Drathnoxis said:
So what exactly is Kerbal Space Program? I've heard it mentioned a lot, but what do you actually do?
So at it's core, it's a flight/space simulator which gives you an amazing degree of control over the craft you can build an fly. You're given a bunch of parts(which you can either unlock through gameplay or start with them all available) and the freedom to build what you want with them. With that you have a solar system that is an expy to our own to explore, the big difference being everything is scaled down a bit. It's still big, but not 1:1 scale with ours, mostly for the sake of having certain things take less time(such as an ascent to orbit taking 5 minutes or so instead of 20-30). Interplanetary travel still takes months or years in game time(but there's a function to speed up time to cut down on wait times). Most of the tech is modeled on current or near future technology, so nothing approaching light speed engines or engines that don't require fuel(like most sci-fi tends to default to).
The little green dudes are Kerbals, which are basically there to help lighten the mood(or give you someone to murder, if you're so inclined), but the game's physics engine is (mostly) not a joke. You have to have some idea of how actual space travel and spacecraft design works to actually make much progress, because the physics engine will be happy to remind you you're wrong if you don't. It doesn't model actual astrophysics completely realistically, it's still a hell of a lot better then most games/movies are about it(You can build an X-Wing if you want, and people have, but it won't fly like anything in Star Wars does, at least not in space). Mass, Center of Gravity, Center of Thrust, fuel, aerodynamics, DeltaV,ISP. All of these matter in KSP. Ignore them at your peril.
You will crash, and you will crash again, but it's okay, because failure is a chance to learn for next time. There's an endless supply of kerbals waiting to jump in the next rocket you design and will happily ride to to their deaths if need be. It's why you see steam reviews that go like this "Built rocket, launched, landed on mun, came back, realized I forgot the parachutes after reentry, crashed. 10/10". And yes, probably everyone has forgotten the parachutes at least once.
There's 3 game modes: Sandbox, Science and Career. Sandbox is basically everything is unlocked from the start and there are no restrictions other then your ability to build and fly craft. Basically, do what you want. Science has a tech tree added so you have to unlock parts by collecting SCIENCE by doing various experiments and such. Career is basically hard mode where you have to manage money, reputation, fulfill contracts on top of all of this, not to mention pay to upgrade your spaceport to build bigger rockets. THere's also a custom mode if you want to play with a specific combo of features/difficultly options.
One of the DLC also added the ability to build, share and play custom missions if you need/want set goals.
There's also a very active modding community that the devs are very supportive of that encompasses more parts(some of which are designed around real world space programs and spacecraft), more features(the most basic one being a flight computer with autopilot capability, which still isn't in the base game for some reason) and alterations to the core gameplay(such as needing to provide life support, more realistic physics, more speculative tech). There are also pre-built craft, both as mods and part of the base game, if you'd rather just grab something and go.
The devs have also been very supportive as well, considering the game has been playable(with a few glitches) since Alpha when it was first put on sale back in 2011 and has been continually improved by the devs since then, with each update adding to the game and making it a little better. Kinda akin to No Man's Sky but if No Man's Sky hadn't been super hyped before launch.
Some people have taken the game some weird places and built navies/seacraft too, since it was discovering that some of the parts are actually buoyant. It does get awkward because you don't actually have a seaport, rather a runway/launch pad need the ocean, so you need to actually drive/fly said craft over to the ocean first.
TLDR: To answer your question, What do you do? You basically build aircraft/spacecraft, fly them, build bases, build space stations, take Kerbals to the far reaches of the Kerbol System and back. Make your own fun. Basically, if you want a game that treats space physics in a somewhat realistic manner and gives you almost unlimited freedom to snap together spacecraft/aircraft like legos and then take them out and fly them, this game is for you.
