The Nature of Awesome & Unusable Builds

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Everytime I build a rocket or space station I have to stop myself at some point. As the basic needs of the craft begin approach that minimum level acceptance criteria I start to say things like

"Oh, I bet that would look super cool"

or

"A radial array of that Truss Fuel sun assembly would look amazing right here".

What begins to happen is truly transformative. TWR quickly approaches an unusable number on the first stage or two.

I revamp the various thruster options available to me. Become disappointed with relative burn time. Slap MOAR FUEEEL. Repeat iterations of the last paragraph..

Fly.. Explode... Modify.. Fly.. Repeat until I have a really bad ass craft that will be used on multiple missions to come.

I fly that bad boy to Duna or Somewhere that I have recently been. (Because I wanna showcase this bad boy on something I know I can do)

Snap some screen shots and upload to KSPBuilds.com as Dunasaurus One.

 

Hmmm. All those people searching for a paste & play craft will be sad. 

Even if no specific mission is associated with the craft, I feel the above mentioned idiosyncratic behavior is shared by many. The inner dialogue may vary slightly. However, most I speak to seem to suffer from some form of conflict with the "nature of awesome".

I see a great number of uploads with a Mission that has been available and completed for some time. I have all of tier 2 unlocked and am selectively working through 3 but cannot paste a craft title for a mission oh so long ago.

 

It just sucks. I don't know if others playing exploration feel disheartened by this? Seems most of the craft shared is from sandbox or a much later tech unlock.

I am getting better at craft design, but wish there were more options for low tech design.

I know eventually there will be a plethora of thousands and thousands of craft and it will be easier.

 

*Violin Fades to Silence*

 

[Icegrx]

99% of the fun in this game for me is designing my own craft and then perfecting them as you mentioned. 
 

There’s no “right way” to play this game, true.. however copy pasting a build to use for a mission is like robbing yourself of 99% fun. 
 

Also as you mentioned, most copy paste builds are from sandbox, and make no attempts to use tiered parts. 

[Fizzlebop Smith]

I enjoyed making the ships in the beginning. It becomes tedious to me. Most people i ask seem to use the same ship for every mission... until circumstances (mission parameters) force them to build something else.

I find 99% of the games fun to be found outside the VAB and wish there was a more prolific source of work. Given enough time It will eventually get there.. but you can see on the spacecraft exchange page. The frequnency of posts is tapering off.

One thing i loved about KerbalX was that you could see what parts were on the craft. I wonder if i can ask the person behind KSP builds to write plugin extension to read the Craft Paste and provide a tab that lists the parts on each

[Heretic391]

On 2/9/2024 at 1:14 PM, Fizzlebop Smith said:

One thing i loved about KerbalX was that you could see what parts were on the craft. I wonder if i can ask the person behind KSP builds to write plugin extension to read the Craft Paste and provide a tab that lists the parts on each

Great point, i guess for now we need to share screenshots of what we've unlocked

[Fizzlebop Smith]

That's not a bad idea. I wish there were something on the site that added this function.

A list of stock parts with a check would be awesome. Or maybe a sample tech tree you can click what you unlocked? 

Sucks though because of multi tabs bot necessarily being fully unlocked. Later rockets would be 3 or 4 shots of just the tree. Lol.

 

I'll try and bring it up to @nyiusand see if there are any cool solutions the codeslingers might be able to cobjureconjure from the aether.

[Urus28]

I tend to design a new craft for each new mission, in general there is enough change to make it different. The launcher to put stuff in orbit is the part I tend to copy/paste.

[leos101]

Fizzlebop Smith, I can totally relate to the struggle you describe. As an avid KSP player, I often find myself getting carried away with the pursuit of awesomeness, only to end up with a behemoth of a craft that can barely lift off. It's a delicate balance between functionality and aesthetics, and it's easy to lose sight of that.

I understand the disappointment of not being able to share your creations with the community because they're tied to missions you've already completed. It's a shame that there aren't more options for low-tech designs, as those can be just as challenging and rewarding to build.

However, I try to look at it as an opportunity to flex my creativity and problem-solving skills. Crafting something truly impressive within the constraints of early-game technology is a unique challenge that can lead to some ingenious designs.

While we wait for the craft library to grow, why not embrace the spirit of exploration and push the boundaries of what's possible with the limited resources at hand? Who knows, you might just come up with the next iconic low-tech design that inspires others to think outside the box.

Edited April 29, 2024 by leos101