Kerbal Space Program!

[Drillgorg]

This is a very fun game. It is a mostly realistic spaceship simulator. It is free in alpha right now.







Making viable spaceships is actually pretty tricky. There are a few ways to make successful rockets, but unlimited combinations of rockets that explode on the launch pad. I've managed to get into a stable orbit of the planet, and on another mission I made it into an orbit of the sun.

Post your rockets here for us!

[Cervos]

I'll probably try this once I buy a new compuner with my tax refund.

Expect lots of dick shaped ships.

[Karhs12]

Expect lots of dick shaped ships.

"This is the D.O.N.G. Mk VI, it is fully capable of reaching the Earth's upper atmosphere and then exploding catastrophically."
"What does the acronym stand for?"
"It stands for, uh, 'Direct Orbital Nuh...' Hm... okay yeah it stands for 'this rocket looks like a dick'"

[Drillgorg]

They're... basically all dick shaped. It is a good shape for rockets to be.

[Milskidasith]

I can't see myself enjoying this at all until it has a functional interface. Trying to guess and check angles and heights is awful; it's not that there are a million ways to blow up on the launch pad, it's that there are a million ways to have a ship unbalanced with no clues as to where or why.

EDIT: With only three guess and checks required to just put wings on correctly, I managed to get something that floated up about seven miles and was fairly stable before falling back to the surface.

EDIT X2: By creating a rocket with absolutely no stabilization, I was able to slingshot out to about 400,000 feet, and then, falling back down, die despite the parachute deploying.

[Reecer6]

Milskid, did you see the symmetry option?

[Milskidasith]

I did not. Mentioning that in the tutorial would have been very helpful. :/

[Drillgorg]

Also always use the auto stabilization system, and engage it before you launch. Disengage it for course changes but that's about it.

[Milskidasith]

Problem with the symmetry option: It still doesn't let you place anything symmetrically to already split sections.

EDIT: Apparently I was wrong about that too. :/

[Drillgorg]

Its not that hard, pieces sort of snap together in like 20 degree increments or something like that. You can look at it from above and be like I need to move that over a snap. And the heights only have to be roughly equal, the autopilot will compensate. That said the interface is still pretty clunky.

[Milskidasith]

Yeah, I've got things mostly working now, though I still got the best results from a ship that was just a straight up stack of three engines.

EDIT: Playing around with it more, the physics are significantly affected by both what speed you're simulating at *and* whether you launch from the menu or with a relaunch (one of my ships will consistently explode on the pad with a relaunch, but launch fine from the base. This same ship will violently implode on 2x because arbitrary engines run out of fuel first despite being symmetrical, and merely tilt and become uncontrollable at 1x).

[Zombiitwo]

Been playing KSP since... 0.6/0.7/0.8?
Something around there.

[PleasingFungus]

Kerbal Space Program is basically the best! I played it a few versions ago; haven't played since they added the moon. Really need to get back into it.

Here's a video my brother made of a few of his more successful creations! (I contributed music suggestions.)

They're... basically all dick shaped. It is a good shape for rockets to be.

it's so true

[Drillgorg]

How do you get cool add ons like those?

[DevilEd]

I know there's a modding section on their forums.

[Zombiitwo]

How do you get cool add ons like those?

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/...php?board=14.0

[UranianUmbra2]

All my ships in this explode.

[Reecer6]

Awww man, there's now an actual thing to buy and that's where all the updates are going.
I'm not going to buy it though, I'm really bad at it and I've never gotten anywhere NEAR the Mun.

[Insani]

Sorry for bump, but wow, this looks pretty goddamn awesome.

Is it just me, or does the ship maker look like the one in Spore, though?

[Drillgorg]

Yeah, but the one in Spore is useless because all ships perform the same and you're just doing decorating. In this one, every part is functional.

[Reecer6]

Is it just me, or does the ship maker look like the one in Spore, though?

Well it is
BY
the Spore people.

[Zombiitwo]

Well it is
BY
the Spore people.

What

KSP is being developed by the independent studio SQUAD which is a brand new company, this is their first game.
Spore was developed by Maxis, a studio run by EA, a multinational conglomerate, who have made dozens of games.

[ikkonoishi]

The first rocket I made that actually got anywhere was by placing a solid booster on top of the cockpit, and calling it a day. It would launch into the air, and eventually just completely roast the cockpit. I decided it was actually a method for the government to execute dissidents without gaining the ire of the world governments.

[Nocturne]

The first rocket I made that actually got anywhere was by placing a solid booster on top of the cockpit, and calling it a day. It would launch into the air, and eventually just completely roast the cockpit. I decided it was actually a method for the government to execute dissidents without gaining the ire of the world governments.

"In other news, a tragic accident has occurred aboard Space Shuttle Dissentia, killing all aboard. The crew was comprised of the leaders of last year's Kerbal Liberation Front, an anti-government terrorist faction, in an unprecedented move on behalf of the Kerbal monarchy. This marks the seventeenth such accident in the past six months. Now back to weather!"

[williamcll]

Hm. I downloaded the file but I kept getting the getcontextthread fail error, looking up on the internet, they say kapersky's firewall is blocking the connection, leading to the error, Im currently using ESET NOD32 smart security 4.x, any idea on how to fix it?