10 thoughts on ““One Of Elon Musk’s Favorite Video Games””
Elon is not alone, but I admit as they have added more content to make it a game rather than just a simulator, I lost my interest. Perhaps with a full release, I won’t have to start back over but one more time.
One area I’ve never found success is in the controlled atmospheric only flight stage. It’s a shame, because I can do a Falcon 9 heavy type launch, but not so much a SS2 type launch.
It’s a good sandbox game. Buzz Aldrin’s Race in Space is also now open source so you can get it for free. There is also some other space sim game from Bohemia Software called Take on Mars but it is a lot less fun than Kerbal.
There is also an entirely new take on the old BARIS titled “Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager”. Available on Steam ~ $30.
… which is hilarious, since I know people who’ve been playing it for years.
“Launch” means a lot less for software like that than it used to.
I am one of those people. I’ve been playing KSP obsessively since version 0.15, three years ago.
The game has gotten considerably better over the years. How could it not, with tens of thousands of Alpha testers (each paying for the privilege – reminds me of Tom Sawyer painting a fence) and hundreds of modders contributing?
The new version looks like it is incorporating some of those mods: FAR (much better aerodynamics modeling than the original game) Deadly Reentry (so you blow up if you get too hot) and the new Regolith mod by Roverdude (so you can do ISRU), among others.
It still doesn’t solve the n-body problem, reducing gravity to “spheres of influence”, so no true libration orbits (although L4 and L5 are trivially easy, and L1 and L2 can be approximated if you’re willing to do constant station-keeping).
Randall Monroe is right. My understanding of orbital dynamics went through the roof when I started playing KSP.
It’s kind of a shame that “sandbox” has become synonymous with half-assed games that are never finished. I think it’s great that some people get obsessive about games they have to join an online community just to figure out how to play, but it’s not my idea of fun. KSP and Minecraft – both games you’re more likely to read about than actually play, because it’s such a chore.
I guess the comment is somewhat fair. But I’m not sure it really fits KSP and how I read Godzilla’s comment about sandbox. As the game moved closer to what Squad considered release, what was primarily added by Squad was science hoops to jump through and story line for your kerbals. While this may be great things for the game, I think the early adopters find much more pleasure in the sandbox mode, where you are free to do your own experiments and imagine your own storylines.
I’ve not played KSP in a couple of months but last I did the sandbox mode was still an option. Even in career mode I’ve found you can do some missions in order to earn funds / science awards and others just because you want to, with the latter funded by the former.
Sandbox is always there for mad experiments, but I actually like the career mode. Having a restricted set of parts and specific objectives leads to some nice creative designs.
I am particularly fond of my moon rover, which, due to lack of powered wheels (Kerbals apparently find this a more advanced technology than rockets) simply used overpowered gyro-stabilizers to roll itself along the landscape.
I’m not getting MechJeb2.5 to work. It is downloaded, placed in Gamedata, and I can install the parts, but I don’t get the menus during assembly or flight. Any ideas what might be wrong?
Elon is not alone, but I admit as they have added more content to make it a game rather than just a simulator, I lost my interest. Perhaps with a full release, I won’t have to start back over but one more time.
One area I’ve never found success is in the controlled atmospheric only flight stage. It’s a shame, because I can do a Falcon 9 heavy type launch, but not so much a SS2 type launch.
It’s a good sandbox game. Buzz Aldrin’s Race in Space is also now open source so you can get it for free. There is also some other space sim game from Bohemia Software called Take on Mars but it is a lot less fun than Kerbal.
There is also an entirely new take on the old BARIS titled “Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager”. Available on Steam ~ $30.
… which is hilarious, since I know people who’ve been playing it for years.
“Launch” means a lot less for software like that than it used to.
I am one of those people. I’ve been playing KSP obsessively since version 0.15, three years ago.
The game has gotten considerably better over the years. How could it not, with tens of thousands of Alpha testers (each paying for the privilege – reminds me of Tom Sawyer painting a fence) and hundreds of modders contributing?
The new version looks like it is incorporating some of those mods: FAR (much better aerodynamics modeling than the original game) Deadly Reentry (so you blow up if you get too hot) and the new Regolith mod by Roverdude (so you can do ISRU), among others.
It still doesn’t solve the n-body problem, reducing gravity to “spheres of influence”, so no true libration orbits (although L4 and L5 are trivially easy, and L1 and L2 can be approximated if you’re willing to do constant station-keeping).
Randall Monroe is right. My understanding of orbital dynamics went through the roof when I started playing KSP.
It’s kind of a shame that “sandbox” has become synonymous with half-assed games that are never finished. I think it’s great that some people get obsessive about games they have to join an online community just to figure out how to play, but it’s not my idea of fun. KSP and Minecraft – both games you’re more likely to read about than actually play, because it’s such a chore.
I guess the comment is somewhat fair. But I’m not sure it really fits KSP and how I read Godzilla’s comment about sandbox. As the game moved closer to what Squad considered release, what was primarily added by Squad was science hoops to jump through and story line for your kerbals. While this may be great things for the game, I think the early adopters find much more pleasure in the sandbox mode, where you are free to do your own experiments and imagine your own storylines.
I’ve not played KSP in a couple of months but last I did the sandbox mode was still an option. Even in career mode I’ve found you can do some missions in order to earn funds / science awards and others just because you want to, with the latter funded by the former.
Sandbox is always there for mad experiments, but I actually like the career mode. Having a restricted set of parts and specific objectives leads to some nice creative designs.
I am particularly fond of my moon rover, which, due to lack of powered wheels (Kerbals apparently find this a more advanced technology than rockets) simply used overpowered gyro-stabilizers to roll itself along the landscape.
I’m not getting MechJeb2.5 to work. It is downloaded, placed in Gamedata, and I can install the parts, but I don’t get the menus during assembly or flight. Any ideas what might be wrong?