The down side of early access

[Martonaut]

Hello, fellow Kerbolnauts, I am here to share my experience with KSP. (Based on a video of TB that I got me thinking)

I jumped into the game on 0.15 if I remember correctly, and on my first maybe 6 months of playing and updating, I used to get very exited about every update, and I played it every day, at least 2 hours, and on weekends a lot more…

But now, after all this time, (more than 1 year) I play KSP once every month … I still enjoy it, and I still believe this is a great game… But I just cant play it like I used to, because I played it a lot back on the days… I thought career mode will have a positive effect on me, and will make me want to play more.. but It did not …

Another thing that has kept me away from KSP, is its performance… at 0.15 I thought… well this is Alpha, they will fix this stupid-game-braking lag… but after a year I realized .. Maybe they CANT fix this lag. And I won’t detail why is it that they can’t fix the lag. But its around and a known fact that Unity sucks for KSP.

Don’t get me wrong, they have improved performance a lot since 0.15, but I will never be able to build my crazy 5k part mother ship and play with it..

So now, I keep an eye on updates, and considered myself a fan of KSP, its just that now Im down to earth, and instead of hoping for It to be the game that I want it to be… I just watch as the developers take it on its path.

Maybe 3 years from we will have KSP 1.0 with multilayer… and maybe they Even change the engine, and make it possible to build crazy big crafts, or on the other hand, having a part cap, so you could always have a constant FPS… (having that type of FPS drops on a “finished game†will be just BAD) .. even then .. will I come back to play a 5 year old game? Probably not..

So basically, getting early access to a game its not always a good thing… We can support the devs, we can suggest things and have the hope that they may be implemented… but if you ask me … I would rather have a fully develop and functional KSP to play like a mad man until I totally exhaust my KSP enjoyment , instead of exhausting it with so many frustrations because of the alpha state on the way.

Now the game is on STEAM early access, more people play it… and will exhaust it before its 1.0, so when 1.0 with multiplayer comes, a big chunk of the community will already be gone.

I don’t regret helping KSP on its early days, If we had not support them, they will not be here , and maybe there would not be KSP at all… but I do feel a bit of sorrow knowing that the game keeps getting better.. but I just don’t enjoy it anymore.

[Giggleplex777]

5 years isn't that long. I'm sure that people have played TF2 and Dwarf Fortress for longer.

[Ravenchant]

Games with active modding communities often have long lifespans. And in addition to being quite unique and having multiplayer... wouldn't worry about it too much.

[MistaX8]

My only hope is that it doesn't become like Minecraft where even after the game is considered "finished" they still keep making major changes. I really enjoy minecraft but it got to the point where if I took a break from it for any length of time I had to catch up on all the stuff they changed.

As far as KSP goes right now, just like with any other game I play, I get bored of it for certain lengths of time and then I get back into it and play it nonstop for days. The great thing about KSP is there is so much fun you can have just within Kerbin's SOI. I've barely scratched the surface of what I can do in this game. I've only made one major mission to Duna and on partial failure mission to Laythe in an old save file leaving Jeb stranded on the moon after I discovered that even the 2nd lander I sent didn't have enough oomph to get back into orbit. I could never update this game again and still get hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of it.

[Whackjob]

I had to abandon minecraft. After a while, there was too much "meh".

[Captain Sierra]

I had to abandon minecraft. After a while, there was too much "meh".

You seem to have highlighted the real lack of "meh" in KSP.

[kelmv]

The core game lacks a lot as far as gameplay is concerned. However, mods like Kethane and RemoteTech2 add a level to the game that it otherwise not there. As-is, if you want to do a round-trip tour of the Kerbin system, you have to launch all of your fuel, packed it all up in orbit, strap a Stayputnik to the nose, and off you go. With those two mods you have added

1) Refueling while en route

2) Dealing with problems en route with your refueling systems if something breaks issues

3) Deploying and maintaining a CommSat 'net

There are other mods that add more and more to the game. I was at a similar point where KSP was about as entertaining as Minecraft (read: not), but any game can get to be too easy if you spend the time to learn it.

Now, if your computer won't handle big ships then maybe it is time to upgrade. Not saying that this is an ideal solution, but my little 1.4GHz laptop can handle KSP with several-hundred part ships (including my Space Elevator which, without any load, was costing me nearly 400 parts).

[FITorion]

It's a sand box.

Its entertainment value is maintained so long as you have something creative you want to accomplish. This isn't a subscription service or multiplayer(yet) so it doesn't matter if you play it once or daily or not at all from their perspective.

Just like minecraft. It had been over a year since I played minecraft until a couple weeks ago... and now I'm playing again. The community for that game has been going on for a long time. I see no reason that this game won't do the same thing.

If this were a regular game with ... an ending... and a story... that you could spoil for yourself... Then I'd agree with TB. But this isn't that. It's only as boring or as exiting as you yourself make it.

[_Aramchek_]

Personally I never get tired of creating new things. I am somewhat frustrated by some "holes" in part coverage or existence...but beyond that it's the best money I ever spent on a game, alpha or not.