Hardest thing in career mode is...

[jalapen0]

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.

Get a custom tree.

[BlackBicycle]

Get a custom tree.

I will appreciate the link : )

[Ravenchant]

The hardest thing? Building your early and mid-level tech tree crafts in a way which doesn't make them resemble some scrapheap haphazardly thrown together and dunked into a vat of superglue.

I deliberately put off interplanetary missions until I could get them to look good and at least somewhat plausible. Oh well...

[katateochi]

I know some say career is easy. It is, if you take the easy path, but there are some really hard paths through the standard stock career;

1- Full unlock with one mission. I've tried (and tried and tried) and failed to get this, in the end I managed it in 3 missions. I know some have done it in two missions (congrats to you). Anyone manged 1 mission?

2- Full unlock in the fewest in game days. This precludes going to far flung planets and requires quite a bit of planning and design. I got full unlock in just under 20 in game days. That was pretty hard.

3- But by far the hardest thing I've done in career mode is to do it using only aircraft. Man has that been hard, but really fun. I think I'm about 1 mission short of getting it done now but its taken me ages!!

[AlexMBrennan]

I find the complete lack of probes (what kind of space program starts with manned mission before doing an unmanned test launch?) and docking ports (e.g. barring landing leg trickery there is no way to refuel/save early craft if they get stranded somewhere) early on rather limiting

[regex]

what kind of space program starts with manned mission before doing an unmanned test launch?

The Kerbal Space Program!

Which is as it should be. This isn't Earth-history progression, it's a game featuring little green men.

[Dave Kerbin]

I find the complete lack of probes (what kind of space program starts with manned mission before doing an unmanned test launch?) and docking ports (e.g. barring landing leg trickery there is no way to refuel/save early craft if they get stranded somewhere) early on rather limiting

Docking is actually rather advanced in real life space flight. The Apollo program wanted to do a direct ascent mission largely because of how difficult and risky docking two ships in space was. As for passing around fuel that's complicated even today.

As for probes I do sort of agree that probes don't provide an early enough return to be sent off to other planets ahead of manned missions. That's because for a lot of your early space program your instruments will consist of your kerbals, the goo containers and the science jr. The two material experiments are not only heavy for a probe they have the worst transmission rates (which is realistic for the type of experiment they represent). Probes using the DOUBLE-C seismic scanner or GRAVMAX are very viable, but those instruments come too late except for experienced players who know how to go straight for them.

What the game needs is an earlier probe friendly instrument. I've actually made such a suggestion before, some kind of cosmic ray detector that would have a similar biome specific behavoir as the GRAVMAX (maybe it only works in orbit) but with a much smaller data value (maybe 4 or 5 compared to 20 for the GRAVMAX). This way you have probes that can fly around a planet mapping out biomes early in the game. They offer more to do then just a single reading for an entire planet without generating too much science.

[Dave Kerbin]

I know some say career is easy. It is, if you take the easy path, but there are some really hard paths through the standard stock career;

1- Full unlock with one mission. I've tried (and tried and tried) and failed to get this, in the end I managed it in 3 missions. I know some have done it in two missions (congrats to you). Anyone manged 1 mission?

2- Full unlock in the fewest in game days. This precludes going to far flung planets and requires quite a bit of planning and design. I got full unlock in just under 20 in game days. That was pretty hard.

3- But by far the hardest thing I've done in career mode is to do it using only aircraft. Man has that been hard, but really fun. I think I'm about 1 mission short of getting it done now but its taken me ages!!

To be honest I find the single mission ones a bit off putting because they rely on silly looking thrust decoupling and monster ugly looking rockets.

Unlocking everything in the fewest in game days is an interesting challenge and I've thought about it before but it would be a bit of work to do it all (and more if I documented the whole thing). I agree that it's a really good test of mission planning. My personal goal would be under 3 days though it would take a lot of sweat to do it (before .23 when transmission spam was possible I would say it could almost be done in a single 24 hour day).

[Vanamonde]

"I'll just stick this piece on the side there with a girder and-- Aarrgh! I don't have them yet!" It's so frustrating having to crowd everything onto the centerline because that's where the attachment points are. But I'm not complaining. I like the design and building challenge, even if the result does sometimes come out looking silly.

[SkyRender]

At the moment? Nothing is too terribly hard in Career mode. I had managed to work out the best science-gathering solution for 3 missions all in local space within hours of 0.22's release, and had to do almost nothing to adapt it for 0.23. Once the economy and reputation systems get implemented, I suspect that is where I'll finally start hitting some minor roadblocks to such rapid success...

[DerekL1963]

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

No, you aren't.

[xnorb]

Career mode is quite challenging if you

a) don't know what you need/can do to get science points (as you only see what you already did)

are new to KSP (like me) and can't even manage to get in a stable orbit unless way later on

c) don't use any mods and control your spacecraft manually

Mun and Minmus are already rather difficult to get there, land and return with the stock parts

you unlocked with the '90 science points' parts, i don't know if i can get to Duna with my

experience and the parts i unlocked (although i got the LV-N already, so this should be fine i guess)

Of course this is more a question of lacking experience than pure parts (seeing how Scott

could get to Mun and Minmus on his very first mission) but you can't design a career mode

for the super pro players. KSP is already a challenge on it's own if you start off.

Absolutely no need to make the career mode even more difficult.

Making career mode a question of budget at the very start, then i can already see many

newcomers getting stuck after blowing up their first 3 rocket designs without returning any science.

[celem]

...and I'm looking for a good stackable parachute mod so I can start using drogues and parachutes.

Cant recommend RealChutes highly enough for what you are after. Firstly they deploy in stages, so no more 15g+ whiplashes, second the author added inline chutes, and thirdly he added combo drogue/main chutes. love it, love it, love it!

Career mode is easy for me, I play a lot of KSP and am at least moderately good at it. As others have pointed out, theres a point where you have enough tech to build just about anything you want. The more inventive you are at design and the more highly skilled at plotting/piloting the earlier this point comes. In 0.23 my third mission tends to make 2-3 surface landings on minmus, this has a tendancy to crack the tree open, and while i miss a few goodies (often sr. ports) I can usually wipe the board with mission 4.

The hardest thing is not doing this. Just now I try and design logical realistic space programs with craft that can just accomplish their primary goal so that im not tempted.

Edited January 10, 2014 by celem

[jalapen0]

I will appreciate the link : )

Oh sure. There are several but I use this one: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/53192-0-22-TreeLoader-Custom-Career-Tech-tree-Loader-1-0

There are 4 or 5 trees inside the mod to choose from. I selected Yagnit's and I really like it. It forces you to space quickly as the SP available on Kerbin is very small. Parts are laid out in a way that makes sense. Science cost scales up quickly.

There are other trees that are more historical and even harder. I haven't tried any of those though. This one is good for my skill level (which I would say is beginer to intermediate)

The stock tree just has stuff thrown into it. To me it's pretty obvious that it's a placeholder until they have time to really flesh it out.

[Kasuha]

Hardest thing on career mode is IMO to understand that you don't need to fly to other planets or even out of the atmosphere right away.

Career mode as it is is very easy. Unless you make it complicated for yourself.

[Klingon Admiral]

The hardest thing in career mode is finding a point in it. It is, in it's current state, not much more than delayed sandbox mode. I will wait for a few patches until I try it out.

[jduchock]

The hardest thing about career mode (and all modes) is that it is too easy to open and modify things like craft, quicksave and persistent files thereby making the temptation to cheat much too easy. Furthermore, ALT+F12 being in the game doesn't help much either.

I know these might be temporary and that our ability to edit core game components may be removed, so i have stopped playing KSP until it is made harder to play and harder to "cheat"...

[LameLefty]

The hardest thing about career mode (and all modes) is that it is too easy to open and modify things like craft, quicksave and persistent files thereby making the temptation to cheat much too easy. Furthermore, ALT+F12 being in the game doesn't help much either.

I know these might be temporary and that our ability to edit core game components may be removed, so i have stopped playing KSP until it is made harder to play and harder to "cheat"...

Really?!?

This game has been incredibly mod- and community-friendly since the first release. A big part of that friendliness is allowing - nay, ENCOURAGING - people to play it the way they want to and giving them the ability to alter game elements as necessary to do so. If you cannot control your own urges to "cheat" (as defined in your own mind), then it seems that the issue is more about you than the game.

[SkyRender]

Oh wait, I have a hardest thing about Career mode now! Trying to watch an internet celebrity who has never tried KSP at all before that figure it out! It's a pretty painful experience when these sorts don't even comprehend that you can use the second mouse button (or equivalent). I'm thinking we need a proper in-game Career mode tutorial that at least explains to extreme new players how to get science...

[Aragosnat]

For me. The hardest is which path I want to try out and keeping to it. As well as what my goals would be. Then finding the spots to do the science as some are a real pit to find/spot expecially when you are trying to find the last one in a cluster of them. Midland and Highland Craters come to mind.

[Themohawkninja]

Either (A) not having the LV-N until late in the game, or ( not having the Mainsail until really late in the game.

[ArmchairGravy]

Trying to strike the balance between getting the science gadgetry unlocked vs. getting Skippers unlocked. I don't like Mun landings until I have both.

[StrandedonEarth]

The hardest part for me is building an SSTO. I still haven't succeeded yet, although just before .23 came out I had a plane that probably could make a really low orbit (and still deorbit) if I flew it right. My last flight probably went too high, not enough fuel left to get the peri out of the soup. Hmm, I guess that's not actually part of career.... yet.

As for science in .23, I maxed the tree with 1k to spare after doing parts of Kerbin and the Mun, practically all of Minmus, and a manned Duna (over 4k science on that one, not counting transmitted crew/eva reports) return. Now I can go back to work on that SSTO. I want to make it without using the RAPIER.

Right now I think it's time I generated a ribbon.

[brolgarh]

a) not breaking the mouse while chain activating/resetting experiments while flying above kerbin/mün to see what biome i'm in.

understanding why something like a thermometer does not give 100% science, when transmitting.

[yaur]

I miss the LV-N, but am happy that mainsails aren't in until you have been trained to not need them.

The hardest thing for me is not crashing rovers while they are prowling the mun gathering science.