Your first hours in KSP

[FinalFan]

I was very interested in KSP (don't remember what the impetus was) but resolved to try the demo on account of its price.  My goal was to get to orbit and by then I should know if I liked the game.  Or maybe I started out with the goal of a Mun mission and then gave up and said orbit was enough of a test.  

My memory of this is foggy but I'm pretty sure I had a terrible time getting to orbit.  Lack of attitude control was probably an issue.  But eventually I did it and was finally free to instantly buy the full game.  

Incidentally, I still have the demo, and recently decided to go back and see what it was like now with experience under my belt.  My SRBs spun me like a rifle bullet but I still made a reasonable looking orbit and in fact was able to do a Mun orbital mission with lots of delta V to spare.  I wouldn't give up the current game but performance was very noticeably better on the demo ... I should probably upgrade my aging computer.  

[Atkara]

How was it like when I started playing? Well, it didn't take me long to realize KSP isn't as gamey as it supposedly claims to be -something I immediately appreciated and still do.

I remember the first rocket that made orbit. Didn't know KER was a thing so, I made all the mistakes one would expect. Getting it to orbit wasn't as hard, but I was doing it wrong. It would take me months to get to a proper ascent profile and even then, I wouldn't fully understand atmospheric drag until I got deep into spaceplanes.

Alt-F12? No, I refused to do that from the day I learned about it, as my goal was to learn. Nowadays, when I use it, it's to test specific things -never on actual flights.

[SpaceCube2000]

I started Kerbal Space Program not knowing how to throttle my craft (I know I was not very bright back in those days), so I launched my Kerbals into space purely on SRB's, and actually made it into Munar orbit. 

[FinalFan]

1 minute ago, SpaceCube2000 said:

I started Kerbal Space Program not knowing how to throttle my craft (I know I was not very bright back in those days), so I launched my Kerbals into space purely on SRB's, and actually made it into Munar orbit. 

I remember being very disappointed that you can't operate the throttle slider with the mouse, but in retrospect I suppose there are already enough opportunities for catastrophic misclicks.  

[SpaceCube2000]

Just now, FinalFan said:

I remember being very disappointed that you can't operate the throttle slider with the mouse, but in retrospect I suppose there are already enough opportunities for catastrophic misclicks.  

Weirdly, I think they added that feature in a later update.  

[djr5899]

I started out with the demo, don't remember the version....maybe around a 1.2 or 1.3  ish timeframe.  Liked the demo, but I don't have a gaming computer anymore, and the game was a bit sluggish on my old laptop.   I ended up buying the console version for Xbox.  Built some rockets, made it to orbit, maybe made it to the Mun on a no-return type of mission.  I had very little knowledge of delta-V, gravity turns, wasting fuel/funds, Hohmann transfers, or building rockets capable of leaving Kerbin SOI.  After awhile, I kind of got bored with it all, as well as the bugs on console version, and stopped playing.  I got kind of interested again after maybe 8 months, started watching some Scott Manley and Matt Lowne videos, learned that going straight up into orbit really wasn't the best method, and started coming on the forums a lot more.

Finally, Enhanced Edition was announced, and after I decided I was hooked on the game again and didn't want to wait for Enhanced Edition for Console (which I did still purchase anyways), I bought the game for PC in November 2018.  I've done and learned more about the game in the past year than I did in all the time I have had the console edition.  Still have to do manned, returnable missions to every planet outside Kerbin, but I've managed to send unmanned craft to Duna, Ike, Jool, and Moho, took some time to finally learn docking well, and have been working more on mining and base building lately.

[Francois424]

Back then Kerbin atmosphere was much ticker than it is today.  I used to need to throttleback to 200-300 m/s to not waste fuel piercing the atmo.

 

But my first mission,  I used a specific design of craft (rocket SSTO) in an attempt to finally do it.  It was so successful it marooned Jebediah between the orbits of Eve and Kerbin (!!!)
At the time I lacked the skill to do a Rendezvous and save him.  So Jeb spend the entirety of my 200 kerbal years long campaign between 0.22 and 0.23.5 just being in space, listening to rock'n'roll... and to the success (and failures) of his colleagues at the space program.
He returned home after a reset of everything in time for a new science campaign in 0.23.5.  He was never marooned again ! 

[Kernel Kraken]

The first thing I did was fail the basic construction  tutorial. 190 hours later, I got my first orbit. Just two days ago, I finally impacted the Mun and survived (although I ran out of fuel on the return trip). Yeah, I suck.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Kernel Kraken
Speling and, grammaer.

[Pecan]

v 0.15 demo, no tutorials IIRC.

First rocket didn't have enough fuel to orbit.
Second rocket didn't have enough thrust to lift all the fuel I'd put on it.
Third rocket went an awfully long way up before it came back down and I had to admit that I had no idea how rockets got into orbit.
Nth rocket got to orbit.

Bought the full game.

[Karma Kerman]

I started playing when the original console version came out (before Enhanced Edition) it took me awhile to dock and get to and from the Mun, i was pretty good at getting to orbit, but one funny thing I didn't mean to do was getting a Jool encounter (I was aiming for a Duna encounter)

[Kroslev Kerman]

Made an Airplane and flew it to the Poles(which i could have just used a rocket)and i planted a Flag on it and recovered it

[DeltaDizzy]

Poorly designed Satellites and hyperedit basically sums it up.

[ARS]

Very unbalanced aircraft with asymmetrical wing placement that prone to spin out of control and crash every time I tried to fly them...

Before I realized there's a symmetry mirror feature...

[SiriusRocketry]

0.9, 0.10 (don't remember exactly)

Straight up, reached 30 km altitude with only basic control knowledge, then forgot to deploy parachute on the way down.

First hours in the full game were spent madly firing SRBs at varying angles before reading a few tutorials. I bought the game on February 17th, and by the 22nd I had returned a 1-kerbal mission from the Mun. That, IIRC, was around 5 to 8 hours into the game.

[tater]

I got 0.24 I think. Played a couple tutorial/scenarios (on the demo?) that ended badly, then started noodling around with rockets in science mode with the full game.

So that first evening with the game I got something into orbit eventually. I was concerned about not harming the little guys, so managed to return all the capsules safely. I did an Apollo 8 style mission to see if I could maybe land and still be able to get back. It was the typical first Mun lander. Mk1 capsule, medium sized tank, a 909 engine, and some legs.

Next trip (I was at my second Guinness at that point) I landed. I think I managed to use too uch propellant landing, and could only make LMO, and Jeb had to wait for a rescue... that took a while, since rendezvous was by far the hardest thing to master in KSP for me.

 

[overkill13]

I remember a bunch of tutorials, then Scott Manley videos, then science mode, though science mode was probably more than a few hours later.  Took me longer than I care to admit to stop putting wings on the bottom of my rockets and stop worrying about max-q (a term I didn't even know at the time), so some of the older tutorials/videos taught me some bad habits that I took months to kick.

[dallascwbys9]

I cant remember exactly what I did when I first got the game, but I do remember in the general time around that are I messed around with the debug menu, if I remember correctly it was back in the .90 version of ksp

 

[RealKerbal3x]

I discovered the game on kurtjmac's (very old) Youtube videos sometime last year. It took me a while to get a computer that could actually run the game, but during that time I devoured all the KSP content I could find. When I finally bought KSP, I decided to go all NASA-style with my missions. I actually have a screenshot of my first rocket, which was sort of based on Mercury-Redstone:

You can see some of the imperfections in it, such as the overpowered LV-T30 engine, the decoupler attached to the wrong node, and the three poorly-positioned fins.

First time I tried to launch, the staging was wrong and the craft dropped from the launch clamps, exploding the engine.

Second time, I forgot to throttle up and the craft dropped from the launch clamps, exploding the engine.

Third time, the liftoff was successful and Jeb became the first Kerbal in space.

I really should have made a mission log, because I forgot who piloted most of my early missions. I *think* Valentina was the first in orbit, and Bill was the first to EVA. I really threw myself in the deep end for my first Mun mission, as it was Apollo-style. After I mastered rendezvous and docking in Munar orbit (took me a couple of weeks) I discovered mods. The rest is history.

Edited October 28, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[maceemiller]

I went up, then down....fast and in flames....still happens occasionally .....

[Chel]

15 hours ago, maceemiller said:

I went up, then down....fast and in flames....still happens occasionally .....

Don't worry, it's normal for your craft to explode in a billion pieces create a nice fireworks show

 

[Bej Kerman]

Trying to figure out how to establish a stable orbit in the 0.18 demo.

I don't know how long I spent trying to figure out why my spacecraft was so lacking in fuel when pointed straight up then burnt sideways.

I also probably spent half the years I've been playing this game with inf fuel on.

[Chel]

On 10/31/2018 at 8:37 AM, Bej Kerman said:

I also probably spent half the years I've been playing this game with inf fuel on

Using the debug menu is never bad!

[EchoLima]

I first started playing when .13.3 was the demo. I thought the goal was just to launch as high as possible so I just stacked srbs together, until I saw KurtJMacs videos and learned what an orbit was.

By the time the .18.3 demo came out, I figured out how to get into the Mun's SOI, and shortly after that I bought the game.

[Jimmidii]

My first hours in KSP were in one of the very early demos.

Someone in my gaming guild chat had mentioned it, but just finding the game was difficult. Google was almost useless. "KSP" didn't return anything about the game and I'd forgotten the word "Kerbal".

Eventually I think it was something like 'k "space program"' that got me there on the second or third page.

All physics concepts of space (beyond equal and opposite reaction, and go fast sideways,) were completely alien to me. Gravity turn? Never heard of it. Apoapsis/Periapsis? Never heard of it. Rocket Equation? Never heard of it. Delta-V? Never heard of it.

Back then parts were very VERY limited, orbit wasn't easy even if you knew what you were doing. (I didn't.) Landing on the wrong side of the planet was actually impossible due to the way the physics was handled at the time. Map View didn't exist.

For a few hours I built monstrosities that could barely lift themselves off the pad and then tore themselves apart. Eventually I managed to get one that went straight up, and kept going. And going. And going. I think I reached escape velocity, in that gravity was reducing faster than I was slowing down due to gravity. It was my first success. The fact that after watching every attempt fail, this one had actually stayed in the sky, was awesome to me.

After that I took this monstrosity, and of course made it bigger. I wanted to orbit the planet. I failed again and again as I didn't know how to build (or fly!) a rocket. Eventually, I got one up into space, and did a ninety degree turn there, and went for it. Horribly inefficient, but for me the fact I'd done it at all was unbelievable to me. I sat there for a long time, watching in real time to see if this thing would stay in the sky. After that I spent the rest of the fuel trying to circularise the orbit, but in a horrible, horrible way. (Altitude going down, boost up, altitude going up, boost towards the planet.)

With nothing else I could do, and not wanting to lose this success, I must have sat there for about an hour, entranced by the view of this thing in orbit that I'd put there, knowing it'd just keep going.

I left the game running there for hours while I did other stuff, just to see if it'd stay up there, which of course it did.

I'd already had an interest in space before. Star Trek TNG had been one of my favourite shows. I'd be glued to the TV when there was news about Hubble, Spirit and Opportunity invoked a sense of wonder, especially as Opportunity had already gone on for far longer than it was meant to, and the Space Station being completed at the time was awesome to me. But that time there, watching this thing in orbit that I'd put there... that still stands out in my memory as the exact moment I got the bug for HOW stuff in space worked.

I've learned far more about space missions because of KSP than I ever would have without it.

[Kerbinchaser]

1.0.4 My first few hours were spent learning controls and flying rockets. Mainly the KerbalX into orbit using the old method of: Vertical to 10km, turn horizontal and go. 

I landed 3 kerbals on the Mün a few months later. It felt really really good. Soon after that I discovered mods, and my KSP life instantly improved.

Honestly, I don't play the game as much as I used to, mainly prowling about the forums posting chapters on my novels and talking with old friends, but I gotta admit, every time I open KSP, it makes me feel happy to see the familiar face of Jebediah on the loading screen.