KSP Weekly: Expedition 1

[SQUAD]

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of the docking of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-31 to the International Space Station (ISS), marking the official start of ISS Expedition 1, the very first long-duration stay on the habitable artificial satellite. The crew was composed of Commander William Shepherd, a veteran NASA astronaut, and two RSA flight engineers: Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei K. Kirkalev, both of them had previous long-duration space-flights on Mir, with the latter having spent over a full year in space. The three-person crew stayed aboard the station for 136 days and during their mission, they activated various systems on board the station, unpacked equipment that had been delivered, and hosted three visiting Space Shuttle crews and two unmanned Russian Progress resupply vehicles.

At the time the ISS configuration consisted of only three modules: The Functional Cargo Block, Zarya - the first launched module of the station; the Unity connecting module, which with its six berthing locations would facilitate connection to other modules; and the Zvezda Service Module, which provides all of the station’s life support systems.

In their first weeks on board, the Expedition 1 crew members activated critical life support systems and computer control, as well as unpacked supplies left behind for them by previous supply missions. At this time the station did not have enough electricity to heat all three pressurized modules, so Unity was left unused and unheated.

The three visiting Space Shuttles brought equipment, supplies, and key components of the space station. The first of these, STS-97, docked in early December 2000, and brought the first pair of large U.S. photovoltaic arrays, which increased the station’s power capabilities fivefold. The second visiting shuttle mission was STS-98, which was docked in mid-February 2001, delivered the US$1.4 billion research module Destiny, which increased the mass of the station beyond that of Mir for the first time. And Mid-March 2001 saw the final shuttle visit of the expedition, STS-102, whose main purpose was to exchange the Expedition 1 crew with the next three-person long-duration crew, Expedition 2. On March 18, when the Discovery space shuttle undocked from the ISS, the first ISS expedition ended officially.

As of now, the ISS has been continuously occupied since the arrival of Expedition 1, which makes it the longest continuous human presence in low Earth orbit, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir. And it has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 17 different nations. The station’s retirement is expected to happen somewhere between 2024 and 2028, and it’s planned to be replaced by the Deep Space Gateway project. But anniversaries aside, this week was a full KSP development news, too, so let’s begin!

[Development news start here]

We know a lot of you have been asking for updates on the release timing of the Making History Expansion and the updated console version of KSP, and we want to thank you all for your patience! We are getting close to being able to announce the release dates for each of these, and we want to update everyone on that timing.

The updated console version of KSP will be available by the end of January 2018, on both PS4 and Xbox One. One of our major objectives for KSP was to re-release a high-quality version of the game on consoles that lives up to the expectations that our players – and we – have for KSP. We took the decision to build these new versions from the ground up, which has taken more time than we had hoped, but we’ve been working alongside our friends at Blitworks and we’re excited to be getting closer to releasing these console updates.

The Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion will also be released early next year. We will announce the exact date as we get closer, but the team is working on many exciting updates for the expansion, which you can read more about below and in recent KSP Weekly updates.

Again, we know that many of you have been waiting for news on these updates, and we want to thank you for your patience. And now for more development updates!

Let’s begin with a short briefing on the development of the upcoming KSP Update 1.4. Currently our main efforts on this project consist of upgrading to Unity 2017.1, which involves a careful assessment of changes that could affect the project, such as modifications in data format which may require re-baking. Similarly, we need to identify any changes to the meaning or behavior of any existing functions, parameters or component values, as well as deprecations of any function or feature that could affect the game. It is important for us to identify any possible issue and find solutions before they arise. This update will not only include this upgrade and the benefits it entails, but also some additional goodies that we’ll be revealing soon.

Moving on to the development news of Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion, this week we received the early version of the soundtrack that will be used in the Mission Builder. We can’t show it to you, yet, but what we can tell you is that we wanted something within the lines of the music that the VAB/SPH has: smooth and uplifting jazz, which doesn’t distract from the building aspect and gives a cool atmosphere - the new track definitely does that, but simultaneously differs enough to give the Expansion its own musical identity.  

Additionally, this week the team worked on the implementation of graphic banners, or ‘hero images’, into the Mission dialogs. The idea is that Mission Creators will be able to set custom banners for their missions, whether it is a hero image to accompany the mission briefing, or for the ‘Success’ and ‘Failure’ dialogs. We’ll include a few preloaded banners of course, but we want players to be able to customize theirs in a similar manner to how flags can be added in the main game by adding the files to a specific folder.

The developers also worked on the implementation of warnings when there are inconsistencies between facility level limits and any vessel restrictions a Mission Creator may have defined - i.e. it’s weight, number of parts and dimensions.

Moreover, the team is also working on the tutorials that will be included in the Expansion, so that you can start making the most of the new tools once you get your hands on Making History.

On the artistic side of development, the team has been working on the textures of our analogue to a J2 Engine. We will show them off soon enough, but for the moment we wanted you to check out the Soviet-inspired textures for the new 1.875 Tanks. These tanks will include 2 additional textures, aside from this one, which you’ll be able to switch at will, so you can give your vessels the right look.

Finally, we remind you that you still have another week to participate in our latest KSP Challenge - The KSPooky Haiku Challenge. We have been receiving an impressive amount of really cool haikus, including some written in Japanese, which has certainly given some authenticity to the challenge. We have been compiling each and every one of them, and having lots of fun doing so. If you haven’t shared yours, don’t think twice and send us your literary compositions!

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

First again!

And I don't know much about the Soviet designs, so I can't speak to authenticity, but being able to switch the textures like that looks really cool. As if I don't spend enough time in the VAB as it is. 

Also, as excited as I am about a "semi" release date for the expansion, I think I'm even happier for our friends on the console side of town. They've been waiting a long time, and I'm sure they'll be relieved to hear they finally have pretty solid release date. Congrats to all at Squad for cleaning things up and being sure to put out a KSP that lives up to the name. Glad to hear it.

Edited November 3, 2017 by Cpt Kerbalkrunch

[DD_bwest]

yay time frame for release of console  update!!!

[Kerbuvim]

Another "early" for the consoles , now 2018 ...

Edited November 3, 2017 by Kerbuvim

[Dundral mk2]

OOOOOOOh texture switching and if I remember right... model switching as well....

This is going to be glorious!

 

EDIT: Is there going to be a prepurchase for the expansion? This is about the only game I wouldn't mind paying ahead of time, considering the endless hours I've enjoyed it.

Edited November 3, 2017 by Dundral mk2

[DD_bwest]

15 minutes ago, Kerbuvim said:

Another "early" for the consoles , now 2018 ...

its better than what we had before, updates on bugs.

the fact its different shows they are probably ready for certification.  and since that still has question marks on the length they can give am exact date. and unlike a launch they will wanna get this out the moment it passes so fhey wont give a day well ahead only to end up sitting on an update thats rdy waiting for that date

[Just Jim]

33 minutes ago, SQUAD said:

The Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion will also be released early next year.

Cool, it's already November, so that's not so bad! 

[klesh]

10 minutes ago, DD_bwest said:

its better than what we had before, updates on bugs.

 

I think he means the last time they mentioned a release, it was "early 2017."

[SpicyDesertPlanet]

I'm stoked for 1.4 goodies. Any guesses on what they might be? Personally, I think new new science tech would be cool. I'd love some kinda stock surface science experiments that require having a kerbal on the surface somewhere. Too often I take hours building a complex mission to some far off place that ends with Jeb planting a flag, maybe flying around on jetpack for a few minutes, then it's back in the spacecraft and back to Kerbin. It would be great if there was something built in to the planets/moons that you could actually interact with. 

[UomoCapra]

41 minutes ago, Kerbuvim said:

Another "early" for the consoles , now 2018 ...

The console version for KSP on consoles will be released  by the end of January. We are aware it has taken a long time, but rushing a release without the extensive QA  that these updated versions have been undertaking, would have been probably a bad decision. 

[Raptor9]

Release timeframes, more DLC functions/features, preview images, and a teaser for KSP 1.4 mystery goodies...

I can see the hype train being pulled out of the shed for a ride in the near future. 

[klgraham1013]

35 minutes ago, Raptor9 said:

mystery

Everyone loves a good ol' Squad super-secret-you'l-just-love feature.

[Raptor9]

4 minutes ago, klgraham1013 said:

Everyone loves a good ol' Squad super-secret-you'l-just-love feature.

 They're like M. Night Shyamalan movies.  The whole time you have no clue what on Kerbin is going on, until the very end.

[CobaltWolf]

mmm-MMMM! DEM PARTS LOOK TASTY. THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE.

And in general, y'all have had some awesome news lately! New particles, fixed UVs on the fairings, more nice parts.

Question about the J-2 (by the way @SQUAD all the US rocket engines ((F-1, H-1, etc) have the hyphens in their name - I checked just now) re: balance - uh, how? My thought is, if this is supposed to be something of an educational/slightly more realistic expansion, having it use a lqdHydrogen type resource would be *very* interesting from a gameplay POV. It's hard to actually wrap your head around the pros/cons of hydrogen until you actually start to use it, and I feel it would be a cool educational opportunity for players if they had to have some understanding of it. Not even talking boiloff - just the vast differences in density vs ISP, and how counterintuitive hydrogen's benefits are. And since @RoverDude is a developer, he'd be able to release a simultaneous update to CRP to transfer the resource from the mod into the stock game, preserving saves.

[Angelo Kerman]

Having mesh and texture switching in stock and DLC is very nice, and less code for me to maintain in my mods. Great job on the new Russian tank textures. I know there was concerns about the 5m tanks a few months ago, maybe the art team can apply the techniques to those as well?

Looking forward to the expansion.

[Terwin]

1 hour ago, SpicyDesertPlanet said:

I'm stoked for 1.4 goodies. Any guesses on what they might be? Personally, I think new new science tech would be cool. I'd love some kinda stock surface science experiments that require having a kerbal on the surface somewhere. Too often I take hours building a complex mission to some far off place that ends with Jeb planting a flag, maybe flying around on jetpack for a few minutes, then it's back in the spacecraft and back to Kerbin. It would be great if there was something built in to the planets/moons that you could actually interact with. 

You can always take Surface samples to get in-person-only science from being landed in a biome...  In-capsule crew reports and EVA reports too...

[regex]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

Not even talking boiloff - just the vast differences in density vs ISP, and how counterintuitive hydrogen's benefits are. And since @RoverDude is a developer, he'd be able to release a simultaneous update to CRP to transfer the resource from the mod into the stock game, preserving saves.

Problem: KSP measures fuel in some nebulous "thing" called "units" whereas the definition for LqdHydrogen in CRP came from Real Fuels which uses an actual unit of measure, "liters". They do not instantly translate and putting the definition from CRP into the stock game would not work with stock tanks while stomping the (scientifically accurate) definition in CRP.

E: but adding a resource called, say, "CryoFuel" would be okay by me. Just don't stomp on modders who actually care about scientific accuracy, please.

Edited November 4, 2017 by regex

[James M]

3 hours ago, SQUAD said:

The updated console version of KSP will be available by the end of January 2018, on both PS4 and Xbox One. One of our major objectives for KSP was to re-release a high-quality version of the game on consoles that lives up to the expectations that our players – and we – have for KSP. We took the decision to build these new versions from the ground up, which has taken more time than we had hoped, but we’ve been working alongside our friends at Blitworks and we’re excited to be getting closer to releasing these console updates.

[Urses]

What a pity... i have to switch my new years selfpresent to become my easter egg... easter egg?!

Thanks @SQUAD and let the programmers gods(bugs) don't bother you

[Daishi]

...is Making History being released within that January time frame for the consoles too? How is that going to work? New entire game purchase, or a patch through the console stores? 

[0111narwhalz]

2 hours ago, regex said:

Problem: KSP measures fuel in some nebulous "thing" called "units" whereas the definition for LqdHydrogen in CRP came from Real Fuels which uses an actual unit of measure, "liters". They do not instantly translate and putting the definition from CRP into the stock game would not work with stock tanks while stomping the (scientifically accurate) definition in CRP.

E: but adding a resource called, say, "CryoFuel" would be okay by me. Just don't stomp on modders who actually care about scientific accuracy, please.

Or the new stock resource could be measured in liters.

[regex]

1 hour ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Or the new stock resource could be measured in liters.

It certainly could but that would be pretty confusing when compared to current resources since it would end up being somewhere around 5 times the amount that current resources are. That is, it really wouldn't look "right" next to the other resources.

OTOH it'd be pretty cool to see a resource with a density that made sense to those of us in the real world in the game. Might start something. I doubt it though.

[KSK]

The new parts look nice. I have a question though, particularly since this week's History Lesson part of the update is about Expedition 1. 

Will there be new space station parts in the Expansion? After all, space stations have been a pretty big part of space travel history, from Skylab and Salyut to Mir and ISS - .Apologies if I've missed an update somewhere but as far as I can remember, the sneak peeks have all been at various engines, tanks and capsules/lander cabins. Which is cool and all - but it would be nice to know that Making History was about more than the launch vehicles!

[Mako]

3 hours ago, Daishi said:

...is Making History being released within that January time frame for the consoles too? How is that going to work? New entire game purchase, or a patch through the console stores? 

The Making History Expansion has not been announced for consoles yet.

WARNING: RAMPANT SPECULATION/GUESSTIMATION AHEAD!

The console version will likely be version 1.2.2 as that was what was previously announced and there's never been any official word that it had changed. Seeing as how it is likely that the PC versions will need an update to allow the expansion to work with the base game and seeing as how Squad is already beginning to work on 1.4 for the PC, it seems reasonable to guess that version 1.4 (or possibly greater) will be required for Making History to work. Therefore, it's likely that until the console versions are upgraded to 1.4 (or whatever version adds the expansion support) the expansion will not be possible on consoles. Since 1.4 is an engine update and has been announced to have some additional mystery features, and furthermore since 1.3 brought new languages and a major UI redesign to allow those languages, it's likely that it will require a not insignificant amount of time to bring the update to the consoles.

If indeed the plan is to continue to update the console versions and eventually release the Making History Expansion on consoles, I would not be shocked if we learned that it would not make it to consoles until 2019.

This concludes the test of the speculation generation system. We now return you to your regularly scheduled comments on this weekly.

 

I would not be upset if more Weeklys were like this one, well written and full of pertinent information. And I still really enjoy the science and history lessons. Also, did we just get a late Halloween treat in the form of release date windows for release dates? I hope it doesn't turn out to be a late Halloween trick. When I said Trick-or-Treat it was solely out of respect for tradition; I did not intend it to be an actual offer for you to provide a Halloween trick.

[PrvDancer85]

Hey a working ksp for consoles in 2 month, awesome. Will it be 1.2 with kerbnet and kerbsat? I really looking forward to hunt down some eastereggs. Nice job squad/Blitworks