What irks me about career mode

[Coccalime]

First I want to preface this post with I know this game is in development. The purpose of this post is to discuss what I think work and don't work about career mode in its current state (.24) with the hopes that maybe it could impact future iterations of career mode. I'm posting this in the general discussion section because I want to hear what others opinions are on what i think.

Major topics:

- Pacing

- Tech Tree

- Contracts

- Science collection

Pacing

Pacing is the number one reason i have abandoned 2 out of my 3 careers so far. I want to be able to do missions in what seems to be a logical manner to me. This would be sending probes and satellites (as well as maybe small rovers) to other bodies before I visit them. I also feel like my first missions should always be unmanned, perhaps launching a few satellites around Kerbin and collecting basic data with sensors. I don't really feel like it makes sense to risk the lives of my kerbals when just starting a new space program.

I think this would best be fixed through the tech tree which I will talk about next.

Tech Tree

In my opinion the groupings of items in the tech tree are not so great. While i understand the idea of unlocking technologies 1 at a time I would rather unlock things by size, so i can make cohesive ships, rather than by tech, which is usually at a seemingly random size. What I would really like to see from the tech tree to fix this is perhaps separating the tech tree from the part unlocks. In this system you would unlock a technology in the research labs, and then you could go to something like a foundry to implement the technology into a certain parts. An example of this would be to research energy storage, then use that research credit to unlock the small satellite battery while leaving the large satellite battery locked. I think this would allow you to specialize your space program better for the different phases of a space program.

Contracts

Overall I love contracts, they've added a much needed goal orientation to career mode. All I want to put in this section is my ideas for additional contract types.

New contract types

- Satellite launches (ie. put a satellite with a communicatron in orbit around Mun)

- Maintain a station around X body (would give passive science over time as long as the kerbal hadn't been in space for too long)

Science collection

This is a smaller factor to what bothers me when playing career mode and is somewhat linked to the tech tree. The basic idea here is that I feel like I should have access to scientific instruments earlier. Personally I think the gravioli detector would be the most important to have early on so that you can get science from space probes that wont be in the atmosphere. However it's the last sensor that you unlock.

Summary

Overall this most recent update has had a hugely positive impact on career mode and I can't wait to see more. I just hope to see myself enjoying the early campaign more in the future. Because currently I find the early game to be fairly boring and I only start to gain interest once I reach the mid-career level of technology. Let me know what you think about my ideas and how you feel about the pacing and other parts of the current career mode.

P.S. Sorry for the wall of text I'm new to using the forums

[Awaras]

Car?

Anyway, I suggest you get the Better than Starting Manned mod, which adresses several of your issues and offers a much better campaign experience.

[kahlzun]

The spelling of the work is "irks".

And yes, you are correct that starting manned seems weird.

I guess they felt they had to do it like that, or else new players would have "OKTO2 Space Program" for a long time, and wonder where all the kerbals are..

[KasperVld]

changed title slightly to make it more clear what is meant and moved the thread to the proper location.

[dryer_lint]

Starting manned feels like the most kerbal way to do things

I mean, when you think about it, it does make sense for the Kerbals to start out by strapping themselves to boosters before they develop remote control stuff.

[Guest]

Starting manned feels like the most kerbal way to do things

It is Kerbal Space Program, after all. That being said, I don't see anything wrong with having a probe core at the start to go with a capsule. I like the rest of the suggestions, tech tree most definitely needs an overhaul.