Zild

It is possible Squad did not know the details of the Challenger disaster. I certainly did not know them before reading them in the post above. If my understanding is correct the Challenger disaster is taught very widely in the US as part of the curriculum - and rightly so; I wish we were taught more about space exploration, including its history, where I grew up. But I am afraid to say in much of the rest of the world peoples' knowledge is more around the level of "there was a shuttle, it blew up". That is not meaning to sound callous, rather to point out that many people would struggle to even tell you the name. It is possible (and, unless Squad are totally insane, most likely) that this remains a coincidence, albeit a very unfortunate one. If the video were to play out more like, say, the Nedelin catastrophe would you (generic reader, nobody in particular) even notice the similarites?

Presumably except Jebediah.

SFOKL! (Spitting Food Over Keyboard Laughing) Marketing is an essential part of any successful business and I do not think we can say Squad have gone overboard on the marketing - in fact what else IS there other than these videos? For us as players it is still money well spent - imagine what state KSP would be in had Squad received only a tenth of the revenue by having only a tenth of the customers? (Here comes the deluge of "better pre-V1.0" comments... ) It looks like it will work well enough for Minions, I say do it! (Although does this mean we will have Kerbals meeting humans? Do we want to go there? At the very least, adding some sense of scale would only add to the cuteness factor!) I cannot believe anyone so interested in space travel could consider those events anything but a tragedy. Regardless of your feelings for the USA, this was a great loss to us all.

I have not seen the latest ones. But as for having 1.0 being glorious success... how about a middle ground? Imagine, if you will, a video that shows them struggling but finally achieving a glorious success, a perfect rocket flying effortlessly towards Mun, Kerbals all smiling. And then one picks up the Mk-16 parachute with a look of "where was this bit supposed to go?" (Because seriously, who HASN'T done that at least once?!)

Some of these sound a bit harsh... Most notably Kearth and the SAS / reaction wheels confusion, which I imagine both stem from the early days (or early demos) when Kerbin was unnamed and there was no difference between SAS and reaction wheels. Criticising people for playing the demo, or for playing back in the early days, seems a little unfair to me.

One of my first attempts to do a rescue mission (which was in V1.0) involved a ship design with two capsules, one mounted above the other and upside down. (I mention this because it was the only unusual thing I remember about the mission, up until it ended of course...) Once back safely on Kerbin, the rescuee Kerne went EVA to collect some simple science. As soon as he opened the hatch she was bounced down into the ground at high speed and promptly ceased whatever bodily functions Kerbals find important. In for a credit in for a hundred credits, as they say, so the pilot Valentina also went EVA to collect some science. She opened the hatch and vibrated wildly on the ladder for a moment before spontaneously evaporating. And then, apparently still hungry, the space kraken consumed the entirety of Kerbin as well...

+1. What might be nice in the future is to have second names corresponding to function, for example assuming "Kerman" comes from a contraction of "Kerbal" and "Space-man" (which I am going to take to mean pilot, as what crazy fool would send up a scientist before a pilot?!), you could have: Pilot: Kerman (Kerbal-spaceman) Engineer: Kerneer (Kerbal-engineer) Scientist: Kertist (Kerbal-scientist) Tourist: Kerler (Kerbal-traveller, as "ist" is already in use; also hints at parabolic flight as it sounds like "curler"...) I only really want this because at the moment I keep getting Bill and Bob confused and trying to restore my science modules with my engineer - if there is an easy way to see a Kerbal's function without returning to the space centre, please let me know!

Love Squad, love KSP, hate CTD...

Ditto.

Well the only mod I've got installed is Kerbal Engineer Redux (how can you play without it?!). But then there is also a bit of RAM taken by Windows, and apparently even when running games BitDefender can hog over 1GB...

That is not a bug. Just technological limitation. Stated minimum requirements: 3GB RAM Stated recommended requirements: 4GB RAM Handling memory in a way that means users with the minimum requirements cannot actually play the game does constitute a bug. And as a bug I have been encountering a lot recently (always at the end of very successful missions, I might add!) I must say this is a bug too far.

Suggesting people pay more without receiving anything extra in return is going to have very limited success. I do think a "buy a copy for a friend" button in-game could be interesting, though, as it gives a way for die-hard fans to give a little more AND provides an additional route for some of the unconvinced masses to get involved. But I think their best bet would be merchandising; the choice of merchandise at the moment is so limited (although I did like these and got one for my brother!) If they had more variety and better quality (the cafepress stuff all looks a little less fun than it could be), I am confident it could earn Squad a nice little bit on the side. (If they are looking for ideas, I would most like to see plush toys and something like a system of cylindrical sofa cushions that look like key ship parts and can be stuck together or pulled apart...)

New option in the settings screen: Enable bugs (tickbox)

Was awaiting rescue in a stable yet eccentric orbit after our first mun flyby (ran out of fuel on the return journey). However, whilst awaiting said rescue, the Kraken ate Valentina, then Kerne, then Kerbin. Given there is no longer a Kerbin to orbit I have no idea where Jeb is now!

Don't name your kid after a kerbal - name him after all of them: Kerman! I actually think that could pass as a slightly unusual but not entirely ridiculous forename. Other than that (or of course if you want to have more than one), Jeb if it's a boy and Bob if it's a girl.</BlackAdderReference> I need to work out which of them (if any) sound reasonable in Japanese. Which reminds me, I actually used to work with a Korean guy called Mun...

I see the funny side of them when they happen, but if I was further along in a hard campaign I might be a little more frustrated - doesn't the default hard setting prohibit being able to load any but the latest save (like an iron-man mode) or something? Honestly I'm not certain, because I keep restarting long before that ever becomes an issue. (I just can't go on without Jeb...) (And yeah, I know the settings are fully customisable anyway, so there really is not much reason to complain in either case!)

To answer OP's original question: At $40 it is totally worth it every way I look at it: fun had, originality of game, hours enjoyed (NOT the same as hours spent - no pointless grind added just to push up the total playing time!) Yes there are still some issues and some things that do not feel finished, but the same can be said of many AAA games, whilst KSP offers something many of those do not: something new and different. To answer OP's edit: Too expensive to buy based on the demo. I played the demo a lot, then put it away and forgot about it for maybe a year. It was only when I saw my brother playing a later alpha version that I saw how much extra they had added. Then I bought it straight away. Solution: Release a new demo with different restrictions (limited number of playing hours, no ability to install mods, low restrictions on part counts and ship size, etc.) The game offers so much more that is not in the demo which easily pushes it over the threshold of being worth the RRP.

See that green smudge on the tarmac next to the SPH? That's Jeb. (I wouldn't mind so much, but he actually survived the first bounce and I could have used the parachutes to get him down safely, only I forgot I had them. ) Also, this game could work well via forum signatures...

(Semi-)serious question: If somebody offered you the chance to be an astronaut, with a 50% chance of making it into orbit and landing safely, and a 50% chance of dying spectacularly upon launch, would you take it? Most days I think I would!

This, more than anything else, is the reason I have started looking for a different challenge! A time warp that suited this kind of task would be very welcome... I was originally going to post about this to the challenges forum, but thought it would be way too hard (read: impossible). I will have to search for that... I will try Firespitter propellers and a "half of Saturday whilst reading a novel" mission, thanks!

...because Kerbals are green! Inspired by The Wrong Brothers thread and recent talk in the news about Solar Impulse 2 (an entirely electric-powered plane intended to circumnavigate the globe), I decided to try my hand at Kerbol Impulse - an entirely electric-powered plane intended to get into orbit. Unfortunately, with the stock parts I could not get very far (2000m altitude manned, 2500m unmanned). The lack of electric motor for atmosphere really is limiting me here. Has anyone had even a modicum of success with electric-only planes or rockets? Has anyone found any good, modern-technology based mods that expand the options for electric only? Save Kerbin - go green!

Thanks. I did wonder if it was a "new members only" restriction. Unfortunately I now need to remember what I said and how to say it in Japanese, but I will give it a go soon!

I tried posting a new thread for Japanese speakers to the international forum a few (three?) days ago. I was told the post would need to approved before being posted but have heard nothing since. I then tried to contact an international forum moderator to check up on the situation, but the only one I could find told me he was no longer a moderator... So what do we need to do about posting new threads, and who do we contact if we need to speak to a moderator? (I thought they would be listed here somewhere but I cannot find it!)