Simple Rockets 2 is out!

[Clockwork13]

Just putting this here if any of you want to try it out. Just as of today it's in early access. It's only on MacOS and Windows so I haven't had a chance to play it but the review are pretty good and it's on sale.

Currently it's extremely basic (as you may expect) but I think later on this could prove to be some much needed competition for KSP.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/870200/SimpleRockets_2/

[Chel]

Weird flex but ok

[munlander1]

1 hour ago, Clockwork13 said:

later on this could prove to be some much needed competition for KSP

I don’t know if competition is needed, but I don’t see anything bad coming out of it. Regardless, I’m sure what ever they produce will be interesting.

[Brofessional]

Competition is always good. SR2 is still missing a lot of things, but it's surprisingly feature rich compared to KSP in the early days. It will probably take a year or two before it really catches up to KSP, but it's off to a good start.

[Klapaucius]

Yes, I saw that in my Steam feed and plan on getting it. I have Simple Planes and the original Simple Rockets, so I have been eargerly awaiting this.

 @Clockwork13 and @Brofessional:  I don't think of it as really competition. At least with the Planes, they have created a exactly what they set out to: a Simplified version for folks to get into this type of game without the steep learning curve. I am particularly interested because I got into KSP after being asked to use for a library programme to help local high-school kids get an intuitive sense of rocketry. The problem was the KSP learning curve got in the way of that with the limited time we had (not to mention limited attention span of some of the kids).  Also KSP Edu is really geared towards the kids who already have really solid math skills.

While I think KSP will remain the non-plus-ultra, what Simple Rockets and Planes may do is offer a less intimidating introduction to plane and rocket building, and it will shine in educational situations for younger kids and kids who are curious but may lack the background to make the most of KSP edu.  But, I'll have to spend some time mucking around with it to know for sure.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Klapaucius

[Superfluous J]

So it was like $13 so I pulled the trigger, and I'm glad I did.

It's rough. REALLY rough. Rougher than any EA game I've ever played. But it's got that same kernel of awesome that KSP had way back when.

Notable things:

• The game loads FAST. Like, really fast. Before KSP has the Private Division logo up, SR2 is ready to play. Granted that's part of it being so basic but still, it's a nice, fresh difference.
• There is no navball. There's this HUD-type thingy around your ship. It's confusing but I don't think it's any more confusing to me now than the navball was way back when.
• That hud is actually a control interface. You can drag things around to orient your ship, and even click the prograde or retrograde markers on it to hold them.
• Remember years ago when KSPs SAS was too vigorous and would overshoot the prograde marker when you tried to hold prograde? SR2's does the same thing but on eveything. Want to move 5 degrees? It will move 8, then 4 back, then 1.5 back, then finally settle on the correct angle.
• Maneuver nodes are... well let's say they're rough.
• The entire interface is a little too floaty. You know how annoying it is in KSP on the main start-up menu when you click an option and the menu slides off, then a new one comes in and slows down making it hard to click what you want? Pretty much everything in SR2 does that, from maneuver nodes to map views to the "VAB".
• There is a whole solar system, roughly as many plants as KSP has. I've only looked at 2 of the planets (the home planet and the furthest gas giant) and a single moon (Luna, the home planet's moon) so can't comment on anything else, other than it looks to be about the same size as Kerbin's system.
• The Sun is very small in the sky, for those of you who hate Kerbin's huge Sun.
• There are patched conics but as far as I can tell there is only one mode and it's not my preferred mode. Hopefully that's in the works.
• There is 1 fuel tank. In the entire game. (cue Hallelujah music)
• There are multiple engines. 3 rocket engines and an RCS port.
• Most every (or possibly every, I didn't dig deep enough into it in the 90 minutes I toyed around) ship part in the "VAB" is procedural and the interface is very intuitive. It's one of the glimmers of brilliance in the game and why I'm happy with my purchase.
• You can fly with the keyboard but the game stresses you use the HUD-type thingy.
• Yes, I will continue to call it the HUD-type thingy. Mostly because - like the home planet - I don't remember its actual name.

Okay I'm sure there are dozens more but I'm getting tired of typing and really, I only spent an hour and a half in the game.

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[Geonovast]

Grabbed it too, will probably play with it when I get home.  We'll see if it runs in Steam Play.

[Superfluous J]

I'm dusting the cobwebs off of my Twitch page (I haven't even logged into it since I did the Ultimate Challenge in June. Of 2016) to hopefully start streaming this at 5pm Eastern. I have a hard end time of 7:30pm Eastern and hope to at least do a land-and-return mission to the moon.

I think this will link to my page.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I'll probably buy this at some point, but I think mods will be what either makes or breaks this game. 

Procedural and moving parts right out of the gate are pretty cool though. The lack of joint simulation may or may not be a loss. 

I don't really like the style of the parts though. The engines kind of look like the plastic shells on gas stations and pumps.

[Geonovast]

3 hours ago, Geonovast said:

We'll see if it runs in Steam Play.

It does not.  My laptop was just like "No", and my desktop would launch the game, but entering the editor would not only freeze the game, but did the unthinkable... it would freeze the whole computer.

[Superfluous J]

The stream was fun and I achieved my goal of a land and return from the moon. Only took 3 tries. Well 4 if you count when I accidentally staged in the middle of ascent off of Kerbin whatever SR2's home planet is called.

It feels like everything is roughly Kerbin sized. I was wrong about the planets though there are only 3 other planets and they don't seem to have any moons, though there also appear to be asteroids or *something* also orbiting the sun.

[Geonovast]

Good news is I was able to play by installing it on my basement (Windows 10) computer and play it upstairs using Steam In-home streaming.

Bad news is I didn't quite enjoy it, but I may be expecting KSP too much.  I'll have to play with it some more.

[XB-70A]

Woooo, went to orbit on the first flight with a hideous flying stick:

Most awful looking thing I built since KSP 0.90, but I just love the fact it contains procedural parts.

 

Plus...

Spoiler

 

Parachute in spaaaaace.

 

 

There is a lot of thing to enhance (user interface at first), but I found it pretty fun and enjoyable for a beta release.

[DMagic]

To add a few things to what @5thHorseman has said:

• Fast does not adequately describe the loading. From the time when you click Play in Steam to the time the game is at the menu is about 2 seconds, it's absurd (I imagine this is dependent on disk speed, though).
• I think there are actually two fuel tanks . The nose cones are also procedural and can be used as tanks.
• There is a Unity package in a folder called ModTools in the SimpeRockets2 folder.
  • I have imported it into Unity, but don't know what it is supposed to do, it adds several plugins to Unity, but I can't get anything out of them.
  • The game does use Unity (2018.2), I had heard several times in streams people saying it was a different engine, or written in a different language, it isn't, it's the same engine as KSP.
• The visuals in the game are a mixed bag.
  • It is clearly using modern, PBR shaders. The terrain looks a lot better than KSP, there is atmospheric scattering, and some nice lighting effects.
  • The parts use this weird paint system.
  • Almost all of the details seem to be added through normal maps.
  • You can "paint" the parts different colors, with some different patterns, like stripes.
  • You can also adjust the shader properties of individual parts, so they can be shiny or dull, rough or smooth, etc...
• You can move in Timewarp, at least in my limited experiments in doing so. I don't know about using engines, but you can rotate the craft.

 

Here is a screenshot where you can kind of see what I mean about customizing the colors, all of the parts default to flat white:

This one has an orange insulated pattern on the central tank, and metallic tanks on the outside.

 

You can see some of the lighting effects here:

Edited November 10, 2018 by DMagic

[munlander1]

For just being released, it’s pretty amazing

[Superfluous J]

Another couple bits.

The rockets are fused into a single part so no wobbling, and no confused autopilot/engine miscommunications.

It has hinges and pistons. I've not used them but they excite me greatly.

Edited November 10, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[Superfluous J]

3 hours ago, DMagic said:

There is a Unity package in a folder called ModTools in the SimpeRockets2 folder.

On the website they say the are planning for mod support but don't have it yet. I have no idea what that means but wonder if it's related to this.

[Klapaucius]

23 hours ago, XB-70A said:

Most awful looking thing I built since KSP 0.90, but I just love the fact it contains procedural parts.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a procedural part vs a non-procedural part?

[Bill Phil]

3 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a procedural part vs a non-procedural part?

You pick a part and then you can customize it. Like a fuel tank can be made larger or you can change its shape. Procedural may not be the technically correct term for it, but that's what we're stuck with.

[Superfluous J]

28 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a procedural part vs a non-procedural part?

Procedural just means the part is created by a procedure, and not a static file.

Like in KSP. The FL-T100 fuel tank is a non-procedural part. It's defined in its file and there's no changing it. The fairing, though, is procedural because you draw its outline when creating your ship.

Or Mun. The big craters were hand-drawn by an artist, but the smaller craters you see when you get near the suface are placed by some mathematical formula. i.e. a procedure.

[Klapaucius]

Scott Manley already has a video out!

 

 

I just bought it and did the first two tutorials. Not sure if this happens in the regular game, but I managed to splash down (at least I assume I did--it was night and there is no planet shine mod).  The ship began to sink and show negative altitude, but I just throttled up and leapt out of the sea again. I did this a few times.  That's some re-usability!

[KerbolExplorer]

On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 3:31 AM, XB-70A said:

Plus...

  Hide contents

 

Parachute in spaaaaace.

Did that happen aswell in the early days of KSP?

[bartekkru99]

2 hours ago, KerbolExplorer said:

Did that happen aswell in the early days of KSP?

Yeah, it did. And you could actually re-enter with it.

[Gargamel]

From what I've seen, they've taken note of what the biggest issues of KSP were, and addressed those early, so hopefully they won't be issues later.  

But they seem to be sticking with the touch screen interface, but made it for mostly non touch screen systems, odd.  

[CanOmer]

On 11/13/2018 at 4:21 AM, Gargamel said:

From what I've seen, they've taken note of what the biggest issues of KSP were, and addressed those early, so hopefully they won't be issues later.

What are those issues? The biggest one must be CPU bottleneck caused by high part count. But I wonder what are other issue(s)?