Maxmaps Offers a Sneak Peek at Kerbal Space Program: Asteroid Redirect Mission

[Sandworm]

Squad has never released an unstable release to the public, as far as I know. When they released 0.23 to us, it was both "stable" and "latest."

This isn't Firefox. It's a closed-source game that is under development but will some day be complete and no longer under development.

Then why is .22 still available for download? If I remember correctly, it was because people had issues with .23 (ie the buggy latest) and wanted to revert to an older version (the stable).

I agree with this -- the *only* time my game has crashed in more than a year has been because of mods. Make no mistake, KSP is without a doubt one of the most stable, highly-replayable "early access" games you will ever play.

I played a couple hours of the new Prison Architect release last night. Granted, it's a totally different game, but I've found them much more stable. (KSP crashes one a month on me, PA has only crashed once ever). They also handle new updates far better than squad: no youtube until the public has access. Whether it takes a month or two, there isn't any hype, no incorrect statements, no problems.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Sandworm

[greg12]

I played a couple hours of the new Prison Architect release last night. Granted, it's a totally different game, but I've found them much more stable. (KSP crashes one a month on me, PA has only crashed once ever). They also handle new updates far better than squad: no youtube until the public has access. Whether it takes a month or two, there isn't any hype, no incorrect statements, no problems.

Are you really try to compare KSP to a 2D game? Can You do anything in Prison Architect like in KSP? NO! KSP far more complex and it have more possibility to crash than some crappy 2D game.

[Shna_na]

there isn't any hype, no incorrect statements, no problems.

Pretty sure this describes KSP, too, except KSP has hype. Why would hype be a bad thing? You say "no hype" as though it's great that there's never any reason to by excited by the potential for a new update coming soon.

[CaptRobau]

I played a couple hours of the new Prison Architect release last night. Granted, it's a totally different game, but I've found them much more stable. (KSP crashes one a month on me, PA has only crashed once ever). They also handle new updates far better than squad: no youtube until the public has access. Whether it takes a month or two, there isn't any hype, no incorrect statements, no problems.

I've found that if my game crashes this is often due to settings that my PC can't handle or when I have a lot of mods. If this is the case with you as well, then realizie both are not the fault of Squad, as system specs are there for a reason and mods are outside Squad's control.

[Caelib]

I played a couple hours of the new Prison Architect release last night. Granted, it's a totally different game, but I've found them much more stable. (KSP crashes one a month on me, PA has only crashed once ever). They also handle new updates far better than squad: no youtube until the public has access. Whether it takes a month or two, there isn't any hype, no incorrect statements, no problems.

There's no hype for Prison Architect because it doesn't have anywhere near the following of KSP -- in fact, it doesn't even show up on the Steam Stats page because there are so few people playing it.

The problems you describe just don't seem to exist for anyone I know that plays the game or any of the hundreds of hours of livestreams I've watched -- iff your game is having so many problems, it's sounds like it might be from mods or just having really out-dated hardware/OS/drivers.

[softweir]

I must be immune to hype - it neither excites nor annoys me. At most, it gives me something to read, and a bit of a giggle when people talk about it.

[The Destroyer]

Softweir, I thought you were a moderator?

[Milkshakefiend]

Considering the fustercluck that is X Rebirth and Egosoft releases in general, I am a-OK with Squad taking a while longer to polish this if they feel it needs it. That means they care, and they want to release A Good Thing. I can't remember the last time I had a crash in KSP that wasn't caused by my own insatiably greedy appetite for mods. I've only been around since 0.19 or 0.20 but every release has been (fairly) painless.

X Rebirth was released after ~6 years of development by a developer who has been making space-sim games for 15 years, and they got it so wrong it is cringe worthy. Squad is doing a remarkable job for first-timers.

[Superfluous J]

Then why is .22 still available for download? If I remember correctly, it was because people had issues with .23 (ie the buggy latest) and wanted to revert to an older version (the stable).

I honestly didn't know it WAS available for download. Is it listed on the page as "CURRENT STABLE RELEASE" and is 0.23 listed on the same page as "EXPERIMENTAL BUILD"?

I think possibly it's available out of the kindness of Squad's heart.

[Semmel]

Hmm honestly, contrary to everybody else, I am not so excited about the ARM mission pack. I love the Unity fix, in my opinion that is the best part about the update. Having rocket instability due to numerical instability of the calculations is a no-go.. I absolutely love the fact that this got fixed. As for the mission pack it self: It is wonderful to have asteroids and the new parts, in terms of Gameplay they add a lot of content, but not really anything in terms of new experience. Here is why:

When you design a rocket and you got past the point where you understand delta-v, the game starts to become a little grindy. Yes, you need a powerful rocket in order to put an asteroid into orbit, but there is not much of a decision or.. tadeof to do. If you need more power, make the rocket bigger. The only limit is the craken and the framerate. So as far as (intentional) game mechanics go, there is no limit to the size and power of the rocket. Its not hard because you dont have to be efficient with your rockets. Thats fun in the beginning, but starting from a certain point, it gets boring. And the ARM mission pack does not take away that.

I dont know if the contracts put a budged into the game or not. If they do, I would be much more excited for the contract system of the 0.24 update then for ARM. The Asteroids might be the ultimate challenge within a budged limited Kerbal Space Agency, because the required rockets are huge and therefore expancive. Without the contracts, ARM is not really a challenge. With a budged, your rocket size limit is your budged, not your framerate. I am very excited for that! I can understand that some peaple just want to go crazy with their rockets, and I am all for it. However, I personally want rocketlike rockets. I want to be efficient but without a driver to actually design rockets efficiently, its not as fun. Failure has no consequences. I want it to have consequences, even if its just that you wasted your money on the launch pad..

[Lysius]

Hmm honestly, contrary to everybody else, I am not so excited about the ARM mission pack. I love the Unity fix, in my opinion that is the best part about the update.

I totally agree. I'm also more looking forward to the improved joints, the improved maneuver nodes and all the small bugfixes and improvements than the asteroids themselves. The bigger rocket parts will also help.

But while waiting for 0.23.5 knowing of these features really spoils the fun of the game. Knowing that all this frustrating fights with self-disintegrating ships and rockets (and the slow frame rate because of all the struts) will be over "soon", why should I continue the fight now?

[cziken20]

Wyrhyrhyrhyrhyrhyrhryhryrh (strange noises) hrwhrwhrw harrahrasfharhararhahrar, i want it give me it, give hrhrhrhr.

[Sophistry]

The Asteroids might be the ultimate challenge within a budged limited Kerbal Space Agency, because the required rockets are huge and therefore expancive. Without the contracts, ARM is not really a challenge.

I can see your point, and I too am more excited about the Unity fix and bigger parts than the 'roids themselves. All the parts I have seen have very interesting and useful potential applications that have nothing to do with asteroids!

But I think the enjoyment I and other people will get out of ARM in terms of the asteroids will not be so much the design process of building a capture rocket, but the added challenge of building an intercept vector and such, in a kind of "Extreme Docking!" kind of way. Well, that and using asteroids as the solid foundation for giant orbital shipyards/bases.

I'd also be curious as to when in the tech-tree we'd get the new parts. You can already complete the tech tree within the Kerbin SOI, so putting it too early in the tech tree would lessen the gameplay pressure to go interplanetary even more. Too late and the science you can gain from the 'roids will be irrelevant.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Sophistry

[Shna_na]

Improved joints are coming in the ARM pack? I thought they were in 0.24... Then again, the videos on it do have less struts and it was mentioned in the livestream. Huh. I thought it was a 0.24 thing. Makes me even more excited for the update, can't wait for better joint stability

[BelgarionNL]

I have to say the following:

1 it looked cool!

2 it looked laggy as hell! barely playable once you dock with a asteroid....

[Eric S]

Then why is .22 still available for download? If I remember correctly, it was because people had issues with .23 (ie the buggy latest) and wanted to revert to an older version (the stable).

It's actually been in place for longer than the 0.23 release. I know that you could install 0.19 after 0.20 came out, for example, not sure about 0.18. Squad makes the older version available to deal with the generic "the new release has problems for me" issue. Every time Squad has done something to improve the performance of KSP, SOMEONE found it slower or otherwise unusable and wanted to stick with the previous version. This way, if when update 0.X releases, you don't have to back up release 0.(X-1) before upgrading, you can upgrade, and then downgrade if any issues come up.