Making Career more Difficult

[solohobo]

Hello there!

I'm a new member to the forums, but bought KSP a long time ago and just never got into forum-ing (I have lurked though )... until today!

I have a question to anyone out there, and it is thus:

Would you know of any mods/things to do to make *career mode* harder?

I've been a sandbox player myself, but have lately gotten into career mode... and there's the problem.

It's gotten to the point where I can get most of the tech tree nodes in under 2 hours.

I'm hoping for someone to bring up a mod that maybe adds new things (whether it be parts, features, physics changes, etc) to make it more difficulty.

Thanks, and have a safe flight!

[Dave Kerbin]

What you want is "Better Than Starting Manned". It's essentially a total conversion mod that changes around the tech tree and some of the available science to create a clear progression. I've described it as "career hardmode" before and that sounds exactly like what you want. To give you an idea I'm an experienced career player and my playthrough of BTSM (just recently finished) took 2 months and I didn't even finish the entire tech tree (I finally completed my goal of a manned mission to Eeloo without having to unlock nuclear engines which are on the 9th tier and cost 16,000 science to unlock). There are many changes including a big focus on electricity (solar panels do not arrive for quite some time and even when they do they aren't super powerful) and a simple life support requirement.

If you want you can read a playthrough in my signature (the first playthrough is an older version so it won't be a complete spoiler, but if you want spoiler free avoid it).

[Hodo]

If you want a more difficult career mode, then download the Realism Overhaul plugin and all of the required associated plugins. And you will have probably one of the most rewarding and challenging career modes you can have in KSP.

[Taki117]

Theres KSP Interstellar which adds more nodes that cost lots of science, you could also get Ferram Aerospace Research, and while it doesn't add any science or anything, it does make rockets harder.

[Orionkermin]

One of the things I did was to set up a module manager file that removes all the reaction wheels from pods. It also severly nerfs the sas parts so they barely provide torque. Makes RCS a necessity and provides more interesting engineering challenges.

Couple that with FAR, DRE, and TAC life support and you get a lot of extra aspects to consider when building. I'm hoping to figure out a way to lower Mun and Minmus science multipliers as well. I know BTSM does a lot of this but I don't really like the restrictive tech tree.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Orionkermin

[Jouni]

The last time I played career mode, I ignored science experiments and biomes. Most of my science points came from crew reports and surface samples, with the occasional EVA report when the kerbals did something new during the EVA.

[SRV Ron]

The beauty of Sandbox, compared to the early Career mode at present, is that you can set your own goals.

I would suggest setting up an Excel Spreadsheet with all stock parts and balance their cost with realistic values instead of the current placeholders. Then, set up another spreadsheet with a space program containing goals, technology limitations, and a budget that expands depending on those goals. You can have several cost values on a given part that cost less the longer your program runs, and how often they are used. Example, solar panels would be extremely expensive at first, but cost comes way down with time to represent continuing development in their production. That way, you can start your program with a limited budget that at first restricts you to sounding probes that rely on batteries, then later allows you to place probes in orbit powered by solar cells, deep space probes using nuclear power, and eventually start your more expensive manned program.

[Redshift OTF]

Scott Manley reviewed a money and contract mod that goes with career mode. Probably something that will be added to 0.24.

[solohobo]

Thank you for all these suggestions, I'll try and a few of the best

My favorites were SRV Ron's and Dave Kerbin's. I like excel spreadsheets (insane, I know) and that never crossed my mind!

The "Better than Starting Manned" mod sounds exactly what I need, more realistic but clinging to that KSP-y feel we all know and love

Anyways, I'm off to probably explode some more rockets and slam Jeb into the Mun.

[BudgetHedgehog]

If BTSM is too hard for you, try Science Revisited by CaptRobau. It's how I play, anyway.

[RocketPilot573]

You could wait until .24 comes out, money and contracts should make career far batter.

[Tortoise]

FAR, DRE, TAC Life Support and AntennaRange