The Kerbal Space Program (KSP) Thread

[Chaotic42]

I created this thread because the old one from 2011 is out of date, the OP is no longer correct, and the original poster is no longer active.

Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a space program simulator available on the PC for Windows, OSX, and GNU/Linux (Link).

The game combines a building phase, where players create aircraft, spacecraft, and ground vehicles, with a sandbox phase where those craft are launched, flown, and landed. It includes a sandbox mode with all parts unlocked, and a career mode where players must unlock tiers of technology by collecting "science". The science points are awarded for various feats such as obtaining soil samples, performing EVAs, or monitoring scientific experiments in different places.

KSP roughly simulates our solar system, with several planets, some of which have moons. Each celestial body has its own terrain, heightmap, and physical characteristics such as gravity, orbital period, rotational period, and the like. Through significant trial and error, it's possible to create elaborate space stations and remote outposts. The builder is very deep and it's possible to create some wacky structures.

It is not free, though there is a demo (Link). It's available from the aforementioned website as well as Steam. It also has its own very informative wiki (Link)

It's definitely worth looking into.

As of 2014-12-15, version 0.90, "Beta Than Ever" is now available (Link)

FAQs:

Why isn't KSP 64-bit?
-Because Unity, the engine upon which KSP runs, doesn't have proper 64-bit support on all clients. (Link)
-As of 2014-07-15, version 0.24, there is 64-bit support for Windows.
Why isn't KSP properly multithreaded?
-KSP is multithreaded, but Unity isn't multithreaded in a way which results in the sharing and offloading of physics calculations (Link). There are supposed to be some physics improvements in the new version of Unity (Link)

 

[The Boston Dangler]

to see what's possible in the game, check out scott manley on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxzC4EngIsMrPmbm6Nxvb-A

 

[shortylickens]

I need more keyboards!

 

[JamesV]

I'd call this the game of the decade. So many hundreds of hours put in, and tons of things yet to do, in a game unlike any other where the only limit is your imagination. If you are interested in space and building, go buy it and thank me later.



Turtle Rover trials; hits 22 km/h stable with turns, and I love the landing legs on it, so you can 'park' it... can even just put down the front legs only to shine the headlights on things like the arcs.

 

[zinfamous]

you guys are just doing all the work for the Kerbels. They are mining our brains for creative and interesting tools and before you know it, Earth is invaded by Kerbels piloting a squadron of spacecraft designed by Tom Vilcharski from my excellent compatriot Rapids, Minnesota.

 

[Chaotic42]

Dear NASA,

I can start next week

 

[JamesV]

Dear NASA,

I can start next week

Pfft, that is all one stage.

If it was 36 stages, with fancy sepratrons spinning the spent stages off in different directions, then I'd be impressed.

(tried something similar with orange tanks only, and no struts...didn't work out well)

 

[Chaotic42]

Pfft, that is all one stage.

If it was 36 stages, with fancy sepratrons spinning the spent stages off in different directions, then I'd be impressed.

(tried something similar with orange tanks only, and no struts...didn't work out well)

Yeah, when I hit space the game freezes for about ten seconds and when it comes back, everything is strewn around the space center.

 

[ViperXX]

I love this game! Been playing it since mid summer 2013. I recommend it all the time.

 

[slpnshot]

Dear NASA,

I can start next week

Oh god. What fps do you get when that thing launches? I think my game would crash.

 

[Yreka]

So buying this game next sale.. I have been eyeballing it since the summer sale & got an e-chub earlier this week when someone bumped the thread from back when it was free

 

[_Rick_]

Yeah, on a sale it looks like a fun buy - at full price not so much.

Also, mission planning needs to be massively improved.
I want to be able to fully plan every mission. From take-off, to landing.
I need to know thrust to mass ration for my stages, even after partial burns.
I need to figure out the ideal launch date to get short travel time to nearby targets.
And I need to see both projected paths, when I plan rendez-vous missions, including all maneuvers. I need to be able to know the actual burn length and fuel consumption of a maneuver.

I mean, sure it's fun to try things out from time to time. But I want to be able to do things properly, and currently the UI is still very much preventing me from doing that. Though I suppose some of the add-ons help a tiny bit with mission planning.

Oh and, aerodynamically decaying orbits aren't properly predicted by the mission planning either.
That's all a tiny bit frustrating.

 

[Chaotic42]

Yeah, on a sale it looks like a fun buy - at full price not so much.

Also, mission planning needs to be massively improved.
I want to be able to fully plan every mission. From take-off, to landing.
I need to know thrust to mass ration for my stages, even after partial burns.
I need to figure out the ideal launch date to get short travel time to nearby targets.
And I need to see both projected paths, when I plan rendez-vous missions, including all maneuvers. I need to be able to know the actual burn length and fuel consumption of a maneuver.

I mean, sure it's fun to try things out from time to time. But I want to be able to do things properly, and currently the UI is still very much preventing me from doing that. Though I suppose some of the add-ons help a tiny bit with mission planning.

Oh and, aerodynamically decaying orbits aren't properly predicted by the mission planning either.
That's all a tiny bit frustrating.

Send that stuff in to the developer. It's the big perk of alpha participation.

 

[mizzou]

It's a fun and unique game, :thumbsup:

I've played it a lot, then took a break, then played again when career mode came out.

Trying to dock shit in space is very challenging. Sometimes I wish there was a noob mode to get stuff together, like let one of your kerbins do it for you.

 

[shortylickens]

It's a fun and unique game, :thumbsup:

I've played it a lot, then took a break, then played again when career mode came out.

Trying to dock shit in space is very challenging. Sometimes I wish there was a noob mode to get stuff together, like let one of your kerbins do it for you.

the whole point is that kerbals are morons and need constant instruction.

But yeah, as tasks get more complex I really wish there were tools to automate things.

 

[_Rick_]

Send that stuff in to the developer. It's the big perk of alpha participation.

Nope, not going to buy it, if all I get is the hope that somebody turns it into a truly fun simulator. And from the milestones I've seen, there's plenty of other stuff they're already committed to.

If there's a sub 10 euro deal, I might take another look, or I'll see what the eventual gold can do, and if that's worth plonking down the money they ask.

 

[BrightCandle]

Well you can play the demo for free and it will give you a taste of what the game is like.

I have been having a blast building a fuel station, sending rovers to the moons and I sent out my own pair of Voyager like craft last night on gravity assisted out of the system missions. Its quite interesting and you learn a lot about the physics of space travel in the process.

 

[Rhezuss]

LOL! Man I suck at this game!
I can go in orbit, I can get back, I can design cool ships but apart from that i'm stuck lol.

And now I see bases build on the moon and stuff like that, that is extremely cool.

I need to play more.

 

[Stuka87]

I have not played for a little while, BF4 has been consuming time.

but I have gotten as far as landing and taking off from the Mun. I have both a medium sized and small sized rover on the Mun. And I have a satellite orbiting Duna in preparation for an upcoming rover mission. My first mission to Duna failed, so the current satellite is mission #2.

 

[ViperXX]

There are addons like MechJeb that automate some of the tasks like take off, orbit height, docking, landing, etc. Goto the Kerbal Space port and check out some of the addons.

 

[BrightCandle]

I use the Engineer mod to show me the delta V of the various stages of my craft, the thrust to weight ratios etc etc. This gives me a good idea of how far a craft can go given the multitude of stages it has. That combined with the map of dV on the KSP wiki tells you near enough everything you need to work out if a craft is capable of making it to their appropriate destination.

My voyager probes were only 570KG so I ended up with half the dV coming from an electrical Xenon gas based engine which producs a whopping 6000 dV of the 12k the craft started with and it turns out that was a lot more than needed to escape the system. Its terrible TWR but it gives very precise controls for the gravity assist for the Jools flyby.

Its one mod I highly recommend for getting you started with building rockets as you can look and see the impact of the changes your making really easily.

 

[Dankk]

Dear NASA,

I can start next week

...mother of god

 

[shortylickens]

...mother of god

Dont get excited, those rigs tend to assplode right on the ground.

 

[JamesV]

Yeah, on a sale it looks like a fun buy - at full price not so much.

Also, mission planning needs to be massively improved.
I want to be able to fully plan every mission. From take-off, to landing.
I need to know thrust to mass ration for my stages, even after partial burns.
I need to figure out the ideal launch date to get short travel time to nearby targets.
And I need to see both projected paths, when I plan rendez-vous missions, including all maneuvers. I need to be able to know the actual burn length and fuel consumption of a maneuver.

I mean, sure it's fun to try things out from time to time. But I want to be able to do things properly, and currently the UI is still very much preventing me from doing that. Though I suppose some of the add-ons help a tiny bit with mission planning.

Oh and, aerodynamically decaying orbits aren't properly predicted by the mission planning either.
That's all a tiny bit frustrating.

I think the whole idea is that you stumble your way into doing things properly, and maneuver nodes for everything would be counter to that idea. When I first landed on the Mun, 30-40 hours of gameplay after starting... it felt epic; if I could just map out the whole mission from Kerbin, I could have done it in the first few hours probably.

Things like Delta V are important though and Kerbal Engineer works great for that. You probably should also get MechJeb, but I prefer controlling everything myself.

 

[Stuka87]

Yeah, on a sale it looks like a fun buy - at full price not so much.

Also, mission planning needs to be massively improved.
I want to be able to fully plan every mission. From take-off, to landing.
I need to know thrust to mass ration for my stages, even after partial burns.
I need to figure out the ideal launch date to get short travel time to nearby targets.
And I need to see both projected paths, when I plan rendez-vous missions, including all maneuvers. I need to be able to know the actual burn length and fuel consumption of a maneuver.

I mean, sure it's fun to try things out from time to time. But I want to be able to do things properly, and currently the UI is still very much preventing me from doing that. Though I suppose some of the add-ons help a tiny bit with mission planning.

Oh and, aerodynamically decaying orbits aren't properly predicted by the mission planning either.
That's all a tiny bit frustrating.

Several of things you listed are already there. I would suggest going and reading up, and doing the few tutorials. Otherwise, get mechjeb, it has pretty much anything you would ever need.