I don't know. First time I achieved orbit, heard the music, and saw the blue sheen of the atmosphere coming up over the horizon, I shit myself. That for me was beautiful beyond words.

A few minutes later I forgot to open my parachute and put a really big hole in the ground. On the plus side I seriously doubt the pilot felt anything. I mean when you go into the ground like a fucking dart there really isn't time for pain. :D

It's a big box of rocket-shaped legos. You build a rocket/ship/rover/plane/station/probe from them, and then you get to pilot them in a semi realistic physical environment, to explore a whole solar system.
So you have to learn about building efficient rockets, fuel consumption, aerodynamics, orbital mecanics, all that stuff. Sounds boring, right? Wrong, since you learn by experimenting, looking at your ships exploding, and then trying different stuff to see what works. Reaching space, achieving orbit, landing on the moon : Each step is difficult, but immensely rewarding.

So you'll build more and more complex stuff, build a space infrastructure with refuel and resupply stations, create networks of satellites...

Note that it's an "all the fun is in the travel, not the destination" kind of experience. The fun part is building a ship, assambling stations, reaching faraway places, then coming back home. There's not a lot to do once you're on Mars apart from grabbing some science points, for example, but you'll feel like the king of the world nonetheless when that probe launched 2 years ago will touch the martian ground (and then promptly fall over since the landing struts you installed were not surdy enough, and your antena was slightly off-center. Ooops! But you'll still take 847 screenshots of that Mars sunrise over your prone lander)


Note that if you prefer a more "guided" gaming experience than a pure sandbox (I do), there are 2 campaign modes ("career" and "science") that give you some goals : you start with a very limited selection of rocket parts, and have to acquire scientific data and/or do missions to unlock new parts, that will allow you to do more ambitious missions.
Personally, I think that "science mode" is a good beginner campaign : you get a structured gameplay with some goals to keep you going (explore new places to get "science points"), you discover new parts as you play (instead of having several hundred different parts available at once), and you don't have to struggle with your budgect or with your astronaut's training.

Oh yeah, no argument here, the planets are somewhate bare, but some space panoramas are reaaaaal cool, especially when you just "earned" them by getting up there.
It's just that when you land in a "forest", you remember abruptly that KSP is a SPACE simulator, not a planet one ^^.

I played the demo and loved it. One of the most unique and interesting games I've ever played.
I will buy the full version probably next month.

Try the demo if you are interested in the game --> https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/en/?page_id=17

Good call. It's one of the rare demos that gives you a good honest look and feel for the game.

thanks, i guess its a very, very simple simulation regarding the physics

A friend of mine absolutely loves it, he had me try it, but I just couldn't get into it, I was too overwhelmed by it, and haven't tried it since. Too many other games in my backlog....

I'd say it's real physics in a simplified model. For example, you use real orbital mecanics, but with only 1 center of attraction (i.e. you're under the influence of Kerbin's gravity until you're enter the "sphere of influence" of the moon, then you are under the influence of the moon's gravity. So no Lagrange point).
Same for drag, lift and friction heat : It feels like the real mecanics, but in a somewhat simpler atmospheric models. They recently upgraded it, and it made getting to orbit a lot more complex than it was before, but made planes more efficient.

So it's not a full simulation. But it's close enough that you can use real life solutions to overcome the hurdles it offers, which is close enough for me. :)

Note that the Kerbin system is not the "real" solar system : It's 10x to 20x smaller.
I was overwhelmed at first, too. Too much stuff, and no idea what to do. Science mode did the trick for me : You start with 5-6 parts to build your first rocket, and unlock the rest as you go. And chasing science points gives you a motivation to land on the polar cap or to orbit the moon with a probe then bring it back.

I'd love to play KSP, but I'm absolutely positively NOT paying €40 for it. I may buy KSP when it drops below €20, but it doesn't look like that is ever going to happen.

Why I love this game:

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Got her up to about 6300 but she weighed so much even with four parachutes she still exploded when she landed.

Also watch "From the earth to the moon".
Game wishlisted, and waiting for good deal.

My biggest problem with KSP - I learned to avoid early access with this game. I bought it a long time ago. Long before 1.0. I played the crap out of it. Now it's out of early access, and it has a bunch of cool new stuff, and I'm having a hard time getting back into it.

I haven't bought early access since.

Yup, pretty much ^^