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What is your favorite feature of KSP?


justspace103

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So now that we are 5 days away from KSP version 1.0:sticktongue:, i think its time to look back and ask ourselves: What is your favorite feature of all time?

For me, my favorite feature was docking. It allowed me to be more creative with my ships

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As a long-time veteran of this game, I can definitively say that the single best feature of this game is persistence. Newer players really take that feature for granted. Before 0.14, you couldn't even save, let alone have multiple craft active at one time. A trip out to the Mun had to be done in one go, and if anything went wrong, well, there went about a half an hour of effort. Better luck next launch!

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I think docking ports really are one of the most significant game-changing features of the whole shebang. The ability to attach two separate structures together (either permanently to make a larger structure or temporarily to transfer crew or fuel) opens up so many possibilities. In career mode my primary driving goal, above anything else, is to research that first docking clamp and atomic engines--with those, I can put together enormous space tugs, meaning that any ship that can reach orbit can be towed to anywhere else; and also tankers to refuel anything anywhere that needs it.

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For me, definitely the fact that you can build your own ships. I've seen people create some truly epic designs. Archaic Alibi on Youtube does some really neat stuff. And I'm pretty proud of a few of my own designs too.

But building ships without flying them would be very boring. So I don't feel like any feature in the game can really stand on its own.

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The various design challenges involved in exploring the Kerbol system. I still have yet to find the solution to an Eve return. Couple the design challenge with the constraints of career mode and it's no wonder I have more than 2k hours in this game.

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I love how you can get as hardcore or as casual as you like (and that ties in with the mod-ability)

If I'm tired of flying yet another launch, I can hand it over to MechJeb. If I want to get rigorous, I can install DRE & FAR (or upgrade to 1.0 and slide the difficulty up :-) )

If I want a goofy gadabout the KSC in a one-man plane I can do that, or if I want to see how many Kerbals I can scrape off Eve, I could do that too.

I think the place Orbiter fell short was you have to be H-A-R-D-C-O-R-E to even get off the pad. It doesn't have a "oh I just want to goof around today" mode.

But the biggest feature is the fidelity. Sure it does patched conics and a shortcut aerodynamic model, but it's pretty damn close to real life when you want to be, and I will never forget the first time I watched MechJeb do an automated rendezvous and realized I could talk the space talk but I couldn't walk the walk, and I needed to seriously bone up on orbital mechanics.

When I do an asteroid rendezvous, then by gum, I had to work at it and I accomplished something to be a little proud of. The game didn't hand it to me on a silver platter.

I think this XKCD expresses what I'm trying to say: https://xkcd.com/1356/

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The fact that i can make whatever im in the mood to make, and see if i can make it fly or go to space. I really like the dynamic nature of this game, while you can always try to make replicas, the fact that you are given a ton of parts and told to go make something out of them is what i like. No prebuilt or preset craft, no particular limits on what you can fly (if i want to recreate reality there are plenty of more realistic flight sims out there), and the best thing is that so many funny designs end up actually working.

That and i like making combat vessels, from small SSTO fighters, to massive capital ships made of 400ish parts. While i dont necessarily make every vessel from a combat perspective, almost everything including conventional rockets and supply ships end up armed with something.

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The science archives tab.

Being able to check how much stuff have you done makes science an interesting feature even when the whole tech tree has been unlocked.

It's like an achievents list.

(I would love to have proper achievements in this game btw...)

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The best thing about KSP to me is the ability to leverage real-world engineering challenges and physics in an easy-to-use interface for building and controlling air/spacecraft designs. The way that Squad implemented the VAB/SPH and flight GUI and control schemes is why KSP is such an attractive software to kids and adults alike. It's a nice balance between "game" and "simulator".

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