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  • Opt-in Prerelease for 1.1!


    Ted

    KSP_logo_full.png.99743e7d63a15357cde91d

     

    Hi all,

     

    As I'm sure many of you read, 1.1 is to enter Experimentals this week! It's a significant update to KSP in terms of just how much has changed under the hood. We've done a complete overhaul of the user interface from a conglomerate of interface systems to Unity 5's native system. Aside from that, an entirely new system for the wheels had to be adopted due to the major changes Unity made to the native wheels system, and the list goes on!

     

    Quality Assurance is the most bare bone part of the entire testing process and is performed by around five to ten QA testers pretty much constantly. The focussed testing and efficiency mean that instead of going through the motions of the game as a normal player would, QA tends to identify areas of the new content that would usually be prone to issue and hunt for bugs there. This cuts down the time taken to find issues by a significant margin and means that the content is tested more evenly – playtesting can sometimes skip completely past some aspects of a feature. Furthermore, this method allows the testers to work closely with the developers and compare exactly what they intended to occur for specific cases, to what actually occurs – this is where QA becomes more about feedback.

     

    QA is a lot more than just finding bugs. It’s about having the knowledge of the game (especially how it works under-the-hood), the comprehension of the ideas behind the features in the game, the understanding of what a developer wants the feature to turn out like and how you can assist them in making it happen. Furthermore, it’s about condensing all of that into concise and objectively written issue reports.

     

    The QA process on 1.1 has been going for a long time, but it has been incredibly fruitful: crushing 516 issues in 107 builds! There is still more to do however, in Experimentals we hope to only increase the stability of the game, add polish to areas and carry out some bug fixing as always!

     

    The Experimental Team comprises about 100 testers. All of these testers are volunteers who contribute their spare time to playtest the game. They are normal players, sourced from the various communities via a simple application process. Often and understandably they don’t have as much spare time to devote to testing as the QA Testers and thus there are significantly more Experimental Testers ‘signed up’ than we need at any one time. This works in everyone’s favour as it keeps the activity level throughout an Experimental Phase and doesn’t put pressure on the testers while they also deal with their personal and professional lives.

     

    After we have an update go through QA, as detailed above, it is hopefully free from major issues and each feature has had any needed major improvements and refinements carried out; the update is in a feature-complete state. However, many components of a feature may still be unpolished, such as part balancing, or the performance of newer UI on different platforms. This is where Experimental Testing comes in and assists the developers in cleaning up the remaining feedback issues.

    An Experimental Testing phase typically lasts around a couple of weeks, though it is highly dependent on the number of issues that arise and how much further development is required to reach a release state. At the end of the Experimental phase, there are still a fair amount of issues on the tracker that are still open, but it’s important to note that these issues are typically minor ones, ones that aren’t in the scope of the update or simply issues that would take too much time and resources to resolve.

     

    This time around though, things will get even more interesting after Experimental testing! Given that update 1.1 will be unlike any update we’ve seen to date in terms of widespread changes to pretty much any significant and underlying system in the game we're planning to provide an optional pre-release branch of update 1.1. This opt-in branch will run for just under two full weeks before the targeted release date of the final update.

     

    The nature and extent of the changes in the update mean that many plugins and add-ons will require refactoring, updating and at the very least a recompile. Of course modders cannot do this overnight and on the flick of a switch, especially with an update of this scope. Typically a select group of particularly KSP-savvy modders would be given access to the new update to help us find bugs, but the extent of the changes this time around is such that we feel we should open it up to everyone.

     

    The pre-release branch will be opt-in via Steam only, and won't be available via the KSP Store. We really wanted to make the pre-release branch available on all distribution channels but given the frequency of builds, the size of those builds, and the necessity for everyone to be on the latest version for testing it proved to be impossible to facilitate this on the KSP store.

     

    To facilitate discussions of the pre-release branch we’ll be opening up a temporary forum for feedback. Additionally, a separate section will be made available on the bug tracker to report bugs on.

     

    Please feel free to ask any and all questions you have!

     

     


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    8 minutes ago, Gnoyze said:

    Can I opt in? I have steam and I dont see the option to opt into the 1.1 pre-release yet. when will it be there?

    It will, there will be another announcement when it is.

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    Just now, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

    It will, there will be another announcement when it is.

    I will be keeping myself awake with Nos energy drinks until it is. :0.0:

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    A few questions on 1.1....

     

    One of the things I'm most looking forward to is multi-threaded physics.  I did a brief search, but not sure if this is changing: does this mean we'll have more than 4x time warp for burns?  No more wandering off for 20 minutes while my pitiful yet efficient ion thrusters do their work....

     

    Also, what's the proportion of Windows to Linux users?  Does the game seem to have issues that are platform-specific?  Do you generally do or need cross-platform testing?  I have Steam, and run under Linux, just wonder if there's value in that.

     

    As for the controversy over delivery, here's Beethoven's "Rage Over a Lost Penny"
     

    Cheers,

    -BS

    Edited by barfing_skull
    oops video posted twice sorry
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    2 hours ago, Gnoyze said:

    I will be keeping myself awake with Nos energy drinks until it is. :0.0:

    And when it finally comes, you'll pass out from exhaustion and won't get to play it immediately after all. Tadaa!

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    5 hours ago, barfing_skull said:

    One of the things I'm most looking forward to is multi-threaded physics.  I did a brief search, but not sure if this is changing: does this mean we'll have more than 4x time warp for burns?  No more wandering off for 20 minutes while my pitiful yet efficient ion thrusters do their work....

    As for the controversy over delivery, here's Beethoven's "Rage Over a Lost Penny"

    Enjoying the rage over a lost penny, very apt.

    I don`t know how you feel about mods but for your ion thrusters have you considered persistentthrust?

    It allows thrust to continue during rails warp. Specifically designed to remove the headache of ION thrusters...

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    8 minutes ago, Daeridanii said:

    Will this opt-in be only if you have Steam, or only if you've bought KSP on Steam?

    Only if you bought it on Steam. (I think)

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    16 minutes ago, Daeridanii said:

    Will this opt-in be only if you have Steam, or only if you've bought KSP on Steam?

    Only if you have KSP in your Steam library.

    That is not the same as having purchased it on Steam directly, as those who purchased through the Squad store are (or at least were) able to later move to Steam.

    Since the updates will be distributed through Steam, KSP needs to be in your Steam library.

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    8 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

    As you would know if you had read the earlier pages in the thread, the option to convert store purchases into Steam keys was a limited deal, as a courtesy, when Steam first added KSP. But after that deal ended, more than two years ago, Squad is not free to give keys away because they are Steam's merchandise. It will not happen, so let's please not get caught up in that argument again. 

    I do know, I was there when it happened, Squad is free to give them away but they won't get them for free from Steam they will have to purchase them, obviously, I am sure it wont happen, still that would be the RIGHT thing to do, because they did lie to their customers.  Yes I said lie, up to this point I have argued that they were basically using a loophole in the agreement.   But  it occurred to me, I know after experimentals are over and open beta starts, yes at first it the game will still be full of bugs, but what about a week later, a lot less bugs I am betting and still a week away from full release. What about 3 days before full release. almost no bugs, very near certainly no bugs that will be fixed before full release.

    @Red Iron Crown (is this what you were pointing to?)
    What I am getting at is at some point at least 24 hour or more before the full release every steam user will DE FACTO have the full release before every other outlet.   Which means they are in fact being treated better.  

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    On 3/4/2016 at 6:54 PM, Red Iron Crown said:

    This beta is different. The only requirement is that you bought through Steam. There is no onus to provide any useful feedback, users can just play with the new toys and let everyone else do the work. And worst, the subforum for the beta will be public, and there's nothing stopping people from sharing their screenshots and video all over the forum while those who have to wait can do nothing but wait. All because they bought through a venue that put more money in the developers' pockets, while being told that where you bought it would not affect access to future versions.

    No?

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    Oh yeah, it's pretty obvious that Steam is being given preferential treatment any way you cut it.

    KSP Store: Access to all official updates.
    Steam: Access to all official updates plus access to prerelease versions.

    Anyone saying that Steam and other outlets get the same benefits is mistaken. My advice for years to people asking whether it's better to buy on Steam or the Store has been:

    "There's no difference where you buy it. If you are invested in Steam, get it through Steam. If not, might as well get it from the store as that puts more money in the developers' hands."

    Now my advice for that question will be:

    "Steam. You get everything the other outlets get plus access to prerelease versions."

    All KSP licenses are equal, but Steam licenses are more equal than others. 

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    9 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

    Snip

    All KSP licenses are equal, but Steam licenses are more equal than others. 

    Dude they made you into a liar, sheesh that has got to burn.  I feel for ya!
    Nice George Orwell reference by the way.

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    20 hours ago, Athlonic said:

    If you are a PC gamer but hate Steam ...

    You are doing it wrong :D

     

    Also nice to see 22 pages full of "Thank you squad for the opportunity" posts

    Oh wait ... ^^

    I am doing it RIGHT. GOG Galaxy FTW!

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    1 hour ago, mcirish3 said:

     

    @Red Iron Crown (is this what you were pointing to?)
    What I am getting at is at some point at least 24 hour or more before the full release every steam user will DE FACTO have the full release before every other outlet.   Which means they are in fact being treated better.  

    Pretty pathetic that all this is being viewed as is 'early access' instead of TESTING which is the point of the opt-in. To maximize exposure to weed out bugs and speed up the process of getting the game into the hands of the player base.

    Otherwise it sits in Exp for a longer period of testing before the players actually get to play it. Or, worse? More bugs.

     

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    Wanting to be allowed into the opt-in beta just to play the game early is a complete perversion of the developers' intentions.  It's clear that's what people who are complaining want - they want to play the game 2 weeks early.  They don't want to hunt down and report bugs.  These same people, if they were on steam, would be on the forums a week into the opt-in beta posting screenshots and bragging about playing 1.1 instead of filing bug reports.  They want to misuse the system for their own desires.  And because they can't do that, something like jealousy is causing them to lash out in hopes of stopping the opt-in entirely - assuming incorrectly that everyone else is just like them and wants to join the opt-in beta for personal gratification rather than actually hunt for bugs and help Squad out.

    The devs shouldn't cave in to this pressure, the idea to crowd source the last leg of bug testing will almost certainly result in a better release.

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    12 minutes ago, comeonnow said:

    Wanting to be allowed into the opt-in beta just to play the game early is a complete perversion of the developers' intentions.  It's clear that's what people who are complaining want - they want to play the game 2 weeks early.  They don't want to hunt down and report bugs.  These same people, if they were on steam, would be on the forums a week into the opt-in beta posting screenshots and bragging about playing 1.1 instead of filing bug reports.  They want to misuse the system for their own desires.  And because they can't do that, something like jealousy is causing them to lash out in hopes of stopping the opt-in entirely - assuming incorrectly that everyone else is just like them and wants to join the opt-in beta for personal gratification rather than actually hunt for bugs and help Squad out.

    The devs shouldn't cave in to this pressure, the idea to crowd source the last leg of bug testing will almost certainly result in a better release.

    I don't see any reason to think that Steam users will make better testers than store users. If you think none of them will be "on the forums a week into the opt-in beta posting screenshots and bragging about playing 1.1 instead of filing bug reports" then please tell us why you think that is so.

    I don't see why it's wrong for store users to want the same opportunity to help test the prereleases as Steam customers. 

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    2 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

    I don't see any reason to think that Steam users will make better testers than store users.

    it has been said in the OP that it is not about treating steamers other than the storers, but that it is about the infrastructure and squad just cant handle another distribution method for "nightly-builds" to such a big community.

    Edited by Speadge
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