Custom Difficulty 10% Rewards: Game Balance Test!

[Torquemadus]

I recently abandoned my custom difficulty career save on 20% contract rewards, as it was getting too easy and I felt I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. I started a new save on 10% contract rewards.

Note that I leave quickloading and reverting turned on in case I need to recover from bugs!

I normally try to be cost effective by making all liquid fuelled stages re-useable and performing secondary contracts along the way. For example, I usually try to recover the second stage and perform other contracts such as rescuing a stranded kerbal. The example below is from an earlier save on 20% rewards.

Current career mode balance presents the player with an uphill struggle to complete the Explore The Mun contract, and becomes massively easier thereafter. I did some contract grinding to get enough money to build the rocket pictured below. Note the use of an all solid first stage to minimise cost. This time, I needed to go all out to complete the Explore The Mun contract. Funds saved through doing secondary contracts along the way, or through recovery, are worth nothing if I don't complete the primary mission. In addition, I have barely enough money to build the rocket, so I have nothing to spare to pay for any extra parts.

I performed a minimum fuel landing by aiming for a Mun periapsis that grazes the Mun's surface from my injection burn in LKO. This means that I don't really know which part of the Mun I'm going to end up landing on. As it turned out, I ended up landing in an area that was in sunset, but not yet in full darkness, so I was able to land safely.

At this point, all that remains is to return home safely and recover my data to complete the contracts. From this point onwards, I can easily earn enough resources to perform whatever missions I want to undertake.

I wanted to prove to myself that I could crack Career Mode on 10% rewards before 0.90 was released. Job done!

[SkyRender]

Yeah, without building upgrades to worry about yet, you don't really feel much of a pinch even at 10% reward rates if you're a particularly skilled player. Once you have to drop a cumulative million or so Funds to get your space center from entry-level to top-tier, however, I think you'll find that 10% rewards turn the experience into a grindfest. Just my prediction.

[Claw]

Moved this mission report to mission reports.

Cheers,

~Claw

[Torquemadus]

I've been testing the current implementation of Career Mode on progressively harder difficulty. I wanted to see how game balance and progression worked, and establish whether there was a point of no return, beyond which the game was too hard to be playable. It turns out that with careful ship design and mission planning, even a 10% rewards career is playable in 0.25.

In 0.25, the game starts out hard, but gets massively easier after the first Mun landing. When 0.90 is released, I'll be comparing how the difficulty curve is affected by the new features.

[Talavar]

Yeah, without building upgrades to worry about yet, you don't really feel much of a pinch even at 10% reward rates if you're a particularly skilled player. Once you have to drop a cumulative million or so Funds to get your space center from entry-level to top-tier, however, I think you'll find that 10% rewards turn the experience into a grindfest. Just my prediction.

This won't be the case I believe. I dropped it even lower than 10% and was unlocking things left and right, and still had a ton of cash. (THis was with the old "fine-print") They'll have to rebalance fine-print before they add it, otherwise, it will be counterintuitive. (edit) with the cash--> science or Science-->cash setting available. It's almost easy mode regardless.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Talavar