Nao

If they properly gate the sci-fi in "eras" (preferably only 2 or 3), so we can for example play normal-creative and sci-fi creative it should end up "ok" in the long run. If it is anything like vanilla Minecraft, multiplayer should be fine too. I'd be more scared of technical limitations that it could impose themselves on the normal game. Or glitching/hacking that could randomly ruin fun things. I have the same sentiment. For sandbox it probably does not matter, but if they intend for a more streamlined experience on consoles with missions, story, progression, achievements etc. the likely constant over the top everything will get old fast. I'm similarly not buying into the hype, thou will likely buy it regardless of reviews - as long as it runs at all it should be fun... or !!fun!! ( "!!" means something is on fire in DwarfFortress )

Astroneer did great for what it was, but games don't really scale linearly with complexity. I think KSP2 being 2x the price is at least 4x as hard to do. Work experience is very valuable, but getting whole team to be comfortable with a project takes time and failures that you learn from. Some problems can hit you even when you see them coming. And i'm not talking about design, KSP showed what works and what does not. But even when you know exactly what you want, to actually code it, make it work, you still need to stumble along the way as you do it. Idk i may be underestimating Star Theory, but great development studios don't just pop into existence. Yeah, but then we paying full price for unfinished products and it's a coin toss weather the game company can stay afloat while they are finishing it up. Not saying it won't but also i don't see it trying to make 100% sure it will work. I'm not too worried about design, main concept is already solid, thou multi-platform does make me nervous they get some "great idea" to make it more appealing for consoles. Also i bet multiplayer will either be too limited or be too limiting to the game (a balance here would be really hard to hit blind). You don't really build smooth games, you can have robust engine that does not bog down as much when you add new stuff during development. But in case of these resource intensive games, smoothness is fixed and you dial the content around hardware limitations. Similarly "richer" and "more complex" isn't given as they are building the game from ground up. It's something that is added over time, and i'd much rather see it done like original KSP, with some supervision from the game community. In fact since game hardware didn't really expand that much over the recent years, i've seen first handed in a game that i am a tester in, how a sequel looses features over the predecessor on performance grounds as new fancy graphics features demand so much that even the top of the line PC can't fully handle it (and i do mean the very best you can buy today). Having community feedback on what to cut and what issues to focus next can be invaluable. And even then you have to make a choice. Yeah it's not "the cash cow" but business is business, Amazon did not become giant it is by only focusing on the big fish, they look for money everywhere. And here is where the 60$ comes in. For a game that complex and performance dependent a longer open ended development (like Early Access) is much more fitting, but it also has less chance to become a "Hit". So to me the way KSP2 is to be released feels like a marketing decision. They might still pull it off, but it will be "in spite of" not "thanks to" multi-platform full game release at full price. What im trying to say is that there is a lot of design decisions that can be altered mid development at a small cost, but when the game goes live it's usually very hard to make such alterations. And both multiplayer and multi-platform usually require big commitments that shape the game as a whole. And I've seen first handed a game studio full of passionate people that are very experienced in the genre they are working with, do decisions that really go against wishes of consumers, and usually the bottom line culprit is the "expansion" of the scope of the sequel. ps: Sorry for that wall, i should probably stop typing and let you guys (us!) be happy to get KSP2 confirmed, im sure it will turn out alright (guess im too old for hype haha) edit: better formatting

It jus dawned on me that some years ago i was doing exact same types of posts on another game forum. Funny how getting involved in game dev can turn you around. I have great admiration for anybody in this business already. So if Star Theory pulls it off, it will brake my scale haha. Lets hope it does. Cheers

Ad 1), yup heard that too many times. Can't remember any time long dev time helped anything (at least in similar case to this). Ad 2), yup they know "what" they are doing which is like 20% of the game at best, remaining 80% of "how" to do it is to be discovered afresh. But hey fresh developer making a big, complicated game in a closed environment is a recipe for success. It sure worked for No man's sky for example, i'm sure KSP2 can match that. (this is both sarcasm and expectation that it will work out in the end). Anyways having friends in game dev really strips you from rose tinted glasses of hype when you know how things work in the kitchen. Sorry.

Oh definitely, i wasn't really thinking it's too much. It's just that 60$ is such a standard value that just screams, "i'll be fully developed and matured game, buy me". And I just can't see it happening. If this was SQUAD, i'd think they are crazy, then i'd buy it on launch and roll the bumpy road with a smile. But as it is with new developer the price it just rises red flag for me. IMHO it feels like they are aiming too high at the start (seen that one too many times), and i fear it will flop.

We shall see. I'm cautiously pessimistic based on experience. I think people underestimate how much features, content etc. that are "essential" are created over the many years of creation of first game. I just can't see KSP2 to have that AND more big features, like multiplayer etc. As for the publishers, i don't really mean it in the simplistic "microtransactions are bad" way, but in overall how their existence pulls the game development in suboptimal directions. For example first game (like KSP) always released stuff when it was done. While the sequel almost always is under stiff release schedule. This causes many issues, from game straight up not working, to content being cut, and often it's not* the obvious "new craft models etc" but technical features. Which in the end creates very dry experiance. With many things that we never even thought were important for us in first game that sequel now lacks. The only redeeming thing is modding, that has potential to fix any forced blunders that come by. Lastly, I don't mind the price per-se. I have the money, but i have serious doubts that on release the content will match it. After all, while the Star theory isn't completely green, it's still their first try at this type of game and by straight up setting the bar to "max" with full price game with no EA, multiplatform and multiplayer just sets up alarm bells for me. I've seen enough good studios crash and burn while doing even less than that. * - edit: missed a negative, now it should make sense sry.

Awww, this was such a great news until i saw 60$ full game, multi platform release ... I fully expect a community divide between KSP and KSP2. There is no way for KSP2 to rival the number of mods, features and knowledge base of KSP. That said, if they make multiplayer work and scalable it might explode with popularity which would be magical. But as it is i've seen enough games/IP's that hit a gold with first game only to flop on a more ambitious sequel. And that's before we add publisher pressure concerns. (no trust in T2 at all here) Happy to see it done in Unity thou, it's the right engine for the job. Funny to see people crying it's "so old". Similar with ones expecting multihreading to be savior of kerbalkind. I wish all the best to KSP2 team but, i'd not throw out any "to do" or "in progress" projects for KSP, it will take much longer than 2020 release for KSP2 to replace KSP. ps: oh, it's been 4 years since last post already, damn time flies fast.