Evolution of your play style?

[NecroBones]

I've had KSP for over a year now, and I've gone through several phases of how I play the game. I was wondering how everyone else compares in their experiences, or more specifically, how has your idea of "fun" in KSP changed over time?

When I started, back in 0.23, I tried sandbox first and made a lot of wobbly rockets. At the suggestion of a friend, I switched to "career" (which is now the "science" mode), and played the stock game until I had visited most of the worlds that the game provides.

Soon after that, I started using mods, and decided I'd use MechJeb for most of my launches, since my focus had shifted to payloads and destinations. I felt that after 100+ launches, it was a "been there, done that" sort of thing, and I became more goal-oriented.

But here I am a year later. After doing more modding than playing, when I do actually play, I'm finding that I'm enjoying the launches the most. I get the biggest kick out of putting things in orbit, and don't much care about visiting the planets, and so Mun/Minmus destinations make me happy. I'm enjoying shorter duration missions.

What do you enjoy now, compared to what you used to enjoy when you first got started?

[Van Disaster]

There was only sandbox when I started - when career arrived ( science mode now ) it managed to put me off playing because I found it really dull, and everything socially suddenly revolved around it. When I started again I tried sci and career & they're not any better, so now I'm still trying to set up grand logistics webs on distant planets, just like always, and still waiting for there to be a point in staying on these places

[HafCoJoe]

Hello! Mobile FTW! I originally played the demo v0.13 ish and so I had an extremely limited part count which I used to land on the mun/return safely (if barely). I bought the game back in v0.21 and proceeded to learn the new mechanics of the engines and such.

The first thing went any depth into was actually plane building I think. Well, I started building maneuverable planes in part of my "hey look a whole ton of new parts let's learn how to use them all the best way!" spree. After I designed a fairly maneuverable plane I began learning how to do interplanetary transfers... And then abusing the aerodynamics model, then speedboat building, and then onto YouTubing and Streaming .

Well that's my learning curve, but my design motifs have changed over the years time too. Like currently I like putting long and thin ailerons on the sides of my most used rockets to make them look more streamlined and add some more agility as well. ^-^

[Yukon0009]

When I started, my "save" (it was 0.12) was full of abortive attempts to get to the Mun. *sigh*

[billbobjebkirk]

I tend to lean a lot closer to realism than I did back in .20, though it was always something I liked to stick to.

[prophet_01]

I kinda emediatly started with the design of a heavy launcher and failed miserably. I tried to fix it without a clue what I was doing. For example: the rocket is whobbling -> put engines at the top of it that pull it upwards just for stability while the main sails do the work. Stupid stuff like that... and then finally one of those monstrosities was able to actually reach orbit (well sometimes, ...at best). Since I had literally no idea what I'm doing my first payload in orbit was about an orange tank worth of fuel and 3 nervas + 3 kerbals in that stupidly heavy pod >. <

After missing the mun a couple of times and losing bob in outer space due to me not knowing how to activate rcs..., I finally managed to reach otbit more reliably. I watched some scott manley videos (fan here) and of course I emediatly wanted to do an apollo style mun landing. My first docking attempts took place in munar orbit after landing... and after wasting about 100 units of monoprop I actually did it. That's when I hit the 50 hours mark.

After that I started all kinds of different stuff. Small planes, a fuel depo in LKO and some more mun/minmus stuff. First interplanetary mission was supposed to be a jool 5 (didn't knew about that challenge), failed in the joolian system due to a bad lander design, but since then I'm good when it comes to docking

After that I did more interplanetary stuff and been to most planets and moons. But that got boring quickly. I started to play with mods and enjoyed it. I used mj for a couple of launches, but I've stoped using it since I rediscovered the fun of launching stuff.

Switched to career when it was released and liked it a lot. I installed more and more realism orientated mods and focused more on kerbin and it's moons. I've spent many hours on building shuttles, I like those (even flew a particulary heavy one with an external tank all the way to eeloo).

I recently started preparations for a new jool 5 approach, since I still haven't completed that.

I've passed the 600 hours mark and still enjoy KSP worth every buck

[Whovian]

Started out in 0.22 with a "really big fuel tanks and really big engines" ideology; my first Mun launch had a 7-mainsail launch stage and a 7-skipper asparagus next stage. Since then, I've ended up a more minimalistic player, using 2 Poodles and 3 small Novapunch engines in the launch stage of my latest Mun mission.

Still, my next Duna mission is going to involve some modded engines which are basically just Skippers and Mainsails in the launch stages. Effectively due to the fact that my modset isn't letting me use nuclear engines yet.

Started out in Stock, of course, but felt like modding slightly after a bit. Didn't go too crazy with mods until I discovered B9. Currently, I have all sorts of mods, ranging from the hardcore (RT2, TAC, and such) to the incredibly not-hardcore (I'm running KSPI in my current save.) I just try not to have anything too absurdly overpowered, though KSPI might qualify.

[Starhawk]

I've been playing for almost a year. I started in 0.23.5, and played very much by trial and error. Lots of rescue missions.

Now I plan and calculate much more. I currently have a Jool-5 ship in Kerbin orbit with Jeb, Bob, and Bill aboard. I have about 30 game days before the optimal window, and I find I'm reluctant to burn for Jool until I have successfully simulated the Tylo landing and reorbit. Jeb has simulated the landing 4 or 5 times with limited success. The one intact landing used way too much fuel to make orbit again, let alone rendezvous.

The lander should definitely work in theory, but I'd rather at least simulate it successfully once before I launch the mission.

So I definitely play with much more caution, calculation, and planning now.

Mind you, I don't fuss much over Mun or Minmus missions, but I've done both of them many times.

Happy landings!

[justidutch]

Well, I've gone from exploding stuff on the ground…

… to collisions in orbit…

… so I would say I'm making good progress!

[Tex]

I also started playing when there was only Sandbox, and I tried doing some stuff in there when I first started playing. Built my first rockets, attained my first orbits and Munar/Minmus landings, and I even got all the way and made it to land on Duna somehow, a feat that I only managed to accomplish a couple of weeks ago!

After Science mode came out, I thought it was fun but didn't really pursue it to the level I probably could have.

Then the true Career mode came out, and I completely took off from there. It was a huge challenge, and still is, and to this day I have done more in my career game save than I ever did way back in ye olden times. I just sort of spontaneously started doing a whole bunch of stuff and have never looked back since! I've learned a lot and am still learning, and I plan on doing so forever and ever.

[Guest]

When I bought the game I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread; I became a stock purist and joined the forums soon after. However, the more I learned about actual rocket science and the more I interacted with the community, the more I started leaning towards the realism side of things (because stock KSP is just too silly). I started helping out with the Real* mods as much as I could and stepped my way up from 6.4x Kerbin to actual Earth. Here I am now with more Real* KSP installs than stock and happily playing sandbox like I always have. Oh, I've finished the tech tree at least twice, but I never really cared for Career, it's just too grindy with only one way to make funds.

[nightingale]

Totally agree with Necrobones on this one... I've spent so much time modding that I forgot how fun launches can be (while testing mods I tend to hyperedit all over the place, otherwise I'd never get anything released). In fact it was quick a fun break to hit up the Fastest small step challenge. So I guess my play style is 95% modding with an occasional break for something interesting.

[OhioBob]

I've been playing the game for only eight months, so I haven't had time to evolve all that much. I started in sandbox just long enough to learn the game basics, then I switched to career mode. I played one game in career mode using 0.24-0.25, then I started a new career game when 0.90 was released. At first I refused to use any mods because I wanted to become familiar with the stock game. Eventually I started adding mods that help make gameplay a bit easier (Kerbal Engineer Redux, Precise Node, and Kerbal Alarm Clock), but I've stayed away from mods that change the game's physics. I'm waiting to see what Squad does with the aerodynamics before I consider using something like NEAR or FAR.

So far I've limited myself to using expendable rockets. I haven't tried anything with spaceplanes or SSTO. My current goal is to complete a landing/return from every planet/moon in the solar system. Right now I'm working on the moons of Jool, which I should have completed soon. That will leave me with just a return from Eve to finish the goal. I don't know what I'll do after that; I my take a break until version 1.0 is released. At that time I'll probably start with a fresh game, though I'll likely try science mode rather than career mode (I don't think I want to go through the tedium of completing a bunch of contracts again to build up a nice cash reserve).

I'm really curious to see how version 1.0 plays. The first thing I'll have to do is relearn the game based on the new aero model. Most of my rocket designs are based on simulations that I performed outside of the game. I'll, of course, have to redo that work to develop new design guidelines. I've also developed aerobraking and atmospheric entry simulations that allow me to determine the correct periapsis for targeting a specific orbit or landing site. That will have to be redone as well. Once I've got a handle on the changes, I'll have to start flying some new missions. I have no idea what those will be yet.

[Pecan]

Started with the demo and read tutorials on how to get to orbit.

Bought 0.22 (I think) and read tutorials about staging and asparagus.

Spent many, many hours creating and testing launch vehicles for various payloads.

Looked at career (now science) mode when it came out. Hated the tech tree.

Did a trip to Duna just to prove to myself that I could but mostly had huge amounts of fun building Kerbin and lunar stations and bases.

Tried loads of mods; machine can't cope with many at a time or any parts-packs to speak of. Loved MJ, KAC and SCANSat. Chatterer too, but had to lose it.

Designed a fleet for everything from start to everywhere.

Went everywhere to check the designs worked as intended. Fixed them when they didn't ^^.

Wrote 'Exploring The System' to explain the design and mission progression.

Looked at career (and newly-renamed science) modes when they came out. Hated the tech tree, found most of the contracts uninteresting.

Did a bunch of challenges to expand the designs I was creating, just to try something different.

Updated the 'Exploring' fleet as new versions and patches for KSP were released.

Wrote 'Induction To Construction' for complete beginners as it seemed like something all the other tutorials (including mine) had missed.

Broadly, I've moved from making massively over-engineered rockets that didn't work to minimalist vehicles of all types that do.

In the mean time I've found that I don't care about cosmetic mods, Chatterer and Probe Control Room excepted because of the immersion they offer. Information mods and instruments I can't get enough of though, especially as my old machine can't cope with them. RPM is the daddy (I can't run it), VV, NavUtilities, etc. I love. Ultimately MJ, SCANSat and PF are the ones that add most for me without adding complications.

[Greenfire32]

My play style hasn't really changed all that much since the beginning. I still haven't ever lost a Kerbal and I still clean up my space trash.

[Randazzo]

Mostly my rockets have gotten prettier. From this early design:

I've graduated to less squat rockets:

I've also gotten bored with building bigger rockets to fly to farther desolate rocks when the close desolate rocks are just as desolate as distant desolate rocks,.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[nholzric]

I started playing before the Mun... and time-warp. I remember watching the vertical speed indicator to make sure I was in low orbit and checking back in with KSP every 5-10 minutes or so as I completed a rev in real time! I didn't have much trouble getting to the Mun and I think my first landing was on a booster thought it was brilliant when I saw folks using wings as landing legs.

I only play Career Mode now and have a strong preference for stock. A while back I loaded a bunch of mods, the ones that have the hab modules and inflatable gardens, Remote Tech, one of the resource mods. But didn't get much out of Kerbin orbit before I got bored. I'm playing with Remote Tech, Alarm Clock, and Procedural Fairings right now.

I usually get bored with a save right before my first extra-Kerbin mission gets to Duna. I can't stand stranding Kerbals anywhere and it bothers me to keep them cramped in small spaces for months and years. For anyone out there like me, I recommend Kerbal Alarm Clock - transfer window indicators give a reason to wait and allow more efficient transfers which I leverage to send along more living space! Also Alarm Clock allows me to manage more than one mission at a time so I don't have to time-warp the years away.. unless I really want to.

Congratulate me, in my current save I've landed my second ever vessel on Duna, this time a base (although it tipped over "Nailed it, sorta" - Jeb) and I'm about ready to construct a ship bound for Eve. So far, contracts are really helping propel my motivation past Minmus.

[GoSlash27]

When I started out I was all about doing it exactly like it's done in real life, down to following the Mercury/ Gemini/ Apollo progression.

Since then, I have tended toward minimalist and cost-effective modular designs with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure, while real life has tended towards disposable single mission designs. I also haven't been shy about using the tools that KSP gives me at the expense of realism. For example, all of my lifters are SSTO turbojet designs that don't bother with streamlining, payload shrouds, or reentry shields.

I'll have a steep learning curve when 1.0 comes out

Best,

-Slashy

[CG_Kerbin]

Nothing has changed as bad as allways! XD

[EladDv]

I'll have a steep learning curve when 1.0 comes out

Best,

-Slashy

the learning wall is coming to get some of us back! RUN AWAY!!!

now to the topic.

At the start i went and made HUGE orbital stations and replicas and ISS and munar missions.

Later i visited jool and duna and all of their planetoids- i also made it once for moho but after then it all became boring

i tried the new career after science bored me after a week and gave up on the grind and now i mostly build military crafts to fight guys from the RB section on our own RP game (if you want to join PM me and i'll send you the link)

[Superfluous J]

I started with the demo. I don't know how advanced it was but the Mun was in it. I told myself that once I landed on Mun and got home, I'd know if I wanted to play the game. I successfully landed and got home that same weekend (mostly thanks to learning about quicksave) and bought the game.

My first real game was in sandbox (that's all we had back then) and I futzed around with massive ships that ended up taking full organe tanks (that were intended as the launch stage) all the way to Mun. I somehow successfully orbited Moho (couldn't land or get back) and then realized that... there would not have been anything to do there once I got there, that I hadn't already done on Mun. Then I realized that about every other planet. Then I quit playing.

About 2 weeks later Career Mode (Science Mode) came out, and I figured I'd try it. I LOVED it. I also started playing with mods, and realizing (with the help of KER) what I'd been doing wrong all along with my rockets. I also discovered Kethane and Extraplanetary Launchpads. I loaded up that old career, set up a Karbonite operation on Minmus, sent a rescue ship to Moho and brought those guys home.

Then I deleted that save and started my first YouTube series, which back then was just "KSP" but is now called "Bases." I learned a lot making that series, both about YouTube (and video production) AND playing KSP, so my next series (Kerpollo) was much more successful from both fronts. Now almost a year and several other series later, I consider myself an advanced player, able to gravity assist in most situations where it'll actually help, pinpoint a landing onto a docking port landed on an airless world, and run with margins so thin that I miss a Gilly landing by less than 100 m/s (oops).

Hey, just because I know how doesn't mean I'll actually succeed.

[Cuky]

I have started with .23.5 where I played a bit in Career and I have continued with Science Career in .24. In that time I would usually overbuild my rockets and discard stages with lot of unused fuel. I was impatient and I didn't want to spend my time optimizing stuff.

Than .25 came along and in that version I actually fooled around in Sandbox.

Now, about a week ago I have started Career in .90 and I am carefully planing my launches. Crafts are usually on a margin with fuel to save funds and I am actually trying to build simplest and lightest crafts just to achieve contract goals. It is a bit slower but it is actually fun trying to squeeze as much performance as possible for as little funds as possible. I still haven't tried with recovering my launchers, I will play with that when I unlock larger parts.

[Columbia]

Well, I heard about KSP from a friend who always posted about his creations here and there. Being an Aviation and Space travel enthusiast, I thought: Why not give it a try?

I didn't look at the tutorials when I first got it, so I had lots of difficulty with attaching nodes and all that. I still remember when I attempted to build a Space Shuttle with the old Mk3 parts and a Jumbo-64 which - of course - looked terrible, and never worked. People always told me "Just press spacebar!" Which I never understood, as I was surprised to hear an engine spark up but wouldn't ignite. It was around version 20.2.

I left the game in my desktop and let it "rot", until I heard about my friend who was apparently building spaceplanes with the game. Spaceplanes?! When did that become a thing?! I decided to give it one more try, updated the game to 0.22, and was baffled at the new Space Centre from 0.21. Regardless, after some impatient sitting down to learn (I hate steep learning curves ( Looking at you, Blender!)), I learned the basics of throttles, pitch, yaw, all that.

And whoosh! I sped to the spaceplane hangar at once, eager to build. I have to say, I was a pretty weird plane-maker back then. It took me a long while to learn every step. I was basically self-taught with only my common sense to guide me, and just hope it would work. I used the Mk3 parts for my first spaceplanes, because they looked much like Space Shuttles. Needless to say, I was mostly guesssing and wondering why my LV-T45 powered plane didn't work and would tear itself apart on the runway. Of course, I never knew about Center of Mass and all that, so my first few months of KSP was nothing but trial and error along with some kabooms. I spent time in the VAB too, but very seldom did. My first space-worthy rocket was a bunch of Rockomax X200-32s stacked on top of each other and a Mainsail. I got to Kerbin orbit as well.

I started to build in the VAB more, and did things such as land on the Mun, orbit Kerbin and all that. I was a happy newbie. I still seldom research about all that. I continued to send satellites to orbit, just for fun. I never really watched tutorials: I just asked a friend what to do. Aahh... the days when I just burned prograde randomly and hope I'd get a Mun encounter! Of course I still worked on planes though, getting one on a suborbital hop after the introduction of Rapiers.

I took a break from KSP, and got into playing other titles such as Mario, Flight Simulator X and all that. Meanwhile, versions 23.5 and .24 were being released. Oh, was I still looking at KSP facebook pages, although I never really got any motivation to continue. After all, there are more games out there, right?

I was severely feeling dull one day, and found myself humming Danny2462 tunes (Kevin Macleod is great!) and wondered.. Should K play it again?

It took me a while to find the latest version which was 0.24. I had immediately installed it on another system, and got going. I loved it!

I was constantly building new rockets and spaceplanes, was thrilled at the new parts, and was very happy with it! Why did I wait a whole three months before getting back to it?

At that time, version 0.25 was underway in Experimentals, and I was hyped. I've been delving deep into KSP news!

It became my most favorite after it's release (and hey, buildings that go bam!) and was more hooked than ever.

I learned landing on Minmus, starting burns at specific times, maneuver nodes, and Center of Mass, lift, thrust and all that. 0.90 came along, and I found that my most favorite part set - the Mk3, whether ugly or not - was gojng to be given some love by a big overhaul. Hypetrains were at full power!

Release went underway and was amazing. Adapters, cargo bays, passenger cabins (I loved that!) and possibly the dream part set of a KSP Aircraft builder. I didn't care much about upgradable buildings because I didn't play Career often, to be honest, though.

KSP has become my favorite game ever since. From my first throttle up to every landing leg touching interplanetary surfaces, I loved this game. I've learned about sending rovers to the Mun and Minmus, going to other planets, and the bread and butter job of station building. Jeb, Bill and Bob are in Duna, exploring the dusty dunes there. Probes are sitting on Laythe, Duna and Eve currently as part of my expeditions. I've gotten a hand on replica-building, especially with airliners. I might even upload them here sometime!

Oh, and about my forum account? Well, I wanted to interact with the community of KSP and learn from them, have fun, and talk about experiences, such as the one I'm writing now. I also want to share my crafts, but I'm saving that for a later date.

Happy launchings!

[Brotoro]

First of all, I've only ever played in Sandbox mode. The other modes don't appeal to me.

So my play style has been:

1) Figure out how to make things work: Minimal requirements to read orbit; moon landings; rendezvous and docking.

2) Become proficient at interplanetary transfers -- then got land and return kerbals from everywhere.

3) Set up a coherent reusable transportation and exploration system for various target bodies (still in progress).

[Sampa]

play style, we have a play style? lol, sorry, no change whatsoever for me! save for making the switch to using mods primarily!