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Off the top of my head, as I said elsewhere, two things I would like rejigged are the progression gameplay and coupled to that the tech tree. My other hobby horse would be playing with the concept of the low g economy. With progression I would like to start in a barn with a pile of rusty battered old farm silos for tankage or something like that. Something imaginative like having to buy in Kerbal govt surplus rocket engines then working your way up past renting launch time on a disused airfield leading up to bespoke private Co's making engines and other parts for you and your own VAB and launch pad and R&D campus etc. It should be a struggle, currently its all too shiney and handed to you on a plate, too much too soon. With the tech tree, I am biased by the 4X way of MoO but would like to direct science at fields of research , so engines, structure, electronics, aerodynamics, payloads, thermal. Something like that, so when I research an engine I get an engine, not a basketful of stuff. Liquid fuel designs on a different branch to solid fuel. Guess I am a bit of a monotasker. Then each step in a branch may have its own requisite dependencies. So bigger solid rocket boosters and liquid fuel tanks might only be available after you research structure subfield of tensile strength to the point you can get struts. But then I would like to see a specific mission to research struts using prototype struts (which also has a strut tute option). Then I would like to see research feeding back into existing parts e.g. struts become more drag efficient if you research aerodynamics for example. Tankage dry weight gets lower with tensile strength, i.e. parts improvements as a result of tech synergies. Would also like to be able to design your own parts and then research them by doing test flights (with objectives) e.g. procedural engine bells, where shape effects isp but adds/removes weight, also procedural mixers change max thrust and isp efficiency but also engine heating. Then I want for the engine weight to bell size ratio to improve with tensile strength research along with max mixer size and for thermal build up and explosions to improve with cooling efficiency which might be part of thermal branch, along with heat shields, radiators (also procedural) etc. Result being many combinations of tech producing custom parts and potentially an infinite tech tree by improving theoretical branches indefinitely, with diminishing but useful returns. I want this kind of interactive tech web where you can change the parameters of your craft in game through research gameplay and have an incentive to test potentially unstable devices, with all necessary safety precautions, of course. Would also like specific missions to provide research boosts to corresponding research options and be designed to be relevant as with the strut example. Another example could be thermal, see how fast you can go in the upper atmo and how hot you can get the test part, achieving a threshold means you get heat shield but also advance of theoretical cooling efficiency depends on how hot you get it. So that could be iterative, you might return to repeat the mission once you have got better cooling efficiency in the first mission, to improve the cooling efficiency of the new test craft allowing you to get the test part even hotter, without exploding it of course... or the ship. Stuff like that. Withe the low g economy, I wonder if they were thinking about this already but the orbital shipyard idea mooted for constructing interstellar craft also becomes a resource gateway to tie in the ore drilling gameplay. Some ideas about this are, that ore brought to a shipyard in orbit could be sold for cash and maybe the ore could be differentiated into say ice and metal. So ice could be less valuable than metal but either sold or refined to make fuel while metal could be refined if you have a metal refinery at your shipyard to make more valuable metals like steel and nickel which sell for more or can be used to defray costs of building large structures in orbit which would otherwise cost a lot of a lot more. So ice from Minmus, moderately productive metal ores on Mun and find the super dense asteroids for almost pure nickel iron ore, then see if you can build a refinery there and ship pure metals back to Kerbin orbit or even build a shipyard in the asteroid belt.

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.

What I will say is $140m is chicken feed compared to something in the order of $10bn projected income from GTA6 alone. So cutting these productions at this time, amounting to about 1% of projected 2025 income and an easily tolerable expense even in the current market with TTWO's turnover, is an irrational counterproductive overcompensation for post COVID market adjustments. Whoever did this saved TTWO a relatively small amount but shockingly contradicted TTWOs own assurances about Private Division titles, promising they would be safe and that gamers could trust TTWO. From a PR angle not only did they disappoint KSP2 players, they made themselves look intrinsically untrustworthy and liars to boot and now TTWO have the same kind of rep as Electronic Arts. From where I am sitting the damage from this uninsightful move not long before GTA6 release is going to cost TTWO a lot more than it saves. Frankly I am astonished.

Precedents are set by people seeking justice, which is what the law is meant to uphold. The judge has to take the letter of the law as their guide, it is the task of legal counsel to find a way to show the search for justice matches the body and intent of the law. I dont think many would argue that it was fair to buyers to stop development of KSP2 considering the marketing accompanying it at all stages, which promised further development e.g. colonisation of distant star systems. On a trades descriptions basis this is not honouring the agreement offered so is a breach. Regarding class action, it would be per jurisdiction e.g. US UK EU, the counsel would need to know their stuff and find a way to make the argument. One should not be disheartened by disclaimers, which are worthless if they are not aligned with the law.

I cant say I did but I did rename my KSP forum bookmark to "Kerbal Space Program : owned by Take Two Interactive" to remind me that things had changed and there was a risk attached. The basis of that was my distrust of hired publisher managers and the danger they may have a subjective lack feeling for the subject matter of KSP, which I think it always struggled against even with Squad. KSP is niche and at risk from such individuals seeing it as valueless because they don't understand the potential in niche markets and instead make careerist choices to bet on top selling genres like first person shooters, based on spreadsheets and bar charts, even though these are also risky as the success of a few belies the failure of others. This kind of mismanagement, first Star Theory and then Intercept does not bode well for the company as a whole. My guess would be TTWO profits reduced because they were freakishly high due to covid. This reaction is inappropriate and does not address reality. Its not like they are cutting out the rot, as those wielding the knives are the rot. I am reminded of the Homeworld saga, likewise a niche space IP mismanaged by relic. Took years but the IP eventually ended up with THQ, assets were sold and went to Gearbox because the creative director Brian Martel likes Homeworld, simple as that and cooperated with Blackbird which includes some of the original developers. Homeworld3 has just been published and development to improve it by listening to player feedback is ongoing, because the decision makers like the game and want it to be right for players. As a player you can feel that in the way they behave. What we need is for the KSP IP to be in the hands of someone who loves the game. Someone at TTWO may have done once but they clearly no longer have executive control.

Did someone say doom? I am just going to drop this link here given the title of the thread, as I noticed a Eurogamer article dated 28 May 2024. Dont know if it is referenced anywhere else? https://www.eurogamer.net/kerbal-space-program-2-team-will-be-laid-off-in-june-says-senior-team-member Comments are interesting. Honestly, feels like this is it, time to say so long and thanks for all the spaceships and expect KSP2 to fall into IP limbo. I really don't care about the money. It only matters to me as a legal means to exact revenge as it is an undeniable injustice to fail to deliver a product purchased in good faith. Legally speaking the consequences seem too slight for PD and TTI who are definitely on Santa's naughty list. Ironic that this is exactly what Private Division was set up to try to avoid and TTI managers ended up screwing their company, customers and shareholders over with short-termism anyway. Lets hope whoever is firing all these people, gets fired.

Some might find this interesting. https://www.pcgamesn.com/indie/explosive-origin-story-kerbal-space-program-revealed

Well I am just sitting here watching the astroturf grow. Personally I think its about time that game companies were held accountable for promises made. I am particularly thinking about Star Citizen which is a debacle of grand proportions with an online PR campaign presence to rival Wagner and I think that deserves a class action and or investigation by the FTC. The reason it hasn't had one is the law has not caught up with the market place, but it is only a matter of time and through innovative practice and legislation this will happen. It is inevitable consumer rights extend into this territory. So for that reason I would encourage the OP to take a look at it and ignore any naysaying. The only comment I have on this is it may be a bit premature, as KSP2 is still on sale and while Intercept has been dismantled by the sound of it that does not mean the game cannot continue to be developed. We have already seen one such procedure. In fact I am hopeful KSP2 will continue and would comment 70 personnel is just way too many people for this project which would be wasting a lot of money, as KSP2 at this stage should be all techies and a few admins. Early access should proceed with a skeleton crew. That is how an indy would do it and PD is supposed to be modelled on indy development because it is lower risk as it is more cost effective. You can't really have indy development if you are going to throw corporate HR structures at it. If you want to bring in marketing & community, wait until you have a product. It looks like Intercept was ramped up far too early which I am sorry to say was unrealistic for this stage of development. My guess is different aspects of PD have been working across purposes and this had to be rationalised and the legal situation regarding employment is why Intercept has been wound up, at the beginning of the new financial year for some reason but I dont presume this means KSP2 is toast unless I am missing something. I can understand wanting to wave the pitchfork of a consumer law confrontation to encourage prompt communications from PD but it sounds like an almighty screw up is taking place and all the people who would have been communicating and know anything about the situation have just lost their job title and noone has given any of them a new one yet. That is my guess, that unscrewing the screwing up has been screwed up but I will wait for further announcements before catastrophising. However if it turns out that KSP2 development has stopped then I will be grabbing my pitchfork and cheering on the OP.

Goes by the name of KitHack Model Club, FKA Balsa, because he used to like making models as a boy, which was really where KSP came from. Have to say KSP was a great contribution to health and safety since a game about rocketry is a lot safer than the real thing especially the amateur hobby. Countless kitchens and garden sheds would not exist today were it not for KSP, I feel sure. We owe him much.

OMG ... Is there any chance development can continue with a smaller team? Sorry about the treachery everyone!

Sure go right ahead. Feel free to make your report and explain what you would like people to know. The thread is intended for sharing. The K-Prize is anarchy self assessment now so you can award yourself the kudos you feel you deserve !