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I get to interview Star Theory tomorrow. Give me your questions!


Snark

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Assuming career mode is in: Will there be a way to set up stuff that generates modest funding without babysitting/grinding? Example: Build a sizeable fuel refinery on Kerbin >> get a KSC discount on produced fuel types and/or periodically generate funds from automatically sold surplus fuel? I like to have limits on funds but don't much like grinding. :P 

Will any other kerbals appear that are not controlled by the player? KSP1 has career contracts to rescue kerbals from various places but they just spawn in rather than actually end up there because of a journey gone wrong, would be interesting if Rockomax actually sent up a rocket once in a while...

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2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Will we get KAS/KIS functionality in the stock game? If not, how will the game engine handle parts being added or removed dynamically after launch?

Good one, will ask.

2 hours ago, Spaceception said:
  • How will science change in the game (if changed at all)? Could we see a rework to make it better?
  • On that note, will the way R&D works change as well?

Good ones, will ask.

2 hours ago, Spaceception said:
  • What will be the minimum/maximum "sizes" of parts? In stock right now, parts can go up to 3.75m, will rockets be able to get wider than this without added boosters? And by how much?
  • Will there be multiple types of the same engine? Say, multiple sizes of NERVs, multiple ion drives, etc, so you have more variety, or will you have incremental sizing for most/all parts instead that achieves the same thing? Like procedural parts, but with fixed sizes if that makes sense?

They're not really doing procedural parts.  My impression is that they're keeping pretty much all the existing stock parts at current sizes, and there will be a bunch of new parts added.  No word on the sizes of those new parts-- we didn't ask, but basically any really specific design question we asked was mostly "it's being worked on, no answer write now".

2 hours ago, Spaceception said:

And I second the question of - will features be dropped from KSP1? And as an add-on, will features from DLCs (robotic parts), be added to the base game?

Already asked earlier in this thread.

2 hours ago, DStaal said:

Lots of better questions, but this one is bugging me...   What is this engine?

There are going to be a bunch of futuristic ones.  In this particular image, I can't see it quite well enough to be able to tell whether it's one of the metallic hydrogen drives they showed us.

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

MM related: will,the game support config file alterations to parts during loading?

Yes.  They know this is a thing that's needed for modding, and they're not going to take that away.  FWIW, I asked "pretty please could we have something like ModuleManager as part of stock, so that every mod in the universe doesn't have to keep bundling it?", and the answer was encouraging.  They didn't exactly say yes... but they didn't say no and they sounded kind of upbeat.

So I'd say maybe we get what amounts to ModuleManager-in-stock, but even if it turns out that we don't, it's definite that someone could write a KSP2 MM.

1 hour ago, DrRansom said:

What are the plans for airplanes? 

Already covered in a question earlier in the thread, thanks.

1 hour ago, KnutG said:

My 2 questions are:

  • Will the "anomalies" from KSP1 still exist? Will there be new alienartifacts on new planets?
  • Is there life more than trees and cactus and Kerbals in KSP2? Can the Kerbals find something out there?

Good ones, will ask.

1 hour ago, Delay said:

Wobbly joints are a concern to some. Will we see any of them in KSP 2?

See earlier discussion of this a few posts above.  TL;DR is that they're a thing, but that they shouldn't be a problem because the game's designed to allow really giant ships with lots of parts.

1 hour ago, Opus_723 said:

Patched Conic SOIs like KSP1, n-body Dynamics, or something else?

Lagrange points?

It's basically gonna be patched conics like KSP1, with likely some special dispensation to deal with binaries.  It will definitely not be N-body.

Given that it's not N-body and will still be patched conics, I think it's safe to say no Lagrange points.

1 hour ago, KerikBalm said:

Will we get something like air augmented rockets for use on worlds without oxygen in the atmosphere (and without using lots of future tech)

Good one, will ask.

 

2 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

Is there any other tech that involves dubious or speculative science such as metallic hydrogen (recently shown not to remain stable when pressure is released)?

I think the answer is pretty safely "yes"-- they give the impression that there are a variety of engine types to be had, of which we've seen only a few.

2 hours ago, Vexillar said:

Will it be possible to fly multiple ships in atmosphere "at the same time" - for example, to emulate a SpaceX booster recovery? [And if so, how does the gameplay do that?]

Good one, will ask.

2 hours ago, Vexillar said:

In the trailer, it looks like Kerbals might have varying hairstyles and suit colours - are these selectable?  Will there be many options?  And part colour schemes - more options than KSP1 currently has?

Yes.  Looks like just about everything has the ability to select a primary & a secondary color, to establish its look.

2 hours ago, Vexillar said:

And I have to ask ;) will there be flags and decals in KSP2?

Good one, will ask.

 

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1) Can the sources of science/data/etc be modded, and to what extent. I assume this will fall under the category of the science question already in your list. I'm mentioning this related to something you might remember...

Spoiler
On 2/6/2016 at 7:45 PM, AlphaMensae said:

I was thinking the same thing--altitude-based biomes for gas giants--then AbacusWizard beat me to it. :)

Yup, more science situations for gas giants would seem most likely to happen.  "Upper" could be the clear region above the clouds, "Middle" could be the cloud layer, "Lower" could be below the clouds, and "Deep" could be a bit above the "surface" or ship-killing point with the highest temp and pressure that could be survived and returned from.

 

 

On 2/6/2016 at 11:32 PM, Snark said:

This piqued my interest ("oooh, can I write a mod to add new science situations?"), and I went and took a look at the API.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Squad has implemented science situations as an enum, which means they've got a hard-coded list of possible situations that can't be modified in any way.  So it's basically impossible to mod a new situation in.  Maybe you could make the game act like you'd added one, as far as the player is concerned... but it would be like pulling teeth, the code would be complex and clunky and not interoperable with other mods.

So what this means is, we don't get any new science situations unless Squad decides to add them.  :(  Which I kinda doubt will be coming any time soon, because I would imagine it would be very low on their priority list-- it's kind of an edge case, there are a lot more important fish for them to fry.  I'm just bummed that it's not readily moddable.

Oh, well.

(What would be possible would be if someone added a mod with a new science instrument.  It could be coded so that it would only function in very deep atmosphere, for example.  The "Atmospheric Crush-O-Meter" or whatever.  That would have the effect of giving the player a reason to go really deep in atmosphere.  However, that puts it beyond my own modest modding skills, at least until I learn to use the Unity modeler and create a new part.  I'm a dab hand with programming, but not with modeling.)


2) Will ships be trees, or will they be something more sophisticated. I.e. is multidocking a thing?


3) Will we have bigger asteroids.

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11 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Are Rask and Rusk actually orbiting a barycenter and what happens when a ship tries to orbit one of them, pass through that barycenter, or sit at one of the two stable Lagrange points?

Having some sort of simulated L1 and L2 Lagrange points would be pretty cool indeed.

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Do they think they have a better way to balance wanting to do plan something to completion vs challenging the player to as a game Tycoon?

Will we see a career mode about more than funds,... will Kerbals and time matter?

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my Qs are mostly under the hood related:

- How will .craft files be structured, can we expect the same ConfigNode format? (and follow up, will buildings be saved in the same way, essentially just like craft files?)
- Will KSP2 make use of multi core CPUs and to what extent? or more succinctly, is KSP2 multi threaded?
- On a reasonable gaming computer (ie quad core 3.5+(ish)GHz, 16GB RAM, 900 or 10 series GTX) what kind of part count is expected to run smoothly.
- Perhaps related to multi-thread Q; With potentially large bases how will KSP2 handle performance as other craft approach the base?
- Are we still going to be at the mercy of the current (and somewhat old) unity/mono Garbage Collector and the stuttering issues it causes? (lot of history behind that Q, I think Snark will be familiar with the issue, but more info in this thread)
- Will mods follow a similar layout and install process. ie a GameData equivalent folder into which mods are placed inside their own folders.
- And (prob tricky to answer) on a scale of 1 to 10, how much work will be required to remake an existing KSP1 mod for KSP2, (ie 1; just change some references to 10; a complete rewrite).

obv I don't expect you'll be able to ask all those, so they're ordered most important first.

Thanks Ambassador @Snark!

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Is antimatter going to be a thing?

Also, are interstellar distances going to be scaled down by the same amount as the planetary systems?

Also, will KSP2 chronologically begin "after" KSP1 or will it be in a completely separate timeline?

If it's the former, how much time is there between the start of KSP1 and the start of KSP2?

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Is any sort of early access going to be a thing, or at least direct communication between KSP2 devs and the community? I feel it's vital, because, a close exchange of ideas between the early community and the devs was vital to KSP1 becoming what it is. I mean that quite literally, we wouldn't have planes if it wasn't for one guy called C7, and if it wasn't for one thread of mine, the engines could have very well still implemented different SL and atmo Isp by varying fuel flow as opposed to thrust. 

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A couple questions.

Probably one around Modding.. Can you give us some additional information around modding, for example what Unity version will likely to be used, will you be using more of the Unity core tools and shaders or creating your own Add-on.

And,

Will we see additional cockpit controls, gauges and screens with craft information or receiving of camera images for example?

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I'd appreciate if some more clarity on *other* platform support could be given. Like do they consider making Linux/Mac builds when they have a free time or are they going to get back to it after initial release. The answer "we are always looking at ways to bring KSP to as many player as we can" sound to me like "if we suddenly find ourselves having nothing more to do".  

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2 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Are Rask and Rusk actually orbiting a barycenter and what happens when a ship tries to orbit one of them, pass through that barycenter, or sit at one of the two stable Lagrange points?

So it turns out it's been a long day of infodumps and .. well .. I sleep all day so I missed them all.

I just saw that Twitch clip where Scott Manley discusses their answer to him asking what sounds like the exact question I was going to ask, and ... well ... I'm underwhelmed. I'd still like to know if they have an answer and maybe just nobody there knew it. But as of now I'm assuming on this front that they have Rask and Rusk planned but not actually designed, and will end up throwing them out or making them more like Ike and Duna than Rocheworld.

:/

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Will there be any tools for porting part mods from KSP1 to KSP2?

How will new part mods be handled? A new version of Part Tools, or something along the same lines?

Are they using PBR for their shaders (based on some of the preview footage the answer seems to be yes)? Will they provide anything to help convert existing part mod textures for use in PBR shaders?

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How much will mods be able to interface with/modify UI elements? For example, Principia has a lot of trouble interfacing with the stock maneuver node system. We've heard a lot about modding parts and planets, but will UI elements also be moddable?

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