When did you "get it" with KSP?

[Whackjob]

I notice I failed to actually answer the question.

I first got it when I watched the Scott Manley videos.  I kid you not, that's what got my career really going.  Once I learned how to orbit and rendezvous, that was that!

[Finox]

Mine was when I finally figured out what those maneuver-node thingies were good for.   After that I sent probes to every body in the solar system...except Gilly, always forget that one.

[Curveball Anders]

For me it was two different versions of getting it.

The first was already in my first run in the demo.

Getting a box of building blocks, a way to attach them and then launch them into space (after a couple of explosive fails).

The second was figuring out the basic physics and math related to orbits.

(The latter totally dependant on the help, guides, slaps and pokes provided by the members of this forum).

[Yobobhi]

On 2/28/2017 at 4:22 PM, Slam_Jones said:

Once I figured out how to rendezvous, I felt like I "got it."  Although I had already landed on the Mun before then...

Exactly the same. I had done Mun and Minmus missions, but once I got a rendezvous, I knew that was when I understood KSP.

[Ourtism]

Just today, actually. Picked the game up a long time ago, played for all of a few hours and decided I wasn't enjoying myself and the learning curve was too steep. Fast forward roughly one year, picked it up again and everything just kind of clicked on it's own, figured out how nodes work and figured out how to deal with the semi-buggy map view, grasped TWR, performed a few rendezvous and achieved a decent handle on basic orbital mechanics. A healthy dose of frustration is nice, but everything snowballed rather intuitively after I figured out nodes through extensive trial and error. I'm still taking my KSP baby steps, but the speed I'm progressing has really picked up after getting to the Mun. I blame a good chunk of the prolonged wait on rather poor science tree decisions in early game, though, and I couldn't be bothered to start a brand new career at the time. When I first got the game I jumped straight into Sandbox, and I think that was a mistake for me, it felt purposeless after launching (and destroying) a handful of rockets possessing completely irresponsible amounts of thrust. I feel somehow like I needed career mode all along in order to really care about how things worked in the game, and why. Now I'm considering throwing in an air/water/food mod for extra challenge, I put a space station into 100k orbit around Kerbin but it just feels strange that they're going to be up there indefinitely and won't be requiring a single resupply.

Funny too, I recall last year feeling those "this game is far too difficult for me" woes, and if I had spent another mere hour or two I'm sure I would have realized it's not nearly as complicated as it can seem to new players. Now I just feel bad about dropping it for so long, I missed out on a good years-worth of KSP. I could have been set up on Eeloo by now... 

 

[Drethon]

On 3/16/2017 at 6:51 AM, Zeiss Ikon said:

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.

I haven't had time to play KSP for quite some time so most of my screenshots are out of data but I think this is a screenshot of my rocket I use to reach the moons of Eve or Duna.

[John FX]

Very quickly in my case. I seriously overbuilt my first rocket (thinking I had to build to Earth sizes) so I was in orbit within half an hour and I landed on all the bodies within a month to do the `grandmaster challenge` and only afterwards realised that it was supposed to be really hard and that doing so was essentially all there was to do in the game, which if I knew before I would have stretched out the exploration.

Now I am going through the same learning process in RSS/RO/RP-0 I am taking more time and enjoying the journey.

[klesh]

I attended the Manley School of Spaceflight prior to buying KSP, so I had a pretty good idea of rocket building basics.   I landed on the Mun after a day or two.  For me, really "getting it" entailed manual rendezvous and docking, as well as being able to look at map mode and know what orientation to burn to make a slight adjustment to an encounter or orbit without a maneuver node.  That demonstrates a full understanding of the physics going on out there.  That, to me, is really getting it.  

Graduate level courses beyond that are for efficiencies, so "moar boosters" isn't your solution to everything.  Once youve figured out how to do everything, then you're learing the why's and figuring out how to do all those things you just learned better.  

Edited March 21, 2017 by klesh

[Alpha 360]

Stage 1: When I learned not to build with 3.75 meter parts for a small,orbital mission.

Stage 2: When I learned to cram engines in a small space

Stage 3: When I learned how to dock

Stage 4: When I learned how to encounter another planet beyond kerbin

Stage 5: When I learned how to beat the career mode

Stage 6: Lost favour with Jebidiah and started using Val for important missions (Still haven't reached this point completely)

These can be completed in any order, though happened to me in this order.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Alpha 360
"Kouston, we have several problems, but that doesn't matter so we want to continue on with the mission."

[Gorebane]

I think I finally got it after about 80 hours, when I was able to plot orbits and get interceptions without hardly any faffing. However after 300 hours I'm still discovering things.

[richfiles]

8 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

Stage 6: Lost favour with Jebidiah and started using Val for important missions (Still haven't reached this point completely)

I rarely ever send Kerbals on solo missions... No Kerbal should have to die alone 

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

When I learned that you could quicksave.

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

When I learned that you could quicksave.

I learned about Quicksave after sending a Mun lander (my first ever, I'd never actually landed and returned from Mun yet) up at least a half dozen times and failing after achieving stable Mun orbit. I was about ready to quit the game because it was so frustrating to put "all that work" (that I now barely even think about) into getting the ship all the way to Mun, only to crash when landing.

I found out about Quicksave, used it, and what do you know that exact run ran without issue from that moment on.

(That was in the demo. I bought the game the moment I got my guys back to Kerbin)

[helaeon]

I knew there was something special going on when I saw the view from orbit the first time in the demo...

Probably took me a couple of weeks until I really understood what was going on and could think intuitively about the trajectories my ship was going to take... Now almost 4k hours in I do a lot of things without even bothering to make a node (or can fix an emergency situation if necessary)... Started really feeling right when I quit trying to fly with the keyboard and mouse and got out my Xbox controller. I ran most of the historical missions, or a version of them, to learn how to do all the things NASA thought were necessary to know in the 60s. It's a good way to learn it. About the time I was done with Apollo 11 I could do about anything.

I think what stood out as how amazing KSP really is... is seeing how open it is to modding code wise and how generally cool our modders are to people that want to help and learn (players generally being cool actually - especially to new people - is something that's prevalent through the whole community). It's very special. I've been doing modding of some kind or another for quite a few games, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Unreal, Quake, Half-Life 1 & 2... on that front KSP is something else and it's one reason the game has the legs it does and we can play it for years.

[Araym]

... when I reached first time space (KSP 0.13) and a stable orbit...
... when then I returned the capsule back...
... when, thanks to some mod, then with the initial and basic stock part provided back, I built a "somewhat plane", to use the basic airstrip KSC was provided of...
... when first managed to reach the Mun, and I actually returned to Kerbin safe...
... when I actually LANDED on the Mun, not only orbited it, and returned back...
... when SQUAD added Minmus, and I repeated the feature to land and return...
... when some mod started to add some "docking" (even if the Kraken was always happy to eat my creations right after dock) (KSP 0.15~0.17??? more or less) and I have to learn how to rendevouz in space...
... when I made my first SpacePlane...
... when "docking ports" became stock and I did my first, stable, rendevouz and docking, in a Gemini-alike style...
... when I did an Apollo 11-alike replica mission, complete of plotting a free return trajectory, lander extraction from fairings, landed few meters away from Neil Amstrong Memorial on the Mun and completed the Mun orbit rendevouz and return...
... when I made my first space station...
... when I started to add more mods, and parts, and make some basic replicas of real life missions/rockets/planes or absurde, impossible, contraptions and sci-fi looking crafts...
... when planets were added and more craft were sent all around...
... when I visited all the anomalies on every planet/moon...
... when I FOUND (even if briefly) the "Magic Boulder" that orbited around Ike... (... like the previous point, inspired by some Scott Manley videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJBSea-3DHs ... it was KSP 0.18... we are talking about 2012!!! Oh GOD how much fast time runs!!! )
... when mining was added, thus exploration was worth of something, designating some basic refueling network around Kerbol system...
... when CAREER was made stock and money capitalization became a new aspect of managing launches...
... when I reverse enginered and built on my own a Shuttle comparable in power to the best stock one I ever played (Inigma's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIHyXsgdqHE)...
... when I glide landed back my reversed engineered Shuttle to KSC, perfectly on the runway...
... when (shameless advertisements??? naaahh... it's actually a long lost project of mine) I had Kuzzter -sensei (You know his comics, don't you? Because if not you are really an alien ) pop up  in my short lived "comic" thread with apreciation words...
... when I helped (just to have them playable fast as possible) CobaltWolf to check/bug-test his NASA-alike replicas parts, to build the main rockets that come from NASA early years up to the Saturn V...
... when I made a (modded) replica of the MIR and built it, in space, like the real one...
... when I made in the same way the ISS...
... when now I'm trying to find a balancement for various different mods, to resume a new "comic season" of Kerbal adventures (or practically restart it from scratches)...
... when... DUNNO: i never ended to amuse myself, repeating, from time to time, an esclamation of "OOOOHHHH: this is a new pinnacle for my kerbalkind". KSP is like "life": you'll never stop learning.

 

... TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO KERBALS (at least in my saves) WENT BEFORE...

 

(NOTE: probably not all of them in perfect chronological order... you have to excuse a poor old guy that still play KSP since... uhm... ages ago )

Edited March 22, 2017 by Araym

[spacebrick3]

     I got KSP in version 0.90, and at first my rockets only went straight up. I had almost fifty probes going off into random orbits around the Sun, but with no power (no solar panels) and no control. I gave up on KSP for a bit, since I couldn't do anything, and didn't play it again for a couple of months.

     Then, one day, I'm reading Randall Munroe's What If?, and I find a link to Scott Manley's nuclear-bomb-powered plane. I click on the Recommended tab, to see the other KSP videos, and after several days of my life watching Scott Manley, I know how to get into orbit, set up maneuver nodes, land on other bodies, etc. I got back into KSP after that, and have been playing since then.

 

[Dark Lion]

"Getting" KSP... Nawp. Still don't get it. HA 

~~~I found the debug menu-- LIFTOFF! 
Jets and single-stage to orbit are all the rave on Kerbin. Kerbals? Many died. Many... MANY died. For science, mostly. Some out of sheer frustration. Some because OMG LOLZ and spaghettification.
~~~I figured out which freakin tank to put the fuel pipe on first for a proper fuel balance-- Stage One Sep!
Lookout Mun, Minmus, Duna, and lots and LOTS of failed rescue missions. Oh, and Eve? NO! Just... ugh. The global Kerbin population suffers a near-extinction-level event known only as "Physics Testing." Whole stations were built.... just to be rammed by speeding, I'm-not-docking-at-140m/s-relative-velocity kind of vessels. Because... science. 
~~~"You mean, if I hold Shift while using Offset... I can put any part anywhere?!"-- Interplanetary Base Descent
I got chu KSP. There's nothing you can't build. Oh... ahem... Until you get on up in the parts count. I.... really.... love... playin'... K... S... P... though. Ugh, and then I randomly blow up coming out of warp and quickload more than I launch... I keep snacks though.
~~~MODS-- Let's see what chu got, KSP Players. 

Edited March 25, 2017 by TheLionsBite