"Role Play" versus Contract or Science missions

[Tyko]

Those of you playing either Science or Career Mode - How often do you fly "Role Play" missions that are interesting but don't provide any money/science benefits? 

If you are doing RP only missions, what kind do you like to do most. Most of my RP missions tend to related to stations and bases because they're really interesting to design, build and assemble on orbit.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I do quite a few, from putting stock-missile equipped defense stations into orbit, to rotating crew members.

I would say my most common form of RP mission is an SSTO or Shuttle flight to a station to move crew members or return them to Kerbin for no reason.

This typically coincides with a desire to run a test mission with a new SSTO or Shuttle lol. (Career mode btw, so I have to foot the bill for my personal passion projects.)

Edited November 7, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[DerekL1963]

I frequently RP astronaut assignments, I keep track of who is in which programs, when they last flew, have a rotation, etc... etc..

 

[overkill13]

I RP a lot of things.  Minimum of 2 crew on a station, 4 "staff" at my space hotel and one required for tourist missions, crew rotations.  There's more that I can't think of atm.  Several of these are covered by mods that I now use, tourism/station contract pack, Kerbal Health, USI-LS etc, but most of them are related to rules I have for my space program.

[Pecan]

'Fraid in 5 years I've never played a science or career game through.  The tech-tree always was so ridiculous - crewed-first, 5th-tier ladder, etc. - that I just couldn't face it.  In any case, that becomes, 'now you have everything, do what you wanted in the first place' very quickly.  Had I managed to face science mode I'd still have been put off career by the endless (?) test-pilot missions, "Deploy a launch stabiliser between 10-12,000m and 150-200m/s".  Who needs it!

On the other hand, a lot of people would be bored to death by what is my repeated playthrough of what is, in effect, the same sequence: get to space, get to orbit, get to the moons, get everywhere.

[Gargamel]

2 hours ago, DerekL1963 said:

I frequently RP astronaut assignments, I keep track of who is in which programs, when they last flew, have a rotation, etc... etc..

 

Final Frontier mod is huge there.   I would find the game pretty boring without it. 

[razark]

I also follow rules I set myself.  Crew rotations to stations, requirements for missions, rules on who can get which flight assignments, promotions, retirements, etc.  As said above, Final Frontier adds nothing to gameplay, but it adds so much to the game in terms of roleplay.

[DerekL1963]

2 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Final Frontier mod is huge there.   I would find the game pretty boring without it.

Yep.  Final Frontier is an important element of my roleplay.

[razark]

21 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:

Yep.  Final Frontier is an important element of my roleplay. 

There are a few mods that don't add anything to gameplay, but playing without them just feels wrong.

Final Frontier, Chatterer, Docking Sounds, and Environmental Visual Enhancements are at the top of my required list of "useless" mods.  Not having them installed makes the game seem emptier.

[Tyko]

I only play Science now because I enjoy unlocking the tree slowly (I play at 20% science).

The biggest thing I miss from Career mode was the contract pack "Bases and Stations Reborn". Once a station was up it would pop up missions occasionally to fly up an engineer to fix something or rotate out a crew member...these were really fun and made the game feel more real.

 

 

 

[Guest]

In a sense almost everything is RP, after the very early career when Funds and Science really are issues.

I set myself career objectives and then do stuff to pursue them. In my previous one, my objective was to build a Kosmodrome on Laythe, and everything I did from the first bottle rocket was directed toward that goal.

I just started a new career, and here my goal is to build a Kosmodrome on Duna. Again, everything I do serves that purpose.

(This doesn't mean I don't do other stuff either, but they're more like sidequests.)

[Atkara]

Since most of my interplanetary craft launch empty of fuel and get prepped in orbit, I launch them without crew on board. Kerbonauts only go up when the craft is ready and the transfer window is about to open.

I also don't leave crews on a body's surface, without some basic amenities. This means something that qualifies as an outpost and some means to explore (a rover)

And I never send them on a one-way trip. Crew rotations are scheduled, with means and methods that will reliably take them on and off the surface -alive. This requires further infrastructure -hence why my careers always grow to the extent they do, leaving me looking at the RAM usage go up and up, in horror 

Never thought of any of this as roleplay to be honest. I just do what feels right.

[DerekL1963]

10 hours ago, Tyko said:

I only play Science now because I enjoy unlocking the tree slowly (I play at 20% science).

The biggest thing I miss from Career mode was the contract pack "Bases and Stations Reborn".

I have seen it suggested that in a career game you could cheat yourself a mountain of funds, and thus have "Science Mode, but with Contracts".  I too play Science mode, and that does sound like it would be interesting to try.

[Pecan]

21 hours ago, razark said:

There are a few mods that don't add anything to gameplay, but playing without them just feels wrong.

Truth in advertising: Chatterer has always listed itself as "totally useless, totally fun" :-)

Totally with you (and others) who have said that these background things make everything so much more immersive.  Thanks to all for the listed mod recommendations, I've never tried Final Frontier so must give it a go.

[Gargamel]

On 11/8/2018 at 10:18 PM, Pecan said:

I've never tried Final Frontier so must give it a go.

With a little digging, you can find "Expansion Packs" for FF.  They are just packs of ribbons for the mod.   Worth taking a look at, allows you to steer your RP in different directions. 

[Deddly]

Like SpaceX, I use contracts mostly just to generate income that I can use for my own missions that I think will be cool. 

[DerekL1963]

2 hours ago, Deddly said:

Like SpaceX, I use contracts mostly just to generate income that I can use for my own missions that I think will be cool. 

Me to, but it became annoying so now I just play Science mode.

[Norcalplanner]

I just added Space Age, which I'm liking a lot so far. It's basically like a recording secretary in the corner keeping track of everything. How many times has that craft landed on a particular moon or docked with a particular station? Who has flown the longest duration mission? Etc...

[razark]

1 hour ago, Norcalplanner said:

I just added Space Age, which I'm liking a lot so far. It's basically like a recording secretary in the corner keeping track of everything. How many times has that craft landed on a particular moon or docked with a particular station? Who has flown the longest duration mission? Etc...

There's a mod for this?!?  Why am I just now finding out?

I've been tracking everything own my own database, so I'm going to have to check this one out.  Thanks for mentioning it!