Your Favourite Feature in KSP

[Jasper_f]

On 26-1-2016 at 4:46 PM, Snark said:

[...]

Mainsails and Skippers and Sparks and Reliants
Coming back home with a full load of science
Shrieking reentry with heat shield ablaze
Playing two years and it's not just a phase!

[...]

This is fantastic. I am once again confronted by the fact that all of you are all amazing and inspiring!

 

With respect to the game itself, there is one big aspect that I truely love, and that is that I can do anything and everything in this game. In any space simulator I can fly a spaceship, yet not design the mission nor the ship itself. In a flight sim I can perhaps create the mission and fly the plane, but not design the plane! KSP gives me ultimate freedom to create my very own ship and fly it myself, all while executing a mission of my own creation (or imagination). And maybe, just maybe, the fact that KSP has rekindled my love for space exploration. The past two years have been filled with watching livestreams of launches by Roscosmos, NASA, SpaceX, ESA, etc. I fully expect to continue this trend in 2016 (launch of the Falcon heavy, anyone?!).

[Threadsinger]

51 minutes ago, Jasper_f said:

This is fantastic. I am once again confronted by the fact that all of you are all amazing and inspiring!

 

With respect to the game itself, there is one big aspect that I truely love, and that is that I can do anything and everything in this game. In any space simulator I can fly a spaceship, yet not design the mission nor the ship itself. In a flight sim I can perhaps create the mission and fly the plane, but not design the plane! KSP gives me ultimate freedom to create my very own ship and fly it myself, all while executing a mission of my own creation (or imagination). And maybe, just maybe, the fact that KSP has rekindled my love for space exploration. The past two years have been filled with watching livestreams of launches by Roscosmos, NASA, SpaceX, ESA, etc. I fully expect to continue this trend in 2016 (launch of the Falcon heavy, anyone?!).

I agree. My favorite feature of KSP is that it feels like a space-LEGO game, where there are just enough rules to make it feel like an abstract (or conceptual) space simulator, but not one that is bogged down in too many details in an attempt to make it too realistic like a true simulator (or CAD program...) I like that I can build rockets that would never really get off the ground IRL, or spaceplanes, or starbases, or land craft which have some questionable design choices, but that still...do... because they're "close enough". To me, that freedom added to my enjoyment of discovering the basic principles of space flight (wow! orbits! that's how they work?!), without feeling pegged by real engineering and science limitations. As long as KSP continues to be designed in this regard (leaving hyper-realism to the modders and players that want it), KSP will continue to be my favorite PC game. 

(That's not to say that games and simulators cannot invoke true realism, or that those who enjoy them are in some way negatively represented - rather, I just personally prefer the SimCity-esque abstraction of building ships, as opposed to having to focus on making sure every detail is perfect in every technical and physical respect or the spacecraft won't work...)

[Kerbal01]

The continuous crashes every few hours at the RAM limit, lovely feature.

[cubinator]

I love how KSP can be modded so easily. That way, I can build my own playing experience that isn't ever quite the same as anyone else's because of the particular modset I use. I can take out and add mods at a whim, and the immense variety guarantees that it's not necessary to endlessly pester the devs about some arbitrary feature I want because most of the time there's a mod that does exactly what I want.

Reading this thread has made me really happy; I'm going to go play some KSP! 

[ForsakenVoyager]

Space, space is my favorite feature.

[Benoit Hage]

The launch.

[Tfin]

Squad. They continue to work at it, actually going so far as to rewrite practically the entire game and NOT sell it as "KSP2."

I can't think of any part of the actual game that couldn't be better in some way (that might break everything else in some cases), but they're on it.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Tfin said:

Squad. They continue to work at it, actually going so far as to rewrite practically the entire game and NOT sell it as "KSP2."

I can't think of any part of the actual game that couldn't be better in some way (that might break everything else in some cases), but they're on it.

And while we're at it... Squad's attitude towards players, and the responsiveness of their developers.

Yeah, it's not an actual game feature, but it might as well be.  The actual developers read the actual player comments and actually respond.  Not just answering questions, but actually jumping in to try to figure out how to fix things that are broken.

Here's a thread from today's "Gameplay Questions" forum, as just one example:

Not one but two developers jumping right in.  Try getting that kind of response from EA or any of the other big-name game companies.

I'm just astounded.  Have never seen that kind of consistent responsiveness from any other software company.

[maceemiller]

I find the immersion in KSP an amazing experience. I can lose hours at a time building, planning, testing, tweaking the build, retesting, attempting the mission and so on.

Never before has a game got me feeling so involved.

[StrandedonEarth]

On 1/30/2016 at 5:25 PM, Tfin said:

Squad. They continue to work at it, actually going so far as to rewrite practically the entire game and NOT sell it as "KSP2."

I can't think of any part of the actual game that couldn't be better in some way (that might break everything else in some cases), but they're on it.

^This. They're still updating the game and adding features for free, after the 1.0 release. With no DLC in sight. No expansion packs. No micro-transactions. Best $23 I ever spent.

[Temstar]

Most companies would change $10 just for something like Asteroid Day

[joekidd1992]

I have already answered once, but I'll answer again with something different. I have close to 700 hours on this game and I know plenty have way more than that.

 

I rarely, rarely play a game for more than 100 hours before I get bored. I like all games, but there are only 3-4 games in my lifetime I have spent this much time on. KSP, Everquest, Skyrim, AOE2 (not sure how I managed that it is so repetitive). As I mentioned, it is very rare I put this much time into a game. And I haven't even conquered it, yet.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Surely all of it?

> 2000 hours in game is kind of telling isn't it?

Probably the most genius thing was to use the space bar to go to space.

It was so obvious that I couldn't figure it out in the demo for a good 10 minutes then Google showed me what a blind fool I was and then shortly after I made the full purchase.

[Navy2k]

Modability is my favorite feature!

I was playing RSS/RO for quite a bit and was getting stable results with Rockets and felt like a real man.

A week ago I started a RSS/RO RP0 Career and tried to build a supersonic plane. 90% of the Tools FAR offers where chinese to me and trying for hours to build something stable I am feeling like wanting my blankie back, suck my thumb and cry a little bit.

Greetings

Ben

[Ariana]

Atmosphere of the game itself. i mean, ambience. not the air thingy. visual of the game, description on the parts... etc. and everyone mentioned already but patched conics & other casual mechanics too. I never had any interest in astronomy neither rockets. So if KSP wasn't look sily as it does now but was serious space sim, i might be too intimidated and already gave up. but light-hearted side of KSP keeps me stick to it even if keep failling something. because of that, failure is a hllarious moment rather than stressful moment. top of that, it's still deep enough to feel that accomplished something awsome when you succeed!

[BlueSubstance]

EVA mode, without it I couldn't create proper videos. ^^

[KnutG]

something like a story in KSP - like it was planed early with the easter eggs. So that you have a good need to explore the system...

[KerbonautInTraining]

5 hours ago, T.A.P.O.R. said:

Probably the most genius thing was to use the space bar to go to space.

It was so obvious that I couldn't figure it out in the demo for a good 10 minutes then Google showed me what a blind fool I was [...]

I'm not the only one??

God, I got so frustrated I stopped trying for a few hours. Not a great first impression, but the game made up for it very quickly.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

4 hours ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

I'm not the only one??

God, I got so frustrated I stopped trying for a few hours. Not a great first impression, but the game made up for it very quickly.

Throttle was another one.
I just button mashed until something worked.

There really needs to be an on screen equivalent for RCS, SAS, Throttle & Stages.
Just like we have for Flight, Map &Docking mode.
All in good time I guess

[spacebrick3]

The building aspect. I can spend an hour or so just building an enormous mothership that I'm never going to use. Just trying to figure out how so-and-so should work (e.g., figuring out how to deploy SCANsats symmetrically when travelling between moons) is really fun in the design phase.

[Gojira1000]

The weirdly satisfying thumps (and occasional explosions) that occur when triggering decouplers.

(But mostly the editor being brilliant)

[kiwi1960]

What feature do I like..... all of it... the entire KSP game.

But it makes me mad whenever a new version comes out and I have to start again because I don't have the mods for that version YET... or a new feature makes it freaking hard... what has me beat so far is re-entry heat. I still cannot get my brain around it so Kerbals die.... but then, isn't that the nature of life? Those in charge (me) give the orders and the ones that take the orders die....I could turn the heat down in the settings but... meh.... I still go places like the Mun...

that is.. when I get to play the game. Its why I *still* haven't figured out the heat!

[Kyrt Malthorn]

My favorite feature?  Mostly realistic physics. Plenty of games have had physics engines before, but how many have taken them to space, taught me about real rocket science concepts, made me understand dV, TWR, Isp, gravity turns, the tyranny of the rocket equasion, the lure of staging, even a little aerodynamics.  KSP made me think, learn, plan, and then run free to be creative with designs.  And KSP continues to kindle the spark of curiosity for exploration and understanding the universe, something that I had forgotten for too many years.

Right along with that, I love SQUAD's relationship with the community.  Just look at the new searchbar feature and how you can search for "Moar" and get boosters and struts.  Seriously, I've never seen devs so involved in the community, so supportive, and listening to the feedback to take into account to make something great.  (For that very reason they have to walk a fine line between the camps petitioning make-this-mod-stock and no-please-dont.)

 

@Snark, love the poem!  Almost made me late for work, laughing.

[Krullarikas]

Being the irony loving space-hipster that I am. I'm going to say either the surprisingly realistic physics [bad sarcasm], and puns you can make out of the names of the planets.

[DarkOwl57]

On 1/26/2016 at 9:46 AM, Snark said:

Set to a possibly recognizable tune:

Liftoffs from launchpads with boosters a-flaming
Wobbling and flipping while Squad I'm a-blaming
Rockets with nosecones and spaceplanes with wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Little green guys who are brainlessly grinning
Figuring out why this ship won't stop spinning
Deep satisfaction that launch always brings
These are a few of my favorite things

Transfer ellipses with nodes for maneuvers,
Tweakable gimbal for thrust-vectored louvers,
Surge past Mach One, punch a hole in the sky:
Couldn't stop playing but I don't care why

When the drag bites, when the chute rips
When I'm feeling sad
I just fly a few of my favorite ships
And then I don't feel so bad

Suicide burn to a scary swift landing,
Broke off the legs but who cares, it's still standing
Oberth maneuvers and gravity slings
These are a few of my favorite things

Drills are a-drilling while fuel is refining
Staging for splitting and ports for combining
Adding a mod for some gas-giant rings
These are a few of my favorite things

Mainsails and Skippers and Sparks and Reliants
Coming back home with a full load of science
Shrieking reentry with heat shield ablaze
Playing two years and it's not just a phase!

When the drag bites, when the chute rips
When I'm feeling sad
I just fly a few of my favorite ships
And then I don't feel so bad

#20/10WouldWhistleInTheMiddleOfEnglishClassAgain