How do you like to play?

[MR L A]

I spend most of my time in sandbox mode these days designing ant flight-testing new craft and missions. "BlackBox Testing" is my save file name... always use the same name after many years of restarts :)

 

I am thinking of putting all my designing and testing to work in a new career mode... No reverts, no respawns, no quickloads etc. But like many of us, I'm not quite happy with how career mode functions, so I MIGHT try a setup where all tech are researched... funding gain from contracts is low, but *importantly* 100% research gained is converted to funds (as I don't need research, just funds).

I think this solves the weirdness of a goo experiment on Gilly somehow unlocking new SRB or whatever... instead successful science missions are rewarded with more funding for further missions.

Having thought about it a little more, a variation on this idea might be to start with the usual amount of tech unlocked but turn *off* using research to unlock parts (if that's possible) and have unlock with funds *on*.

I think either option might require a little modification though... which I don't know how to do lol.

 

Got a bit rant-y there...

So, how do you guys like to play??

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Normal. Just normal science.

[MR L A]

4 minutes ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

Normal. Just normal science.

I think "normal" is a little subjective with KSP  Thinking about, I've never given science mode a try... but I kinda want the opposite of that I think

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Just now, MR L A said:

I think "normal" is a little subjective with KSP  Thinking about, I've never given science mode a try... but I kinda want the opposite of that I think

Give science a try!

SCIENCE FOREVAAAAA

[Curveball Anders]

Mostly career, with slight breaks for sandbox when trying something completely new.

 

[RealKerbal3x]

Mostly sandbox mode. I’ve briefly dipped my toes into career games, but I’ve never really got past the early game before because you end up grinding science on the launchpad, which I personally don’t find at all fun. 

I just prefer building my space program in my own way, without having to worry about funds, or science - but I may give KSP2’s Progression mode a go, if they can make it better than KSP1’s career mode.

Edited December 7, 2019 by RealKerbal3x

[Fraktal]

Currently using science mode to R&D stuff for an eventual career. I'm also a bit masochistic and do said R&D with 10% science gains from experiments done in order to force myself to design stuff using as few tech nodes as possible, going for efficiency over style.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Fraktal

[Francois424]

Step #1 - Make a new career game on normal difficulty... Turning auto-leveling kerbals and them passing out and stuff.  Might not include part pressure next playthru as there is no way to know how well parts will react.
Step #2 - Quicksave and edit the game to give me 10 million kerbucks.  Reload the quicksave and fully expend the KSC structures to their last levels.
Step #3 - Play !

Reason is that I love doing contracts, I love doing science (especially with That science collection mod and the science collection box), but I hate grinding the game at the beginning to unlock all facilities.  It takes too long, and you get bad contracts because of low-tech at the game's beginning.
I actually ran out of money today and had to do ISRU with my ship on the pad to load-up the fuel I needed as I could not afford it.  So it's not that there's no challenge.  Maxing the reputation is fun too, and harder to do when tourists want to go to the outskirt of the System and back in less than 30 years.
I usually play stock and only add my end-game parts once I've unlocked the tech tree.  Makes thing earned a bit more and I like that feeling.

The only thing is that non-Kerbin location give too much science but I don't want to set it at like 20%, because if you do, the Kerbin part becomes annoying.
Maybe in the future I'll learn how to reduce non-Kerbin science to 10% value or something.  Strip mining Mun + Minmus gives enough for the full tree. 
I'd love for me to do that and only end-up with half the 300 science nodes done.  Forces you to go to Duna or Jool. to get the rest of the tree. 
 -- On second thought, 10% might be too little.  But 30-45% might be what I am looking for.

 

[DeadJohn]

I like trying mods, and sometimes start a game centered around specific mods. The last 2 games I started were:

"Airplanes": I wanted to start with planes before rockets. I used Contract Pack: Giving Aircraft A Purpose (GAP) which by definition needs a contract mode game. I also used several airplane part mods.

"JNSQ": JNSQ is a rescaled system with many new planets. I picked Science Mode to gradually explore the new planets, without worrying about funds. I'm also using a lot of parts mods for rockets and spaceplanes.

[XLjedi]

I build craft in sandbox for mission objectives I would rarely need.  ...a large amphibious landing craft?  Why would I even need that?

I find the game mode and features I want do not exist.

My New Year's Resolution will be to simply add a "Hello World" dialog window to the SPH.  Once I have that I can start building the gameplay mod(s) that I need.

 

[RizzoTheRat]

Career only for me.  I've occasionally dropped in to the sandbox to test something but generally my testing is in my career game and I just go back to a save once I've got whatever it is working.

I also start a new career whenever I upgrade versions, so I tend to spend a lot more time in Kerbin SOI than other planets.  In my 1.7 and 1.7 games I didn't even end up setting foot on Duna as I've been spending most of the time working on my kOS scripts.

[XLjedi]

1 hour ago, RizzoTheRat said:

Career only for me.  I've occasionally dropped in to the sandbox to test something but generally my testing is in my career game and I just go back to a save once I've got whatever it is working.

See that's where I find career mode lacking; no link to the creativity of the sandbox or incentives to design reusable/refuel-able craft on kerbin.

I want to have a "Skunkworks" hangar of experimental craft that I have developed without Sci-Tree restriction.  If I use a craft with experimental tech, each part might cost 5x 10x the standard amount.  ...and if the craft is recovered or destroyed, those parts are gone.  At least, until you actually can get the sci-tree tech to research the part so it is no longer experimental.  The game even already has "test this part" missions that work that way, which is why I will try to look into creating a mod that might allow for "Skunkworks" craft.

I would find it particularly fun if I bought an expensive experimental spaceplane for instance that I would have to keep active and build craft to service and reload it so I could complete 5 or 10 missions with the thing to earn the funds and science to justify that cost.  I find recovery and launching of the same vehicles, without some incentives for reusing the craft, to be rather boring.  I also don't particularly like the idea of auto-recovery anything from anywhere on the surface of Kerbin. 

 

[RizzoTheRat]

22 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

See that's where I find career mode lacking; no link to the creativity of the sandbox or incentives to design reusable/refuel-able craft on kerbin.

You can adjust the funding settings in career so that you do have an incentive to design for reusability.  I usually switch to SSTO's as soon as I have the Clampotron Senior and Vector engine.  However some people find that a bit grind-ey so aren't so keen.

Personally I like the challenge of the early game being restricted in parts, and like having contracts to give my game direction, but completely understand why others prefer sandbox.

29 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

I want to have a "Skunkworks" hangar of experimental craft that I have developed without Sci-Tree restriction.  If I use a craft with experimental tech, each part might cost 5x 10x the standard amount.  ...and if the craft is recovered or destroyed, those parts are gone. 

One of the mods in RO allows you to invest in "tooling" that brings the part cost down, so regularly used parts can be made more cheaply than stuff you only use occasionally.  Might be worth a look if you've not played with it

[XLjedi]

@RizzoTheRat  Adjusting cost on a limited set of parts just increases difficulty.  The problem is not a cost issue, it's the lack of part variety and type that would promote a reusable craft and associated support craft. 

I think I can piggyback on the existing mission system to create something that might be able to do what I want.  It's on my todo list. 

[DStaal]

I mostly play in science mode.  I enjoy the progression of unlocking parts and having doing science mean something - but I'm not interested in the contracts or tracking every last funds.  I'll set my own goals, thanks.

(I do use Kerbal Environmental Institute to avoid the early-game grind of going around the KSC sampling science.  With the number of mods I run (some of which have their own experiments), that typically gets me about halfway through the CTT before I build a single rocket.)

[Chakkoty]

Sandbox until i figured out how I want to play. I tried career mode, but it felt so limiting that i just gave up soon after. I'll be perfecting my mod list and pilot skills and then start a science playthrough - building big science vessels without any actual use for them feels kind if hollow...

 

[Retro Starship]

I have 2 KSP's installed, one with a simple career mode with just a few basic mods, and one with a few dozens mods including Kerbalism and KCT) So career contracts with life like realism are my favorite (at this time) way to play. Even though its aggravating to have Val or Jeb go out to fix a malfunctioned engine in space, to me that is more like the way things would happen.

I play both of those modes every day!  

When I need a break away from career contracts, I usually spend a bit of time in sandbox mode. 

[Flibble]

RP-1 career. Go big or go home.

Current 1.7.3 play through has me not even in orbit yet.

[MR L A]

Just so you all know, I actually gave my idea a go...

Set up:

• -10% science rewards (adjust depending on how grindy you want it to be)
• -10% funds rewards (adjust depending on how grindy you want it to be)
•  500% reputation penalty
• No quickloads
• No reverts
• Purchase parts *ON* (parts are unlucked with tech AND funds with this option on)
• Starting Science 2700
• Starting Reputation 750

Start game...

Open  deubg > set facility and tech to maximum > use admin building and use the Patents Licencing strategy > set to 100% (which costs 2700 science).
Use debug to set reputation back to 0 (there's some weird behavior with this step... -100 doesn't subtract 100).

 

Now, every single experiment you do contributes towards your level of funding! With this approach, a successful science trip to the mun simply gives you more funds to pump back into R&D!

So far its quite an interesting way to play  + science seems to make a little more sense now... instead of a goo experiment unlocking a new engine for some reason, its more like a successful mission is rewarded with funds which can then be used to unlock an engine

Also, if you want a slightly easier start, set starting funds a bit higher - I do this as I'm personally a little bored of the first 2/3 missions at this point   

[amarillo114]

I play regular career mode, before that I tried sandbox but I was overwhelmed due to the amount of parts available. I think that regular career mide flattens a little the learning curve due to the unlocking of new parts in a progressive way :-D

Edited December 25, 2019 by amarillo114
Typo

[MR L A]

11 hours ago, amarillo114 said:

I play regular career mode, before that I tried sandbox but I was overwhelmed due to the amount of parts available. I think that regular career mide flattens a little the learning curve due to the unlocking of new parts in a progressive way :-D

very much agreed, I figured this one out as soon as I bought the game... went to Sandbox, thought what the fudge is all this? and went straight to career instead :P

[Zeiss Ikon]

I haven't played a science save since I started my first career, back in 1.3.1.  Haven't gone back to my old stock-plus-Better Burn Time career (which had been upgraded to 1.4.1, then 1.6.1) since I installed Realism Overhaul on 1.3.1.  Played through the sounding rocket era at least six times, maybe eight, on "hard" mode, going broke before getting basic satellites into LEO.  Installed a new RO in 1.6.1, playing on "normal" with a couple setting changes (that's now recommended for "inexperienced" players) and have gone through the sounding rocket era a couple more times, but it just wasn't the same without Principia -- but now I got the library upgrade and can use Principia again; my sun synchronous orbit will really BE sun-synchronous, so I'm ready to try to get at least to crewed Lunar missions and probes to Mars and Venus.

[putnamto]

Career,  though I do like your idea of science = funds

I tried the no revert/respawn thing and I had no money,  and no kerbals by the end of the year

Edited December 28, 2019 by putnamto

[MR L A]

2 hours ago, putnamto said:

Career,  though I do like your idea of science = funds

I tried the no revert/respawn thing and I had no money,  and no kerbals by the end of the year

I've been experimenting with it and it is really fun to play that way. You do have to do a bit of tweaking with rewards/starting funds etc because it rapidly becomes either incredibly grindy or stupidly easy  

[putnamto]

7 hours ago, MR L A said:

I've been experimenting with it and it is really fun to play that way. You do have to do a bit of tweaking with rewards/starting funds etc because it rapidly becomes either incredibly grindy or stupidly easy  

Isn't their a way to make it so you buy individual parts from the tech tree instead of the whole node?