Put some specific situation-based missions in career mode

[Yakky]

First off, I love the game and offer this suggestion only in the most constructive spirit. As many other posts have noted, the existing Career Mode quickly feels a bit dry and tedious as you rack up numerous repeated missions carrying the same goo, radios, and Kerbalnauts doing basically the same thing. What I believe career mode needs is a series of specific story-based challenges to keep it fresh and interesting, very much like the campaigns in campaign mode. These would be narrowly defined tasks that, when completed successfully, would reward the player with some large number of science points to advance their career. They key thing is that they'd be a part of career mode so that you have some alternatives beyond just carrying science instruments all the time. (Obviously you would still have to do some of the goo missions.)

BTW apologies in advance if this idea has already been discussed. I did a couple keyword searches in this forum to look for it, but I did not literally read through all 50+ pages of posts here. Please don't flame me... just trying to help! Moderator: Please feel free to relocate this post as appropriate.

Some examples of possible career-building missions (roughly from easiest/early in a career to hardest/later in a career):

-- Supply Drop: A remote Kerbin outpost has run out of crucial supplies and the only way to get replacements there in time is by rocket capsule. Successfully complete a precision landing of a capsule within a small specified zone of a few square km somewhere on Kerbin. The zone would be shown in the map and planet views. Points for success. Bonus points for being able to return to the space port.

-- Kerbal Rescue: A Kerbal is stranded on top of a mountain at [location on Kerbin] and you need to build a lander with spare crew compartment to go get him and bring him back to within 5 km of the space port. Successful completion gives a bunch of points.

-- Orbit and Return: Put a craft into orbit, complete a full orbit (defined as no control inputs for an entire loop) and then land within 5 km of the space port.

-- Instruments Only: On no! The Kerbals forgot to put windows in this capsule! Put a craft into orbit using only the nav ball, altimeter, and velocity readings. Bonus for successful de-orbit and return.

-- Mun Impactor: Just hit the mun with a rocket. Bonus for having a Kerbal nearby to observe the explosion.

-- Minmus Impactor: Same thing for Minmus.

-- Dres Impactor: you get the idea.

-- Mun orbit and return: get a Kerbal around the dark side of the Mun and bring him back alive. Bonus for orbiting (rather than just hyperbolic trajectory).

-- Kommercial Lifts: Some Kompany has a satellite weighing a certain amount they want to put into a specific orbit, and they need you to do it for them. There are allowed tolerance bands for orbit height, inclination, eccentricity, etc. (This concept could be repeated with different satellites weighing different amounts (some really heavy!) and requiring various different orbits including Keosynchronous.) Different points for each mission. Bonus points if you hit the target orbital parameters more precisely.

-- Dual Kommercial Lifts: Put two kommercial satellites into two different specified orbits from the same launch.

-- Space Junk: There's a dead satellite orbiting overhead. Launch a rocket to intersect and destroy it.

-- Rescue Docking: Build a craft to dock with and rescue a stranded Kerbal orbiting in a capsule. Must be completed within x days before he runs out of supplies.

-- Fuel Economy: Get a Kerbal into orbit using no more than [x] amount of fuel.

...anyway, you get the idea. Basically just a bunch of narratively scripted missions to give players a series of specific tasks to complete. I think this would add a huge amount of fun and interest to Career Mode by giving players an alternate way to build up points while developing skills.

Lastly, the game could require completion of certain missions as prerequisites to unlocking certain nodes of the tech tree. For example, unlocking tech node XYZ might require 150 points and completion of mission ABC if it hasn't been completed already.

[Dun Kirk]

I like the impactor missions, alot of the early missions were literally "can we hit with a stuff .....and what kind of splat mark does it leave"

FOR SCIENCE!!!!!!

I'm looking forward to .23 science was a key factor lacking in and they are expanding a lot of sciencey stuff.

[Rock3tman4]

Something even better would be goals set by politicians, like JFK's famous moon speech.

[DaMichel]

I like the idea. Not strictly in terms of some story missions, but getting awarded for some accomplishment. And here is an extension with air plane/SSTO related things:

-- Fly with a plane (No rocket engines. Must have wings, Bonus points for landing.)

-- Fly at supersonic speeds.

-- Fly into orbit with a SSTO (Must have wings and air breathing engine.)

-- Fly in the atmosphere of a different planet (Wings required. Rocket engine is ok. Lift force must be at least 90% of the gravity force for a minute or so. Bonus points for landing there.)

[pizzaoverhead]

I would like to see this. Mission Controller has many of these missions and they're a lot of fun, particularly the impactors. Having a crash be a cause for celebration and reward mixes things up a bit.