Teaching old players new tricks

[dazhat]

Is there a plan to teach players about the many features of KSP which are currently hidden?

For example, I remember watching a video by Harv when he was raising money for a water charity. He was live streaming with the debs and had built a plane with the cockpit pointed towards the ground to aid with landing. The devs pointed out that you can double click on The window to zoom in and look around. This was a really experienced player who was unaware of this game feature.

Things like pressing x cut the throttle or backspace in map view to centre the view on your craft are very useful to know but quite hard to learn.

Does anybody know if there is a plan to teach players about this such as with real loading hints?

[Linear]

Is there a plan to teach players about the many features of KSP which are currently hidden?

For example, I remember watching a video by Harv when he was raising money for a water charity. He was live streaming with the debs and had built a plane with the cockpit pointed towards the ground to aid with landing. The devs pointed out that you can double click on The window to zoom in and look around. This was a really experienced player who was unaware of this game feature.

Things like pressing x cut the throttle or backspace in map view to centre the view on your craft are very useful to know but quite hard to learn.

Does anybody know if there is a plan to teach players about this such as with real loading hints?

...The KSP Wiki? :-)

[Asharad]

cockpit pointed towards the ground to aid with landing

double click on The window to zoom in and look around.

backspace in map view to centre the view on your craft

I didn't know these things!

- - - Updated - - -

Iloading hints?

That's a great idea!

- - - Updated - - -

...The KSP Wiki? :-)

Not so helpful. You shouldn't need to visit the wiki to learn the key mapping and basic gameplay. For the best games, visiting the wiki isn't a requirement to play. You visit a wiki when you want lore, quest details, walkthrough, or special help.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Asharad

[KamikazeF0X]

... backspace in map view to centre the view on your craft ...

WHAT, It's possible !

My most used touch is "Alt"

It's so useful in VAB/SPH for placing parts or duplicate them ...

You can move the camera around with the 3rd button of the mouse ( This button is so useful in other programs like Firefox, you can easily close tabs with it or open links in other tabs)

The new SAS Autopilot is very useful when you loose control of your plane/vessel, activate the Prograde button, wait and ... Voilà ! or crash

[Borsek]

Pressing r to change symmetry in VAB/SPH hepls a lot - build planes in VAB or Rockets in SPH. Didn't know that for the longest time.

[WWEdeadman]

Yeah, those keys should DEFINITELY be part of the tutorials. Especially the backspace for focusing the active vessel. That was one I wanted in the game for long, until I found out it was already in through someones YouTube video.

[Johnny Wishbone]

I too have to admit that I did not know about the backspace key shortcut to focus on your craft until recently. I've been playing the game regularily for over a year and always got pissed off whenever I accidentally switched focus to something else and then had to mash the tab key to cycle through every celestial body until I got back to my craft. I read a forum post a couple months ago that mentioned using backspace to return focus to your craft and wept for joy when I tried it out and it worked. I guess that's my own fault for not going through all the key bindings in the settings. I place no blame on others for my ignorance, but still appreciate someone pointing it out.

[Lord_Demon]

I learned from the forums here long time ago that you can make a manouver node, and change it's location by click and drag (click on the grey part of node). This helps a lot when going from kerbol to mun, and plotting the encounter. However, I'm wondering if there is a way to finet une the movement. With mouse it tends to jump quite a lot.

The only trick I can think of is putting a light on the lander aimed down. Helps identify your height when landing as you see the lights.

[wasmic]

Pressing r to change symmetry in VAB/SPH hepls a lot - build planes in VAB or Rockets in SPH. Didn't know that for the longest time.

It was added in 0.90, so it's a pretty new feature.

[katateochi]

tbh I like that KSP is a bit of a mystery. It's partly what has drives the community to be so keen to help each other, make vid tutorials and things like this;

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I think the plan is to update and improve the existing tutorials. That won't teach all the tricks, but that's what this great community is here for!

I think loading hints should stay as they are (just with more in the same style). I'm not a fan of "helpful tips" during load screens, after a while they always end up feeling condescending to experienced players. I'm even less of a fan of popup contextual hints in the game, the ones that appear at the start of new career are already annoying as they now don't serve a purpose as I've seen them again and again.

KSP is about exploration and discovery, not just of space, but of itself too.

[HafCoJoe]

I agree with Katateochi in the fact that I enjoy KSP being somewhat mystical in areas, though I also agree that a lot of things should have some form of tutorial. Let me expand on that for a second:

There's a fine line between the devs having too many tutorials (making the game too easy), and the devs adding too much bonus content/mystery (making the game more entertaining, but far more difficult). I'm sure this line is something the KSP devs have in mind when thinking about adding extra monoliths as well as tutorials. - That bring said, I still wish there where more stock easter eggs. Special locations are always interesting to me .

[thadisjones]

I always knew about x as the throttle cutoff but I didn't know there was a key (z) that did the opposite, until I hit it by accident once when I meant to hit x. That was a win for the learning process and I guess a loss for that lander and its crew.

[r4pt0r]

Its not even tutorials that are needed, these secret keybinds are not visible from the controls section of the menu. that's what needs to be fixed IMO.

[Renegrade]

I always knew about x as the throttle cutoff but I didn't know there was a key (z) that did the opposite, until I hit it by accident once when I meant to hit x. That was a win for the learning process and I guess a loss for that lander and its crew.

That feature is a very-welcome and relatively new thing - introduced only back in 0.25. Prior to that, I used a tiny mod that provided that same functionality, and prior to that mod, I had a tiny voodoo doll of Harv that I'd poke with needles every time I had to 'shift' my way to full throttle~

[katateochi]

Its not even tutorials that are needed, these secret keybinds are not visible from the controls section of the menu. that's what needs to be fixed IMO.

That's a very good point. Usually the first thing I do in a new game is look at the key binding options, that's the best what-does-what tutorial. It wouldn't hurt if that interface got cleaned up a bit too!

[Ten Key]

. . .backspace in map view to centre the view on your craft. . .

It will? That'll make life a bit easier from now on, thank you.

It took me a long time to figure out that you could move maneuver nodes around on an orbit by click-dragging them. I'd been recreating each node a dozen or so times, trying to get it in just the right spot.

[hugix]

F1 makes screenshots of the game and saves them in the /screenshots folder in your game folder.

F2 removes the GUI (stage list, altimeter, navbal etc...)

F4 removes target markers.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Wow, there are quite a few hotkeys that I never knew about. Helpful thread indeed!

But yeah, I agree with r4pt0r, there should be an option to configure these hotkeys in the settings menu.

...and prior to that mod, I had a tiny voodoo doll of Harv that I'd poke with needles every time I had to 'shift' my way to full throttle~

[razark]

I'd give a left foot if they'd actually put out a real manual. Not some sort of quick-start, "here's a list of menu options and a few keys" pamphlet thing, but an actual manual that explains how to do things in the game, walks the player through tutorials, and explains some basic orbital mechanics.

[Bev7787]

I learned from the forums here long time ago that you can make a manouver node, and change it's location by click and drag (click on the grey part of node). This helps a lot when going from kerbol to mun, and plotting the encounter. However, I'm wondering if there is a way to finet une the movement. With mouse it tends to jump quite a lot.

The only trick I can think of is putting a light on the lander aimed down. Helps identify your height when landing as you see the lights.

You need a mod like MechJeb to help fine tune manoeuvre nodes. There is another mod but I don't know its name

[Kruleworld]

...The KSP Wiki? :-)

Not so helpful.

That's the way i learned Minecraft and Starbound and Terraria. helpful, but you have to specifically know what you're looking for.

loading hints?

that'd be better than those non-sensical loading quotes (which was done first and better in The Sims)

[Rune]

SHIFT+mousewheel allows you vertical camera translation in the SPH and zoom while on the VAB (basically, the functionality the mousewheel has in the other building). It's a tiny thing, until you learn it, and then you can't live without it.

Rune. I didn't know about the "backspace in map mode" thing. I was using a gazillion Tabs because of how annoyingly SHIFT+Tab moves the throttle control.

[colonel0sanders]

[+] and [-] on the numpad will also zoom in and out in the VAB.

Also, [x] and [shift]+[x] change the symmetry up and down (1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 8x)

[dazhat]

...The KSP Wiki? :-)

But KSP is about rockets and spaceplanes not descovering secret game functionality. The problem is that old players who are great at the game don't konw about these things and never will unless they find out by accident.

Nobody will go to the wiki unless they know the functionality exists already. People shouldn't need to.

[John FX]

I'd really like the key for 'move about in the VAB' (SHIFT) to not be the same key that, when in flight might be the 'use the last bit of fuel and fail the mission or maybe mess up a docking maneuver and kill kerbals' key.

I don't mind if throttle up is a different key and we can have a better camera in flight or the VAB camera is altered and we keep the same controls in flight just as long as they do not remain the same.

As has been said, if we get a nice keyboard remapper and can set up our own controls it's a moot point.