Incarnation of Chaos

I just hope it's in some sort of actual scripting language; i'd prefer having it in C++ but i know that's not going to happen. But if they decide to use their lua scripting engine for it then i could get on board with it; one of the things that turned me off KoS was that they decided to use a custom language. And sure there's interfaces for it that allow it to accept other code, but that requires me to still understand the custom bits i don't want to bother with.

You need N-body for planetary collisions, but the asteroids are doable since they're procedural and not "On rails" like planets.

At the end of the day it's still about getting the payload there in the first place; that's my entire point. Am i excited about being able to build a mun base and launch from there? A massive fuel depot on minmus? HELL YES But that just makes the primary gameplay easier; which is building, launching and piloting rockets. Which is the gameplay i care about; i have 2X Vega 56 a Ryzen 1700 and 16GB of ram and it doesn't matter past 255 parts. So while all of these other features are cool; i want to actually be able to use them. I want a physics system that doesn't turn into a slideshow past 255 objects, i want legs and wheels that won't make me tremble in fear each time they come near the ground because of the possiblity that they'll send the craft 40M into the air for some random reason, i want to PLAY KSP2 and not FIGHT with it constantly. That's what i'm excited for, and that's literally all i care about. Because that will make everything else so much easier to enjoy, and will open up designs i can't even consider now. So don't mistake me calling it "More of the same" as being dismissive or unimpressed; because i'm not. It's just i'm far more excited for the physics LOD system, so much that everything else pales in comparison. And it also makes everything else possible; the entire package KSP 2 is being sold as depends on their ability to pull it off.

Yeah it's 3.5 tons @60kn which is extremely heavy for the thrust; though i was aware that's mostly for balance. The idea that interested me the most was because we have materials that didn't exist in the 70's, so we could run the reactors hot enough to use NH4 or something similar that would decompose into it's constituant parts. NH4 is much denser than LH2, and nowhere near as deeply cryogenic. I think the lack of development in NERVA has really hindered them; we have things like Raptor where the benefits of modern materials can be shown and are actually being used. But not for NERVA, and likely won't be since currently the Moon and Mars are our goals. Chemical propellents are enough to get us there, and much easier to manage. By the time we're looking at the outer solar system? I'd imagine we'd have fusion by then, and wouldn't even bother with NTR rockets.

I know NERVA is supposed to be using LH2, and shouldn't be capable of instant throttling or instant throttle response. But that specific line is something iv'e come back and read about 3 times now, and couldn't figure out what you mean. The ISP of 800s should be in the ballpark for what we've achieved IRL (Though using LH2), and i don't have a clue of what the mass should be. I do know they changed it at some point for "Balance" reasons though.

They'd need legs that wouldn't crumple under a decent stack though for it to be worth it, but i'd be giddy even if they just wacked FMRS into stock KSP2 completely unchanged from it's KSP1 mod form.

Because from the previews we know they started by essentially reverse-engineering assets and systems from KSP1, and then implementing the new unity version, physics LOD and rebuilding the binary from scratch. So it's a fairly safe assumption that anything that didn't exist when they started development isn't present.

I'm highly suspicious of that; either the sail would have to made of some impossible material or there's something i'm missing. The inverse square law would mean by the time you got about out to Pluto the thing would be mostly dead weight, and once you crossed the heliopause there wouldn't be a solar "Wind" to catch at all.

Well if you just want textures you don't need literally anything i described before, and i'm pretty sure unity comes with a stock procedural weather system also. So if that's the case then it wouldn't even take up too much dev time.

Also interstellar Solar Sails would have to be propelled either by DEW's or Bombs, so you either have a more complex orion for no reason (Sail could potentially be used in reverse to slow down, but with the mass of Orion we're talking something huge here) Or you have to handle firing massive arrays of lasers across multiple SOI's, or even star systems; while being able to calculate how much the beams diffused at whatever distance the sail is and factor that in. So while i could see them being used for planet hopping in the Kerbin system; interstellar usage would be a bit tricky. You'd almost be forced to make them procedural also; since area dictates the thrust so much. And even "Light" probes would need massive sails to be useful.

Gosh that'll make big ion/VASMIR ships actually bearable; though most times i never end up building them because of the sheer costs of the propellant. It's way easier to manage a large nuclear ship with a lander & IRSU combo than a big Ion/VASMIR setup with the needed propellant/reactors and also the dropship. Great stuff for long-haul probes or satellites that need to go into weird orbits around other planets even now though.

Adding on to this most space probes don't have the DV needed to actually perform their transfer burns and the insertion burn at the intended destination, so gravity assists are used to get them to their destinations in the first place. Also once there they need fuel for manuevers, station keeping and momentum dumping; which quickly adds up. So with gravity assists you end up being able to reduce the total fuel mass of the probe; which also makes the most of what you have onboard. While also allowing you to use more energy from the launch vehicle/second stage to get it where it needs to be in the first place. If you wanted to go directly to the destination it would require much more fuel mass on the launch vehicle and the probe, but would also be much faster. So it's all about making the most with our current technologies, and the most of whatever budget the mission has. If SpaceX ever gets Starship off the ground i'm hoping that we'll see some MONSTER probes to the outer planets, and it would also get them there within my lifetime as a bonus!

Because many mods make changes to core deps for their own gameplay/realism reasons, so having them all intergrated into a single mega-mod would cause massive conflicts and actually increase the number of patches needed.

Or; those with the technical skill would make free replacements for these "Premium" mods. This is what happened when TESV and FO4; either better free replacements existed or were made very shortly after. For "Paid mods" to work fully; you have to meet 2 major criteria. #1- There CANNOT be a free/accessible way to MAKE mods. #2- The systems to obtain mods CANNOT be outside the platform they're intended for. Now in the case of TESV and FO4 they're still making a killing on "Paid mods" even though these aren't met, so perhaps they could pull it off in spite of this. But i don't think it would be healthy for the community, or mods.

Only reason i have it is FMRS tbh, and leave it disabled when i can. Honestly i'd imagine they'd have their PR people host any AMA-like stuff, so the trolls/haters would be filtered out well before they'd reach corporate. As for the rest; i'd love to see a closed private beta for modders.

I was mostly going by the thread title And i was basically assuming stock, and just saying that while new systems and colonization are awesome they gotta nail down that core pillar if they want them to enhance gameplay instead of reveal the limitations under the hood. But yeah; with the deeper modding access i do think we'll see some incredible mods come out of the woodwork. And likely the optimizations will trickle down and help performance for them also; i do wonder how Physics Range Extender would wrestle with physics LOD though. As for info i can wait; i waited for FO4 for years and got a meme of a game in return. So iv'e conditioned myself not to hype myself up over the years. Also i'm pretty sure it would be easier to roll your own RTS in Unity/Unreal than mod KSP into one o.O

So he assembled a vehicle.....so he could go and fight other players.......i honestly don't see your point here. If i want to play a Combat Flight Simulator i'm going to boot up one of the Il-2 series or Warthunder, and they'll both be superior in terms of gameplay, realism and performance. If i want to play an RTS then i'll go download C&C 3 for the 15th time or get on Civ V with my buds. These games are designed from the ground up so that their systems play well with the mechanics needed; KSP isn't because it's not about dogfighting, commanding an army or anything else. KSP is about exploration, wonder and science, and i'm happy that people are able to transform it into what they want. And iv'e been massively impressed by the work iv'e seen with BDA, FAR and others, but none of that changes that the game was built for one primary loop. It's optimized in the areas that benefit that loop; not others. But that shouldn't distract from that core gameplay, and that's what needs to work smoothly. Because 99% of players won't be using anything else; they won't be recalling flying over the mean skies of kerbin in an F-15 and the close call they had with another pilot. They'll be plotting manuevers, launching massively overbuilt stacks of boosters into orbit and building colonies. So that's what needs to work smoothly; the people who do this stuff know they're a niche case and will be fine with some teething issues. Again it's not that i'm hostile towards the idea that people are going to play differently; it's that if the core loop isn't made as buttery smooth as possible there won't be a KSP2 for them to play at all.

Everything else is an extention of that one system though; even if you had a campaign mission or something. It's all going to depend on you being able to assemble a vehicle to do the job and get it somewhere. Everything else is just bolted on top; which is fine.

Don't get me wrong; i do think they're going to extract a ton of value from other solar systems. My primary point is at the end of the day KSP is a game about building, launching and directing rockets, and that part of the experience should be rock solid. Once that's perfected; all else will follow from it fairly easily.

I didn't play well with others as a kid; that's why i'm a gamer in the first place xD Interstellar travel while novel; is just more of the same. And the kracken will always be close....

Yep; right on the head here. That's literally all i want from KSP2; everything else is fluff to me.

Well i always thought it would be arranged similar to a wipple shield; you'd have the primary "Impact" layer which is just intended to break the projectile apart . And the secondary interior "Absorption" layer which would essentially catch the debris; the idea isn't to burn it all up upon impact. That's like trying to put enough cars in front of a train to stop it; it's possible but better to just find the switch and send the train across a different track. The "Impact" layer could be much thinner and further out; allowing the "Absorption" layer to be much thicker and closer. But i'm not denying this would be a massive effort; especially since we haven't even cracked fusion. As for the second; you make very good points. Especially since many of the planet candidates out there likely had their atmospheres blasted off billions of years ago. And yeah; there's a very good reason we don't have synthetic blood. Though i didn't consider the effects that any form of cryo would have on the human microbiome. So overall solid reply, and i don't disagree with much if any of it. I do think eventually we would overcome many of these challenges, but like you i do wonder at what point you end up with technology so advanced that you either end up forgoing planets entirely. I also do wonder if perhaps many jump to higher dimensions; since even if they didn't exist properly you could just make them if you were a K III civilization. That's getting well off-topic though. I'm also looking foward to any developments you have with your accelerator experiments; sounds like you may have something potentially interesting on your hands.

Any ship that's large enough to house a self-sustaining ecology, crew and power its self i'd imagine wouldn't be hard pressed to sheathe itself in plasma; though that only helps against physical debris. The biggest issue with anything approaching light speeds is that everything in front of you is getting blue-shifted into immensely powerful gamma radiation. Which i do think will be the hard limit for quite some time, as the only solution is mass. And with the energies involved; bremsstrahlung radiation would almost be certain even if you had enough lead/iridium/osmium to absorb it. But if you could find some way to create energy from gamma radiation? This could actually be turned to your advantage, but that's going into the realm of science fantasy to be honest. But speeds approaching 30-40% C i don't think would be that difficult assuming you have fusion power, and are able to generate a plasma bubble around the ship. As for Cryogenics; i'm actually completely agreed here. The classical form isn't even remotely possible; heck i can tell the difference between frozen and fresh meat because of how much damage the ice crystals to do the tissues. I don't even know why anyone would think that it would be viable for humans. However; you mention radical life extensions are becoming very possible which leads to my second point. While classical human-cicles aren't possible; with radical life extension and genetic modification you could get something very close by using the methods described above. You could also replace the blood with something else that's fairly inert but carries oxygen; though that's something that would have to be developed further. If you had someone in a hypothermic state; with inert oxygen-containing blood replacements in a hypoberic chamber filled with argon or another noble gas then combined with the life extension and other genetic modifications you could reduce the dry mass for keeping the crew alive signifigantly. And for the whole "Why would you want to settle planets when you can do everything in space"; i'd say while it is a good point it also overlooks that planets are just a much better enviroment with less risk. Sure a massive habitat wouldn't be that far off of a planet, but there's so many things you have to worry about that are just gone the moment you're planetside. On a habitat you have to create some kind of simulated gravity, bring all your breathing gas, all the soil and any life and you have to maintain it. That's before we even consider that the all-consuming void is only a few feet from you at any point, and makes transferring all of this heat you're generating much harder. So to me it makes more sense for any first expedition to start out on a planet; then build upward. Now when you're at the point where you have fusion powered von neumann machines that could build all of this for you hundreds of years before you even arrive? Then yeah; space habitats win. But even then we're incredibly vain things, so i wouldn't be surprised if planets were settled just for the experience of being on one. Kinda like tourism today.

Thought so; thanks for the answer though.

You're gonna have to figure out how to mod manually after CKAN loves up, so i cut out the middle man relatively quickly when i began modding KSP. I wouldn't reccomend using CKAN to anyone honestly; especially newbies. Because they're the least likely to understand WHY things aren't working, and CKAN doesn't help them at all.