Budget management in career mode

[Spiralwise]

Hi kerbal friends !

I've just tried the brand new career mode and it's pretty interesting. That brings a new constraint in rocket design and mission planning. However the money is burning faster as ignited solid fuel. There are contracts but it appears to be not enough to provide cash to the agency's treasure. My question is quite simple : How to make money ?

[The_Rocketeer]

You're already on the right track. My advice - persevere!

1. Complete contracts. Rewards for contracts vary, some have very high financial gains, others provide science or early access to 'prototype' parts. The more you do, the more money you make.

2. Combine multiple contracts into single missions. This minimises expenses but maximises gains.

3. Try not to break things. Landed parts are rebated at the end of the mission. Destroying ships and buildings and killing Kerbanauts negatively effects reputation, which lowers the profitability of available contracts.

4. Revert failed flights. Don't accept the destruction of your parts, because this will drastically impact your finances!

It's slow to get going, but soon you'll find you have several hundred-thousand credits stored away and that's plenty to be getting on with. Just be careful about successive crashes.

Good luck :-)

Edited October 23, 2014 by The_Rocketeer

[Slam_Jones]

Best way I've found to rake in the cash is to get a ship into orbit around Kerbin. From there, you can pick up and complete the "Science Data from space around Kerbin" as many times as you want (after you complete it, there's a pretty high chance for it to be available again). From there, I would usually land a kerbal on the Mun so that I can repeat the "Plant Flag on Mun" mission repeatedly.

After that, just repeat the process with other moons/planets. The further you are from Kerbin (generally) the more funds you get for completed contracts.

Good luck!

Edit: As far as the orbiting ship goes, you just need a couple solar panels, an antennae, and a Kerbal in a pod. You can trasmit the same data and complete the contract regardless of whether you transmitted that data before.

Second edit: If all else fails, just take a couple "Test _______ landed at Kerbin". Build a ship with ONLY the required parts (it doesn't need to function, you just need to be able to activate the parts) and recover it when you've tested the parts. Easy money

Edited October 23, 2014 by Slam_Jones

[SRV Ron]

Hi kerbal friends !

I've just tried the brand new career mode and it's pretty interesting. That brings a new constraint in rocket design and mission planning. However the money is burning faster as ignited solid fuel. There are contracts but it appears to be not enough to provide cash to the agency's treasure. My question is quite simple : How to make money ?

1. Recover as much as possible as close to the launchpad as possible.

2. Combine contracts as much as possible.

3. Research ONLY those parts you absolutely need for the mission. Additional ones can be researched as needed.

4. Build as cheaply as possible.

5. Once you have unlocked the Stayputnik, OxStat Panels, and the Too Hot Thermometer, place a satellite in orbit and leave it there. Use it to do the data returned from orbit contracts. Combine its launch with other orbit testing contracts if possible. You can use that combo for the Explore Mun, Minmus, etc..., then place it back in orbit and rake in the money for no additional cost.

One example; This simple design with the booster thrust and fuel tweaked to suit the mission, did the first launch, and set altitude record for 5,000, 11,000, 22,000 and 33,000 meters. It can almost reach 40,000 meters with full fuel and properly tweaked thrust. Land it in the water close to shore for full part recovery.

[bdito]

You can use one of the administration building perks to give up some research or reputation for cash.

Edited October 23, 2014 by bdito

[Spyre2000]

Get more contracts types : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88445-0-25-Fine-Print-v0-59-Resource-Harvest-Contracts-Configuration-%28October-7%29

It's a great mod with more contracts to do.

As for stock I always found it extremely easy to make cash. If you "decline" a contract with X button it is instantly replaced with a new contract. You can do this to cycle through and find the contracts that are easiest for you to do. I assume you are very early in the game as some of the easier contracts have not shown. I'll break down some of the easier contracts that I "grind" to get money.

1) Test part while Landed. These are free-be contracts. Just put the part on the launch pad and active it in stage mode to complete contract. After that just retrieve the ship for full money back.

2) Kerbin rescue. These have fairly high payout and cost little to do if done right. I built an unmanned ship with 4 Mk 1 Command modules, each with a tiny fuel tank and small cheap engine. When I need to rescue a kerbal I just have the ship rendezvous with him, he boards and then decouples one of the pods and uses it to return to the surface. I can complete four rescue contracts with one ship. You have to do it this way because you won't get another rescue contract until the first one is completed with the kerbal returning to the surface.

3) Mun/Minmus Flag & Science Missions. I often get return science from mun and plant flag on mun, but less frequent for minmus, and one ship's round trip easily solves these contracts. I've never left a Kerbal on Mun but I suspect an easy exploit might be to leave one there and just plant new flags each time the contract is offered. Never tried it as I'm unsure if like the rescue mission there are some hidden restrictions, such as you won't get offered flag while Kerbal is on Mun, but that's just a theory.

4) Test Part in Orbit often have big paydays. Even so I often try to get 2 or more of these active before doing them. Just get the parts into orbit on a single craft and then activate them as need be when they reach their appropriate altitude.

Those are the four main groups of missions that I grab a lot and I manage to get up to 6M funds in my game. That was back in before the .25 patch though and it seemed as soon as I returned a kerbal I'd get another rescue mission practically straight away, got a bit bored with it after a while though but was good cash. In .25 I started a new campaign with several mods, included the additional contracts one listed above, though I have the settings set to 50% income on funds/science/Rep and you have to pay to unlock parts once you do the R&D. Funds are a bit tighter than before but still not that short on cash.

There are some general tips though for maximizing income. First off try to have each launch setup to complete at least 2 or more contracts if at all possible. Next try to recover as much of the ship as possible as it helps reduce cost. Also Pick contracts with big payouts and little hassle, for example sometimes you'll often see part tests of flying at curtain altitudes and speed but the payout will be very small which often means it's not worth the effort or cost of rocket. And lastly build your rockets on cheap, as in don't use more than you need and try to use cost effective parts.

When it comes to building cheap rockets, solid fuel is the way to go. Under the new system asparagus designs are not very economical. The liquid fuel and engines cost a LOT more than solid fuel rockets. I've managed to cut the cost of getting a ship in orbit by half with more focus on solid fuel rockets. That is say the ship cost 30K but launch rockets cost 100K as liquid fuel rockets but say solid fuel rocket version only cost 50K, which makes the difference between a ship that cost 130K and one that cost only 80K. Plus if I recover most of the main ship I will get 15-30K back depending on distance from KSP Center. So the overall cost of the mission was about 60K and checking real quick my old save the flag Mun mission is 13K Adv / 70K Reward plus Science from Mun surface mission is 12K Adv / 82K Reward, so total income from those two contracts is 177K. That's 117K profit per mission to Mun.

The later design I use for the Mun runs was a bit bigger and cost more, but it had lots of science modules on it and was going more for the science than the cash, even so it was still a net profit as that one cost about 150K but used a single stage liquid fuel rocket platform that cost about 110K but it has a probe and parachutes. So once the ship is out of the atmosphere and separates the main lander fires it's rockets and goes into stable orbit. The I switch back to the launcher before it enters the atmosphere and the game deletes it so that I can control it and have it land safely. I then recover the launcher for about 60K return. When combined with recovery for the lander upon it's return from Mun the cost of the mission was fairly low even if the ship's launch cost is 150K. Ultimately it did end up costing close to the solid fuel rocket setup but it's easier to handle and less bluky.

Part of the reason I started a new campaign with .25 though is I finally decided to get FAR and Deadly Re-entry a try along with a bunch of other mods and that ship, plus most of my others, just don't handle well in them so it's back to the drawing board on nearly all my designs.

[Spyre2000]

3. Research ONLY those parts you absolutely need for the mission. Additional ones can be researched as needed.

Not sure how this one applies. Any "Test Part" missions you get it automatically unlocks the part for you to use until the contract is completed, I've actually found it a useful trick to get access to parts you haven't yet researched.

Also from my experience you don't get offered missions you don't have the possibility of completing due to missing parts. Some parts make missions easier by allowing better designs but unless you have the pay for each part in R&D enabled then cash and research don't effect each other much. But that's only enabled on harder difficulties or if you have it enabled in custom difficulty.

[Starman4308]

Hi kerbal friends !

I've just tried the brand new career mode and it's pretty interesting. That brings a new constraint in rocket design and mission planning. However the money is burning faster as ignited solid fuel. There are contracts but it appears to be not enough to provide cash to the agency's treasure. My question is quite simple : How to make money ?

Almost any contract in Kerbin's atmosphere is trivial: just stick the part on a liquid engine (or stick liquid engines onto the part), boost straight up from the launchpad to the desired speed/altitude regime, trigger the contract, pop some parachutes, and recover. Because you can get to basically any height in the atmosphere (or poke your head just above the atmosphere for suborbital) on a single stage without even trying very hard, you can have 100% (possibly 98% if you land outside KSC) recovery, and the fuel costs are basically pennies. There are also SSTO designs (particularly spaceplanes) where you can trigger orbital contracts for pennies' worth of fuel, and skilled players can get to ridiculous places and back on a single stage. Of course, once you're outside Kerbin orbit, the payouts tend to be more than sufficient for a conventional, several-stage rocket design.

There are also the aforementioned tricks of leaving little probes in orbit around Kerbin (and all sorts of other bodies) with a thermometer, and leaving Kerbals landed on each planet so you can trigger plant-flag contracts with ease.

[SRV Ron]

Not sure how this one applies. Any "Test Part" missions you get it automatically unlocks the part for you to use until the contract is completed, I've actually found it a useful trick to get access to parts you haven't yet researched.

Also from my experience you don't get offered missions you don't have the possibility of completing due to missing parts. Some parts make missions easier by allowing better designs but unless you have the pay for each part in R&D enabled then cash and research don't effect each other much. But that's only enabled on harder difficulties or if you have it enabled in custom difficulty.

3 applies to those playing in higher difficulty levels. Normal mode and easy mode players are not hampered by having to pay for researching parts.

Certainly, take advantage of test parts for missions. I haven't really noticed contracts not appearing due to not having researched parts, but, you don't need to unlock them when a test contract comes up for one. What won't show up are the altitude records if your first launches have exceeded those heights.

[Lunaran]

A great way to save launch costs: SRBs. Put a pod on top of an LVT45 and tall fuel tank, then throw that away and put it on top of a Rockomax BACC SRB instead. Note how much cheaper it is.

[Mystique]

After completing lots of contract they became less interesting, so I do like this when I need money for some grand stuff like interplanetary mothership with several nuclear reactors:

Pick up all contracts "test ... while landed" available.

Pick up all "juicy" contracts like "test huge engine while in suborbital flight and get ~500k Kerbucks"

Decline all contracts that don't match (like cheap part testing contract "in flight over Kerbin"), see if new ones similiar to listed above appear, if they do - also accept them.

Build test rig capable of getting huge engine to needed altitude and landing it back safely, stick all "land test" parts to first stage so that they will be triggered and decoupled immediately on launch.

Get up to 1 Megakerbucks in next 2 minutes.

P.S. And don't forget about policies, who cares about reputation anyway?

[ArmchairGravy]

Do the Explore Mun and Explore Minmus missions as soon as you can. Unlock a Stayputnik, solar panels and thermometer. Put a satellite around Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus with a thermometer. You will get regular missions to get science around Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus (there will always be at least one available). Doing all 3 nets around 130k of funds. Very efficient and easy way to make funds. I prefer this method over the testing missions as this is a constant revenue stream with a low investment cost that's easy to implement.

[Vallius]

Until you've gotten into orbit for the first time, I'd recommend not implementing any of the strategies at the Admin center. Unless your game starts with money, rep and science to burn, this could actually hamper your space program in its early stages! They have a start-up cost which can be quite steep, and you need reputation early on to get the more lucrative testing contracts.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Vallius
Mispellings.... I'm an engineer, not an English professor!

[Wrenchy]

ty for all the advices

[LethalDose]

A great way to save launch costs: SRBs. Put a pod on top of an LVT45 and tall fuel tank, then throw that away and put it on top of a Rockomax BACC SRB instead. Note how much cheaper it is.

A note on this because I wanted this to be a good solution: Without the T-45's gimbal, the rocket isn't very controlable. I put winglets on the BACC booster, and then found out that the winglets are almost as expensive as the T-45's...

I'm looking forward to the devs (hopefully) rebalancing the part costs soon. Right now they're all over the place.

[Redwizard000]

I have satellites with a solar panel, antennae and a gravity scanner thing on them.

Orbit one around each planet\moon.

Contracts will come up for transmitting science around "x" body.

Do the gravity scan and transmit.

The Mun and Minmus usually pay out 70k ish and it is money for free once the satellites are in place.

Does this count as an exploit?

[Axelord FTW]

I personally recommend Stage Recovery.

Helps with budgets.

If you still want to walk the fine line, you could lower the fund rewards or the recovery rewards but I think the mod is essential and is as it-should-be-stock as can be.

[tsotha]

I never have trouble with money on hard mode (60% funds) and no reverts. I accept and complete every contract. This is my advice (which would change if you're going much below 60%):

1. Try to do multiple contracts in each launch, but don't try to do too many "flying over Kerbin" contracts at once. Two or three is probably the most you should do at once.

2. Use SRBs as much as possible, but don't overdo it. You need a bit of experience to know just what value to set the thrust limiter on an RT-10 such that you're going between 80 and 120 m/s at 4500 meters for a rocket of a given mass, and it won't save you any money if you have to launch four times to get it right. If you have a multi-stage rocket use SRBs for the bottom stage, since you're not going to be able to recover them. One strategy is to put SRBs on radial decouplers around a T-45. Adjust the thrust limiter on the SRBs such that you'll be operating the T-45 at 25% or so. This way you can still steer your rocket but you get the benefit of cheap dV from the SRBs.

3. Remember for "flying over Kerbin" contracts if you don't satisfy the contract on the way up because conditions weren't right, you may be able to get a second bite at the apple on the way back down, particularly if you still have fuel.

4. You can do pretty much any number of "in orbit" contracts in one launch. Just put yourself in a nice elliptical orbit that covers all the necessary altitudes and complete them one at a time. I usually wait until I have four or five of these before I complete them all in one shot.

5. You can use the device under test before you test it - engines that get started by a control group or right click menu don't count as being staged. Also, if you stage an engine you can add empty stages beneath it and re-stage it (even if it's running at the time) to complete the contract. So if you get a test contract for something heavy like a KR-2L, build your rocket around that engine instead of treating it as cargo.

6. An engine doesn't have to work for you to test it. You can take all the fuel out of an SRB and still complete the contract. You can stage a liquid or ion engine with no fuel of the correct type to complete a contract. You can stage a jet with no air intake and no liquid fuel to complete a contract. So, for example, if you get two "landed at Kerbin" contracts, one for an RT-10 and one for a basic jet engine, make a "rocket" consisting of a capsule with the RT-10 on the bottom and and upside-down jet engine on the top. Take all the fuel out of the RT-10. Take them out to the pad and stage them both - contracts complete. Your rocket won't budge and you'll get full salvage value for all three parts.

7. Speaking of "landed at Kerbin" contracts, don't bother adding them to rockets that will actually fly. It just adds extra weight, and if you aren't landed at the pad or runway at the end of the flight you won't get full salvage value. Do all "landed at Kerbin" contracts on stationary "rockets". These contracts are free money.

8. Stack decouplers only decouple the side the arrow is pointing to. Let's say you have a test contract for a rockomax decoupler. If you put it on top of a capsule with the arrow pointing up (which is the default) it will stay attached when you stage it, so you'll get to salvage it if you recover your rocket.

9. The contracts most likely to lose money are the ones that require you to exceed terminal velocity lower in the atmosphere, e.g. testing something at 4500 meters going at least 400 m/sec. They don't pay well, usually require more than one engine, burn lots of extra fuel, don't have much margin for error, and conditions are such that you'll be unlikely to satisfy other contracts on the same launch. If you're going to decline contracts, decline these.

Your very first launch should complete all four of the initial contracts. Just make a basic rocket with an engine, twelve fuel tanks, a capsule, and a parachute. That's enough to get you into orbit and back. You should have enough fuel to assist your parachute in a soft ocean landing, and if you "recover" the craft before it tips over you'll be able to salvage all the parts. I think that leaves you with something like 120k at the 60% setting.

[SRV Ron]

While it is possible to have the very first launch do all four base contracts, I recommend against it. Do several sub orbitals with this tweaked design. Take along a pair of Goo canasters later on for getting Science points. Start by tweaking the SRB to reach just over 5,000 meters. Increase fuel to do the next altitude one for 11,000, 22,000, 33,000. It can go to almost 40,000.

Add a second stage to fulfill the 55,000 and sub orbit with Goo canisters.

Land both designs in the ocean close to KSP for recovering cost.

Now, build a proper orbiter that can double to do a manned Mun orbit and return for a ton of science points. Be sure the Mun contract has been offered before going there or it won't show up.

In short, take little steps and you can build up fund a lot faster.