When did you "get it" with KSP?

[DunaRocketeer]

I had landed on the Mun and came back. I went to Minmus and came back.

I went to Duna and couldn't get back. I needed to learn docking. Once that was accomplished, the whole solar system opened up. There were other moments, but that was the big point where I 'got it'.

[Fearless Son]

When I could consistently get to orbit, that is the point I felt like I "got" KSP.  It is probably the hardest milestone to achieve for a new player, but also the most critical.  Once a player can get past that, everything else begins to fall into place and it gets easier to understand from there.  

[Bornholio]

Before playing any time I had watched Manley tutorials and that sold me on the game, Started with a career and really didn't hit a wall until docking, learning RCS balance was the solution.

But i feel like the real I got it time was when I stopped putting fins&SAS&RCS on rockets because they actually fly right. (they still might for orbital work need SAS or RCS just in very small amounts compared to my old designs).  My 5m 8k dV ascent stages might have a set of airbrakes, a few RCS (105's) and a small SETI reduced SAS (1kN). Laughing at the days when rockets flipped if i didn't fly carefully.

Of course this weekend I pancaked 11 of 12 landing probes sent to Mars.  Struggle bus never stops does it.

[53miner53]

I feel I "got it" in the demo when I first got to orbit without also getting on an interplanetary trajectory. Or when I figured out asparagus staging, and had a much smaller launch craft that could go almost as far as my Mun lander. Or when I rescued a kerbal that was stranded on the Mun, after failing to do so with the past 3 launches, 2 of which hit the exact same problem as the initial launch.

[cantab]

Well in my first 20 or so hours in the demo I made orbit, orbited the Mun, made orbit in a single stage, and did an orbital rendezvous to rescue the Kerbal who had made orbit (just) in a single stage. A Mun landing came shortly after in the full game. So I think I "got it" pretty quickly and ever since then I've just been doing more and getting better. There are still a few known weak spots in my knowledge - I can't land precisely and my spaceplanes are borderline. (I can make 'em, but not with useful payload much.)

[`digitaL.braVo]

I bought KSP 4 months after it went early access on Steam in 2013. I only have 100 hours on my Steam account to date (probably half that in the last few weeks...) I had to wait a LOT of the game out as when I picked it up it was so new many features we appreciate today were dreams of the future.

It finally "got me" about a week or two ago when I decided I'd learn how to dock properly. I could get stuff into orbit. I could circularize (although now I'm far better at both of those tasks than previously...). I did my FIRST EVER Hohmann transfer to the Mun last week and then parked 2 comms satellites over it. Then I immediately started building a space station (which has been a massive success so far.)

 

Huge shout out to some of the more popular YouTube personalities for really breaking down "how" and "why" many of these things work. Including designs and helping show how things are built.

[Aragosnat]

Well 3 hours in douring the game demo version of 0.18 for soap-o version of the game. But, still got it when they added what we have today.

[MiffedStarfish]

I got ksp and spent nearly 3 years exclusively building stock Vtols and tanks. That's it. Then when some of my friend started setting up a DMP war server in which you claim planets by landing and planting flags first, I realised I had to Git Gud. My first moon lander was a failed vertical ssto that in frustration I had strapped several 3.75m parts and landed with 12 units of fuel left. (You know, I really should rescue them some time) we practically had a mini space race and consquently I can now comfortably do single launch bop and pol return missions. (or I can probably return, my lander was obliterated shortly after visiting the kraken on bop) 

TL;DR: Far longer than it should have.

[pandaman]

Like many others who have posted here, I found rendezvous and docking a really big milestone that opened up so many more options.  So that for me was my biggest 'got it' moment.  It happened far too long after I'd already done Mun and Minmus landings though. I still stuff it up badly at times, but I don't shy away from it now like I did at first.

[richfiles]

I'd say I "got it" on my fourth launch.

Launch 1: Over built a rocket in Sandbox mode, went straight up, reached escape velocity and ended up in a Kerbolcentric orbit with a fuel less capsule that would not pass by Kerbin for 96 years.

Launch 2: ... We don't talk about Columbia Titanic Fitzgerald II... It'll pass Dres someday. Someday... On it's way BACK...

Launch 3: Sent up a rescue mission. Got within 1400 Km of the stranded capsule, but everything about my orbit was just wrong, and I didn't really grasp the rendezvous details. Bill ended up kicked out of the capsule with no EVA fuel cause he failed to push the capsule enough to make up the 1400 Km discrepancy.

Launch 4: I knew I "got it" when my rendezvous with Bill actually killed him... In the vast, empty parking lot of space... I rammed Bill with the Claw. That's the point where I knew I'd figured out rendezvous... and then learned to dial it back just a bit... I don't need to dock with his internal organs... just him in general. I want to my last save, resurrecting the poor sap, and redid my rendezvous, this time with 100% less murderyness. I managed to maneuver the 129 ton vessel's door to Bill, who remember, could not maneuver on his own, thanks to a lack of fuel, and proceed to let him grab hold and board... 

This is the face of a man that has seen the face of another of his kind after 47 years of floating through the inky void... Crazy happy 

Spoiler

More cray-cray though... Look at those manic peepers! He's gone almost as bonkers as Jeb! Lanfal's just happy Bill only murdered the snack drawer! 

After that, my next mission had me orbiting the Mun, landing on Minmus, taking landed date from 5 different Minmus biomes, and making it back to Kerbin safely. Honestly, I was set at that point! Since then I've done crazy stuff like launch a 25 meter diameter ring space station in a single launch, with wonky controls, launch and then also LAND a similar station on Minmus (this time with controls corrected), and launch a 32000 ∆V Duna direct mission to beat a contract with a deadline that was about to expire! 

Edited March 10, 2017 by richfiles

[DAWN]

I started playing this game for three years.But I felt sorry because I didn't paid for this fantastic game because I have no money to buy anything.My mother didn't allowed me buy anything about game.However,I got a good grades when I finished my last term,as a gift,my mother bought a KSP for me.

(As you can see, I'm not good at English.

Edited March 10, 2017 by DAWN

[Meteor Kerman]

I've been playing it since the end of 2014 and i still can't build a Mun rocket that can return to Kerbin. 

[Firemetal]

As soon as I landed and returned from Minimus.

Fire

[Acolyte]

My first career.

Needed 6000 fuel on my new Minimus orbital station for a contract.

Used too much getting there, so fell short.

Sent a top-up mission - still not enough left. Wow, thought I, these rockets use a lot of fuel just getting into space

I got it, and the third mission finally delivered the fuel I needed ;-)

 

[hrobi2]

i first got it when i got into orbit around kerbin then i really really understood after getting in orbit around Earth in rss

[kBob]

I felt I "got it" the first time I got a  monster @Whackjob like creation into orbit.  But like others it's all the milestones and new ones that keep me coming back.  First time orbit, first time to Mun, first time landing on Mun etc.  each time I felt like "now I understand."  But then there was something new to strive for immediately after--maybe that's the true "got it" moment when you realize there are lots of those movements .

[Whackjob]

On 3/10/2017 at 5:34 PM, DAWN said:

I started playing this game for three years.But I felt sorry because I didn't paid for this fantastic game because I have no money to buy anything.My mother didn't allowed me buy anything about game.However,I got a good grades when I finished my last term,as a gift,my mother bought a KSP for me.

(As you can see, I'm not good at English.

Welcome aboard!  You are good enough with English.  You have no reason to worry!

[Zeiss Ikon]

I thought I'd "got it" when I learned to reliably rendezvous and dock (after deleting a save in which I'd managed to strand all three of my game-start pilots in orbit around the Mun -- two in their space suits with no EVA fuel, the third out of RCS propellant and without enough fuel to get back to Kerbin).

Then came the day I was committed to land on Minmus before realizing my landing point "near the previous landing flag and descent stage" was in darkness, because Minmus isn't tide locked.  Landing with only the navball, altimeter, and target marker for the previous flag, and getting within 40 m, in complete darkness (the lander had no external lights; I could faintly see the surface, lit by my own descent engine, only for the last five meters or so) was what convinced me I "had it".

[TopHeavy11]

I felt like I "got it" after I made my first Mun landing. Considering I bought the game in v. 0.24.4, when there was no landing tutorial, I had to work it out from scratch. It was horrendously inefficient and dysfunctional, but I did it. That save is now long gone, but the memory of Halifeld Kerman is still remembered. R.I.P. Halifeld, 2014-2014.

[Drethon]

There are so many "I get it" moments in this game, and I'm sure I have more.  My first rocket launch I tried to go straight up and then turn into orbit... oh, gravity turn?  First flight to the Mun and realizing you don't burn "to" the Mun, then burning the wrong way to exit the Mun's SOE to return.  My first docking that didn't result in 10 near misses.  The first time I realized I don't need large parts to get anywhere outside of Kerbin's SOE.  The first time I made a flight to Jool and back without even any maneuvering nodes (was not efficient).

I've put more hours into KSP than any game, except Fallout 4 and settlement building (playing KSP requires too much brain in grad school...), and I only consider myself competent at this point.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Drethon

[Zeiss Ikon]

On 3/14/2017 at 0:26 PM, Drethon said:

The first time I realized I don't need large parts to get anywhere outside of Kerbin's SOE.

If you're sending Kerbals, you do.  I've got a reliable Mun/Minmus ship that uses 1.25 m parts, but in order to reliably send even one Kerbal anywhere further, with capability to land and return, and do the mission with a single launch, I've had to build a monster with thirteen Mainsails and thirty Thuds burning at launch -- but it's got 5+ km/s dV from LKO, while pushing a lander that I'm pretty sure can land and return from any airless body in the Kerbol system with the possible exception of Tylo.  And that's still all 2.5 m parts.  Once I get enough 3.75 m parts unlocked, I'll be able to send the Mk. 1-2 anywhere in the system on a single launch, I think.

[NightshineRecorralis]

I suppose for me it was when I hit 200 hours and realized how much I learned from this game. I started without even knowing how to pronounce rendezvous or the physics of orbital mechanics. Now I'm 2100hrs in, and I still have much to learn. Going into orbit, then to a moon, is the easy part. Going interplanetary takes a lot more. I've held it off by specializing in SSTO building once I figured out it was possible, but each of these steps signifies another "got it" moment rather than one giant one.

[JAFO]

As others have said, there have been many such moments..  first orbit, first Mun landing, first docking, etc..

But one that stands out for me, I think, was when I finally understood that less really was more, and stopped overbuilding my ships..

 

On 3/5/2017 at 3:28 PM, Physics Student said:

I really got it when i developed my own method for performing a rendezvous with a craft that is on an entirely different orbit (a method i didn't find in a tutorial and i will write one on)

Now that's a tutorial I look forward to reading!!

 

[Aidan likes minmus]

Well mine was when i could land on the mun as well as make decent rockets. I still suck tho docking is kinda hard for me and ive never had a manned interplanetary mission come back. also at one point i could land on the mun but i didn't know how to quick save so at one point i was playing like a hardcore game. learning to quick save and quick load helped me a lot

 

[ap0r]

I think I really got when i designed a real rocket engine was able to rendezvous and dock. The universe became my playground then. Before that I was limited by single launch mass.