Anyone else who just plays career....

[Godot]

I also exclusively play career ... but thanks to several mods it is moire of a challenge than vanilla ... therefore I am happy with 0.25

[Jeff Bird]

Before 0.25 I didn't bother with career mode. I used sandbox with a lot of mods and kind of RPed my own career mode. Since 0.25, all I have been doing is career mode on hard. First with no mods. Then after I got a good campaign going. (my first two tries i went bankrupt) I added MechJeb, Deadly Reentre and Chatter. (chatter is great eveyone should try it) I'm liking the heck out of career mode.

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

Before 0.25 I didn't bother with career mode. I used sandbox with a lot of mods and kind of RPed my own career mode. Since 0.25, all I have been doing is career mode on hard. First with no mods. Then after I got a good campaign going. (my first two tries i went bankrupt) I added MechJeb, Deadly Reentre and Chatter. (chatter is great eveyone should try it) I'm liking the heck out of career mode.

You really should give Fine Print a try. It adds a lot more interesting contracts to the game.

[Moesly_Armlis]

Having tried career with HARD settings and still getting to the Mun in 2 days. Instead I opted to set everything to max negative. This was more of a challenge and failed several, several times. Was going to give up on the whole notion. Until the recent finding of an exploit/feature, and started again to climb out of that hole.

Just recently playing in the sandbox to try out some new challenges.

Right now going back to my most difficult carreer mode and continue the ascent. Maybe the measly 15k roots will get me a Mun flyby. Probably will end up with Jeb temporarily lost in space.

[RocketPilot573]

I pretty much stopped playing career after .24 and money. It does not fit my play style, which is making a space infrastructure with space stations and bases all over (with some elements of Scott Manley's 'Reusable space Program" mixed in). This is due to the lack of contracts for those things. But it looks like the Fine Print mod is being added for .26- err, I mean .90 so I'll defiantly be starting a new save when that comes out.

[Cerebrate]

I mostly stick with career. I keep a sandbox game saved as 'experimental', but I like the framework career gives me for building up from a simple start, rather than being tempted into building complex monster rockets from day one. Even though there are no explicit contracts for stations, bases, etc., I still prefer building them this way.

-c

[HorusKol]

Personally, I like some kind of structure (even "sandbox" games like SimCity 4 have a logical progression for growing cities). If there wasn't a career mode, I'd have probably followed the campaign list over on the wiki - http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Campaigns

As a very new player (I only started with 0.23 almost the week before 0.24 came out) I think it's great - especially with Fine Print mod. I've gotten multiple Kerbins to the Mun, probes to Duna and Eve, and now Fine Print is offering contracts for manned space stations in Ike orbit I think the tech tree needs a shake - I haven't tried Better Than Starting Manned as I'm not sure who well that plays with the contract progression, but something like that would be nice. Once I unlock probes (about the time I get into orbit), I impose my own rule that each celestial body must be visited by a probe before I can think about putting a Kerbin there.

I mostly stick with career. I keep a sandbox game saved as 'experimental', but I like the framework career gives me for building up from a simple start, rather than being tempted into building complex monster rockets from day one. Even though there are no explicit contracts for stations, bases, etc., I still prefer building them this way.

Get the Fine Print mod

[micha]

I really like Career Mode on the whole, but it definitely still requires tweaking - but I knew this when I started playing. For me personally, 0.25 didn't add much over 0.24.2, and with the Kerbal EVA bug, I think I'll just stick with 0.24 for now. I really hope that bug gets fixed for 0.26/0.90 as my game style relies a lot on EVA'ing (KAS is a must).

The only times I've started up a sandbox mode game so far has been to test stuff out in.

I'd like to see Career mode to be a bit more than just unlocking the tech-tree. Maybe start off with just a shack and a couple of parts to build tiny unmanned rockets, then as you gain rep and funds, upgrade to a VAB which allows you to build manned rockets, start hiring astronauts, build a tracking station so you can go beyond LKO, and so on. And the size of your VAB restricts you to the size of rocket you can build. Literally start building up a Space Program from scratch, rather than starting off with a complete one. But maybe this is what's coming? After all SQUAD already hinted at upgradeable buildings.

[Kamuchi]

Played career several times but this time around toying with the sandbox to have a little bit more fun while not having to do the science and contracts *again*

[moogoob]

I have to say I never used to play career until 0.25 came out. I'm really enjoying it so far, and can hardly wait for the expanded biomes in 0.90.0. The strategies are... not really balanced very well, and the contracts will truly benefit from Fine Print integration, but it's still fun. Right now as I type I'm letting Mechjeb handle an exceedingly long ion probe burn to get an Eve intercept. A thermometer and Negative Gravioli Detector are aching for scientific readings.

So, in conclusion, it's got some to go but it's finally become fun.

[Kamuchi]

Played career several times but this time around toying with the sandbox to have a little bit more fun while not having to do the science and contracts *again*

[foxkill2342]

Career mode has been the one thing keeping me playing the game. I want challenge, direction and achievement. I can hop in sandbox and go to any planet at any time, but career gives me motivation and forces me to do it conservatively because I don't have quick loads. I enjoy developing my space program. I really hope development of Career is not abandoned for things like resources. The Game is moving in a great direction and I was excited by the Tuesday notes. The discussion that followed the dev notes makes me feel that the complainers are making the loudest noise. Stay the course Squad. I like your work!

[metl]

I mostly stick with career. I keep a sandbox game saved as 'experimental', but I like the framework career gives me for building up from a simple start, rather than being tempted into building complex monster rockets from day one. Even though there are no explicit contracts for stations, bases, etc., I still prefer building them this way.

-c

The best combination I have found has been Fine Print coupled with Station Science. Fine Print uses the pieces from Station Science to generate missions to build space stations.

[foxkill2342]

So does the KSP community actually feel .25 was a disappointment? Has there really been such a backlash and demand for resources being added to the final game that we are forcing the devs to abandon their plans to appease these select group of players?

I for one was looking forward to MK3 parts, upgradable buildings and kerbal progression. I feel like how Kerbals are handled in career mode is well...lacking. It's like a part of the game is missing. I liked the focus on career mode by the devs and felt that it should be the primary goal of the game. I'm kinda annoyed that people who only play sandbox are trying to derail career mode.

So does anyone have any idea what is going on? Has Squad really abandoned their plans for career to go chasing after resources and new aerodynamics which are already implemented by mods?

[milosh]

I didn't play KSP for a while, I did play sandbox mode a lot back in the 0.1X updates but i got bored of the game for a while. /

same here, I played only in sandbox mode until I got bored. Then I've laid it aside for a while and when I came back a few months later, I fired up Career Mode in 0.25 and I love it, gives some purpose to what I am doing anyway. With contracts it's very easy to unlock the techtree and the fact that a ship or crew can actually get lost adds some tension to the game. One of my missions in the future will be to gather all the Kerbals around the system that are sitting around alone on a lonely planet - I'd never do that in sandbox mode lol

[KerbMav]

I am not really bored - more like saturated for the time being - and I want to keep the game fresh for when it has become even bigger and better.

So, I keep looking at the development, but play a lot less than the last 14 months.

And while I wait for the moment I feel the game has reached a point I simply have to go all in, I started to work myself through my Steam library that inexplicably kept getting bigger and bigger ...

[timsfitz]

I only play career with the cloud mod. I plan on downloading fine print though since it's getting added to stock anyway.

Even though it can be grindy I like having to spend a fortune to build larger ships. It has encouraged me to further refine my designs. Also, the transmit science from orbit contracts give me a reason to put satellites in orbit of every planet and moon.

[justidutch]

I think career mode is awesome, even more so if you create your own end game. I intend to put massive stations around each planetary system, which requires massive kerbucks. This requires completing a massive amount of contracts, which will only get more and more interesting as the game continues its development path. The best part about this game remains the fact that you can decide how fun it is. If fun = challenging, you can make it so. If fun = easy, then so be it. If fun = exploding stuff, well...

[Aethon]

In my opinion, by not playing career, I would have cheated myself and missed out on a lot of fun. All career games end in sandbox anyway. I see each update as a unique version of KSP. If you restrict yourself to sandbox, you're missing out on half the KSP experience for each update.

[MaxCSquared]

I honestly am just the opposite. I basically only play sandbox mode. I've only played career mode for a few hours. Anyway, I think I'm too impatient to play career mode and wait to get parts. I also like mods which sometimes you also have to unlock.

Edited October 18, 2014 by Vanamonde

[born2fly145]

I only play career mode, as I've done about everything in sandbox mode. I am currently trying my hand on Hard mode, although the beginning can be a little bit rough. I am concerned how this is going to play out with no reload and perma-death. I am triple checking every stage during builds now, but when it gets to the more involved launches I'm not sure how I'll make out. NASA has a bunch of number crunching scientists. I only have a calculator and a rudimentary understanding of Delta-V and physics.

[metl]

So does the KSP community actually feel .25 was a disappointment? Has there really been such a backlash and demand for resources being added to the final game that we are forcing the devs to abandon their plans to appease these select group of players?

I for one was looking forward to MK3 parts, upgradable buildings and kerbal progression. I feel like how Kerbals are handled in career mode is well...lacking. It's like a part of the game is missing. I liked the focus on career mode by the devs and felt that it should be the primary goal of the game. I'm kinda annoyed that people who only play sandbox are trying to derail career mode.

So does anyone have any idea what is going on? Has Squad really abandoned their plans for career to go chasing after resources and new aerodynamics which are already implemented by mods?

Where did you come up with this idea of Squad abandoning Career? They have gave no indication at all of that and have stated the opposite. Now that all of the framework is in place, they will be refining career and adding smaller additions until it fits their intended vision, which did originally include resources but was shelved when they decided the system they had in mind was simply not fun to play. I would assume they have since came up with a new idea and direction for that part and have decided to go ahead with it.

[AmpsterMan]

One of the things I've enjoyed in career mode are the part tests, especially when I get plane parts. A few days ago I got a cobtract to test some LV909 engines at a high altitude. I built a plane that could carry two small engines on its wings, attached them to a decoupler, and tried to fulfill the specs. At the altitude I realease the engines and turned them on. It was interesting to see them fly ahead of me.

After mission complete, I turned around and headed home. That one part test took like 10 minutes and gave me like 40 science. It was a simple mission but I felt as if I was doing actual research. That sense of accomplishment has brought me back to KSP.

[worir4]

I don't like career so much because you loose rep when you kill a kerbal. In sandbox I count it as gaining rep...

[Shiva]

To the extent I've played it, I've enjoyed it. I think for some people in .25, there isn't a whole lot there except difficulty settings. the Admin things can help out, but they aren't necessarily a big deal, and most people won't be blowing up buildings in 0.25. And if you mainly build rockets, the plain parts aren't a big deal too. so part of it is that the additions in .25 just won't apply to a non-trivial number of players. But it will matter a lot of a lot of other players. As usual, I think it just depends how you play the game and what you play the game for as to whether the update does a lot for you or not.

Yeah, I think you nailed it there man