How did you start your KSP learning curve?

[cantab]

I don't know how I first learned about it. If I had to guess, I'd say xkcd. I'm not sure if I'd watched any videos, but I knew roughly what the game was about when I downloaded the demo, then played it a couple of weeks later. (Compared to numerous games I've paid for, that's pretty quick from acquisition to playing!)

I started by doing the VAB and launch tutorials, then set about designing my own rocket to reach space (which I considered as the real-world 100 km), then orbit. I got hooked pretty quickly. Then I turned to the Wiki to try and get better, and found the single most useful page was this one: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_maneuvers

In the demo I did an SSTO rocket (badly, and couldn't get back down), an orbital rendezvous (to rescue the guy in the SSTO rocket), and a Mun orbit and return, then I decided to get the full game already a few months back (was version .23), and have been playing way too much since.

[IceWolf202]

I honestly don't remember how I came across KSP, all I know is that it was long before any of the Youtube Let's Players got their hands on it and made it popular. I remember downloading the demo and Kerbin did not rotate and the sun was just a light source that was unreachable. I thought it was fun just to construct rockets and try to get them to orbit so I could see the dark side of the planet or go past escape velocity never to return. But when they first added the Mun and I saw a video of someone landing on it using winglets as landing legs, I was convinced to buying the game so I could try it myself.

Later I found Scott Manley and his videos really showed me the nearly limitless potential this game has, which inspires me to go further into the game and to think beyond the box to achieve the goals I set.

[Cocox]

I found out about it while browsing youtube. Knew about it on steam, but did not pay attention. But after a a nice youtube movie, I rushed on steam and bought it.

My learning curve.. When I started playing KSP I knew what I was doing thanks to 9 years of playing Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator.

[Lundmunchkins]

One day back in October of 2012, I was watching some videos on Youtube out of boredom, and while watching

, I stumbled across a comment that said "You should rename this video "My First Hours in Kerbal Space Program". I had no idea what the heck this "Kerbal" stuff was, so I did some research on the almighty Google, and came across KurtJMac's North Pole Exploration video.

I was hooked. At the time of my aquishision of KSP, I was a really bad Orbiter player, so I was excited for a game like this. After playing the demo for like, 11 minutes, I quickly used my report card money and bought the game. After getting the game all I knew was "go up to go to space", so after a little research and some Scott Manley, by the time 0.18 was out I had the hang of orbiting and could construct decent spacecraft too. After being baffled by the new parts and planets in 0.18, I finally constructed a probe and on December 10th, 2012, landed on the Mun. That feeling of finally doing it still lingers inside me whenever I land. After reaching the Mun, I decided to travel to the planet I found most interesting: Jool. I constructed a spacecraft and after a LOT of trials and tribulations, I reached Jool on December 21st, 2012. That was a major accomplishment, because soon I was sending probes to every planet, and soon, by 0.19, Kerbals too. After 0.19 came out I constructed my first true space stations. I also got the hang of docking, and that was probably the most important thing I ever learned in this game (other than orbital mechanics itself). I soon built my first Space Station, "Astro One", and soon my first kerbed Duna Mission, "Ares". By 0.20, I had fully traversed the community of KSP. I got a Reddit account in September due to me not being able to get a KSP forums account for some reason, and for the first time actually got to talk with other KSPers about the game. But after the second Great Forum-Splotion in October (I think) I finally was able to get a KSP forums account. And now I'm here, typing away on my keyboard about my experience with this game. Since I was like, 12, when I first got this game, I heartily think that this game has shaped the last portion of my childhood. This game also got me into other games, shows, and internet cultures. In fact, after I bought this game, I was more accepting of people and their likings, which led me on the track to discover Doctor Who, Nostalgia Critic, Minecraft, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which today is my all-time favorite show. Seriously, this game has introduced me to the internet, it's culture, and so much more, and when I look back, I'm ever so happy that I watched that video back in October of 2012. Thank you SQUAD, thank you for this wonderful game, and opening my eyes to the internet and the world.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Lundmunchkins

[Jas1126]

Some livestream way back when. I built a few simple rockets at first (made orbit on the second launch) and proceeded to goof around from then on. I cannot take this game seriously until they do something about the physics. I have the realism mods installed but, even then, the game is still too easy.

Concerning stock - The fact that I made orbit on the second launch (first launch nowadays) and that the entire tech tree can be unlocked in three launches is a little discouraging. I cannot wait until the next update!

I primarily started playing this game because I could land on planets (something I sought out for over a decade). KSP answered that dream and I replied. I will always remember KSP as one of my favorites due to that fact alone. Not to mention the improvements that will be made.

[Commander Zoom]

It was so long ago (version 8 or 9, somewhere thereabouts) that I really don't recall where I heard about it - possibly on the XKCD forums, before it started turning up in the comics. Itchono's post, here, gives a pretty good description of what it was like in those days. Most of the Youtube videos that existed at the time were what I now call "fireworks displays": a big bunch of stock tanks, engines and SRBs (people were only just starting to make mods) whose sole purpose was to come apart and/or explode entertainingly soon after liftoff. There really wasn't much else to do yet, besides try to get into orbit.

Here is a reproduction of my first multi-stage rocket (with the stock Mk1 capsule model replaced, for the sake of looks, with a predecessor to the official one-kerb "Mercury" style pod). Note how the second trio of SRBs in the first stage are simply surface-attached to the first set, by eye. This gave it a *cough* slight tendency to spin.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Commander Zoom

[SolarLiner]

Got the 0.13 version after hearing about it on the french Orbiter community, and the first thing I did was to create some sort of a Saturn V replica way underpowered. I couldn't go over 30 km on the first tries. But I quickly got around it, and in 30 minutes I did a retrograde fly-by around the Mun, and got me back into the atmosphere. I then bought the game.

I never had any difficulties in flying ships (certainly because of my 4 years playing Orbiter, I got some knowledge), but building them still is my biggest downside; I can't seem to get anything like I want, and put enough DeltaV. Hopefully MechJeb and Engineering Redux greatly helped me on that.

[Aragosnat]

Heard about this game while chatting with people in the now dead Star Citizen Chatroll (old version) before the great KSP Forum Kraken. Played around with the 0.18? demo Hit and and then successfully landed and returned from Mün and a bit later bought the game after the Kracken was squashed. Also Manly videos to help with docking. Rest trial, explosions and Kerbal deaths..

[[email protected]]

I was just looking for space simulator games on steam and KSP was 1 of a very small number of results. I downloaded and played the demo for all of 10 minutes, bought the full game and quickly realized that despite my lifelong interest in astronomy I knew jack squat about orbital mechanics. My next step was going on youtube and searching for KSP tutorials where I found Scott Manley, the rest is history.

This was back in .16 or something, I didn't discover there was a KSP community for nearly a year.

[HafCoJoe]

I started KSP back in .13 when there was only a demo. I began by simply trying to reach orbit - which was quite a task for my younger brain. After that I built up to landing on the mun which I eventually did. After that I dropped KSP for about a year since I basically did everything there was in the game at the time. I'm glad I'm back into it now!

-snip-

So basically, start small and go bigger. Over engineer everything if you can. I was particularly lucky since the game's development slowly taught me.

Exactly that. As the game got more complicated, I learned more complicated things.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Avera9eJoe

[softweir]

Those steps include:

How did you find out?

What did you do when you first downloaded the game?

I found out about it from the Egosoft forums back in mid 2011, about 2 months after it launched.

First thing I did was to try a basic launch, lost control (no stabilisation fins) and saw death! That annoyed me, so I came to the forum and started reading...

Back then there were only a very few parts and it was all very simple. There was no Mun. Kerbin didn't rotate - it was always midday at KSC. A bug meant a landing on the dark side of Kerbin was insta-death! But it was addictive and fun! The code was a lot simpler than it is now and easier to modify, so new releases came quickly (as did new bugs) and a lot of simple little mods came along as well. HarvesteR had time to chat on the forums, the community was very small, very friendly and very enthusiastic, and it felt like the beginning of something great - though we had no idea the scope of the game would grow so fast and so far beyond HarvesteR's original expectations!

It's been a very weird, fun three years. I am still so hyped about KSP's potential, and so eager to see KSP Version 1.0

[WinkAllKerb'']

My brother meet Will Wright wich was outraged and told me about it.

demo version, i built a rocket then launch it, then boom, then wiki , then steam, then happy

Edited June 1, 2014 by WinkAllKerb''
Since, believe it or not i m studying butterflys.

[WillHop]

I knew the game existed to Nerd³'s Free Games Extravaganza but never touched on it until I saw it had released on Steam. I toyed with buying it, watched a few videos, played the demo and bought instantly. That night I spent 6 hours trying to get my rocket's (which I named Apollo 1, 2, 3 etc out of originality) in to orbit.

At Apollo 14, I realised going straight up and getting to space did nothing, and I had to turn. When I got in to my first orbit, I just sat back and relished in my achievements. That was 0.19, I think June/July 2013. I joined the forums and have never looked back

EDIT: Upon looking at my join date, it was actually May 2013. This could explain the C in my English Lit exam...

[Javster]

Found about it from some small youtube channel which did Minecraft videos, got the demo, bought the game fairly soon after (only fairly because I got a new computer in between)

I used to go straight up, then circularise.

Never had trouble with orbit though.

[Duke23]

I'm kind of embarrassed to say... I heard about KSP a couple years ago and when I read reviews I thought "no way, that sounds too good to be true. I bet it sucks." but I left it in the back of my mind and a few months ago it popped back up again somewhere on a top games list. I still hesitated for about a week and finally got the demo... Within about 5 minutes and two unsuccessful rockets, I was scrambling for my bank card to buy the full version.

It took me another couple of design changes to finally get to orbit and I knew from there it was going to be a wild ride.

To learn the game I mostly went by trial and error but I also looked up info on orbital mechanics and sometimes watched a tutorial video.

[Treveli]

I forget the exact method (even though it was only back in January or February) but I remember it involved stumbling onto a Scott Manley YouTube vid (linked from a FrankieonPC or JackFrags vid I think). Watched a few more vids of his to get an idea of the game, eventually checked Steam to see if they had it. Installed the demo, started the tutorials, promptly failed the tutorials, went to sandbox and screwed around with that for a few weeks. Watched more Manley vids. Finally admitted I was obsessed and bought the full game. Still haven't completed the tutorials. 'Let's see what this does' for the win.

[ArmchairGravy]

I got a pop up on Steam during the summer sale last year. I saw "manage your own space program" and decided to buy it. I thought it would be an economic sim. I went through the tutorials, and made orbit pretty easily as I knew the key was going up then fast. I then watched Scott Manley videos to get up to speed on setting up intercepts and rendezvous and docking.

[Cirocco]

Saw it on steam at first, but didn’t buy it, just figured I’d keep an eye on it as I normally don’t really spend any money on games that are still in testing. Then I watched Day[9] play it for a few hours in his “Day[9]’s Day Off†and fail catastrophically at getting into orbit. I subsequently thought “I can do better than that!â€Â, bought the game and frantically began to build, launch, fail and succeed into getting into orbit.

Got to orbit, went to Mun, went to Minmus, went to Duna and then figured “y’know, let’s go for the hard stuff!â€Â. Spent literally months designing a sleek looking and efficient EVE lander (a few months which included a hiatus in playing KSP for a few weeks out of sheer frustration).

Recently actually succeeded in building the EVE lander, built a few spaceplanes, installed FAR, rebuilt the spaceplanes to accommodate for the changed aerodynamics (probably have to adjust the design on the EVE lander too… again…)

So yeah, got to grasps with the basics and immediately decided “hey, let’s try the most difficult things in the gameâ€Â. Even though I succeeded, in hindsight this was a terrible idea because I am now kinda burned out on KSP and I’ve never even sent real missions past Duna. For some reason I just can’t work up the effort to design stuff to go to Jool for example, even though I hear it’s a great place to visit…

[Streetwind]

I got the game as a gift. Started off with the sparse ingame tutorials, built a few deathtraps myself (no kidding, my first vessel was literally named Badly Disguised Deathtrap and promptly crashed due to having the parachute in the same stage as the engine).

Eventually though I went on wikipedia and read up 30+ pages on rocket- and space-related physics. I intentionally did not touch game tutorials. That would completely have ruined the learning experience.

[Aethon]

Hey, I forgot to include this image of what KSP looked like when I first started playing.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Little_Joe_on_launcher_at_Wallops_Island_-_GPN-2000-001883.jpg

[luckyhendrix]

Played orbiter, so orbitals mechanics was already mastered (well almost ). It's also trough the orbiter forum that I discovered KSP.

[EdFred]

Lots of cursing. I was unaware that you had to turn SAS *on* to get the rocket to 'listen'

[Blind Dead McJones]

I think I first heard about this game when I showed someone a phone game called Bad Piggies which is also a construction game (but much simpler) and it led to talking about other construction games like Bridge Construction and Fantastic Contraption. Someone suggested this game and then some time later I saw something about it on Radio Dead Air.

I got the demo sometime during March and played with it for a couple days. First I did all the tutorials a few times and then finally tried building my own rocket. I did some pretty stupid things like trying to use a radial decoupler like a stack decoupler and wondering why it wasn't working. I eventually managed to achieve orbit and decided to get the full game. About a week later I had my first successful Mun landing and I never looked back.

[DoctorCruz]

I heard about the game in the summer of 2013. After hearing about it, I read almost every wiki page, and learned as much as I could about delta-v

The first thing I did was try to get a decent LKO orbit

One man, Scott Manley

[Pipcard]

First day, I got a satellite into orbit.

Granted, I have Orbiter experience.