What's your motivation of (keep) playing KSP?

[ARS]

KSP is a singleplayer-wide open sandbox game with a lot of possibilities. There are many kinds of players, some of which plays the game following it's premise (rocket science) or doing something entirely unleated with it (messing around with physics)

Now I have played this game for about 2 years, and I'm still playing it. I wonder what makes player keep playing KSP for such a long time. Was it to learn and understand about rocketry? To explore and getting biome from all the planets? Making an ever-growing and developing space program? Building the next absurd contraptions? Personal ambition such as "building eve SSTO"? There are many possibilities for people to keep playing KSP

For me, my personal reason to keep playing KSP is that I love to build stuff. For me, KSP is like LEGO with rocket parts (and science) where I'm able to build stuff however I like, with the only limitation is my own imagination. I can build cool planes, rockets, or even something entirely unrelated with space program, and I love that

That's my reason. What about you? What's your reason to keep playing KSP for a long time?

Edited May 10, 2017 by ARS

[Snark]

• Because it's fun.
• Because it's as close as I'm ever gonna get to actually being able to go to space.  I still squee a little every time I launch a ship to LKO.  Watching a rocket roar off the pad on a towering column of SRB flame still makes me grin, every time.
• Using physics as a playground is deeply appealing to me.  (Physics major.)
• LEGO with rockets, same as you.  Love building things.
• There's always something new to try.  So many mods are out there that I can mix & match 'em so that no two careers are quite the same.
• Modding!  This is the first and, to date, only game I've written mods for.  Tons of fun. 
• Really fantastic forum community means I always have fellow nerds with whom to natter on endlessly about this stuff.

 

[Theysen]

RSS / RO / RP-0 in 1.2.2 is so stable and a masterpiece on 64bit you can dump hours into it without crashing and forget the clock. So much to do and try and keeping it realistic, that's a major plus for me. 

 

 

[MiffedStarfish]

I have kept playing KSP due to its incredible versatility. The first year I played I exclusively built stock combat tanks, which the game simulated incredibly well with zero bugs. Then needed to learn how to get to other planets and moons, and the game seamlessly transitions from a Minecraft-style building game, to an orbital mechanics simulator, (believe it or not ) and does it perfectly, with difficulty forcing you to learn while making everything seem achievable at the same time. I have been playing for 3 years, and I could play for another 3 and still have only scratched the surface of things to do. 

[Overland]

Kerbins a big planet..

But its not just that, the elcano challenge I took on honestly changed my life for the better..such a simple thing as taking on a challenge, it became its own story, grew its own life.. Gave purpose and reason to the trains admittedly id experimented with them for months before..

It was for the elcano I plugged in my steering wheel.. Fine tuned a locomotive and set off into the inky blackness of the night

As KSP changed for the worse, some would say worst.. Wheels became less capable, needlessly complex and still not as good as they once were..

Heat bugs caused locomotives to glow and explode, engines once redlined in operation up steep hills redlined in thermal runaway at idle

Terrain in the recent versions became strangely sharp and unfriendly, terrain now shows visible cracks..with wheels not 100% still.. Trying to recreate a functioning diesel electric transmission and the 100s of reloads it takes until synergy in resources is achieved (never and an exact calculation) ..

Has become soulcrushingly difficult

Operating engine throttle locked to high torque hungry traction motors. Giving a realistic power curve without drag or overun is hard enough and quite impossible while juggling wheels of a train confused by the multiple joints of a train in current KSP..

Quite simply for me its a bloody mess..

Its stopped my elcano challenge when a 40 class loco detonated while loading and parts broke kerbins atmosphere at light speeds when a new version dropped

So why do I keep going?

Thats the easy bit

 

Mods such as KSP wheel revitalise wheels once again.. Other mods override the nasty trail of destruction so called "updates" caused

Infernal robotics and flexable rover parts kill off the evil most undesirable invisible scourge known also as autostrut

New ways are found.. Where squad has faltered and tripped up, mod makers and community core people weather the storm and bring KSP back to KSP

While diesel electric trains and thier beautiful detriot engines, EMD engines and the relaxing whine of 12 traction motors remain a distant dream

Theyve been replaced by local electric trams puttering around KSC

RTG powered trains deliver fuel and ore from place to place and a new is old technology the trijet train becomes a high speed unit 

New couplings are found..steering drawbar has become the standard vs the old sliding wagons..

Less focus on diesels has my ideas of a steam loco mod swirling in my head again..

In this intermission until we get back to whats good ive learnt much.. Experienced failure and spawned ideas

Terrain cracks might give rise to a proper massive kerbalised sno-train landtrain

Out of the fire stronger resolve will come

I stay because theres no other game of this scale that.does what I want

And I stay because trains in KSP while changed, remain a beautiful unexpected thing thats brought me wonderful things

Edited May 10, 2017 by Overland

[Just Jim]

For me the answer is just two words: Emiko Station

[Numerlor]

Well, I just have burn out, so nothing

[Curveball Anders]

5 hours ago, Snark said:

• Because it's fun.
• Because it's as close as I'm ever gonna get to actually being able to go to space.  I still squee a little every time I launch a ship to LKO.
• Using physics as a playground is deeply appealing to me.  (Physics major.)
• LEGO with rockets, same as you.  Love building things.
• There's always something new to try.  So many mods are out there that I can mix & match 'em so that no two careers are quite the same.
• Modding!  This is the first and, to date, only game I've written mods for.  Tons of fun. 
• Really fantastic forum community means I always have fellow nerds with whom to natter on endlessly about this stuff.

 

Almost all my points too (slight edit )

 

[klesh]

Imagination.  

[Foxster]

Quote

What's your motivation of (keep) playing KSP?

Its the girls. 

Since I started playing KSP I have fight off fit birds with a bat. 

[NSEP]

Ideas.

[Curveball Anders]

4 hours ago, Foxster said:

Its the girls. 

Since I started playing KSP I have fight off fit birds with a bat. 

Do that really work?

Birds aren't normally scared off by bats, they're more scary for insects ...

[steuben]

Builds, booms, repeats.

And i've got a story to tell

[regex]

I'm hella burnt out but I do keep stopping by and trying to do new things, or revisit old mods. I gave up the stock game once I finished my Dres station but now I'm eyeballing my new RO install and dreaming of Delta replicas.

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

14 hours ago, Snark said:

• Because it's fun.
• Because it's as close as I'm ever gonna get to actually being able to go to space.  I still squee a little every time I launch a ship to LKO.  Watching a rocket roar off the pad on a towering column of SRB flame still makes me grin, every time.
• Using physics as a playground is deeply appealing to me.  (Physics major.)
• LEGO with rockets, same as you.  Love building things.
• There's always something new to try.  So many mods are out there that I can mix & match 'em so that no two careers are quite the same.
• Modding!  This is the first and, to date, only game I've written mods for.  Tons of fun. 
• Really fantastic forum community means I always have fellow nerds with whom to natter on endlessly about this stuff.

 

All this

+ no motion sickness for me (looking at you, every fps ever)

+ safe content for developing minds

+ can wander off for a cup of tea, or taking out the recycling without needing to pause.

 

 

[qzgy]

I like building things. And then seeing them work.

The community around it is also really fun to interact with.

 

[juvilado]

Im half burnout, but there is always plenty of work to do in KSP! 

Im still in the "old" 1.1.3 preparing an Eve return mission (my first one in many years playing) and while the transfer window comes, i have a MPL gathering all the scy in the Kerbin SOI...

With OPM, there are many places to visit, not and endless game but cant figure how many hours of playing will i need for reaching all the bodies. And if i would, i can always install more planets or even stars :-)

[Jimmidii]

Think of something I want to do.

Figure out how I'd do it.

Build it.

Fly it.

Didn't work, build it again.

Fly it.

Didn't work, build it again.

Fly it.

Almost worked, build it again.

Fly it.

Should have worked, fly it again.

Build and fly the bits I thought of during this process that I want to add.

Think of something bigger I want to do.

[juvilado]

I also have this motivational film:

 

[Red Shirt]

I thought back on other games that I have played through the years looking for a common thread. Not sure I found it. I started with Pong. Seems simplistic today but when it came out there had never been anything like it. Moved on to Asteroids. Again unique and bonus, it was space related. Later did other 2d stuff like Commander Keen. Then came the 3d engine and Wolfenstein 3D and later Doom. Played them to death. As amazing as they were at the time their limitation was the bad guys and monsters were always in the same spot. Once you learn the pattern it gets boring. I'd play other games after this with my kids but never really got in to them. Most are just repeats of a theme and the motion makes me sick to my stomach. I will add the Lego games with their big open worlds are kind of fun.

Then came KSP. It has the uniqueness of the early games. Far better 3D capabilities than the early games. The big open worlds of Lego. With a few mods the visuals can be breathtaking. I don't get sick playing. The solar system is constantly in motion meaning it changes slightly with every launch. On  top of this I get to be design/engineer of the crafts and the missions. I get to be the pilot (or not, thank you MJ). I guess what appeals to me most is I get to use my brain, and emotions, and not just my reflexes and a quick trigger finger. I continue to learn from this game even after 3+ years. As Snark said, it is as close to going to space as I'll ever get. 

[JadeOfMaar]

I'm a sci-fi artist. I have concepts for ships, stations, bases, resources, parts, planets and stars, stories... and all of these can be realized right in KSP and played out as I desire. The only things missing are ability to give kerbals different default surnames and physiologies... and voxel terrain.

In playing KSP I've become a resource wizard and I can make jet engines work anyhow and in any atmosphere, make a planet have any resource anywhere in its SOI (or not at all), make my own resources, and code any part to handle these resources in any amounts and at whatever appropriate cost.

I've come to know a few of the cosmic gurus out there such as Galileo, The_White_Guardian, Starcrusher96, OhioBob, Poodmund.  And I'll say as anyone that the overall KSP community is really helpful to anyone looking to get anywhere.

What else that keeps me coming back to KSP (although I've only played it for one year) are engines and utilities, and my ultimate ambitions are to model my own parts and planets for KSP, and to earn my way in a science mode game to get to fly some really cheaty ships and stations I've built.

[TheKosanianMethod]

Because there's no other game that lets you build and fight planes the way KSP does.

Because I can then take those planes to space.

And then fight with them there.

Because I can do whatever I want.

[LoSBoL]

11 hours ago, juvilado said:

I also have this motivational film:

 

That's so cool!

 

I'm in the middle of the picture, "wandering"

(Norway, Preikestolen)

 

[juvilado]

1 hour ago, LoSBoL said:

That's so cool!

 

I'm in the middle of the picture, "wandering"

(Norway, Preikestolen)

 

It is indeed the same rock!

[eddiew]

It appeals to my inner child, before the world crushed him down and explained he would never be an astronaut. And also my inner engineer and vehicle designer, as I get to try out mad scientist ideas and discover that many of them work in a small scale solar system. Turns out that the science fiction of the 50s is only kept away from us by gravity 

That and I'm bored to death of games with guns and violence. KSP is one of my staple few along with Minecraft, Subnautica and Cities Skylines - little refuges that don't involve a team of idiots with guns yelling "bang bang" and chasing another team of idiots with guns around the virtual playground.