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Sure, the precedent exists. Each relaunch after refuelling on Kerbin is treated as a new mission but for creative refuelling solutions discretionary awards may apply. A mission count can accrue if multiple missions are completed without refuelling. See Harry Seaward, Camacju and Dman Revolution on the first page.

With graphics I feel like KSP2 is too shiney too soon. KSP1 took a decade to develope and the graphics morphed significantly, part models, textures, effects, buildings and terrain. It started out rough and got quite smooth and IMHO that is what KSP2 should do, only in the game, start out in a barn with small parts and rusty, dented textures. Move up to a disused airfield with weeds growing in cracks in concrete etc. Graphically KSP2 drops you straight into peak hype with burnished gloss coated parts and a massive launch complex, consequently the only way is down, should start at the bottom and build your way up. Also parts should show scorching if they have been though plasma that kind of thing, to add a bit of character and history to vessels in play.

Its a good match, the investors with money and now IP and the errant publishing house with no name with some likeable titles to their credit. The publishing profession is all about knowing people who are good at making games and organising production, like scaffolding around the building where the good things are made, a trench coat around the trench coat, that is what they do for a living and it just so happens the game dev profession has had a few upheavals lately so they are probably spoilt for choice. Maybe a bit of head hunting involved, who knows? I reckon they will find the right people. I think the main thing is for whoever gets into designing this to have a creative overview, lack fear but also have good judgement. Personally I had an expectation of what KSP2 could be biased by a long time playing 4X space games, where you have an empire and sending ships to new stars is the whole point. With 4Xs, typically research is broken down into academic departments with some sense of logic about the synergies and dependencies within the tech web. I find that missing in KSP1&2, by comparison it seems like a hodge podge as 2 was based on 1 and I would quite like someone to find the courage to reimagine it and sort it out. So I think this situation might represent an opportunity for an infusion of new ideas, though I expect the economics will favour building on what they already have of KSP2. Which is why I am sure members of the previous team would be valuable and viable because of their knowledge of the engine. Just saying some new design and directorial vision might not go amiss. I have a lot of sympathy for Nate as I feel he was very committed even driven and also pressured but not well supported by TTI or Star Theory. I don't think what has happened was his fault at all, there is no way he can be held responsible for the shutting down of PD, some people with access to keyboards though just cannot help compulsively kicking a man when he is down, all the Nate blaming is kind of sociopathic IMHO and needs to stop. In some ways the exAnnapurna team have something in common with the exStarTheory/Intercept team as two roving bands of colleagues. I expect they will work something out.

I agree it looks strategic, as if aiming for a slice of the estimated half a trillion income projected for the gaming market in the next few years. Strategies can change which is how we got into this situation. The real question is will they pick devs who have a feel for KSP and will they keep them funded?

This is interesting - "Annapurna Video-Game Division Imploded Because of Power Struggle". https://archive.is/TtTDX Its always the same when you are jumping someone else's train... Its too early to know how this will pan out, it depends on whether Nathan Gary wants to establish a studio for KSP2, he would not be short of applicants. Previous Annapurna productions do include a lot of adventure puzzle RPG oriented games. KSP looks like an engineering physics sim and it is but has a lot of puzzling to do and it is beautifully open and self consistent. Then there is the backstory of the Kerbals and the monuments and artifacts, the personality of the kerbals, their faces and expressions which are their great appeal and the astonishing adventure of going from one world to another, where no Kerbal has gone before, possibly. I wonder if KSP2 would interest him or whether it will need to transmigrate to another development universe to find fulfilment in the Kafkaesque jungle of modern gaming, like the beetle of Coccoon. Time will tell. Glad I have plenty of other games to play while we wait...

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/take-two-are-selling-private-division-and-closing-roll7-and-intercept-because-theyre-in-the-business-of-making-great-big-hits Rock Paper Shotgun have also covered it. Same quotes. But it makes me laugh all over again because why wreck a production company's productions prior to selling it? That is not joined up thinking is it? "Honey lets sell our recreational vehicle." "OK hun but remember to smash the windows and put a dent in the wing before you put it up on Craigslist, that way we can sell it for a whole lot less." Still the good news is someone else has the IP now.

Ah, reminds me of my neighbour during the multi-hour flight from Lisbon to Caracas, more specifically the endless salsa tracks he was playing on his boom box into my ear. He seemed to think I was enjoying it as much as he evidently did, not realising that due to a neurological condition I suffer from hypersensitivity which makes any kind of rhythmic noise a form of torture. As a stranger approaching a strange land I did not like to object. His father offered me a dram of whiskey which was kind and I accepted to make peace but I had to pity the man who lived with this 24/7, a weary knowing look in his eyes told me we were on the same page though a father's love can forgive much and he had evidently chosen to avoid the difficulty of confronting his teenage son, long ago. I prefer to travel quietly myself, sotto zen, raw dog lite, preferring Kubricesque stillnesss. The search for tranquility is challenging when being force fed salsa at significant decibels for the whole of an eight hour flight. I wonder how HAL9000 would have coped with that all the way to Jupiter? It makes one wonder whether one of the astronauts might have left a music player on repeat, next to one of HAL's microphones. Would explain a lot.

Sincerest form of flattery ... also meme evolution. Korg was funny, a bit of a send up imho. Maybe even parody. That thing around Antwan's neck though, is that a bagel?

Big bad bullying poor little creatives is bound to fascinate decent folk like us. The horror, the horror. Ready Player One was another movie about the little guy winning in a game against badness, though it wasn't really satire. FreeGuy on the other hand made me outraged and laugh at the same time as it is full of gags, a bit subtler than Spaceballs etc but lots of jokes, cameos and nods to well known games and movies. Though after all the talk of corpo suits it may surprise some to learn that this is Taika Waititi as Antwan. Too trendy, not all evil costumes are suits, something tells me Antwan loves his own reflection a little too much...

There is this movie, called Free Guy, with Ryan Reynolds as Blue Shirt Guy and sundry noble artistes. In it Taika Waititi plays Antwan, the axe wielding bad boss of Soonami Games which runs an MMO named Free City where players commit sim crimes and which, by name and activity, bears more than a passing resemblance to Liberty City of GTA. Liberty City, Free City, sound kinda similar, coincidence? I think not. Since GTA series began in 1997 this looks like art immitating life. Immitation, it is often said, is the sincerest form of flattery. For plot purposes in film game has a dark secret being (fictionally) built with stolen code. I am not suggesting that is immitation, just a plot necessity and trope for low ethics. The audience must decipher what is satire and what is fiction. Antwan was the thief, in order to prevent his dark secret being revealed and save his money (which is where real world satirical parallels reemerge like new born butterflies drying their fragile wings in the dawn light) he destroys his own game... by hacking the servers ... with a fire axe, of course ... its Hollywood, anything is possible. A wonderful metaphor, I thought, a fire axe in the back of a server, for the destructive act of stopping KSP2 mid development for the sake of mere money, oh where is the humanity? Anyway it made me laugh. I just wondered, with all this extraordinary satirical reflection going on... considering Free City was produced in 2021 and today looks like a prophesy of the subsequent destruction of Private Division in 2024, it makes one wonder if life is now immitating art? Do big dev studio bosses feel encouraged to behave like on screen stereotypes? Is Taika Waititi's Antwan a voice in their head like his imaginary Hitler in Jojo Rabbit? Is that how it works? The question I really want to ask is this, does Antwan dress like the guy who shut down KSP2? Would be glad to hear of any more game related satire out there which might give as a laugh about the KSP2 situation and perhaps poke little fun at our friends in TTWO.

I would recommend Chatterer and extended. It adds a lot IMHO. Here is a post on beauty mods which is food for thought. Simply add Spectra with CKAN and it will add dependents like EVE. Also Planetshine, KSPRC City Lights look nice. Firespitter has some fun plane parts including a biplane kit which works if you can get the landing gear in the right place.

For the sake of conversation, an unintended consequence of supporting KSP2 under TTWO would be to raise the asking price for the IP sale and thus obstruct the movement of the IP to a more suitable owner. Everyone who deserves to be involved knows what KSP could be and rewarding bad behaviour could be counterproductive. By the sound of it TTWO were asking for silly money from Paradox, because their managers are running around like a headless chicken trying to impress everyone but their customers these days and Paradox rightly demurred. I am not unhappy about that as I remember the Sword of the Stars 2 fiasco and Paradox's lack of commitment to the title when things got rough, which sounded like it got quite personal and unprofessional and left player owners completely in the lurch. So I don't regard them as an ideal IP owner, nor StarDock as I find both publishers' 4X titles lacking a mechanical awareness and focussed on space fantasy which is not compatible with KSP design (unless it involves krakens ofc). Simulation of mechanism and physics is core for KSP2 and needs someone who likes physics. I have enjoyed the down to earth mechanics of some Slytherine titles but they are a bit focussed on historic warfare and I am not sure they have that kind of money to throw around. I am racking my brains but cannot think of a publisher who would really fit the bill. Maybe Valve (Garry's Mod) or Microsoft (umpteen flight simulators) could handle it, alternatively Coffee Stain / Plaion (Goat Simulator). Just thinking out loud. Probably Microsoft would be my favourite.

If you want to have a conversation with the guy I dont see stalking as the best way to introduce yourself. Nate is just a human being like the rest of us, the idea he is somehow a conspirator and all powerful seems paranoid projection, of an inferiority complex, which is very fashionable but a bit mad. He has to work under the direction of PD and TTWO management and as for blaming the fate of KSP2 on a few hilarious design experiments, that is too much salt. Besides has noone heard of struts? Second word in the Kerbal, lexicon right after boosters. I agree it is a frustrating situation but not one of Nate's making and it is no fair to take it out on him, he just tried to make the game and he has my thanks for his noble efforts, sincerely

OK point of information. Some people have got the wrong end of the stick about the $140m figure and seem to think it applies to KSP2 alone, which it doesn't. The $140m figure is the estimated total value of all the projects cancelled by TTWO involving an estimated 600 layoffs and the source for this was this video from Spunie Bard discussing WARNs and Intercept layoffs, see timecode 0:16s. So lets nip this broken telephone thing in the bud.

TTWOs recent activity is all over the mainstream tech feeds, it is practically viral, admittedly not because its KSP2 so much but because its TTWO, which impacts TTWO's corporate image directly. The message is TTWO have gone sharkey and cannot be trusted, which bypasses petty tribal rivalry between gamer geek vs gamer thug and goes straight for the bread basket. If anything the impact on the criminally minded will be greater distrust than gullible geeks, if they have any natural cunning, though many dont, the impact on preorders could be significant.