So is KSP dying?

[Arugela]

On 10/28/2019 at 7:07 PM, 5thHorseman said:

IS MY OFFICE CHAIR DYING!?

Are you sitting in it?!

[STeven1366]

I hope it's not dying, but maybe it's really happening.

[Mjarf]

I realise the original post was meant as a joke but here's my reply anyway, this is as good occasion as any to share my thoughts about KSP. I'm actually quite impressed by the effort of the developers, almost no game studios have even supported a game for as long as KSP has been, even fewer have further developed it as much as KSP. There are games costing nearly twice as much that are released basically half done and the publisher will consider it a finished product. That's not how Squad does things apparently, and I'm glad that Take Two has allowed them to continue down this track.

Yes, it has taken time to implement things requested by players, but they've actually done it, many other game publishers/studios seem to ignore the wishes of the players and instead focus on maximizing their profits. I've played KSP since the 0.2ish era, and I'll tell you this game has evolved a lot since then, it's grown from a quirky little space rocket game into an impressive space travel simulator. I feel I've gotten extremely good value for what I paid originally, even if I hadn't gotten the DLC's for free since I bought the game before a certain date I would still receive a lot of free extra stuff.

Let me put it like this, none of my other Steam games have reached 1000 hours of gameplay, KSP is the only one, not even Skyrim has gotten close to the amount of game time I've spent in KSP. 

[Retro Starship]

13 minutes ago, Mjarf said:

Let me put it like this, none of my other Steam games have reached 1000 hours of gameplay, KSP is the only one, not even Skyrim has gotten close to the amount of game time I've spent in KSP. 

I have played a few games as well, some like NeverWinter, Guild Wars II and OSRS (runescape ) but playing this game for over a month now, (yea me new) its a game changer for me! If I had known about KSP  7 years ago, I would still be here now! Maybe I dont read that many gaming books I guess.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Saturn5tony

[Kerbinchaser]

On 11/2/2019 at 11:59 PM, STeven1366 said:

I hope it's not dying, but maybe it's really happening.

How would it be dying? We just had another update released, and KSP 2 is still due for the spring.

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Lo Var Lachland

[adsii1970]

On 11/2/2019 at 10:59 PM, STeven1366 said:

I hope it's not dying, but maybe it's really happening.

Okay, I've seen this statement made both here and on the Steam discussion channel several times. If I may indulge myself in generating a meaningful wall of text, I'd like to share my opinion.

There is a misconception that the lack of further development by the primary studio means that a game is dying. This is far from the truth. There are several games I still play which have a rather large following, yet either the game's studio has either abandoned them or no longer exists. Here are but a few examples of the games I am referring to:

• SimCity 3000
• SimCity 4
• Silent Hunter III
• Silent Hunter IV
• Civilization II, III, and IV.
• Microsoft Railroad Simulator

Each of those games are ones which I am most familiar with. There's no studio keeping the various incarnations of SimCity alive, yet there are still folks all over the world which play them, continue to mod for them, and share their creations. www.simptropolis.com is one of the many fan-driven forum sites which continues the legacy of the SimCity games. This game, although no longer under its original studio for additional development, is far from dead.

I suspect the same thing will happen with KSP. It has enough hard-core modders and folks who love playing the game that as long as the original (KSP) program is available through Steam and other online game purchasing sites, the game won't fade into the dustbin of discarded games. It will continue to be played because it is something that allows the end user to play it any way they desire to play. I know some players who've never left Kerbin because the game allows them to do all they want to do in LKO. Then there are others who have created additional mods which allow the creation of new star systems within KSP that even the most die-hard player could continue to play with new challenges and places to go without getting bored.

I'm still playing on a 1.3 game for a sandbox career. Trust me, KSP is far from dead.

[klgraham1013]

13 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

There is a misconception that the lack of further development by the primary studio means that a game is dying. This is far from the truth. There are several games I still play which have a rather large following, yet either the game's studio has either abandoned them or no longer exists. Here are but a few examples of the games I am referring to:

• SimCity 3000
• SimCity 4
• Silent Hunter III
• Silent Hunter IV
• Civilization II, III, and IV.
• Microsoft Railroad Simulator

• Chess

[adsii1970]

4 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

• Chess

Or backgammon. Supposedly it is one of the oldest games in the world.

[razark]

On 10/28/2019 at 6:07 PM, 5thHorseman said:

IS MY OFFICE CHAIR DYING!?

Well, it seems mine is.

I just sat down, and then felt it drop a little bit.  And then another little bit.  And again and again.

 

I feel like I'm almost under my desk now.

 

 

On 11/4/2019 at 4:13 PM, adsii1970 said:

There are several games I still play which have a rather large following, yet either the game's studio has either abandoned them or no longer exists.

MS Flight Simulator.  (Although it seems it's coming back now.)  It has a successor, as well as competitors newer than it. 

But it still has a decently large player community, actively developed mods, and even companies selling add-ons for it.

Edited November 6, 2019 by razark

[Anth]

Its kind of quiet on the discord I spend most of my time on...might be just that time of the year.

[kerbiloid]

Is number of mods (modifications, not moderators, lol) and modders growing or not, compared to 5 years ago?

[razark]

50 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Is number of... modders growing or not, compared to 5 years ago?

That depends on whether or not @linuxgurugamer is actually a single person gradually consuming the entirety of the KSP modding scene, or (as some have posited) actually a collective face for all of the modders that have "retired" over the years, simply so that all the requests for updates are directed to a singular account.

[kerbiloid]

22 minutes ago, razark said:

That depends on whether or not @linuxgurugamer is actually a single person gradually consuming the entirety of the KSP modding scene, or (as some have posited) actually a collective face for all of the modders that have "retired" over the years, simply so that all the requests for updates are directed to a singular account.

That's what I mean. @linuxgurugamer is really great and really guru, but I can remember open my backup drive at 2013-2015 when there were a lot of new mods and modders instantly.

Now KSP has reached the plateau where most of useful features and part ideas are already implemented in existing mods maintained by several (20+ or so) experienced developers, and unlikely anyone needs one more countdown or 101st version of wannabe-Falcon to start with.

Many other well-known modders have been retired or keep doing this right now.
So, the KSP-1 is now adult, and at the same time on its peak of modding, where to keep and upgrade the existing is more required or possible than add something new.

I have a feeling that both KSP-1 and KSP modding have reached the stable state, the plateau of the exponent.
"80% is done, 20% is to be done in the rest of 80% of time".

On the other hand, when KSP-2 starts, who will start modding it?
Probably, the experienced modders will port the KSP-1 major mods to KSP-2, and the modding plateau will appear there from scratch.
That's a natural life process of any game, when it reaches the plateau. See Skyrim and Fallout, for example, Arcanum, etc. Several long-lasting highly developed mods making scattered noob-made toys not useful (because RAM and FPS are limited and you have to choose between a restaurant and a fastfood for same money).

Edited November 6, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Epicdreamer]

Just reading through the 4 pages of answers and reactions to the question should say enough.

I don't think KSP can ever really die. To play KSP it doesn't depend on an online connection, running servers, forced updates or the need for anything else than a local copy on your hard drive.

Keep that old laptop or desktop with a (few? lots?) copy('s) of KSP and the question should be: Is KSP dying for me? As long as you play it, it will not die...

[klgraham1013]

5 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Is number of modders growing or not, compared to 5 years ago?

They Super Sentai combined into the megazord LinuxGuruGamer.

[kerbiloid]

17 minutes ago, klgraham1013 said:

They Super Sentai combined into the megazord LinuxGuruGamer.

They are Borg.

[fulgur]

@linuxgurugamer is gradually subsuming every essential mod; they run nearly all the tools necessary for any mod to work. At some point in the near future they will turn up outside our metaphorical door and shout, "Give me the money or the mod gets it!" It will be the most successful robbery in the history of the universe, the only KSP players who escape having taken advantage of their addiction to KSP to give them cheques made out for 100.

Then he will use a Near Future atomic aerospike and a Wild Blue fusion torch to "slip the surly bonds of Earth" and find some habitable planet around Valentine's Star.