Easy Normal Hard Absurd-Hard

[Amahula]

Set the gains multiplier at 100 for one Keosynchronous satellite and make my fund "issues" go away! At least I know it is possible to change those values if I decide it is no longer fun having to place about 350 of those in orbit, just to upgrade the R&D building, once. Thanks!

I haven't upgraded any buildings, and I haven't failed any missions. Right now I'm thinking about increasing my penalties. I guess somewhere between 200% and 1000% would be a great value where money isn't too easy to come by (as in my case I guess, I'm building money way quicker than science), and you don't already have 10.000 science when you upgrade the R&D (Which will be your case I guess).

[ticalc2014]

In order to gain access to all of the parts I could possibly need, I spent a bit on the "Outsourced R&D" strategy so I could unlock satellites relatively quickly. Then I found myself in need of a few other parts scattered around the tech tree, so I just left it on to unlock the whole tree. Even at 5% commitment, you get 1 science point per 711 funds income (35.557 funds per 1 science point, divided by 5% (0.05) commitment). A basic satellite launch will net about 20 extra science. That is the most overpowered strategy by a long shot!

Edited December 30, 2014 by ticalc2014

[ticalc2014]

I'm still plugging away at it, while admittedly, not playing that much the past several days. I'm running low on funds, around 55k at the moment, but I have upgraded the launchpad to support vessels up to 140 tons. I'm still limited to the 30 parts requirement, but earlier missions had shown that simple vessels were being held back by the lack of fuel mass available, rather than a lack of parts. I may try a Duna encounter with a manned mission over the weekend, but I'm not sure I want to risk the life of one of my Kerbals given the surprising 100% survival rate thus far. Given the ridiculous fund requirements for building upgrades, I may have to scrap this career and go with a lower "funds penalty" setting, or as Amahula suggested, go into the save files and change the settings there instead so as to not lose my progress thus far. I'm also looking into installing FAR to try it out, but I fear that a less "soupy" atmosphere, thus lower delta-V requirements will overrun any increased difficulty in piloting vessels.

[ticalc2014]

OK, so apparently Remote Tech + FAR = broken antenna and useless satellite. Without fairings, the two can't be used together, so I guess that was a short-lived trial. Back to Remote Tech only.

[Jasonden]

I may have to scrap this career and go with a lower "funds penalty" setting, or as Amahula suggested, go into the save files and change the settings there instead so as to not lose my progress thus far.

Yeah, don't fight it on this one. I'm trying to save up the $3.2M to upgrade to Tier 3 on science, and wow, it's sure hard all right I'm making a few 100K profit on giant expeditions to Laythe and Dres, for instance, emplacing big bases on wheels with 6 actual Kerbonauts and driving around to accomplish survey missions. I'm at $2.2M so far, but seems like a long way to go. I can only imagine if you had to save up $32M!

[ticalc2014]

Yeah, don't fight it on this one. I'm trying to save up the $3.2M to upgrade to Tier 3 on science, and wow, it's sure hard all right I'm making a few 100K profit on giant expeditions to Laythe and Dres, for instance, emplacing big bases on wheels with 6 actual Kerbonauts and driving around to accomplish survey missions. I'm at $2.2M so far, but seems like a long way to go. I can only imagine if you had to save up $32M!

It felt kind of like cheating to change the persistent save file on my career, so I've decided to start over, yet again. This time, at a MUCH more reasonable 250% funds penalty, thus only slightly beyond that of "Hard". Beyond that, starting funds at zero, starting reputation at -1000, reputation penalty remains at 1000%, and all of the rewards at 10%. Again, none of the "General Options" are enabled, so I still have to be careful not to "land" Jeb back on Kerbin while traveling too quickly, and all of those other fun scenarios.