science save on 1.2.2, a stock (plus Better Burn Time) career game that was started on 1.3.1 and is currently 1.4.3 (must download 1.4.4 soon) -- and the one that's been eating all my time the past couple weeks, what I'm now thinking of as a "dress rehearsal" 1.3.1 RSS/RO/RP-1/Principia (and a bunch of other stuff that comes with those, like Remote Tech, TAC Life Support, KSC Switcher, Real Fuels, etc.).

In the science game, it was always a case of a very strong pilots' union; no probe cores.  Every mission, to anywhere, required a live Kerbal pilot.  Never had a problem with reverts and respawns (though I've only killed one Kerbal I couldn't save with retries, in the three games, so far).  The career has a strong preference for piloted missions, but that's easy when Kerbal spending two years in a Mk. 1-3 isn't a problem (come to think of it, those guys who flew by Duna still aren't home; I should probably look in on them).

In the RSS/RO/etc. career, it's a lot like the real world -- probes are lighter than capsules, and only the bean counters really care if they're expended (in fact, many of them are never intended to return), so they go everywhere first -- but, having just made my first two successful orbital launches, it's about time to send some Kerbals into orbit as well.  I've got Hermes-Isabella (a replica of Mercury-Redstone, which has carried both Jeb and Val into suborbital space), but that's clearly not going to orbit the capsule, so I guess I need to build something with the capabilities of the Mercury-Atlas.  Meanwhile, every effort is taken to ensure my brave Kerbals don't die.

I did say the RSS/RO/etc. was a dress rehearsal, didn't I?  Longer term, I want to play this on "hard" setting, and try to equal or exceed NASA's schedule (starting from 1951, first orbit by mid-1958, first human orbit by 1962, Moon landing before 1970).  Honestly, I don't know if it's possible with "hard" settings (long build times and research times, not so worried about revert/reload restrictions, because KRASH lets me spend a little funds to simulate a mission before I blow anything up launch anything).  I tried "moderate" when I first got this install running, and had Jeb and Val retire before I'd gone beyond the A-4 and Aerobee level, mainly because it was taking more than a year to build a rocket, and nearly that long to unlock a tech tree node.

[MythicalHeFF]

I tend to limit the size of rockets i allow myself to use to make them look like they’ll fly in real life unless what I’m trying to launch in one go is ridiculously heavy. In addition I usually don’t bother with reusability considering I play mostly sandbox mode, and also try to avoid using nuclear/ion drives unless I’m building a futuristic/gigantic ship. 

The last rule I impose on myself is a bit of a weird one: I cannot allow myself to play through a save very long before I decide I have to make intentional Kessler syndrome in LKO in order to feel that I have successfully launched more than a few good missions. In general I’ll usually  leave some debris sitting on the surface or in orbit of anywhere I go as well. 

 

 

[Athen]

I'm allowed to quicksave/revert but if I run out of fuel I have to rescue the kerbals.

[SpecialSpock]

Kerbals left on surface or orbiting bases must eventually receive a crew change. The sole exception is crews of 3 or more, as I classify them as a "family" of sorts. This may change sometime though, as I'm only just now flying ships to Eve.

[Tyko]

I play Science mode and really like early to mid-game challenges, so find ways to make science more interesting and slow it down -

• 40% science returns
• Any experiment that relies on physical material can't be transmitted for any value - Mystery Goo, Material Bay, Surface Samples must be returned to gather science. This has really encouraged me to develop more complex sample return missions.
• Science Labs - a big one...
  • First, I use Life Support, so there's a real cost to staffing and maintaining labs.
  • Any given experiment from a specific biome can only be processed in one lab - I don't carry copies of the same experiment to multiple labs
  • Data to Science conversion rate is dropped from 5:1 down to 1:1 - the best I can do is to double my science return from a given biome, but at the cost of building and maintaining stations. I love stations, so this works really well.
• I have to do a ScanSat altitude and biome survey before I land anything.

Other non-science rules:

• Always have to have a plan keep Kerbals alive and to bring them home
• I can fly test launches, but have to decide beforehand if it's a test or the real thing. If it's the real thing I don't revert
• I use Kerbal Launch Failure set to 10% early and 5% in later game. So every crewed craft has to have an LES of some sort.
• I don't leave any expendable components in planetary or moon orbits. It either has to be de-orbited or in a Solar orbit.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Tyko

[Fraktal]

For my first non-sandbox run in Science mode, I'm going with 10% science returns and I'm loving it because it forces me to be very thorough (on Kerbin, everything except goo and materials bay experiments give <1 science, so I need multiple launches systematically targeted at each biome in order to unlock even one node) and squeeze every last bit of use out of low-tech parts. Hell, I actually managed to build a munar rocket with an Apollo-style two-stage lander (2-stage-plus-SRB booster, transfer-lander stage, return stage) and take it on a successful round trip to the Mun, before even researching the LV-909. It's a 100-part monster (4 liquid engines and 4 SRBs on the first stage) with a very little margin of error for dV (6.8k m/s, of which I usually return with ~100 m/s left unless I screw up the munar landing and had to crossfeed the return stage), but it works.

Also for the same run, I have the DSN turned off and pilot experience turned on, which makes it utter hell to give Bill and Bob XP. Reason for that being that I also do not daisy-chain Mk1 pods for bringing multiple people up before researching lander cans, so that tech 3 rocket with one Swivel and two SRBs yaws all over the place without SAS and struts and is a real challenge to keep pointing in the sky's general direction until the SRBs detach.

I tend not to transmit stuff, even once I have batteries for it. Not because I don't want to, I just don't see much point to it if the kerbals are bringing the stuff home anyway.

No debris left lying around, if possible. And no decoupling stages with fuel left in them; rather just burn it retrograde during reentry or landing. And yes, that does mean I routinely reenter Kerbin's atmosphere with 1000 m/s worth of spare fuel if the mission didn't go beyond low orbit.

If the mission has a science payload, the kerbals bring ALL of it home. No stuffing everything into a storage module and leaving the rest back. That stuff is expensive and NOT coming out of my paycheck, oh no.

And one more thing: even though this isn't a carrier save, I design my rockets as if it was. That is, I follow VAB part count / launch pad weight limitations for early-tech (30-part/18 ton for tech 1 and 2, 30 part for pre-munar tech 3 and 4) vessels. Synergizes really well with the 10% science gain, since low part count + low fuel tank capacity means that tech 2 rocket is only suborbital and thus, less control over where it comes back down for post-landing science gathering.

Speaking of which, I'm also intent on squeezing every last bit of science out of a particular celestial body before moving on to the next. Which means I can just about squeeze enough science out of Kerbin to develop the LV-909 and get the rest of tech 4 on the Mun.

I'm interested in getting life support as well at some point, though not for this save. Maybe the next.

[Superfluous J]

Several times now I've initiated a "one mod install per X" category. In my current game, it's one per planet or moon landed on, and one per planet (but not moon) returned from. But another option would be to buy mods with money, science, or even rep (deducting via alt-f12). Though rep is a free infinite resource that doesn't really have much other meaning in the game so I'd avoid that one myself.

[53miner53]

1. Use spaceplanes whenever possible. Most of the time space shuttles

2. Actually complete the missions. I have a bad habit of not following this one.

3. Don’t kill Kerbals. This one sadly is broken on my latest save, which had a kerbal who was fooling around on the Mun with a jet pack lithobrake rapidly. Appropriately, she was not a pilot. 

4. All Kerbals shall avoid Eve and Jool’s atmospheres. Only unmanned probes are allowed there

[KerikBalm]

3x rescale of the system in general (my system has my own custom changes after that), stock size is too small.

No abuse of part clipping (I'll allow minor part clipping to get around certain limitations due to limited choices on part sizes)... lets say no more than 10% clipped by volume.

Life support is a must

No ISRU on "achievement" destinations, such as Moho... ISRU can make operations at hard to reach places trivial, and take the suspense out of carefully planning maneuvers at those destinantions

No exploits like ladder drives

No mechjeb... just 'cause - although I did see some post about a script for returning flyback boosters to the pad which interests me, as my flyback boosters just get to the vicinity of KSC/97.9% recovery

No OP mod parts... in general I try to play with 100% stock parts except for life support parts.... I do use some mod parts - my own electric fan models, and from time to time I'll use the atomic age lantr- but generally these are for "fun" craft, and not the mission craft... certainly not for rockets/planes to get stuff to LKO or to transfer to another destination.... but for hopping around and exploring a destination where there's a stock base with ISRU production... fine

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#lantr

No long duration missions with a crew of less than 3, must have at least 1 male and 1 female.

No interplanetary voyages with a crew of less than 6, 50:50 genders

[Lisias]

Addendum to my rules:

6. Scare the sheet out of the tourists.  

7. Do not abandon/waste hardware.

1. I'm spending the last 10 days trying to recover a drone that loose contact with the KSC. Boy, this is harder than I though...

I'm using Blimps too now. :-D

On 6/23/2018 at 8:19 PM, Lisias said:

It depends of the "Mission" - I have 3 different installments, each one with a specific "Space Program".

The one I'm playing right now is Career with some mods, and to make things not too easy:

1. Do not kill Kerbals.
   1. If there's no way to fulfill a contract without killing a Kerbal, the contract is ditched.
2. Go Space-X : fuel is cheap, hardware is expensive.
   1. Recover everything I can.
   2. Do and redo the mission again until I manage to recover every stage
3. Delay every facility upgrade until there's no more way to advance
   1. Always exhaust all the current facilities capability before upgrading
4. Delay investment on the Tech Tree the most I can
   1. Always exhaust all the current parts applicability before advancing tech
5. Be a bean-counting cheap "stand-up guy".
   1. Somewhat hard, due the rules 1 and 2.   

I ended up doing a lot of Science using biplanes.  

Edited July 19, 2018 by Lisias
adding note

[Raptor42]

1. USI life support since I use heavily modded games so I include life support as well.

2. No Mechjeb for rendezvous and landing. I used this functions before, but now I'm more experienced I don't use them. I use Mechjeb only for interplanetary transfers.

3. No alt+f12 (most times) I use cheat menu only for problems like physics glitches, kraken attacks etc. and for creating my own kerbal (Raptor Kerman)

4. No space debris, I try to make most of my rockets reusable (1 exception being orange tank and srbs of my space shutttle copy)

5. Probes first, kerbals second, with CommNet of course

6. Still W.I.P. but trying to introduce limit on launch cadence (1 big and 3 small rockets per week for example) and turnaround time for launch vehicles (not launching 3 of the same rockets in one day (however I have 6 shuttles with different names to overcome this))

7. No transmitting science, only recovery on Kerbin

Edited July 22, 2018 by Raptor42

[GrouchyDevotee]

I'm on a PS4, I've completed the science tree only once in career mode. I'm currently playing in Sandbox mode.

- I will decide before the launch if it's a test or not.

- I try to leave no orbiting or free debris, I will occasionally go grab and return space junk.

- I stick to actual relay and comm links for all remotes.

- I haven't been strict about always  using fairings.

- No cheat menu.

- Don't kill Kerbals.

- any; game/controller/dog needs out/food spills/phone activity/glitches  issues = a free reload

Edited July 22, 2018 by GrouchyDevotee

[panzer1b]

Not too much, but i generally try to avoid excessive clipping unless its absolutely necessary from a asthetic point of view (specifically fuel tanks and engines).  I also do what i can to have engines actually exposed to the air, so no jet engines inside the hull, or vernors inside the guts of a warship (unless its a situation where i literally cant make it otherwise or it would seriously compromize the design if i extended them so they can realistically provide thrust).  I avoid leaving debris in orbit unless its a case of very fine fuel margins where i need to use 100% of every single stage to get where i need to get.  No abuse of alt-f12 with the notable exception of launching multiple of the exact same vessel to the exact same destination (i cant be bothered to deploy a full squadron of starfighters to jool, i launch 1 legit, teleport the rest to where the 1st one was).  Along that line, i do sometimes teleport ships between places they have been to often and when the places have IRSU facilities which i could have used to refuel them on destination (all this does is keep me from doing tedious things for no good reason).  Finally, i avoid quickloading unless its a kraken attack or some stupid bug.  Its actually fun when something goes terribly wrong and you need to find a way to save the crew or find a way to get half a capital ship back to friendly territory.

Edited July 25, 2018 by panzer1b

[Epicdreamer]

- Never kill any Kerbals (lost one once, felt horrible about that!)

- allways give them the possibility to return to Kerbin. If that can't be done with their current vessel, send out extra fuel...or do a resque mission.

- revert to VAB/SPH/Launch only when a vessel is still in the atmosphere, but in a horrible state (continuesly flipping, wobbly as hell, rapidly disassembled or forgot something. Last thing happens a lot). Once out of the atmosphere, than that's it. For planes this counts as long as they are below a hundred meters or so.

- No use of extra groundstations.

- No probe control without signal

- no cheat menu

- no autopilot on spacecraft, Bon Voyage is allowed on rovers

- Build stuff that looks like its going to fly, but then again, stick a couple of wings to a fridge and it looks like its going to fly...ish...

- Try something new everytime I'm visiting an allready visited place beyond the local "start" SOI. As in the Kerbal system in Vanilla/OPM, Sonnah system in New Horizons etc.

 

There must be more that I can't remember right now 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Epicdreamer
Textual correction

[HansonKerman]

Always put your Kerbals' thoughts first. What would they like in the rocket/movie set? What would they not like? All essential factors.

No probe control without signal.

3. Don't kill Kerbals. I cannot stress that enough.

4. Only on "simulation flights" shall someone revert to VAB/SPH. Real flights, if they fail, they fail.

5. Always use farings unless I don't need to.

6. TweakScale is allowed.

7. Movie sets need not be to scale.\

Maybe more.

[1straycat]

-Everything that isn't intended to stay up long-term must be a fully recoverable SSTO. Mine is the Kerbal Spaceplane Program!

-I have to save every Kerbal from all rescue missions that come up.

-No huge part clipping.

-No parts may be offset so they don't contact their parents. It must not be possible for a craft to break and end up with floating parts.

-Crew must be recovered at the KSC. If a ship crashlands somewhere else on Kerbin, a plane must bring them home before recovering the ship through tracking station.

 

Probably more I can't think of atm.

[Superfluous J]

30 minutes ago, 1straycat said:

I have to save every Kerbal from all rescue missions that come up.

I tried that once. My entire save was "Kerbal rescue program" and I never made any progress.

[SilverWolf]

I have two saves.  Once is aptly named "Crashbox," and the other is my career.

1. All vehicles are tested ad naseum in the simulator (Crashbox) until confidence is high.  Once all the gremlins are worked out, the vehicle enters production.  Its craft file is moved to Career, and only very minor alterations are permitted (such as adding a piece of equipment, or removing an antenna.)  Any modification that does not fall under the purview of a CDL essentially cancels the vehicle's airworthiness, and it must return to Crashbox to receive an STC.
2. What happens in Crashbox, stays in Crashbox.
3. Once a vehicle flies in career, optimal or catastrophic, the results are final.  There is no reverting.  There are no quick saves.  Kerbals do not rise from the dead.  I find the introduction of such finality keeps my knuckles white.
4. No one gets left behind, and no Kerbal is expendable.  On a side note, I don't hire new Kerbals.  I bolster my ranks by rescuing those the Contractors left for dead.
5. As a result of playing MMOs for many years, I'm a completionist.  I farm Kerbin for every scrap of science possible before leaving for the Mun.  This is quite tedious, and dangerous, but it also means I typically leave for the Mun fairly well prepared.
6. I don't use rockets.  Everything, including tankers, are airplanes.

[Freds]

1) No kerbal dies, no kerbal stranded (space stations does not count), no kerbal left behind. Of course  something can go wrong, but, i try to minimize all risks to kerbals, even if it means a parachute landing in Eve surface..... and an almost impossible dangerous rescue mission...

2) Commnet, default signal oclusion, plasma blackout, Part G limit, part pressure limits, kerbal g force, extra ground stations....

3) ALT F12 or Hyperedit only to solve a  bug.

4) One (or more) space stations in Kerbal orbit with cheaty fuel generator - i'm more than capable to go to minmus, mine, refuel station, go back.... but it is very boring... lets just pretend that i contracted somebody else to do that for me....

5) All mods are allowed, as long i think the game is fun and balanced.
 

 

[Curveball Anders]

11 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I tried that once. My entire save was "Kerbal rescue program" and I never made any progress.

I do that all the time.

Rescued Kerbals are free kerbonauts and free money.