Old player requesting information

[Skylid]

Hello KSP!,

I used to play a lot till the .19 update then they changed the PC requirements and my 8 year old pc went into a coma upon KSP startup.

well its been a while now, almost a year, and I now have access to a better laptop, and am going to begin my KSP en devours once again!

I was wondering what major things things I should look out for ( I know that there are some major stuff, science,tech tree, career). If you guys have some tips on how I should try to tackle all these new things please let me know!

Thanks-

Skylid

[Dave Kerbin]

.19? That's a very long time. I'd need to break it up to make some sense.

To .21

SAS completely changed. Now it requires control surfaces/RCS/reaction wheels to actually work.

Several planets terrain has changed (Mun is harder to land on due to more craters/hills)

Space center has expanded and been updated. The space center screen is now more then just a static scene (real time passes)

Kerbals can now be hired (from the new astronaught complex) and assigned to missions. They can plant flags and can sit in the new seat parts

Obviously new parts, including several new command pods and probe cores

Ending missions changed - choices are now Revert (if no save has been done since launch), go back to the space center without actually ending the flight, terminate from the observatory, or 'recover' if you've landed back on Kerbin

To .23

Science!

You can now choose to start either a traditional Sandbox game or play 'Career'

In career mode you start off with a limit number of parts. You earn science by performing experiments (like taking the temperate in low Kerbin orbit or collecting a soil sample from the Mun's East Side Crater)

R&D building added for accessing the tech tree where science is spent to get access to other parts

New science parts (experiments), landing legs now have shock absorbers

You can save pieces of a ship as a subassembly for easy reuse

Can 'tweak' parts, such as adjusting how much fuel to load in a tank or limit the maximum thrust of an engine

To .23.5 (NASA partnership)

Many NASA parts including launch escape tower and extra-large diameter fuel tanks and engines

Asteroids are randomly spawned. They can be studied for science and their course altered

Grabber claw for attaching to asteroids (or other objects)

Part joints redone. Ships will not fall apart.

To .24

Money and reputation added to Career mode ('Science' mode is also added which is just classic Career)

Parts now cost money. Money from parts can be recouped by landing them close to the space center for recovery

Mission control building provides contracts - these offer money, reputation and sometimes some science for completing objectives

Reputation controls what contracts are offered

Now that's obviously not a complete list (there are a lot of parts that have been added including several unique engines like the R.A.P.I.E.R.) but it covers what I can think of. You can always read the version history from the wiki.

[Taki117]

Contracts are awesome, just remember some of them are impossible.

[Eric S]

New things:

Career Mode (including science, contracts, etc).

NASA SLS style parts. The size of a payload for a given number of parts took a big jump when these came out.

Asteroids

The RAPIER engine (dual mode, can act like a turbojet or a traditional rocket engine)

Tweakables (adjust the amount of fuel/oxidizer in a tank, starting position of landing legs/ladders, deployment altitude of parachutes, etc in the VAB)

Biomes, though those only matter for science

You can time warp in the tracking station

Subassemblies available in the VAB. You drop what you want to use, and then can pick up a copy of them at any time in that save.

Tons of UI polish, such as changing the planar mode of the map is no longer needed, if you focus a planet, your trajectory through that plant's SoI will automatically be drawn in that SoI rather than where it would happen in the parent SoI.

Things that will not behave as you expect them to:

SAS got totally redone, it's now softer, so you don't have to turn it off when you change your heading, and it will attempt to maintain the new heading, or something like it. Very nice once you get used to it, especially for aircraft. Oh, and flywheel-generated rotational power now requires electricity.

The Mun is a LOT less flat. Procedural craters all over it. Oh, and a 5k altitude orbit around the Mun is no longer safe. That came as a serious shock to one of my in-progress Mun missions. :-)

I would suggest reading the version history.

[biohazard15]

Contracts are awesome, just remember some of them are impossible.

The only impossible contract is to test launch clamps on another planet' surface (that's a bug due to contract system treating them like any other part with test module). All other contracts can be completed rather easily.

[RexKramer]

-Ion engines now have enough thrust to make them useable in the game.

-Parts (especially fuel tanks) stick together better. - Previously two orange tanks together would be very wobbly. That got fixed a while back, so go ahead and stack away!

-Docking ports are less wobbly than before, but still wobbly enough that adding struts is helpful. The large docking port is obviously the most stable one, if your ship is big enough to use it.

-Some of the command pods now have a little RCS propellant built in.

-SSTO aircraft are absolutely do-able now. One TurboJet and two Intakes (maybe even one) should get a minimalist vessel to orbit fairly easily, with a little rocket boost to top off your periapsis and circularize.

[Cerberus738]

The only impossible contract is to test launch clamps on another planet' surface (that's a bug due to contract system treating them like any other part with test module). All other contracts can be completed rather easily.

how about testing parts in orbit around Jool at 188km.... you should try that one!

Contracts are pretty awesome though!

[Skylid]

Thanks guys!

I will be sure to keep this all in mind when I start playing.

-skylid