What is your initial approach to career?

[katateochi]

I recently realized that certain contracts don't ever show up if you exceed their requirements in a previous contact. I had never seen the "reach 11, 22, 33 or 56km" contracts before because I tend to just head straight into space.

So I'm interested in how you guys approach the initial phase of career, do you try and complete each contract in turn, or do you go rushing off for the stars?

I decided to try both approaches and compare how much funds each way returned. So I did a couple quick runs of the start of career, both on moderate.

In the first one I went for getting into space quickly, just doing a small set of contracts; launch & 5km then escape atmo & orbit (just two launches)

In the second one I did each of the altitude contracts (at least I think it was all of them); launch & 5km, 11km, 22km, 33km, 56km then escape atmo & orbit. (the 11 to 56k missions where each done as a separate launch, 6 launches in total)

In both versions I unlocked the same two nodes in the tech tree (basic rocketry and Survivability) and used exactly the same craft for the first two contracts (a pod with a booster that had 129l of fuel and a parachute) . In the 2nd career I then used the same craft with increasing levels of fuel for the 11km & 22km and for the 33k and 56k I added a 2nd booster. The escape and orbit required a different craft but the same was used in each. 2 stage ascent with a small orbiter that also had 2 goo containers (ran one goo in the atmo and one in space in each career).

In each career I didn't pick up any other contracts and I made sure to grab all the science that I could. I didn't upgrade anything or turn any strategies on.

In the 1st career "yay space" ; I ended up with 113737 funds & 81.2 sci

in the 2nd career "slowNJeby"; I ended up with 184880 funds & 85.7 sci

Yay space took about 20-25 mins, slowNJeby took around an hour (I wasn't timing, rough guess).

So the slowNJeby way can set you up with ~71k more funds and +4 .5 sci (I did also have a higher reputation in that. forgot the check the exact figures). But slowNJeby was BORING!! Each launch until the last one was basically the same (I ran all launches bar the last at 4x physics cos it was that dull, and it still took almost an hour).

Yay Space was fun and quick to get though, but 71k is not insignificant. Although at this stage I need more sci than funds. 4.5 sci is neither here-nor-there really, it pretty much comes down to funds and time taken.

On balance, considering that time is money and I'm here to have fun, I think I favor the yay space approach. What is your approach?

I didn't look at the effect of strategies because at this stage I couldn't really afford any. But I'm interested to know, when do you start using them and which ones at the earlier stage of career?

Edited December 17, 2014 by katateochi

[xub313]

In my experience, taking things slow doesn't really matter too much. If you're a new player you will probably take things slow as you learn, but KSP veterans can easily get into the meat of things without being penalized too much.

As for my approach, I like to take things pretty quickly with the getting into space contracts. But I often spend time in the early game doing part testing or surveys because some of them are pretty fun to engineer with low tech levels.

[Parkaboy]

Basically what I just posted in another thread:

I have been playing in hard difficulty and I see no need for doing "billions of part tests". I don't like doing part tests either, so I tend to skip them unless they fit with a mission profile I'm planning. So far I'm struggling with gathering enough cash to upgrade the buildings, but was able to follow a slow and steady progression that goes somewhat like this:

- 1: Launch vessel and break altitude record contracts;

- 2: Break altitude record and reach space contracts;

- 3: Reach orbit and get science from kerbin space contracts;

- 4: With these three missions I was able to get a reliable orbiter and unlocked batteries, allowing me to do multiple "Science from kerbin space" on the next launch; with a strategy to convert funds into science I unlocked the tech to a probe with SAS, solar panels, and everything needed to build a small jet plane

- 5: Multiple plane "survey" contracts;

- 6: Multiple "place satellite" contracts;

I upgraded the launchpad and plan to upgrade either the tracking station or the R&D next. It's tough, but then again I'm playing hard mode. In normal mode should be a piece of cake.

So far I've put about 6 sats in orbit around Kerbin, and did 4 airplane survey missions. A couple more missions and I'll be able to upgrade my R&D facilities, and maybe I'll have to do a few more to earn cash to unlock the parts I need for a Mun mission.

[Janos1986]

I activated the Fundraising Campaign at 25â„…, started completing contracts two by two until I got at least 100k kredits, then I focused on upgrading mission control to accept more contracts and get more funds in the process.

[alacrity]

For me the addition of Fine Print contracts has been definitive of my experience.

I have noted in the past several times that I care little for planes, SSTO's, basically all things winged. My MO has always been to get to space and start working the Muns of Kerbin for all my space science needs.

With the upgrading of of buildings being added to the game and sucking up all my funding, I have had to redirect my efforts into a more spread out system, and planes are playing a big part. The visual Survey missions are my current bread and butter missions. I have upgraded most my buildings to lvl 2, but I am still locked into 100 science with my basic science buildings.

Being "forced" to do some of the ground based missions (forced is not the best word as I am finding I am actually enjoying planes for tyhe time being.) has really opened my eyes to planes a lot more.

This is my stock runthrough of the game, but when I get all modded up I do not expect this to change. I am really having fun with these new contracts and using the to discover the SPH.

Alacrity

[Vicomt]

Thanks for starting the discussion

I normally tend to follow a middling path between the two, historically, I've done the 5 & 22, not even realising there was one inbetween, likewise, the 33 and 56 I've always missed, though not by design. Part of the reason for this is my playstyle, I *really* don't like the stock aero model, so I wait to play until FAR has been released. This has the (un)fortunate side effect of making dV to orbit lower, hence my early tech rockets tend to be TWR monsters (RT-10 + pod + antenna + chute), so they go much further than is required to do some height-based contracts. I'm also quite lax on TWR/dV at the start as I don't get TWR/dV readouts until later in the tech tree (yes, I don't want to hand-crank all my dV calcs thank you).

I think the ability to skip contracts is good, however I'd like to see more of this information given to the player through the game, rather than go through blind, maybe a "contracts we'd like to give you, but we don't think you can do it yet" page in mission control?

[[email protected]]

I tend to play with much slower progression. I use Kerbal Construction Time, RT, and TAC-among others. I enjoy having rockets get to completion that are essentially outdated while newer better rockets are still being built, and research is being done to make those rockets obsolete. I enjoy planning out the logistics of missions that have to be run within a given time frame based on older tech or with a stricter budget. I find that a lot more fun than blasting off to minmus with my first rocket and unlocking the entire tech tree within few missions. I'm still playing .25 because I'm unwilling to give up my save game just yet. I'll wait till all the mods are updated.

[magnemoe]

I use a lot of probes, satellites is my bread and butter. And yes they will fit well with the MK2 cargo bay.

Question, can you launch satellites into orbit for later deployment? It says new satelite but not sure if this is launch or previously used for an satellite contract.

[Parkaboy]

I use a lot of probes, satellites is my bread and butter. And yes they will fit well with the MK2 cargo bay.

Question, can you launch satellites into orbit for later deployment? It says new satelite but not sure if this is launch or previously used for an satellite contract.

Nope, the satellite has to be launched after the contract is accepted, or it won't work. But you can use an existing sat for "get science" contracts and test part contracts.

[kinnison]

And old hand at this game, and can easily get into orbit with beginning tech on my first mission. then it is basically science spamming minmus and the mun until i get the tech to build an SSTO and cheaply and easily launch "Fine Print" satellites

[wraith of vern]

I havn't actually played KSP properly since I think 0.19, I did a Science career in about April. So my approach was just to gather as much science as I could to start with, they I kind of realised that I needed to take contracts to gain money to upgrade my facilities. By this point all of the contracts had gotten a little tricky, so I am still trying to battle through some of those now to actually get some funds.

So far I have managed to achieve a stable orbit of about 80km which did give me 50,000 funds. But I spent that on contract spots which, might have been a bad idea. So at the moment I'll either have to start over or battle through the tricky contracts. I'll give a few examples:

- Test mk16 parachute between 20,000-30,000m at speeds of 280-500ms. Using staging system

I've had a few attempts at this, and I'm going to have to use a radial parachute first before the mk16 to actually do this.

- Test Rockomax BACC between 10,000-(something) at speeds 200-500ms (or something like that)

THIS I have no idea how I'll do, because I have to meet those requirements before actually firing the BACC. I can't use it until then and well, thats a pretty big dead mass to be carrying with a 18 tonne pad limit.

(might have gone off topic)

[Wanderfound]

I havn't actually played KSP properly since I think 0.19, I did a Science career in about April. So my approach was just to gather as much science as I could to start with, they I kind of realised that I needed to take contracts to gain money to upgrade my facilities. By this point all of the contracts had gotten a little tricky, so I am still trying to battle through some of those now to actually get some funds.

So far I have managed to achieve a stable orbit of about 80km which did give me 50,000 funds. But I spent that on contract spots which, might have been a bad idea. So at the moment I'll either have to start over or battle through the tricky contracts. I'll give a few examples:

- Test mk16 parachute between 20,000-30,000m at speeds of 280-500ms. Using staging system

I've had a few attempts at this, and I'm going to have to use a radial parachute first before the mk16 to actually do this.

- Test Rockomax BACC between 10,000-(something) at speeds 200-500ms (or something like that)

THIS I have no idea how I'll do, because I have to meet those requirements before actually firing the BACC. I can't use it until then and well, thats a pretty big dead mass to be carrying with a 18 tonne pad limit.

(might have gone off topic)

Use the thrust and fuel limiter tweakables; a BACC can hit that speed and altitude if set right. Or just empty the BACC of fuel entirely and carry it as bulky but lightweight payload.

However, these sorts of tests are always much easier in aircraft.

[Torquemadus]

- Test Rockomax BACC between 10,000-(something) at speeds 200-500ms (or something like that)

THIS I have no idea how I'll do, because I have to meet those requirements before actually firing the BACC. I can't use it until then and well, thats a pretty big dead mass to be carrying with a 18 tonne pad limit.

An important point to note is you can use the BACC to reach the required speed and altitude. You can then "activate" it again through the staging system by editing the staging sequence in flight.

[wraith of vern]

Use the thrust and fuel limiter tweakables; a BACC can hit that speed and altitude if set right. Or just empty the BACC of fuel entirely and carry it as bulky but lightweight payload.

However, these sorts of tests are always much easier in aircraft.

Well I was just trying something simple before like stacking 2 BACCs ontop of each other with decouplers. I never thought to actually empty the top one first. I have definitely been out of KSP for far too long. The tests probably are easier in aircraft but, I can't fly them at all.

An important point to note is you can use the BACC to reach the required speed and altitude. You can then "activate" it again through the staging system by editing the staging sequence in flight.

I'm not sure I'm following. Do you mean to first fire the BACC manually by right-clicking, they just activate in staging when I reach that altitude.

I did the parachute one quite easily when it occurred to me to open to mk16 on accent. But on another note I got the contract for the Mun so I've upgraded my launch pad, but I'm going to be stuck with the 30 part limit on the VAB for quite some time.

[Superfluous J]

I've only started one career since .90 dropped (give me a break it's been 2 days and I've been busy!) but in my experience:

• I did all the initial contracts. They're there, why not do them? The hardest part was not breaking the next record by accident
  
• I take every "landed on Kerbin" (a.k.a. "on the launchpad") contract I can find and most "splashed down" ones too.
  
• Once I got planes I took one part test in flight contract and one survey contract at a time. I did the part test on the way to the survey in a plane specfically designed to do both. I flew that same plane maybe 5 times and will revisit it if I get bored with the space stuff I'm doing now.
  
• I've not landed on Mun yet but I've put 2 satellites in orbit around it. I also landed on Minmus but that was just to drop a station there.
  
• I totally completely forget to take science readings. I've not taken a Mystery Goo past LKO and I've not taken a Science Jr out... anywhere I think.
  
• Still, I've already had to upgrade R&D to allow > 100 tiers and I'm knocking on the door of needing the next tier.
  
• How? I am concentrating on contracts that give lots of science.
  

[Torquemadus]

I'm not sure I'm following. Do you mean to first fire the BACC manually by right-clicking, they just activate in staging when I reach that altitude.

Activate the BACC normally through staging at launch and use it to fly to the required speed and altitude. You can edit the staging sequence in flight, so you can keep adding more steps below the BACC, allowing you to "activate " it as many times as you want through the staging sequence.

The pics below are from an old 0.25 save. They show me testing an LFB in flight by adding an extra step to the staging sequence after launch.

[mattinoz]

Not that I've done empirical tests but I found the best part of going slow was the boost to reputation.

Which gets you better contracts down the line and avoid the more troublesome test contracts.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

This Topic occured to me too. KSP should log in the Background what you achieved.

Unfortunately you can only have 2 Contracts in the Tier1 Mission Control which is kinda annoying if you pick the wrong ones.

My Approach now is to reach the Goal of my contract and pull the chute immediately even if i could go even further... which feels just wrong

[Robotengineer]

I just did a new Fine Print Contract to do a crew report above a place on the Mun, and got ≈250,000 funds from it. Compared to the stock contracts, the Fine Print ones are much more rewarding as well as more fun. So from here on I will be doing FP contracts.

[tetryds]

I play on hard, and play for money, so only highly profitable missions.

I dump most of the missions that earn less than 7k, and hardly never accept test contracts, as most of them pay less than what I need to buy the part itself.

Big deals are going for Mün and Minmus, then accepting contracts around there, and trying to make as many as I can from there before returning.

The buildings prices are overkill... I love it.

[ArmchairGravy]

Space is where the science is so unlocking EVA and heading for Mun are my initial goals.

[Rolanvorxariat]

i like to take things slowly. i find it more realistic, and forme, realism is key

(Now you ask: If realism is key, than why haven't you installed FAR, DRE, and RSS? Me: * pokerface *)

[Pirke]

I play on hard, and play for money, so only highly profitable missions.

I dump most of the missions that earn less than 7k, and hardly never accept test contracts, as most of them pay less than what I need to buy the part itself.

Big deals are going for Mün and Minmus, then accepting contracts around there, and trying to make as many as I can from there before returning.

The buildings prices are overkill... I love it.

I just started a new career, hadn't played since 0.23 or so, and this 0.90 is fun! Got FAR + procedural fairings installed as well, I like it

Hard mode, just did my first 2 flights to get the to orbit contract unlocked. Now I'm thinking of going to the moon on my 3rd flight, even though I can't EVA yet.

I like how I'm actually way to low on cash and can't do stuff because I haven't upgraded any buildings. I ignore all low paying (money/science) missions, as that's totally not helpful in progressing. And every launch costs money, and every failure is a permanent death for a Kerbal. Jeb says: Bring it on!

I might even install deadly reentry, that'll make it extra challenging

[tetryds]

I just started a new career, hadn't played since 0.23 or so, and this 0.90 is fun! Got FAR + procedural fairings installed as well, I like it

Hard mode, just did my first 2 flights to get the to orbit contract unlocked. Now I'm thinking of going to the moon on my 3rd flight, even though I can't EVA yet.

I like how I'm actually way to low on cash and can't do stuff because I haven't upgraded any buildings. I ignore all low paying (money/science) missions, as that's totally not helpful in progressing. And every launch costs money, and every failure is a permanent death for a Kerbal. Jeb says: Bring it on!

I might even install deadly reentry, that'll make it extra challenging

Yeah, I was not playing with FAR though.

Instead of rushing, I farmed all altitude records, and rescued a kerbal, using his EVA to get reports from the biomes my orbit passed over.

There is a big lack of challengening high profitable missions right now, and since I can only pick two at a time that makes things a bit complicated.

Don't plan to use FAR as it makes it too easy to get to orbit, and if I am to play with planes for scan contracts I will need propellers.

So, this is a missing chunk of the game, even with improvements to aero things, they are still unpractical/unworthy, at least on hard.

[Yemo]

When I tried out hard mode, I used 6 launches to orbit.

1 Booster:

1) liftoff and 5000m

2) 11000m

3) 22000m

4) 33000m

2 Boosters - Stack decoupler:

5) 56000m and for leaving atmosphere

4 Boosters - Stack decoupler - 2 starter fuel tanks + LV-909

6) reaching Orbit

Then I built my "Science Hopper" to farm the biomes close to the KSC

Havent upgraded a facility so far, although I m not short on cash.

I made a small guide with designs for those first steps, if someone has problems with hard mode:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103689-KSP-0-9-Career-Kickoff-Guide-%28from-normal-to-hard-difficulty%29?p=1609771

Edited December 18, 2014 by Yemo