Session Length

[Ultimate Steve]

If it is a bad day I'll spend 5 minutes loading KSP and then be told that I have to go somewhere in 2 minutes.

On the days that I do play KSP and don't have anything to do I play for 30-45 minutes and then close it.

On the days that I get really into something I can play for 2 or more hours (E.G. Jool-Sarnus 10).

Some special days I can play for five to seven hours straight. Don't ask.

[hikoriyami]

In game; I spend about thirty minutes to an hour. But outside of KSP I have caught myself spending three to four hours in GIMP making sure my ice caps look just right. 

[katateochi]

I wouldn't admit this to anyone else, but I've had some weekends where I've done almost nothing else but play KSP (with a small break to sleep). But those are rare, a typical good KSP session is 4-5 hours, less than an hour doesn't seem worth it. 

The times KSP has caused me to get a headache is when doing a lot with very high part counts and spending a lot of time with low frame rates.

[Mikki]

2 hours intense concentrated "work", a break and again 2 hours. (currently i have holidays, repeating this untill i have to do something else.) Sometimes i don`t have time at all.

[The Flying Kerbal]

18 hours ago, eddiew said:

are you sure your monitor isn't using a flickering backlight?

I'm pretty sure it's dimming LED's on my computer, but that was a clever thought!

 

21 hours ago, Magzimum said:

Maybe it is a good idea to play the trainings

Yes I was playing through them when I first purchased the full game,  Unfortunately there's one of them not working.  I can't remember of the top of my head which one right now, but I think it wouldn't let me get my rocket from the VAB to the launch pad.  Maybe I should go back and try again?

I'm really enjoying reading all your comments guys, even if I don't answer all of them. 

[NSEP]

My minimum is 1 minute, i sometimes just randomly click KSP without any reason, my average session is like 15-30 minutes. And rarely i have a session over an hour, this only happends when i have actual plans.

Another thing: i have been playing Minecraft for 4 hours straight, why? Because i actually planned things.

[FancyMouse]

I start KSP right after my computer boots up. I never shut it down (except restarting KSP due to slowness when it has asked for 10G+ memory). I just alt-tab out when I don't play, and I can switch back in whenever I want to.

So nowadays I kind of play KSP dozens of sessions a day, each time could be as short as a few minutes just to launch a single thing to orbit or just quickly change a design of a ship, or several hours when I don't have anything else to worry about.

[jhousen]

On 1/11/2017 at 1:04 AM, The Flying Kerbal said:

I'm just curious how long people will play KSP at any one time?

My limit seems to be an absolute maximum of about an hour and a half.  After that and I start suffering from a brutal headache and have no option but to turn it off.

usually, I'll go about 3 hours before taking a self imposed break.

headaches after an hour sounds like an ergonomic issue, be critical of your comfort...

[Spacetraindriver]

I play and play until my poor computer's cries of agony are too loud.  

(Heat, FPS, etc)

So usually for many hours, one day I played from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Now that I'm actually doing important things in KSP the hours might increase... The only thing slashing my KSP time in half is school.  

[dci]

At least minimum time to complete one probe/rescue contract or so - about 10-20 minutes. At most more than 10 hrs. But usually all my RAM is eaten and after 2-3 hours my OS starts swapping.

[Mike Mars]

My playtime depends on what I am doing in the game.

I really enjoy the design process.  So when I am testing out a new concept, I might go into marathon mode, which has lasted as long as 14 hours.

If I am just doing normal mission stuff, then 1 to 2 hours is about the norm.

I've had headache problems as well.  I find that getting up once in a while, focusing on something far away, and massaging the temple while also stretching the neck muscles seems to alleviate the problem.

MM

[Aragosnat]

1-3 hours when streaming. Due to me not liking to leave the stream running or turning it off. But, 3-10+ hours with frequent stretch breaks inbetween there. The breaks really have helped myself in general.

[regex]

My game time, for any game, lasts 2~4 hours, generally from 8:30pm~11:00pm but sometimes longer. Depending on the weather I'll play during the day on the weekends but I much prefer outdoor activities.

[Overland]

depends what train im driving and what shes actually carrying too..

if its a trijet bullet train then 2 hours is a good limit..beyond then i slip into a -why not- mindset..push the locomotive way past 30ms and end up exploding

diesel electrics of old were best described as the steam engine of KSP.. always something to do...watch generator heat levels..check for blown tires..check that the rear wagons not starting to snake.. switching reverser to reverse to use engine brake for speed limiting (and avoiding overheating still) keeping speed below 30 and watching terrain as well as planning routes from the sky to avoid extremes..

driving times upto 6 hours were a thing as was driving 150km after work

now though with current generation trains focused on KSC trams and the land version of light rail...limited to 12ms pure electric. gameplays gone to a more timetable like timeframe.. 

1 hour or more and usually quicksaves at destinations to resume later .  alots changed..

although its alot to do with how unpredictable wheels (still) are and the cracks in the terrain... immersions the key though.. keep that and ill keep driving.  lose a train to a crack in the terrain..itll dishearten me.. then ill spend hours driving single car land trains...in ETS2

[magnemoe]

On 11.1.2017 at 1:44 PM, Dafni said:

I think rather your gained experience will benefit you more than the full game itself. The tense moments of launches and landings etc will definitely become less nerve-racking with more practice and confidence. I was the same as you (minus the headaches), always tense and very focused playing this game, but now it even became a very relaxing thing to do. I still might get a bit tense in hairy situations when I play my main mission save with no reverts, but its nowhere near as bad as when I started out.

Good luck and many rewarding and relaxing KSP moments

Yes, probably the most stressing thing I did in KSP was an more than hour long eva mission where I rebuild two ships in Minmus orbit to give them life support and new heat shield. 
This was done with KAS and the problem was that I needed multiple kerbals close to attach the heavy modules.
Yes part was to clear out most of an short MK3 cargo bay and then add an life support module, 

Else multiplayer games where you have to concentrate a lot is tiring. Stuff like raids in MMO. 
Don't do PVP outside of elder scroll online who only have an huge pvp zone so its not the pressure from fighting in an limited size group, even an clueless fool can soak up arrows well

 

[A_name]

I can go on for hours on end, but I usually try to keep it to a couple hours or so.

[N_Danger]

 I won't fire it up unless I can play at least an hour.

 I can only play during the weekends so from about 5:30 to 8:30 in the mornings generally. Now sometimes I been able to justify playing "while waiting for the laundry to get done".

[Francois424]

Usually about 3 hours, usually all in a block.  Then I may stop for the day, or the week, or jump back in a few hours later.
I usually get pretty hyped when flying planes/ships, but pretty bored designing ships and testing them over and over and over.

 

[The Space Dino]

Normally around an hour or so, roughly once a week.

[Epicdreamer]

I play nearly every day, about a couple of hours per session. It depends a bit on what's going on, as others wrote. Sometimes I start the game for half an hour to do some tweaking on a design, or to design a very simple relay-sat or something like that. Or to mess around in a to-mess-around-installment of KSP. 

With for example a simple ready-to-go out and return mission to the Mun or Minmus I like to take at least an hour.

For more elaborate missions, like the Ike refuel and surface mining mission I'm working on now, I need to split it into several multi-hour sessions.

And sometimes, on a weekend day with nothing else to do I can play for hours and hours on end.

KSP is just the most impressive game/simulator I know of...since I started to play videogames on a Commodore 64 manymany years ago.

[Stewcumber]

I play for only an hour or so at a time- I only really get the chance to get on Kerbal in the evening after work, and I'm too tired really to get too stuck in, and get frustrated quickly if my space travel doesn't go to plan! At the weekends it can be a good few hours easily.

[InterCity]

Lately I'm busy (got a 1-yr old son + a job), so only 30min/day or so. 

But sometimes I binge-KSP when I come home from home. In those instances, I easily spend 4+ hours trying (and failing) to improve my spaceplane designs.

[Archgeek]

From whenever I start playing to around 4-4:30 in the morning.  Every. Stinking. Time.  I've actually not played all that much of late, due to fear of the time-sink effect on my sleep schedule.

[pandaman]

When I play in the evening during the week it's usually 2 to 3 hours, I very rarely fire it up for if I've got less than an hour or so.

At weekends though I don't need to get up for work; so I can add to that depending on my mood and state of 'awakeness', on occasion that's been a bit too long to be considered 'sensible' by most standards.

[Rune]

On 11/1/2017 at 2:08 PM, eddiew said:

Anything from 30 minutes to 12 hours...

Yup, my standard session time also.

But regarding the OP's headaches, I must say I have encountered some weird cognitive effects playing KSP... I've often lost the notion of time (like, not noticing sunset after a couple of hours after the fact), and some weird "coming down" sensations after some intense sessions.

Thing is, at the time I am so "in the zone", that I am pretty sure it's just me cranking up the neuron use with orbital mechanics and precise dockings. KSP can be pretty brainy! And like all videogames, it engages your visual cortex a lot, which can lead to headaches. Or you know, postural things, those can mess with blood flow and cause all manner of symptoms. I've had it happen with other games, or after intense studying sessions... pretty much the only thing that can disengage me when I'm really concentrated is hunger. And only when I'm close to missing the second meal. And of course you pay the consequences later! It's pretty much the same as a hangover, and often comes with headaches. So yeah, don't sweat it. You just like this game very much and are capable of more concentration that you thought you were, when you are really engaged.

 

Rune. At least you don't need to set alarms to go to bed like I do.