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    aLeXmOrA
    Hi,

    So, we finally have our Forums and SpacePort back up. However, these good tidings come with some unfortunate ones. Here's what happened:

    Last week, the server that hosts SpacePort and the KSP Forums started getting slower and slower until the sites were pretty much unusable. We eventually had to shut it down, but by that time the damage was done. The slowness was coming from an excessively high number of idle connections, which may or may not have been related to a global denial-of-service attack that affected thousands of sites last week. Whether or not that was actually the case for us is hard to tell, but in any case, the end result was that we ended up with a server so broken, it needed to be wiped out completely and reinstalled from scratch.

    We keep regular backups of all our databases, exactly for situations such as this. Spaceport was restored just fine. However, due to a fault in our backup process that went largely unnoticed until now, the most recent snapshots we had for the Forums were partially corrupted or incomplete.

    We've been able to get the Forums back up, but on some areas of the database, we were forced to revert to older backups, in some cases reaching as far back as October. This means that unfortunately there's been some data loss, mainly affecting threads and most grievously, user accounts.

    If your account dates from before October last year, you should be fine. However, if you created your account recently, there's a good chance it will be missing, in which case you'll have to re-create it.

    Rest assured though, this does not in any way affect your Store account. Those live on a separate database on a separate server, and they're perfectly fine, so your store profile is safe. This issue only affects forum accounts.

    Regardless, we are aware this is big a setback for a lot of people, and we sincerely apologize for it. Despite all our efforts, there was nothing we could do to get all the data back. We're still working hard on getting everything we can salvage from the partial backups we have though, so we can bring back as much content as possible.

    Needless to say, we're setting up a new, much more robust backup system, to make sure this never happens again. We are also adding in new security systems to minimize damage from attacks like that as much as possible.

    Once again, we deeply apologize for the inconvenience.

    Sincerely,

    -- The KSP Dev Team

    adnonimon
    Hello everyone.

    We've been following closely the ongoing debate about Expansion Packs and DLC on KSP, and after Felipe's previous explanation about the things that sparked the discussion, we've noticed that there are still a few areas that were left pending and that require an explanation:

    Above all, is the admittedly quite grey area concerning what constitutes an update or an expansion to KSP and most importantly, what our promise of "all future updates for free" actually means.

    We realize there is more than one way to interpret that. Regardless of whether 'updates' implies 'expansions' or not, it's quite obvious now that we need to rephrase that statement so everyone knows exactly what they're getting when they purchase the game.

    However, it became clear to us that many might have already taken that statement to mean something else than we did when they bought the game, and so had a different notion of what it was they were getting with their initial purchase.

    So given that this was a point of confusion, and that we believe that no matter what, a promise is a promise, we are including Expansions in what you can expect to get for free if you have already bought the game. Also, for those considering purchasing the game, we will maintain this promise for all purchases made until the end of this month (April, 2013).

    We have to admit though, up until now, we hadn't considered Expansion Packs to be the same as updates to KSP. That was in large part because we really had no plans for actual expansions at all.

    But as you can imagine, over the course of the 2 and a half years we've been developing KSP, we've come across many ideas that we thought were very cool, but didn't really fit the original scope of the game. Those would have led us astray from our vision of the complete game, not to mention that they could take many months, if not years, to implement.

    Those ideas are massive undertakings, which is why we'd like to have them as optional additions, so we could have them without having to stretch the scope (and deadlines) for the main game.

    So this is what we mean when we say Expansion Packs for KSP. We're not talking about small content bundles, we're talking about major game-changing sets of features, like Multiplayer, or Colonization. Things that add not just content, but new gameplay possibilities. Things that might not fit the initial concept very well, but we think are too cool to just cut off forever.

    Please keep in mind though, that this isn't us announcing or promising any particular Expansion Packs yet. We're still quite a long way from that. Our one focus right now is to complete KSP, that is why career mode is the priority now. Once we get to what we can call a complete game, we'll see where we go next from there.

    We hope that this clears away all of the confusion surrounding this topic, and also that no one is left with the impression that we would ever do anything to upset our players. We take pride in being very open and honest about what we do and how we do it, and we all felt very hurt at some of the accusations that were thrown at us these last few days.

    Above all else, our goal is to make an outstanding game, and we sincerely hope everyone sees that we have nothing but the best intentions towards our work and our community. As always, we will be listening wholeheartedly to our community's feedback, concerns and ideas throughout this whole process and we will not slack off.

    Here's a big thanks to everyone for all the continued support, and a heartfelt apology to all those who felt wronged in any way over this matter.

    Sincerely,

    -- The KSP Dev Team

    RayneCloud
    Game Development and Progress Updates




    [*=center]Harv is back in action! No more PC woes for the lead dev.
    [*=center]From C7: "Not much to report at the moment, but I'm hard at work on new part modules as well as finishing odds and ends with rovers." So stay tuned for more!
    [*=center]Nova's working on part design, nothing new to show at this time.
    [*=center]Claira is also working on parts and other things, here's a snippet for you;






    and...







    [*=center]The rest of the team is working hard on the next update, so stay tuned for more! -DR




    Yesterdays Dev Live Stream
    http://www.twitch.tv/kerbalsp/b/388327332

    Youtuber Spotlight


    Community Spotlight
    http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/34707-Geofley-s-Cove-modules-and-delivery-vehicles-for-a-floating-Laythe-base
    I think this needs even more of a looksee, Welcome to Geofley's Cove by
    ginsweater






    RayneCloud
    Game Development and Progress Updates 
    We've got very little news on this front today ladies and gentlemen, the main KSP Development members C7, Mu and Harvester were all present for GDC 2013 last week and most were in transit and returning home earlier this week. Yesterdays Dev live stream had very little to nothing in the way of content but I did rather enjoy hanging out with you guys! We should try it more often!
     


     


    [*=center]Nova is currently prototyping some resource-related parts, like this...



    "Small Chemical Processor"

     



     


    [*=center]Rom is hard at work with UI related content for the "Knowledge Base" and "Resources systems, stay tuned for more on that front!
    [*=center]Claira is busy with other obligations, but when she's back to the grinder we'll let ya know!
    [*=center]No news to report from the rest of team this week.
    [*=center]Myself and James are busy doing what we do, but stay tuned as we'll be working closely with Squad IT to start doing some serious updates to our community!




    Community Spotlights 


    Art
    Time to take a look through our "Way Back" machine to something I found a long time ago, back around sept of last year. It's funny as all get out, and I think could use a little more looksee..

    http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/22087-Timmon26-s-Art-Thread
     

    You Tubers Spotlight
    PDTV yo!

     
    Twitch Peoples you should be looking at:
    Yargnit - http://www.twitch.tv/yargnit
    Schmoo - http://www.twitch.tv/schmoogleedorf
    EJ_SA - http://www.twitch.tv/ej_sa
    AU - http://www.twitch.tv/au518987077
    Syvos - http://www.twitch.tv/syvos
    5hoe - http://www.twitch.tv/5hoe
     
    *The Above Channels are officially endorsed by the Community Managers, watch them!
     

    That's all for today folks!
    [squad] Damion Rayne
    Kerbal Space Program Community Manager

    RayneCloud
    We're a little short on content this week folks, but stay tuned as we'll get back into the swing of things soon! -DR KSP CM
     
    Game Development and Progress Updates


     


    [*=center]C7, Harv and MU are at GDC and we've got a video of them with Mr Scott Manley





    The rest of the team is still hard at work with their individual projects. 
    We released on steam!
    http://steamcommunity.com/app/220200
     
    It was a great week and weekend for us as KSP Topped the Charts in several areas with the following being our best,
     
    #1 Indie Game
    #2 Early Access
    #1 MacOSX
    #1 Linux
    #6 Overall Steam Top Seller
     
    Scott Manley also did some twitter analysis for us and sent me this bit of info,
    " '650,000' people saw a KSP tweet within one hour of the steam release." Wow, that's a lot of people! Thanks Scott and topsy.com for the info!
     
    Community Spotlight
    http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/46812-Land-Rover-Porsche-944-VW-Kombi
    Meticulous Mitch Made some awesome stock cars, take a look!
    Here's my fave:




    RayneCloud
    As you can see above, it's been a great day for us and here's a nice image of KSP on the front page of Steam. Besides this, I wanted to take a moment and share all these wonderful links about KSP and the other games taking part in Steam's "Early Access" program.

    http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/20/4128410/steam-early-access-launches-includes-arma-3-prison-architect 
    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/188923/Steams_Early_Access_puts_your_inprogress_game_in_front_of_players.php
     
    http://www.shacknews.com/article/78310/steam-early-access-lets-you-buy-unfinished-games
     
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-20-steam-now-offers-players-early-access-for-upcoming-games
     
    http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/20/4128644/steam-early-access-buy-and-play-games-still-in-development
     
    http://kotaku.com/5991562/steam-will-now-let-you-play-some-games-before-they-even-come-out
     
    http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/20/steam-introduces-early-access-buy-and-play-games-still-in-dev/
     
    http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/21/steam-early-access-debuts-with-arma-3-prison-architect/

     
    We can't thank all of you enough for the support you given us over the last year. This wouldn't be possible with out you! -Team KSP



    HarvesteR
    Hi,

    Very good news today! After many months of preparation, KSP is now available on Steam!




    We're very fortunate also in that we're one of the very first games to be released as a Steam Early Access title. We've been working closely with Valve recently to make sure the release went as smoothly as possible, and their new Early Access category is just perfect for us. We're all very happy here!

    So, I think we should probably have a little Q&A here, to clear up what'll likely be the most frequent questions:

    Q: If I've already bought the game on the KSPStore, can I switch over to Steam?
    A: The answer to that is Yes, but not right now. We are going to set up a system on our store where you'll be able to get a Steam key for KSP provided you already have purchased the game. However, we are still working on the exact details of this feature, so it'll likely be a while until that's set up. We'll of course let you know when that becomes available.

    Q: What platforms are supported on the Steam version?
    A: KSP is available on Steam for all three platforms (Win, Mac and Linux), and the Demo is also available on all of them as well.

    Q: What is this Early Access thing you speak of?
    A: I think Valve can explain it better than we can.

    Q: Is this in any way related to the 0.19 update being smaller than usual?
    A: You've probably figured out already this is one of the main reasons we cut the 0.19 update short. We wanted KSP to look its best for the release, so we decided to get the reentry fx, animations and all the other features out in time for it. The shorter update cycle worked out nicely for us though, so we'll try to maintain that flow for future releases as much as possible. The patcher should also be ready by then.

    Q: Speaking of patcher then, how does that work with Steam?
    A: Steam has its own update system, so for the steam version of the game, we've turned off all version-tracking features in KSP. The Steam version will update automatically when we publish new builds, so it all happens without the need of any external tools. The patcher will only be used for the KSPStore-bought version of the game.


    That's all I can think of for now. If other relevant questions pop up in the comments, I'll update this post here to include an answer to it.


    Happy Launchings!

    Cheers

    RayneCloud
    Game Development and Progress Updates

     

    We released version 0.19.0 on Saturday and released version 0.19.1 on Monday showcasing our dedication to bug fixing and polish as well as adding new content, parts and features. C7 is currently still working on bug fixing and trying to polish rover wheels as well as prepping to move on to his next set of tasks. N3X15 is busy coding and developing our new patcher and deployment system and it's coming together, stay tuned! Our newest team members claira and rom are busy getting acclimated to the team and our work flow. Mu has shown us some nice back end prototyping for our resource system. Nova's given me some images to show you for upcoming content additions, take a look!

     
    First is the new internals for the crew module, looks good to me Nova!

     
    Secondly, the WIP model "Seat" for our Kerbal friends to ride in, take a look!



    Yesterdays Live Stream with Cap and Damion
    http://www.twitch.tv/kerbalsp/b/379349585




     
    Community Updates and Spotlights
     
    Forum Updates

     


    [*=center]Fixed the Attachment System!
    [*=center]New user rank/image system coming, stay tuned for cool!
    [*=center]We're working on a new theme for the forums.

    You-tuber Spotlight: Scott Manley

     
    You-tuber Spotlight: StreetlampPro

     
    Twitch TV Channels for you to watch,
     
    http://www.twitch.tv/yargnit/new
    &
    http://www.twitch.tv/schmoogleedorf
     

    Artwork From the Community
    http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/38761-Postcards-from-Laythe-UPDATE-3-7-2013-21-21-VISUAL-NOVEL-CANCELLED
    If you've not seen PfL yet, you should take a look! Great style and composition!
     

    That's it for today folks, we'll see you next week! -DR KSP CM

    HarvesteR

    KSP 0.19.1

    By HarvesteR, in Developer Articles,

    Hi again,

    We've just released the 0.19.1 revision for KSP.

    This update is just a small hotfix to address some issues with the 0.19.0 version. Here's the changelog for it:



    Bug Fixes and Tweaks:

    * Fixed re-entry shader failing on highly scaled parts
    * Corrected an issue that would prevent large rover wheels from applying brakes
    * Tweaked braking speed and power on rover wheels
    * Adjusted how rover wheels display resource usage
    * Changed Ladders on the launchpad ladders to make it easier to climb them.
    * Changed the names of launchpad and runway objects to be more descriptive when you crash into them.



    As always, you can download the new version from our Store.

    Happy Launchings!

    Cheers

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