Kerbal Space Agency - Advancing technology today, for a better tomorrow.

[Yskonyn]

The Career mode plays a bit like a Tycoon game, where you develop your Space Program facility, research to unlock more advanced modules, etc.
You take on Space Program goals to accrue money and reputation which will enable you to expand your operations, finally resulting in interplanetary ops. You can mine moons now for resources, but in order to do so you need to devise a plan to get a mining vehicle to the target and the resources back to Kerbin (Earth).
It has gone long past the simple funny sandbox 'Let's build a funny rocket and see what happens'. It's pretty intricate now with many gameplay elements.
I saw a stream yesterday where a guy had built a rocket consisting of a propulsion element to get it into orbit. Then disconnect the top part which housed a Satellite that needed to get into circular orbit around Kerbin. Then the last part consisted of a mining vessel which could be launched from the satellite towards the Moon.
Pretty advanced stuff and it contained no Mods. It's all in the base game.

Meanwhile my own little campaign has just started and the doofus I am; found out that its pretty useless to use fuel tanks on a fuel booster... duh.. (boosters already have their own tank and do not use fuel from external tanks).
So the end result was a 30 part vessel where over half of the parts were not going to be used. 

[jomni]

What is the final goal of the game? I get that it is fun to build and fail, but I am fuzzy about what exactly happens once you become capable of space exploration.

There's a career mode.

Finally

[BanzaiCat]

So it looks like this game has come a long, long way. Originally I thought it was just a silly game of minion-like dudes getting killed in comical ways as you work your way through a fledgling space agency's ups and downs.

Now it seems your goals are a lot more concrete (in Career mode, anyway). Is there some kind of end goal in the sandbox? You mentioned interplanetary ops...does this go as far as colonization?

[bob48]

I've got the pre-steam version which does not seem to want to update ???

[Huw the Poo]

I've got the pre-steam version which does not seem to want to update ???

I think you have to log onto the store section of their website Bob.

[Nefaro]

So it looks like this game has come a long, long way. Originally I thought it was just a silly game of minion-like dudes getting killed in comical ways as you work your way through a fledgling space agency's ups and downs.

Now it seems your goals are a lot more concrete (in Career mode, anyway). Is there some kind of end goal in the sandbox? You mentioned interplanetary ops...does this go as far as colonization?

Don't let the goofy Kermit-like creatures fool you.  This has serious physics involved. 

I'd even recommend using a joystick if you're going to use manual control, which was the only option without using a mod last time I played.

[Yskonyn]

I've got the pre-steam version which does not seem to want to update ???

I think they've switched to a Steam only system quite a ways back, but everyone who bought it before that gets a Steam key.
Their store, or otherwise their forums, have instructions on how to obtain your Steam key.

As for colonizing; not really. The thing that comes closest are building outposts or forward bases to use as refueling points for further Operations into the Kerbal system. There are no settlements or the like in the game.

[steve58]

I've got the pre-steam version which does not seem to want to update ???

I think they've switched to a Steam only system quite a ways back, but everyone who bought it before that gets a Steam key.
Their store, or otherwise their forums, have instructions on how to obtain your Steam key.

Actually its an either/or type of thing.  This is from the FAQ/Support:

I bought the game on the KSP Store, but I want it on Steam. Will you give me a Steam Key?

Yes, we now offer the choice to transfer KSP purchases from before the game was available on Steam, note that this process is OPTIONAL and IRREVERSIBLE. If you transfer your purchase to Steam, you will no longer be able to download or update the game from the KSPStore, but also nobody's forcing you to go to Steam, if you opt not to transfer, you can still download and update the game as usual. To move to Steam, log in to your KSPStore profile and you will find the button to start the process next to your download link. If you can't see the button in your profile it means you purchased the game after it was on Steam and you are not eligible, no exceptions, please don't insist. As you can see in our Steam store page, the release date for Steam is March 20th 2013.


I bought the game on Steam, but I want it on the KSP Store as well. Would you activate my account for download?

No, sorry, the migration will not work that way. If you bought the game on Steam, you will only have it on Steam. To get it in the KSP Store too, you will have to purchase it here. Do keep in mind that the Steam version is DRM free, so it can be played offline as well, so you're really not missing out on anything with the Steam version instead of the KSP Store one.

[bob48]

Thank you, gents. I'm checking now - must admit, I have not played it for some time.

[steve58]

There are some absolutely incredible mods for KSP.  If you haven't already checked out Magic Smoke Industries Infernal Robotics, do it!  I recently upgraded my ancient PC from 4GB to 8GB RAM and have only now been able to expand beyond the basic mods like MechJeb.   Fun times in the sandbox...

Also, in addition to the Curse site for mods, there is also one called Kerbal Stuff.  I like its layout better than Curse, but not all mod authors are using it.

[Nefaro]

I've got the pre-steam version which does not seem to want to update ???

If you have the non-Steam version, you must log in to the KSP website with your purchase log-in and download the latest installer.

During early access, I had to download the full installer package every time I updated.  They rarely made patches IIRC.

[OJsDad]

I just downloaded the demo.  It looks older but I hope to give it a try tonight.

[steve58]

The Demo is based on version 0.18.3.  Lots of changes since then, bit it should still give you a good idea of the game.

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Version_history

[sandman2575]

Has there been mention of KSP getting Steam Workshop?

Started up a new career the other night.  For the life of me, I could not design a ship that could get into orbit with the 18-ton weight limitation.  I upgraded the launch pad a few times and that upped the limit -- was able to get a 24-tonner into orbit without much difficulty.

Also discovered the hard way that you have to 'unlock' maneuver nodes in Career mode -- you have to upgrade mission control and the monitoring station each to lvl 2.

EDIT -- appears Workshop is not in the plans... too bad.

[steve58]

The first update to version 1.0 is live on Steam and KSP...

Code Select Expand


================ v1.0.1===================

Bug Fixes and Tweaks:

Thermal:
* Temperature gauge system.
* Vessels which are splashed will now have much higher convective coefficients making them cool to ambient temperature faster.
* Removed node size from being taken into account for stack occlusion. Added custom drag cubes for remaining hollow parts.
* Parachute heating/burning.
* Fix for bug in FI dealing with unpacking vessels at analytic warp (>=1000) rates.
* Fixed conduction on service bays. Added Module Conduction Modifier to help service bays not incinerate their contents & configs updated
* Updated emissivity for spaceplane configs.
* Lowered heat production on LV-N.

Resources:
* Replaced overheat mechanic of the ISRU and drills with a skill-based mechanic.
* Removed Overheat Throttle mechanic.
* Increased mass of Ore tanks to match wet/dry ratio of stock tanks.
* Aerodynamics
* New values for physics global drag and lift multipliers.
* Added a CoP offset calculation to procedural fairings
* Fix for the aero debug drag arrows switching directions. Added body lift arrows (cyan)
* Fixed occlusion on mk2 docking port.
* Fix for Laythe's atmosphere.

Solar Panels:
* Solar panels now use the proper inv square from FI's solar flux.
* Removed obsolete power curves from solar panels.
* Rebalanced solar panels against each other.

Career:
* Doing science at the flagPOLe, the north POLe, or the south POLe, will no longer mark Pol as visited with the progress tracker.
* Science contracts and science World Firsts can no longer be triggered with science gained by reverse engineering recovered vessels. You have to transmit or recover an actual experiment.
* Ensured that if a grand tour contract includes Kerbin, that Kerbin is chosen as the final stop on the tour.
* Capped amount of recovery contracts that can generate, but increased caps on station and base to increase contract variety.
* Fixed "On Wheels" optional side objective not triggering on outposts when utilizing the new fixed landing gears.
* ISRU contracts round their capacities up, to handle cases where the player brings exactly enough resource capacity.
* Use the word "spaceflight" instead of "flight" when appropriate, to prevent player mistaking certain things for atmospheric flight.
* If the game cannot find an agent listed in the save file, it will pick a random agent.
* Remove some debug information from survey waypoint generation.

Parts:
* Added Tier 0 rocket fin.
* Added RescaleFactor to the RT-5 (preventing a potential regression bug).
* Removed the allowstack option from the NBS and orbital scanners to fix a bug if they were used as the root part.
* Fixed an issue where the physicsSignificance flag was set to 1 for heat shields.
* Added an option to clamp the lower bound of the deploy pressure of parachutes.
* Adjusted parachutes to open at a slightly higher atmospheric pressure.
* Fixed fairings not initializing their masses in flight properly.
* Added module info section for fairings.
* Rebalanced engine entry costs.

Miscellaneous:
* Moved all Part Loader part info code into a separate method which is run after drag cubes are loaded/created. Thus modules can access the part's drag cube information in their info.
* MapSO and CBAttributeMapSO methods made virtual and member variables protected.
* Made physics-less part mass effect KB mass value.
* Zero part count vessels will not be run through Flight Integrator.
* Increased mass on some wings.
* Fixed a nullref being caused when clicking between vessels and empty space in map view.
* Vessels that blow up in atmosphere properly kill off their crew members.
* Added Part temperature gauges/highlighting (toggle with F10).
* Part temperature overlay can now be toggled with F11
* Part aerodynamic forces overlay can now be toggled with F12