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KSP 2 Features: Episode 1: Next Gen Tech (OFFICIAL RELEASE, FEB 20 / 2020)


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18 minutes ago, mcwaffles2003 said:

Hope you're not implying the Orion drive is unrealistic

I think what he is meaning is it seems to be a little bit out of this world concept that doesn't seem to be near future... IDK I can't read minds...

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Looking better and better all the time.  Two big thumbs up for including near- and "almost-far-" future tech in the base game, and also giving us something to do with it - new solar systems and meaningful progression.

The only thing I consider quite a design blunder is their recycling of the existing Solar/Kerbolar system.  It's not going to be easy for vets to get excited about yet another Duna mission, and we've all landed on the Mun so many times it's going to be quite a stretch to make that feel special again.

Building a fully operational *base* on Duna - with a launchpad - that doesn't require 20 mods and run at 8 FPS is going to be special though.  Baking outposts and EPL-type stations into the base game is finally going to give us a real outward progression path, and not just "there and back again" like with KSP 1.  Tons of great new stuff to look forward to, for sure.  Game can't arrive fast enough.

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soooooo..... I probably should have paid more attention to the threads about metallic hydrogen and I don't want to derail this one, but from what i gleaned wasn't it very iffy that it would be usable as a fuel source? like very very unlikely?

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17 minutes ago, Dale Christopher said:

soooooo..... I probably should have paid more attention to the threads about metallic hydrogen and I don't want to derail this one, but from what i gleaned wasn't it very iffy that it would be usable as a fuel source? like very very unlikely?

Probably no more unlikely than fusion or antimatter. 

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4 hours ago, Dale Christopher said:

soooooo..... I probably should have paid more attention to the threads about metallic hydrogen and I don't want to derail this one, but from what i gleaned wasn't it very iffy that it would be usable as a fuel source? like very very unlikely?

They recently were able to manufacture some and it turned out it’s not metastable: it turns back into a gas when you release the pressure. I.e. there’s no way to store it that doesn’t require center of a large planet level pressure. That rules it out as rocket fuel, at least in pure form.

I still think it’s conceivable there might be a dopant or alloy that could stabilize it but it certainly looks much more speculative than it did a few years ago.

(Fusion is much less speculative - we have a pretty good idea of how that would work. The physics are solid, the engineering is a big challenge. Difficulty with antimatter is that we have no idea how we’d make enough of it to be useful, but if we had some we have a pretty good idea of how it would work to power a spaceship.)

Edited by Guest
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@Brikoleur Yer... I kinda feel like fission, fusion and even antimatter are much more within the realm of reality than metallic hydrogen fuel rockets. But I think from these dev guys point of view they have invested too much time into this idea now and I get the feeling they wouldn’t change it anyway... I’m not expecting good things :(

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2 minutes ago, Dale Christopher said:

@Brikoleur Yer... I kinda feel like fission, fusion and even antimatter are much more within the realm of reality than metallic hydrogen fuel rockets. But I think from these dev guys point of view they have invested too much time into this idea now and I get the feeling they wouldn’t change it anyway... I’m not expecting good things :(

Personally I don't care. I'm squarely in the "gameplay before realism" camp and if metallic hydrogen rockets make for better gameplay then I'm all for them. "If metallic hydrogen was metastable, this is more or less how they'd work" is more than realistic enough for my needs.

If KSP2 works out I'm sure there will be various levels of realism overhauls for people who are into that kind of thing.

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Just now, Brikoleur said:

Personally I don't care. I'm squarely in the "gameplay before realism" camp and if MH rockets make for better gameplay then I'm all for them. If KSP2 works out I'm sure there will be various levels of realism overhauls for people who are into that kind of thing.

Yer, here’s hoping they deliver some really good support for the modder community. 

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Looking at Kerbin with more attention I could notice some important changes in the pre Alpha, so I made a map with some of the images

nujeqFO.jpg

There is consistency with the continental layout of the original Kerbin planet, but also ...

swnQUCP.png
New rivers?

he5ibvl.jpg
The deserts have changed position

hbOqQPu.png
There are greener areas, perhaps forests?...And most importantly clouds!

Have you seen other changes in kerbin?
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37 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Clouds are likely to exist only in the demo. There are many other scenes where no clouds can be seen.

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be so stupid as to add clouds in their latest video if they didn’t plan on having them in the game. 

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Yet again, a number of posts have been split off from this thread into the thread specifically for that discussion.

Please confine any further discussion of the realism or not of the metallic hydrogen drive to this thread:


Thank You For Your Understanding

KSP Moderation Team

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A bit more content has been removed.

Please continue with the discussion at hand and refrain from further flogging of the Metallic Hydrogen Realism dead horse, one way or the other.


Thank You For Your Understanding

KSP Moderation Team

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On 2/21/2020 at 4:14 PM, MechBFP said:

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be so stupid as to add clouds in their latest video if they didn’t plan on having them in the game. 

I think the main question on clouds at this point is whether they'll just be cosmetic, or if they'll have any game-play effects.  Cosmetic is fairly easy.

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33 minutes ago, DStaal said:

I think the main question on clouds at this point is whether they'll just be cosmetic, or if they'll have any game-play effects.  Cosmetic is fairly easy.

They've said no weather, to me that says no physical interaction between dynamical weather (wind/turbulence/etc) with the ship

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9 hours ago, mcwaffles2003 said:

They've said no weather, to me that says no physical interaction between dynamical weather (wind/turbulence/etc) with the ship

I don't remember Nate saying "no weather" but instead they are working on the "atmospheric system" which implies there may actually be weather. No guarantee.

I think that they are doing this:

They will work in the atmosphere system up until launch.

The game will launch with clouds and very minor weather sounds. Whipping wind, the sound of ice build up on planes, maybe a thunder crackle or two in thick clouds.

They will continue to work on the system to achieve one of two things.

1) the game will get a weather update

2) they will announce the atmosphere system can support weather phenomena and leave it up to the modders to implement different weather systems.

Edited by GoldForest
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So far I've seen KSP2 clouds only from viewpoints outside the atmosphere.  It is not clear if rockets will be crossing through layers of clouds in the atmosphere, but I hope they will.

I happen to play KSP1 with a minimal GPU, so I turn down the graphics options until I just have usable shadows on the ground.  Then I install EVE and turn off all its options except a layer or two of clouds.

The layers of clouds are a nice landmarks (figuratively) during ascent.  I know how the gravity turn is going by my angle going through the layer of clouds.  Reaching the clouds could be a nice achievement if there is a challenging airplane component of KSP2.

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