The Space Peacock

Reported Version: v0.1.4 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes OS: Windows 10 | CPU: Intel Core i7-1065G7 | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce MX350 | RAM: 8GB Issue: Splashing down in the water on Vall triggers the VFX for an explosion, even though the vessel stays fully intact on splashdown. Steps to Replicate: Load quicksave_143.json Wait for the vessel to make contact with the surface of the lake Verify that all parts are still intact Note: The craft in this save is prone to Kraken attacks; prevent this by immediately hitting pause after loading the save Video: https://youtu.be/if5Y09mh3Rg Additional Information: Only happens the first time the vessel makes contact with the water Credit: Thanks to @Anth12 for getting me a better video of this bug

Reported Version: v0.1.4 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes OS: Windows 10 | CPU: Intel Core i7-1065G7 | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce MX350 | RAM: 8GB Issue: The 'Advanced Photonic Generation System' part appears to glow in flight, even when it's turned off. This is especially noticable in dark conditions (See below for images) Images: Steps to Replicate: Place the 'Advanced Photonic Generation System' part in the VAB Launch Observe. Note: Lamp's appearance in darkness Additional Information: This happens with all graphics presets (Low, Medium and High) This only affects the Advanced Photonic Generation System and does not affect other lamps

this was actually really fun, would definitely reccomend giving this challenge a go! https://youtu.be/2TnhaTdHKWA

looking forward to patch 4 and the dev videos, great work from the team! enjoy your weekends y'all

Always a joy to see what people come up with!

everyone liked that

Thanks for taking the time to answer some additional questions! i'm exited to see what new parts will get added in the future that can be misused to make more silly builds Absolutely love your Robo-Laika and Turkey-Sat, btw!

Glad attention is being brought to this early on! Multiplayer may still be a long time away, but the point of Early Acces is to make our voices and opinions heard before a feature goes live. Now is the perfect time for it!

i was here (but please actually fix wobblyness my space telescope keeps falling appart)

Hope you guys enjoy some well-deserved rest after the flurry of updates/hotfixes, the AMA and upnate of the past week before diving into the second hotfix! Have a great weekend Nate and team :))

Great upNate! Quick question: why not wait a bit before pushing a hotfix so the fixes for the SOI and Decay bugs can also be included? Or would that require too much QA testing for a 'simple' hotfix? Also, once again congrats to the entire team on Patch 3! You all knocked it out of the park with this one, keep it up!!

Another great and transparent upnate Nate, but i do have some notes and concerns i'd like to share with the teams about this one: First, on 'wobbly' rockets. While i am really glad to see the teams view seems to mostly line up with what the majority of the community wants, i did want to point out this; To be quite frank: wobbly rockets should not be a thing, under virtually any circumstance. This sentiment of wobbly rockets being a core part of the KSP experience is in essence a glorification of a bug that got accepted by the community over time, born out of nostalgia. I want to remind the team that KSP2 can, and should, be its own distinct work. There's nothing wrong with wanting to keep features that made the original so beloved, but you really shouldn't be afraid to do away with features that just dont fit into the vision for KSP2. If you keep wobbly rockets now, you risk having to have to come back on that decission once builds start to exponentially increase in size, which will eventually happen as big features like colonies and interstellar get added. To illustrate, here is a space station i made consisting of 1K parts, with no struts attached. The results speak for themselves: In my personal view, a craft like this should not require 100's of struts eating up the partcount just to prevent it from folding in on itself. Autostrut isnt the answer either, and i agree that it should only be applied as a last-ditch effort. I believe any and all craft that have a part tree comprised of same-sized parts and appropriate adapters between different sized parts, even radially, should stay perfectly rigid in any situation. This also means that rotated or offset parts should have no effect on rigidity as long as they comply with the above rule. Same applies to docking ports. The only exceptions where wobbly-ness should be applied are crafts consisting of a stack of mismatched and differrently sized parts, or boosters under thrust that are connected to the main rocket using insufficiently large radial decouplers/ibeams/trusses. Concerning wings, you said: i agree with this, but i dont think wings themselves should be completely rigid. Long wings with a thin root thickness should have some flex to them, but it should be applied to the wing itself rather than its joint. My views on this are based on how rockets and aircrafts behave in reality; even the craziest of rocket designs usually dont have any flex to them as long as they are pressurised, even in extreme situations (like Starship doing flips going above mach 1 with 2 holes in its side recently). Jetliners and gliders with long wings on the other hand, do allow for some flex in their wings. i don't see any reason why this should be different in KSP2. While i understand there is a certain nostalgia about this whole topic, do not forget that it is ultimately still a bug that should be eradicated if you truly want to 'slay the kraken'. Secondly, i wanted to say a few words about the decision to reintroduce Biomes for Science Mode: as someone who has completed nearly all science experiments in all possible situations in KSP1, please implement this differently from the way KSP1 did. Biomes in and of itself are not a bad thing, but if you allow players to do each science experiment in every biome to gain science, it quickly becomes a chore rather than a joy. Having to biome hop from one bland, boring terrain to the next that looks virtually identical just to do the same experiments, both makes the process extremely boring and too easy. You are probably well aware of the fact that the tech tree in KSP1 was easily completable without ever leaving the Kerbin system in KSP1, which was a direct consequence of this issue. For starters, each biome should be unique and provide the player with a distinct feature of the celestial body. Good examples of this are Oceans, Beaches, Mountains, Craters and points of interest like the Mohole and Dres canyon. Bad examples of biomes are Lowlands, Midland, Highlands and patches of regular non-outstanding terrain/ocean that were just given a different name. A much better system for biomes would be a mix of microbiomes and larger visually/scientifically interresting biomes. For example: Ice Geysers, Volcanoes, Rock/Ice formations, Icebergs, Fissures, meteorite remains and similar small-scale surface features would make for great micro biomes. Examples of good 'mayor' biomes include (as mentioned before) Beaches, Oceans, Rivers, Craters/Crater rims, Regolith Patches, Mountains, Plateaus, Poles/Ice caps, Ancient River Deltas, Basaltic Plains/Mares, (Salt) Flats, Canyons/Cliffs, and all the one-of-a-kind point of interests. There is one big caveat with these though: all of them should only be able to provide science once. Naming different craters and having each be a different biome does not make a lot of sense in the context of science gain and quickly inflates the possible science gain from any given body. Entering a new location with the promise of a new biome, just to have it be one you've previsouly visited but with a different name, was one of the biggest dissapointsments and sources of tediousness with the KSP1 biome system. Another change from KSP1 that would tremendously increase the fun to be had in science mode is assigning each biome/situation with its own specific set of experiments instead of just allowing all of them. An example of this would be to have for example a Regolith Patch biome have experiments like 'regolith composition analysis', 'surface sampling' and 'test kinetic deformation', while a biome like the Crater could have 'Analyse Ice composition', 'measure light level' and 'Collect Meteorite Sample' as experiments. Some of these experiments could be made to randomly fail, forcing the player to move to a different closeby location where they have more luck (eg Ice might not be present in every crater). Some experiments could also be mutually exclusive; if already collected a meteorite sample from a 'Meteor Remains' microbiome, the experiment wouldn't be available in the Crater biome anymore. I understand that this would make for a very complex and intricate science system, but it would greatly improve the diversity of collecting science, balance science gains on any particular body, and break with the monoty of just performing the same experiments in the same situations over and over again. And implementing science in this manner also opens up what i think is a huge possibility: Abandoning science points entirely, and instead directly connecting branches of the tech tree doing experiments in specific situation. To illustrate this, lets look at a theorethical 'ground parts' tech branch in the tech tree; to unlock the first basic landing legs, you could simply have to recover a vessel after a flight on Kerbin. To unlock the next, you might have to either collect a surface sample or perform a rock analysis on a regolith patch, basaltic planes or salt flats biome biome on the Mun, Minmus. To unlock the next legs and/or wheels, you could either have to do the same thing but on a more difficult body to reach (like Ike or Gilly), perform a more advance experimenton the previous bodies, or collect Data from more biomes, and so on for the next level of tech in the branch. Having the tech tree work in this way adds a fun challenge while still alowing the player some freedom to choose how they go about aquiring a new part. It would also greatly compliment the new Mission system! Discovering different biomes was another one of KSP1s more lackluster aspects of science mode. This could very easily be remedied by having a family of parts that tell you which biomes ,are near, in what direction they are, and display the current biome on the HUD. these could be either different parts that each provide their own function, or one part for different tech levels that progressively adds more feauters. Another really handy feature to have would be a notification when the players enters a biome/situation where new science is available for the experiments that are present on the craft (could also be done with a dedicated part, or just be an option in the settings) Finally, a quick word on this sentence: The way KSP1 required you to bring back most experients, sometimes even multiple times, for full science gain was not only annoying but also not very realistic. For the sake of gameplay, most science experiments in KSP2 should be a 'do it once and you're done' kinda thing, where transmitting the experiment gives you all science immediately. The exception to this would be surface samples and/or colected rock fragments, which would have to be returned to either Kerbin or a Colony/Space Station with processing facilities. This would greatly encourage the usage of science probes, and add some much needed functionality to space stations (and not in the 'put your science here and we'll double it' way). If you really want to add science experiments that cant be completed instantly, having some experiments that require time to complete would be a much better hands-off way to do it. Collecting data on a planets upper atmosphere for low orbit for example could be an experiment that requires ~a month of in-game time or so to complete, and would require you to do nothing more than place the science experiment in low orbit, start it, and come back later once you get the notification that it's finished. Sorry for the ted talk, this got a bit out of hand! This is the first time i've shared so much feedback under a dev post, so i hope i've done so in a respectful and comprehensive way. I did this because i really feel strongly about these features in particular and believe i am somewhat qualified to share my opinion on them. I truly believe that if even some of this advice is taken to heart, it could lead to a better science mode especially than anyone could have ever expected. However you may choose to tackle these issues tho, i wish the teams the best of luck with them and can't wait to see what they come up with!!

Always great to get a bit of insight into how bugs like this one are identified and handled. Thanks Chris!

love sandbox mode

Great Upnate, Nate! Question; do you perhaps have a favorite snack to bring to the office to share with the teams?

I have to admit i’m very dissapointed by this upnate. This is obviously a Kerbug, shame on you Nate!!

Greg! …i may be partially responsible for that

Hey Nate (and team), just wanted to say i really appreciate you going out of your way to try to appease to the entire community, including those who might have thrown doubts and distrust your way. Your continued quest to be both transparent and realistic is something that really shows how much you, just like us, care about this game. I'm sure you'll figure out a balance eventually that works for both you and the community. Keep up the good work, keep up the great devblogs and most importantly; keep being awesome have a great weekend team!

Okay i pull up

thanks for the update Nate, have a great weekend!

But we were promised Kapybaras! How could you do this to us

While i’m really excited we’re finally moving away from those pesky Kerbals, i do have my concerns about Kapybara Soace Program 2. Will my planes still be able to pull up?

The AMA was awesome, and its great you took some time to go over a few of the forum questions aswell here i’m excited to hear new parts are being worked on, especially more methalox engines! As for the weekly challenges; has anything been decided yet on making the ‘mission patches’ into something more concrete that players can earn by completing the challenge?

Flowers are made of flowers? You learn something new every day

What has been the most fun part of the game to work on, and what has been the most challenging? And what is the team most excited to work on in the future?