Is KSP fun ?

[fairytalefox]

Honestly, I like it when my rockets keep flipping around, It forces me to try new methods to keep them straight, from adding more fins in unexpected places to F***-it add moar boosters to power through the atmosphere (guess how that one worked out). Basically its the failures that make this game fun for me. Also playing without quicksaves is a blast, it makes everything way more tense.

I think it was actually more fun with 1.0 aero, when overpowered lifters just blew up from overheating. It's kinda more fair than crashing the game because of memory leaks instead, as it is now.

[NovaSilisko]

I'll be honest, I do find it hard to have fun with KSP sometimes. It's not due to an inherent difficulty in the game; I can build and fly rockets just fine, and I enjoy performing orbital ballet with spacecraft. It's always the technical issues that get me.

It's never any one really big thing, it's just multiple dozens of little glitches and odd things that get in the way of being able to fully enjoy the game. Example: You cannot select parts in the VAB or SPH while moving your mouse down and to the right. The part info-box blocks mouse clicks, and lags behind the mouse slightly. Thus, as you move the mouse down and to the right, the box lags behind it, and gets in the way of your attempt to click. So you have to bring the mouse to a full halt if you want to pick a part from the box. Lots of stuff like that. Things like parts glitching through terrain, or vessels that spontaneously explode from just sitting on the pad (my interpretation in that case is that the "no-inter-ship collision" thing only takes effect a few frames after the ship spawns, which is ample time to wreck it...), the lag of several seconds when opening the map view for the first time, or switching between areas of the space center, and so on. It's the little things...

Edited May 17, 2015 by NovaSilisko
typo

[CelticCossack51]

KSP used to be fun to me in the past. For some reason it's not anymore and it's not the game's fault. I always try to do a complicated mission like making a tank and it takes a long time to so it and there has to be some faults. Let's say that I'm becoming a try hard. Again, I don't blame KSP.

[vicwarrior]

If it weren't i wouldn't be playing it.

You might be not fond fo starting a game with a steep (or vertical) learning curve but sometimes it just makes the game all the better and more fun.

(Source: Dwarf fortress player)

[Pax Kerbana]

If I'm honest about it... Not really anymore. I play a little more and a little more, just trying to get the first rush back...

Kidding of course, yes it's fun!

[Vanamonde]

b1ackhat, it's not whether KSP is terribly frustrating or a lot of fun. It's that KSP is terribly frustrating and a lot of fun. There have been times when it made me want to throw my PC out of the window, but that actually makes it more exciting and satisfying when it goes well. Yeah, I will cuss and swear for days while I'm trying to get a new ship design to work, and then when it finally does, I will be proud and satisfied and post pictures of it here on the forum.

[SAI Peregrinus]

The fun varies with motivation. Some days I have great ideas and want to try them out. Others I draw a blank and it's not fun at all. It's all about how creative you can get.

[mielgato]

Here's what's not fun at all about KSP: spending 3 hours between the VAB and the launchpad because your rocket flies in every direction except up, and for no reason that the game would tell me. And it's not that I'm trying to launch a 1000 part 5000 ton behemoth. It's a regular rocket with 3 stages or so.

spending half a day between the VAB & the launchpad to fiddle around with my rocket to make it fly-able and going through experimentation, is actually a huge part of the fun, you know those old die & retry games you had at the arcade ? KSP is actually giving me a sense of this.

i'm not close to some forum user in term of hours played in ksp (391hours right now) but half of the time spent in the game (if not more) was in the VAB/SPH, optimizing a failed rocket/airplane.

watching various video & reading written guides about KSP's physic can help you to improve your general understanding of what you're doing

now it's a given that the game give very little feedback and the learning curve is really steep, but how can it be otherwise when the game let you do what we can in KSP ?

(just look at minecraft, you are given basically no information on how to play, and i'm not talking about chopping trees and build a wooden house tutorial, but about redstone computers, automated KFC / steakhouse, hidden place within a mountain with redstone automated traps, doors & other cool stuff like an animated pixelart nyancat and it's farted rainbow)

to me, KSP isn't fun anymore, it was at the begining, but now it is very, very, VERY interesting and time consuming as I get to do more and more complicated stuff, which give me a strong sense of achievement within the game (still remember how much days I spent learning orbital rendez-vous)

Edited May 18, 2015 by mielgato

[problemecium]

Since everyone else has suggested what I was going to suggest, maybe have a look at this too:

Para-Sci Fuel Flow-Blocking Bulkheads

You can use them to force fuel to drain from the bottom of the rocket first, keeping the center of mass up top and thus the vehicle pointed toward space

[EtherDragon]

Yes, it is absolutely fun because I get to learn why things behave the way they do in a realistic setting that doesn't cause real people to die for my foolishness.

Why does my rocket flip over without tail-fins? Oh - that's why and that's really harsh. Ok I add fins.

Now why is my rocket so hard to steer? Oh, fins are hard to steer, huh... Ok I have to think about this differently.

What happens when I try this ascent profile, or that one, or a different one? Interesting - turns out two is most efficient and easiest to control with fins.

Now - what happens if I apply what I learned to a rocket without fins? Neat, I'm much less prone to flipping!

^^^ It's this kind of discovery that I love about KSP, because it applies to the real world. Now I have a better understanding why the Apollo Rocket was built the way it was.

[xtoro]

Yes 5chars

[Caelib]

KSP is hard. There will be times when you're really frustrated. But on the other side of that difficulty and frustration is probably some of the greatest senses of accomplishment to be had in a game.

[gom jabbarwocky]

Is KSP fun?

Man, I sure hope so. I don't want to have to question what I've been I doing with my life if I haven't been having fun.

I mean, if it wasn't fun, what was it?!

[TothAval]

I mean, if it wasn't fun, what was it?!

Pure and ultimate addiction

[Big Kerbie]

I think its a ton of fun, even if most of my time is spent building and not necessarily flying. Just got updated with my mods and the new 1.0.2. I'm starting out on a new career and its tough! I'll make my first orbit tonight or tomorrow! Then its on to scanning sats and then Mun and Minmus. Can't wait!

[ColourOfFire]

It's fun. Why else would you be playing it.

At times when I think it's not fun, I do something else. That's the whole point of videogames IMHO.

[RyanRising]

It's really, really fun when you get to that 10%. And you know what, I think the other 90% isn't at all bad either. For me, it's both the journey and the destination that's great.

[waterlubber]

Is water wet?

Are kerbals green?

Is Jeb a BadS?

Is H²G² awesome?

Do vacuums suck?

Is aerodynamics a drag?

Is gravity a downer?

Do rockets explode?

Is KSP fun?

[Halo_003]

Personally first thing I did in 1.0.2 was start a sandbox game and build some standardized rockets. Modeled after Falcon 9, Delta IV Heavy, etc. Saved as subassemblies. Now whenever I build anything I just build whatever it is and attach the appropriate launch vehicle. I'm not really big on career mode right now, just far too much of a grind for me.

My tips:

Build tall, not wide. Clip through the roof of the VAB if you have to.

Keep AoA within 2* of prograde vector for heavy launches, AoA of <5* for medium and light. Start the turn immediately, and have a launch TWR of >1.20

By 10km using these ascent profiles my rockets are usually at mach 1, by 20km closing on mach 4.

Payload might only be 1T, but you can thrust limit a Mainsale.

If it doesn't fit in a fairing, minimize.

If it still doesn't fit in a fairing, add more boosters.

Use Hyperedit to test. I test drop ships, landers, rovers etc on Duna before I launch a 4 hour real time mission to go there and realize a parachute was in the wrong stage.

[Curveball Anders]

spending 3 hours between the VAB and the launchpad because your rocket flies in every direction except up, and for no reason that the game would tell me.

That's exactly what's fun with KSP.

Using my own brain to solve a problem based on facts gained by experimentation.

[lordlundar]

Here's what's not fun at all about KSP: spending 3 hours between the VAB and the launchpad because your rocket flies in every direction except up, and for no reason that the game would tell me. And it's not that I'm trying to launch a 1000 part 5000 ton behemoth. It's a regular rocket with 3 stages or so.

Here's the thing. Though the tagline for the game is "Rocket Science was never this easy", you're still dealing with rocket science so you still have to pay attention to what your doing. The results of what you get are directly to what you put into it. If you expect to slap together something and expect it to get into orbit without an issue you'll find that just isn't the case.

[nadreck]

Yes Virginia, there is a fun Kerbal Space Program!

Ok, first off, I have been playing Kerbal Space since 0.21 (I tried the 0.18 demo for as long as it took me to put Jeb in LKO and then bought the game).

It is more fun just after a new release. I have been playing career ever since careers came out. I sometimes test ideas and designs in simulation mode (the game calls it sandbox ;-P ) but that is rare. Sometimes something gets a little grindy for me BUT I want to point out that it gets grindy precisely because of the choices I made on how to make the game challenging.

For me I had a little adapting, but admittedly tons of forewarning just before I flew my first mission in 1.0.0 from the threads here and the preview Twitch'ing, to the aerodynamics. I could use a little more re-entry heat in the model, but applaud the parachute fix in 1.0.2, they are so much more fun now.

I also believe that Dean Karman quote of "the hardest fun you will ever have" applies here in spades.

Note on basic rocket design in 1.0.2 - I have not needed fins, in fact haven't found them nearly as helpful as flying a profile based on engine gimbal vectoring however in no cases do I start a turn below 10k, with the LV30's I start the turns at 15k and take until 20k before I am down to 67.5° and 25k before 45° (from there it doesn't matter much). With big engines with big gimballing I can afford to start the turn around 11k and turn as much as to when Aerodynamics first start to drag me to the horizon instead of SAS trying to drag me back, so I go to just past that balance point and try to stay there. Starting at about 300m/s at 11k and hitting about 700-900 by 20k I am usually past 45°.

Other takeoff guidelines is to stay below 300 m/s below 10k (but try to maintain as close to that as possible for as much of the first 10k as possible). Stay below 1000m/s below 20k. Stay below 1500 m/s below 35k (have had issues with decouplers blowing at 1800m/s in the 30's).

[Hyomoto]

Yes. Hence the large, dedicated community of players who enjoy it daily.

[pandaman]

KSP? Fun? Oooohhhhh yeeaahhh!

Well it is to me anyway...

Like most I struggle a bit learning all the new stuff, but it's better for being a bit more realistic IMO.

One thing springs to mind here. In RL they spend years and millions of funds designing and doing computer simulations on rockets and planes before they even think about slapping a booster on it and lighting the fire. And we expect to do it in an hour? Then can't understand why it doesn't work how we want it to.

[mikegarrison]

Well that's the thing, it's not just one design. I tried dozens of variations trying to get a couple of things into an Orbit. And it keeps happening again and again, and the game doesn't tell me why this is happening. All I see is a rocket flipping over. I have no idea why, which is the frustrating part. If the game would give me an indicator, I'd have something to work with. But there's just nothing at all.

I've gotten to the Mun and back, several times with different rockets. But then I spend hours failing to even get back into Kerbin Orbit, and I have no clue why.

Ah. Yes, KSP does have that issue. When things go wrong, there is usually very little (or no) explanation for why they go wrong.

I just flew a mission where, about when I got to the moon, my ship was completely unresponsive. Nothing was working. And then, "a-ha!", I realized I had forgotten to extend my solar panels. So Bob went out on EVA and extended one. Viola! I had power again. But I only knew how to diagnose the problem from long experience. And I only knew how to fix it from the stories other people have told here about being in the same situation. The game itself gave me no hints.

So yeah, if you want the game to give you more hints, KSP is going to be pretty frustrating.