Ming

Oops, sorry about that. Maybe an admin will move it there ...

Save them styro cups and sandwich bags when zipping around the Kerbalverse, they just may get you back home ...

September 10th is my birthday too (I'll be 68). Hmm, strange forces may be at work here.

OK, here we go again. How do you, can you, cheat in a single player "sandbox mode" game? The concept of being able to "cheat" while in sandbox completely mystifies me. Sandbox Mode = No Rules (other than the physics) ... period

I think you've missed the OP's point. It's not the intention of this teacher to replace the entire school curriculum with KSP. Rather, it's to be used as a stimulus for learning collaborative physics problem solving. With that goal in mind there currently isn't a better learning tool, albeit a veiled game, than KSP. I introduced my 8 year old grandson (I'm 68) to KSP a few months ago and he took to it like a duck to water. I was amazed by how quickly he coordinated the available YouTube tutorials with his building and launching goals. Hell, he even stopped playing COD on his PS3! So "yes", KSP could easily become an international education phenom. Even though I'm most likely known on this forum as the resident "game lag nag" I can assure you that my opinion about KSP is otherwise 99% stellar (-1% for lag, still a nag, LOL). P.S. Sixty years difference between me and my grandson and we both love this game. Talk about spanning generations, simply amazing! Kudos Squad!

Really, so posting suggestions, bug reports, concerns, etc. are of no value to the Dev's? So, hardcore players do not have life outside of the game and therefor should be ignored? Interesting prediction, where did you get the stats to support that notion? Another prediction that totally stumps me on how you can make such an assumption. In other words, according to you, the sandbox mode isn't very important in terms of game satisfaction. If KSP was truly a "real life space program" simulation then it would be beyond the scope of understanding for the majority of people who tried to play it. Rather, it's a "game" first and a quasi space flight simulator second. A unique, compelling, and wonderful game yes, but it still needs to balance "real life" with usability for it's average player base. This thread is all about balance. New features yes, but not at the expense of user frustration due to poor performance. Note: I have no delusions about this KSP performance problem. Realistically swapping out the game engine is just too expensive in terms of direct cost and labor costs for a total rewrite. Also, at present Unity isn't going to provide much in the way of significant performance gains even with some tweaking. The only viable solution is, IMO, to acknowledge this performance "wall" and keep KSP development within the constraints of said wall. “Magnum Forceâ€Â, Detective Harry Callahan: “A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations†In KSP terms, Squad needs to be aware of its own limitations (Unity) and not have performance take a back seat to more bells and whistles.

Perhaps you're right, but I really hope you're wrong.

What you are most likely eluding to is Knuth's "Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming". That often used structured programming canon, even though widely accepted, is not without its detractors. By contrast there are professional programmers that contend that late optimization implies slipshod design. Joe Duffy, a Microsoft architect and developer: "I have heard the "premature optimization is the root of all evil" statement used by programmers of varying experience at every stage of the software lifecycle, to defend all sorts of choices, ranging from poor architectures, to gratuitous memory allocations, to inappropriate choices of data structures and algorithms, to complete disregard for variable latency in latency-sensitive situations, among others." As I see it Squad's prioritization on what game elements are to be included, and when, is the problem. Wasting valuable coding time down the road in an effort to optimize "all of it" may not be viable, and as a result some of those labor intensive KSP features may have to be trimmed or entirely dropped.

The OP is pretty much on point and I agree that adding more features ("fluff") is ill-advised at this point in KSP's development milestones. Quite simply, adding more functions will only exasperate an already overloaded and non-optimized core program (Unity). I absolutely have a love-hate relationship with KSP and have rage-quit and deinstalled it many times because of its sluggish performance. But, I always come slithering back for more. However, at some point its performance, or lack thereof, will become a game stopper for me. The most recent "load time" issues with .21 unfortunately have moved KSP even closer to the non playable door for many. If .22 adds even more "things" that are performance degrading cumulative then it will most likely become intolerable even for whining tech-wimps like me. So, my thoughts and concerns are along the same lines as the OP. Optimize now, add new stuff after (strengthen your foundation before adding more floors).

I think I understand most of what you said. However, your "Squad being unable to fulfill their promises" has me a bit stumped. Can you elaborate? Thanks

Damn, they must be version .21! Houston we need a hotfix! Kepler Mission Manager Update: Recovery Begins ... http://www.nasa.gov/content/kepler-mission-manager-update-recovery-begins/#.Ughm0pzpxhN And ... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-wheels-come-off-kepler-planet-finding-mission

Hmm, what's your point? Are you just trying to make Dingbat1967 feel bad? Well, he shouldn't. He's only been playing a couple weeks (read his post) and if he's already into the docking phase then he's doing, IMO, pretty damn good. A lot of new KSP players are still struggling just to get into orbit during their first couple weeks of play. I don't understand why some people find it amusing to chide struggling players who obviously just need a few words of encouragement, or better yet, some experienced help. So, keep trying Dingbat. You'll get the hang of it. Go easy on the RCS, baby steps (patience) work best during the final link up . Also, kudos to you for advancing into the docking phase in only two weeks.

Yes, that's true (reproduction), but the followup comments on the related STEAM thread are a good read as well.

I frequent the KSP forum on Steam daily and this, IMO, is the best thread so far. "Article by Artyom Zuev, content developer for KSP" http://steamcommunity.com/app/220200/discussions/0/864975632356201786/

deleted by Ming ...