Tourist

I think the problem is people react to comments like "trying to point out a terrible gaming mechanic" where they think you should say "trying to point out a game mechanic, I find to be terrible." The former, people seem to think is a criticism of them, because they like it and do not think it is terrible. Should people react to such statements personally, hell no. We live in an odd world where people will get into raging arguments about criticism of commercial products they are merely consumers of.... DC vs Marvel, Star Trek v Star Wars, in the non nerd community, Arsenel vs Liverpool, American Football team A versus American Football team B (I don't know US sports). Not sure I have a point here. Certainly not suggesting you or anyone should not say what you want, I am certainly saying people shouldn't get to hung up on people disliking what they like. I am also not saying people who do react such are childish... can't say I've allways occupied the high ground here (shut up, Bales growly voice is not stupid, your stoopid!!), but that we should all try not to get upset about what random person on the internet said about the thing we like.

I first started playing KSP a couple of months before science mode was implemented. Also I wasn't really following the development and didn't really know a career mode, or any of the other things they have since added was planned. If you'd asked me at the time I would have said it was pretty much feature complete, and that setting your own goals was what it was all about anyway. There is a natural progression built into the game... nobody completes a Kerballed Eve mission before they land on the Mun. Even with the Career and Science game modes, for it is still largely a self-directing game. I tend to regard contracts as a way of funding the progression towards the goals I set, not as providing me the with the goals. Sometimes these align, giving me a contract which I can do during the mission, sometimes it does not, meaning I'd diverted for a time, which in itself can be interesting. However, whether it be Sandbox, Science or Career, this is not the kind of game where the goal is to follow a floating waypoint marker the game sets until you win. The game is about setting your own goals, the only difference is if you like some obstacles imposed like money/rep/science. I've played all three ways. I've "beaten" career, in the sense that I've reached a point where I can and have done any mission I want with no concern about running out of money. I think I may play science mode again for 1.1.... I do like a little imposed structure.... also it makes it feel more meaningful to bring surface samples back.

Does that mean we've reached 'peak hype'?

I feel we are really getting to the bottom of this boiling water phenomenon. I think that we can all agree that there is insufficient evidence to prove a connection exists between boiling water and some kind of external heat source. Also that water has been observed in both normal and boiling states. But, nobody seems to have observed a transition between these states. Thus, I think it follows by logical deduction that water does not transition between these states. In fact, it seems that that boiling water and normal water are actually completely distinct forms of matter with nothing but passing resemblance in common. Normal water is physically exchanged in the pot by some mechanism unknown to us. An understanding of that mechanism is beyond the scope our current enquiries. Good work people. I think we really worked together on this one.

Did you try with or without 2 minute noodles? I feel that may be a crucial variable.

Do you have any sources for that? Peer reviewed research? I thought not. Hurrumph

Strictly speaking, everything. You all exist in an alternate Kerbal universe.

Ah, that makes sense. I've been meaning to try out at least RSS for awhile, but I got burned by mods (my fault, not the mods or squad). I'd been playing stock since I started playing (except for KAC and docking indicator) but then added one or two more (mainly hyperedit to test out an Eve ascent vehicle and KER) then suddenly the flood gates opened and I went mod-crazy. Long story short, accidents happened and my primary career was deleted and I'd failed to make a recent, pre-mod madness back up. Might just have to jump back into the mod-deep end soon now that I've learnt my lesson.

I think the answer is the same as the answer to the question of Boba Fett's unearned popularity.... looks cool!

"Realism" is a pretty loaded word in this context, in that without definition it doesn't really mean anything. Is stock KSP realistic? Yes, it simulates physical rules (although simplified) and gives you tools analogous to those that exist in the real world to work with those rules. Concepts such as the rocket equation, Holman transfers and gravity assists work in a similar way in which they work in the real world. Spaceships can't do what they can in unrealistic sci-fi, such as FTL travel, dog-fighting in a WWII fashion, and ships stopping if the engines are not burning. Is stock KSP realistic? No. The solar system is tiny, no N-body physics, cartoony approach, no life support, signal delay, reentry heat is not deadly enough, rockets can be built and launched instantly. So, I guess my answer is, I like to play stock, realistically.

Can we also consign hardcore to the flames while we are at it? It had little enough meaning to begin with, but really shouldn't be used anywhere outside of a playground.

a giant space turtle I believe. Either that or it's just elephants all the way down.

This comment made me imagine the following scene. The FTL ship is pulled over to a geo-stationary orbit around Rigil-4. The cop approaches the hatch. "Sir, do you know how fast you were going" "Ah, no, I'm sorry officer." "We clocked you going around 4 times the speed of light back there." "Oh really, I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention." "I'm going to have to give you a ticket, 'exceeding relativistic speeds,in an over- massed vehicle.'" The Cop fills out and hands over the ticket. "Alright, slow down unless you want to be a photon." "Yes officer, thank you officer"

One where Ker-apes have taken over, and Kerbals are kept as animals... hang on! That looks like the VAB.... you did really did it. YOU MANIACS, YOU BLEW IT UP. Ah, Ker-god damn you! Ker-God damn you all to Ker-hell!

Before this year, who would of thought that Donald Trump could be president? I expect the 'Hoff' to setting off for Mars at anytime now.

I should probably update this thread, its seems to have become active again. So the beast was eventually slain, due in no small part to the great ideas discussed here. Sadly no pictures, but this is how I did it. I won't bore you with launch and transfer. In short, lots of engines. Crew (Jeb) sent separately to lander/ascent vehicle in a mothership with other support Kerbals. Rendezvous and transfer of Jeb above Eve. The last of the fuel in the transfer stage was burnt off to lower the PE into the atmosphere. With literally everything behind overlapping heatshields, I descended through the atmosphere as a glowing fireball. A truly white knuckle affair, with little actual input. It was a watch and hope affair. The fires subsided and the ship eventually reached parachute speed and height, and floated gently to the purple ground. Jeb got out, took some samples, planted a flag then climbed back into the vessel. Lander/ascender consisted of 6 fuel tanks with aerospikes clustered asparagus style around a central core powered by a vector. On top of that a Mk1 command pod on a small fuel tank and a LV-909 for the final push to orbit. TAKE OFF! As always with asparagus staging, the first stages burn off worryingly fast. With about two aerospikes left, it began to get very hairy. On one hand I needed to manage the throttle to prevent burning up in the atmosphere (a risk simulations had shown was all too real), while at the same time flicking to map view to avoid wasting fuel on a needlessly high AP (future missions will have Kerbal engineer installed to avoid this problem). With the vector now running solo, and focusing on heat and projected altitude, I didn't notice I'd veered off course badly. I corrected, but I did not know if I would have enough fuel after that wasteful episode? The Vector burned out. It was all down to the valiant LV-909. With great tension I watched the little engine burn, the fuel slowly depleted and the trajectory flattened out and extended over the purple surface agonizingly slowly, until.... the PE pokes up from the surface and climbs. The fuel ran out, but no before a stable orbit was achieved. In due course the mothership caught up, burning way too much fuel in the process because the ascender was now on a very awkward inclination due to veering off course. A refueller needed to be sent to get the mothership back how with all souls about. And there you are, I finally got the big purple monkey off my back.

Jolly nice work there! Although, I must confess before the clip started, I was imagining a monstrous (and of course physically impossible) space catapult type contraption. But, impressive non-the less!

You know, if you only go out with good boys or girls, you treat them right, never kiss on a first date, you call you mother/father/favorite aunt frequently, keep you word.. then you'll get a good reputation.

Squad says they have slain the Kraken.... but they would say that. What they don't tell you are they are really just its captors and its acolytes. They can't kill or tame the Kraken, they merely feed it code to keep it satiated. But sometimes, it isn't enough, for its hunger is as great as its visage is terrible. So, sometimes it reaches from its prison in the void to the cuisine it likes the best.... space vessels and the green souls that travel within.

Now you're onto something. But you still don't seem to see the big picture. Anything you can do with a navball and map view, you can do with graph paper and a calculator.

Exactly my friend, but you have not gone far enough. All the textures, colors, and graphic frivolities are completely unnecessary for gameplay. What we need is a simple wireframe model, operating in a simple wireframe representation of Kerbol. I mean, jeez, why are they wasting time on Kerbal expressions, suits, etc at all, when a stick figure would easily suffice. Please hand me one pitchfolk please.... but one of the simple two pronged ones... I'm not one of these big city dandies needing three prongs.

After all you've done, I'd say you have played all the game has to offer... and that's fine, no entertainment media is intended to keep you entertained indefinitely. As it is I think KSP offers many many more hours of entertainment than pretty much all other games on the market. During the same time that I've been playing KSP I've played, finished and sometimes, replayed the following AAA games; Dragon Age Inquisition 1.5 times Xcom: Enemy Within 1.5 times Bloodbourne 1.5 times Xcom 2 1.5 times (but with a number of restarts.) Fallout 4 1.5 times Witcher 3 1.5 times (you can see a pattern emerging around how far I get on a replay.) Total War: Attila 0.5 Total War: Shogun 2 2 times. FarCry 3 1 times FarCry 4 0.5 times And probably a number of other games, which I'd forgotten too. Now, I'm also a bit bored, having done everything on the KSP bucket list. But the fact that I've played through, and exhausted the replay value on all of the above, In the same time that KSP has kept me entertained I think says something. So, yeah, probably time to move on.... .... until 1.1

Oh, by no means am I suggesting that people should not speak their mind, or accept unquestionably Squads decision's. What would be the fun in that? I'm merely sympathizing. By now they must approach the announcement of any new feature with a degree of trepidation, followed by deflation. True, but the still had to work it into the code, and decide it was a thing that they thought people would like in the first place. At the very least there would have been some investment, emotionally, in the decision in the hope it would make people happy.

Poor squad. This community is sometimes a bit like a fickle lover. Love and indifference in equal measure. Squad introduces new feature which they have invested at least some time on, only to have it rejected by the community, or questions about why they didn't implement something else instead. It has ever been thus. I love it, I think it looks cool. Here are a dozen roses.

My last career ended, tragically with my savegame being accidentally deleted. I'd achieved some pretty cool things too. Landing on Lathye and taking off again in a space-plane. A more or less reusable space program with permanent motherships, supported by crew transfer spaceplanes and mining operations around key moons. And of course, my crowning achievement, a Kerballed Eve landing and return mission. But alas. I wanted to start playing around with some mods (being generally stock only to that point.... well, stock only except for KAC and Docking alignment indicator). In particular some proper base building parts, I also wanted to have a look at this Delta V thing everybody keeps talking about (Kerbal engineer). So I installed mods, did not back up my savegame before I did it. Got a message come up saying mods were not supported, and did I want to delete the offending save game.... without reading properly, I clicked yes. NNOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!!!!! (technically I do have a back up, but it was made well before the Eve mission.... which I may say was an ordeal.... not because of eve per see, but getting all the equipment in place, and getting the mothership back, took way to long. Sigh) I started a new game, but decided not to really advance it until 1.1