Helloooooooo! (And rival agencies???)

[TimmyT603]

The title is intended to be voiced in the Jerry Seinfeld belly button voice....Hel--Looooo!

Either way, I wanted to introduce myself. My name's Tim, I'm 28 and addicted to KSP. It kept popping up on Steam and stuck out. After reading the reviews I bought it, loved it, have spent hours a day on it after work for a couple weeks now.

Originally I wouldn't get far into the careers I'd start because I'd find another mod I wanted to try and would begin a new career each time but now I'm settled on my combo and am trotting along.

I have a question though and hoping someone could help me - Are there rival agencies in KSP? After a few weeks (or days I don't know when they appear) I start to notice different colored orbits when I'm in map mode. They're not any of my ships and always have the name of some in-game company. So basically other companies are in space as well....The one that pushed me over the line and caused me to register to ask this question just popped up and is orbiting very close to the sun....It belongs to Zaltonic Electronics.

Is this a feature of the base game (competition)? I have several mods installed so it could be that. I'm just curious. Suddenly I feel like I lost because travelling so close to the sun is way beyond anything I'd be doing right now.

Either way, I'm glad to be registered here because of how into this game I am. I look forward to chatting with you guys.

Timmy T.

[Pecan]

The orbits that appear are targets being offered as contracts. If you go to mission control they should show in the 'available' list - they show in the Tracking Centre and map view so you can see what all the numbers actually mean. Similarly when you are offered 'visual survey' overfly or EVA missions a tag appears on the body/location target.

Welcome to the forums

[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

I hear you as far as mods are concerned. Back before I finally settled on a few favorites, I was constantly ditching saves or missions because I found a nifty new mod I wanted to try out that would change too many of the basic rules to make continuing with the current save really viable. Sometimes it's like eating popcorn; it's hard to stop at just one

I think Pecan has pretty well answered your original question. Rival space agencies are an oft-requested feature, but as of yet, it's just you, plus a few corporations you can take contracts from. There's no rivals to compete against; the only limiting factors are tech, funds, and your own self-imposed mission goals.

If you have any further questions about the game, feel free to ask; we won't bite, and quite a few of our users are more than happy to help out new players. You may also want to take a look at some of the tutorials that I've listed in the Drawing Board, which is conveniently available through the link in my signature.

Hope this helps, and happy launching!