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[FlyinJ]

Another awesome game I've been playing. Use a Spore-like editor to set up your rocket, test launch, fly it, and try to get into orbit. Very addicting and fun:

http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Also, the developer is planning to make this into a full blown game, adding tons of features over time:

About Kerbal Space Program

Kerbal Space Program is a multi-genre game where the player can create his own space program.

In KSP, you must build a space-worthy craft, capable of flying it's crew out into space, without killing them.At your disposal is a collection of parts, which must be assembled to create a functional ship. Each part has it's own function and will affect the way a ship flies (or doesn't).So strap yourself in, and get ready to try some Rocket Science!

Main Features:

The Vehicle Assembly Building. allows players to build spacecraft out of any imaginable combination of parts.
Fully-fledged, Physics-based Flight Simulation ensures everything will fly (and crash) as it should.
Procedural Terrain delivers detailed terrain at a vast scale. The Kerbal Planet is 600km in radius!
Mod-enabled, allows players to create new content and modify the game.
Ship systems. Keep an eye out for engine temperatures and fuel levels, and try not to explode.
Build ships with multiple stages, and jettison parts away as they burn out.
Full control over the staging sequence allows for complex ships and advanced functionality.

Planned Features:

Take on Missions to attract interest in your Space Program. Or use the Mission Planner to create your own missions.
Manage your Space Program. Hire astronauts, train them, research and improve parts.
Fly out to Moons and other Planets
Build Space Stations, and surface bases on other worlds.
And a whole lot more!
KSP is still under development, so many things are not yet as they should be. We are working hard to be constantly improving the game however, and it will be regularly updated with bug fixes and new content, so make sure to check back for new versions. We are also always listening to feedback from the players, and we welcome ideas and suggestions.

Currently the game is being built as an open sandbox. There are no objectives yet. You're free to build anything you can think of, and fly it wherever you want, even into orbit.

The first versions are free to download and play, and will remain so forever. After the game reaches a certain state of development, it will be available for purchase at a discounted price, which will gradually increase up to it's final retail price as the game nears completion. So by ordering early, you get the game for a lot less, and you'll get all future updates for free.

Have Fun!

 

[watership]

I love it so far. It's very buggy, and large multistage rockets sometimes freak out the code and you get lock ups, but it's awesome. I love doing crazy designs just to see the results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVL-BuhylpY

 

[Slayer-33]

Omg turning my pc on now to try this!

 

[FlyinJ]

I love it so far. It's very buggy, and large multistage rockets sometimes freak out the code and you get lock ups, but it's awesome. I love doing crazy designs just to see the results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVL-BuhylpY

I love watching the expressions on the Kerbal's faces when my rocket goes awry. The addition of those three guys is brilliant. I still laugh even after about 50 launches.

 

[Clevinger]

sounds fun

downloading now

 

[Slayer-33]

Has anyone even thought of making this sort of game before?


This shit could get big bucks if done for XBLA/PSN

 

[TheSeks]

I love it so far. It's very buggy, and large multistage rockets sometimes freak out the code and you get lock ups, but it's awesome. I love doing crazy designs just to see the results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVL-BuhylpY

:lol @ D: D: D: D: from the spinning.

 

[Diablohead]

I love this kind of stuff, would explain why I still mess around in banjo nuts & bolts often.

 

[watership]

I love this kind of stuff, would explain why I still mess around in banjo nuts & bolts often.

Yeah, no kidding.

Good times.

 

[plc268]

Woah, holy shit this program is awesome.

Now if only I knew what the hell I was doing. I can only seem to make a solid fuel rocket, my liquid fueled creations don't seem to work

 

[Clevinger]

my liquid fueled creations don't seem to work

You have to put fuel tanks on top of liquid engines

 

[Dug]

Whoa, I was going to make a thread about this game but I wasn't sure....

Anyways, might as well post some videos I made of my (not so) successful rockets. Part 1 and Part 2

 

[plc268]

You have to put fuel tanks on top of liquid engines

Yea, I did that, but for some reason they didn't fire.

Edit: nevermind, it works now. I must've confused the srb for the fuel tank.

 

[GroteSmurf]

Cool game I'm gonna try it out

 

[antonz]

with some basic tinkering hit 35,175 meters so far. Ran out of fuel at about 31K but momentum carried me another 4K til I started to slow and drop

 

[Ponti]

Wasted hours on this thing, so much fun. Highest launch so far was around 100km. They really need to put in the ability to add or remove your own stages though, hopefully something like it gets added in the future.

Can't wait till other planets, moons and the ability to build space station/stations on other planets gets added.

 

[Shaundakahl]

Holy shit this game is fun. Must contribute to ensure more gets released!

 

[androvsky]

Man, this is great. I'm posting this as I'm waiting for my capsule to stop costing... I've been waiting for probably ten minutes now. I'm at 670,000 M. I finally ran out of fuel at about 100 KM.

The tutorial rocket was too boring and flew too predictably, so my first task was to see if I could build a crazy Soviet moon shot rocket. So I used the triple connectors and side connectors liberally to put 9 SRBs on the first stage and 6 in the second. It flew itself apart immediately. But I started adding fins and SAS modules all over the place, and a liquid-fueled third stage with three tanks, and... oh. It just stopped. 696,000 M. Damn. And Jebidiah Kerman will not stop grinning like an idiot. lol.

Anyway, I was eventually able to make it fly mildly straight. Not too realistic, as I definitely have way too many fins and they're not very carefully placed, but I had a blast putting it together and flying it.

Definitely looking forward to more parts!

 

[Squishy]

I'm having tons of fun with this game, even if everything I have made so far has failed miserably.

I found a few extra parts that are available if anyone is interested, such as larger fuel tanks and different types of couplers. I'm not sure if they're official or not, but it definitely makes things more interesting, as at the moment there aren't many parts to play with.

extra stuff

Just put them in the "parts" folder in the installation directory.

The game is being updated all the time though, so there is bound to be more stuff on the way.

 

[big_z]

is there a way to attach extra engines at the same hight level? my penis rocker is lopsided

edit: nevermind just figures out how. awesome. now to keep things from overheating.

 

[Momo]

Downloaded now, looks fun.

 

[DrM]

Um, why I cannot launch assembled rocket?

 

[Tomat]

I had to edit the config file for a part in order to make it to space.

 

[Slayer-33]

Um, why I cannot launch assembled rocket?

Something is screwed up, start with an ultra basic rocket first. What happened to you happened to me at first.

 

[DrM]

Something is screwed up, start with an ultra basic rocket first. What happened to you happened to me at first.

Launch button in editor is dead in my case. Will re-download.

EDIT: Soultion - i made new folder in KSP, called Ships and it is working

 

[Rapstah]

Very cool little program, I got to 454 000 meters with a simple one stage liquid fuel rocket. It felt like I was cheating a little though because I had my rocket standing, engine on, on the launch pad for 20 something seconds before the game decided it had enough energy to lift and then it did.

I can't actually make a stable multistage rocket at all. Despite being perfectly even and linear, they'll spin out at below a kilometer high and I can't spin them fast enough to achieve gyroscopical stability. A one-stage rocket can easily spin quickly enough to stabilize.

EDIT: Ha, there we go, 500 000+ with two stages. One stage with solid fuel boosters to get me off the ground and a second stage with four tanks and one liquid engine to continue from where the boosters died. I'm still going at over mach 2 and the engines died ages ago.

EDIT II: Okay, the altitude counter rolled over so I am officially at beyond a million meters from the earth.

 

[big_z]

^^^

pics, i want to see your rocket. i've gotten to 120,000 with a three stage rocket.

 

[Rapstah]

^^^

pics, i want to see your rocket. i've gotten to 120,000 with a three stage rocket.

I'll take pics after it's stopped going. I'm over three million meters from the earth now, still over a thousand m/s, and it really isn't looking like I'm ever going to return. Poor astronauts.

EDIT:

From the top:

Command module
decoupler
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel engine
decoupler
triple splitter
solid fuel engine (*3)

The only tricky part of the launch was getting it not to crash before I had the liquid fuel engine going. I would suggest manually controlling it to point upwards until the liquid fuel engine is going, and then point it as straight up as possible and start rolling for gyroscopical stability. I had my last fuel tank running out at around 2850 m/s at which point Earth really had nothing to say about getting me back.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Yeah keeping it simple seems to help.

Those stabilising fins, they do (almost) nothing.

Having any ABOVE the engine that's currently firing unstablisies your rocket in a hurry, and they just weigh your craft down.
They are also loosely affixed so they bend n shit which ruins things even more.

If they touch your connector parts those will often fail too.

3 fuel tanks and a liquid booster for your top step does wonders too, you gain speed with the first 2 then use the third just to keep your speed up by firing it only when it starts to slow down too much.
You can keep your speed up for ages that way.

Just gota find a way to get higher with solid boosters now =(


edit: hit 380km with a stage rocket 2x 3 boosters, one single solid , the liquid engine and it's tanks and the capsule.


edit : 800 km now, my liquid tanks and engine are still floating a km behind me, dumped it ages ago
900 km and still going.

 

[big_z]

just rolled over the distance thing still climbing but slowly.

once they crash i'll post results and a picture of my ship. it makes rapstahs look like a toothpick.

 

[Squishy]

Yeah keeping it simple seems to help.

I totally agree; they tend to explode if you chuck too many thrusters on one stage. Despite this one below being rather stable initially, it just falls apart or explodes after a few seconds. Such a shame, it looked so promising...

Edit: this is also a good example of the bending that occurs.

 

[SLV]

I'll take pics after it's stopped going. I'm over three million meters from the earth now, still over a thousand m/s, and it really isn't looking like I'm ever going to return. Poor astronauts.

EDIT:

Rocket build image.jpg

From the top:

Command module
decoupler
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel tank
liquid fuel engine
decoupler
triple splitter
solid fuel engine (*3)

The only tricky part of the launch was getting it not to crash before I had the liquid fuel engine going. I would suggest manually controlling it to point upwards until the liquid fuel engine is going, and then point it as straight up as possible and start rolling for gyroscopical stability. I had my last fuel tank running out at around 2850 m/s at which point Earth really had nothing to say about getting me back.

Well for me it doesnt seem to work, it gets up a little bit and at the time as the most bottom one engines are out of juice, i kick in the liquid ones, it doesnt have enough momentum and just falls down.

 

[Rapstah]

I modified by original design by adding an extra fuel tank, and while it didn't seem to change much at first- it even slowed the boosters down so I had less speed when I had to drop them - it ended up letting me drop the liquid stage at 200 m/s faster and, most importantly, several hundred kilometers later. I think I'll break my record with this one.

My record is roughly 4000 kilometers before I got tired and gave up. Could've easily been 10 000 before Earth caught up. I don't think escape velocity works the same as in real life in this program, it seems easy enough to have speed enough to "outrun" the deceleration.

EDIT:

Well for me it doesnt seem to work, it gets up a little bit and at the time as the most bottom one engines are out of juice, i kick in the liquid ones, it doesnt have enough momentum and just falls down.

Are you running the boosters at absolute maximum all the way? They shouldn't have time to overheat before they run out. The liquid engines also need to be overthrusted at the start and ending, only slowing down slightly in the middle to avoid overheating completely.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Kerbal Space Program |OT| It's not exactly rocket science.

 

[Sethos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVL-BuhylpY

NASA would be proud

 

[Reno7728]

Been playing this for a few days now, really good fun.

Can't wait to see how far the basic concept could be taken with things like budgets, moon landing and space races etc.

 

[Kritz]

Awesome to see this getting some GAF attention. I've put a few hours into it. Record height is 157,000 metres, but that's because I haven't really done liquid rockets much.

My favourite thing about the game is making very, very bad shuttles and trying to get them to fly. I made a video about it a few minutes ago.

 

[Diablohead]

12966 is my best height, fuel engines for me seem really unstable even for launching use.

 

[Reno7728]

12966 is my best height, fuel engines for me seem really unstable even for launching use.

It really helps if you use SAS a lot, definately at least one for each stage.

You can also press T to toggle SAS on

 

[Rapstah]

Currently deccelerating at around 1/8 m/s/s, which obviously decreases as I get farther from Earth. This is with the modified design that had an extra fuel tank.

 

[big_z]

Currently deccelerating at around 1/8 m/s/s, which obviously decreases as I get farther from Earth. This is with the modified design that had an extra fuel tank.

you got me beat. im finally on the way down after an hour of going up. right now my guys are spinning like a top. i aint hitting the parachute button unless they pass the 3000m/s mark. about half way there with 500,000m to go.

 

[SneakyStephan]

I totally agree; they tend to explode if you chuck too many thrusters on one stage. Despite this one below being rather stable initially, it just falls apart or explodes after a few seconds. Such a shame, it looked so promising...

Edit: this is also a good example of the bending that occurs.

Haha wow, you should never be allowed near anything that is being built, ever
Sethos your comment on that video slew me, so funny.

Hit 3300km/hour on this attempt with a wacky design, just ticked over and still going 2700km/h.
Will post results and picture once I start falling back to earth.

pro tip : boosters at the top of your rocket pay off as long as you fire them first and jettison them before activating anything else.
The weight hanging below them balances the entire rocket (like an arrowhead + it's tail).

edit: 2200 km now and still going at 2350 km/sec, it's ticking down very slowly now, I should hopefully be able to hit 5000-10000km.

 

[quickwhips]

op you are awesome I was looking for a very old version of htis for windows 3.1 that I had when I was in school. it was a 2 d game where you could build ships and see the height you could make it reach. Thanks!

 

[big_z]

Made it all the way back. I like that the earth has an atmosphere and it slows you a ton on the way back.

Almost home

Mission Results & Spacecraft

 

[Rapstah]

edit: 2200 km now and still going at 2350 km/sec, it's ticking down very slowly now, I should hopefully be able to hit 5000-10000km.

Could be much, much more. I'm around 8 000 kilometers away from Earth now, going around 1300 m/s, and it's currently taking me around 25 seconds to decrease one m/s. That's nine hours at this rate, and it's going to decrease a lot more. I can see myself being at 50 000 kilometers whenever this turns around. And then obviously there's the trip back.

I'm assuming Earth is the only gravitational object and that its gravity is omnipresent?

 

[SneakyStephan]

Could be much, much more. I'm around 8 000 kilometers away from Earth now, going around 1300 m/s, and it's currently taking me around 25 seconds to decrease one m/s. That's nine hours at this rate, and it's going to decrease a lot more. I can see myself being at 50 000 kilometers whenever this turns around. And then obviously there's the trip back.

I'm assuming Earth is the only gravitational object and that its gravity is omnipresent?

Well I done fucked up and forgot to add a seperation module to my shuttle, so I'm lugging 4 fuel tanks around, so I might slow down faster.

edit: barely dropped 19m/s in the time it took to screenshot, resize and upload and post, so maybe not.

 

[Rapstah]

Mission Results & Spacecraft

Ha, when did you get 44 Gs? When all those engines fired?

EDIT: I miscalculated earlier, I was actually at more than 1400 m/s. With my current rate of decceleration, being at almost exactly 1400 m/s at just over 9000 kilometers from Earth, it would take me 14 hours to stop if Earth's gravity stayed the same.

At 9000 kilometers though something odd happened to my G counter, it might be because my ship is wobbling more and more but it's started to vibrate up and down. There's really no reason for it do to that since the only force going on right now is the very slight gravity from Earth.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Do I have to wait for it to land before I can see my results? any way to speed up time? I'ma be here all week else.

6600 km up now and still 2km/s

edit : ^^ that's one crazy rocket in the screenshot above.
How did it not overheat?

 

[Dilly]

My goodness, this looks awesome.

 

[big_z]

Do I have to wait for it to land before I can see my results? any way to speed up time? I'ma be here all week else.

edit : ^^ that's one crazy rocket in the screenshot above.
How did it not overheat?

no even when you land you have to hit escape and end the mission.

it almost overheats but each stage finishes just before it explodes.

Ha, when did you get 44 Gs? When all those engines fired?

im not sure, i just relaunched it and then ended the mission to check but its only 5Gs. maybe when hitting the atmosphere on the way back down?