Making career mode better

[Decima]

Hi Squad

Today I logged into KSP for my jolly flight to the Mun with a lab module attached and plans for Minmus with my career scenario that was many hours into. Little did I know that your latest update had now moved my RCS thrusters into another part of the tech tree making my ship unable to launch as I now had to research them...with research points I can no longer get since I have explored the whole of Kerbin:huh:! So i take the RCS off (cos who needs it anyway?) to find my ship is now 'over budget' ! Squad I have invested tens of hours into two careers only to find you wish me to start all over again. Before you say 'sandbox', I dont want to play sandbox. I want to play career (i like working towards goals and deliberating where science is best spent), but without the economy thing you just added because it feels like a massive muzzle...and it just broke my careers. I dont want to start all over again either. Please do something that will keep old careers the way they were started. You should have made it so that old careers were unaffected by the new patch. I hope you understand my (incredible) frustration.

[cpast]

RCS acted the same way any parts moved in the tech tree work - the game decides what parts to show based on whether or not their tech node is researched, and if it is researched, decides whether to select them or not based on whether they're researched in that tech node. For them to be able to move parts around in the tree without making them disappear if researched in the old node, they'd have to change how the tech tree checks is implemented. The new spot makes more sense for RCS (in flight control, instead of under "fuel"), and while a change in how the tech tree works to make rearranging it work better would be nice, I wouldn't hold my breath.

For funds and contracts: It's not a ridiculous idea to imagine that people playing career in 0.23.5 would like to take advantage of the career additions in 0.24. There's always science mode if you don't want to use them, but career now includes contracts (if you don't want budget or contracts, it's not career).

If you want to use your save in the new science mode, try opening the persistent.sfs in a text editor and changing mode from CAREER to SCIENCE (and the thing in parentheses after the name, also change to SCIENCE).

[stupid_chris]

Forward compatibilty has never been guaranteed with KSP, you should never expect your save files/craft files to work in newer versions of the game. If they do, that'S awesome, but it could very well happen to not be the case. The solution I can see would to keep playing on 0.23.5.

[Decima]

Couldn't a 'science career' of sorts be added? Where you still have the progression and rewards associated with work. It would be a great casual difficulty level, while the full career mode is for the more serious players. This is what my suggestion boils down to...which I could have made much more apparent :/

[Godot]

You could keep older versions of KSP, in order to play old saves

[diomedea]

Couldn't a 'science career' of sorts be added?

What, can't you find the "science" option, together with "sandbox" and "career" when you start a new game? That seems to be exactly what you are talking about, and already exists.

As per the compatibility of your previous game, no that is not granted, just as stupid_chris already wrote.

[Claw]

Decima,

If you are wanting your old save to act similar to what it did before, you can try to edit the save file itself. Once games are created, you can't change the type "real time."

You can try the instructions in the link below. Just make sure you keep a copy of your save in case of a mistake.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86622

Other than that, try starting a new game and seeing if the options you desire are available then. I know you might lose some work, but this is another option.

Cheers,

~Claw