146hours

[M5000]

Landing an unmanned rover on the Mun was one of the first things I did. Albeit, I play with mod parts. I forget what my lifter even looked like, to be honest. However, that was long ago before KSP was even on Steam, so I can't say for sure what my hours were when I first touched down...

[Hidden Gunman]

It's taken be two weeks, for 136 hours in game, and I've finally worked out I need a notebook full of equations and a scientific calculator....

[jduchock]

146 seems about par...i was over 100 before i made a "manual" mun landing.

Then mechjeb spoiled it a bit for me... but even after installing MJ, i am just under 1100 hours playing, so it wasn't an "end game cheat" sort of thing at all...

[Ravenchant]

I don't no why but listening to Two Steps from Hell and Audio Machine at the same time must have helped as this is the only thing different I have done since playing.

Well, that must have been it. Listening to TSFH and similar stuff always helps! No kidding. Whenever I'm exhausted while biking, I put some of their music on and can easily cram 30+ more kilometers into the pedals

On topic: it took me about two hours to get into orbit and about 10 to land on the Mun. Granted, I looked at the tutorials almost right away and it was in the demo, where there's almost nothing to be done beyond that...

What I find depressing is these dozens of hours of gameplay is pumped up because of the grinding needed to get achievements or levels. Take the grind out of modern games, and the story's done in far, far less.

That depends how good the story is. Even a three-hour experience, if done well, can give a lot of the emotions one gets while reading a good book. KSP is more similar to perusing an encyclopedia on a subject of your interest, in that regard

That said, spending several dozens of euros/dollars/pounds on something that short is...well, risky, so one can just do what Randall Munroe proposed here:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cutting_edge.png

Edited November 27, 2013 by Ravenchant

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I'd got to the mun in 50 hours. Just keep trying!

[Travisfv]

It took me I think like 32 hours. It would have taken a lot longer but I watched a ton of videos on how to do it. But that doesnt mean I am anywhere near as good yet. At 332 hours of playtime, I still do not venture far from Kerbin. Very rarely do I send a manned flight out. Today was my second, yes second, manned flight outside of Kerbin... that was successful. Third if we count unsuccessful. And even then, only once landing on a planet.

But trust me, as things progress you'll get better. And one day you'll look at the Mun and say, I wanna go there real quick, and in like 30 minutes you're touching down and taking soil samples.

[Lone K.]

Took me roughly 82 hours or so. Yeah, maybe we learn slow.

[kookoo_gr]

146 hours is nothing compared to the fact that the Americans orbited the Moon at Apollo 8. Keep it up until you reach 300 hours to get to another planet I managed to land on the Mun at about the same hours as you but at least i learned so many ways on how NOT to land on the Mun

[Vrana]

It greatly depends on your previous skills/education. People with good previous knowledge of physics will have a much easier time with this "game" in general. Others will have to learn things while they play.

I think my first Mun orbit attempt was a success(not efficient in any way or form, that took some ingame experience). Landing on it in one peice, however, took quite a bit longer.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Vrana

[Aqua667]

It took me about 15 Hours to learn how to reach orbit, and that was from watching Mechjeb do it a few times. Tip your rocket over at 10K, who knew??

I've logged 126 hours on steam, at least 10 more offline, and about 40ish before the steam version. So I've played for 190 hours, and the best I've gotten is s probe to Jool. No fancy mun bases and Eve return landers. I forgot when I got to the Mun though .

[pxi]

What I find depressing is these dozens of hours of gameplay is pumped up because of the grinding needed to get achievements or levels. Take the grind out of modern games, and the story's done in far, far less.

Quite true. A lot of games these days throw around figures of 8-12 hours of 'main story' gameplay, as if that's something to be proud of.

146 hours with so much left to do in the game? Win.

[Spider0804]

Took me a few hours.

[Liowen]

I just looked at my Steam play time, more out of curiosity, and noticed I am at 102 hours and I have been to Mun, Minmus, and now Duna. Yet the thing is I do not feel like I have played that many hours to be honest, and that is how it should be. If you are enjoying a game it should not feel like you need to make it to a certain goal in a certain amount of arbitrary time limit not set by the game that, but more importantly if you have fun if you either succeed or fail. While I have been to those three bodies it has been with only one crew member on the mission, so I still have yet to do space stations, moon bases, or multiple crew missions yet. I think some players put unrealistic goals to "succeed" in most games and miss the main point of the game is to have fun playing, not just race to the finish. Part of the blame is in the achievement system that has come about as of late, you know the ones "you pushed this button 9000 time you get +10 points", I don't need those in the game as if I beat something, no matter how long it took, I feel I have done something right in doing that.

[gtmattz]

Maybe 2 hours of trying to figure it out on my own, the I spent about an hour watching YouTube videos and managed orbit on my first try after that, then in short order was orbiting the mun and learning about free returns. Took me many many more hours to execute a successful mun landing, no idea how long though, but it was weeks of playing.

This was all way before the game was integrated into steam, so I really have no idea how many hours I was putting into the game... I do know that I played a lot more before steam than after, and I'm a little over 300 hours showing in steam...

Edited November 29, 2013 by gtmattz

[HAL9000-2001]

I Started with the demo, orbited in less the 2 hours, and landed on the mun in about 10. That was back in the day when we used fins as landing legs.

I did watch a fair share of YouTube before I started though.

[TheSaint]

I made orbit on the second or third try, IIRC. But I've been a space geek for decades, and I used to play a lot of Orbiter.

[Iridium616]

Got into orbit on my first try. The Mun on my 3rd. And to interplanetary space on my 8th!

I actually reached duna on my 2nd, but it took me 11 days (since I said "lets try to reach mun) to get to mun

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

It took me more than a year in real life to figure how to get to the mun. After the 0.18 update.

[AlamoVampire]

Its not about how long it took its about the fun getting there! I forget how long it took me but i know i had fun gettin there

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

Its not about how long it took its about the fun getting there! I forget how long it took me but i know i had fun gettin there

It was not fun. A whole year spent trying to get to the mun.

[zxczxczbfg]

I would've taken even longer if I hadn't just looked at some scale comparisons of the Saturn V and realized how BIG it was, and made my rocket BIG as well. When all else fails, do what works!

[lump]

No joke i actually landed on the Mun before i hit orbit, when i first got kspit was at my friends, and we played together and kept on building bigger and bigger rockets till we got onto intercepting the Mun, then we built ones to slow down and land as well, i didnt even think about orbiting or whatnot till the next day, when on the way back from the mun we ran out of fuel and was stuck forever in space, oh it did feel so good the first time for anything in ksp, landing on the mun resulted in cheering and high fives, twas so good back then , thinking back now where i can land in a heartbeat, looking for the next chance of that awesome feeling i got.

[Specialist290]

I would've taken even longer if I hadn't just looked at some scale comparisons of the Saturn V and realized how BIG it was, and made my rocket BIG as well. When all else fails, do what works!

Just remember, when it comes to rocketry: It's not the size itself that matters, but how you use it

[ArmchairGravy]

I didn't have too much trouble reaching orbit, as I knew the key was going fast, and ballistic trajectories are the key to going fast. I had to watch some Scott Manley tutorials to get Mun intercepts figured out. I used to play Moon Lander way back in the day, so landings weren't too bad.

[Material Defender]

just cracked 400 hours and i just now have bases and stations around every planet and moon, if that gives you any benchmark. it's also been 5 yrs in game time. Nice round numbers.

But yeah, probably the most fun i ever had was just learning the basics. Reaching orbit, landing on the moon, these were the most exciting things I think, and it probably took me 100 hours just to make consistent orbit with small craft.

Not that it's stopped being fun, but now the fun is in playing with my bases and toys on all the various environments. Watching Duna rise and fall from my base on Ike is one of my personal favorites. Some things have gotten tedious though. Like the 10,000th interplanetary plane adjustment. The millionth launch of my standard, workhorse, million-times debugged lifters.

I got into SSTOs for a bit, and that made the game new again, but I still haven't tried any mods. I'm not interested in mechjeb or anything that would make the game "easier," I'm really not sure where to start with mods.

- sorry for the ramble, this is my study break from med boards, and I'm a tad loopy