What is your "Near release ritual"?

[Rolanvorxariat]

Get hyped, and then ensue mass panic about all my craft being mod craft... And the last time a update happened, every one of my KWR craft parts shrun... And all my craft use KWR fuel tanks. If the update breaks ANY mod other than EVE, I'm doomed.

[CreepyD]

Here's what happened for me every release since science was added

Get hyped.

Play the new version.

Remember how crappy the science system is (repeating experiments ugh) and how backwards it all feels.

Wait for the BTSM mod to get updated before playing again.

Enjoy.

[One-Way Films]

Create a giant ship that's capable of "leaving" the Kerbol System and packing it with all of my Kerbals from career or Sandbox modes. Then I just pretend that they landed in the next update. I won't pretend this time though...

[Rus-Evo]

Well I have halted ship development and stuck to things like practicing advanced landing techniques etc.

[TheXRuler]

I usually just revert to the previous stable version and keep playing until shortly before the next update is released. Mods are the only reason I still play, since I find the stock game rather dry (more challenging in some ways, but also far more boring) and I use so many mods that it takes ages for them to all be updated. I might not even upgrade to 1.0 at all for the next year or so since I have been playing this career savegame for ages now and at least one of the used mods has not even been updated to 0.90 (it works more or less though) so I doubt it will work with 1.0. If however it does then woohoo 1.0 looks and sounds really promising so far and I look forward to the time when my mods work and I can actually use it.

[Jovus]

I finally give up on my current save due to the docking bug, swear a lot, and hope it won't be in the new version.

[Random Tank]

To continue playing my main save on 0.25. 1.0 really doesn't affect me; I'll try it of course, and if the new aero is actually good enough to "replace" FAR I'll actually keep playing it; but if not I'm not gonna play it properly until there is 1.0 update for FAR

[Alshain]

I usually just revert to the previous stable version and keep playing until shortly before the next update is released. Mods are the only reason I still play, since I find the stock game rather dry (more challenging in some ways, but also far more boring) and I use so many mods that it takes ages for them to all be updated. I might not even upgrade to 1.0 at all for the next year or so since I have been playing this career savegame for ages now and at least one of the used mods has not even been updated to 0.90 (it works more or less though) so I doubt it will work with 1.0. If however it does then woohoo 1.0 looks and sounds really promising so far and I look forward to the time when my mods work and I can actually use it.

I agree to a point, I like to mod. But I do minimalist modding (a part here and there and GUI/VFX mods), and in the last several patches my mod list grows shorter and shorter Looking at my current list, I want to try Stage Recovery this time around (to counter the extra income, I'm going to play on hard w/ saves & reverts). Once that one updates, I can at least start my career. Everything else can be added in afterward, I won't need them early career anyway. (Though I will say, on my big monitor without Enhanced NavBall is a bit miserable)

EDIT: Oh! and RealChute. Will not play without RealChute, unless Squad has improved the stock system.

Parts:

Kerbal Inventory System

Infernal Robotics

Active Struts

Adjustable Landing Gear

Mk3 Mini Expansion Pack

Radial Engine Mounts

RealChute

Adjustable Test Weight

Stack Inline Lights

Surface Lights

Game Mechanics:

Stage Recovery

Tweak Scale

GUI:

In-Flight Waypoints

Intake Build Aid

RCS Build Aid

Kerbal Engineer

NavUtilities

Enhanced NavBall

Docking Port Alignment Indicator

PreciseNode

Trajectories

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Transfer Window Planner

VFX:

Texture Replacer

Astronomer's Visual Pack

Distant Object Enhancement

Hot Rockets

Cool Rockets

CollisionFX

Planet Shine

Maybe (depends on several factors):

Kethane

Ferram Aerospace Research (I can't believe this is on the maybe list... but it is)

Procedural Fairings

SCANsat

Stock Alike Station Expansion Parts

Edited April 19, 2015 by Alshain

[keeper]

I disregard hype, and theres no countdown for me.

I just keep playing the version I am doing, untill I'm ready to update. Could be months after, but I wont bother updating untill a decent handful of mods I'd like also update!

My career mode isn't that big, I havn't done much at all since last update, and if i cant take my savegame (with mods) with me to new update like last time, I throw in half the money and a bit of science, as career start is a major grind for me. :/

Usually I end up updating once either all teh mods I have (or something similar) is updated, or when I see really cool stuff that makes the sacrifice worth it.............

[mrclucks]

This will be my first update, but I'll probably just copy steams folder to my back up(along side my pure vanilla install and all of my game saves) download and install 1.0 and play for a few hours to see how I like it.

If I don't like it then I'll forget about it for a while and check back in when mods have been updated

If I do like it I'll probably go back n forth between .90 and 1.0 until mods are updated and/or I wrap up any missions I have and deorbit everything using parachutes and the like

[Gerandar]

wait until all the mods i use are updated and then likely delete most of the stock parts like always.

[h4didact]

I drink beer all day long so I can sleep faster and the days will feel shorter. Than the update is released and I play sober.

[hellion13]

I wait. Ive only played Career mode twice, once in .25 and once again for Beta. After watching Scott max science in only a few missions, I tried it and succeeded, Twice. After that it was just to see what was possible for me. Experimenting with inf. fuel, going as light as possible with the largest engines. Try to wring as many G's out of an airplane before FAR/Near/stock air tears it apart. Or bring it as close to 1 FPS as I can without crashing with ridiculous constructions that tend to mostly explode.

[djnattyd]

I play one of the 3 nodded installs that I have and ignore the stock one that is left purely for updates. Then, when the update happens and all the mods finally work, I create 3 more modded installs, move my save files over and delete the old installs.

[Stone Blue]

Pretty much what a few others have said:

Ignore the hype, stop playing KSP, then spend a month scrambling to update my list of 300 mods I use, and download the most recent version of every mod I have for the CURRENT version of KSP. (I grabbed all the last 0.25 versions for every mod: 5 GB worth!)

If I manage to accomplish that BEFORE the new KSP vers. drops, I'll go back to playing the old version of KSP, and wait at least a month or two after the NEW version of KSP dropped, and spend another month NOT playing KSP while I scramble to again update my mod list, and download all the new versions of mods for the new KSP update.

THEN, I do not even THINK of anything KSP related for a month or two, because I am so sick of updating mods and doing data entry (I have a large spreadsheet for tracking KSP mods)...

So maybe 2-4 months after a new release of KSP drops, I may pick it up and start installing the usual 65-100 mods I use, and start playing KSP again... I may even get in a whole 2 or 3 months of playing KSP, before having to start the cycle all over again...

[lajoswinkler]

I deorbit everything.

[cantab]

Keep right on playing. Perhaps not start new missions, but the old ones can take time. Put it this way: I was still playing .23.5 when .25 came out.

[Broax]

I've stopped playing for a while waiting for this new update.

Some of these new optimizations make me hopeful I won't have to wait for better 64bit support for the win version so I'm getting my hopes up.

Aside from my traditional seat on the hype train I'm starting to list all the mods I'll be installing (after they get updated ofc). This week I've also started working on the official flags for my space program. So far I'm only set on my agency's logo:

I'm thinking of making mission flags for mission types (like a mun mission flag, rescue mission flag, etc). I'm hoping to start my official long-run save. The one save to hold all my missions till I'm satisfied with my career and consider the game to be "finished".

Does anyone want to share an opinion about my flag design so far?

[Moesly_Armlis]

With the announcement of the countdown I have had to distract myself from playing KSP. After this new update is released my leisure time for the following few weeks will be fully absorbed with a new career start at KSP. Seems there is so much new content to explore.

With the arrival of fair weather I started repairing my vehicle. Also watching some old timey TV shows and movies.

[Francois424]

I just bring my boys home.

Oh and it's already been done. I just launched a bunch of RIP (Rescue Ion Probes) everywhere to get them.

So I guess that puts an end to my 200 years space program (about time too, was running out of memory almost around every corner).

Fresh start in 1.0

[Felsmak]

It usually involves sacrificing lots of Kerbals to the Mohole.

[andruszkow]

Stop playing KSP for a good while. Will come in handy to have forgotten some essential stuff about 0.90 before all the changes hit me.

[eddiew]

Take a break so's to get the hunger back in time for launch

Been playing Cities Skylines for the past 3 weeks. It's rather good... but has an annoying lack of spaceplanes.

[Torham234]

I haven't actually played KSP for about a year now. I have been waiting patiently for the 1.0 version. But now, what with the mysterious countdown and all the commotion, I have started preparations for getting back into KSP. Mainly by researching mods that I would like to play with. i am looking into procedural parts, Life support system, KER and a few others. I am super excited about the new(new for me ) B9 procedural wings and the SETI balance mod. for the first week or so I will test the new aero and deadly reentry in vanilla, and than decide on the list of mods to use (FAR was a must have for me). Hopefully they will be updated within a few weeks, so I can get into it.

[Javster]

Wait until videos come out, think "neat" and never play it for some reason