Mission cash payout nerf?

[webkilla]

Just curious

It seems that compared to previous versions, the new missions pay out hardly anything.

I know that with the last update people complained endlessly about the admin building features breaking the career games by allowing for too many funds to become available... but this?

This is a bit rough - especially since now you have to upgrade the launch center.

I mean... wow... 1600 kerbucks for doing a 2 star mission. That wont even pay for the rocket needed to test that.

The only missions I have avaliable that actually look like they're financially viable are the survey missions - but until I spend a lot more money and science I can't really hope to aim for the spots I need to go for those (they pay 15K a piece) - and then there's the orbit one, paying almost 60K - but I need a launch site upgrade and several other upgrades before that's possible as well.

It just feels like the game has been made a little too difficult - and this is on Average difficulty.

I don't like the idea of having to feel it necessary to tweak the difficulty settings to play the game.

[Janos1986]

It is actually pretty low, anyway you can try to build the vessel in a way that every part of it is recoverable.

In this specific case, you can place lots of parachutes to keep a passive descent below the impact speed of the booster, so in the end you'll only have to pay for the fuel.

And try to land it neatly on the runway, of course. It's 100% value or nothing.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Janos1986

[Claw]

The "test xxx in flight" contracts always seemed low to me, even in 0.25. But I think those are intentionally worth lower amounts to encourage you to get out there. Also, they can be a ride-along test for your other flights, rather than generating a whole mission to test one part.

That being said, I also encourage you to see if you can get to orbit without a launch pad upgrade.

Good luck!

-Claw

[WanderingKid]

I would say no, they weren't. Not much. Atmo tests were never really worth a lot, and while landed tests usually paid out in pennies. A lot of those are churnable until you find ones that are in the ranges you can do (IE: no 100-300 m/s parachute tests at 20k, thanks...) and just build them in as extra cash into actual missions. With the limitations on # of contracts now, though, it's more highlighted that they really did stink.

There's plenty of high funds contracts still in the loop. Most of them are test in orbit/sub orbit. Need a solid prestige to get them to pop though. Until then rely on the 5k, 11k, 22k, 33k, and 56k exploration contracts and recover most (if not all) of your test vehicle to build up funds at the very beginning.

[Rusty6899]

I had played on 10% funds in 0.25 and it was a struggle, I had to only choose the most lucrative contracts. Now they seem extremely tough. I think the fund rewards are lower.

[chrisb2e9]

I can deal with the reward level. it's the part count that I have trouble with. 30 parts max? I can make orbit, but once i'm up there all I can really do is come back down... i'm not making enough money to upgrade anything...

[Jarin]

My best income so far has been taking survey contracts and lobbing jeb at them in a fully recoverable rocket (Jeb, because there's no way in hell Bill or Bob can steer well enough to actually hit the survey marker).

[metl]

Keep running the "gather science from space near Kerbin" missions alongside the outsourced science strategy (rep to science). After a few launches, you will have enough science to unlock basic solar panels. Then just leave the pod in orbit and transmit crew report, complete mission, take mission, go back to pod, transmit crew report, complete mission... repeat until upgrades can be afforded. On hard difficulty at around $18000 and 15 science each report, I made enough money to unlock tracking station 2, launchpad 2, and MC 2. As soon as I unlock the next crew center, I will be off to the mun with a decent amount of science ready to finish out the level 1 R&D tree.

[WanderingKid]

Also note there's a series of 'highest altitude' missions in the beginning. 5k, 11k, 22k, 33k, and 56k. These are meant to also "Get you off the ground". Before you get to orbit the contracts well and do truly stink.

[Wanderfound]

Tonnage limit is giving me the most trouble; keeping an orbit-cpable ship below 18t is doable, but tricky, especially if you're trying to do it cheap. SRBs be heavy.

[webkilla]

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who's having issues

If anything I guess the survey missions will get a LOT easier once you get access to jet engines and can make airplanes instead of using rockets. That can become a steady income.

But that takes a while... and ya, the initial weight and component number limit is really tough to get around.

Still, if nothing else, this new update certainly challenges people - even on normal difficulty

[juanml82]

I'm struggling against the lack of maneuver nodes/patched conics. I was trying to (maybe partially) fulfill the explore the Mun contract, managed to intercept the Mun without maneuver nodes, did the circularization burn, saw a nice elliptic orbit around the Mun in the map but the "orbit the Mun" part didn't trigger. Figured it was a bug of some kind, warped towards the Ap... and the ship exited the Mun's SOI - probably the orbit drawing isn't accurate without conic patches.

The biggest payouts are the satellite contracts and the aerial survey, but I think it will be tricky to perform them without airplane parts or maneuver nodes