Squadcast Summary (2015-02-28) - Insert-Witty-Edition-Title-Here Edition

[BudgetHedgehog]

Hello everyone and here's the Squadcast Summary for this week!

Sorry for spelling mistakes, I'm a terrible transcriber. I try and clarify what is an actual quote from Max (if it's wrapped in "quotation marks", it's the best transcript of an official Squad member you'll find on the web), and what is a summary from myself as I'm aware I switch between the two with 0 notice. When I say 'Squad', I mean 'the relevant people who are currently developing the game'.

As always, this is just a transcript of an off the cuff vlog of a non-native english speaker - some details may change or be entirely incorrect.

Squadcast Summary for 2015-02-28 - Watch it here!

Busy busy busy week at Squad..

Update on the fairings, something like there may be a mode to build them using cursor tracking? No pictures of fairings today, not quite ready to show yet. The fairings are procedurally generated, but not automatically generated. You have to design and build them yourself, but the game helps you do that.

New 1.0 animation coming along excellently, you can expect awesome things from danRosas. The Engineers Report is coming along and being fleshed out nicely as well. The Barn is being improved a lot, the soul of the models has been preserved, they have to be of the same aesthetic, but the visual quality has been improved. It's not so much a farm any more, it's more of an abandoned military facility kind of thing. It still has the farm aesthetic, but it's looking a lot better and yeah.. Looks like an abandoned military facility, has same soul of the Barn.

The next update will probably take longer than any other update in KSP history. An ungodly amount of bugs have been slain, more are being lined up.

Probe cores got trashed in 0.90, yes, Squad knows - they're rebalancing stuff, remember?

Contract news: retooling kerbal rescue so they'll show up in different places, e.g. on Dunas surface, you show up and he's sitting by his pod. The tourism one is also being looked at - the tourist is a kerbonaut with 0 skills in anything so you'll need to be a good player to do this cheaply. It's pretty profitable, should be a big hit. The initial altitude contracts are also being reworked (like, you can automatically complete them once you accept them if you've already done it [OWK: not the best way to fix that, but hey ho])

Aerodynamic 'off' switch clarification - added a switch for modders (like FAR) that can just turn off the aero calculations full stop so they can add their own in - NOT one that reverts the atmo to 0.90 soup.

Chase cam is good for short term shenanigans, but it can really mess with your depth perception so all cameras are being reworked to ameliorate this - it'll come in handy, say, for multiplayer, the ability to more easily track another object.

Multiplayer: still very much in development, but is a looooooong endeavour. Like, to make it is fairly easy. But to make it stable and easily playable will take a long time. "Just give us time, guys", mmk? They just ask for your patience A few updates are in the way before we get to MP.

IVAs aren't quite ready to show yet, but frizzank is not only fast, the quality is incredible. It fits right in with what Squad wants for IVAs, just amazing work. Hopefully next week

Resource news! It can now also be turned into monoprop as well as LF and O. This is more than likely what the final thing will look like. There are options in-game to change colours and the raster scan lines are intentional (looks cool, and you can see the ground as well)

And this is what you'll use to extract it (slightly updated/modified version of the original part)

With regards to the partnership with Eucl3d, there is, as of 0139hrs GMT, an AMA going on with them on reddit, here's a small selection of what they're doing (and the missing Poodle on the KerbalX is for all intents and purposes, intentional). To get a sense of scale, the largest in the middle is just over 1 foot tall.

Also, congrats to Kyasarinn for winning the Valentina's Day contest! Here's the winning entry for those that missed it:

And that's it! I'll probably update the pics with better resolutions as they're posted elsewhere, probably in official threads or whatever, so check back in a few hours (or don't, I'm just a dude sat at his computer at 1.45 am)..

Later, nerds!

Edited February 28, 2015 by ObsessedWithKSP
spelling

[r4pt0r]

You are my favorite forum goer. thanks for always doing this.

[Spuds]

Thank you OWK! Really helps to have this when I miss the streams!

And I think you missed something by the fairing descriptions, it abruptly cuts off:

You have to design and build them yourself, but the game

[BudgetHedgehog]

And I think you missed something by the fairing descriptions, it abruptly cuts off:

Thanks, fixed

[Renegrade]

Thanks again, OWK

[Guest]

Fairings are procedurally generated, but not automatically generated.

Say it again, please.

[Yukon0009]

i so want that drill

[GusTurbo]

You're the best OWK! I'm always grateful for your summaries. Can't wait to see how fairings work -- they sound very intriguing.

[dryer_lint]

This update is looking awesome so far. Nice to see SQUAD is listening to us on some of these!

(Of course, I never understood it when people hated on SQUAD. Have you seen what other game development teams can be like?)

[Greenfire32]

Resource news! It can now also be turned into monoprop as well as LF and O. This is more than likely what the final thing will look like. There are options in-game to change colours and the raster scan lines are intentional (looks cool, and you can see the ground as well)

While I'm glad you can change the colors, I really really really hope that you can also tone down the scan lines. That pattern is screwing with my eyes so hard. A different color scheme would certainly help, but the amount of optical dazzle generated from the lines is way too much.

I can't look at it.

[basic.syntax]

Thx once again for the summary. Awesome looking drill. New types of rescue missions!

[Renegrade]

Er why does the resource thing say "trial version" in the lower right corner?

[RAINCRAFTER]

I almost cried when I looked at that.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Say it again, please.

Ahem.. the game will not build the fairings for you, merely create the (changeable) framework for you to build your own fairings as you wish. These are not Procedural Fairings, they are procedural fairings. You put a thing on the base and put the sides on them - you stack them similar to KW fairings, but have full control over how tall they are (within a predefined maxHeight) and their shape. If you want standardised sizes for payload fairings, you are totally able to create them.

Er why does the resource thing say "trial version" in the lower right corner?

Ask Roverdude, it's his picture.

EDIT: Talk of the devil

Edited February 28, 2015 by ObsessedWithKSP

[RoverDude]

Er why does the resource thing say "trial version" in the lower right corner?

Because that's the version of Unity Pro I use at the moment

[basic.syntax]

edit: trial speculation removed, in favor of facts

Edited February 28, 2015 by basic.syntax

[Duckytrask]

The resource stuff their adding looks amazing. Really makes it look pro, something a high tech agency would use.

[BudgetHedgehog]

While I'm glad you can change the colors, I really really really hope that you can also tone down the scan lines. That pattern is screwing with my eyes so hard. A different color scheme would certainly help, but the amount of optical dazzle generated from the lines is way too much.

http://richardfarrar.com/downloads/cctv-lines.png

I can't look at it.

Roverdude's answer to "I only hope that overlays will be modable"

Lots of dials and switches and ways to mod or make your own

[Renegrade]

I was watching Maxmaps on the replay a bit and .. did someone in chat suggest a nuclear engine for a budget mun satellite contract? Yeah no, Isp isn't some magic thing that makes your craft efficient. Ants and LV-48s plox.

Because that's the version of Unity Pro I use at the moment

Ah, I see

I was all, "wait, wut?" when I saw that. That makes sense though.

[Baconation]

The drill looks great. Resource map isn't too bad, as long as the meaning of the colors is explained. I also can't wait to see the finished IVA's, I'm really excited for the Mk 3 cockpit as well as the science lab IVA modules.

My concern is this though. I see with the contract system that the rescue missions could take place on other planets. Will those contracts take into account whether or not I have landed on said body? For example, I get a contract to rescue Bilbo Kerman from Duna....but my space program at the time had not been to Duna. Well that doesn't make much sense.

I'm sure I'm overthinking it, but I don't think Kerbals can teleport, and it would take away the sense of accomplishment for reaching that planet or moon for the first time.

[federicoaa]

You were fast this time. Here, take some rep.

[Columbia]

Aw. I honestly was hoping to see the new IVA's.

But regardless, I'm hyped!

(PS. Thanks for uploading the summary! And quickly yet!)

[BudgetHedgehog]

My concern is this though. I see with the contract system that the rescue missions could take place on other planets. Will those contracts take into account whether or not I have landed on said body? For example, I get a contract to rescue Bilbo Kerman from Duna....but my space program at the time had not been to Duna. Well that doesn't make much sense.

I don't see that being a problem - all current 'Science from X' and 'Build Base on X' etc contracts are locked until you actually encounter X. Not necessarily land, just enter the SoI, but I'm hoping Squad are adding that additional requirement - no way I'm going to attempt a base on Moho when I only crashed a fuel-less probe into the surface at 400m/s. So yeah, you'll only get Rescue Leonard Kerman from Duna only once you've entered Dunas SoI, that's for sure.

[Caelib]

As always, thanks for putting this together!

[J.Random]

Draw fairings with a mouse? Thanks, but no, thanks. I would prefer either fixed sizes (KW) or proper Tweakables, with proper UI (KSPAPIExtensions).