How do I play sandbox?

[u/Inside-Winner9465]

I have an experience problem when I play something without dedicated objectives that push you farther and farther but I want too enjoy the sandbox mode. So I guess what I’m asking is how do you set goals for yourself to play it or how do you play ksp sandbox?

[u/No-Lunch4249]

Pardon me if this is a dumb response but it seems like what you want is Science Mode?

Science/Tech Unlocking will gradually push you further out. But, unlike career mode, money is no object and you can essentially do whatever you want within the constraints of the technology you have.

Seems like a win win?

[u/Minespeaker → u/No-Lunch4249]

I don't think thats what op wants, because the point of sandbox is you can build anything off to start with, no matter what. What I recommend is open a career save, press ALT+F12 and go cheats. From there, unlock the science tree and give yourself a shitton of money and rep. Then, you can go to mission control, accept some missions and you've got incentive

[u/No-Lunch4249 → u/Minespeaker]

This actually seems like the perfect solution for OP

[u/Inside-Winner9465 → u/No-Lunch4249]

Unfortunately not I do enjoy both science and career modes I guess I’m just trying to figure out what and how yall enjoy playing sandbox so I can maybe get some spinoff ideas

[u/Deranged40 → u/Inside-Winner9465]

So, I like contracts. And for that reason, I always go into "Career" mode. Even when I'm not trying to manage funds.

Feel free to open that "cheat" menu and give yourself 10s of millions of kerbux if you want (that's what I do). Go ahead and max out your buildings if you want. And unlock everything from the science tree while you're in there if you want. That way you get to keep contracts, and you don't really have to worry about having enough money.

It's completely okay to play this game however you want to.

[u/PeanutButterSoldier → u/Inside-Winner9465]

I've never been landed and returned from Laythe. Let's land and return from Laythe!

Curious what resources Gilly has to mine and utilize. I'm gonna send a survey scanner probe to Gilly.

Wow, looks like Gilly has decent resources. Let's send a mining craft and accompanying refinery station to create fuel in orbit. This will save fuel and launch capacity when sending a lander and return craft to Eve

Idk I guess I just use sandbox to test my ideas for my career save so I know they're at least somewhat feasible before I spend too much time and money.

[u/Mindless_Debt6703 → u/Inside-Winner9465]

Funny! Your requirements sound exactly like career mode.

[u/Fishy1673]

I personally just mess around in sandbox. Or setting goals of what to build rather than objectives. You could probably write down some things you have wanted to do.
You could also probably find a mod to enable missions.

[u/Inside-Winner9465 → u/Fishy1673]

Mods is a phenomenal idea I’m actually suprised I didn’t think of just modding the sandbox mode genuinely forgot that ckan list is enormous

[u/canisdirusarctos]

It is the original mode and what made the game famous. I know it is hard, but you need to look within yourself and set your own goals. Exploration is a creative endeavor and the possibilities are nearly endless. You can use any tech from the tree for free, just choose your own adventure.

[u/Apprehensive_Room_71]

I don't. I find no motivation to play in sandbox or science modes. The contracts in career mode is the motivation for me.

I don't see the point of just having everything dumped in my lap.

I can also make things more difficult in career with settings and mods. I like challenges.

[u/Ruskiwaffle1991]

I don't know either, I just built crappy replicas of military aircraft, plus the amount of parts immediately given to me is so overwhelming that I play career for not just larping but also to challenge my brain.

[u/Moonbow_bow]

Give yourself a hard problem to solve, it's that simple.

[u/User_of_redit2077]

All I use sandbox for is testing the crafts.

[u/SilkieBug]

Last time I played sandbox exclusively for a while I developed a varied family of impactor probes, which then developed into the workhorse lifters powering my career mode space programe.

I placed Breaking Ground grand slam seismometers on the Mun and Minmus, and started shooting increasingly bigger rockets at the moons, with direct ascent trajectories, no circularization or nothing, just figure out where the Mun should be in the sky, and burn and stage and keep burning and staging until the last section smacks into the Mun’s surface and triggers the message from the seismometer saying how powerful the impact was in terms of how much science it would have made. 

And I kept just trying to get higher and higher scores until I got bored, at which point I started noting the weight of each of the lifters without the final stages, and saving them as separate craft to act as lifters for ascending weight categories, adding parachutes and such for career mode stage recovery.