How do you like to play KSP?

[Tortoise]

How do you like to play KSP? Are you the type who just fulfills popular missions (asteroid redirect, etc), or just fulfill contests and try to build the coolest vehicles, or just try to get to farther planets and gather science?

I personally like KSP to be realistic, which is why I definently cant play without TACLS, FAR, and DER.

I like to sort of "roleplay" as my space agency being a real one, but more active. A space agency that is discovering more things each day and preparing our kerbianians (kerbal civilians) to be able to travel and inhabit space in the future, with ease. By progressing day by day, doing small missions to local planets and sending probes (before actual kerbals) to other planets around the solar system. And also putting stations, space motels, greenhouses to generate fuel, and much more into orbit.

Wbu?

[Tex]

I play stock only (except for Kerbal Engineer, which I adore), but I still like to keep it realistic-ish. I name my missions in a sequence, create different families of rockets, and so forth. It's in this format that I'm working on my Let's Play on.

[Red Iron Crown]

I play stock parts with info/control mods.

I spend ~80% of my game time in the VAB, not very much flying aside from flight testing. I loved Lego as a kid, and KSP is the greatest build-your-own-spaceship game ever devised. I don't necessarily strive for realism. I generally try to make efficient things, though sometimes I just want something that looks a certain way or is a bit ridiculous.

No idea if many people play this way, from around the forums it seems like a lot of players are pilots first and builders or planners second. I'm glad the game seems able to satisfy them and me simultaneously.

[r4pt0r]

all stock with some self-imposed life support stuff:

-hitchhiker for any kerbal in space more than 2 weeks

-1 small rcs tank per kerbal for "snacks"

-im considering pretending the lab is a greenhouse that generates snacks eternally

-re-entry flame effects cannot touch lander cans, so structural panels are placed strategically

taking more suggestions for pretend

[cantab]

Well, a few aspects that spring to mind:

Lots of missions at once. Makes it feel more like a space program rather than just a bunch of missions.

Keep my launchers vaguely rocket-shaped. This showed with my space station core, which was huge, but I had to keep it long and skinny to sit between and above a pair of boosters, I couldn't launch a full "wheel" design.

Make things efficient. I'm moving somewhat from mass and fuel efficiency to part count efficiency, but I still don't like to overengineer.

Make use of gravity assists. I love setting up a good slingshot.

Don't worry too much about stuff the game doesn't include. The game lets me put a Kerbal in a lander can for a year then re-enter at high speed with no heatshield, I'll use that.

Try not to revert or quickload too much. Game bugs and silly carelessness get reverted, but "proper" mistakes I should live with.

No parts mods yet, though I'm seriously considering getting fairings after the hassle of making stock ones.

[Red Iron Crown]

Well, a few aspects that spring to mind:

Lots of missions at once. Makes it feel more like a space program rather than just a bunch of missions.

Keep my launchers vaguely rocket-shaped. This showed with my space station core, which was huge, but I had to keep it long and skinny to sit between and above a pair of boosters, I couldn't launch a full "wheel" design.

Make things efficient. I'm moving somewhat from mass and fuel efficiency to part count efficiency, but I still don't like to overengineer.

Make use of gravity assists. I love setting up a good slingshot.

Don't worry too much about stuff the game doesn't include. The game lets me put a Kerbal in a lander can for a year then re-enter at high speed with no heatshield, I'll use that.

Try not to revert or quickload too much. Game bugs and silly carelessness get reverted, but "proper" mistakes I should live with.

No parts mods yet, though I'm seriously considering getting fairings after the hassle of making stock ones.

The Procedural Fairings mod is manna from heaven if you care about your rockets looking like rockets.

I second your slingshot use comment, that feeling of getting something for nothing is very satisfying.

[pauix]

Right now I'm playing a stock career. Being more limited when building my spacecrafts (specially on the first tiers) has helped me in making more efficient stuff, and places that once were too far away for me (Jool and its moons) are now at my grasp.

[diomedea]

I am certainly the "planner" kind of player, though that requires some proficiency with both building and piloting as well.

I like to carefully plan a mission in advance, caring for all possible things to the latest detail and with due precision. And because I'm not set with what the stock game requires, my game configuration has a mandatory set of mods for increased realism/hardship, so have to plan about life support, communications, heating, realistic atmospheric effects, budget, and more. I don't use parts mods, unless to implement something more realistic. My most "epic" mission to date required about 400 hours IRL to plan (documenting evrything), design and test the ship (no less than 30 variants to find the best one), and conduct (strictly going by the plan). There is a reason why I have not visited yet most places in the kerbal universe...

[Jouni]

I play just one mission at a time, and I often start new saves for new things. I used to have career mode games and space program sandboxes, but I grew bored with them.

Docking Port Alignment Indicator is the only mod I use regularly. As my typical missions have 5-10 dockings for each launch from Kerbin, I just want to be able to dock quickly and efficiently. I still have MechJeb and Kethane Pack installed, but I haven't really used them since 0.23. That will change soon for the Kethane Pack, because the logistics of my current Eve mission would become too tedious otherwise. (The lander got from KSC to Eve orbit without refueling or dropping stages, but now it needs vast amounts of fuel.)

My rockets have an upper stage, a lower stage, and 2 or 4 boosters. Everything has nose cones, and I generally try to avoid stuff extending from the main hull. The upper stage is sometimes combined with the payload for short distance ships.

Manned missions have a three-kerbal command pod and a hitchhiker for a crew of three (even the Eve lander). Two-kerbal lander cans can be used for non-atmospheric landings.

I use quicksaves a lot. The most frequent reason for quickloading is that I've managed to something stupid to a maneuver node, and quickloading is the fastest way to get it right. Aerobraking used to be another common reason, but I'm starting to get them mostly right on the first attempt.

[O-Doc]

I'm a builder and playing stock. I spend most of my time building and testing craft. I'm putting off mods for as long as possible because I don't like my games to be interrupted by update compatibility issues and I like the challenge of using less parts to build stuff. When the modded game starts to get stale I'll probably move into just modding. I'm kicking around with modding at the moment but nothing publishable on the immediate horizon.

[qromodynmc]

Im playing almost stock with mechjeb,not that I use it much but,I use Dv stats and vehicle info. Wish we had these in stock..

Also Im not very into going to other planets,I build planes mosty,still I go to other planets too.

[Dodgey]

I spend as much time in the VAB or SPH as I possibly can, obsessing over a single design. I only just got to Eve this week.

[Rus-Evo]

I play full stock and I try to make missions complicated enough that they are challenging to design, develop and do. I do NOT like just landing planting a flag and going home. Rescue missions are great fun!

[xcorps]

In the following order:

Design rockets/plan missions

Exploring

Flying I leave to Mechjeb unless it's something new and interesting like landing on the helipad

[Frank_G]

I usually plan my missions as exact as possible, doing lots of test flights and missions and tweaking stuff. I guess i spent about ten times more time in VAB/SPH and on test flights then on the actual mission.

And i like to fiddle around with stuff near the KSC and do tests on the Mun and Minmus.

I use lots of mods, but i like to keep the game looking stock. So i keep those mods adding parts to an absolute minimum.

Procedural fairings are an absolute must. Almost every of my rockets get some of those. To have a robotic arm and a cargo bay would be nice.

However i dont want to install infernal robotics because there are simply too many parts and i used only so few in past installations.

If anyone knows some fine mods adding a cargo bay or robotic arm to work with 0.23.5 career it would be nice if one would share the information.

I also used to play with Kethane, Future Propulsion and KWRocketry, but with the new NASA parts i could remove them without sacrificing too much.

Extra Parts:

- Procedural Fairings

- KAS

- ScanSat

- Pitch Vector Engine

- and i made myself a 3.75m ASAS module with some texture i found in the renaissance mod pack.

Altered Gameplay:

- Ferram Aerospace

- Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

- RasterPropMonitors

- Vertical Velocity Controller

- Connected Living Space

- Ship Manifest

Information & Editor:

- VOID

- Enhanced NavBall

- Simple Part Organizer

- Kerbal Engineer Redux

- Editor Extensions

Resource Saving:

- Texture Replacer (no Textures are replaced, only using the compression)

- Active Texture Management

Audio-Graphical Enhancement:

- Cool Rockets

- Hot Rockets

- Mk. 2 and Mk. 3 Cockpits

- KerbQuake

- Distant Objects

- Environmental Visual Enhancement (only the clouds)

- Atmospheric Sound Enhancement

- RCS Sounds

- Chatterer

[Tank Buddy]

Until now I have been 100% stock, but I gave in because of curiosity. I use Kerbal Engineer, Procedural Fairings, Hot Rockets particle effects, Mk2 Cockpit internals, RCS Build Aid, and More Adapters. So pretty much all stock parts (at least the parts more or less fit in with stock). I plan on exploring realchute Parachute Mod and Speed unit converter for the nav ball, just for kicks and giggles. I'm a pretty good pilot if I do say so myself, so I don't see the need for any docking/rendezvous/flight autopilot. I don't know if I'm special or what, because docking was almost second nature.

[Thomas988]

It depends on the save. I currently have two very-serious-business saves (one career and one sandbox) where I do what any space program does, such as launching probes, building space station, planning for future missions, etc. I try and lose as little Kerbals as possible and I also try to do missions in the most safe way possible. But I have another sandbox save devoted to just messing around and doing whatever I want. All work and no play is a serious disease, my friends.

[dr_jt]

Naked and Afraid like my grand pappy use to.

I like to build stations and bases. I also pretty much hang out within Kerbin's SOI. I recently trashed my last save and started anew with completely different designs for stations. I current have a big asteroid station orbiting Kerbin and a station orbiting Minmus. Next I will either send a station to orbit Mun or send a lander to the Minmus station. The plan is to also put a base on each.

The only other places I've gone is Duna, Jool and one of the moons of Jool but other planets hold no interest because of the long waits for launch windows as I have limited time in which I can get to play. The last time I played was over two weeks ago but I'm going to try to play tonight.

[Jas1126]

I constantly try new things and discover/use new mods whenever I can. I have no set play style and I have never built the same rocket twice. If the game ever became stale and predictable then I wouldn't bother playing.

[bigyihsuan]

I play half stock, half modded stock-like parts.

When I fly and if I fail, I go back to the VAB and change the craft slightly to make the fail a success. If this fails at a max of 3 times, I rage quit.

[NecroBones]

I play stock parts with info/control mods.

I spend ~80% of my game time in the VAB, not very much flying aside from flight testing. I loved Lego as a kid, and KSP is the greatest build-your-own-spaceship game ever devised.

Mostly the same for me. I use very few added parts (Aviation Lights, and ScanSat), otherwise the mods I use are mostly info/control mods, plus of course the cloud layers from the Visual Enhancements mod can add to the visual realism enormously.

To me it's a big LEGO set, that also allows me to fly and test my designs. I probably spend about half of each mission in the design and launch-test phase, and the other half flying the actual mission. I don't go for super realism, but I don't just "game the system" either by doing only what's most practical within the game's physics either. I go somewhere in between aesthetics and getting the job done.