KSP Loading... A closer look into Update 1.6

[V7 Aerospace]

Just now, klgraham1013 said:

Oh course.  I think the issue is all we're seeing is new parts and wiz bang shiny features.  Have they said anything about the memory leak from 1.5 at all?  News of actual bug fixing is few and far between and over shadowed by the things that provide better marketing potential.

From what I can remember, while SQUAD has always mentioned bugfixing in update plans and patch notes, they've never been massively transparent about what exactly has been fixed or what has been done (correct me if I'm wrong, been away from KSP for quite a while). I think we're seeing improvement, albeit slowly, with the recent upvote system for bug tracking and I agree we do have quite a ways to go. As you mentioned, from a business standpoint, what's more likely to bring in new players, shiny new stuff, or behind the scenes improvements? From that point it's hard to tell if anything will ever be done in that regard.

[daniel l.]

How about the 1.25m lander can?

[basic.syntax]

Nice IVA! I'm liking the surface sample manipulator arm cabinet on the side, that was a real tight squeeze    It would be neat if we could interact with things like that in IVA's, to activate some animations For Science!

[XLjedi]

Ohhh  man...  you're gonna nerf the Wolfhound?  

I just built a new favorite craft around that engine. 

Everything was sounding so good up to that point too.

 

[V7 Aerospace]

5 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

Ohhh  man...  you're gonna nerf the Wolfhound?  

I just built a new favorite craft around that engine. 

Everything was sounding so good up to that point too.

 

You have to admit, it was an engine with very few downsides. I don't like the idea of something in the mid tech tree (in the same node as the completely inferior Poodle, no less) making basically every other chemical vacuum engine obsolete.

As well as that, it's to early too see how it's changed. Who knows? The changes could be minimal.

Edited December 13, 2018 by V7 Aerospace

[XLjedi]

1 minute ago, V7 Aerospace said:

You have to admit, it was an engine with very few downsides. I don't like the idea of something in the mid tech tree (in the same node as the completely inferior Poodle, no less) making basically every other chemical vacuum engine obsolete.

As well as that, it's to early to see how it's changed, who knows? The changes could be minimal.

I was excited when I saw an engine I could use in vacuum with a 400+ ISP and was finally able to build something that I had long wanted to create...

Spoiler

https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi/OCV-101-Explorer

I put weeks into that design...  I hope they didn't just kill it.  If so I may give up.

[klgraham1013]

18 minutes ago, V7 Aerospace said:

...while SQUAD has always mentioned bugfixing in update plans and patch notes, they've never been massively transparent about what exactly has been fixed or what has been done...

Then they really can't expect to much hype from those of us who are more interested in a better running game, and not just the new hotness.

18 minutes ago, V7 Aerospace said:

I think we're seeing improvement...with the recent upvote system for bug tracking

You mean, like this?

We've been down that road before.

...and just so people know.  That voting system isn't new or recent.

Edited December 13, 2018 by klgraham1013

[V7 Aerospace]

8 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

-snip-

It's likely that if it does receive an ISP change, it won't go too far below 400. I'm sure your craft should still be capable enough.

 

@klgraham1013 you make a good point. It would be nice if there was more included about bugs in KSP Loading. This recent bug tracking push does show some sort of recognition of the issues on SQUAD's behalf, let's just hope it continues further than this and we can actually start rooting out some of the games longer standing issues.

Edited December 13, 2018 by V7 Aerospace

[XLjedi]

6 minutes ago, V7 Aerospace said:

It's likely that if it does receive an ISP change, it won't go too far below 400. I'm sure your craft should still be capable enough 

It won't be able to go between planets...  the Wolfhound had just enough ISP to make it a viable interplanetary craft, the poodle wasn't enough to make it work.  Sadly...  I think I'm done now.  how depressing

Edited December 13, 2018 by XLjedi

[V7 Aerospace]

6 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

It won't be able to go between planets...  the poodle wasn't enough to make it work.  Sadly...  I think I'm done now.  how depressing

I don't think they'd drop it from it's current 412s down to the Poodle level of 350s. I'm guessing around 380-400. Though all of this is still speculation, remember. They might not even touch it's ISP.

Edit: worst case scenario, can't you just change the cfg. back to it's current values in the case the update changes it?

Edited December 13, 2018 by V7 Aerospace

[Superfluous J]

4 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

It won't be able to go between planets...  the Wolfhound had just enough ISP to make it a viable interplanetary craft, the poodle wasn't enough to make it work.  Sadly...  I think I'm done now.  how depressing

I 100% guarantee you there will be a mod within 24 hours of 1.6 dropping that "fixes" the Wolfhound by restoring it's near-gamebreakingly op stats.

[XLjedi]

1 minute ago, 5thHorseman said:

I 100% guarantee you there will be a mod within 24 hours of 1.6 dropping that "fixes" the Wolfhound by restoring it's near-gamebreakingly op stats.

I don't build stuff for mods...   what people do outside of stock doesn't apply to me... 

[sh1pman]

5 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

It won't be able to go between planets...  the Wolfhound had just enough ISP to make it a viable interplanetary craft, the poodle wasn't enough to make it work.  Sadly...  I think I'm done now.  how depressing

Hey, we don’t yet know what they did, they could’ve buffed the Wolfhound. Let’s wait for the blog post first.

[XLjedi]

7 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Hey, we don’t yet know what they did, they could’ve buffed the Wolfhound. Let’s wait for the blog post first.

If I'm lucky, maybe they balance it by pushing it to the last level of the tech tree and setting the ISP to 450.

I don't feel very inspired to play right now...  will wait and see what they say in their blog.

[GrandProtectorDark]

Addendum to my previous comment.
Porkjets parts do not need a revamp. 
What actually needs a revamp, are the reaction wheel parts.
That green 1.25 monstrosity with the yellow stripes is neither fitting with the pre-1.4 or new artstyle.

It also isn't the same diameter as 1.25 tanks. So it stands out

Edited December 13, 2018 by GrandProtectorDark

[swjr-swis]

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

Protective Rocket Nose Cone Mk7

Question about this one: will the drag cubes for this also be looked into, so it works a bit better for drag reduction?  The current one is rather bad at being a nose cone.

 

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

there was an aspect of this cockpit we kept under our sleeve: its IVA!

Looking good.

Are the buttons in the 'rock sample examination area' a clickable IVA target? Do the arms move?? Can we....   <breathe> ok never mind me, just having a moment of potentials expanding asymptotically.

 

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

the LV-909 “Terrier” Liquid Fuel Engine is also a veteran that received a heavy aesthetic makeover.

The Terrier has been a main staple of many of my space programs, and its distinctive look will be missed, even despite its irritatingly incorrect default rotation screwing with mirror symmetry.

The new variants are welcome (especially the bare one), detail level and textures I think are on point, and its new look is more consistent with the rest of the revamp, which is also good.

Still... silently hoping a lil bit that someone considers letting the 'old' Terrier stick around in some way, if not as a variant, at least as a hidden part. I'll probably end up moving on eventually, but this might be one of the more difficult ones to let go of.

 

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

we are adding Dynamic Cube Maps to flight mode.

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

With the upcoming update you’ll be able to visualize the delta-v value along with a range of other technical data for each stage, as well as the overall delta-v of the vessel natively.

Awesome, times two. Like a whole pile of hotdogs awesome.

 

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

We also took this opportunity to do some rebalancing for the Wolfhound, Cheetah, Kodiak, Mastodon, Cub, Skiff and Bobcat LFO engines.

!!

 

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

It is important to note that there always will be differences between the PC and console versions. For instance, if we were to bring Update 1.5 to consoles, we would have to do an entirely new port, something that would take a massive amount of time and resources to achieve and would retract from the overall progress of the game. Instead, we are working on a console-optimized update that will take bits and pieces of all updates we have released after 1.2.1; some of the ones that people like the most.

I can't imagine this having been an easy decision. I hope the choice works out for the development process and players both.

 

On 12/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, SQUAD said:

We also want to take this opportunity to introduce you to our new Lead Designer, Paul “Maxsimal” Boyle, who has been an avid KSP player since the 1.0 release.

Welcome. Please check your halfway normality at the door... we don't allow such nonsense here. And to your better half and the cats: I apologize in advance for all those stretches of time you're gonna have to miss him now that KSP is in his life - your sacrifice is appreciated.

Edited December 14, 2018 by swjr-swis

[XLjedi]

40 minutes ago, GrandProtectorDark said:

What actually needs a revamp, are the reaction wheel parts.
That green 1.25 monstrosity with the yellow stripes is neither fitting with the pre-1.4 or new artstyle.

It also isn't the same diameter as 1.25 tanks. So it stands out

 Yeah, I like that one too...  :,-(

[qzgy]

6 hours ago, SQUAD said:

Nose cones have helped your rocket stacks reduce their drag for a long time, but were in need of some well-deserved attention.

No they weren't.

Edit: The new ones look so much messier than they were or need to be. I do not want to have attention drawn to these nosecones, which are kinda now shouting LOOK AT MEEE!!!. They had one job which was to be at the end of the stack and look a bit inconspicuous while looking at least visually somewhat interesting. The old textures did this just fine. The new ones not so much.

Edited December 13, 2018 by qzgy

[Bombaatu]

I'd love to see the 1.875m parts from Making History moved a bit earlier in the Tech Tree; they should be a stepping-stone between the 1.25m & 2.5m parts, not coming after you get most of the 2.5m parts.

[Raptor9]

Can't wait to get this update.   I especially like the Mk2 Lander Can IVA and the Terrier variants.

[passinglurker]

@StylusHead I'm not mad I'm just disappointed. Please tell me you guys redid porkjet's nosecones on accident.(Oh who am I kidding I'm quite livid it's been said before with the adapters that the style is getting too loud and busy for inconsequential structural parts and now it looks like you guys are doubling down and trying to over write the parts that should have been used as your design references in this regard)

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by passinglurker

[MechBFP]

All good stuff from my point of view. Excellent job SQUAD staff.

[Pthigrivi]

So much great stuff. I actually love most of the art--what can I say, I like a dash of color. Super glad to hear about a bit of a stats pass as well. Any chance we'll see some re-shuffling of the tech tree as well? The placement of a lot of these structural parts has always seemed a bit haphazard to me.

[TriggerAu]

4 hours ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

Concerning the dV readout, as an old school player who likes the gamey aspect of just guessing if my rocket will get there and back, will there be an option either in the main options or config file to disable it? (dodges tomatoes) I've used KER at one point and decided building rockets became to mechanical for my tastes.

The teams gone to town in polishing off the Δv bits for the simulation and display so that's all possible - is why there was the indication last time of giving it some time before modders should hook into that feature.

In short you can "adjust" (all right disable) the Simulation and App, there are more hooks to control the simulation and performance, and the UI components all (we think) have overrides in the right spots so the components of the display can be reused by mods as well

 

3 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

You mean, like this?

We've been down that road before.

...and just so people know.  That voting system isn't new or recent.

Hey I ressemble that remark!  That cleanup was a great effort all round and helped to focus some important bugs to the top of the pile yeah. It was massively appreciated. Hopefully the reminder of the voting system helps more people to share what they care about to bring things to the top again. 

[Delbrutis]

5 hours ago, sh1pman said:

RIP framerate.

More stutter for the stutter god! 

 

Unless you have a really bad graphics card or SQUAD really screws up the implementation you should not see any noticeable frame rate hit from the reflections . I have been using TexureUnlimited shaders for reflections since V1.3.1. and have never seen a significant performance hit. The new SQUAD shaders should be no different from the TU shaders if set up correctly. With the bad 1.5.1 Memory leaks the new parts themselves or the new Delta-V readouts are more likely to slow down your system than the shaders.      Here is a pic of the new StayputnickProbe and SilverFoil Structural Panels with TU shader in place of Squads shader. Orbiting Jool Stock No Planetshine  or EVE.