Hardest thing in career mode is...

[Dimetime35c]

What has been your hardest thing/things you've run into while playing career mode? For me it's getting a ship that will have enough fuel to do what I want land and return.

[michaelhester07]

The hardest thing is remembering not to invest in the aerodynamics line too much early on.

[regex]

The hardest thing? Nothing, really. The easiest thing was to just go back to playing sandbox while career mode gets properly fleshed out.

[Dave Kerbin]

I guess I'm alone in finding career mode almost too easy. I find everything up to the 45 cost tier is roughly balanced for new and experienced players, but after that it seems really easy for a more experienced player to blast through the tech tree just by visiting the Mun or Minmus. I should make a suggestion about that.

[theend3r]

Probably getting a mobile base with a return module to Eeloo. It included all science experiments, science lab, crew quarters and was able to safely travel at speeds over 30 m/s.

[Wizaerd]

The hardest thing in career mode is determining how to play career mode. I'm completely and utterly lost... Oh I know the reccommendation, go watch a bunch of YouTube videos in order to learn how to play this game. Seems to me the game should be responsible for teaching it's players how to play it... Not external videos.

[thescientist]

Probably quitting KSP. I love challenges.

[Jon Tash]

The hardest thing in career mode? Huh, I really don't know, for me it's too easy. I hope they will make it harder with the incoming economy and contracts.

[roguelycan]

Career mode is easy because only a small part of it has been implemented. With no budget concerns it isnt that difficult to take some of the early tier tech stuff and just put a ton of it together in order to accomplish most goals. Once you have to worry about cost and everything else you wont be able to just stack however many parts you want on it so you can brute force your way everywhere you want to go. With economy implemented I think you will see much more believable progression from the career mode. I am looking forward to being forced to learn to be more efficient actually. I have a tendency now to make overly complex and large ships in order to have these ridiculously multipurpose ships. Even when i decide I am going to build a simple ship to do one thing I almost always end up with some 50-100 ton payload that can carry probes and dropships and can land in atmo or vacuum, etc.

So for me the hardest part of career mode right now is trying to stay realistic and believable.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

The amount of tedious missions :/ the tech tree is too easy and I only play career mode more then sandbox to use science as my score, until then I find the latter part of career mode boring and tedious.

[Dave Kerbin]

Career mode is easy because only a small part of it has been implemented. With no budget concerns it isnt that difficult to take some of the early tier tech stuff and just put a ton of it together in order to accomplish most goals. Once you have to worry about cost and everything else you wont be able to just stack however many parts you want on it so you can brute force your way everywhere you want to go. With economy implemented I think you will see much more believable progression from the career mode. I am looking forward to being forced to learn to be more efficient actually. I have a tendency now to make overly complex and large ships in order to have these ridiculously multipurpose ships. Even when i decide I am going to build a simple ship to do one thing I almost always end up with some 50-100 ton payload that can carry probes and dropships and can land in atmo or vacuum, etc.

So for me the hardest part of career mode right now is trying to stay realistic and believable.

While I do share your opinion that budgets/reputation will help career mode and will add more balance I think that my current .23 career file (warning, bandwidth heavy) shows that even budget missions with simple goals (no grand tours or 500 ton ships), when planned by experienced players, result in a ton of science that is not entirely in proportion to the tech tree. I planned out my program requirements thinking I'd be challenged in my early planetary missions. Instead I had to constantly find other things to spend science to avoid having nuclear engines and mainsails on my first trip. I actually considered the idea that I might not have probe cores or seismic sensors when the relevent missions came up...how wrong I was.

[Kizarvexis]

I think the science tree is fine as I'm not a good pilot.

I have a hard enough time landing on Minmus and the Mun. I'm up to the 300 level of science stuff, mostly from random landings on Minmus and Kerbin. I have been upgrading my rockets, but I'm sure if one of the experts took my craft file, they would take it to another planet. I still have yet to hit another SOI outside of Kerbin, Mun, Minmus and Kerbol. The maneuver nodes have helped greatly, but I tend to use a LOT of fuel as I'm not a very good pilot. I restart missions with each new version. I can orbit fine. Get to Minmus and the Mun, no problem. Landing is hit or miss. And I run out of fuel on Mun landings alot. I haven't been using probes much yet on .23, but I have plans to replace a manned lander with one to try for other planets again. Currently I only use the Kerbal Engineer mod and I'm looking for a good stackable parachute mod so I can start using drogues and parachutes.

[mediobogdum]

What has been your hardest thing/things you've run into while playing career mode?

The hardest thing? Nothing, really.

I guess I'm alone in finding career mode almost too easy.

The hardest thing in career mode? Huh, I really don't know, for me it's too easy.

Poor form. Poor form.

[draeath]

Hardest thing is determining what your current in-flight "state" is without constantly checking and resetting experiments. I would love to know that I am "in orbit above the grasslands" without having to prod the goo 50 times.

[Madrias]

Gathering Science. Want a good challenge, gather your science with spaceplanes. I'm actually the one who wants a difficulty adjustment for Career mode because for some it's too easy, for some it's too hard, and some, like me, just find it too tedious.

[aeTIos]

I find career too easy... I can blast through the tech tree in about 3 hours

[MaverickSawyer]

The hardest part? Hmmm... Probably building up enough science to get the parts I need for unmanned precursor missions to the planets. And that's with a couple of other added science experiments other than the stock ones. :/

[I_Killed_Jeb]

The amount of tedious missions :/ the tech tree is too easy and I only play career mode more then sandbox to use science as my score, until then I find the latter part of career mode boring and tedious.

This, definitely. The minimus biome update was super disappointing, just the same old recycled flavor text under a different heading.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

I think the science tree is fine as I'm not a good pilot.

I have a hard enough time landing on Minmus and the Mun. I'm up to the 300 level of science stuff, mostly from random landings on Minmus and Kerbin. I have been upgrading my rockets, but I'm sure if one of the experts took my craft file, they would take it to another planet. I still have yet to hit another SOI outside of Kerbin, Mun, Minmus and Kerbol. The maneuver nodes have helped greatly, but I tend to use a LOT of fuel as I'm not a very good pilot. I restart missions with each new version. I can orbit fine. Get to Minmus and the Mun, no problem. Landing is hit or miss. And I run out of fuel on Mun landings alot. I haven't been using probes much yet on .23, but I have plans to replace a manned lander with one to try for other planets again. Currently I only use the Kerbal Engineer mod and I'm looking for a good stackable parachute mod so I can start using drogues and parachutes.

If you're running out of fuel on the landings, and you're not doing something ridiculous like hovering for 15 minutes, I think it's not your piloting skills but rocket design that could use some refinement?

[Benjpalmer]

...Am I one of the only people who find it hard to max out the tech tree?

[Dave Kerbin]

...Am I one of the only people who find it hard to max out the tech tree?

Don't feel bad about it. I think when we are talking about breezing through the tech tree we really mean that about 80-90% of the useful parts (things like the nuclear engine) can be obtained in only a handful of normal but well planned missions. Until you visit another planet or two, or you start covering the entire Mun in flags you won't have actually maxed out the tech tree. If you are having trouble my first suggestion would be to try and focus on the science items near the bottom - unlocking these lets you get even more science. Once you reach the last science item, the GravMax, you can build a probe that just orbits around Kerbin, the Mun and Minmus collecting massive amounts of science.

[jalapen0]

I got a custom tech tree and it has made career much more challenging. You can't max it out in a couple missions.

[Yakuzi]

The hardest thing is the tedious science grinding

[UmbralRaptor]

The hardest thing is knowing how to acquire science (it's not well documented). The second hardest is how to best traverse the tech tree. Lots of new players get trapped by taking a breadth first approach, or focusing on the upper branches. Meanwhile, a veteran can breeze through the tree in a handful of flights by focusing on the lower branches...

[BlackBicycle]

Personally, the hardest thing for me in the career mode is not enough tree to cover with all the science I can get. I'd really like some more stuff, or maybe a reduction of the science points, so that I have to work harder. Honestly, currently science is way too easy to get. I do appreciate the way it is set up though.