Devnote Tuesdays: The "Doin' the Work" Edition

[SQUAD]

<p><strong><span><img src="https://31.media.tumblr.com/0ff9377afa68dc3ad3fe6844aaf1bd38/tumblr_inline_nfm8219Tem1rr2wit.jpg"/></span></strong></p>

<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-5b47822d-e8d2-c8d7-5262-800b8ba823e7"><span>Felipe (HarvesteR)</span><span>: </span></strong>Another mad week of working around the clock, but the progress is starting to show at the surface now. I’ve implemented a cool system for showing the upgrade effects on the KSC facility UI and I’ve also been previewing the effects for the next level, which uses text replacement tags. I borrowed them from the random backstory generator we created for Contracts. It replaces specific tags with the value of the given upgradeable rule based on the given facility level. This means we can quickly and easily show what each facility does, and will do at the next update level, in full rich text format.</p>

<p>Next up, it was time to actually start implementing these rules. This may seem like a backwards way to work, but really, the subjective difference between a game rule and a bug is 90% .in how it’s presented to the player. I could, for instance, restrict vessels above a certain total mass from launching with 2 lines of code, and that would be immediately reported as a bug; and rightly so. If the game doesn’t explain why you aren’t allowed to do something, you can’t know if it was intentional or not, and generally in those cases, we all assume it’s not. .</p>

<p>So as you can imagine, I’ve been doing a lot of UI work this week, to make sure players are always aware of the restrictions that come with the lower levels of each facility at KSC. I’ve even added a new app to the toolbar that appears in the VAB/SPH, that keeps track of your craft’s stats like size, part count and total mass. It also changes color to let you know if you’re exceeding some limit (the limit is also always shown). It’s been a huge amount of work, but I feel it’s going to be completely worth it in the end.<strong id="docs-internal-guid-5b47822d-e8d2-c8d7-5262-800b8ba823e7"><span> </span></strong></p>

<p>About the gameplay restrictions themselves, this is something we gave a lot of thought, and it was the one place where I really didn’t want to just do the simplest solution and call it a day. Upgradeable facilities has been one of the longest-pending planned features, and we wouldn’t be doing it justice if all you got from it were some small perks here and there. We’re going through all levels of game code here to implement rules that will have a properly significant impact on how the game plays out. It goes well beyond adding a bonus factor here or there.</p>

<p>The specifics of these are still very much subject to change, however, so I’m not very eager to start talking about what they are just yet. They may very well be something else entirely next week for all we know. But I’m definitely feeling good about how this is all turning out. I just hope to be able to finish the work before the work finishes me off.</p>

<p><strong>Alex (aLeXmOrA): </strong><span>Dealing with some server maintenance and performance improvement. Also, discussing some technical details about KerbalEdu with TeacherGaming team.</span></p>

<p><strong>Mike (Mu):</strong><span> Few final flourishes for experience systems including the all new pilot and engineer skill sets. Higher level engineers will now be required to repair the parts which can be repaired including wheels, legs and packing parachutes! Also the QA team got their hands on the experience branch so there has been plenty of fixes and feedback to implement.</span></p>

<p><strong>Marco (Samssonart): </strong><span>I’ve done many things this past week, first of which was to get a few last bugs out of the way in the building markers branch and merge it with the other guy’s work<strong>.</strong> It’s basically the last step before experimentals. Other than that, I worked with Dan and Harv to fix yet another strange situation with the love-hate relationship between Git and Unity, the Space Center object was broken in all of our copies except Harv’s, we managed to get it out of the way with a bit of work. And while on the ghost-hunting subject, I helped Ted solve a problem with Git that was causing Unity to fail all of our Linux builds with very random errors.</span></p>

<p><span>I also gave Dan a bit of a crash course on shaders in Unity, so he can save some time and still make some handsome buildings.</span></p>

<p><strong>Daniel (danRosas)</strong><span><strong>:</strong> We are getting near of having a fully operational Space Center. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Models are nearing completion for this release, so we’re getting into that extra detail phase for all the assets. </span></p>

<p><span>One interesting thing that we were thinking of implementing was a baked occlusion on the vertices of the models, for all the assets that are on the space center. With the aid of Marco, we did a surface shader that could multiply the occlusion to the diffuse color, and in some parts it added a neat touch. Unfortunately, most of the models are made taking into consideration the amount of resources they consume in the game, and most walls, or columns, are planes with tileable textures, so that makes it extremely hard to bake an occlusion in vertex level without adding more tris or doing some retopology. </span></p>

<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-5b47822d-e8e0-4806-8359-82b7376cf630"><span>Jim (Romfarer)</span><span>: </span></strong>For the first time ever (i think), my GUIs were the first to go into testing. Consequently i have mainly been fixing bugs this week. We will be going into experimental testing soon and <span>I’m in the middle of setting up the tools to make the new part toolbar moddable.</span></p>

<p><span><strong>Max (Maxmaps):</strong> Outside of spending more time than it would seem humanly possible in business calls and meetings this week, I’ve also been working with Nassault on the 0.90 trailer, as well as the eventual features video (it’s gonna be a long one this time around). Currently fueling all the necessary planning to get the QA phase done, as well as looking into things regarding merch opportunities. That last bit gets a little complicated and very, very legal once you factor in that our HQ is in Mexico City. Also spent a good chunk of time talking stuff out with Lawyers regarding a new EULA and TOS that will be permissive of things like fansites. You also might want to see THIS. There are still some parts being worked on, so not everything we’d like to include is pictured, but we’re happy with the progress so far.<br/></span></p>

<p><strong>Ted (Ted):</strong><span> Over the past week, the QA Team and I have been hard at work on QAing 0.90.</span></p>

<p><span>We’ve been testing out Fine Print still and have overseen its integration into the main QA branch, as well as doing the same for Marco’s BuildingTags branch.</span></p>

<p><span>Moving on, we’ve also begun further QA on Mike’s Kerbal Experience feature, going over the implementation of revised Roles and Effects as well as other miscellaneous changes. Additionally, I’ve implemented a handful of assets from Porkjet for the Mk3 partset and the QA team have been testing them out as well.</span></p>

<p><span>I’ve also been finalising the documentation that’s available for the Experimental Testers on 0.90, ensuring it’s as descriptive and as useful to them as is possible.</span></p>

<p><span>Lastly, I got some downtime (or rather, time I should have spent sleeping..) to play through the update so far as a normal player, using the nifty editor gizmos and the part sorting to really streamline building vessels in the VAB. Here’s some screenshots that I took during this playthrough. A forum rep goes to the person who <a href="https://i.imgur.com/ar6N4Lt.jpg"><strong>SPOTS</strong></a> my <a href="https://i.imgur.com/mA0fAmp.jpg"><strong>MISTAKE</strong></a> (and pay no attention to my extremely creative craft name or imgur’s compression artifacts).</span></p>

<p><span><strong>Anthony (Rowsdower): </strong>This week’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I got married over the weekend. No honeymoon, though. That will come later. Instead, I’ve been chasing down meetings for things that I hope can come to fruition in 2015. If not, it’s back to the drawing board. One thing that’s also back to the drawing board is KerbalKon. Unfortunately, because of the development schedule, we had to cancel it this year and pick it up again later next year. That didn’t stop several members of our media team and KSP-TV from organizing their own event, though..</span></p>

<p><span>This Saturday, only on KSP-TV, you’ll be able to watch TheSolarGamer, HOCgaming, Tanuki Chau, Matorolgnika, Ronin Pawn, Lolbster, xXLeGoldfishXx and more play their way through an all day bundle of laughs, loves and explosions in their very own, unofficial version of KerbalKon. You’ll hear more details in the coming days…<br/></span></p>

<p>Finally, what name would you give to 0.90? This time, we have a pretty definite name in mind, but we’d like to hear your thoughts on it.</p>

<p><strong>Kasper (KasperVld):</strong><span> I’ve got a few great responses on my </span><strong><a href="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entries/3184-On-criticism">BLOG</a></strong><span> last week that pinpointed some flaws and initiated a small discussion. One of the major points was that I only wrote about how to give criticism, not deal with criticism, which is a great subject in and of itself. If needed I’ll certainly revisit my blog and write a part two. </span></p>

<p><span>This week has been about answering a lot of questions and fixing a lot of small issues in a lot of parts of the community: Media Group, forums, KSP-TV/Twitch (is there a day it isn’t broken in some way?) and Steam. Glad to see that everything worked out in the end though and I’m sure it will continue to do so in the future. I’ve also been working on something that may greatly affect the forums in the future, but it’s too early to talk about that right now.</span></p>

<p><span>If you’ve ever wanted to help out on the forums and you happen to speak Russian, we’re looking to add another moderator to our team to balance the workload a bit. Send me a PM if you speak Russian and English, have a few hours every week to spend and are at least 18 years of age.</span></p>

<p><br/><span>In the past two weeks I’ve highlighted a Youtube channel and a Twitter account and to keep the flow going on highlighting the very best of what the community has to offer it’s time to give a shoutout to the guys of the <a href="http://kerbalpodcast.libsyn.com"><strong>KERBALCAST</strong></a></span><span>! Every Wednesday, a new episode goes live, in which your favorite hosts Biff & Nos talk about everything from development to the best mods, as well as answer viewer questions. You can also find them on <a href="https://twitter.com/Kerbalcast"><strong>TWITTER</strong></a>.</span><span> Great stuff!</span></p>

Edited November 25, 2014 by Rowsdower

[Frank_G]

Awesome Dev Notes again guys! And Ted... separatrons in the wrong direction? na na na... But nice shader effect Love that already.

[Broax]

Well this was earlier then expected... :0

KXP and the building level progression are looking to become exactly what I expected!

If thinga keep up I'll board the 0.90 hype train faster then ever!! :-D

Edited November 25, 2014 by Broax

[blspblackdeath]

Its a staging error. The decouplers were firing togheter detaching your boosters and your still almost full liquid fuel boosters.

And congrats to Rowsdower.

Edited November 25, 2014 by blspblackdeath

[biohazard15]

I got married over the weekend.

Congrats, man!

Okay, first question: if you decide to implement part count\mass\size restriction, will you provide a way to disable that feature via difficulty settings?

And Ted: you really should use an additional stage for these SRBs. Really

[Giggleplex777]

Any news on biomes for other planets?

[Cydonian Monk]

Question regarding upgradeable facilities: Is there a "Stage 0" of upgrades where there are no buildings and just an empty field? (Edit: So while in sandbox, for example, you could just have an empty field where the inaccessible buildings are.... Or run a spaceplane-only career and save from ever building a launchpad.)

And a big congrats to Rowsdower and the Mrs!

Edited November 25, 2014 by Cydonian Monk

[Frank_G]

Did i mention that those Mk III parts are AWESOME? Thank you!

[Bill Phil]

Nice to see 0.90 taking shape...

Beta than ever should be on the table...

And, I hate to be annoying, but what about the biomes?

[HafCoJoe]

What happened to modding Mondays xD

Congrats Rowsdower! That's amazing. I always enjoy when the team shares a bit of their out-of kerbal experiences.

I'm in symphony rehearsal so I can't click on the imgur pictures! Are those Mk3 parts? I'm guessing.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Avera9eJoe

[Pecan]

Lol @ Rowsdower:

"Monday again, how was your weekend?"

"Ph, you know, the usual. Watched football, had a few beers, that sort of thing. How about you?"

"Not much really. Oh I got married but, yeah, it wasn't like we had a honeymoon or anything ..."

Edit: Aha! It was a weekend in Vegas, wasn't it?

Edited November 25, 2014 by Pecan

[HarvesteR]

Question regarding upgradeable facilities: Is there a "Stage 0" of upgrades where there are no buildings and just an empty field?

There used to be a level '0' for the Spaceplane hangar, but it was one of the ones we removed during the big overhaul from a few weeks ago. We removed it because it was too restrictive on players' freedom to choose a progression path.

Having an empty field to start with is still an interesting idea, but I think it would require all facilities to start out that way to be a fair mechanic, and that much we don't have time to do.

Keep in mind that the upgradeable facilities are still just making their first appearance. Just because this is the last gameplay system before Beta, it doesn't mean it has to be more complete than other systems were when they were first added. Beta is exactly the time when adding more content to existing systems will be our main goal (I personally can't wait).

Cheers

[Pecan]

Oooooh, that sounds like upgradable buildings will let us determine our own path through the tech-tree; planes before rockets and all that?

[Spartwo]

Are the sepratrons on the mk-1 pod overheating the goo canisters?

If those VAB stats also include D/v then Mechjeb can go into a corner somewhere. So glad the MK3 parts are symmetrical(most of them at least)

[[email protected]]

Thank you Squad for another informative Devnote post! I must say I'm getting quite excited for this next release.

[KerbMav]

Oooooh, that sounds like upgradable buildings will let us determine our own path through the tech-tree; planes before rockets and all that?

I think not quite that, but he presumably meant that not having an SPH from the start limited the player too much, so there will be no empty field but the level 1 SPH.

[pxi]

Congrats Rowsdower!

[ksheep]

Looks like you're firing you decouplers for both the SRBs and the Liquid-fuel boosters at the same time. Not good, considering the liquid-fuel boosters are still well over 3/4 full when the SRBs exhausted themselves.

[KerbMav]

Looks like you're firing you decouplers for both the SRBs and the Liquid-fuel boosters at the same time. Not good, considering the liquid-fuel boosters are still well over 3/4 full when the SRBs exhausted themselves.

You could have waited a minute for me to edit my post ...

[KasperVld]

Lol @ Rowsdower:

"Monday again, how was your weekend?"

"Ph, you know, the usual. Watched football, had a few beers, that sort of thing. How about you?"

"Not much really. Oh I got married but, yeah, it wasn't like we had a honeymoon or anything ..."

Edit: Aha! It was a weekend in Vegas, wasn't it?

You were listening in on our meeting today weren't you?

[RazorWolf19]

Oh my, those Mk.3 parts... amazing! They look very sleek. One thing I noticed, however, is that our existing (Mk.2) wings seem a little flimsy considering the massive size of the new parts. Seeing those immense fuselage segments being held together by these thin, patchy-looking wings doesn't seem as if it would hold up when physics are applied. I feel like we should have some thicker, more solid-looking wings segments to compliment the fancy new parts.

[Cydonian Monk]

Having an empty field to start with is still an interesting idea, but I think it would require all facilities to start out that way to be a fair mechanic.

With the upgradeable buildings mechanic in place, at the very least we can take a mod-based path to a greenfield space program.

Thanks for the response!

[tygoo7]

Those MKIII parts look amazing! I can't wait to build an awesome stock shuttle!

[Starwhip]

Um... Those Sepatrons on the top of the rocket, they should be pointing DOWN, right?

Methinks that's the problem.

THOSE MK3 PARTS, THOUGH!

Awesome progress and even better devnotes!

[BudgetHedgehog]

Error is in the staging - decoupling LFO engines instead of SRBs first.

The MK3 parts look sweet, though. Seriously looking forward to those and, as I said on reddit, I just hope there's an adapter with angled rear nodes to put SSMEs on (given the extreme lack of gimbal on KSP engines). Would make things a whoooooole lot easier for both stock (part count/ease of use) and FAR (no unused nodes) users.

EDIT: ferram4 brings up a good point - while these parts are great, they're still kind of limited by the landing gear options, of which there is one. And it's tiny. Is there any intention to remake that part or make bigger ones or something? As f4 said, "procedural landing gear is great, but requiring people to get a mod to use stock parts to any reasonable degree is silly".

Edited November 25, 2014 by ObsessedWithKSP