Kerbal Space Program Extension Now Available (opens in new tab)

If the game failed to gain traction would we be asking the devs to give a refund of their salaries?

> Given those ethics, I wouldn't believe a new team got better conditions without solid proof.

There’s nothing unethical with not sharing the bounties of success with those that aren’t sharing the costs of the risks.

I can live with the cartoon nature, but I do not appreciate "features" as window dressing for poor coding. The way KSP handles memory (loads everything 24/7) is ridiculous and necessitates many silly compromises. And don't get me started on how they handle "heat" and aerodynamics.

But reading that second article makes me think I'm using a drastically outdated version— and I haven't pursued the user-made add-ons. There goes some of my coming weekend... looks like I'll be giving it another shot.

To that end, any feature that makes it easier for different players to approach the game in their own ways will make for a game that appeals to more people. Let people who want to control the rocket manually control it manually, and let those who want to just have nice, automatic, repeatable launches use the autopilot. Let people who want to fiddle with rocket designs do that, but also hand out a bunch of prefab rocket designs for when you just want to sit down and fly a rocket. Let the same people play the game in different ways in different sessions, depending on their mood.

Just don't try to tell them that there's only one proper way to have fun, because all you'll do with that is ensure that they tend to get bored more quickly.

I totally agree about not adding the autopilot. Mechjeb exists for those people.

I'd love to see Manley's info promoted to a game component or tutorial mod - it's already a huge contribution to the game as-is.

The same could be said about the Kerbal Engineer, which shows useful stats (dV, altitude, periapsis, apoapsis, etc).

I wouldn't recommend anyone starts on career mode, it's just too hard and too constraining for someone who's just starting and doesn't understand the basics.

But when you have some experience launching silly rockets into space, it becomes a really nice challenge to try and achieve the goals from career mode without having free reign over your technology and funds.

Learning efficient maneuvers to transfer orbits and rendezvous was where the fun is for me. My friend would often build ships with specific delta Vs for me to pilot to a particular body.

Also landing safely before landing gear was added was a great challenge.