Do you also find career mode boring?

[Kulebron]

Out of boredom, I tried career mode yesterday. It was really interesting in the very-very beginning. But in 1 flight I got into suborbital flight, then in orbit, and after I got stack decouplers, I sent a Kerbal to Mün and home. Then I had to fly to other biomes on Kerbin, and so I got the science canister. After opening the 4th level of science I have almost all I need, except a docking port. But the gameplay starts being really boring, all the same: probe here, probe there. Doesn't matter if you do smart things and bring stuff back: if you don't return the science pod back, you just transmit the data from several science tanks.

I'd change the system a little: science tanks give too much of data right away, while small instruments are still unavailable. I think this should be the opposite: the goo can & science canister should be later, while the simple instruments shoud be available right away or on levels in column 1 or 2.

[Umlüx]

career mode isn't meant as a challenge for experienced players. its more like a introduction for new players.

[FlamedSteak]

I'm not to bothered with how science is right now, adding some varied biomes would be welcomed, especially on places like Duna.

I think when the financial goals come into play it will complement the science side of the game. EG Getting into orbit will get you x amount of dollars, which will give you the ability to launch a flyby of the mun, which will give you more science and more money to do a landing which provides more money to build bigger and better.

Though once the bugs are ironed out they should provide levels of difficulty;

Eg;

Easy: With lowered fuel usage

Intermediate: As it is now

Difficult: With deadly reentry

Hard: No quicksave

A quicksavless game would be nerveracking.

Edited November 28, 2013 by FlamedSteak

[The Destroyer]

Personalyl I loved it. Having mods that made the tech tree even bigger (adding parts in experimental nodes and interstellar) made it better. Then it's sandbox.

Pre-0.16 I did everything without quicksaves- many frustrations. And now I can't live without it!

[wasmic]

I really think you're just playing Career Mode wrong. You should just try to play it like you would in sandbox, when you've gotten far enough. Then it's pretty much just sandbox with a more exciting beginning, and actual reasons to go to other planets. I had a lot of trouble getting around to doing interplanetary stuff before 0.22 - I had only visited Duna, Ike and Eve. Now, I've visited Eve, Duna, Ike, Jool, Laythe, Pol, Dres and flown by Tylo and Moho. I even got a probe into the SOI of Sentar from the PlanetFactory expansion, and I've got a manned dres lander ready to transfer in 9 in-game days.

[rockbloodystar]

I am loving career mode - I had in fact got bored of sandbox. With all parts and infinite resources andything can be built. But with career mode the challenege changes, requiring you to use limited partsm. Eventually the end game is to tick off all the biomes, and that will be repetitive, but sandbox has the same complaint - there is nothing to do eexcept whatever your imagination thinls of. xei

[ComradeGoat]

A quicksavless game would be nerveracking.

Never used it.

[jwenting]

nope, career mode is anything but boring. It makes you think about your designs rather than just slap some orange tanks and mainsails together and light the fuse.

[Bloodbunny]

It was pretty boring with the stock tree, so I got Treeloader. I'm not sure which tree it is, but when you start off, you have to get your first science with a crude wheeled rover; then you move on to simple planes, then more advanced planes, not getting your first rocket for a good long while. You actually feel like you've accomplished something when you put your first kerbal into orbit.

[Xyd]

Wait for the financial mechanics to be implemented.

I used to play KSP in very short bursts but now with Mission Controller, I'm completely addicted. I reckon missions+financial management will add a lot of needed depth to the gameplay.

Hmm... Why does that almost sound like a self-help commercial?

[KvickFlygarn87]

I think I can answer this one with a picture.

I did it again!

[DrMonte]

I've almost finished stock career mode (missing few hundred point) and don't find it boring. If you play sandbox mode first and then switch to career then you'll get the same just with limited resources.

I might not be quite satisfied about science points awards but that is not about boring or not. For example returning Kerbals home should be rewarded much more (x5-10 times) than just leaving them die and transmitting science data.

[Richy teh space man]

I enjoy career mode, it's a welcome variation from the basic sandbox game

[Hodo]

I did find career mode boring at first... then I went in my persistant save and gave myself 25k science to max out the tree.

Went back into the save, cleared out all my excess science and proceeded to play the game like a sandbox with career mode science to do.

[Godot]

Nope, I don´t find it boring at all, although I restarted a few times ...

first with deadly reentry added and now with deadly reentry + TAC live support

[annallia]

I was very interested in it at first, but it did get old quick.

However I know they have more in store for career mode which should make it better.

[Scarecrow88]

I found it too restrictive. I've had a lot of fun flying everywhere and making wonderful ships in sandbox mode, and to suddenly find I had to reign back my endeavours to fulfil science requirements with limited parts was no fun at all, so I gave up playing career mode.

[Richy teh space man]

To add to what I said earlier I do enjoy the R&D side of it, but I feel that it's a bit limited given that only Kerbin and the Mun have biomes atm.

I do hope to see more biomes added in the next version, ideally all planets and moons if possible.

[deadelitezealot]

the thing i hated about it was using kerbals in beginning to control the ship why not using probes with such limited resources disasters can easily happen and i dont wanna lose kerbals especially not jeb

[TUFOM]

I did not loose any kerbals and did not use probes at all. Finished tech tree that way. =)

And what do I answer thread guestion. Career mode was very FUN!

[Kasuha]

Career mode was kinda fun but did not last long enough. I only visited three planets (including Kerbin) and four moons to finish tech tree and I was not even making any crazy contraptions, just regular ships and probes. In my opinion the career mode should have enough tasks for you to get you through the whole system or at least most of it before you can get the feeling that you're done with it.

Also after I finished the tech tree there was some time while I did not even feel like playing KSP anymore because the game stopped providing me challenges. It took some time to return to sandbox with making up my own challenges to the game.

[larsmaehlum]

I added RemoteTech, TAC Life Support and Deadly Reentry to make it a bit harder. I found that it balanced it out a bit, since you can't just send a probe anywhere and farm science. And you have to plan a bit more ahead, since just orbiting the sun a few times waiting for an encounter will kill your Kerbals and leave your ship dead in orbit.

[rockbloodystar]

Career mode was kinda fun but did not last long enough. I only visited three planets (including Kerbin) and four moons to finish tech tree and I was not even making any crazy contraptions, just regular ships and probes. In my opinion the career mode should have enough tasks for you to get you through the whole system or at least most of it before you can get the feeling that you're done with it.

Also after I finished the tech tree there was some time while I did not even feel like playing KSP anymore because the game stopped providing me challenges. It took some time to return to sandbox with making up my own challenges to the game.

Sandbox doesn't "provide" challenges either.

[Kulebron]

I added RemoteTech, TAC Life Support and Deadly Reentry to make it a bit harder. I found that it balanced it out a bit, since you can't just send a probe anywhere and farm science. And you have to plan a bit more ahead, since just orbiting the sun a few times waiting for an encounter will kill your Kerbals and leave your ship dead in orbit.

I did use Deadly Reentry too, because otherwise it's too easy. IIRC, I did kill someone this way

Edited November 28, 2013 by Kulebron

[allmhuran]

Yes, in the sense that in its current form it mostly involved tedious repetition. The cute science data messages help a little, but pretty soon you will probably finding yourself just clicking through them.

And I'm not talking about repeating transmissions here, or repeating the same mission. I'm talking about the specific actions a player performs to "do science". It's just the same as a sandbox mission, except you have to do a bunch of repetitive, gameplay-absent button mashing.

There are numerous suggestion threads on how the mechanic might be expanded to make science a bit more engaging rather than the somewhat passive, "might as well just write a script to automate it" version that we have now (I am constantly reminded of the Simpson's episode where homer gets a toy to repeatedly press the "Y" key for him).

The important thing to remember is this: it seems to be a reasonable guess that as career mode is further developed we will see the mechanics expand and evolve. Remember that right now we only have the very first small aspect of career mode, the rest is still being built.

Edited November 28, 2013 by allmhuran