Brofessional

Multiplayer adds a social element and makes it much easier for fans of the game to get their friends into it. The learning curve also becomes smoother when you've got someone in-game with you that can help you out. Will all of those people still be playing the game years later? Of course not, but they will have bought the game.

Improved tutorials will definitely help, but I think the biggest thing that will draw in new players is the addition of multiplayer.

It's still going to be more CPU dependent just like KSP1. It's got a lot more eye candy but if you turn the graphics settings down I don't expect it will take that powerful of a GPU to run. Which is good because purchasing a new GPU isn't an option for most people right now.

I've never noticed that, but if it really bugs you there are a number of skybox replacements to choose from.

I'm guessing they'll probably be about colonies and multiplayer. Multiplayer is a huge deal in terms of driving sales so they're gonna want to put a spotlight on that when the time comes.

I would expect something similar to KSP1's IVA, with a tad more polish maybe. If you want fully fleshed out MFD's and what not then you'll probably have to use mods like you do now. VR would certainly be cool, and would give them a good reason to really flesh out the IVA cockpits, but it's a significant amount of work and the VR audience is relatively tiny so it's a low priority feature.

It's a nice idea as long as it doesn't impact the loading time. Half-Life 2 does a similar thing where it's menu screen backgrounds change based on the last chapter you saved in. Above all I want the menu to load fast and be quick to navigate. KSP1's main menu is a bit sluggish and cumbersome to navigate.

I assume this is meant to be a joke. The clouds in the VAB are just a skybox texture. Outside of the VAB the stars are the skybox texture. You need a more complex system of textured mesh and volumetric clouds for KSP because you can go through the clouds and all the way into space seamlessly.

Adding an engine startup delay would just make the game harder and less approachable to beginners. Maybe you could make it a difficulty option but it's probably better left to mods. Gimbal animations could be fine as long as they're still quick enough to feel responsive.

Nobody knows until they release more information about multiplayer.

I like the idea of additional suits that you can unlock to facilitate exploration of new and harsh environments, but full on mech suits is a little too far. You could have hardsuits for high pressure, thermal suits for extreme heat, exoskeletons for high gravity, etc. Maybe some combination suits or an all-in-one suit toward the end of the tech tree.

Who needs a space elevator when you have kerbals?

Portions of mechjeb have already been made stock in KSP1. The SAS modes to hold prograde/etc. for example. Putting the telemetry readouts of Mechjeb/KER into the stock game is fine as it's only information, though it needs to be drip fed through tutorials/progression for new players so they are not overwhelmed by all the information. The automated systems of Mechjeb don't belong in the stock game. It makes the game less challenging and impacts the learning curve of the game. Learning to do things manually from the start really helps teach you how and why things behave the way they do, which not only gives you real world knowledge but it also helps you understand how to improve your vehicle designs. I suppose we may see some sort of automated flights that function like trade routes to move resources between colonies kind of like a strategy game, but if that happens I suspect they will be completely hands-off. As in the ships are totally on-rails and cannot be controlled by the player.

Hopefully we'll see something like the StationKeeping mod made stock to help fix satellites into exact matching orbital periods so they stay in sync through long time warps. This will be even more important in KSP2 when dealing with long interstellar time warps. I don't think you'll see anything in regards to keeping antennas pointed at specific targets. Doing so would require the game to track the orientation of all spacecraft at all times which would impact performance. Not to mention the added difficulty it would present to new players. It's something that would be better left to a mod.

I'm still a bit concerned that KSP2 is using Unity which isn't exactly known for great performance in general. From what I understand the newer versions of the engine still have the same limitations that haunt KSP1 (32-bit floats and limited physics multithreading.) I also understand that there are a lot of factors besides performance that go into choosing a game engine for your project though. KSP1 also suffered from massive feature creep as it turned from a simple little game into a full spaceflight sim; no telling how much spaghetti there is under the hood. In that regard KSP2 should be a lot more efficient. Worst case scenario the CPU performance can't be any worse than KSP1.

Two different models would be a mess in regards to sharing craft or learning the game. Also one would likely end up neglected anyway as the community forms a consensus on which is better. If they can make the aero model more realistic without hurting performance too much that's great, but I don't expect anything drastically different than KSP1.

That really just depends on what kind of accent you have. Either is correct.

I wouldn't count on VR at release but it's certainly something that could be added post-release. It would probably be limited to IVAs though, the rest of the game would probably be sub-optimal in VR due to the complexity of the interface.

The pre-2013 free updates thing only applies to KSP. KSP2 is an entirely separate game.

It's already been renewed.

Made a helicopter mostly based on the AH-1.

Eclipses happen pretty often in KSP because Kerbin and the Mun have 0° inclination, and Kerbin has no axial tilt.

Yea most of the time the planets are just so distant that they are sub-pixel scale and can't be rendered. Distant Object Enhancement is a great mod that (among other things) gives the planets/moons a small flare sprite to make them visible from any distance.

It's a separate game and thus is not part of the "all future updates for free" thing that early adopters of KSP1 got. (Which we should be grateful for because most companies would not have honored that with regards to expansion packs.) It's not uncommon for publishers to offer a 5-10% discount for owners of the previous game when releasing a sequel, but you should consider that a pleasant surprise rather than an expectation.

I would rather have contracts require the execution of various science objectives, and then you use the money and rep you get from contracts to fund your R&D department. Functionally science objectives wouldn't change much, just how they apply to tech tree progression. Kind of unrelated but along with such a science system I also think it would be neat if there was a government vs commercial choice in how you progress your space program. Like the government path gives you annual funding while the commercial path gives you more funds from completing contracts, and each would focus you on different types of contracts like science vs tourism. Neither would lock you out of doing anything, just give you different options with how you progress and sort of role-play your space program. The existing admin building sort of fills that role now, but the execution of it is underwhelming and not very impactful on gameplay.