JoeSchmuckatelli

You have a gift for sarcasm.

Only if your definition of Performant = Multiplayer. Way back to when they announced EA I expected it to be a lot more polished than what we see now... But if we are honest - all the parts are there. People are getting out to the other planets and their moons. That alone says that the game isn't 'broken'. Much of it works. There are a LOT of bugs. It's pretty clear to me also that whatever 'Beta' they had (given the pictures saying Beta) wasn't well done or comprehensive. In fact I really doubt it could be called a beta for the game to be in this state. The terrible reputation cost of the decision to push it out in this state cannot be overlooked. But if the OP is correct - if K^2 isn't wrong - this can be recovered but only if it is exceptionally farther along in the next three months. Given the number of eyes on this now - it may be. One thing is, however, the Community Managers are doing garbage work - at least here. They are not talking to us like it's an EA, much less a Beta/Alpha hybrid - and the problem is that teams that run successful community Betas or EAs have been way more open and forthcoming than our team, here seems capable of.

I'm a poker player. Pretty used to dealing with incomplete information and supposition based on probabilities. My reaction isn't based solely on the post of the OP, but from stuff I've gathered since watching this throughout the Dev cycle (back to '19). Reading @K^2' s assessment - who is someone I'm familiar with and trust not to be 'Pollyanna' - isn't that far off the OP's summary of the Reddit posts. Those things line up with expectations I've had - coupled with my past experiences with EA titles, several Beta tests and one Alpha - the title has the look and feel of something pushed out before the team was ready. Some parts 'feel' alpha, much of it feels Beta and some seem genuinely EA. That's an odd mix. One that fits the narrative of the OP

You have certainly made me feel better - and without reading too deeply into this, it sounds exceptionally plausible. Thanks for the post! (and FWIW - I certainly feel like the Dev team deserves better than they are getting. Let's hope, if this is correct, that the updates come fast and furious and the reputation damage can be turned around into a good story (and perhaps 'Corporate Cautionary Tale' with a happy ending!)

Right click on the image you uploaded to imgur and select open in new tab. Then copy the link from the new tab and just drop it in the regular text portion of the forum and hit enter.

Big brain stuff, right there!

Nice! For reference: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/where-is-the-rover/ On phone so I can't post the picture - but it's moved a lot since I last looked

NASA’s DART Data Validates Kinetic Impact as Planetary Defense Method | NASA DART mission more successful than expected "Both Didymos and Dimorphos are more squishy in shape—looking more like peanut butter M&Ms and less like peanut M&Ms—than we expected," Sunshine said. "This shape also challenges some of our preconceptions about how such asteroids form and complicates the physics behind DART because it prompts us to rethink our current models of binary asteroids." In addition to Dimorphos' irregular shape, the scientists also noticed that the asteroid's surface was noticeably bouldery and blocky. This geomorphic quality likely influenced crater formation, the amount and physical properties of ejecta (debris expelled from impacts), and the momentum of a DART-like impact. "The Deep Impact mission collided with a comet whose surface is made up of small, mostly uniform grains," Sunshine explained. "Deep Impact resulted in a more uniform fan of debris than the filamentary structures seen after DART's impact into bouldery terrain. As it turns out, the movement of DART-caused ejecta really had a profound effect on the success of DART's mission." The DART spacecraft was not the sole provider of momentum in the impact with Dimorphos; an additional shove was caused by violent spews of debris when the spacecraft slammed into the diminutive asteroid moon. "There was so much debris ejected from the impact that Dimorphos was pushed approximately 3.5 times more effectively compared to being hit by the DART spacecraft alone," New NASA DART data prove viability of asteroid deflection as planetary defense strategy (phys.org)

Not an apt comparison.

We actually want the Dev team isolated from the nonsense. We want the Community Managers to actually communicate with us and tell us that they are in contact with the Devs. They're not.

Anticipate this WAAAY down the line, if at all.

I'm asking them to do what I have seen done, successfully, in the several Betas, the one Alpha, and two EA communities I've been a part of. They are not. They are slinging hype and some platitudes on hype directed platforms, but they are not here and not going through the work you describe. I doubt they know what they are doing... But I suspect they are getting a real education on what they should be doing.

They are not. All that is really needed is effective community managers - which @PD_Dakota and @Ghostii_Spaceare discovering is a bigger responsibility than they imagined. I suspect they anticipated being able to coast along with a happy community and do fun and interesting things to bring more people in. If they are still doing that - they're making a HUGE mistake. They need to put on the hat of 'hey guys this is beta! There are a lot of bugs! Here's when you can expect the first patch! Guess what? We really appreciate your efforts! We are collecting info and passing on to the Devs - but here is the priority list for right now. Expect the next update two days after the patch hits! Sadly I get the feeling that they are in the Discord and the socials still trying to figure out how to increase sales.

They need to suspend marketing and focus on the bug hunt with GREATLY increased communication to those who have the game - get it past a Beta state to something that actually resembles an EA title and then... And only then... Restart the sales push.

That would be fine if the game was actually in an EA state. Right now, any marketing efforts will have negative results. They should suspend marketing and keep things relatively quiet while the bug hunt is on - and step up the community interaction with a cheerful 'hey we value the feedback - look here are the changes you are asking for' theme. It's literally the only way to fix this.

That is why I'm disappointed. I actually enjoy the ride with teams doing Betas and EA... And I think you are right, here; The feedback they wanted was 'how many people will buy this for $50 based on nostalgia/hope/lack of information, and how many won't.' I'm actively telling my friends to stay away because I actually want them to like it when it's fixed... But as written above - everything is on fire and I don't think this is EA any more. I think this is an incomplete, unready pre-Beta game that the corporate-types forced out the door in the guise of EA to get revenue with a Community Management team who are marketing types and have no clue what they should be doing in an EA and a Dev team that are probably crushed by the negativity and honest feedback about what state the game is in. Of all of these, the only ones I care about are the Devs.

Start with the OP for context and then scroll down. Someone links several posts by our Community Manager spanning the last two days over on the Discord. PD then pops in the thread to say "Just popping my head in here that we're rethinking our comms strategy to make sure any info shared through the Discord is mirrored here. We're around and listening and interacting on Discord and socials, but we definitely have not been giving the forums the time you all deserve "

This is the solution

Actually I'm kinda PO'd right now. I've been posting bug reports, uploading screenshots,making videos and doing all the things that most EA communities/ Dev teams appreciate... I've been reading hundreds of other, similar posts and interacting with members of our community who have been fans and supporters of KSP and KSP2 for years... ...and just found out that @PD_Dakota and @Ghostii_Space have been spending all their time and efforts on "socials" and "discord". Why the hell is this community being ignored? Is any of the stuff we are identifying getting to the Devs? Are we wasting our time?

Why is this feedback only on the freaking discord?!? I'm sorry, but we have been here with the game for YEARS and as soon as you guys opened that chaos factory (Discord) you dropped us like a hot rock. Bad decision. I'm going to remind you that several weeks ago, you and @Ghostii_Space said you'd keep the forums updated... and you're still rethinking strategy?

This has been a very busy week for me, and will likely continue through the weekend... when I'm out of town. The sad thing is that my limited experience with the game so far has been: Day One: "Yaaay, OMG - It's finally here! It's performant. It's got a few bugs, but this is cool!" Day Two: "This is a frustrating buggy mess. Why in the heck doesn't the AP/PE stay up? This doesn't work. That is - I don't know what that is, but it isn't right. That's cool, but why did my ship explode? What the heck is going on?!?" Day Three: "Okay... some stuff works and is fantastic. Some of it needs work. That needs a LOT of work. Oh look - this works... Its fun to do this thing that works!" I'm really torn. Love the game - and the Devs... but they REALLY should have invited several hundred people from the forums to a Closed Beta. We have a very slight indication from photos that there was a Beta... but by whom? No idea. I get the feeling from the ESA event that none of the big streamers were part of a Beta. I haven't heard anything about a Beta... I've only seen pictures labled 'Beta.' I love that they've given us access to the game. I hate (for them) that whatever decisions drove them to release EA in this state that the reviews, reactions and press are so negative. I'm committed to sticking this out, continuing to post bug reports and 'do my part' to make the sequel to my favorite game a success. But, really, Intercept and the entire team deserved a better launch weekend than they got - and part of that has to be on... I don't know? Them? T2? Looking forward to (at some point) hearing about what happened with the apparent Beta and why a lot of these issues we've been identifying were not resolved before it went EA.

RPS doesn't deliver a review as much as an indictment. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/kerbal-space-program-2-early-access-review "... early access review: a catastrophic re-entry"

Yeah, I dropped two rovers and a Kerbal down there day 1. It's the same at the two launchpads I visited - so I assume all 4.

Grin, me too. Just calling back to some pre-EA shenanigans where we made up names for units of measure and agreed that the devs were unlikely to introduce an analog to Standard. (I was taught that the US uses 'Standard' the Brits 'Imperial' and the silly French persons 'metric')