Tell your story. How did you get to KSP 1.0

[Red Iron Crown]

Poll results are confusing. Did so many players really stop at 0.25 but still visit the forum?

[Jaeleth]

I think, many people doesn't bothers coming to the forum, and many more don't bother to answer to polls, or don't notice them. I had at least 150 hours play under the hood at the first time I wrote a line at the forum. Until then I felt that either I didn't have enough knowledge to teach something of use to someone or even to properly pose intelligent questions or doubts myself Besides, also I was too busy being "awe'd" by the wonderfullness of this game ))) to even loose a few seconds typing.

After my 300th hour and when some in-game milestones were reached I found some more time to come here a drop a line , usually relax a little bit after a long and complex design finally gets enroute to destination and before taking on the next challenge )

[Iceflame]

I started with 0.2x, after watching a few videos by kurtjmac on youtube, and played every Version since then.

Howevery, I didn't play that much between 0.90 and 1.0, because of dwarf fortress.

[TothAval]

oh, i just realised the meaning of the poll, i voted wrong. i thought it meant when we started playing. i voted .18-.21.1, but should have voted anything from .18-1.0+. Did some pauses, but played every version. most of the time must have been before beta though, and recently more than in beta also, but in hours total less compared to early access times

[Crazy_Redd]

I found out about it something like a month ago, I think a week before 1.0 was released. After watching some video's and playing the demo I was sold. Fun fact: I bought the game the day 1.0 came out, but just a few hours before. So tehnically I played 0.9 aswell, but without me knowing it. (Got it cheaper because of that to though )

[Linear]

Poll results are confusing. Did so many players really stop at 0.25 but still visit the forum?

Wouldn't be surprised, that was when the controversy really started - probably people just misunderstanding the poll, however.

[mellojoe]

I don't remember where I originally heard about KSP. But I do remember an XKCD.com comic mentioning it as well. My forum join date is 3rd June 2013, if that means anything.

I found a free demo from the KSP website, and played that a ton. And then I got it from Steam whenever it came out there. I think I was playing the 0.17 version at one point, and "upgraded" to the 0.18. And then I think the Steam version was 0.20.

Stopped playing for a bit before the 0.90, and waited until 1.0 before I dove back in.

LOVE THIS GAME. Absolutely love it. In every way possible.

[Volix]

I had heard it mentioned around the internet in places like XKCD. I had a friend who got it on steam close to when it appeared there, and while he didn't say anything about it my curiosity got the best of me, so I tried the demo. Back then even the main game didn't have any form of career, and the tutorials left much to be desired. I was so overwhelmed by the sheer number of parts that I decided to wait a bit rather than tackle that learning curve.

Fast forward to ARM (0.23.5 I believe) and I gave it another shot. The demo hadn't been updated, so I just bought it. It was around then that I realized the learning curve was way steeper than I had thought at first, but with some form of career (which is now science mode) it was much more accessible, letting me learn the parts in bite-sized chunks. After some serious time learning the ropes, aided greatly by Scott Manley, I started to understand. I've been hooked ever since.

[Archgeek]

'Saw shadows of it on xkcd, then encountered a youtube video for a "you will not go to space today challenge", wherein all craft had to start facing the wrong way. 'Turned out it was one of Scott Manley's videos. I avoided the game like the plague after that, sensing a very dangerous timesink and being more focused on finishing my last few months of college. I did however catch a few of the "Rocket Science is Hard" videos, by the likes of Danny and SWDennis, increasing my interest in the game. I think I bought the game after graduation in .18 during a steam sale, and guided by Scott like so many, have been playing ever since, though mostly creating monstrosities and experimental craft -- I've somehow never finished a tech tree or been anywhere other than the Kerbin system, Duna, Laythe, Eve/Gilly, or the sun.

[Wjolcz]

Almost all of them. 0.11 was my first version to play.

Was bored and looking for space sim games on yt. Saw KSP and loved the idea of it. Then I saw tutorials from Scott Manley and started fooling around a lot with OP mods.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Veeltch

[WWEdeadman]

Got the game in 0.22, and never stopped my let's play since then.

[Rufledt]

I actually heard about the game on a car forum, then searched for vids, watched all of kurtjmac's ksp series (about the time he stopped making them) and then purchased 0.23.5. I've played every version since then, never really stopping for more than a few weeks at a time.

[Beowolf]

Another xkcd here. His strip mentioned landing on the moon in KSP, I didn't know what that was, and owned v0.16 about ten minutes later.

That was a good day.

[xrayfishx]

I had never heard of KSP until my little brother, no more than 8yo at the time, asked me if I would download a game for him, one which he'd seen in a Robbaz video. I reluctantly agreed and moments later was hooked. After I managed to struggle to orbit (heliocentric, though), I played a bit more in the 0.13.3 demo, I got the full version (yarr...), the then newly released 0.18.4. While waiting for 0.21 I decided to buy it.

[Ival70]

Poll results are confusing. Did so many players really stop at 0.25 but still visit the forum?

I would have imagined some sort of exponential curve in which more and more people became active in later versions, maybe with a slight decrease in beta, as I know some people were waiting for 1.0 at that point. I suspect that people misinterpreted the poll. However, I realized that I waited well over a year before I joined the forum after playing KSP. Perhaps most people don't join the forums until several months after they play the game, in which case the poll result should even out over time. Also, it's possible that more people who got the game in .90 and 1.0 are adverse to participating in forum polls. 130 people is not a very large sample size for a game that has sold as many copies as KSP has. It's rather difficult to tell at this point. I think we need more polls. Or at least more people to take the poll.. (Can we get a link the social media feeds or something ?)

[polan]

I saw this game may last year, and got it for Christmas in 2014

[moogoob]

There's no entry for "Had Orbiter years ago." I finally got KSP around 0.23 some time. Just after the NASA pack with the nice big engines, KLAW and asteroids.

[mackadelik]

I joined only a few weeks ago... I know, late start, right? But I absolutely love the game and all that is the 1.02 awesomeness (once I learned not to turn my rocket under 25km). I only use a couple mods right now (MechJeb*, lights addon, and Chatter). Looking forward to many more hours exploring!

*Absolutely love MechJeb! It makes the game very enjoyable (wish I got it sooner, but at least I learned how to use those nodes and dock before I had it). MechJeb is awesome and even auto dock is really fast once I properly placed my RCS thrusters!

[Pixel of Life]

Watched Kurtjmac's KSP videos. Bought the game the same day it was released on Steam.

[lost_in_space]

The last game I played was Minecraft.

I wanted a game that didn't involved killing things. I went to gamespot.com and saw an article saying something about 5 days until Kerbal Space Program goes 1.0. I did some research and discovered people really liked this game. So, that was it. I waited for 1.0 and got it.

I am very happy with KSP so far. I always look forward to coming home from work so I can build things and try them out.

[Ival70]

I actually heard about the game on a car forum, then searched for vids, watched all of kurtjmac's ksp series (about the time he stopped making them) and then purchased 0.23.5. I've played every version since then, never really stopping for more than a few weeks at a time.

Wow, from a car forum? Must have been after wheels were added (I see now you said 23.5)

I am really surprised by the large variety of places people first heard about KSP.

[huntingpickel]

From what I recall, I discovered KSP from one of Nerdcubed's videos (if you don't know who he is, look him up.) He did a video where he showed 7 free games and one of them was the early early KSP demo. This was probably back in late 2011 or maybe earlier. I downloaded the demo and I fell in love. Shortly thereafter, I bought the game. So I've been with the game for a REALLY long time.

[glibbo]

I think I first dabbled around with a demo .19 and tried a docking trainer, I thought I would never get anywhere with it and left it alone.

Much later I tried in .22 and dabbled with building a craft and was hooked. I am now with .90 and will not go to 1.02 until it is fixed, I am not having any fun with too many glitches/bugs that don't allow me to use the mods I have with .90.....

[John FX]

I heard about it on FARK when the story broke about paid DLC and SQUAD said that people that bought the game before a certain date (about 2 weeks in the future at the time) would never pay for any DLC but that ones that bought it after that date would get free updates but at some point they may have to pay for major DLC.

I downloaded a copy, tried it and immediately bought the game.

Less than four weeks later I had landed a kerbal on every body in the game as the first challenge I saw was the grandmaster challenge and I didn't realise how hard it was supposed to be. AFAIK I was the very first person to plant a flag on every body in the game (except Jool and the Sun of course) as I had kerbals already on their way for the challenge when the update happened where we got flags. I remember I did that challenge in about 4 days of hardly any sleep playing about 14 hours a day (sometimes more). Kerbal Alarm Clock was my friend then.

After that I did my first docking and thought that was a major challenge compared to just landing somewhere. I got to the point of docking large portions of stations before I realised the game had RCS. Docking seemed really easy after that...

At a guess I would say that I played over 300 hours in the first month of owning the game. It stayed around that level for about six months. I've probably played 3000 hours+ by now.

[Bev7787]

After a friend of mine showed me Danny2462, I got the game in .25. I was instantly hooked although the first week was spent on trying to get to orbit. And blowing everything up.