Kerbart

I think most players are onboard with QA before releasing a patch and actually quite understanding about the delay. It's just such a novel concept for KSP2 that they're not used to it yet, which is where the shocked reactions come from. Aaah, you'll be longing for those tweets once they switch over to pinterest, tiktok and myspace.

Because claiming in advance that it will take x days to fix a bug will cause disappointment if it takes longer.

Yeah, most people who see E=mc2 are not aware that we're not talking about particles being converted but purely the atomic masses which are fractions of the mass of a single neutron. And that already provides tremendous power — all based on what could easily be dismissed as a rounding error. The amount of energy needed to create even a single hydrogen ion would be quite amazing, let alone quantities needed for substantial propulsion. Edit: the atomic mass of two deuterium atoms is 4.02820; the atomic mass of helium is 4.002602. The difference, 0.02560 or roughly 2.5% of the mass of a hydrogen atom, is what basically powers thermonuclear weapons. Nuclear fusion yields tremendous energies, and you're going to need roughly 40× that to power the magic drive.

It's generally accepted that Kerbals use photosynthesis to survive. Hence their green skin. Not sure hat it means for breathing/eating. I'm sure someone can elaborate on that.

I don't think it's a binary cutoff. I do think that the patch/feedback cycle is getting on a very slippery slope as more and more players are likely to abandon KSP2 (and either stop playing completely or revert to KSP1). There's a reason I stopped complaining that much; I simply went back to KSP1. That doesn't just happen on a patch-by-patch basis (although those are indeed big-shift moments), but also in between where we're left with a game that, albeit barely playable now, is far from enjoyable. Two months between updates makes the tolerance wear thin. At one point that's going to affect the quantity — and if there's some kind of bell curve to it — the quality of the feedback. Once the devs have to rely in internal QA to learn about bugs and prioritize them, the game will stay riddled with bugs (because we know QA doesn't catch "game play" bugs, they only check if fixes address the one single issue), remain unplayable and never get traction. As long as the game is in its current state, it is rolling slowly down a slope towards that abyss. Updates will either push it back up and flatten that slope a little bit. Or kick it down and accelerate the process. I don't think it's the last chance but there's surely a lot riding on that update.

[snip] You only have to hit the “ignore” button about a dozen times here (ask me how I know .)The core of toxic users who can't have a civilized conversation is quite small. As for Reddit, it seems like they're celebrating over there that the rating on Steam went from “Mixed” to “Mostly Negative,” so yeah. I don't think there’s a lot of reason to be happy about the product, and there’s clearly a good reason to be critical about the lack of pace of fixing the bug, or the apparent lack of concern that the bugs are there in the first place. But being toxic about it, and calling names and slinging insults towards the devs is not going to improve things either.

Even more riddling, nobody realizes this, or gets upset over it. Amazing! [/s]

Will the release of the patch on Steam be tested by the team, or will it be left to the users, like it was done the last time?

It's not in production yet. So the actual number will be more like 12-18 months.

Looks like it violated that essential rule of nature: "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is"

That is open for discussion. I agree that the game needs challenges. The randomness of the contracts and money constraints certainly created some of those, but the counter arguments is that theytend to turn into repetition/grinding. It doesn’t have to be like that but grinding out twelve tourist missionsto Minmus to gather required money is grindy but easier than a daring mission to Dres. Resources may be a way to force the player to explore more than could be enforced in natural looking way than with money. The tricky part is that when implemented with vision and boldness, a new system certainly will be better than the grind-inducing monetary reward system used in KSP1. But given the half-hearted implementation we’ve seen so far, it’s hard to imagine the new system being fresh and original, which it needs to be. My fear is that it’s going to be equal to “money” but now we just call it “resources,” but I hope it will be a pleasant surprise and an improvement over what we’ve come to expect by now.

Aaaaah, we can hear it, but it can't hear us? Something like that? And the signal we're picking up is just that, "a" signal, not specific instrument data (which I assume it would only sent when asked for, and as we're "not asking...")

So, how did they get it fixed now instead of waiting for the reset in October?

First of all, I did mention that the visuals were there. But visuals by itself don't do a lot. Visually KSP2 is great. That doesn't make it a great game right now. For all intents and purposes, reentry was not a factor in the game until the souposphere was dropped in favor of a more realistic atmospheric model. It might have been there, but it didn't do anything; you could enter the atmosphere at a 90° angle doing 3000 m/s and slow down to 200 m/s at 1km without ill consequences. Maybe the heating was there but the consequences certainly were not. Then the model was changed—either when it went to alpha or after that—to something that behaved a lot more like most players perceive reality and that was followed by some critique on how the game was now "broken."

I suspect that actual resource collection happens at the colonies. But collecting gasses with kites is an option, and you'd have to launch an atmospheric probe to find out what the proper altitude is.

Short memories for some. Remember what happened with... was it 0.95? Or 1.0? One version re-entry was just visual effects, the next version your ship blew up. There were a lot of complaints about that, as people had missions going on where they expected a return from Duna, preferably with a 90° atmospheric entry angle, to be possible without bothering with a heat shield. Or that you couldn't use parachutes at Mach 10 to slow down. A lot of players will design their ships around what the game allows them to get away with, and complain that the game is "broken" when it no longer lets them get away with it. Don't say that's not the case; we know it happened in the past. The sooner those kind of mechanics get implemented the better.

The problem is discussing a brand new game feature based on some vague promises. The only thing we've learned so far regarding Intercept's promises is that the execution of those promises, to put it mildly, is generally spectacularly underwhelming. As a game mechanism, resources can be more forcing than the existing money/science choke points. In KSP1 you can complete the tech tree and make millions without getting past Minmus orbit (aside from the occasional solar orbit). Resources can be biome-specific forcing players to explore and find them, even more so if their distribution is quasi randomized throughout the system. You can't go interstellar without colonizing Dres and Eeloo because you'll need the resources there for parts, and so on. A well thought out, balanced system will deliver great challenges. But a shallow system that reduces resources effectively to money with different currencies will simply turn the game into a different grindfest. Sadly I have seen very little suggesting we're getting the former instead of the latter but I hope I'm wrong.

“If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” NGL I think this is a very clear case of that. Harvester sounds pretty desperate to change the subject.

Nice to see more hotfixes!

Are there 300 people? Maybe there are 2500 who play it, say, once per week. Definitely not only 300 playing the game nearly full time. I actually like KSP2 enough that I prefer playing it over KSP1. Now, that doesn't make it superior - far from that, all the frustration limits me to short bursts and then I turn off the game disgusted with all the bugs. But everything does look a lot better and I don't mind the interface, I keep playing it hoping that with every update we get closer and closer to what we feel the game should be. KSP1 wasn't perfect either when I started with it. Although the updates came a lot quicker.

I've brought this up earlier. I think that they have a very disciplined testing regime — for the bugs they're trying to fix. Likely a dozen or more scenarios per bug to make sure it doesn't occur. And to test all of that on time, each test will use preloaded scenarios or cheats to get into orbit. As you pointed out, what they're not testing are full-play scenarios. Because yes, we discover dozens of things within 20 minutes that clearly would have been caught if they did. I hope they're incuding those kind of tests now. Dakota claims they're reading all forum posts, meaning that they must be aware of that deficiency by now.

Performance-wise the game is playable for most. And while some of the most egregious bugs have been addressed, there's still a lot of issues left that make the game quite a challenge. Not deactivating engines before returning to the KSC shouldn't be punished with empty fuel tanks. Engine plates should be useable. Rendez-vous shouldn't be a challenge from both interface and game-playing perspective. I can't rename vessels, the list goes on. After five months there's a ton of very basic functionality missing that makes it an unpleasant experience. I was ok with the bugs at introduction. Experience from KSP1 taught me that those would be dealt with swiftly. The glacial pace in which a handful of bugs at a time get addressed is absolutely rage inducing. It's good to see that IG is now recognizing that, while probably good for the mental health and stress-levels for their staff, the "all is well and yay gridfins" style of communicating is not going over very well with a majority of the customers. We're seeing some more candid updates. But they can't possibly expect their customers to be thrilled about the game right now.

Google Drive: "You need access"

Yes, lets's have a discussion on Intercept Games putting focus on the right issues. Just because it's not an issue doesn't mean they're not addressing it. Remember we're talking about rumors and inferences on functionality that won't be published for at least five years.

Five years is a long time. A lot can change. I get the impression the "DRM" is more to prevent cheating than anything else.