Is using the cheats menu bad?

[Chel]

Is it frowned upon to use the ALT F12 menu?

Edited March 8, 2019 by The_Cat_In_Space

[Geonovast]

No.  It's a single player game.  Do whatever you want.  The only time it should matter is if you're entering into challenges.

[razark]

Yes.  It's absolutely wrong.

I don't use the cheat menu, and if you're not playing exactly the way I am, then you are not playing correctly and only fooling yourself into thinking you're enjoying the game at all.

[GRS]

Like @Geonovast said, it's fine to use Debug menu, yet i rarely do so, mostly to use Object Thrower, mostly because of bored, yet the so called "Simone Kerman of Tengen Toppa Aerospace" was made in Debug menu.

[Loskene]

Nope. Your game, your rules. If it were "cheating" in any real sense the developers wouldn't have made it accessible.

The only time any convenience options (be they the cheat menu, mods, or difficulty settings) can become an issue is if you're doing a specific challenge, but even then all you need to do is disclose what you used to do it with. If you use the debug menu to do a neat trick, and you say that you used the menu to do it, then everything's fine because people know how to recreate it for themselves and nobody is under the illusion that you achieved it by conventional means.

In short: Go nuts, that's what everything in the game is there for, including cheats.

[purpleivan]

I think the poll needs another option along the line of "Sometimes".

For example I use it for testing, e.g. if I want to try out something under Eve level gravity, I can just do it on the pad.

Additionally poorly described, or possibly buggy contracts, can be ticked off as completed, if you get stuck with one that just won't do so automatically, through no fault of your own.

[Superfluous J]

Using the cheat menu is not wrong, any more than running is wrong.

Using the cheat menu when you're not supposed to in a challenge is wrong, in the same way that running from the cops is wrong.

[Sweetnsaltyish]

i only use it if i want to do something stupid. (AKA a mk1 command pod with 8 vector engines on the back)

[Starhawk]

Is using a screwdriver bad?

The analogy breaks down, of course, because a screwdriver could actually be used to injure someone, whereas I cannot conceive of a way in which use of the KSP Cheat Menu could even marginally impact another human's quality of life.

Happy landings!

[herbal space program]

It's only wrong if you entered a challenge that forbids it and then use it surreptitiously in your official submission. Other than that it's your movie. For a lot of particularly hard things, not using it and/or Hyperedit during the design phase makes developing the required craft prohibitively tedious.

[Magzimum]

If you use it to all the time, for everything: Yes, it's bad. You should learn how to get a simple rocket into orbit. Learning stuff about rockets and orbits is really a part of the game.

If you use it to optimize an Eve lander, and you are tired of launching every new iteration, then getting an encounter with Eve, getting into a stable orbit, etc... then I would totally recommend to just get a Sandbox game, cheat the lander into Eve orbit until it works (which may be 20 iterations later), and then going for it for real in the career game (with a launch from the KSC and the whole transfer to Eve etc.).

[Tyko]

I agree with @Magzimum in that it's a great tool to use to run simulations and tests. I'll often use it to test a lander or confirm a station will have enough power. This type of simulation is done extensively in RL and I just see the cheat menu as a way to do the same thing in my game. 

[Foxster]

Depends if you are catholic. 

[MechBFP]

After doing a 2 hour mission and realizing I forget a parachute, screw it, cheat menu to the rescue!

[Loskene]

Yeah, as a simulation tool it's vital, and it's why hyperedit exists, as a more accessible and powerful debug menu. Y'know if the MH mission builder was more integrated into the main game sandbox experience it might actually be more useful for testing and simulation purposes than having to open and (at first) figure out how to use the cheat menu.

Imagine halfway through a career game or just inside your sandbox save that has all your main craft and subassemblies tied to it: "Damn I need to test this very complicated, very expensive interplanetary spaceship because I can't afford a stupid launch failure and I have revert to VAB turned off."

Open the mission editor from the VAB or space center screen, import the craft you want to test, define the mission location and objectives with as much precision or detail as you need, and off you pop as many times as you like until you get it right. Then exit back to space center and launch for real. I think having to go out into the main menu or copy existing craft files from my saves into the editor directory are the main reasons I've never used it.

[ExtremeSquared]

Skyrim and KSP are similarly buggy games. Skyrim has a massive support system on how to navigate/correct frustrating bugs via the console. KSP has the menu.

[KSK]

Yes. Using the cheat menu is utterly unforgivable. As penance, I command any person vile enough to use it to live in a cave for the rest of their lives, subsisting on bark and bugs and only wearing clothing knitted from their own toenail clippings. To prove that I am not completely unreasonable, I will graciously permit them to sleep under the flat rocks and not the pointy ones. Unless they want to of course.

Spoiler

No. Your game, your rules.

 

[klgraham1013]

For me?  Yes.  For you?  That's up to you.  Decide how you like to play and go with that.

4 hours ago, Foxster said:

Depends if you are catholic. 

I don't know why I found this so funny.

[KSK]

18 hours ago, Magzimum said:

If you use it to all the time, for everything: Yes, it's bad. You should learn how to get a simple rocket into orbit. Learning stuff about rockets and orbits is really a part of the game.

And what if you all you want to do is build replica sci-fi craft and implausible battleships? What if you don’t care about learning about real rockets - you just want to fire up the game and have some fun, according to your own definition of fun.

I agree that the game points you in the direction of putting simple rockets into orbit but that’s  only a part of the game and not the whole of it. 

As soon as you start telling people what a single player game is supposed to be about and then getting judgemental and calling them out for being ‘bad’ if they don’t play the way you think they should be playing, then you’re on a slippery slope in my opinion.

One which leads to pretty much everything I detest about modern gaming and how that’s influenced modern game design.

Edited March 9, 2019 by KSK

[Jaime]

I use it for tests (eg. testing a Duna lander or a laythe submarine.

[Curveball Anders]

I use it mainly for one thing (in a special save named JPL).

Moving crafts into specific orbits when I reverse-design major missions.

Starting with the final parts, like return to the surface of Kerbin. Then working backwards via return from [Object X] all the way to launch.

Rarely with 'main' saves, but I have hacked the save file for stuck docking ports (I judge that adjusting for a bug) and even retrained Kerbonauts (defend that by advanced local training capabilities).