Kerbart

Was it legit?

As far as I know, pixels on the height map translate to lattitude/longitude. So you have to keep in mind that a pixel around 0° lattitude covers a lot more distance than a pixel around 90­° lattitude. But it’s not a bad idea to use it as a starting base and worry about those issues later once you have something working.

They're a bit like pet rocks; with proper care they will last forever!

I like it when the pictures are yuuuuuuge! Yuuuge! And I'm an expert in pictures. Trust me, I know.

Meh, the Illuminati and the Freemasons haven't been brought in... yet!

It's alway hilarious to see this one show up in a serious newspaper article!

I don't think you have to worry about that, most forecasts project the path to stay south of Charleston. There will be rain of course, and wind, but very likely nothing disastrous.

Cold front, coriolis effect. There was one a couple of years ago that struck florida and then made a u-turn and struck havoc in the gulf of mexico. It's not unheard of for that to happen. However it's extremely unlikely to happen in this case.

Yes, the people who lost their homes will absolutely agree with the fact that these were not hurricanes. Not even storms, one can argue. Merely a brisk breeze, no?

Yeah, Katrina. But that hardly qualified as a minor. Sandy also only did neglible damage.

Not only that, you don't need just a dev, you need one who is a raging maniac when it comes to making mods. The type that would be doing it, after coding straight for eight hours per day for squad, would be modding on freakin' twitch just for fun. As if they'd have that kind of dev left on they payro... ooooh. Never mind.

Now, that clears things up a bit! Why not do this earlier!

Without claiming it is like that or not, assuming that the communications policy of Squad makes sense is a highly speculative assumption. And that's not against Kasper or Uomo; they just have to execute whatever that strategy is. But we've seen many occasions in the past where a bit of pre-emptive communications by Squad could have nipped unrest in the bud. They don't do it, they don't care, or so it seems. Sensible? Yes. Surely? Not at all!

Well, I don't feel like reading through 9 pages of drivel, but I get a pretty good feeling of what's going on. It seems we have two camps: we don't know what's happened, and quite frankly, it's not our business. Why fret over it, and just wait and see what happens ZOMG! What the...?? Will KSP have a future? Disclaimer: I'm in camp #2. However... that doesn't mean you need to be a jerk about it. Arguments can and should be exchanged in a civilized manner. Converting someone to the other side should be done by convincing, not by bullying. Now, I agree, we don't know what's going on inside Squad and it's their prerogative to keep it that way. But here's an analogy: “Every week I go to the same restaurant. The people there know me, and I like it. Over the years, it has improved greatly. From undercooked, overspiced, or not getting food at all, it has changed into a fairly developed venue with good (but always perfectly prepared) food. Over the years, many changes were mentioned by management (a live stage, a desert bar, a better espresso machine) and some of those have actually been implemented. Today however, I saw what seemed to be 3/4 of the kitchen staff walk out. I have a hot plate of food in front of me, so it's not going to affect dinner today. But should I come back next week?” So, you can have the opinion that everything's fine, management doesn't seem freaked out, and if the food turns out bad next week I can always go to that new place “No Man's Sky” on the corner. I heard the food is magnificient, although a bit repetitive. Or you can FREAK OUT and wonder if there will even be a restaurant next week. Either reaction is not wrong per sé; it's more up to personal preference how you choose to react. And I think we can all agree on the fact that it's up to the restaurant owner on how to address this to the customers. I just think that “pretend the customers will think nothing of it” is not the wisest approach in such a PR-crisis.

Last I checked that promise was made for anyone buying the game before the end of 2013. At any rate, the reality is that software doesn't write itself and that services like this forum swallow large amounts of money. It would be naive to think the revenue stream from fresh KSP copies is endless. I'd rather get free bug fixes and new content after paying for it, than no new content and no bug fixes at all.

And yet that reason can be benign. Consider the scenario that the "old timers" indicate they want to leave. They're offered a bag of money to stay on to 1.2 which, because most experienced coders will leave, will really have to be the "final stable version." So, to accomplish that, a whole bunch of talented modders get hired with a similar incentive. The goal: push out 1.2 as "the best release ever" with a focus on fixing bugs, not adding new content. The goal is reached, hundreds of bugs are squashed, premiums are paid out and the team is abandoned; everybody splits in good spirits. I'm not saying that's what happened but it's a scenario that is not an "OMG it's falling apart" scenario, for a change. And it perfectly aligns with Squad's history of not saying anything. It's open for discussion if total silence is a smart thing to do, but together with everything else it's a perfectly reasonable scenario without any gaping holes in it.

Time will tell. The events of yesterday do put the release of those parts in a different light. But that can also be a coincidence. If Squad wants to start selling expansion packs yet at the same time keep improving/expanding the game with updates (as a great value proposition) this would be exactly the "selling point" for the 1.3 update. It's not enough to ask money for, yet it has enough beef to warrant releasing an update and “prove” that the game continues to be updated/expanded for free, without making “dot updates” mere bug fixes.

It's hard to make any sensible judgement of this right now. @SQUAD is not really communicating. They never do, but that doesn't make it acceptable. What do we know? 1.2 is completed. A tremendous amount of bugs have been fixed. Virtually all of the current team that rolled out 1.2 has quit. On their own choice? Forced? We don't know. Squad did link to the reddit post of the devs, and the reddit post of the devs was neutral in character. Squad has been looking for programmers in the vicinity of their headquarters. We can make assumptions but time will tell which ones are right: Assumption 1: The team revolted and threatened to quit. A retention bonus was offered for the delivery of 1.2, with a couple of conditions (no bad mouthing etc) to ensure delivery of 1.2; after that the team left, and in order to receive the bonus cannot reveal why and under what conditions Assumption 2: 1.2 is the true 1.0 version. The game is stable and feature complete. Of course there are bugs to fix but no longer at the rate of the past. Therefore, the team was let go. Likely they were told in advance this would happen, once again a retention bonus was offered to ensure completion of 1.2, and no badmouthing. Assumption 3: I can't think of one but I'm sure you guys can come up with a handful of other realistic scenarios. It is not unlikely to assume that sales are tapering off. The game has sold quite the volume and has been on the market for years by now. At one point, everyone who wants to pay for KSP has bought their copy. That moment might not be there yet, but projecting sales on current trends might show that moment will be there, say, within a year. If we want to continue enjoying our (free!) updates (and likely additionally minor content; I wouldn't write off porkjet's parts yet), then Squad has to find another income source. “A new game” is not a very sure solution, hit wonders like KSP and Minecraft (because we always compare to Mindcraft, no?) are hard to predict and have a very specific audience. Would you cater to that audience? Would you risk and try another? Selling expansion packs are offering less risks. They also offer less rewards; so if Squad goes down the expension pack path (which I think is extremely likely), be grateful that they decide to continue to invest in the KSP universe, and not bet the boat on something completely different. So, does paid-for expansion packs make Squad an evil EA/Zynga clone? I think it's in everyone's interest here if Squad continues to develop for KSP, and they can't do it for free. So I'm all for paid-for content, as long as: It doesn't remove or cripple existing functionality from the existing game (including the API's for mods) that has to be restored with an add-on It doesn't remove mods from the existing games (say, in 1.3 Mechjeb stops working but it's now available as the "Mechjeb addon pack") It's not required to enjoy the game I think obvious candidates for add-ons would be something like: gas giants/outer planets scenery packs (cities on Kerbin, working volcanoes on Duna, etc) extra space centers in different locations "Fixed" space stations in orbit, DS9/2001 style (something giant with tons of docking ports, repair facilities, even the ability to launch new ships) contract packs with exciting new missions and parts (like drills and containers for core samples, and contracts for it) Etc. Bring it on, Squad! Take my money!

I’m not a CKAN user, and I run mainly Python 3.4 these days, but that surely looks interesting and like a labor of love. Very impressive!

The game is unprotected yet a commercial success. I don't see why that would be different for DLC.

Phrases like "May include fees" teach you to interpret sentences in the darkest way possible when it comes to your wallet. Note how they say “free updates, full expansion packs” and not “updates and full expansion packs for free” or even “free updates and free full expansion packs” The fact that full expansion packs are mentioned, explicitly without the word free, is a pretty good indicator that you will have to pay for it. If it were free, it would have been mentioned as such. Not that it's a bad thing. Unlike free updates, paid expansion packs will allow for continued development. Also, depending on how cash-hungry Squad's owners are (and it is not unimaginable they are, based on the sparse interviews in the past as well as some other indicators), they will likely very much realize that the first expansion pack that disappoints will also be the last one, as everyone will stop buying them. Unlike “free,” money is a pretty good incentive for delivering quality.

Would be? You are aware that he left as well, right?

Oh yikes, that's not good. Not good at all.

Does the 2.5m docking port work these days? I've gotten into the habit of avoiding it when frequent docking/undocking is required as it's the one that never undocks in my book. Or is that a problem that was fixed many moons ago?

Excellent analysis. It's indeed not an easy problem to solve right now, and the problem is indeed the contract, or rather, the subject of the contract. Ore is, what we call in commerce, a commodity. Just like gasoline of brand x isn’t substantial different from brand y (it usually comes from the same refinery in the first place), ore mined at the Mun is not different from ore mined at Duna. Think of it; no one will ask for gasoline from Alaska or gasoline from Indonesia at the pump. It’s gasoline, after all.* And that’s the issue with the contract; it requests for a commodity from a specific location to be delivered somewhere. That’s not how most commodity markets work. When I’m stockpiling gasoline or diesel I am not going to ask for a specific origin (if it can be traced, in the first place; it might even be a blend). I’m not telling my bank when requesting a mortgage that is has to be money earned in Alabama. Here's a wild-eyed solution that requires new parts (yay! new parts!) and new “resources”. Before rolling your eyes, bear with me: Core Samples: geological (kerbological? whatevs) samples drilled down from below the surface. Hence, not surface samples They require a drill, just like ore. But it's a core sample drill. Efficiency increases depending having engineer and scientist on site Core sample containers are just like ore containers but cannot be “contaminated;” you cannot add Minmus core samples to a container filled with Mun samples. You can transfer samples from one container to another; and an emptied container (which has become a Mun Sample Container after putting Mun samples in it) can be reset (cleaned) by a scientist. If you want to go hardcore the samples could be distinguished by biome, even. Returning core samples yield science (perhaps based on mass with a max-out value) A contract can ask for bring x kilograms of sample material y either to the KSC or to a station with an MPL for instance. Obviously not easy to implement but it result in similar style contracts and introduce an exciting game mechanic with a believable story and all kinds of fun challenges. Edit: seems like @Snark and I are thinking along the same lines... * I’m sure car fanatics and carbohydrate aficionados will point out how wrong, wrong, wrong I am about this. But about 95% of the people really, really don’t care and cannot tell the difference.