SymbolicFrank
Magister
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2010
- Messages
- 1,668
If there is one game I want to love, it's Kerbal Space Program. It's Big Win. Or at least, it would be, if it wasn't so very broken.
For starters, I'm an engineer, not a pilot. I don't want to have to fly them by hand, through a bad GUI. That's why we have computers. And, fortunately, there is MechJeb.
Well, you have to play in sandbox or fix it so it actually works from the start, but it is the best mod ever. It allows me to build and test the (currently) best ship.
But then, you notice that the rocket components are connected with chewing gum, and the designers tell you that explosive failure is what the game is about: you stack some components, launch and try to get them into space manually, and restart when it explodes. That is how the game goes.
Well. I don't know about them, but I don't think many people play it like that. It's not that rocket science is all that hard. But it surely is very hard to build a working rocket if they don't tell you about any of the specifications. Because, you're not supposed to understand how it works, you're supposed to stack and explode stuff.
And MechJeb rarely works as advertised when you start installing mods. You still have to do many things by hand. "Use the Force, Luke!" Because the user interface isn't telling you what you need to know!
Fortunately, there are very many people who feel the same way, and very many mods that try to fix that. And even a simple to use mod manager, that downloads and installs all your mods.
Unfortunately, you really need lots of mods to make it actually enjoyable (like Bethesda games), but those mods have many conflicts, and most of them break when the devs release a new update.
And even then. It is so broken.
Let's start with ladders. They don't work around corners. I spend half an hour building a new ship, and hours to get the ladders working.
Or that the only fuel available is: "Liquid Fuel". Random stuff you pour into any rocket engine to make it work? And there's only the one? So, I just add any random tank to hold my anti-matter?
Ah, yes. There is no anti-matter. Or fusion. Or even fission! No pulse- or scram-engines. Or anything else that doesn't just burns Liquid Fuel.
Fortunately, there is the Near Future mod, KSP Interstellar (for the very high-power stuff) and a lot of others. And they don't work together. Mostly because there are no common resources, and they all use a different power level.
Sure, there is a Common Resource Pack, a Common Tech Tree and more, and most of those mods promise they support them. But all in their own way, so there is nearly no sharing of resources.
If you install three mods that all use water, you probably have three different, non-interchangeable resources, all with the name "water". And a few that use "H2O".
So, when you are getting bored by stacking components at random to see them explode, and actually want to do things, like, explore the solar system, it all breaks down and becomes very frustrating.
Which is my own fault, as I try to play a realistic simulation, while the designers mostly want to create pretty explosions.
For starters, I'm an engineer, not a pilot. I don't want to have to fly them by hand, through a bad GUI. That's why we have computers. And, fortunately, there is MechJeb.
Well, you have to play in sandbox or fix it so it actually works from the start, but it is the best mod ever. It allows me to build and test the (currently) best ship.
But then, you notice that the rocket components are connected with chewing gum, and the designers tell you that explosive failure is what the game is about: you stack some components, launch and try to get them into space manually, and restart when it explodes. That is how the game goes.
Well. I don't know about them, but I don't think many people play it like that. It's not that rocket science is all that hard. But it surely is very hard to build a working rocket if they don't tell you about any of the specifications. Because, you're not supposed to understand how it works, you're supposed to stack and explode stuff.
And MechJeb rarely works as advertised when you start installing mods. You still have to do many things by hand. "Use the Force, Luke!" Because the user interface isn't telling you what you need to know!
Fortunately, there are very many people who feel the same way, and very many mods that try to fix that. And even a simple to use mod manager, that downloads and installs all your mods.
Unfortunately, you really need lots of mods to make it actually enjoyable (like Bethesda games), but those mods have many conflicts, and most of them break when the devs release a new update.
And even then. It is so broken.
Let's start with ladders. They don't work around corners. I spend half an hour building a new ship, and hours to get the ladders working.
Or that the only fuel available is: "Liquid Fuel". Random stuff you pour into any rocket engine to make it work? And there's only the one? So, I just add any random tank to hold my anti-matter?
Ah, yes. There is no anti-matter. Or fusion. Or even fission! No pulse- or scram-engines. Or anything else that doesn't just burns Liquid Fuel.
Fortunately, there is the Near Future mod, KSP Interstellar (for the very high-power stuff) and a lot of others. And they don't work together. Mostly because there are no common resources, and they all use a different power level.
Sure, there is a Common Resource Pack, a Common Tech Tree and more, and most of those mods promise they support them. But all in their own way, so there is nearly no sharing of resources.
If you install three mods that all use water, you probably have three different, non-interchangeable resources, all with the name "water". And a few that use "H2O".
So, when you are getting bored by stacking components at random to see them explode, and actually want to do things, like, explore the solar system, it all breaks down and becomes very frustrating.
Which is my own fault, as I try to play a realistic simulation, while the designers mostly want to create pretty explosions.
