What feature could you not live without?

[theradRusssian]

What feature do you think is the best/can't live without.

I think a feature that I couldn't live without is maneuver nodes.

[blorgon]

1 hour ago, theradRusssian said:

I think a feature that I couldn't live without is maneuver nodes.

You might surprise yourself. Pretty soon you'll be doing interplanetary transfers without them. I've gone to Duna, Eve, Jool, and Eeloo all without using a single node.

As far as features, the game would be pretty lame if Time Warp wasn't a thing. Nobody would ever venture beyond Minmus.

Edited April 24, 2016 by blorgon

[Nich]

I will one up you, the VAB/SPH is probably my fave feature.  If I had to build ships by text files I would never play again. Although Gravity is a pretty good feature too lol

Edited April 24, 2016 by Nich

[Enorats]

The ability to save the game and continue later. Or.. oh! The whole space thing. Game would be pretty boring without it.

[OSUNightfall]

Change craft root. Having the wrong root for your craft could cause all sorts of terrible bugs in the past. Even today, if something really bizarre happens, consider changing your root part.

[Mahnarch]

Is the Sun, Kerbol, a feature?

 

Kerbol.

[AbacusWizard]

6 hours ago, Mahnarch said:

Is the Sun, Kerbol, a feature?

 

Kerbol.

Good point; I've never liked docking in the dark.

[Corw]

Delta V display

[lobe]

So the game in 2011 came out with altitude, speed, nav ball, prograde/retrograde markers, and VAB. Assuming this, I couldn't live without map view. It made orbital mechanics make sense, and helped me understand Orbiter.

[FungusForge]

Physics.

Or Kerbin.

[JoeNapalm]

9 hours ago, Corw said:

Delta V display

There's a Delta V display!?

 

-Jn-

[blorgon]

9 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

Good point; I've never liked docking in the dark.

Just slap some spotlights on your craft. It's super atmospheric. I actually like docking in the dark because of it.

Edited April 27, 2016 by blorgon

[AbacusWizard]

I used to put lights on everything for exactly that reason, but since then I've gotten much better at fine-tuning my orbital trajectories, so I generally just arrange every rendezvous (and landing) to be on the daytime side of the planet.

Edited April 27, 2016 by AbacusWizard

[Mjarf]

On 24.4.2016 at 7:26 PM, theradRusssian said:

What feature do you think is the best/can't live without.

I think a feature that I couldn't live without is maneuver nodes.

I've found the maneuver nodes to only be partially useful, as they are quite imprecise for me for some reason. At least they help me time the start of the manuver, but the maneuver vector on the navball seems quite inconsistent, it seemed a bit more consistent in 1.05 than in 1.1, so they'll probably improve it in the near future.

Symmetry mode in VAB/SPH is among my favorite features, without it it would be quite tedious and difficult to build properly symmetrical crafts.

[l0k0]

Patched conics and SOIs

[Ozymandias_the_Goat]

just EVERYTHING! but the most important one is the maneuver nodes. Without them, I'd never get further than the mun or minmus.

[cubinator]

I sure couldn't live without lungs. I mean, unless I was a worm or sponge or something, and I'm not.

Oh, the KSP thing I couldn't live without! I get it now. The ability to slap together an actual freaking spaceship of my own design. Granted, it's not 100% realistic, but I can design a rocket and see how it is affected by various forces like atmospheric drag, heat, and structural integrity. I can fly it to those little dots in the sky, land it there, and walk around, build bases, everything! The design portion is what makes this game special. The fact that each individual part does almost nothing useful by itself, but each one can be used in conjunction with other parts to make whole planes, rockets, and space stations. That is why KSP is the best game ever.

Edited April 27, 2016 by cubinator

[Guest]

Delta V readouts.  

...and the ability to move the camera.  Just think about it.  Imagine not being able to do that.  Wouldn't it be terrible.  Or, how about Untiy?  It wouldn't be here without it.

[adsii1970]

I think about the ability to construct uniquely my craft. I had been burned pretty bad with Sid Meier's After Earth and Spaceships. I had hoped I would be able to construct my own, as I had been able to do in Galactic Empires II. Boy, was I wrong.  A bad $39.00 investment!

I tried the .18 demo of KSP and immediately fell in love with the game. So much flexibility...

[Mahnarch]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

~snippity~

I tried the .18 demo of KSP and immediately fell in love with the game. So much flexibility...

LOL. I learned about KSP from Randall of XKCD fame and downloaded 0.18, also.

2 hours later I was buying the full game (0.23)

[T-Bouw]

Having axes.

Seriously, trying to fly a finicky rocket using only a keyboard gets me easily frustrated. Even when using precision controls.
Especially when the margin between stable flight and flipping is small.

[swjr-swis]

On 4/24/2016 at 9:46 PM, Nich said:

If I had to build ships by text files I would never play again.

That moment when I embarrassingly realize that in more than a few occasions, I spent more time reading and editing cfg text files than clicking the game UI, because the stock (or mod!) capabilities or part configurations did not allow what I wanted...

Ironically, a lot of people claim they wouldn't play at all without text file editing (nowadays usually done through Module Manager). People that publish said edited text files become known as 'modders'. And I get the impression most modders never really get to play the game anymore, so perhaps there is truth in your words in more ways than one.

Anyway, to answer OP: editing text files, definitely way up there on my list of things I couldn't do without in KSP.

[adsii1970]

10 hours ago, Mahnarch said:

(Edited for relevant content)

2 hours later I was buying the full game (0.23)

It took you two hours? Man, after playing the demo I downloaded off STEAM, I went back and saw it was on "sale" for $5.99 as a pre-release game. With only ten minutes of demo play, I went ahead and bought the game. Been hooked ever since and it has been the BEST $5.99 investment ever. If I use the STEAM reported hours I have played KSP, I have played 1,609 hours. Doing the math, I have gotten great satisfaction AND frustration for the amazing low price of $0.0037 per hour!

Something else that makes the game great is this forum. It adds to my game play...

[Red Iron Crown]

The editor. I could honestly just play around in the VAB/SPH and never launch a thing, would still be an enjoyable game of space lego. 

Relevant meme is relevant:

Spoiler

 

 

[Curveball Anders]

10 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

The editor. I could honestly just play around in the VAB/SPH and never launch a thing, would still be an enjoyable game of space lego.

This.

As I wrote in some other thread I have a beaten up old laptoy (basicly a typewriter) that I bring along when I leave home for summerhouse or other travels.

I keep it updated (there's currently 3 different KSP installs on it) despite the fact that it can barely launch a 3 part rocket at 3 fps without melting or hover off the table due the fans going ballistic (including the cooling pad).

The reason is that with it I can sit anywhere and play in the VAB to plan (and dream about) the missions I might (as in never) do when I get back home .

So if you see a (mostly) grey-haired dude, happily slacking at a porch of a little cottage with a laptop it's probably me