Learn, Tinker, Build

Kerbal Space Program(KSP) from Squad is a game that is probably my favorite game ever. The simplicity of the game-play, the completeness of the physics, and the open world make for a great game. The basics of game-play are simple, but hide the real complexity you’ll discover over time. In all I have over 200 hours of game-play on this game through steam, and I have no plans of stopping in the near future.

Why This Game?

As someone who enjoys space, physics, and LEGOs this game really appealed to me. KSP gives you the chance to run your own space program. While you are limited by the laws of physics that is the only real restriction. You can build a rocket as large as you want as long as it will hold itself together. You can recreate the Lunar landing or plan your own Mars landing.

The freedom you are provided is where I find the most joy. If I want to build a large space station I can. In both the Sandbox and Science modes there isn’t a required set of missions or jobs to be accomplished to move forward. In Sandbox everything is available at the start. In Science you do have to conduct research to unlock parts, but no one is telling you what research or what order. In Career mode you can have a set of missions if you want.

All of that is before you add any of the expansions. Making History adds parts from historic space ships. It also adds missions that recreate famous moments in space history. There is also the Breaking Ground expansion that adds a wealth of parts around robots and rovers. Each time the add-ons have added more to the game-play than would be expected from their descriptions.

The Story

In KSP you have been picked to run the Kerbal Space Program. You will be responsible for hiring kerbonauts, designing craft, and piloting missions. Your goal is to get the Kerbals into space, and explore the solar system. Along the way you have success as well as failure.

Gameplay

Game Modes

KSP has three distinct game modes; sandbox, science, and career. Each uses similar game mechanics as far as building and flying goes. Where they differ is in how you go about getting parts to build your vehicles.

In sandbox mode everything is available from the start and you can use as many parts as you wish. This mode is best for someone who just wants to build and fly. You can still conduct experiments, but they have no effect on game-play.

In science mode you conduct experiments and make observations to climb the tech tree. This is my preferred mode of play as you do have to work for your parts, but once you have them you aren’t restricted by cost. This mode forces you to think and plan more than sandbox, but doesn’t tie your hands as much as career mode does.

Career mode is where you are actually building a space program from the ground up. You have to complete missions for both research and money. You will also need to take care of the cost of the rockets you launch. I haven’t really played this mode yet, but it does look like it would provide a fun challenge.

Another game-play mode not part of the main game, but added in the Making History expansion is missions. These are short games based around an objective. Some missions are based around historic space missions, where others can be created by you or the community for any mission. This adds a way to play a short game if you wish.

The Space Center

The Space Center is where you will start and houses the construction, launch, research, tracking, and administrative buildings. Each building provides a vital function in the development of your space program. Most important are the build and launch facilities. There are two of each at the space center; one for rockets, and one for planes. Once you have vehicles in space you can use the tracking station to quickly go to them to pilot the craft. Research and Development is where you will purchase new parts if you are playing in science or career mode. The Astronaut complex provides new crew. Finally the Missions Control and Administration buildings let you manage your space program in career mode.

Vehicle Assembly Building

The Vehicle Assembly Building(VAB) is where you will spend a lot of time starting out. It is where you can build your rockets. It provides you with an easy way to assemble the various parts into a working machine. This is also the location where you set up staging. Staging is very important for making sure things happen in the order you intend. Poor staging could mean a parachute firing on liftoff instead of before landing.

The VAB also provides overlays on the center of mass, center of thrust, and center of aerodynamic forces. The locations of these points relative to each other provide a lot of information on the stability and flight characteristics of the rocket. Another important characteristic is the delta V provided by the various stages, which can also be seen during assembly.

Finally the VAB is where you assign crew to the flight. This is important because some Kerbonauts are scientists and engineers and cannot pilot a flight. In a similar vein there are some tasks that can only be accomplished by the scientist or engineer. It’s best to make sure you plan and crew you mission appropriately.

The Launch Pad

The Launch Pad is where the rubber hits the road. This is where all rockets will be launched from. This is a good point to double check staging and crewing before launch. You have to return to the VAB to re-crew, but staging can be adjusted on the pad as well as in flight. Once completing all of the check and confirming everything is to your liking you’re ready for liftoff.

Spaceplane Hanger and Runway

The Spaceplane Hanger and Runway are to aircraft what the VAB and Launchpad are to rockets. Here is where you will build and analyze your spaceplane designs. The biggest differences are the orientation of construction and the replacement of the center of aerodynamic forces with the center of lift. Just don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of spaceplanes vs rockets. I have found it much harder to get a spaceplane even just in the air vs an orbit from a rocket.

Research and Development

The Research and Development building is where you will climb the tech tree. As you move up the tree more parts will become available making more complex missions possible. In science mode you start out with a small set of parts and must conduct research in order to purchase new types of parts. Parts range in type from new engines and fuel tanks, to new probe cores, to solar panels and batteries. Expanding your available part set is vital for attempting any missions beyond simple orbits of Kerbin.

Tracking Station

Once you have missions ongoing you can use the Tracking Station to see where they are and jump to pilot them. The interface for the tracking station is similar to the map, but adds a panel with all of your active missions listed. This makes it far easier to find and jump to a specific craft. This is especially true if you have a large number of craft or they are close together.

Astronaut Complex

The Astronaut Complex is where you will hire new Kerbals as crew. You will be shown a list of candidates and their skills. You can also see who you currently employ and their skill set. As you start having more simultaneous ongoing missions this building increases in importance. The skills of the Kerbals determine if certain functions will be available if they are assigned to a missions. This can be very important with pilots if you are used to the full capabilities brought by the original Kerbal pilot you are provided.

Mission Control

Mission Control is only available in career mode and is how you get missions to earn money and science. Here you will pick from available missions based on your skill or unlocked parts set. Each mission will show the difficulty, time, payout, and requirements. It is important to pick and plan missions to try to maximize the return, especially early on.

Administration Building

The Administration Building is another location only available in career mode. This building is where you set your programs policies. Those policies can include selling science for money, negotiating for better deals on parts, etc. You will balance between the various departments to make sure things run smoothly. You need money to purchase parts, science to research them, and reputation to enact certain policies. These must be balanced to allow you to best grow your program.

Parts of a Mission

The steps for getting a rocket into space and back again are fairly simple at first glance. You have liftoff, maneuver, docking, and return. Each of those steps can be simple or difficult depending on luck, planning, and skill. The more you have of one trait the less you need of the others. Although I wouldn’t recommend depending on luck being the major player.

Liftoff

This seemingly simple part of just launching the rocket is also where I have lost most missions. It’s easy to get a rocket that can stand on the launchpad. The trick becomes once the rocket starts. This is where planning in the design has the most sway. If the rocket is too heavy for the engines you won’t go up. If the aerodynamic forces aren’t balanced correctly with the thrust and center of mass then your rocket will either flip or shake apart.

Right after you begin your assent the most important thing to watch is for wobble. A small shake early on will become disastrous as you pick up speed. This can be mitigated through the use of SAS, which is like an autopilot that maintains heading. Or you can keep you velocity low enough as to reduce aerodynamic forces until you have cleared the atmosphere. The problem with the go slow approach is that is uses a lot of fuel and provides less overall momentum. Momentum is good for helping get through the atmosphere sooner, which gets you to space where aerodynamics don’t matter sooner.

Max aerodynamic load during the assent is the scariest part of the liftoff. This is the make or break point for your design reaching space. If your rocket survives the load you will get to move on to working to make an orbit, or risk a short flight.

Maneuvering

Once you have survived liftoff the next important piece if you wish to stay in space is to establish an orbit. To do so requires more than just firing a rocket, now direction matters. You can do the maneuver manually, or use SAS to help point the ship. Pointing the ship while a rocket is not firing is determined by the reaction wheels you have added, or RCS if present and active. For the transition to an orbit this maneuvers need to be done quickly. The map view is your friend in this process so that you can see the progress being made and adjust as needed.

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Once an orbit is established you may want to adjust it to a specific orbit to perform a docking or prepare for a transfer orbit. When there is time and you want more control you can use maneuver nodes. These provide a way for you to plan a maneuver before hand then be able to more precisely execute. Once set the direction, delta V, and time information will be presented on the gimbal removing a lot of the guess work.

Docking

Somewhat an extension of maneuvering is docking. This is something that is important not just for joining two or more ships, but also is the basis for intercepting other bodies to perform landings. Once you pick an object to target the map will show information relating to intercepts and orbital plane differences. This information along with maneuver nodes provide a way to easily plan and execute an approach.

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Once close enough to see the target docking moves over to being more of a skill vs planning. The best way to approach it is to view speed as not your friend. Slow movements make for easier corrections if needed. Most of my docking situations happen at two or less meters per second once I’m within 100 meters. This allows me time to think or adjust as needed. The best feeling in the game is a successful docking or landing, so there is no good reason to rush and invite disaster.

Landing

Once your mission is complete and you want to return home you have reentry to deal with. This is the point where a misstep can ruin hours of work leading up to your return. It’s best to triple check your staging for any misplaced detachments or parachute deployments. Any extra fuel can be used to make the descent less dangerous by slowing you down. Heat and aerodynamic forces are the enemy during reentry.

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As your speed increases through the atmosphere your craft will heat up. Above a threshold you will see heat indicators for parts. If those heat indicators fill up the part will explode. Once you see heat building up it is a good idea to shed speed if possible. If you are reentering as just a capsule with a heat shield then you can’t slow down, but can handle more heat. With a reentry where your heat shield is your engine then extra fuel at this stage is your friend. If al goes well and you make it through the heat its just a matter of reaching a safe height to deploy your chute and await a soft landing.

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And while it is possible to forgo the chutes and land entirely under power, it is not easy. I would only recommend powered landing on Kerbin to those who have a decent amount of skill, planning, and luck. Skill to pilot the landing, planning to have the needed fuel, and luck to not make a mistake.

Rapid Dissasemblies

So far I have discussed the best case scenario for your missions, but that isn’t always the case. As far as failures go KSP makes sure you can see them in all their glory. Whether it be a rocket doing a flip during launch, and spaceplane tipping over, or a landing coming in too fast there are explosions to be seen.

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While watching something you have spent time building go up in flames is heartbreaking it is also a learning experience. Each failure has lead me to improvements. Either I have adjust the design to prevent the failure. Or I have adjusted the planning so that the situation is less likely to arise. A good example would be going slower during launch due to aerodynamic instabilities.

Final Thoughts

KSP is easily my favorite PC game I’ve ever played. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys open world, space, realistic games. It is a bit of a niche game, but one that if you end up playing a few hours you will end up playing a lot. The complexity of getting your first orbit, your first mun landing, and you first flights to other planets also give rise to a great sense of accomplishment.

All of that recommendation is just the base game. When you add the Making History expansion you get a set of missions that just add to an already great game. Spending time playing out the Lunar Landing, or Apollo 13 is a nice addition.

I strongly recommend this game. Beyond that I am awaiting the release of KSP2 in 2022. Not only does it look like it is keeping what makes KSP a great game, but adding features like Colonies that will just add to the fun.