KSP Weekly: A Shuttle to Remember

[Agarwel]

On 3. 2. 2018 at 5:20 PM, awsumindyman said:

Why are the console players attacking squad? They had almost nothing to do with the console port, that was a separate company. As a result, porting to console had no affect on development of the PC version. If you want stuff to be fixed, complain to the company that ported the game. Squad will just keep ignoring you.

Yes. External company ported the game. But:

1) Squad is still the company that ordered this port, tested the result and said it is OK to release in this state.

2) Blitz ported the game. But Squad provided the source code. It may be tricky to find out who is to blame. Considering two different developers (one experienced port developer without issues with other ported games) created two separated ports that resulted in very similar results, one may argue that actually source code is written poorly (and changing controls breaks whole game). In properly written game, changing the GUI should not change behaviour like "you can recover vessels from space now" "two ships are recovered together after undocking" "progress is ignored and revereted to old state". In these cases it is difficult to decide who to blame. By common sense I expect that contract to "port the game to consoles" does not include "also rewrite our poor coding please"

3) The communication!!! Mistakes can happen. Bugs can happen. But since summer 2016 console players are basically ignored. With no info what is going to happen. After broken game was relesed there were 6 months of total silence. Then there was info "going to be released early 2017". Then few months of total silence again and then periodic weekly empty info "we are working on it. For real now". Then the game was released. Broken again. And there is again no info. Only pr stuff like  "we fixed something, and there will be patch somewhen". You can imagine why players are angry. If they said "Sorry, we nened another two years. Look forward for new versions in 2020" I believe they would save themself lots of hate on the forums. But if they again plan to ingore the customers and provide only default empty PR answers, customer wont be happy.

Blitz did not created did port, but these lot they should take responsibility for. And at least comuunicate better.

[Terwin]

When creating games, there are two primary paths: copy something old and create something new.

If you took a doom engine, added some maps and image resources, a solo developer could create a new game in a few weeks.

But this would be just another 2.5d fps, with nothing novel about it.

Every time you add something 'new' you need to not only create the functionality, but also test it against existing functionality and verify it works in the expected usage scenarios.

Here is a list of some of the 'new' things in KSP that I have never seen put together in other games:

* Building arbitrary craft out of roughly 300 distinct lego-like piece types(with mod support increasing that number by thousands)

* Physics engine capable of handling arbitrary rocket launches realistically and mod support(have you seen any of the rockets Whackjob has made??)

* physics engine that handles super-sonic flight for arbitrary vessels and mod support.

* physics engine that handles sub-sonic flight for arbitrary vessels and mod support.

* physics engine that handles orbital mechanics for arbitrary vessels and mod support.

* Physics engine that handles submarines using stock parts

* Physics engine that handles rendezvous and docking at orbital speeds

* Support for functional asymmetric craft, both in flight and in space 

* over 30 distinct engines using at least 6 different fuel/thrust mechanics, and support for any other engines you might like(including the ability to make working propellers from stock parts)

* Scale-able reentry heating effects.

* Interplanetary navigation, including sling-shots and aero-breaking 

* ISRU

* A Sand-box environment where it is easy to get to wack-job levels of craft complexity if you want to do so, having no hard limits beyond whatever your computer can handle.

* A larger accessible environment than just about any other game(Almost any of the planetary surfaces is larger than most games, and there are 15 of them in the game(not counting the skies of Jool), all hanging in the vastness of space in a mini-solar system

I am sure I have missed several, but that is a lot of new stuff that no one else has tried to put together, and every new thing needs to work with every previously added thing, making the amount of effort for each new thing even larger than the effort for the thing before it.

Sure Unity provides some tools for lighting and common game mechanics, but that only provides a starting-point for games with many novel mechanics.

In short, making Joe Madden football 2017 is trivial because it is just a spreadsheet and some image resources different from Joe Madden Football 2016, but making Kerbal Space Program is hard because nothing even close to it has ever existed before.(Orbiter is the closest I have heard of, but that only lets you do a fraction of what you can do in KSP)

Edited February 6, 2018 by Terwin

[Space Station 4 Crash]

[snip]

I can now report that I can no longer load my career save. The game is completely broke on PS4. I have submitted numerous bug reports and posts on the technical thread.

I guess we are all waiting for another KSP weekly? No time to give us an update? For the love of god fix your game SQUAD, and let us go on our way.

[Socraticat]

18 hours ago, Space Station 4 Crash said:

I can now report that I can no longer load my career save. The game is completely broke on PS4. I have submitted numerous bug reports and posts on the technical thread.

Wow, you held out that long on career?

My Science Sandbox just broke. No parts selectable except cockpit. No good. Not the same as getting stuck without a save, but what good is the ship if you can't use any of it's functionality. Maybe this game just can't be played on console. 

I'm posting 1 bug report with a video and sequence of events. That much isn't really my obligation, but I'll do it begrudgingly. Sadly, I'm afraid the only version I'll be playing is open sandbox. No reason to achieve anything...

...

Probably just going to put it down and give up for now. Maybe one day they'll fix it and I'll still care. 

Adios [snip].

 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Deddly
Profanity removed. Please don't do that

[Kerbal pancake]

On 2/3/2018 at 4:26 AM, shdwlrd said:

The collar could be a multiple pieces? That could be possible. The real question is how to they get their big heads into those helmets? I don't see any seams where they can split.

they shrink down and climb into the suit then grow

 

they require a bowl of water to regrow though

Edited February 7, 2018 by Kerbal pancake

[Enceos]

Thanks God I play games on PC.

[PrvDancer85]

Imo KSP EE is an superior improvment to the fte port. I've being never so far in my career since i play KSP, just a few nodes and the siencetree is done. I've mining operations at the mun and minmus, a little fleet is on it's way to duna. Siencelabs are running without problems, the visual improvments and the adjustable hud is very nice. Sure there are bugs that are just annoying but I still GoT my save so far. And Squad says they are on a Patch. I like the New port very much

(i just felt the need of expressing some love for ksp as an consoleguy, if it's to of topic just delete)

Edited February 7, 2018 by PrvDancer85

[Space Station 4 Crash]

16 hours ago, Joessep Kerman said:

Wow, you held out that long on career?

My Science Sandbox just broke. No parts selectable except cockpit. No good. Not the same as getting stuck without a save, but what good is the ship if you can't use any of it's functionality. Maybe this game just can't be played on console. 

I'm posting 1 bug report with a video and sequence of events. That much isn't really my obligation, but I'll do it begrudgingly. Sadly, I'm afraid the only version I'll be playing is open sandbox. No reason to achieve anything...

...

Probably just going to put it down and give up for now. Maybe one day they'll fix it and I'll still care. 

Adios [snip].

 

I commend you for continuing to try and help out. I'm more invested in seeing how this thing turns out then playing this broken mess. I still hope to see you around the forums. Take care buddy!

FIX YOUR GAME SQUAD!

Cheers! [snip]

Edited February 7, 2018 by Space Station 4 Crash

[Micro753]

If it isn't too hard to implement, can we get both suit colors? Maybe make the color assignable per kerbal from the astronaut complex.

[qzgy]

On 2/7/2018 at 1:53 PM, Micro753 said:

If it isn't too hard to implement, can we get both suit colors? Maybe make the color assignable per kerbal from the astronaut complex.

Apparently texture switching is gonna be part of the 1.4 update. So I don't see why both wouldn't be integrated....

[GrouchyDevotee]

 

Good to hear things are progressing! I'm looking forwards to more Console releases!

New suits... are new... the new colours look good. I'm sure there is no lack of suggestions for the new look.

I was thinking that "New" would be more different:

'Apollo style' Eva suits for stumbling around on terrain

Sleek 'futuristic' style like the "2001 Space Odyssey" Movie for space-walks

How about a deep sea JIM pressure suit, or an old school deep sea Diving bell style for those who like the steam-punk effect.

Still, the new outfits look good.