More info for Enhanced Edition players, a message for the Developers

[Farm Buyer]

To: Squad, Take Two, Blitworks, whatever, et al

Guys, 

I get it, the flagship version of KSP has been and will always be the PC version. 

it was developed there, its has the largest player base and as such it's always going to be the priority. and the console version will always be a few versions behind the PC version, and the bulk of your efforts will always be spent on the flagship version.  By and large, most console players expect and accept this. its reasonable. yes, we know it's tough dealing with Sony and Microsoft to get certification for content and patches - we get it. it's a process and it takes time. 

 

But,  your decision to release a console version does come with a certain amount of responsibility to the people that choose to pay their money and buy the product. one of those responsibilities is  REALLY supporting the new version-  you need to do this in addition to tweaking and developing new content for the PC version.  my point being, if you didn't want the responsibility -  you shouldn't have taken our money. 

 

OK, its unreasonable for us as customers to expect a "perfect" build on release.  anyone who does is a fool. it never happens.

there will always be bugs, issues, and exploits, its the nature of software development. Most console EE players expected some issues. I certainly did.

its what YOU do as the developer when these bugs are discovered that will impress or discourage your console customers.  Seeing a bunch of WOW paragraphs in the Friday update Prioritizing the color of new spacesuits, ( I mean really? that's important?... and clearly if we are shooting for historical - the silver USN Mk IV mercury suit would be the clear winner)   for an expansion that WE (console players) won't even possibly get, while seeing one or two sentences about the MAJOR issues that the console EE version has is a discouragement.   

We want more info - and a fair share of space in the weekly update.  ie:  what are you doing for US?

give us a ball park for how long it will be for the patch that is obviously needed? are we looking at weeks? months? another year and a half? not looking for  or expecting a hard date... but surely you have some idea how long its going to take to patch the MESS that  the EE addition turns into late game.  tell us about the work you are doing to provide us with a stable, quality, build, what are the challenges?  it may not be good news - but we want the news. WE (console players) want to know  if/when are we going the get the making history expansion?  if its not possible to get Making history because "reasons"  TELL US about why... we can take it.  

Simply being told that we need to report our bugs (do the job you should have done yourself) and that you are "working" on a patch  does not cut the mustard guys. 

some of whats wrong with the EE edition should never have made it out of development and onto the release version... period.  ( I'm looking squarely at the time warp bug...)   seriously - that is a game breaking issue... a few hours worth of career mode and it rears its ugly head... how did this get missed?! 

 

 

tl/dr version:

YOU NEED TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR CONSOLE PLAYER BASE.

we've had it with the one or two sentence vague "updates" about what you are doing to fix your mess.  

 

Thank you - rant over

 

 

[Nils277]

You know that the development of the console version and all associated tasks (updates, bugfixes and so on) are contracted to BlitWorks right?

Squad is really open, when it comes to reporting about the development of the PC version because it is the work they are directly doing. They can (almost) freely write what they have done in the last week because they know it first hand. When it comes to the console version, they can only tell us what BlitWorks tells them. It is quite plausible that Squad simply cannot post about everything internal ongoing at BlitWorks, be it because of restrictions from the contract to not publish interna from BlitWorks or because they simply don't know what exactly has been done.

 

[Spricigo]

On 14/02/2018 at 6:36 PM, Farm Buyer said:

We want more info - and a fair share of space in the weekly update.  ie:  what are you doing for US?

give us a ball park for how long it will be for the patch that is obviously needed? are we looking at weeks? months? another year and a half? not looking for  or expecting a hard date...

Quoting what I think is the main point of your post. Notice, I'm just a player,

Yes, that is a reasonable request. A few other lines are IMHO a bit too harsh, but that is understandable, with the frustration.

In any case, i'd like to point that is a tricky situation for Squad*. The time explaining what they are doing to solve the issues, is time not solving the issues. And all those long explanation may backfire quickly in an eventual change of plans (not unlikely to be necessary).

So, yes. A word or two about their progress is welcome, but maybe even better is squad* staying 'quiet' and solving the issues faster.

 

*change it for BlitWorks  or TakeTwo if you prefer. I'm talking about the people I expect are working hard to give us the graet game KSP deserve to be.

 

BTW:

On 14/02/2018 at 6:36 PM, Farm Buyer said:

I get it, the flagship version of KSP has been and will always be the PC version

again IMHO: Squad Vision for KSP on console is to offer the same experience computer gamer enjoy. Unfortunately there is still a good amount of work to make that vision in a reality, but Squad is committed to it.

[GrouchyDevotee]

I'm playing Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition on a PS4, I love playing this game.

I'm glad that the Console Enhanced Edition is going to be getting some work, an update, a patch, and/or some DLC in the future.

This game can become frustrating on it's own, I keep crashing on the Mun because the throttle is different now. It is a hard pill to swallow when a player puts in a couple hours of game time only to have a glitch or bug undo all that 'work'. It also kinda sucks when all the 'game saves' disappear.

I'm glad the effort is being put into making this game widely available, it seems this transition from PC to console is extremely difficult. I would far rather see kids playing this kind of building, exploration, trial and error  type of game, developing critical thinking and having fun over the "Pew Pew Pew" games that dominate the console game market.

As far as keeping me informed of the progress of the patch, hearing that work is being done is largely good enough for me, and please share whatever information you can when you can.

But, I'm also hoping that the Developers of this game and the Moderators for this Forum will assist the Console gamers in sharing any bugs to avoid, and any workarounds that become evident.

Thanks for the great game.

[HebaruSan]

On the bright side, you get to play Red Dead Redemption. That game will probably never be ported to PC.

[klgraham1013]

On 2/15/2018 at 3:35 PM, Spricigo said:

The time explaining what they are doing to solve the issues, is time not solving the issues.

Not necessarily true.  Not everyone on the team is a bug squasher.

[Spricigo]

9 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

Not necessarily true.  Not everyone on the team is a bug squasher.

Moot point, disturbing the bug smashers is necessary to get the info since the bug smashers are the ones that know about how the bug smashing is going.

Also notice: I didn't said  the info shouldn't or couldn't be relayed from devs to players.  Just that may not be the best use of devs time.

[klgraham1013]

4 hours ago, Spricigo said:

Moot point, disturbing the bug smashers is necessary to get the info since the bug smashers are the ones that know about how the bug smashing is going.

Also notice: I didn't said  the info shouldn't or couldn't be relayed from devs to players.  Just that may not be the best use of devs time.

True.  Though, at this point, fixing your reputation may be just as valuable as the bug squashing.   It's really a catch 22.