One year and five days ago...

[Xacktar]

I played KSP for the first time.

I can't believe its been a year already. It doesn't seem that long. I remember slapping my first boosters together, and diving for the sky only to bellyflop on the ground.

That was when I discovered the best part about this game: Failure was FUN. Not many games can do that, make you laugh and clap when things go absolutely, horribly bad. The variety of failure was constantly entertaining. I would flip, roll, break apart, explode in mid-air or just get launched into deep space with no control.

I had friends tell me to look up guides and watch Scott Manley, but a part of me refused. I was having more fun learning it by trial and error. I Did massive rockets that couldn't lift themselves more than a few feet off the ground before toppling over, then lighter ones that shook themselves to pieces with hilarious SAS wobbles. Each time I learned about weight, force, resistance, structure... only I didn't know that at the time! I flailed my way skyward to a Mun landing fairly early, but it was horribly inefficient and wonderfully ridiculous.

I did break down and learn the basics after achieving Mun. I needed to learn more about maneuver nodes and how they worked. I still kept to my philosophy, though. Learning the tools but being wary not to learn too much, or I might spoil the fun of learning it through the game. Now, I can say I've done great things in this game, and finding interesting ways to do them all. I would stumble and explode and learn HOW to rocket, then stop and look up why it worked that way.

Now I have been to every world but Tylo, built space stations and moonbases, arranged huge missions with gigantic motherships... and I started to become afraid of losing the joy of learning as I master the last bits of the game...

Then I remember the spirit of space exploration, to keep reaching, keep going and setting your imagination first then filling in how to do it second. This spirit of adventure is alive and wonderful on these forums and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posts ideas, stories, pictures, videos, suggestions and ridiculous failures.

You guys and gals are awesome. Keep reaching for those stars!

Edited August 4, 2014 by Xacktar

[Solivagant]

I understand so well what you mean about the joy of learning without spending your first weeks in the game watching Scott Manley, or an other form of instruction. There's a little something that makes a world of difference between doing your first Mun landing with all the skills and knowledge required, and plummeting out of the sky to a safe touchdown while wondering how the hell you managed that. I didn't learn to dock until I'd already gone to Duna and Eve, and when I did, I just slapped together a craft with RCS and SAS and spent two hours learning by trial and error how to rendezvouz, how to use the controls and naval better, and when the two ports connected, I spent several minutes dancing a jig around the room. I put together my first in-orbit mothership today, and my sense of ignorant adventure is stronger than ever. This is a great game, and congrats on your KSP anniversary!

[CalculusWarrior]

It's been nearly two years for me, and I agree; the time has just flown by. Yet I still dream up new mission plans with as much excitement as I did way back when I first started. I recently unearthed a cache of my old screenshots and I look back on them fondly; I see the silly inefficient designs I came up with, yet recall how much fun it was to build and test them. Going to Duna for the first time was so much fun; I remember the awe I experienced. I could explore an entire planet! And now, in my 0.24 Career mode save, I'm gearing up for a massive Duna mission and still have that same excitement and anticipation; drawing up mission plans, selecting my kerbals (okay, you couldn't really do it back then, but that didn't stop me from trying), and getting ready to explore a whole new world.

Happy anniversary Xacktar, and here's to a whole lot more!

[goldenpeach]

For me, it's has been more than 3 years.

I remeber my extremely inefficient design(the second stage of one of my rocket was composed of a small fuel tank and an engine(there were several other stages like that after).

Also, I remember my firsts ascent path: straight up at nearly full throttle until I exit the atmosphere, then point at the horizon and go full throttle again(I over-estimated the drag from the rocket: I though that the drag would be very high at all time because the rocket was going fast).

I made a more efficient ascent path afterward.

[Brody Peffley]

I remember when there was no moon back in 0.13. Also that you couldn't have kerbals floating in space while your doing other missions either . Oh how fast time flys. And yes I did have an account back then. But I lost it too the april purge.

[95tiger59]

im hitting 2 years early spring this year. I almost kind of miss not being good. Having the awesome feeling when I finally got a rocket into orbit before I knew how to gravity turn. Before I could Land a rocket on the mun in one piece. Before when a kerbal went interplanetary it was never coming back. And I looked in awe at those who could do these things with ease, they were wondering where they went wrong in their math calculations for their grand tour ship, and I was wondering why I kept crashing whenever I did err attempted a mun landing. I almost wish I could forget

[The Fleet Master]

Wait until you hit 3 years, It begins to feel like a fun waste of time I've been playing for 3 years, one month, and 15 days I miss 0.8 so for nostalgia here's a video of my second Mun landing in 0.12

[Xacktar]

These are some great stories and responses! The game certainly has changed a lot over time!

[Whirligig Girl]

I bought the game August 4th, 2012. I haven't stopped liking it since. It's the second longest obsession I've had, next to Thomas the Tank Engine. Interacting with KSP or the KSP community or drawing KSP doodles and making rocket jokes and being called "rocketman" at my school has taken up at least 11% of my entire life.

[RenevB]

This thread made me look up when I got KSP. One year and five days ago... Though I'm sure I played the demo a couple days before that. In addition to that I've been everywhere (not everywhere with Kerbals), but have not landed on Tylo yet... The whole progress you describe sounds awfully familiar as well.

[TranceaddicT]

"I would stumble and explode and learn HOW to rocket, then stop and look up why it worked that way."

This line sums up the complete KSP experience. I know soooo much more about physics, astrodynamics, orbits, trajectories, and more!!! All because of KSP. I have friends that I've tried to get to play this game. Some would rather sit in front of the TV and mindlessly watch shows. Many of them say, "It's too hard." or "I don't want to have to figure things out; I just want to play." Well, more's the pity.

Squad, you should be very, VERY proud of the work you are doing. Thank you. (Not many other developer's, maybe one other, to whom I can say that.) It may seem like you are just making a game. You're not. Your are educating the masses.

Imagine for a moment if GenX had this growing up? Where would we be? Can anyone say Moonbase Alpha? Mars, for sure. Maybe, just maybe, even Eurpoa!!!

[The Jedi Master]

I originally bought the game (the full game, not the demo--I was quite proud of this) on February 5th, 2013. It was on this really old laptop that was never meant to play such a heavy duty game. I still remember putting together a rocket that looked more-or-less sound in the VAB with no lag whatsoever, then going to the launch pad and watching it spin out of control in a glorious slideshow. I have a much better comp now, but I'll never forget that first launch.

[zarakon]

I guess it's been just over 3 years for me now.

That's crazy

[The Destroyer]

I remember when there was no moon back in 0.13. Also that you couldn't have kerbals floating in space while your doing other missions either . Oh how fast time flys. And yes I did have an account back then. But I lost it too the april purge.

There was a Mun in 0.13. No minmus or other planets than Kerbin and Mun, however.