How has the new career mode changed how you build?

[corvustech]

Now that Kerbin is no longer a socialist utopia with limitless resources and nothing to do with them but launch them to space, how have your career mode builds changed?

I know that for me, my Mass Overload Acceleration Rectification (M.O.A.R.) Boosters approach of solving underpowered launches with hive like clusters of boosters is gone. Due to contracts I've found myself building simpler or just plain weird designs, such as a booster with a pod on top.

How has it changed your builds?

[NASAFanboy]

Not much. I'm still the aesthetic perfectionist, which usually means although my ships look good, they don't exactly match up in funds. Despite this, my V100,000 investment into a small space station around Kerbin is finally paying off, since it now recieves tons of traffic from vessels going back and forth, rescuing Kerbals and all that which racks up a huge profit to fund my various schemes.

Beyond LKO, my funds get tighter. It took around 1/10th of my entire budget to launch my Munar mission with all these accessories and SLS parts, which means I pretty much scrapped my manned Munar program after several landings, because literally, it "cost way too much".

Edited July 21, 2014 by NASAFanboy

[dryer_lint]

Those testing contracts are getting a bit annoying, they're making their way into almost all of my ships... I always add on a testing part to ships that get into orbit.

[NASAFanboy]

mod delete. bugged edit post created new post.

[PixelClef]

I think the simplest contract build I've made was for testing the BACC booster on the ground. Command pod on the bottom, oriented upward as usual. BACC booster on the top, oriented downward.

Of course, Jeb wasn't even remotely concerned when I lit that candle, trying to push his capsule through the launch pad.

[tjsnh]

It's changed my builds in that it seems to very strictly control WHAT I build (mun mission, probe to dres, etc) and I find myself adding in useless junk on to most of my missions now. For example, after the "explore the Mun" mission you get the "plant a flag on the Mun" mission ... my very first manned mun lander had non-functional and otherwise-dead-weight spaceplane landing wheels sticking off the side so it could be tested for a contract.

On the up side, "test this prototype nuclear rocket engine!" _DID_ allow me to do the "explore duna" contract way earlier than I expected to realistically be able to send a probe.

[Thomas988]

No more standardization! I usually use the same rocket designs for, well, everything, however due to expenses I have to build a new, custom rocket for everything I do. It's actually quite fun. I've already forgotten the fun of building and testing new things, even when you think they'll explode on the launchpad.

[PlonioFludrasco]

Now I build two stage to orbit rockets, with less bosters (jeb is hating this) radially attached. Because the first stage separates very high, I have time to circularize with the 2nd stage and focus back on the 1st before it's unload. Deploy chutes, and I've saved lot of Funds.

I've also built a 100% recoverable rocket to rescue Kerbals for contracts.

[klgraham1013]

Yes. It's made my rockets poorly designed and generally stupid. I'm not testing landing gear in orbit. Sorry. Back to a science career for me. The contracts just haven't lived up to the Hype Train for me.

[Frank_G]

Well, i try to build more cost efficient and much more mission orientated. However i still only launch "real" rockets, meaning no asparagus monster setups and no payload without a nice fairing.

I use the NEAR aerodynamics mod with procedural fairings, besides scansat and rasterpropmonitors as the only mods.

[Crusher8000]

I turned off rewinding so my rockets preferably have to be perfect from the start. I lost Jeb, Bob and 2 other Kermans because of failed designs but right now I have send a rocket to Duna, "landed" on it too, without a problem. Also because a failed design sometimes means a big chunk of my budget is gone I have to be really careful I stick to the budget. The trip to Duna was very fruitful as I orbited Duna AND Ike and also landed on Duna and transmitted science to KSC during all of that. It was all to complete contracts so I have around 600 000 kerbs now. However my rocket to Duna was over a 100 000 so I can't do it like in the past and send 7 or so rockets to one planet the moment a window is open. Hell, when I started the mission I barely had any money left, if the Duna mission failed it probably would've been game over. I would've had enough fuel to go back in orbit but the rocket fell over when it landed.

I can't build crazy big rockets anymore because I'm too afraid it will blow up and I would lose all my money. Saftey has become a bigger issue because of it. I mostly have an action button that decouples the pod and opens the parachutes.

Also I tend to avoid the testing contracts because meeting up all parameters is really hard sometimes and I don't feel like wasting a couple of rockets to test one part.

[KandoKris]

It's made me Slow right down and think basic needs to achieve those standard goals I have in KSP not testing engines at certain stages etc but setting up bases/stations , exploring Laythe etc etc

Still in my first KSP year still and loving the tight budjets and need to keep things cheep. I even managed to make a sub 25k SSTO

All in all I'm enjoying the new look at design and thought process

[ScopusAurelius]

I am heinously cheap now. It is half the fun for me, being a tightwad barn boss.

[Jade Falcon]

To begin with I was really cheap with my rockets. Plus I also had to design some absolute pieces of junk to do some of the test contracts and yeah it was amusing but I wouldn't want to fly any of them again. Once I got to about 1.5 million funds I've gone back to my preferred designs, aspharagus staging etc. While I could make a cheaper design I can't say I want to because I like my rockets to look a certain way. As long as I turn a profit I'm happy.

[boa3532]

It hasnt changed mine too much. I was playing on an 2008 i3 laptop with a generic low end graphics card, so my ships were low in parts count anyway. Recently upgraded to a much nicer machine, but kept the practice. I focus the ships around two or three contracts, note the total payoff for successful contracts and strive to keep costs below half of that, which is easier than I expected. That way I'm not obsessing with trying to recover every dang part like so many on this board is trying to do. Plus easy extra money to do non paying missions.

[Clockwork_werewolf]

I've ended up making every top part a kind of shuttle. Wings, control surfaces and at least one jet/turbo jet engine. If my reentry is off a bit the jet and wings let me fly it back to KSC and land for a full 100%. They are usually sent up on a cluster of boosters because they are the best trust to cost ratio. Also I only use one stack separator if I can 6 struts are still cheaper than one extra stack separator. I have tried SSTO's but without air hogging they tend to not be worth the trouble. My shuttles can get to the Mun land and back with all science and a Kerbal for only 20k this way. I got over 2 mil in the bank now and a space station with a full orange tank on it. I just added a RTG module to the station too for nighttime power.

It has also made learn aircraft better and I'm using engine nacelle now.

Really loving the update. Maybe after completing the tree I will try without using "recover to launch" but I'm not using quick saves at the mo anyway.

[TNM]

I was happy that my relative conservative building style would be finally rewarded in 0.24....then i noticed that money is not really an issue. Left hoping for more in the future.

[NecroBones]

Aside from the fairly stupid test-vehicles that are great for specific contracts, mostly I'm exploring new territory in 0.24 as far as designs. I'm building things with smaller lifter stages (less overkill), and consolidating most of the expensive equipment into the return-portion of the ship. I'm sometimes building recoverable mid-stages now, rather than just making them de-orbit to deletion.

[regex]

No real changes to speak of as far as stock is concerned, aside from using SRBs more often. I started using 2.5m parts as soon as they were available. Funding is pretty generous so I can generally build what I want, when I want. About the only thing I recover is pods, just like before. I find that if you start using the bigger parts earlier funding has more of an impact (still not much at all for an experienced player); my Duna expedition cost some 200K out of the 900K I had available and I'm already building big for the Minmus trip.

[Naten]

Beyond LKO, my funds get tighter. It took around 1/10th of my entire budget to launch my Munar mission with all these accessories and SLS parts, which means I pretty much scrapped my manned Munar program after several landings, because literally, it "cost way too much".

Sounds like NASA when they ended the Apollo program.

Well, now I build asparagus staged rockets because I don't have the time or the money to make realistic rockets. The only mod I have is RemoteTech, so probes aren't overpowered, and for the comms networks. (And Engineer Redux, but that's just for the info readouts.)

[magnemoe]

More it reinforced an trend, core stage with SRB to help, they are cheap, cheaper than fuel for an ssto.

Mun landers, put all the expensive stuff on the core you return

Will start looking into planes again for light payload and kerbals

[Strangelove444]

I was happy that my relative conservative building style would be finally rewarded in 0.24....then i noticed that money is not really an issue. Left hoping for more in the future.

I have a solution for this - don't do the testing contracts. I completely ignore testing random parts in random configurations and only work with the other types - combined with a healthy collection of (difficult) mods, it makes the game much more... interesting. If I do get close to running out, setting up a kethane base and importing it back to Kerbin (for example) is much more fun than triggering a booster between 21000 and 34000 meters.

[Random Account]

Virtually all of my launcher vehicles are made up of mostly SRBs now. I also used planes for atmospheric part testing, but I recently switched to putting a re-usable probe with the part to be tested on top of a SRB, since it's not as boring and can do most non-orbit part tests. My interstellar probes are much more efficient now, with improvements like replacing atomic motors with much lighter 48-7S engines.

[TNM]

I have a solution for this - don't do the testing contracts. I completely ignore testing random parts in random configurations and only work with the other types - combined with a healthy collection of (difficult) mods, it makes the game much more... interesting. If I do get close to running out, setting up a kethane base and importing it back to Kerbin (for example) is much more fun than triggering a booster between 21000 and 34000 meters.

Sound like a good idea als long as i'm running stock. I'm waiting for all mods (i use) to be updated and i suppose some clever guys will do great stuff with contracts, maybe even a "revamp" of contracts itself. I'm excited for that, but first i will test stock for a while to get a feel again for...Squads implementations (mods really change alot if you let them, its a good thing).

[Felsmak]

It's a lot more practical now.