Kerbal Space Program

I decided to give the 1.0 demo a serious try and after a while I started wondering why the experience is so different from when I was playing the old 0.18 demo two years ago before I purchased full version of the game.

I actually found, downloaded, and installed the old 0.18.3 demo to compare.

The two most important things I find missing in the new demo and present in the old one are:

• gimballed engine
• aerodynamic control surface

The old demo has two gimbaled engines (LV-T30, and LV-909) and one controllable winglet (AV-R8). It is possible to compensate their lack by RCS, but that is not very realistic approach and it is deviating from how the full game is usually played. Also, RCS parts are only available at the bottom of the demo career tech tree. Any rockets built and launched before opening that node have poor steering authority, at least in low atmosphere.

Another two essential new parts I found missing in the demo are

• Basic Fin (for early demo career)
• 1.25 m heat shield

The lack of these four part types makes it in my opinion noticably harder (compared to full game) to:

• build and fly early career rockets
• perform gravity turn to enter Kerbin orbit
• return back to Kerbin surface from orbit

As I wrote above, playing the 0.18 demo was fun and I decided to buy the game because I had a lot of fun with the demo and wanted full content. Now even as experienced player, I found playing the new demo very hard and frustrating.

I would definitely recommend adding at least one part of each of the above mentioned types to the demo to make the new player experience better and more convincing to purchase the full game.