The 1.3.1 Club

[OHara]

I still play 1.3.1, with a side installation of 1.4.5 to satisfy my curiosity and try craft that others share.  But what to recommend for new players?

Pluses and minuses: Version 1.3.1 had some problems
- Landed craft on wheels or landing gear jump when loading from a save or returning to them from another ship (sometimes requiring a temporary 'unbreakable' cheat)
- Asteroids potentially change shape on each load of the game (requiring that we quicksave/quickload until they stabilize before attaching a ship to them)

New things in 1.4.5
- Full-screen mode at non-native resolution tends to switch back to native resolution
- Windowed mode occasionally has the clickable region for buttons shifted upward from their screen location
- Surfaces of craft tend to shimmer, 'z-fight', after a period of being flown [seems common in 1.6.0, quicksave/quickload stops it]
- Landed craft on wheels or landing gear jump when docking (not as badly as in 1.4.4) [was repaired in 1.5.1]
- The fixed aircraft landing gear very often start a bouncing oscillation (which has happened to varying degrees in earlier versions) [overrides in 1.5.1 give us a way to solve it]
+ Kerbals can parachute
+ Variant parts give some more freedom in building craft
+ You can install the Making History Expansion
- Several parts in the expansion are inconsistent or unfinished

Version 1.3.1 gives a player essentially all the spacecraft-sandbox aspects that we like about KSP.  Version 1.4 upgraded the Unity engine and added infrastructure to support the Making History expansion, which turned out to be a mild disappointment on average with the players here. (Glad Squad is still developing the game; better luck next time.) 

I think version 1.3.1 gives new players a better first impression of KSP, but the newer versions are getting better and it is close.

Edited December 24, 2018 by OHara
added links to bug reports. Note what is fixed in 1.6.0

[klgraham1013]

4 hours ago, OHara said:

- Landed craft on wheels or landing gear jump when loading from a save or returning to them from another ship (sometimes requiring a temporary 'unbreakable' cheat)

Thankfully, the World Stabalizer mod exists.

4 hours ago, OHara said:

New things in 1.4.5

+ Ability to use the Tracking Station Evolved mod.

- Mk3 Ramp destroys deployable solar and radiator panels on entry and exit.

4 hours ago, OHara said:

I think version 1.3.1 gives new players a better first impression of KSP

Unfortunately, new buyers don't have a choice.

[Tw1]

Huh. Looks like my not bothering to update paid off.

One day they might properly develop ground exploration and flesh out science, in a DLC. Make the game live up to its full potential. Maybe one day.

[OHara]

9 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

Unfortunately, new buyers don't have a choice

Who?  Not much point advertising "The 1.3.1 Club" if new players cannot join.

As of last week, new purchases on the Squad store had access to 1.4.4 and 1.3.1 and 1.2.2 and some earlier versions.   

[klgraham1013]

6 hours ago, OHara said:

Who?  Not much point advertising "The 1.3.1 Club" if new players cannot join.

As of last week, new purchases on the Squad store had access to 1.4.4 and 1.3.1 and 1.2.2 and some earlier versions.   

Awesome.  I wasn't sure what access new buyers had.  Good to hear older versions are still accessible.  I figured it'd just be back a few versions.  Like 1.4.0.

[Gargamel]

6 minutes ago, klgraham1013 said:

  I figured it'd just be back a few versions.  Like 1.4.0.

No, they seem to have kept the the most stable version of each major release available for download.  Which is very nice as some major mods are 'stuck' in older versions. 

[KraterKreator]

I was able to move my 1.3.1 career playthrough to 1.4.3 with no problems at all. This includes all 78 mods. I skipped 1.4.4 and copied my 1.4.3 game to 1.4.5. I got this weird bug where my craft will randomly fire off the RCS right after I EVA a Kerbal. This happens despite a pilot remaining aboard. The craft starts to drift.

I'm back on 1.4.3 until that bug is fixed. Not sure if it is Squad or mod related.

Edited August 1, 2018 by KraterKreator
Incorrect version number stated

[The Minmus Derp]

I like 1.3.1. BUT. Some people start mods when 1.4.3 is out, and they forget to include compatibility to 1.3.1 so i switched.

[Dafni]

Thanks for contributing to this interesting conversation everybody. I appreciate your input.

 

All those rapid-fire hotfixes for 1.4 ... and now already talk about 1.5 ... ahh, it's still nice and comfy in the 1.3.1 club 

 

As others have said before me, one of the great aspects of 1.3.1 was its longevity. Hard to keep up these days. I imagine new players might get a bit intimidated by the speed of hotfixes and patches, trying to keep their installs/mods alive.

 

Anyway friends, see you on the forum.

[Scarecrow]

I am currently running 2 versions of KSP.  I use 1.4.3 for the standard game, with just a small handful of essential mods (e.g. Engineer, Alarm clock) and I am running 1.3.1 for RSS which, of necessity, has way more mods installed.

[DAXIN]

emmm，I like RSS.so 

[Dafni]

Who's still here?

[klgraham1013]

Seeing as my favorite bug...err...behavior is still in the game.  I'm still here.

[Raptor42]

I play 1.4 now but I still have 1.3.1 on my second harddrive, it was good time. The one great thing about 1.3 is compatibility of almost every mod you can imagine. I should really check it out someday

[purpleivan]

Although I tend to play in the latest version (after a week or two waiting for some mod updates) I still use 1.3.1 for my LOST on Laythe story series. The reason is that it's the latest version that I know has working mods for changing suits textures with fully working helmet reflections.

However I will need to move to at least 1.4.1 fairly soon, as I plan to make use of the Making History suits in the story.

[OHara]

I'm leaving the 1.3.1 club this week for 1.6.

I'm keeping version 1.3.1 around; it is still the best for creating craft files to share on kerbalx, because later versions open earlier-versioned craft.  

Not all the difficulties that came from updating the Unity game-engine are solved, but now people here know how to avoid them, or Squad has provided ways to avoid them like the damping slider for landing gear.

The Making History parts are mis-configured in their aerodynamics, but that doesn't bother many people, and I've MM-patched the problems for myself.  Just don't try an early-career launch with the draggy round pods; wait until you have a fairing for them.

I thought 1.4--1.5 had too many frustrating bugs to recommend KSP to any new players.   But now I can recommend either 1.3.1 or 1.6.1, and both are still easily available from the Squad store, and probably both available from other sellers.  

[qzgy]

Still on 1.3.0 here. Not that I couldn't go to 1.3.1..... I'm just too lazy.

[Hotel26]

Oh, man.  What a great topic!!  (So...  there are OTHERS out there..!!)

I'm on 1.3.1 and have been saying ever since 1.4 was on the horizon that I would stay on 1.3.1 until the end of 2018.

Then go to 1.4.5.  I've loaded all the mods for 1.4.5 and am ready to go (except for one mod [*]).  Not before I test mining, though...!!

For the life of me, I don't understand why people:

1. rush to the "latest & greatest"
2. start over their worlds anew with every new KSP version

But I know better than to ask.  I'm certain I won't understand the answer.  Two of the fundamental mysteries of the universe.

When I go to 1.4.5, I will take my 1.3.1 world with me.  I'll test it in parallel before committing, too.  From what I've seen, 1.4.5 is OK.

"Always upgrade to the last minor release!"

I'm on 1.3.1 because it's stable.  Because I wasn't interested in the upgrade features, not in Making History, although I bought it to support Squad.  Because both 1.2 and 1.3 broke mining and torpedoed my massive infrastructure investment.

I'm not actually sure I am going to make it to 1.4.5 on schedule...  I'm saying "first half of 2019" now.

* that mod is my own Telemagic, which I can't live without.  I had it 98% ported to 1.4 but Squad changed the rules about icon sizes and changed the ways they're converted.  I guess it's just a matter of resizing it in Gimp, but, honestly, I was so fed up with the gratuitous changes, I walked away.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Hotel26

[Gapone]

I moved from 1.3.1 directly to 1.5.0 because of part revamps. These were few months without internet.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Gapone

[IncongruousGoat]

I've still got a 1.3.1 install since (as far as I know) RP-1 still isn't stable on 1.4.x. As soon as it is stable, though, I'm switching, and my stock install(s) are either at 1.6 or will be migrated to 1.6 as soon as I get back home from the holidays.

[swjr-swis]

On 12/23/2018 at 12:41 AM, Dafni said:

Who's still here?

Still on 1.3.1 too. Still have my 1.2.2 alongside, as 1.3.1 is a bit of a compromise between a much faster load time and some quality-of-life improvements but also a number of additional constantly-encountered bugs that 1.2.2 didn't have.

I haven't yet had the chance to assess 1.6.0 well enough to determine if it's good enough to take the place of 1.3.1.

On the plus side so far: it loads even a fraction faster than 1.3.1 as long as I leave out MH (which makes load time double that of 1.3.1). It also has the pretty revamped parts, and can load external seats directly, and a few other nice-to-haves. dV readouts, of course. I really really want the new control-point orientation feature to make a difference too.

On the 'meh' side: MH - still too out of stock to fit in. Still disappointed that the mission system is completely separate from career saves. Still cannot really figure out any fun use for it as a standalone feature. Still miffed at structural parts that have no 'historical' relevance whatsoever being in MH instead of in stock. Definitely still miffed at alternate launch sites and mobile launch bases not being in stock. A few of the other shinies are nice. But add the doubled load time compared to stock and it's quickly uninstalled again after just a few loads. There's just not nearly enough I want from it to feel like dealing with the annoyances. So it ends up uninstalled and not helping the case of upgrading.

On the minus side: working on a craft feels very impaired by the part selection menu being completely unintuitive with the reshuffling and all diameters of parts having indistinguishable thumbnails now. Those horrible, horrible jet sounds still make my ears bleed and quickly kill any joy of flying my atmospheric craft. Drag has become an even more unintuitive factor with variants not performing as one might expect from how they look or how 'flush' they fit.

On the side of 'this already existed in 1.3.1 or before but annoys me more with every newer version that fails to fix it': SAS still tries to murder my kerbals with self-amplifying oscillations when switching from Hold to any other mode. Floating origin still makes control surfaces and gimbals 'flutter' every reset, which still causes unpredictable heading instabilities.  Landing legs/wheels still cause unprompted oscillations and explosions. Unpredictable phantom forces still occur and affect craft that are not under powered acceleration. The Mk3 cargo ramp still randomly attacks parts of my payloads. Mirror symmetry and rotation are still braindead and thus incompatible with my symmetry-loving OCD, forcing me to break symmetry and forego the benefits of symmetry groups. "Cannot deploy while stowed"... still, to this day, still! <cry>. Autostruts on legs/wheels are still mandatory and unchangeable and defaulted to the worst option. Kerbal drag cubes are still completely out of proportion making craft with external command seats perform worse than could logically be expected.

I really like some of the new shinies and quality-of-life improvements... but they're having to compete with a load of annoyances that seems to weigh heavier every version. 1.4.x was a complete skip, I hardly touched 1.5.x... not sure if 1.6.x will make the difference, but it's not jumped at me yet.

 

On 12/24/2018 at 6:52 AM, OHara said:

But now I can recommend either 1.3.1 or 1.6.1, and both are still easily available from the Squad store, and probably both available from other sellers.  

Wait, what? 1.6.1?? Where?

 

 

[OHara]

23 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

Wait, what? 1.6.1?? Where?

Sorry. Freudian slip.  I suppose I was taking for granted a minor patch the first week of January.

[Dafni]

32 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

Still on 1.3.1 too. Still have my 1.2.2 alongside, as 1.3.1 is a bit of a compromise between a much faster load time and some quality-of-life improvements but also a number of additional constantly-encountered bugs that 1.2.2 didn't have.

I haven't yet had the chance to assess 1.6.0 well enough to determine if it's good enough to take the place of 1.3.1.

On the plus side so far: it loads even a fraction faster than 1.3.1 as long as I leave out MH (which makes load time double that of 1.3.1). It also has the pretty revamped parts, and can load external seats directly, and a few other nice-to-haves. dV readouts, of course. I really really want the new control-point orientation feature to make a difference too.

On the 'meh' side: MH - still too out of stock to fit in. Still disappointed that the mission system is completely separate from career saves. Still cannot really figure out any fun use for it as a standalone feature. Still miffed at structural parts that have no 'historical' relevance whatsoever being in MH instead of in stock. Definitely still miffed at alternate launch sites and mobile launch bases not being in stock. A few of the other shinies are nice. But add the doubled load time compared to stock and it's quickly uninstalled again after just a few loads. There's just not nearly enough I want from it to feel like dealing with the annoyances. So it ends up uninstalled and not helping the case of upgrading.

On the minus side: working on a craft feels very impaired by the part selection menu being completely unintuitive with the reshuffling and all diameters of parts having indistinguishable thumbnails now. Those horrible, horrible jet sounds still make my ears bleed and quickly kill any joy of flying my atmospheric craft. Drag has become an even more unintuitive factor with variants not performing as one might expect from how they look or how 'flush' they fit.

On the side of 'this already existed in 1.3.1 or before but annoys me more with every newer version that fails to fix it': SAS still tries to murder my kerbals with self-amplifying oscillations when switching from Hold to any other mode. Floating origin still makes control surfaces and gimbals 'flutter' every reset, which still causes unpredictable heading instabilities.  Landing legs/wheels still cause unprompted oscillations and explosions. Unpredictable phantom forces still occur and affect craft that are not under powered acceleration. The Mk3 cargo ramp still randomly attacks parts of my payloads. Mirror symmetry and rotation are still braindead and thus incompatible with my symmetry-loving OCD, forcing me to break symmetry and forego the benefits of symmetry groups. "Cannot deploy while stowed"... still, to this day, still! <cry>. Autostruts on legs/wheels are still mandatory and unchangeable and defaulted to the worst option. Kerbal drag cubes are still completely out of proportion making craft with external command seats perform worse than could logically be expected.

I really like some of the new shinies and quality-of-life improvements... but they're having to compete with a load of annoyances that seems to weigh heavier every version. 1.4.x was a complete skip, I hardly touched 1.5.x... not sure if 1.6.x will make the difference, but it's not jumped at me yet.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post. If I were a native speaker I would have wrote pretty much this. Thank you

 

32 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

Still miffed at structural parts that have no 'historical' relevance whatsoever being in MH instead of in stock. Definitely still miffed at alternate launch sites and mobile launch bases not being in stock.

This, so much! Why?

I have the expansion, and dont personally dont mind the load times. But still. Why?

 

32 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

On the side of 'this already existed in 1.3.1 or before but annoys me more with every newer version that fails to fix it': SAS still tries to murder my kerbals with self-amplifying oscillations when switching from Hold to any other mode. Floating origin still makes control surfaces and gimbals 'flutter' every reset, which still causes unpredictable heading instabilities.  Landing legs/wheels still cause unprompted oscillations and explosions. Unpredictable phantom forces still occur and affect craft that are not under powered acceleration. The Mk3 cargo ramp still randomly attacks parts of my payloads. Mirror symmetry and rotation are still braindead and thus incompatible with my symmetry-loving OCD, forcing me to break symmetry and forego the benefits of symmetry groups. "Cannot deploy while stowed"... still, to this day, still! <cry>. Autostruts on legs/wheels are still mandatory and unchangeable and defaulted to the worst option. Kerbal drag cubes are still completely out of proportion making craft with external command seats perform worse than could logically be expected.

I'd pay money to have only some of those things finally resolved.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Dafni

[Pthigrivi]

Im still in 1.3 as well, but mostly out of laziness at this point. I've been in this save more than 2 years now and just can't be arsed to move over and fiddle with all the mods and cfg tweaks I've loaded in. Got a big Jool colonization mission I've been working on, maybe after that?

[eddiew]

I think I had my longest and most well-documented career in 1.3.1, so it served me well for sure. On the whole it was a reliable workhorse and I think I have that install directory still hanging around somewhere.

That said, I have one game parked in 1.4.x that I do plan to get back to some day, and my current "short" career is a 1.5.x stock-system with many mods, and neither  install has any particular problems. It is super rare that either version crashes on me, to the point where I really can't remember the last time it happened. I've done a lot of stress-testing on this PC, so I'm kind of suspicious that regular KSP crashes might just be indicative of overall system instabilities.

1.6 however... I get the lander-can bug that some people can solve, and others can't, and I'm in the latter crowd - and this bug is very clearly not a hardware issue. I'm sure it will be resolved eventually, and then I'll move to that. If my 1.4 career can migrate, I'll do that as well,  because the parts revamps are pretty sexy