What's the first thing that you do in KSP? Your first craft? How's it?

[ARS]

Title says it all. What's the first thing that you do in KSP? Your first craft? and how it ended? (If you still remember) Especially when you have no clue whatsoever about KSP control or rocketry at all

Back then when I first opening KSP, I'm playing sandbox mode. I'm going inside SPH (First building that I visit) and fiddling around how to build an aircraft. Having no clue at all about the control or symmetrical option as well as snap feature, my plane looks unbalanced and bad because the wing doesn't fit properly since I attach them one-by-one. Bored with that, I'm going to VAB and start noticing open folder, and I found premade craft. So I loaded a rocket: Z-MAP satellite launch kit. On launchpad, having no clue how to launch, I tried to press literally all keys on keyboard before I hit spacebar the last and voila, the rocket launched! No clue about SAS, I thought I must steer it manually to keep it stable before suddenly, stage 1 drained out... How do I start the next stage? Maybe pressing spacebar again? Huh? No response? (Literally mashing the spacebar) stage 1 decoupled... stage 2 active!? Whole rocket goes kaboom. Then I started to watch tutorial and youtube KSP players before finally able to make my first orbit

What about you?

[NSEP]

I usually build a CSM/Launcher to start off. Maybe a small satellite. 

But after some time i give up and make something else.

[roboslacker]

The first thing I tried to do was built a rocket. After that failed, I worked through some tutorials to get a hang of the game. I then played through the half-life series over the next few months, and came back to ksp after that.

[invision]

i spent the first few hours trying to see how the game played. it was frustrating. i tried a few more times and wished i had returned the game. i was pretty sure i understood orbit mechanics but apparently i was proven wrong.

i spent the next few days now stuck with the game to try and get to orbit.......nope........i could get to space by randomly launching towards the sky but fell back to the surface some time later. feeling defeated i went to youtube and watched whatever videos were popular and came across scott manley.

it was still a crap load of tries and youtube videos later but i finally got into a terribly done orbit, and i would practice that over and over to grasp what is happening. then i turned my focus on the mun, and what felt like a zillion attempts later i landed a craft that didnt explode and i was hooked.

 

Edited December 12, 2017 by invision

[Geonovast]

Mine was pretty similar to OP's, but without the youtube videos.  I just kinda of clicked stuff together.  Eventually did the tutorials.  They helped.... a little.  I crashed oh so, so many times during the Mun landing tutorial, and I got pretty good at orbiting other ships during the docking tutorial.  My first  rockets were wobbly messes, not because of misplacing the COM or not having fins at the bottom, but because I didn't know what a strut was and didn't realize that I couldn't use multiple decouplers on boosters.

Once I learned about docking and how to strut my stuff (oh yeah), more and more clicked and now the early stuff is pretty trivial.  The Mun used to be the huge obstacle, now I throw on my bunny slippers and go there to get bread.

[Superfluous J]

I don't know but it was probably something to get into orbit, it was probably 10x bigger than you need to get into orbit, and it probably failed to get into orbit assuming it even made it into the air.

[Corona688]

First thing I tried to do?

  Get to orbit.  Yes, 43km.  That's how it worked back in 2011.

(Modded tricouplers, because the in-game tricouplers had a decided list back in 2011.)

Edited December 12, 2017 by Corona688

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Well I think I started like most players, building progressively bigger stacks of SRB's in an attempt to get as high vertically as I could.

Not realizing that I needed to go sideways too, and being too stubborn to check out a tutorial or ask for help, I just kept plowing ahead with this simple goal in mind.

Eventually I was sending rockets straight up to 70km+ and even 250km+ then letting them hurtle back down towards Kerbin, when this started to become too dangerous and I couldn't slow down or deploy chutes in time; I started strapping Jet engines to the bottom and firing them full throttle on the way down to slow my descent. Looking back on it, it's sort of hilarious that I was more willing to pursue this absurd engineering method instead of learning how to do it correctly...and I still jokingly call those first ships "the elevator ride from hell" I've even done tourist contracts that way since I learned better; just for old times sake.

[Spricigo]

I watched a few videos, including some carrer tutorial before I got the game.

So when I finaly got the game I did the obvious:

1. started a new career
2. went to mission control and took "launch your fist vessel" and "colect science" contracts.
3. built a simple rocket (CP, 2xMG, flea, parachute
4. launch it.

lesson learned: check your staging.

[MythicalHeFF]

I tried to re create it recently and cringed, I’ll say that much.

[Leopard]

First craft tends to be pretty basic, more or less the same now on a new save (or will be when the eggbox version update is released), dubbed "Lawn Dart" - think a flea, mk1 pod, parachute and three fins, plus a pair of goo pods.

It goes up, it comes down, somewhere, SCIENCE! on the way up and wherever it lands.

Gets modified to a "heavy" version with the materials bay as soon as its unlocked, tend to retain the engine as a crumple zone for landings

[Canopus]

I first played the game during version 0.12 and my first launched spacecraft was a long stick of 4 FL-T500 liquid fuel tanks, Mk1 Pod and parachute on one end and LV-T30 engine on the other. Very unspectacular suborbital hop, but i remember it like it was yesterday . 

Edited December 12, 2017 by Canopus

[Slam_Jones]

Usually I start with a little extra funds, science, and rep, so my first launch is my first orbit.  Usually a 1-man capsule with a few science experiments stuck on.

After that, I usually proceed to relays, or, science allowing, research stations.

[AviosAdku]

As for my first thing I do when I start a new career game: pretty much the standard RT-5, Command Pod, Parachute, Mystery goo combo and try to get some science done while flying although sometimes I try to change it up a bit like last time where I stacked a small bundle of RT-5's below and fired the "second stage" before burnout to achieve an explosive "decoupling" effect. Results: varied, last time (using the overpowered contraption I just described) it didn't go too well, fins on the 2nd stage meant that it lawndarted into the ocean before the parachute could deploy safely. R.I.P Bob Kerman.

As for the first time I played KSP, well, let's see...
It was late in 0.20 era, not that long before the release of 0.21. I'd known about KSP for a while and as I usually do with a new game, I had been doing a fair bit of research, most notably Scott Manley beginner tutorials and I already flown rockets to orbit and even rendezvoused in Orbiter quite a few times so I was reasonably familiar with the physics but not the controls or interface, and my reactions weren't that great.
Anyway, following this tutorial (if I recall correctly), I put together a simple 2 stage liquid fuel rocket and launched. Unfortunately, I was a bit disoriented by the navball (used to the orbiter cockpit view HUD and surface MFD) and I don't think I used SAS, needless to say, I was soon off on a weird angle. Anyway, I decided to stage right to the parachute and if I recall correctly, I had a rather harrowing time as the 2nd stage, fully fueled and at full throttle kept on going, taking the capsule with it as it turned downward. Eventually, the parachute pulled the capsule sideways enough to slip free of the second stage and landed safely. End score: one shaken pilot (me), rocket stages careening around the airspace above the KSC and one Kerbal who ended up going nowhere near as far as he had been planning to go.
(Was that the first? if not that's the first flight I remember clearly)

Anyway, it wasn't that long before I got the hang of the interface and soon I was flying rendezvous missions, a munar flyby and a minmus landing that suffered a catastrophic failure after a Kerbal jetpacking back from an attempt to reach the top of a hill that I believe was actually just the horizon came in too hard and slid a fair way before stopping. Then a leg fell off the lander and the Kerbal exploded (now that I think of it, I think it was a glitch), this was the first time a Kerbal died on my watch (I forget his name, some whitesuit) and I didn't enjoy that.

AviosAdku

[James Kerman]

When I first got the game I built a solid rocket that went sub orbital, I thought to myself - silly game and didn't touch it again until I started watching yt and really seeing all kinds of amazing things that people were doing.

I became obsessed with making orbit and totally failed at it for 3 days, until, to my great surprise, I made it!  I'm pretty sure my first orbiter had over 6000m/s Dv and was just about dry when I got there.

The first thing I do in a career?  Launch a Mk1 pod with 2 mystery goo experiments and no engine for the science. 

[Ty Tan Tu]

My very first ship never got off the ground. It was a sandbox single Kerbonaut MK-1 Mercury type rocket with one FL-T400 Fuel Tank, a LV-T45 "Swivel" Liquid Fuel Engine, some cool fins and a parachute. I did not even put any staging on it. that was still a mystery to me. It was just suppose to go way up until it ran out fuel, open the parachute and float back down. On the launch pad I looked around the screen and what 'Huh, I wonder what the EVA button does?' I pushed it, and Jeb was standing on the landing pad at the bottom of the rocket. Pretty cool! But I could not figure out how to get him back in the command module. That is when I discovered the 'Esc' key. This time I left Jeb in the Mk-1 and pushed the space bar. The rocket lifted off the launch pad with a spectacular display of rocket flames - and the parachute opened. The rocket was flipping around totally out of control when I remembered the Esc key.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Ty Tan Tu

[foxtrot1911]

Good days. I started playing with a friend, so the first thing we tried was a way to play multiplayer (thanks DMP). So we start try to understand what was/is the game about. My first ships was just some pieces of solid fuel engines, it couldn't do much, it will explode soon after launch, but i was enjoying. I was enjoying the fact that the game allowed me to do whatever i want. Me and my friend started to learn how to get something to space, and doing it online was great. We had a lot of fun in the beginning.

After some time i was willing for more, so i started learning what i could. This remains until today. Best game ever.

[bigcalm]

I started with 1.0 and had pretty much exactly the same experience as Sprigo above.  Capsule.  Engine.  Parachute.  Launch.  Check yo' staging.

By rights I should need a degree in astronavigation, a passing familiarity with the Navier-Stokes equation, and a course in metallurgy in order to play this game.  But actually, I start by bolting some bits together in the Vehicle Assembly Building - a command pod for the pilot to sit in, and an engine, described in the game as a "Big box of boom".  Hit the launch button to move the design out to the launchpad, hit spacebar and off I go.  The rocket fires majestically upwards with the grinning pilot at the helm.  And then I realise that I forgot a parachute.  It doesn't end well for either the craft or the pilot.
So I learn from this that parachutes are important.  So I add a parachute and repeat the exercise, hit space again but this time I put the parachute to fire at the same time as the engine.  This time, the pilot doesn't die, but it's a terrifying flight and I don't go very far.
Then I fix my staging - first the engine fires, then the parachute.  Which is when I get to learn about aerodynamics, and why fins on the bottom are a good idea.
This learning exercise is constant in KSP - every mission, even if it's a failure, I learn something more.  I learn to put solar panels and batteries on satellites to stop them from becoming useless space junk.  I learn that re-entry from orbit requires a heatshield to protect the delicate kerbal crew.  I learn mysterious terms like Apoapsis, Hohmann transfer and Delta V.
And that's the key behind KSP being a fantastic game - it is hard, almost relentlessly.  But being hard doesn't matter - the fact that it's possible at all is the thing that makes it hugely rewarding, and it's with a craft you designed and flew yourself.  Before long you'll be able to hurl cargo a billion kilometres away to an icy moon orbiting a gas giant, and land supplies 50 metres away from some tired and hungry Kerbals.  

[Zeiss Ikon]

I started just over a year ago by downloading the demo, which has, um, pretty limited parts choices.  Liquid fuel engine, a Swivel, as I recall; FL-T200 tanks only.  I Google a bit for how to get to orbit in Demo -- followed directions.  Three engines on launch, staged down to one after a bit, go vertical until 15 km then turn 45 degrees east (had to figure out that was D for yaw, rather than S or W for pitch -- which, IMO, would have and still would make more sense), then follow prograde after it comes down to the heading marker; boost until your Pe lifts out of the atmosphere.  Demo has pre-1.0 atmosphere, it seems.

After flying that, I bought the game.

Now, with low tech starting parts, it's a Jumping Flea (though in my current career I had to design my own from ground up -- i turned off the prebuilt craft when I set it up, not fully intentional but it worked out pretty well).  Flea booster with three basic fins, Mk. 1 pod, Mk. 16 parachute, and as much science as I can strap on.  A quick turn eastward off the pad (don't do it quick, you won't do it at all; even three basic fins will totally overcome your reaction wheel by the time you're up to 100 m/s, which happens PDQ) ensures a water landing, so the high-ish descent speed doesn't break stuff.

 

[Vanamonde]

I made a small rocket to see how far it would go. Then I kept  enlarging it and tinkering with the design to make it go farther. After a while, it achieved orbit.  

[Geschosskopf]

I came to KSP in 0.20 back in the summer of 2013, after doing realistic space since the 1980s.  Thus I was immediately stuck by the incredible lack of in-game instrumentation without mods, even for such basic things as your rocket's TWR and dV.  How can anybody do space without such info?  So after discovering this (and only killing 3 Kerbals in the process, in 1 flight), I immediately installed the then-current version of MJ. and went to Minmus and back on my 2nd flight, with help from a then-current Scott Manley tutorial.

[FrostedShoe]

My first play I wanted to get to orbit, so I made bigger and bigger rockets, building up instead of out. Once I had the balance between thrust and weight right so it would at least go up, it would bend and flex and eventually rip itself apart. I eventually read some tutorial and discovered getting to orbit was easy, but getting back would need a heat shield and some parachutes.

I had some advantage, I used to play with a simulator called Orbiter so I had a reasonably good grasp of orbital mechanics, unfortunately that's what lead me to try and get into space asap and Orbiter doesn't teach you how to build rockets.

[wumpus]

Go back and read the directions to find out you need to press the start key.  Or possibly include a capsule/probecore to make it work at all (this was well before .25 and I was following campaigns that started unamanned).  For whatever reason I couldn't launch the first craft, second was a go.

Current career mode starts go into space via explosive staging.  According to KE, orbit is nogo thanks to the maximum delta-v of a stack of mass-limited boosters.

[Kermagerd]

Not much, i first played the demo and following the construction tutorial i managed to throw jeb pretty far away into space and i thought "hey this is cool, maybe i should buy it". But didn't know all the things i could do until i actually bought the game and looked for tutorials, then i found about Scott Manley and he opened this world of possibilites for me.

KSP and Scott Manley had me intrested into space exploration since then.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Kermagerd

[nascarlaser1]

I played the demo and I managed to escape the Kerbol system... (that was before I realized that orbit was not infact, straight up..

 

by the time I got the full game I'd learned the maneuver needed to get to orbit on the forums, but not the parts (I was learning as much on my own as possible at the time)... I ended up using 3 mammoth engines just to get to orbit... but hey, I made it .