Mid Carrier Game play questions

[GungaDin]

With lots of help from this forum I have moved forward in a successful career.  However I am just a bit strapped for cash.  I have developed the ability to :

- dock in earth orbit like a champ

- orbit the moon with Kerbils on board

- built a fuel station in Earth orbit to assist future space travel

Any tips on making my company more profitable at this point.  I'm in a bit of a slump where I take contracts using these skills but my rockets are costing me almost as much as I generate...

Thanks as usual...

[Zeiss Ikon]

Milestones.

"First" anything pays better than any of those routine contracts.  "First probe flyby of the Mun" or "First crewed flyby of Duna" etc.  These "first" events, if you load your craft right, also tend to generate big bunches of science, which advances your careeer into improved tech that gives you access to even further milestones.

More generally, with the skills and experience you have now, you ought to be able to estimate fairly well what a vessel will cost to accomplish a given contract, so don't take contracts that won't produce significant profit -- or set things up to complete multiple contracts on a single launch.  Got four tourist on one contract who want to fly by the Mun, one of them wants to land, and three on another who want to land on the Mun and fly by Minmus?  Launch one vessel that can both fly by Minmus and land on the Mun, and carry seven passengers plus crew, plus (assuming there are still biomes you haven't tapped out for science) science instruments.  Considering that a gravity assist from Minmus to the Mun is almost free compared to just going to Minmus, the only upgrade you need compared to a minimum craft to do the Minmus flyby is enough dV to land on the Mun and get back to Munar orbit, around 1100+ m/s, plus the pittance (a couple hundred?) you'll need to capture into Mun orbit after the transfer from Minmus.

[Pecan]

Corporate Espionage, also known as industrial spying or, in KSP, starting a sandbox game so you can develop, test and improve your vehicles for free, only 'stealing' the most cost-effective designs to launch in your career save.

Really good to hear how well you're doing though.  Hope you're really enjoying your hard-earned skills :-)

Edited December 7, 2019 by Pecan

[Signo]

SRB powered designs 

 

 

 

[Fraktal]

You might also want to consider looking into the administrative strategies that convert another resource into cash.

[Laie]

11 hours ago, GungaDin said:

Any tips on making my company more profitable at this point.  I'm in a bit of a slump where I take contracts using these skills but my rockets are costing me almost as much as I generate...

On standard settings, tourism pays well enough to run a large profit. Rescue and Satellite Contracts should also pay very well.

If you find that you barely generate any surplus, I suspect that your rockets are larger and more expensive than they really need to be.

[bewing]

The way you make huge money is to complete multiple contracts with a single vessel. To do so requires cleverness and creativity and well-built craft -- which is what is supposed to make the game a fun and challenging puzzle.

[VoidSquid]

11 hours ago, Signo said:

SRB powered designs 

SRBs are cheap and powerful to use as a first stage.

As others said before: (my) main income source are contracts, in particular tourism contracts. Take a look here

 

[StrandedonEarth]

I suppose I'm late to this party, but I'll chime in too.

On 12/8/2019 at 12:54 AM, VoidSquid said:

SRBs are cheap and powerful to use as a first stage.

As others said before: (my) main income source are contracts, in particular tourism contracts. Take a look here

 

Contract Configurator with the "Tourism Plus" contract pack is pretty handy. The Space Camp contract (infinitely repeatable) gives you three new kerbals (one of each profession) as well as paying toward the flight. I don't remember if it pays for my Space Camp bus trips on its own, but the bus hold twenty passengers plus three crew, so I can stuff more tourists in with the campers, and the bus has tons of margin when performing a three-star training trip. You might need more tech though...

I find the station contracts to be insanely lucrative when contracts are stacked. One station launch can fulfill Kerbin, Mun/Minmus, solar orbit, and interplanetary station contracts. A few of those and you will never worry about funds again...

[paul23]

On 12/7/2019 at 9:53 PM, Zeiss Ikon said:

Milestones.

"First" anything pays better than any of those routine contracts.  "First probe flyby of the Mun" or "First crewed flyby of Duna" etc.  These "first" events, if you load your craft right, also tend to generate big bunches of science, which advances your careeer into improved tech that gives you access to even further milestones.

More generally, with the skills and experience you have now, you ought to be able to estimate fairly well what a vessel will cost to accomplish a given contract, so don't take contracts that won't produce significant profit -- or set things up to complete multiple contracts on a single launch.  Got four tourist on one contract who want to fly by the Mun, one of them wants to land, and three on another who want to land on the Mun and fly by Minmus?  Launch one vessel that can both fly by Minmus and land on the Mun, and carry seven passengers plus crew, plus (assuming there are still biomes you haven't tapped out for science) science instruments.  Considering that a gravity assist from Minmus to the Mun is almost free compared to just going to Minmus, the only upgrade you need compared to a minimum craft to do the Minmus flyby is enough dV to land on the Mun and get back to Munar orbit, around 1100+ m/s, plus the pittance (a couple hundred?) you'll need to capture into Mun orbit after the transfer from Minmus.

If you go for profit the tourism contracts will outshine everything, by a large margin.. Sadly.

[Snark]

On 12/7/2019 at 11:38 AM, GungaDin said:

Any tips on making my company more profitable at this point.

Keep an eye on the contracts that flow by (new ones pop up every few days).  Some contracts are enormously more profitable than others.  For example, make sure you've researched docking ports and solar panels-- that will cause "space station" and "surface outpost" contracts to start popping up, and those can be quite lucrative.  (In particular, if you see a "new station on solar orbit" contract, those are seriously profitable; you can make well over 500K on a contract that only takes a couple of minutes of your time to slap together and launch.)

Leave a satellite with an antenna and a thermometer parked in orbit around Kerbin, and around Mun, and around Minmus (and any other body you visit).  That way, if you get a "Science data from space around X" contract, you can instantly make cash in just a few seconds by switching to the craft, transmitting a temperature reading, and done. 

Tourism contracts can be lucrative, too.  The first ones you get are generally fairly cheap and don't pay much (e.g. the ones just for suborbital hops) ... but after you've landed on Mun and Minmus, you'll start seeing contracts for taking tourists there, and that can pay quite a bit.

[Bariel]

The other contracts that can be very lucrative are asteroid detection contracts, which unlock when you get the infra red telescope. These contracts usually pay in the millions and, more importantly, pay a huge amount up front, quite often a couple of million or so.