* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The soundtrack is pretty good overall, but the tune that plays in the Research and Development center is just the perfect tune to get one psyched up for a space flight. It sounds like something you would hear on a movie about space flights.
* BestLevelEver: Laythe, Jool's innermost moon, is a popular destination for several reasons. It's an ocean world almost the same size as Kerbin, with lots of biomes that make it a gold mine for scientific research. It's far away from Kerbin, but its proximity to Jool means you'll never have trouble getting an intercept as long as you bring enough fuel. Its proximity with its parent also creates a [[SceneryPorn breathtaking]] AlienSky on the the Jool-facing hemisphere, and best of all, it has [[spoiler:oxygen in the atmosphere, meaning air-breathing {{Space Plane}}s are a completely viable means of exploring it]].
* BreatherLevel: The Jool System. The only difficult part is having enough Delta-V to get that far out from Kerbin, but once that's taken care of, the actual trip there is relatively easy. The planet's huge sphere of influence ensures that, even if you're off by a few degrees in inclination, you're guaranteed a gravitational capture, and it's just a matter of a few small correction burns to properly orient yourself where you need to go. In addition, Jool's moons (usually Laythe and Tylo) are perfect for using gravity assists, both for orbital insertion and escaping the system.
* BrokenBase:
** The release of 1.0 caused a major split within the game's fanbase. The update was hyped considerably before its release, and introduced many new features and fixes, including a new aerodynamic system and the long-promised [[TheSmurfettePrinciple female Kerbal]]. Some people loved the update, but others were very vocally disappointed. They claimed that the update didn't fix enough, that it introduced new bugs, that it broke old bugs that players had come to rely on, that Valentina and the other female Kerbals were dumb, etc. Accusations of sexism flew back and forth, and things just went downhill with every patch released to fix things. Most updates cause this to some degree, because [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks things are changed or added]] and most mods become incompatible for a while--and sometimes permanently--after each update.
** Some of the prominent mods have caused minor schisms in the community:
*** [=MechJeb=] and other autopilots are the biggest one. The stock game requires you to fly all vehicles manually, but some players find this difficult and/or tedious, and want the game to do at least some of the work for them; non-autopilot users insist this makes the game [[ItsEasySoItSucks too easy]], or even pointless.
*** FAR, an advanced aerodynamics-modeling mod, is sort of the opposite: it makes the game more realistic, but also more difficult. Fans of it are often [[StopHavingFunGuys rather condescending]] towards the standard aerodynamics and the players who use it, while the non-FAR players think it just makes planes too difficult and rockets too easy (because it makes narrower designs more efficient). Improvements to the base game's aerodynamics didn't affect the argument very much.
*** [=RemoteTech=] follows the same pattern. It makes controlling robotic ships obsessively realistic, forcing speed-of-light delay on transmissions and requiring a whole network of satellites to maintain connectivity at all. Some people like the realism and think probes are overpowered without it, while others think it's too convoluted and annoying to bother with. 1.2 added a simpler version of this to the base game, reawakening the arguments.
** Life support. The unmodded game still doesn't have it, so most of the arguments revolve around whether it ought to, and if so, what it should be like. The popular mods range from having "snacks" and losing reputation when your kerbals go hungry, to killing them when they are deprived of food, water, oxygen, or electricity for too long. So, if the game ever does include life support, expect immediate backlash over it being too complex and/or too simple.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Turning on timewarp halts all vessel rotation, which is commonly abused to stabilize large craft or asteroids without using copious amounts of monopropellant.
* FanNickname:
** The Kerbals' sun is simply called "The Sun", so players tend to call it "[[PunnyName Kerbol]]" to distinguish it from [[UsefulNotes/TheSun Sol]]. The name became AscendedFanon in ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram2'' when the addition of new solar systems necessitated a name change.
** The atmosphere in the beta was known as the Souposphere due to its extreme drag.
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
** The game as a whole doesn't take itself very seriously in tone.
** Case in point, every part has FlavorText indicating its manufacturing company. One of them is just "found lying by the side of the road". Another is a toy manufacturing company.
** The constant references to "warranty being void if X", such as a barometer's warranty being void if exposed to air. Becomes a BrickJoke [[spoiler: in earlier versions, if you managed to somehow land on Jool (a gas giant) through a glitch, and used the gravity scanner, it informed you the warranty was just voided]].
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game is popular everywhere in the world except in the native country of the developers, Mexico. In fact, Mexican videogame press barely, if ever, talked about the game and the few Mexican players who played the game thought it was another American or European game, since the front page is in English and the game avoids including any kind of stuff linking the game with Mexico (except perhaps for the Dia de los Muertos trailer), due possibly to complicated [[CulturalCringe cultural reasons]]. Heck, the game didn't even offer a Spanish language option until 2017.[[note]]There's also the topic Mexico has ''no space program to speak about'' (other than building homemade satellites) and the avoidance of showing any element from the Mexican culture is mostly to avoid backdraft from both players from countries with advanced space programs and the ''own'' Mexican ones.[[/note]]
* GoodBadBugs:
** You could destroy planets with [[https://youtu.be/NLscXyIP4c8?list=UU8DIKwGU8wFZfk3Xi3-zcrQ&t=109 struts!]] Though the glitch is long fixed, you can achieve the same effect by [[https://youtu.be/kTg3vB8x3TY?t=291 playing with claws]] [[MacGyvering meant to grab asteroids]].
** Some players have managed to figure out how to exploit phantom forces to create {{Reactionless Drive}}s that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28v9dnP65Mw propel a spacecraft without needing fuel]].
** High-speed collisions with space debris pose a negligible threat thanks to HitboxDissonance -- the debris simply phases through the would-be victim too fast for the game engine to register a collision. So you don't need to worry about accidentally re-creating the events of ''Film/{{Gravity}}''.
* ItsEasySoItSucks: A common complaint about career/science mode. Some believe starting off with kerballed missions instead of satellites and probes is unrealistic, i.e. too easy; the [[FunWithAcronyms "Better Than Starting Manned"]] mod tries to fix this. Another complaint is that [[GameplayDerailment "biome-hopping"]] lets you unlock the entire tech tree without going farther than the Mun or Minmus. The most popular solution, somewhat confusingly, is to play sandbox, where everything is unlocked from the start (but {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s may be in effect).
* LowTierLetdown: Despite being the very first probe core you unlock in the game, very few people use the Stayputnik. There are several reasons to that: first, it doesn't give any SAS, not even the stability assistance that literally any other command pods/probe cores have, making any ascent with it a constant struggle to avoid being thrown into the ground. Second, it doesn't have any way to control the craft beyond gimbal, and chances are you haven't unlocked any of them either, so its capabilities beyond entering orbit are limited. Third, while it is the lightest command pod in the game, it is huge, poorly aerodynamic and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking quite ugly]]. As a result most players wait for the much better OKTO which has reaction wheels and SAS before launching probes, especially since the OKTO's node also unlocks your first power generators in the form of static solar panels.
* MemeticBadass:
** ''Nothing'' scares Jebediah Kerman, aka "the Thrillmaster!"
** Hell, the Kerbals in general. What they lack in sane engineering practices, they more than make up for with optimism, enthusiasm, and sheer [[{{Determinator}} determination]].
* MemeticMutation:
** [[TimTaylorTechnology MOAR BOOSTERS!]] has become famous in the geek community, referring to a common "solution" suggested by members of the KSP community when trying to increase the power of a rocket.
** [[DuctTapeForEverything MOAR STRUTS!]] is, in a similar vein, a solution to the problem of rockets and structures falling apart or otherwise being unstable.
** "Kerbal" has pretty much become synonymous with SuccessThroughInsanity.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n1l8_a-gU0 Dres doesn't exist]]" is a common joke about how boring the dwarf planet Dres is, being basically just a copy of the Mun in a ''much'' less accessible location. One of the game's loading messages is "[[AscendedMeme Never Visiting Dres]]".
** Weeks before a large update is released, fans frequently start a hype thread on the KSP forums in which they discuss the update. However, in 0.24 and on from there, there have been "Hype Vehicle" threads in which fans fight over/post image macros about "Hype Vehicles", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin vehicles that are powered by]] [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve pure hype]]. The most argued about vehicles are the iconic [=HypeTrain=] and KSP's equivalent, the [=HypePlane=]. Here are the [[http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79878-The-unofficially-official-0-24-Kerbapalooza-Thread-Now-extra-HYPETRAIN%21 0.24]] and [[http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94061-The-0-25-Waiting-Room-now-boarding-passengers-heading-to-Hypetown 0.25]] hype vehicle threads, respectively.
** The Shitfuck rocket family. Starting with a gif from WesternAnimation/MonstersInc captioned "Kerbals boarding the 'shitfuck 2' knowing full damn well they're going to crash and burn alive", Shitfuck became a nickname for poorly designed rockets and players soon creates intentionally terrible rockets named "shitfuck [number]".
* NightmareFuel:
** Kerbals can suffer all kind of nasty deaths throughout the game: getting crushed or burnt to death in exploding rockets because you forgot to add an abort system, burning up on re-entry because you forgot to add a heat shield, splattering on the surface of Kerbin [[RunningGag because you forgot to add]] a parachute, and so on. It's especially tragic if they have time to [[ThisIsGonnaSuck react to their impending demise]] before it happens.
*** Running out of fuel far from home is an all-too-common fate, and it can be easy to write them off as too difficult or too costly to rescue, leaving them trapped forever instead. And that's assuming they're stuck in orbit or on a planet somewhere; if you're on a suborbital trajectory there's absolutely nothing you can do but watch as your ship falls and impacts the surface at hundreds of meters per second, or burns up in the atmosphere and incinerates the crew.
** Whenever the physics engine bugs out due to unforeseen circumstances. Kerbals on [=EVA=] can suffer from [[https://i.imgur.com/Ay9GDDz.png very disturbing]] BodyHorror when subjected to extreme forces, and messing with certain combinations of parts can confuse the game to the point where a disturbing MinusWorld is created. Fans have attributed these glitches to a "[[GlitchEntity deep space kraken]]" [[spoiler:which became an AscendedMeme when the developers placed a dead squid-like corpse on Bop]]. For examples, watch ''any'' video by LetsPlay/Danny2462 on Website/YouTube.
* PopularGameVariant: Prior to implementation of a proper campaign mode, some users had created and shared their own systems for handling funds and tracking pilot stats as a SelfImposedChallenge.
* QuicksandBox: The game can be unforgiving sometimes, but fortunately there are a wealth of videos and forum threads out there to help, and there's plenty of fun in trying to figure out what gets out of atmo without ripping itself apart.
* SelfImposedChallenge:
** Since it was originally a WideOpenSandbox with no set goals, these are common. Making ridiculous rockets, making manned ballistic missiles, making space shuttle equivalents, spacecraft that look like specific patterns, achieving orbit, achieving orbit (or a whole mission) with a single-stage spaceplane, reaching relativistic speeds, getting a huge and completely pointless concrete cube into orbit, landing on the moons of Kerbin, landing on other planets, landing on ''the sun''[[note]]generally impossible without serious glitches, though that certainly doesn't stop people from trying; "landing" on Jool, a gas giant, is possible in some versions[[/note]], flying to the North Pole, flying to the other Space Center, doing any of the above using only first-person cockpit view, etc.
** There is an entire ''[[http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/forums/26-Challenges section]]'' of the official forums dedicated to [[InvertedTrope imposing challenges on other players]].
** One of the most popular challenges is the "Jool-V" challenge. The goal, in its simplest form, is to build a vessel that can travel to Jool then land on every single of its moons, then come back to Kerbin.
* SpiritualSuccessor: KSP can be thought of as a ''very'' distant descendant of ''VideoGame/LunarLander'', one of the earliest video games (mostly developed in the 1970s). ''VideoGame/{{Spacewar}}'' (1962) is an even earlier example that simulates gravitational physics with spaceships.
* ThatOneLevel: While every planet and moon has its own unique challenges, a few of them have gained a certain amount of notoriety among the community:
** Eve is probably the most infamous. It's deceptively easy to reach the planet, and its thick atmosphere allows you to land anything on it with parachutes using minimal effort. Returning from the surface, however, is a completely different story. High gravity and the same incredibly thick atmosphere which slowed your descent will also fight against your climbing rocket every step of the way for almost 100 kilometers, creating incredible amounts of drag and killing your engine's efficiency ratings. You can mitigate this a little by launching from a higher elevation, but designing a rocket capable of landing on and returning from Eve is still an incredible test of your engineering and piloting skills.
** Tylo is a moon of Jool with a size and surface gravity roughly equivalent to that of Kerbin, but no atmosphere. Without an atmosphere to slow you down, you'll have to use your engines to completely kill your velocity in order to land safely, which will take a lot of fuel and effort. On the plus side, that same lack of atmosphere makes it relatively easier to reach a stable orbit... unless you burned too much fuel on the landing, which you almost certainly will the first time you try.
** Moho is a large, airless rock in a noticeably eccentric orbit close to the local sun. All of this conspires to make it one of the more difficult planets to reach, land on, and return from. If you hit it at the lowest point in its orbit, you can easily zip right past it before you can lower your orbital speed enough to let it capture you. And you better have brought radiators along; when you're that close to the Sun, it's going to get ''hot''.
** Wrangling a large asteroid (class D or above) can be quite frustrating due to their sheer mass. Since rotating the whole asteroid is usually a nonstarter, even the simplest maneuvers, such as pointing prograde or retrograde, will likely require you to detach and reattach repeatedly in order to get aligned properly. Asteroids are also very prone to start spinning uncontrollably if you're not thrusting precisely toward its center of mass, potentially slamming you against the side and damaging your ship. And speaking of center of mass, asteroids are {{procedural|Generation}}y-generated and prone to HitboxDissonance, which can make simply capturing them very tedious.
** Not strictly a "level" in the conventional sense, but learning to rendezvous and dock is a frustrating experience for many players. Being able to consistently place two vessels in the same place at the same time requires an intuitive grasp of the orbital mechanics involved, which in turn usually means (real-time) hours of practice and having to unlearn habits and assumptions that most people take for granted groundside. Docking isn't necessary to complete or enjoy the game at all, but it does open up possibilities that one-and-done launches can't do easily (or possibly at all).
** Dres. The dwarf planet's tiny mass, inclined orbit, and remote location make intercepts difficult, and its Mun-like coloration and surface features are widely regarded as generic. Consequently, most players don't bother visiting Dres at all, which is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in one of the loading messages.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: With the release of 1.0, a lot of changes were made to the previously-unrealistic "souposphere" of 0.90 and earlier, making it simulate real world atmospheres better and thus requiring players to change their strategies[[note]]Before, the most efficient method was to launch straight up until about 10km or so, then pitch over fairly quickly; now it's better to pitch 5-10° just a couple of seconds after launch, then gradually start pitching down once you're out of the thickest part of the atmosphere.[[/note]]. Naturally, [[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings some players]] refused to change their strategies, and when they naturally got their ass handed to them in the new atmosphere, [[{{Scrub}} called the game out as broken]], considered 1.0 the worst update ever, and mostly lurk by the forums not missing an opportunity to insult the playtesters or the developers. [[FanMyopia Even when seeing players successfully getting into orbit and exploring other planets with the new atmosphere]].
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can, if you so desire, design hideously impractical aircraft and spacecraft that will crash the moment they take flight, presumably killing whoever is flying them. For some players, that's part of the fun.
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