I Remember... (A Thread for Early KSP Nostalgia)

[macdjord]

I remember...

... the funky optimal launch trajectories you got when the atmosphere just stopped dead at 34.5km up... and the incredible feeling of freedom when you crossed the boundary and air resistance went away all at once.

... estimating my current throttle setting and acceleration by averaging the

.

... the first time I landed a Kerbal on the Mun and returned him safely to Kerbin. I had a video tutorial I followed slavishly (can't find it any more to link it, alas). The launch vehicle consisted of a launch stage of 9 liquid-fuel stacks hanging from 3 radially-mounted tricouplers (using SRBs for the radial mounting, since you couldn't radially mount fuel tanks for some reason - and, of course, you fired those SRBs right through the tricouplers at launch for a bit of extra power, because thrust impingement hadn't been invented yet), a single multi-tank liquid stack for TMI (point at 90 and burn at mun-rise!), insertion (thank god the master throttle cutoff worked in map view, even if the main throttle controls didn't), and early braking (deceleration burns at 30km, 8km, and 2km), and a minimal final stage - chute, capsule, decouple, tank, engine - for landing (don'ttipoverdon'ttipoverdon'ttipover) and return.

... when control fins were introduced; nobody cared about their atmosphereic steering authority - they made the best landing legs ever!

... my first Saturn V mod. The author had designed it based off the real Saturn V's stats (mass, size, thrust... and delta-v), which made it sliiiightly overpowered for the Kerbin system. (You couldn't quite make it all the way to the Mun on the first stage...)

... fixing said mod after the Great Texture Format Rejigger turned it various odd shades of red.

... my scream of frustration when I first found a mod which promised to allow you to use the control authority of SAS units for manual rotation - and realized that this meant that stock didn't do this, and I had spent years slapping dozens of useless SAS modules on my large ships in the hopes of getting them to turn less glacially.

... the first time I used MechJeb, and let the computer do the things computers are good at while I concentrated on the rocket science. (And docking. It did not do docking back then, though the PAR- ASAS button helped a lot.)

... persistence. You could put a ship in orbit, and another craft could rendezvous with it later - you couldn't dock, you couldn't transfer fuel, you couldn't even EVA a Kerbal over, but by god that first ship would still be there!

... desperately jamming the staging button, trying to get my capsule detached and its parachute deployed before my tumbling rockets hit the ground. (Actually, that still happens, every time I set up my Abort group. ,)

... mourning the loss of the launch tower; it wasn't like I ever built ships so big it interfered with them, and it looked so cool and Apollo-like.

... my first Scott Manley video.

Edited February 16, 2015 by macdjord
Tweaks

[MircoMars]

I remember

... me practicing orbital rendezvous to be ready when then next version features docking (didn't use the docking-mod back then)

... the old LFO-tanks

... the mainsail being OP

... me asking myself whether or not I should invest in a incomplete game in early alpha.

... epic failures

to be continued...

[The Destroyer]

I remember...

-Me thinking the good old "point straight up, exit atmo, you in space"

-And "point towards mun, burn, you go to mun.

-There were no ladning gear,

-Plane parts (except for mods)

-Rover (mods)

-and the game was ugly

-I also remember an old mod I love that was discontinued and didn't let anyone pick it up- IFE.

[BadManiac]

Going straight up as high as possible and posting altitude records on the forums, and manually getting into orbit because there was nothing else to do, no mun, no planets, and the sun was a decoration on the skybox.

[White Owl]

Just a few weeks after I started playing, some guy on these forums - and I'm embarrassed I don't remember who - figured out a way to make an entire aerobatic race course out of a single part. It was a decoupler you attached to the bottom of the plane in the VAB, so when you launched the race course fell off and stayed on the ground. One of the most impressively innovative mods ever. Oh, and the course was seriously difficult to fly, too!

[CaptainBlue]

Watching Scott Manley videos over and over again

and... the stock docking hype. Oh wow, I forced myself to learn how to do orbital rendezvous when it was released. Now it all seems so easy once I knew how to do a Hohmann transfer...

[Brotoro]

The evolution of control issues was often frustrating:

I was having problems with rockets rolling, so I added some radially mounted tanks to put engines on so that they could provide some roll control...until it became clear that they provided NO roll control. And it was only in a quite recent version when this was finally fixed.

The way SAS changed from version to version...and not always for the better. Maybe it was version 0.19 where ships started wobbling like maniacs and bleeding RCS fuel like crazy. And this was after RCS strength had been nerfed, so you couldn't afford to be spilling it for no good reason.

How SAS modules would actually fight AGAINST you trying to turn your ship...and having to constantly toggle SAS off and on when maneuvering. I recently played with an old version (it was all I had on a machine over Christmas to show somebody KSP), and I was agog at how terrible it was to fly ships in that version. I'm so happy we've come so far with this.

The way SAS modules changed: When RCS was bleeding fuel, I added dozens of OKTO2 probe cores to my Tugs so they could change attitude without needing the RCS on... and then when we finally got proper reaction wheels, I had these leftover weird Tugs in space carrying a mess of probe cores for no reason. And then I started putting the standard SAS unit on things to provide torque (because it was less mass than the ASAS unit)...only to have all my ships suddenly show up in a new version with tiny reaction wheels on them when the Devs decided to make the old SAS part into a TINY part. And the time when all the ASAS units on most of my ships in space became useless...because all the capsules and probe cores suddenly became ASAS devices...but, later, the useless parts got to be useful again when they became reaction wheels.

The time the decoupler bug showed up, and suddenly there was no decoupler force IF you had struts connected between the parts.

And, OF COURSE, you had struts between the parts...because you needed struts EVERYWHERE. "Space Tape" had to be applied between all your tank sections and other parts to keep your ship from wiggling apart. Often 2/3 of the parts making up your ship were struts. Oh, I was SO happy when joints got stronger.

Plus, back in the wobbly-wobbly-shake-your-ship-apart days, you had to remember to make an action group to deactivate the thrust vectoring on your Mainsails because otherwise they would shake your ship apart.

Another thing I don't miss was the way my rockets would SOMETIMES (for unknown reasons) go unstable during boost (usually after separating asparagus boosters and then trying to arc over). It was the randomness of it that was frustrating.

Ah, and the Good Ol' Days of rovers made using aircraft landing gear and pushed around by RCS or ion power because kerbals hadn't yet invented the wheel.

And finding inovative ways to dock your ships on the surface of some celestial body to be able to refuel them...because kerbals **STILL** haven't figured out the high-technology that is the HOSE.

Ahahaha...I just remembered how, if you didn't want a full crew capsule (maybe because you needed an empty seat to go rescue somebody), you had to find some way to get a kerbal out of the capsule...either making him climb down some trecherous ladder system (or just jump out...and perhaps die just so you could go rescue somebody else)...or arrange to drop him off at some space station. And if you wanted crew in a ship using Hitchhiker modules, you had to spawn crew-carrying rovers to drive them out to the ship (either from the SPH, or 'launch' them earlier and have them drive far enough away from the pad so their rover would not despawn when you placed the next ship on the pad).

Edited February 16, 2015 by Brotoro

[Roderik]

i remember ksp 0.19 and me and my friend playd and we where just ....ing around and i think the mainsail was then still OP

[Wjolcz]

Anyone remembers the cheaty insta-orbit part from before there were plugins? That one messed up many of my crafts. The speed of planet rotating would cause the parts to misalign from each other.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Veeltch

[Coam]

I liked the showing of fuel draining from individual tanks rather than from stages as a whole, to an extent. It made my rockets feel like they had more fuel. On the other hand overestimating the amount of fuel present is never a good idea.

Also, I like how the Mun and Kerbin looked in 0.13.

[cantab]

Needing to brace and strut past every decoupler and engine - and pretty much anywhere else. I only had to endure that for one update, then ARM came out.

The Mun's surface looking like rock, not like grey grass.

The cupola being a massively heavy thing you had to actually work to use, put an effort in to get it on your ships and stations.

Meanwhile, a year from now I bet the big thing will be the Mk 3 parts being made of tissue paper. Assuming Squad fix the way they fall apart super easily, that is.

[LongHairedHuman]

Just a few weeks after I started playing, some guy on these forums - and I'm embarrassed I don't remember who - figured out a way to make an entire aerobatic race course out of a single part. It was a decoupler you attached to the bottom of the plane in the VAB, so when you launched the race course fell off and stayed on the ground. One of the most impressively innovative mods ever. Oh, and the course was seriously difficult to fly, too!

... that being the very video that got me into KSP, What are the odds!

... practicing orbital rendezvous with two orbiters in a single launch, for the upcoming craft persistence update!

... messing around with insanely broken RCS rockets, escaping Kerbin with tiny crafts!

[AlternNocturn]

I remember...

...when fuel lines came out. I immediately attempted to build a tiny shuttle and failed.

...taking a break from the game, then coming back to see 0.14 came out with persistent world features. I immediately begged my parents for $15 so I could buy KSP. This was before the concept of Early Access and the stigma it gained the last year or two. Never regretted it.

...spending hours building Mun landers and trying to land them on the Mun only to slam into the surface. I resorted to using MechJeb to do my landings for me. Watching how MechJeb did its thing, along with some good advice from the community, eventually led to my first successful manual landing on the Mun. Classic KSP story.

...when EVA came out. I spent hours just running around on Kerbin and flying around with the jetpack on the Mun.

...when the EVA update caused the old command pod to be retired and replaced with two new ones.

...when stock 2 meter parts were introduced, and how they seemed to fall apart when you so much as looked at them funny.

...doing my first orbital rendezvous. I just brought the craft together, swapped the crew members, then deorbited. It was quite an accomplishment!

...when planets were first teased to the community. I thought "Wow, Squad started being less secretive about updates!" They're not as willing to share nowadays, but before planets, we didn't even get screenshots or teasers, just blog posts.

...practicing for interplanetary travel by boosting out into an orbit with 2x Kerbin's period and then coming back to practice aerobraking and landing. Thanks for the tutorial, Scott Manley!

...building and testing the interplanetary lander that was going to take my Kerbal to Duna, then using it on the day of the update to land on the surface first try.

...doing my first Constellation-style mission to the Mun after docking came out in 0.18. Landers didn't have to be so big now.

[Flixxbeatz]

0.10 (very first version I've played): Where all you can do is to get the fastest speed you can do with you just pointing up straight to escape trajectory. No orbiting, no timewarps. People sharing lifter designs, and highest speed they can possibly pull off. Actually you can go into orbit, and doing so is already an achievement you can brag with everyone. But you need to leave your game on for many hours to confirm if you are actually in orbit or just went suborbital.

0.11: When timewarp and orbital map view is still on its infancy. The time when getting into orbit became a typical task, not an achievement anymore. Speed contests became obsolete, but came along a new one: Most circular orbit you can ever pull off (or how close your Ap is to Pe, vice versa). And also there's RCS and ASAS. I remember overusing them to the point that every stage on my lifter has it's own RCS tank, due to their inherent instability.

0.12: MUN HAPPENED! There was a parade of mun landers in anticipation. It was everywhere, because there's now something you can land on. Also, gimbals. Ah those days when I considered thrust vectoring more of a nuisance than a helpful thing (because, coupled with an overreactive ASAS that time, it CAN tear your ship apart).

0.13: Fuel lines. Nothing much, actually. There's still the Mun landings and orbit perfection competitions Those where the times where each component of my ship is fastened by struts to ensure that they won't wobble and/or fall apart during the flight.

Then came 0.14: Persistence (the next big thing). That was when I had to quit for a while because reasons.

I remember when the number of fingers in your hand is greater than the number of stock parts available, thus limiting variability (I mean, it is possible to have two separate persons, posting two separate crafts of separate names, yet have exactly the same design).

Limited stock parts forced me to rely on mods that time, for unique designs and more stuff to do. I remember getting irked by so-called "purists" here in the forums.

And then there's the

who will start messing with your ship once you've reached a certain speed.

I remember the "red parts" during transition from 0.11 to 0.12, messing up every color schemes.

I remember The Plywood Flyer (a.k.a kerbals strapped in plywood as the command module).

Lastly, I remember Novasilisko, Luigibro606, Tiberion, Kyle and Winston, Sunday Punch, mincespy, foamyesque, iamwearingpants, Tim_Barrett, GroundHOG-2010, Sordid, venku1222, zeroignite, and many more awesome forumers from 2011-2012 era, and our live forum chat hilarity sessions. Where the hell are you guys.

[Yukon0009]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/1

[Flixxbeatz]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/1

Speaking of which...

I remembered the "HAIL PROBE" smiley

[r4pt0r]

I remember the first time I watched "Jeb" by Nassault. I get goosebumps everytime. It's so Jeb to never give up like that.

[Red Iron Crown]

The launch tower. I still get angry when I see it, years later.

[Renegrade]

I remember when four years in the past wasn't 'long ago'~

I remember when science experiments were all reusable, and building landers and probes with large solar arrays, big batteries and like eight comm16s so they can spam science reports. Science is still spammy, but I laugh when I see someone complaining about that now.

(and Cantab, what the heck? The Cupola was never that heavy, it used to be about the same as the Mk1-2)

[Guest]

... Rubber dong rockets that flopped back and forth slowly, jeopardizing any given ham-handed flight.

... Stitch-strutting launch vehicle tanks together to avoid the rubberiness.

... Putting 1/8 tanks over Mainsails to avoid overheating.

Man, I'm glad those days are past.

[Sylandro]

Although i'm a bit more modern, i remember my Demo antics.

I'm not sure what to date it, i'm guessing around 0.19-0.20. It was pretty bad. I launched straight up, had no idea what a gravity turn was, thought the LV-909 was the aerospike for some reason. Skip to a little months later, i'm pretty good at KSP, i can somewhat reach the Mun. Still can't land.

Skip to around a month later, the version is 0.22, i asked a friend on the Kerbal Space Program Roleplay Forums (it was the old one, though), he did, i got 0.22 (or i think it was 0.21), i was flabergasted about the amount of new parts. Made me first launch vehicle with the new parts that i had (as i remember), a orange tank and a mainsail for a first stage, a short grey tank with a poodle as a upper stage, payload was a sputnik replica, and the first stage had radial boosters with NERVA's. It wasn't that good, i removed the radial boosters.

Also, here's a pic from my first Mun landing.

Anyway, here's a somewhat more recent Mun landing.

[Renegrade]

... Rubber dong rockets that flopped back and forth slowly, jeopardizing any given ham-handed flight.

... Stitch-strutting launch vehicle tanks together to avoid the rubberiness.

... Putting 1/8 tanks over Mainsails to avoid overheating.

Man, I'm glad those days are past.

But that stuff still --oooh, I see what you did there~

[Tapejara]

... when control fins were introduced; nobody cared about their atmosphereic steering authority - they made the best landing legs ever!

I remember using them that way back in... 0.13? 0.15? Whatever it was, I made it to the Mun for the first time only to discover I'd mounted them a tiny bit too high. My rocket landed awkwardly on its engine, bounced and flipped over.

[NeatCrown]

Oh, I know! When fuselages were made completely out of smaller parts, and all looked different.

♪Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end. Those were the days, oh yes those were the days.♪

[StrandedonEarth]

... Putting 1/8 tanks over Mainsails to avoid overheating.

Oh was THAT the solution for that. I just remember having to throttle back just enough so my Mainsails wouldn't overheat into RUD.