Most important lesson you've learned in KSP?

[problemecium]

On large craft, parachutes work better when spaced out vertically, as they won't all fire at once but merely in rapid succession, leading to a softer G-force peak.

[Great General Kaboomsky]

TESTING... and testing.... no seriously, TEST EVERYTHING (twice)!

My lord, there's nothing worse than getting to Jool and realizing that I put something on backward, or blocked the hatch on the module, or left the ladder behind.... or any of a thousand other small mistakes that I have made that completely bollocks up a mission.

[TerLoki]

There is no such thing as too much Delta-V.

[kelmv]

There is no such thing as too much Delta-V.

More dv == more weight. If you are hauling around an extra 5k dv to Mun, I think that can be considered 'too much'. An extra 500m/s makes sense, maybe 1km/s if you are a newbie.

[Ravenchant]

"Get into orbit easy with this one weird trick!"

So it seems those booster enlargement techniques weren't a scam after all

As for lessons:

1) put probe cores and/or docking ports everywhere you can. You never know when it might save your day.

2) keep your action groups as simple and organized as possible, and the amount of F9 pressing will decrease.

[kelmv]

Make sure that your launch clamps are all in the same stage, and that stage happens to be when your primary engines fire.

Also, make sure you lock the gimbal on at least some of your engines, otherwise your tail end might decide to start _break_dancing at the most inoprotune time.

[Max Grant]

I learned to test my assumptions every time. Things like do my ladders reach to the hatch.

[fastbikkel]

I have learned that things do not have to make sense to work.

I had real trouble getting my mind around it.

Example : i did not realise how to construct rockets and planes, i used real life logic and that does not always work well.

I had to open my mind to this, i did not develop anything usefull until i learned to just fix it to the rocket.

Fuel lines for example, i wanted to connect a fuel line, but another engine was in between.

So i could not fix it, whenever i tried to fix it, it seemed to fix itself to the engine in between.

But... invisibly it still connects to whatever you want.

Same with structural bars, these things sometimes disappear. But they are in place anyway.

Maybe this has to do with age, i have to think outside of my "zone".

[nhnifong]

There are a lot of silly gotchas in this thread that amount to bug workarounds or esoteric KSP things

I took this to mean "What general life lessons have you learned from KSP?"

One can always use trial and error, but it is time consuming. Contrary to a programmer's instinct, it is in fact possible to get everthing right the first time with a signifigant amount of effort, and with experience, that effort can be less than trial and error. For me, KSP has changed from a careless game of guessing, to a personal test of skill and dicipline. I want to be able to do everything right the first time, with less effort overall than it would take me to do it right after a sufficient amount of trial and error, and I want to carry that over to my work and everything else I do.

[sarkun]

Space is really, really big.

[lyndonguitar]

orbital mechanics and stuff

[BullseyeP90]

docking is easier with RTS

[_Aramchek_]

A single word. Struts.

[xrayfishx]

Lock staging when you're not planning to stage any time soon. Alt-L really helps when you often accidentally press space.

[Skyler4856]

Retrograde, not just up.

[timx222]

NEVER take shortcuts. Attempting to burn a little late in a landing or time accelerate to max when going to the mun NEVER ends well. It just ends up with you frustrated at being so stupid and having to start over again, wasting an hour instead of saving a minute.

[TheSandDuna]

Bring enough fuel for a return. Lost a lotta good Kerbals on missions with not enough to get me to a destination and back.

[Blaze 9X]

Remember a parachute for the return capsule, especially after go for mass amounts of science on minmus...

[RSwordsman]

orbital mechanics and stuff

This. And the fact that space stuff moves, a lot. I always pictured ships in orbit as drifting slowly around the celestial object. For moons and stuff, sure. But earthlike planets? Nuh uh. And no craft can ever truly be stationary.

[MajorThomas]

1. Best to treat Gilly as a large spaceship, or a moon without gravity, and fly near it accordingly. The fact you can "land" on Gilly doesn't mean that's what you're going to usually be doing. (Bouncing off is much more common.)

2. When dropping a rover, be sure it has parking brakes set.

3. If MechJeb balks and says it can't be done, or is attempting to setup a maneuver that will kill you/run you out of fuel, don't execute, instead switch to manual and trust your instincts.

[ExplodingRocketShips]

Do not de-orbit your Mun station directly above your base.

[costermonger]

Retrograde, not just up.

This made me giggle.

[Tada]

When Mün rises burn straight for it!

[jalapen0]

The ground is hard.

[benzman]

Do not de-orbit your Mun station directly above your base.

Brilliant!