What can I do to keep myself from losing interest in KSP?

[Clockwork13]

Usually when I try KSP, I stop 2 days later and don't come back for another 7 months before trying it for another 2 days before losing interest again.

What mods could I install or things I should try to keep myself from losing interest in KSP? The part that I seem to hate the most is launching, and while getting rid of that completely would ruin the game, it would be nice if there were any mods that allowed me to do more things in space, but I'm also open to any other mod idea too.

[Phil deCube]

I hear you. I would have quit KSP ages ago if not for the Mechjeb mod. It is an autopilot, which will take over all of the tedious tasks for you, including launches. Many people claim that it is cheating. I disagree with them. If they want to do it the hard way, fine. No one is stopping them. If it was good enough for Neil Armstrong to use a computer to get to the moon, it's good enough for me too.

Also, what mode are you playing? Sandbox? That can be pretty boring. There are no goals. I'd recommend Career mode. It challenges you to do better and more technical things. I did a tutorial for absolute beginners, which guides you through the early stages of career mode, if you find you get a bit stuck. It is located here.

[Tarheel1999]

Usually when I try KSP, I stop 2 days later and don't come back for another 7 months before trying it for another 2 days before losing interest again.

What mods could I install or things I should try to keep myself from losing interest in KSP? The part that I seem to hate the most is launching, and while getting rid of that completely would ruin the game, it would be nice if there were any mods that allowed me to do more things in space, but I'm also open to any other mod idea too.

If launching is the problem. Just use hyperedit to put your vessels in orbit.

[Clockwork13]

If launching is the problem. Just use hyperedit to put your vessels in orbit.

Yeah, I thought of that too, but cheating still kind of ruins it for me since if I use hyperedit, I'm not really accomplishing anything.

- - - Updated - - -

I hear you. I would have quit KSP ages ago if not for the Mechjeb mod. It is an autopilot, which will take over all of the tedious tasks for you, including launches. Many people claim that it is cheating. I disagree with them. If they want to do it the hard way, fine. No one is stopping them. If it was good enough for Neil Armstrong to use a computer to get to the moon, it's good enough for me too.

Also, what mode are you playing? Sandbox? That can be pretty boring. There are no goals. I'd recommend Career mode. It challenges you to do better and more technical things. I did a tutorial for absolute beginners, which guides you through the early stages of career mode, if you find you get a bit stuck. It is located here.

I do play career mode, since sandbox is pretty boring, and I mostly use it for experimenting new mods. As for mechjeb, now that you have mentioned it, I think I'll try it, even though I previously felt as if it were cheating.

[Phil deCube]

I do play career mode, since sandbox is pretty boring, and I mostly use it for experimenting new mods. As for mechjeb, now that you have mentioned it, I think I'll try it, even though I previously felt as if it were cheating.

It is the most downloaded mod on the Curse website. Lots of people appear to be "cheating".

Edited September 21, 2015 by Phil deCube

[Azimech]

Why only think along the lines of going to space? When you played with Lego, did you only create the items in the manual?

The possibilities in KSP are enormous. Two days ago I uploaded a working synthesizer. I haven't played career mode in 5 months, and I'm never bored!

[Clockwork13]

When you played with Lego, did you only create the items in the manual?

Actually, yes cause usually when I tried to make something without a manual it always turned out atrocious.

Back to the point, I don't find doing stuff on Kerbin as fun, and also the surface of Kerbin (probably because of the KSC) is super laggy.

[juanml82]

Well, you need to set up goals for yourself, such as planting the flag in all bodies, setting up a colony (using mods) in Laythe (for instance), exploring all the easter eggs in the game, fly in some of the cannons there are around, etc.

[Snark]

Re "cheating": There's no such thing in KSP. It's a free-exploration game; you can't "cheat" at it any more than you can cheat at Legos. Whatever you enjoy doing in KSP is, by definition, the "right" thing to do.

KSP has lots of different challenges. Different people enjoy different challenges. Personally, I love launching rockets; MechJeb would completely take the fun out of the game for me, therefore MechJeb is "cheating"-- for me. But someone else may find launching to be a tedious chore and wants to just skim past it to what they consider to be the more interesting challenges, so for them MechJeb isn't " cheating", it's just common sense.

What will keep KSP interesting for you totally depends on what your interests are. For example, there are mods that make the game harder in interesting ways, such as RemoteTech and TAC Life Support. For some people, such mods add a fun challenge-- for others, it would make the game tedious.

Another type of mod is one that adds new places to go (more planets). Outer Planets Mod is really excellent, it adds analogs of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. New Horizons adds a bunch of new planets in addition to totally rearranging the existing ones (Kerbin is a moon of a ringed gas giant, for example).

Then there are mods that add new kinds of hardware to play with, but those are almost too many to count.

So... What's your cup of tea?

[SpaceplaneAddict]

I'm a SpaceplaneAddict. I heart spaceplanes. For me, it's the trial and error that gets to me. Whenever something works, I get bored and start something else. When something fails, I work on it like a madman until the previous sentence happens. I love MJ.

[The_Rocketeer]

I go through phases of intense career play and then more casual sandbox experimentation, or big projects that career could stifle (e.g. circumnavigations). Sometimes I scan the forum challenges for something different to try.

One I saw/tried lately was building Star Wars style pod-racers. I got all the mods installed, spent a few hours tinkering, and then gave up because it was kicking my butt.

There's nothing wrong with taking a break - everybody gets burned out sometimes.

[Clockwork13]

I go through phases of intense career play and then more casual sandbox experimentation, or big projects that career could stifle (e.g. circumnavigations). Sometimes I scan the forum challenges for something different to try.

One I saw/tried lately was building Star Wars style pod-racers. I got all the mods installed, spent a few hours tinkering, and then gave up because it was kicking my butt.

There's nothing wrong with taking a break - everybody gets burned out sometimes.

Nothing wrong with taking a break sometimes, unless you are burnt out 90% of the time.

[Gooru]

I know how u feel! it was the same to me.

I downloaded MechJeb to do all the launches for me and it was great.

It also helps a lot in building rockets. Concentrate on the construction and let the MJ test the thing!

But then it soon got a habit to let do MJ all the tasks, as it can do nearly all tasks and mostly better then me.

KSP now was even more boaring, as i was just clicking MJ-Buttons, watched 3 minutes, clicked the next button, watched......

But thanks god there is a option in MJ to deactivate the different modules. My Mechjeb now can just launch a rocket and nothing else.

KSP is fun again. I can do (and have to do it manually) space missions and MJ delivers the payloads i need in orbit (if i construct the launching stage well)

[Halo_003]

Personally I've found it to be very boring to let MJ launch and do things, I use it to plot hard transfers and stuff but otherwise I don't use it. I also have found that I personally enjoy LKO operations more so than a big mission to anywhere else. Recently I've been building a new station, using smaller rockets etc to force more launches for a more realistic progression than just one giant single launch.

[FlyingPete]

Try the star systems mod and go interstellar. Set up a self-sufficient colony on an extrasolar planet, with its own mining operation and science outpost.

[Friend Bear]

Usually when I try KSP, I stop 2 days later and don't come back for another 7 months before trying it for another 2 days before losing interest again.

What mods could I install or things I should try to keep myself from losing interest in KSP? The part that I seem to hate the most is launching, and while getting rid of that completely would ruin the game, it would be nice if there were any mods that allowed me to do more things in space, but I'm also open to any other mod idea too.

Do what I do...try something new each time.

First time I had issues, I introduced TAC Lifesupport mod and played the game with that. Forces you to keep the Kerbals alive.

Then, I decided to make a space station that incorporated renewables to play with TAC. This required use of USI Kolonization mod; really complex mod with lots o' parts and works with mining mods and TAC.

The time after that, I thought to make stations I can send to other planets for refueling and off-world orbital stations with renewables, etc.

All this time, I used RemoteTech (will be incorporated in 1.1) which made the game harder.

The mistake I made though was playing career on the hardest hardest mode each time. I did it the first time, which is good, as you should. But once you know you can keep them alive, can save money, and play safe, don't ruin a super super intensive, solar system wide game with hard modes and no income. Hard mode is to prove to yourself you can do it or have fun trying. But once you have the skills, let yourself be flush with reasonable amounts of money and go from there (e.g. turn up the income per contract to 300%; have max starting cash and even consider cheating with alt12 to get enough cash to upgrade all buildings all the way or to where you want, then ditching the money; give yourself free science to be somewhere on the tree rather than the very start (important when you use 50+mods as your tree becomes hard to deplete in acquisitions)).

Just try something new each time. You do the tedious stuff enough and it takes no effort. For example, the only tedious thing I do now is setup my satellite network for RemoteTech. First time was fun/hard; launched one at a time. Third time, boring because I did the same thing...But it became fun again when I realized I could launch 4-8 in one rocket and set them adrift in orbit for a quick uplink in 1/8 the time.

Play persistently to find alternatives and new ideas, not to rinse and repeat, and you are good.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Friend Bear

[Clockwork13]

Try the star systems mod and go interstellar. Set up a self-sufficient colony on an extrasolar planet, with its own mining operation and science outpost.

Heard of a mod like that, but I thought it was outdated. I already have like 4 planet packs already too, but for me there's never such thing as enough planets.

[The_Rocketeer]

You could start your own youtube series. Show us KSP thru your eyes - you could call it 'and that's when I got bored'!

[Clockwork13]

You could start your own youtube series. Show us KSP thru your eyes - you could call it 'and that's when I got bored'!

Might consider it but in the past when I've tried doing these things, it always never becomes very successful

[Alshain]

Have you considered this game just isn't for you?

If you have to find ways to force yourself to play, maybe you just aren't interested in this style of game.

There are plenty of things you can do:

1. Have you been to every planet and moon?

2. Have you captured and asteroid?

3. Have you built a space station?

4. Have you flown a plane? Successfully? And Landed it?

5. Can you get a plane to space? Can you do it without dropping stages?

6. Can you build a vertical launch shuttle (this one is really challenging, harder than a plane believe it or not).

That is just the tip of the iceburg.

I'm curious what it is about launching you don't like? It's not that hard to do and you can do it in many ways.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Alshain

[The_Rocketeer]

Have you considered this game just isn't for you?

Wow, you're really selling this.

[Alshain]

Wow, you're really selling this.

Gotta face facts. There isn't a game out there that everyone on the planet likes.

All I'm saying is you shouldn't have to work so hard to enjoy yourself. If you do, you need to find something you enjoy naturally.

[UncleBod]

What mods could I install or things I should try to keep myself from losing interest in KSP? The part that I seem to hate the most is launching, and while getting rid of that completely would ruin the game, it would be nice if there were any mods that allowed me to do more things in space, but I'm also open to any other mod idea too.

What about kOS? Then you can write your own autopilot....

[Clockwork13]

Have you considered this game just isn't for you?

Yep, but before deleting it I wanted to give it another try, and I'm still sticking around longer this time than my last few times trying to get back into this game.

There are plenty of things you can do:

1. Have you been to every planet and moon?

2. Have you captured and asteroid?

3. Have you built a space station?

4. Have you flown a plane? Successfully? And Landed it?

5. Can you get a plane to space? Can you do it without dropping stages?

6. Can you build a vertical launch shuttle (this one is really challenging, harder than a plane believe it or not).

1. Half of the stock ones, but currently working with several planet packs.

2. Nope.

3. Yes, this is typically what I enjoy doing most.

4. Yes, no and no.

5. I've never really been successful with planes.

6. Not sure what that is.

I'm curious what it is about launching you don't like? It's not that hard to do and you can do it in many ways.

I just find launches boring. They aren't hard usually, just boring.

[MarvinKitFox]

Have you considered this game just isn't for you?

I'm seeing an image of a small child sitting in a library, surrounded by mounds of Lego blocks, looking at ample art supplies, and wailing that he is soooooo boooooored, there is *nothing* to do.