Cheating Rules

[Corona688]

I gave into the dark side the other day, alt-F12 saves a huge amount of time in testing.  I'm still keeping two rules, though;  either stay on the launch clamps (infinite fuel / electricity umbilicals), or revert afterwards.

How do you play it?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Yeah, debug menu is fine in my book so long as you don't keep anything you do. (Ie. revert)

I mean the game doesn't give you any simulation tools like NASA would have so we gotta make do with home-brew methods.

Obviously they couldn't send the rover up to see if it'd work first for example, but they could simulate the environment and test it. (Interestingly enough, I was just reading that they had never tested the Lunar ascent module in appropriate conditions because they just plain couldn't. They honestly had no idea if it would be able to lift itself off the Moon or not.)

Edited December 14, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Geonovast]

I use the debug menu for testing quite often.  Usually just for placing crafts in orbit. (Say I've got launch down, but re-entry is iffy.  No reason to launch every time)

I only use infinite fuel if I'm just mucking around.  (Like seeing how quick an MK1 command pod, nosecone, and 8 twitches can leave the solar system)

I don't think I've really used it for anything else.  I won't touch it if I'm trying to achieve some kind of goal.

[Eric S]

I have no qualms with using the debug menu to test something.  I have on occasion used it to fix a bug if I couldn't get around it some other way.  Recently, otherwise stable craft jumping off the surface has been the main trigger for that one.

[Atkara]

Testing and overcoming bugs (like the exploding fairings in 1.3.0).

[JadeOfMaar]

My cheating rules  (oxymoron?) are mainly:

• Make full use of HyperEdit and the Debug Menu as needed for testing designs and learning how mods work. IRL space agencies can build all their test environments and have supercomputers to simulate everything. We can't do that so the cheat menus are the way to go.
• No respawn.
• Certain mods have uber parts and resources. Their parts get no action "for real" until I establish a base with enough of its required functions for my headcanon, and that base is able to send back at least one "sample" relating to each mod. This rule and lack of casual gameplay has sadly kept me from launching a ship... for over a year.
• If I'm in a real flight and I'm on the edge of losing kerbals to bad craft design or pilot error, I'll quickload up to 3 times in attempt to escape. If I still fail to escape, I write it off as unavoidable and salute........

[adsii1970]

Every time the other player passes go and I, as the banker, pays them their $200, I pay myself $100 in "banker salary."

 

[Geonovast]

1 minute ago, adsii1970 said:

Every time the other player passes go and I, as the banker, pays them their $200, I pay myself $100 in "banker salary."

 

Great, now I want a KSP Monopoly even though it wouldn't make sense and would never get played.

[adsii1970]

I saw the title of this thread and couldn't resist throwing that out there, @Geonovast! It has been one of those days where the rougher things got, the sillier I got.

Seriously (if that can ever be said about me), In KSP, here's what I do:

• Save often - quick saves when major things are about to happen; with date and description, sorta like "20171213 prereentry capsule crew 7" or something of the like. This way, if something goes wrong, I can easily act as if nothing happened.
•  I test all designs in a separate save game before bringing them into the "real save" I play.

[LordFerret]

9 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

I want a KSP Monopoly

Konopoly?

Go straight to the Kraken's lair, do not pass the launch pad, do not collect moar boosters.

 

Might work.

[Tyko]

52 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

My cheating rules  (oxymoron?) are mainly:

• Make full use of HyperEdit and the Debug Menu as needed for testing designs and learning how mods work. IRL space agencies can build all their test environments and have supercomputers to simulate everything. We can't do that so the cheat menus are the way to go.
• No respawn.
• Certain mods have uber parts and resources. Their parts get no action "for real" until I establish a base with enough of its required functions for my headcanon, and that base is able to send back at least one "sample" relating to each mod. This rule and lack of casual gameplay has sadly kept me from launching a ship... for over a year.
• If I'm in a real flight and I'm on the edge of losing kerbals to bad craft design or pilot error, I'll quickload up to 3 times in attempt to escape. If I still fail to escape, I write it off as unavoidable and salute........

I follow the same rule about quick loading 3 times if there's a Kerbal life on the line. IRL NASA can bring experts on to try to model and solve issues (Think Apollo 13). Trying a few different ways to save a Kerbal is my analog for having expert teams working out every possible permutation.

[ARS]

For me:

- No hyperedit

- alt+F12 can only be used in sandbox mode

- save often, especially before something critical

- gamebreaking parts is okay as long as they are not totally ridiculous (like ion thruster with TWR of 4000 and consume 0,000000001 xenon and electricity)

[eddiew]

Mostly reserve debug for testing landings and ascents. Occasionally for trying unfamiliar mods to see how they really work  

All reverted, of course. I see this as the equivalent of a trained team of engineers checking my designs!

Edited December 14, 2017 by eddiew

[roboslacker]

I use the debug menu whenever it's the only way to prevent a kerbal's death.

[katateochi]

I use debug or hyperedit to put a craft into a test situations (ie checking a lander is viable), but I always revert after a 'simulation'.  I also have another rule which is I can't hyperedit to a planet unless I've already visited it in that save (just a probe in orbit is enough to meet that criteria, I think of it as needing to gather info first in order to run the 'simulation').  Real space missions take so much planning and simulation and KSP doesn't have any of that so I think it's an OK use of "cheats".  

[Superfluous J]

I test all the time. I revert, quicksave/quickload, and restore from a previous save whenever I feel like it. I will alt-f12 put a ship into a specific orbit to test (reverting after) or - once I've gotten "close enough" to lock an orbit somewhere.

Recently, I've started alt-f12 rendezvousing with a fuel depot that can get supplies via ISRU once I'm in stable orbit in the same SOI. I also fill that fuel depot with fuel whenever I feel like it. I paid for these Kerbals to fly my space ships, they can darn well do the boring stuff for me so I can actually explore space.

[harrisjosh2711]

What sucks is I think I played ksp for over a month before I discovered the f-12 menu (and I started in RSS). You can only imagine how happy I was to discover that I didn't need to spend twenty minutes every time I need to rendezvous with my space station. One of the greatest days of my KSP life I would say.

[MrChumley]

There is no such thing as cheating in KSP...

Anyways that is just an opinion.  If you learn how to fly to the moon using a Saturn V replica that you downloaded from Kerbal X with Mechjeb attached in ten hours, or you launched space potatoes for 1500 hours before you had the science enough to unlock the fuel lines because you are not a cheater, and then another 150 hours to learn to dock space potatoes, and then finally created a rescue scenario on the mun because your last quicksave was a little to late... and the only way you could save your kerbal by jumping out and using your rocket pack to land.  Well you still learned to land on the Mun in Kerbal Space Program.  That is a FACT.  That is awesome.  Doesn't matter where the awesome comes from. It is AWESOME.

[Just Jim]

It depends on what I'm doing, I suppose. I try and play most of the time with no cheats on... but doing Emiko Station screenshots I'll use HyperEdit if need-be, mostly to move Magic Boulders around. And sometimes I turn off everything for slightly wilder screenshots:

Edited December 15, 2017 by Just Jim

[qzgy]

I use the debug menu for when its convienient and testing. In games/challenges, I will never try to use the debug menu and I try to make sure the debug menu is not needed for craft. That being said... I do use the part clipping thing a lot. So useful....

[swjr-swis]

In a game as versatile and open and moddable as KSP, 'cheating' can be defined by so many different things and circumstances and opinions that it's an almost meaningless word.

Just take a stroll in the challenge section of the forum to see this in action - challenge descriptions often need a page of 'by-laws' to more accurately define the context and so avoid what the OP personally considers to be cheating, and even then there are regularly submissions that force the OP to amend/expand the ruleset.

What is cheating really, in a simulated environment that intentionally and unintentionally bends the laws of physics? Where 'reality' can literally be reshaped at whim, by the choice of mods to install (or files to edit). It's all incredibly relative.

 

Intentionally deviating from the listed parameters of a challenge is about the only thing I truly consider cheating, so I avoid that. In career saves, everything is self-imposed anyway. I do try to limit editing - debug menu or directly - to either the very start of a new career (setting that career's defining parameters, if you will), or when some game bug causes damage that would be too much trouble to fix by normal play.

It's all fair play as far as I'm concerned. I play this game for enjoyment and education, not for punishment or tedium. There are limits to how much time I'm willing to invest in a game (yes, despite having sunk over 10k hours into this one already), so if something happens that would feel like a waste of time, or somehow ruin my enjoyment of the game, I will fix it by any means to my disposal. Ultimately, I would be 'cheating' myself doing otherwise.

[Scarecrow]

I use hyperedit for testing subassemblies i.e. I will use it to put a Duna lander in orbit around Duna so that I can test it's ability to land and return to orbit before including it in the final build, and the Alt-f12 menu to turn on part clipping in the editor, but that's about it.

[NSEP]

My rules are:

When cheating something, you have to give it a legit try. Oh and do go to absolutely bogus places without legit trying, unless im testing something.

[FrostedShoe]

I use MechJeb to do some stuff for me, revert and quicksave. I only allow a Kerbal to die if it is funny (one almost died in a rescue attempt because I was focusing on closing distance and for some reason ignored closing speed - almost cut it in half with the space plane wing. if it had died I would have failed the contract and took the loss but it survived.).

If I play in sandbox it is for testing crazy stuff or just for fun, in that case the cheats are out in force. Tonight, I will be trying to go as fast as possible under 300m, with heat shields, radiators and infinite fuel. I think I will crash before I burn up but there is only one way to be sure!

[Freds]

I only use cheats in 2 cases:
In my sandbox game, i use cheats freely to test design concepts - its a way to save time.

In my career game, i only use cheat if something bad happens due to a bug.