Large Info Dump

[Superfluous J]

Fixed image.

 

[Toucan]

I wouldn't be to worried about the UI at this point. There may be some very good reasons for changes. New elements that will require players to adapt to and incorporate into their game play. Plus I have a feeling that it will be an easy matter to move elements of the UI however you like. 
And even if that were not the case, the usefulness of how the UI is set out can't really be judged without playing the game. And when judging it you really have to assess how well other players will be adapting as well. If everyone but you is adapting to the new UI, then maybe the problem is not the UI. 
One thing I am certain about, KSP2, a game that will be released in 2021 (I hope.) with be vastly different to a game released in 2011.

[Jacke]

17 minutes ago, Lewie said:

...the customer is always right.

Year ago, I heard a better version of this.

"The customer isn't always right, but they're always a customer."

Currently KSP 2 is scheduled to be released in Fall 2021.

Star Theory, do take our pushback in the spirit it's intended, to make KSP 2 better.  Mull them over.  For the UI, the ideas in the very adjustable City of Heroes and SWTOR UIs are fantastic, allowing elements to be repositioned and some colours changed, as well as allowing those customizations to be saved and reloaded from a file.  If you can make the UI more customizable in position and colour as well as savable and reloadable, as challenging as that will be, it will be very beneficial in the long run.

And do give us more to see and comment on.  It will help make KSP 2 better.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Jacke

[shdwlrd]

4 hours ago, prestja said:

Post-flight reports will point out areas the player's rockets can be improved upon.

I would be interested to see how this would work. Would it just be some generic suggestion? Would they do some detailed analysis of the failure and make some suggestions from there? 

5 hours ago, prestja said:

There is finally a proper pause button.

I guess that would be good for console players? Or would they allow you mess around with part settings and such while the game is paused? No more sniping that one elusive part you need to activate while your craft is tumbling.

5 hours ago, prestja said:

Rocket subassemblies are robust enough to produce one incredibly complex component in the VAB and simply attach it to an even larger rocket through symmetry rules.

I just hope the subassemblies are surface mountable and more intuitive to use. It's a pain to remember to reroot your assembly before saving it.

5 hours ago, prestja said:

Parts are arranged into size tiers within categories (finally!)

That can be done in KSP now. Are they using a separator or another tab to do so?

Overall, I do like what I'm seeing. The only real negative is the UI layout and that is minor issue for me atm. What I would like to see is a short clip of someone building a rocket or plane. Or some images for the editor UI.

[Lewie]

Yeah, the customer isn’t always right but is still the customer definitely sounds better

[SpaceFace545]

1 hour ago, Lewie said:

The ui, truly is the base of the game. Without it, we can’t do squat. If it’s poorly designed, it’ll lead to loss of dlc and expansion purchases, as you said @Jacke

so star theory, listen to us. We’re the future of your success. you guys must have quite a bit riding on the success of the game. So listen to us, we know this crap. As they say, the customer is always right.

I think they hope to get the nine year old involved but god no I don’t want any nine year olds and paying this

 

 

 

i mean the fortnite  ones

[mattinoz]

31 minutes ago, shdwlrd said:

I would be interested to see how this would work. Would it just be some generic suggestion? Would they do some detailed analysis of the failure and make some suggestions from there? 

Would be fun if it could snap you back to the moment it went horribly wrong for a replay and tutorial options contextual to that time.

[Pthigrivi]

Aw you guys. Sweet as ever. Maybe the devs can just stick their heads in a piranha tank and save themselves the heartache. 

- The UI looks fine to me, sensibly cleaned up and if some elements are translucent it gives a bit more peripheral vision. The nav ball needs some extra lines (its actually impossible to tell at this res) but otherwise Im cool with it. 

- Im psyched to hear more about adventure mode. Its kind of what career mode always failed to be—a structured but non-linear mechanism for rewarding players for exploration. 

- Gonna be contrarian and say I really do want to see a life support resource. I think folks are having a failure of imagination on this one. It doesn’t have to be “if you run out you die.” Kerbals can just become grumpy and refuse to do certain things, or it could just act as a supply cap. If a well-tuned colony or vessel can act as a closed system you dont need to worry about supply runs—its just a finite resource to be managed. The ability to manipulate it with recyclers and greenhouses or convert it into fuel and back makes things much more interesting and has real-world implications as well.  

Overall I love what Im hearing and looking forward to the full article. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Pthigrivi

[Superfluous J]

UI looks different than KSP1. This does not mean it sucks. It looks completely functional. I'll have to judge it on how it works, when I try it.

Adventure Mode, Career Mode, Science Mode... I don't care what it's named. They can name it Cheesecake Mode and if it's fun I'll play it. It sounds like they're going the extra mile kilometer to make it fun.

No one is going to get exactly the game they want out of KSP2. Even Nate Simpson isn't going to get the game he wants. It's a fact of life. What matters isn't that you get what you want, but that you enjoy what you get.

[Jmcgee1125]

I feel like this UI only really needs a small amount of tweaking to be good for veteran players. I would say that this current one is a bit bubbly or curvy, but I feel that it could be fixed. This would make the new UI more readily match the current KSP 1 UI, of course, but I find that to be extremely functional anyway.

Changes I think should be made:

1) Shrink the kerbals and move them to the top right, out of the way. They're too centered for what's (in my eyes) a less important part of the game. Don't stick them too far over, ofc, or they might interfere with many-stage rockets.

2) Move the time "zoom" to the top left, and make it a bit more compact. It's way too bubbly in its current state, but it doesn't need to be restrictive. I'd put it in the corner, because it's not important enough for centerstage.

3) Slightly decrease the width of the extended panels for the staging layout. It's quite large and obvious, which isn't bad (as this is something that should be big) but I foresee it causing problems on smaller displays. It could easily be toned down just a bit.

4) Add lines to the navball. This one looks fine and I like the gutter, but there are way too few lines for any real precise maneuvers. Maybe add a setting for this more detailed navball, if they really don't want to make it cluttered.

5) Straighten the throttle. This small change very quickly removes a lot of the "curviness" for this UI. I would also move the direction indicator down a bit to the bottom of the screen and make it more boxy, but that's not in the image. My editing can only go so far.

They could probably save a bit more space by making the altimeter disappear at certain thresholds and moving the RCS/SAS indicators next to the velocity, but I think it's fine where it is.

-------------------------------------

To be clear: I don't have any major issues with this UI besides the kerbals being front and center. I'm just nitpicking because I want KSP 2 to be the best game that it can be and that won't happen without community feedback.

[SpaceFace545]

32 minutes ago, mattinoz said:

Would be fun if it could snap you back to the moment it went horribly wrong for a replay and tutorial options contextual to that time.

It would be cool but the devs could spend there times on something more important like bugs

[Jimmidii]

3 hours ago, Jacke said:

...leading to the smash cross-over event, Crisis on Infinite Kerbins.

"Crisis on Infinite Kerbins"

Also known as "My savegame folder"

[Lewie]

47 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

I think they hope to get the nine year old involved but god no I don’t want any nine year olds and paying this

 

 

 

i mean the fortnite  ones

You forgot the roblox and minecraft none year olds...

[SpaceFace545]

5 minutes ago, Lewie said:

You forgot the roblox and minecraft none year olds...

Im going to quit this whole franchise if I see one of them, they're like a parasite. Starts as one but then he tells his friend  and then a youtuber starts to talk about it and then they're everywhere

[mattinoz]

4 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

It would be cool but the devs could spend there times on something more important like bugs

Brand new code, all old bugs are gone, all new bugs that the dev's should have a bit a budget assigned to finding (and shipping anyway ;-) I kid, I kid).

Similarly broke things in the game should go ie Career mode replace with a driving game play narrative like what the devs have nicknamed Adventure Mode. Nicknamed as it probably isn't the shipping name (sadly) and replaces last minute introduction to KSP 1.0 Career Mode.

This is KSP 2.0 and beyond not KSP 1.11 the 2 means they get to toss things that don't work or are holding the games back.

[Superfluous J]

6 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

Im going to quit this whole franchise if I see one of them, they're like a parasite. Starts as one but then he tells his friend  and then a youtuber starts to talk about it and then they're everywhere

It's amazing how few of them you see when you don't go looking for them. Don't play on random servers and don't watch their YouTube channels and you should be able to enjoy the game even though they are enjoying it too.

[Pthigrivi]

24 minutes ago, mattinoz said:

Similarly broke things in the game should go ie Career mode replace with a driving game play narrative like what the devs have nicknamed Adventure Mode. Nicknamed as it probably isn't the shipping name (sadly) and replaces last minute introduction to KSP 1.0 Career Mode.

I had fun in career but only after I realized that you can go wherever you want and fund your whole program on world firsts and that the actual ‘game’ was completely invisible. I only took contacts if they happened to work with what I was already doing. I think arsonide did some interesting work with the generative contracts, the mistake was to advertise them as the meat in the sandwich when they’re really just the mayo. That and its a bit of a game balance mess.
 

I still wish we had better scanning tools. I loved what Breaking Ground brought to it with the surface features and experiments but you really want easier methods to track them down. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Pthigrivi

[Pthigrivi]

51 minutes ago, Jmcgee1125 said:

 

Thats some solid forking feedback right there. 

[Superfluous J]

Unrelated, what is the "Go Button"? What invisible hotkey does it reveal? Spacebar? What exactly are we "go"ing?

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

19 minutes ago, Superfluous J said:

Unrelated, what is the "Go Button"? What invisible hotkey does it reveal? Spacebar? What exactly are we "go"ing?

Spacebar?

 

Actually - I hope they do have a Space Bar in KSP 2.  Those Kerbals deserve a drink!  

(Especially the way I give them nightmares of horrible deaths they experience and then revert to discover it was merely a recurring dream)

Edited May 29, 2020 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[shdwlrd]

34 minutes ago, Superfluous J said:

Unrelated, what is the "Go Button"? What invisible hotkey does it reveal? Spacebar? What exactly are we "go"ing?

I'm going to guess it's the launch/stage button or the space bar.

I would be really surprised if it's an autopilot. Click "go" and it would run through any maneuver nodes you may have.

[MechBFP]

The UI looks just fine to me. As others have said it is hard to tell if it is better or worse until actually trying it and seeing how intuitive it is while having to use it.

I assume they probably have someone who specializes or is at least experienced in UI design, so that’s gotta help. 
I think the original UI in KSP is fine and serves it’s purpose just fine, but it certainly can be improved upon. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by MechBFP

[mattinoz]

2 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

Thats some solid forking feedback right there. 

Works either way and leaves room for more than 3 Kerbal portraits. Although maybe not the full compliment of a colony ship but maybe a dozen in large ships.

 

Edit to add: Don't see the problem with curved throttle. Would like to see clickable throttle and maybe the over throttle zone become something of use.

Edited May 29, 2020 by mattinoz
added comment

[Guest]

Off-the cuff reactions

• VAB improvements sound awesome
• I like the new flight UI although it's not that there's anything terribly wrong with the old one
• Adventure mode sounds cool enough but it'll stand or fall on the goals and missions, if those are varied and exciting it's great if not it'll be a terrible grind
• Not happy about dropping Funds, it's important to have an incentive to find cheap/efficient solutions to problems

 

[Xurkitree]

Put the altimeter at the top again please, its important and should be centered. The navball is okay at the side, but i hope we can shrink it since I play with a lowered UI scale and the navball at maximum left. I wonder if they'll put a compact UI mode or something?