What are your gameplay restrictions?

[SkyRender]

My only hard-and-fast rule is to have fun. Though I do have certain habits that pop up...

* No debug menu cheats unless I'm just goofing around

* I don't ever use any autopilot or flight enhancement system; not even the KER Flight Chip (though the design chip is fine since it's a time-saver during design at best)

* Generally I try to keep the lift stage within 6 asparagus'd orange tanks, so my payloads rarely exceed about 50T or so

* I really like reusable vessels, so anything that doesn't have to get thrown away or brought back to Kerbin is left in space for future use

* Combined with the above, I tend to set up elaborate systems that keep my space-faring industry going by way of Kethane mining

[Brotoro]

...keep the air intakes to under 48 per jet engine...

I giggled.

[Wampa842]

FAR, Remote Tech 2 (signal delay enabled).

No MechJeb or kOS, only RT2's flight computer.

Obviously, no console cheats or hyperedit.

No sacrificing kerbals; plant a flag in the R&D for every lost life.

A kerbal in trouble (no fuel in EVA-pack, lost control of vessel, no fuel/electricity/resources) is top priority.

No "Just call it a base" bases.

Keep vessels simple, due to hardware limitations.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Wampa842

[Godot]

• No suicide missions (i.e. missions that are planned to leave my Kerbals stranded somewhere)
  
• Safety first (i.e. LES for all manned ships per default, as soon as I have reserached Sepatrons ... also, ideally, testing of parts on Kerbin or Mun before they are used for longer missions)
  
• On manned missions no more than one transmission on this mission per situation (with other words, exploiting a Biome via repeatd transmissions is disallowed for me and returning samples makes sense)
  
• Don´t be wasteful 1 (If you know you can design a rocket with certain dV requirements at cheaper costs, you shall do so)
  
• Don´t be wasteful 2 (all stages that are released low enough to be recovered and won´t burn up (I play with deadly reentry) shall be equipped with parachutes, so they may land intact and can be recovered by the ground crews for further use)
  
• No clogging up of LKO if possible ... try to design your rockets in a way that the orbit around 90-120 km stays free from debris (and instead debris either falls down on Kerbin or has an orbit that doesn´t interfere (too much) with said orbits
  

Edited November 26, 2013 by Godot

[Katve]

Almost bring a lot more fuel than needed. I am pretty sure that somebody with higher skill level could bring my Mun rocket to Duna.

[regex]

I don't use/need arbitrary restrictions. However, I do always try to play with a life support mod (TACLS) and I prefer playing with DRE.

[Tank Buddy]

• If you can make a smaller launch vehicle, do so
  
• If you can make a lighter and smaller lander, do so
  
• do not use any mods that take away from the game experience. i.e. autopilots
  
• Go to space
  

[User Unrelated]

I stopped transmitting things besides crew reports on manned missions, and since I've restarted my career, wth unmanned craft, I limit myself to only 2 data transmissions, per experiment, per "area", so that I'm not spamming transmissions.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

Don't kill anyone, and all stations/large ships/bases must have enough lifeboats for every kerbal on board, in case of space icebergs.

[Thomas988]

1. Keep all Kerbals alive.

2. All missions must be return-capable.

3. When docking, do not exceed 5 m/s unless necessary, and never exceed 10 m/s on approach.

4. Missions must be done in safe and formal manner.

5. All hired Kerbonauts must have greater courage levels than stupidity levels.

That's about the biggest ones I have, but I also have a ton of tiny things I never allow myself to do.

[Superfluous J]

• Use KER and charts to determine delta-V required, and don't go much over that. ie: Don't over-engineer.
  
• Don't time warp more than - say - 10 days at a time. If your ship is going to take 100 days to get somewhere, do something else in the mean time. Use KAC so you don't forget to do maneuvers.
  
• Only unlock one tech node per successful mission. Or, for large missions, once per significant milestone. Revel in the tech tree and squeeze the most out of each node. That's what it's there for.
  
• Have a way to either get every Kerbal home, or habitate them where they are going.
  
• Have a plan (even if you don't execute it for a while or at all) to take care of space debris. Only stuff orbiting a planet or moon in a stable orbit is important. Anything in a solar orbit, or an unstable planetary orbit, I assume will go away eventually by impacting a planet or moon. Or at the very least can be considered as dangerous as an asteroid or comet.
  

[Ravenchant]

- Some form of LES on all manned craft

- Maximum of 2 Kerbals per hitchhiker, larger habitat modules must have "enough" monoprop tanks and batteries to simulate life support equipment

- Enough means of escape for stations

- Station and base crew is rotated at least every couple of months (this may change when I start making bases further than the Mun)

- Send probes before manned missions (except the first gung-ho Mun and Minmus landings...it's okay, Jeb volunteered)

- Noone gets left behind.

- At least 1 Kerbal on any manned scientific mission must have low stupidity

- No firing of NERVAs in Kerbin atmosphere

The list is going to get seriously expanded come 0.23... RT2, DRE, TAC, I'm looking at you!

[NASAFanboy]

My restrictions?

- Every kerbal has a family and kids and wives and parents of their own. Leave noone behind. Kill noone.

- Launch abort system present on all manned rockets. Launch abort system must be tested prior to launch.

- Don't fire NERVA in Kerbin atmosphere.

- Probes first.

- Spacestations must have atleast one escape craft docked to it if it is manned for more than a week.

- Missions beyond Kerbin orbit must take place with more than one Kerbal.

Just about it

[goldenpeach]

Alway send do an unmanned mission before the manned mission.

Alway "test" the mission by sending an unmanned version of the craft(the same craft, but I stick a probe core on it) before launching the manned one.

[Paul Kingtiger]

Not a restriction as such but I'm currently playing a campaign with the goals of lowest cost and best safety. It has resulted in a lot of out of game planning and rediscovering a lot of maths I haven't used since school. To make things even harder I charge myself double for any craft used the first time (to encourage repeat use of subassemblies).

So far it's slow going but really good fun.

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I use Remote Tech, TAC, ISA mapsat and Deadly Reentry.

I can't send a manned flight if there isn't radio contact

I don't spam science transmissions

I have to map (ISA) a planet or moon with a probe before I try a landing

Before I send in Kerbals, a probe or rover must have explored wherever it is they're going

Kerbals have to come home

Rockets have to look aesthetic and real

No clipping parts into other parts

Before I launch a rocket I have to be reasonably convinced everything works as it should

I never revert a flight

Edited November 27, 2013 by Galileo Kerbonaut

[Liowen]

Mine are very basic things right now:

-No mods (while I do have 2 Mods downloaded they are only used for testing purposes and learning and do not count towards successful missions)

-Only tweeked one item....landing legs as they have an issue I think (they are seriously weak and I beams are not landing legs)

-K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid... Basically do not over engineer anything, just make it functional nothing fancy.

-No man...errr kerbal left behind... EVER!

-No reloads once a kerbal is dead he is dead. (unless something interrupts my game play and my testing save are the only exception)

-No Debugging to achieve success I either do or do not.

-No mistakes..... Even if it looked like a mistake it wasn't (ok that is more of an oxymoron)

-Stock parts only This is more personal choice as I have had the game for a bit over a month and I am not ready for realism yet.

-Send the stupid ones first. Hey at least I do not leave them out there though

And the most important one

-Have fun....this is said at the end of all my youtube videos, because if you are not having fun what is the point?

I am sure I missed something in my list but this covers my rules for myself in any game. The last one being the utmost important one above all others.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Liowen

[Panzerbeard]

Nothing set in stone, really; I might take some other people's suggestions next time I start up a new career though

-I quicksave often, but I never reload unless something beyond my control happens, like a bug or computer problem. If I fail, I fail.

-Any Kerbal that can be rescued, MUST be rescued.

-No cheating. If I get all the way to Eeloo, after waiting for the launch window, and the entire trip, only to find that I'm a few m/s short of stabilizing my orbit, then I'll wait until the next launch window and do it all over again, I don't get to use infinite fuel.

-Getting out and pushing is not an acceptable mode of transport for anything larger than a command capsule.

-Don't open parachutes until you're well below 300m/s. I like my parachutes sub-sonic, thank you very much.

-Kerbals can't spend any longer than a week at a time in a command capsule; for longer flights they sit in a hitch-hiker's can.

-Any spent stages that would fall back to Kerbin must have a parachute attached, or land in the sea.

-No intake stacking, or exploiting other bugs/design oversights.

-Don't Panic.

-I used to be pretty strict on parts mods, but I've started using KW Rocketry lately, more for aesthetics than anything else. But my rule is that, if I can't build it or something extremely similar in stock, I won't use it.

[Spatzimaus]

No debris. Everything that goes up must come down. That means a lot of SSTO designs, refueling stations, and so on.

[LittleBigWig]

- No quick saving or loading even when that damn kraken strikes my probe on a slow 5 year orbit towards jool

- Kerbal respawning is disabled and thus every kerman is precious and a rescue mission is always planned. Even if it's been a year since he got stranded on Duna..

- After surviving a large amount of missions or extremely dangerous exploration, kerbals are retired and left in Cloud 11 space station, where most ships refuel around kerbin but only retired kerbals can board the station.

- Retired kerbals are only brought out of retirement per 3+ kerbal deaths rather then hiring new recruits. (has only happened once thus far, my rockets are incredibly safe!) I try to avoid hiring new recruits unless they have a cool name or great stats.

- Debris aren't deleted, I loves me some kessler syndrome.

- Failed/stranded in space missions are marked as debris, unless they have kerbals inside. (crewed ships are deleted if they are unrecoverable)

- Dumb Kerbals with high amounts of courage are used as pioneers for explorations into other planets/experimental rockets.

- Only warp for short travels, travel time of months-years are left to float and checked on every now and then while other missions are focused on until that one gets closer to it's encounter.

[alacrity]

In this iteration...

Career mode plus Remote Tech 2. Mods currently used are Universe replacer, Extraplanetary, kethane, KAS, Hooligan, KW.

Test everything unmanned

Follow the mission profile of "find it, land it, base it, mine it, lift from it"

Bases must be self supporting for fuel and extraplanetary launches.

Only Duna and Eve systems are reachable from Kerbin... outer world and inner world launches need to be from there. Eeloo only reachable from Laythe launch space.

Each planetary system requires a 2 Kerman (hitchhiker, plus 2 set at least) viable space station in orbit before manned landing. Space stations can be delivered unmanned or manned but space for inhabitance x 1.5 is required for more than ten day stays.

Bases require resupply visits for consumables. Each kerbal consumes 3 lbs of non renewable resources, (Food, medicine, paper, chemicals for water treament, Nutela, video games... etc). These can be delivered in unmanned pods or manned missions taking replacement crews.

Remote Tech Comms Relays can only be launched on unmanned missons.

Kethane and Ore detectors can only be taken in manned missions as deployable probes from the main ship

Alacrity

[TheDeorbiter]

The only rule I have is the most important......there are no rules for me

[FlamedSteak]

My rules are pretty flexible, just get everyone back alive

[Whackjob]

Nothing smaller than twenty times the part count of an efficient machine that can perform the same task.

[magnemoe]

My rules are pretty flexible, just get everyone back alive

same here, during career I always added an hitchhiker container on the long interplanetary trips.