Squadcast Summary 2015-03-20 - Squadcast is back! IVA's, April Fools, and Questions

[basic.syntax]

I've made long-form transcriptions of important feature related questions and answers, trying to keep words inside quote marks as accurate as possible.

Many Um's, Ah's, and aborted phrases have been kindly knocked out with "..."

(While doing this, I discovered how quickly Selective Hearing can move words around, so I would NOT be surprised if I slipped up on a few, hopefully small, things. )

If it's not in quote marks, it is a partial quote or paraphrase of what maxmaps said, in general.

Stuff in [brackets] are my (basic.syntax) comments.

Squadcast Summary for 2015-03-20 - Watch it here!

Max apologized for a delay to the start of Squadcast, he was checking over the contents of his place following a moderate earthquake in Mexico City. No harm done! So, on with the show.

Last time, Max's KSP career was running low on funds, so, its time to finish a Mun satellite launch contract. No manuever nodes this time, going to do it the old fashioned way

02:50 Feature announcement - 1.0 will have new IVA's. An excellent job by Frizzank, who is showcasing the work here.

04:00

"It's been a couple hectic weeks at Squad. we've been working hard on getting the update out. And although we've been doing our best to listen to you guys, and to see where we can have a better release... Now, I know we talked about reducing the number of features in order to actually give proper time to bug fixing and all that, but I want you to know that none of the things that have been shared with you so far, as far as our dev blog goes, and any progress shots you have seen - none of them are even remotely at stake. We're talking about very small features that have been kind of just recently been added into the Plan... like, I am not 100% sure that we can put in the UI elements that we want to do for the Kerbal skills, so you can see delta-v for example, that kinda stuff... is, ah, we are currently considering it..., it's looking like... a no. "

05:00

"A couple weeks ago I believe, I tweeted about having a crystalized release date... that looked like this is very much The One, and it's going to happen, and that's

IT

...

[pause]

We listened to you guys, and decided to further extend our test cycle

to make sure that release date is...

Agh!

Here's the thing... it kinda sucks that I can't tell you WHEN it is gonna be... but, we are pushing the release date a little further back. Not like a "full release" date back, but a

little

bit back. "

[based on hand gestures, lol... I think the unspoken intended release date was pushed out by some number of weeks, not months.]

06:10

"I totally adore and endorse

Kasper's early April 1st prank on the forum update

... OH MY GOD so many people got so upset. I personally thought it was SOO obvious no one would fall for it, but I 'm kinda amazed and disappointed at you guys. You actually believed we would do that to the forums?! Are you

HIGH?!

No guys, we are certainly not doing that to the forums

, the premiums...

Here's the thing, we kinda went, well, Kasper went through everything the KSP forums community dislikes about other communities that discuss KSP, and kinda condensed it together, so we had stuff like..."

[What's happening on screen interrupts that line of thought, Mun collision alert! Need to shift to an Equatorial orbit. NOW it's time for maneuver nodes

]

08:30

"Also a shout out to the people from KSPTV [...] Our community needs more love, we've been kinda getting way to into the actual developing on the game, and we've neglected people who have been supporting us from the beginning, so therefore, we are adding a bunch of stuff in this update that will, kinda, at least

attempt

to make up for some of it.

09:45 [twitch question from or about modders]

"So yes, we have a bunch of stuff to make up for you guys... you'll see once actually 1.0 comes out all the cool stuff we've done with help from modders, and to make modder's lives easier. And hopefully it can be at least a good point to start a conversation, I think."

11:00 [twitch question: Multiplayer progress in 2015?]

"Well, ideally we want it to BE in 2015, but, its a

beast

of a task, we're still working on it, we have great progress, but nothing we can fully show yet."

11:30

[ What's up with this satellite contract? Checking back at KSC, Max remembered accepting the contract, but it dawned on him that he had rolled back to a previous save state, where he

hadn't

accepted the contract! Face, meet palm. Something about a Win8 upgrade, and pulling down an older steam cloud save. The last 10 mins of getting to the Mun - just went down the drain. I think we've all done stuff like that

]

11:50 [twitch question: so, is Multiplayer confirmed for 2015?]

"Multiplayer confirmed for ... as soon as it's done."

12:40 [twitch question: has Max tried Cities: Skylines?]

"No, but I plan to this weekend, 'cause I've heard it's really good."

12:50 [twitch question: Unity 5?]

"Yes, we are running internal tests on Unity 5. It's looking promising, but also... it kinda looks like every time... how to put it...

like, there's a lot that CAN happen with Unity 5, but the work we have shown [internally] so far, is that it can... just about IGNITE the computer it is running on."

[Think he is suggesting stuff like KSP getting bogged down, GPU/CPU overload.]

"

We are absolutely committed to getting to Unity 5.

It can't happen this release cycle ... the timeline simply doesn't pan out for the amount of work it has to be, the same goes for the 64-bit update [client] but yes, we absolutely want it in."

14:00 [ Shifting back to the game session, and lack of funds, Max brings up a new Strategy ]

"If this were 1.0, we could go back here to our strategies, and try the

new strategies

that give you, ahh... not a GREAT deal, I'll be honest, they're not meant to replace the other ones, but, you can choose a strategy that will give you an economic return in any currency you want, immediately. That's what we are currently running in the [internal] builds. We're playtesting them to see how they work out. "

15:00 [twitch question: giving copies of 1.0 to reviewers?]

Max talked about getting a ton of feedback on the subject, still looking into it.

19:20 [twitch question: rovers?]

"There are plans to do something fun with rovers, they are kinda cool toys, and I think we can show something cool with them."

[interpretation:

Eventually

. Nothing was shown today.]

19:30 [twitch question: can Max name three bugs that have been fixed by anyone?]

"I know Mu has touched about... something in the lines of, I think 12 to 15

memory leaks

... do those count?"

[Yay!]

20:30 [twitch question: where to host a Kerbal Kon?]

No matter where it is hosted, it will be far from someone. Maybe based on players choosing to say where they are, we could graph and average every player's location and come up with a good location, but I'm going to guess it would be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean... give or take. [so, what about the moon, that is far away FROM EVERYONE!] "You are... full of wisdom ;)" [what about Australia] Max said that Australia is/was ranked number three in regards to sales, lots of KSP fans - but hasn't seen regional stats in a while, it could have moved. None the less, "Down Under is certainly HIGH on the list!"

22:40

[Max put the career game on hold, and went to sandbox to build something more fun, that could grab a class C asteroid.]

"If this were the [1.0] beta build I could totally go click-click-click and build myself a fairing, but... I can't right now. I keep looking for UI elements that don't exist ;)"

24:20 [Max can't stop smiling about this]

"Kasper has put me in a very awkward position.... where I have NO idea how to out-do that [forums prank] for [the real] April 1st... if we have TIME to do an April 1st kinda thing, 'cause all of our pipelines are super tight right now."

26:10 [twitch question: why the resource map view layout was changed from the original version?]

"The original version... I believe is one that NovaSilisko came up with, um, we thought was a cool version, like, its very, very much in-depth, but, its kinda

so

in-depth, that it stops being user friendly... it adds... our game..., if you want to say that our game suffers from something, and I'm not going to say this is something people are going to agree with, but more from in the general game design stuff, .... it can be said to suffer from, it is from... incredible complexity. And, that resource system,

while solid

, it was also incredibly complex, to the point that it would have just made it... so that people who already having problems

playing

KSP, would have had just a litany of more problems."

27:10 [twitch question: Science of the Spheres, NovaSilisko's project?]

"I haven't had the time to test it, but, if he is half as dedicated as he was to KSP, that game is going to be

A Monster!

"

"Nova is very talented, and I'm certain ... once he gets that done... he will usher in a new era. Like... he has a bunch of great ideas, and I'm certain Science of the Spheres, once he gets it completed to a state where he wants to show it to the world, the world will be richer for it."

30:50

"OH! There was a bug in animation, where Kerbals plant a flag, and it kinda goes through their helmet, and we fixed that little clipping thing."

"...a polish thing that definitely needed to be dealt with."

31:20 [twitch question: new atmosphere?]

"We are not in a position just yet to show you how it works out, but you are certainly going to get a lot more videos than usual on the new update."

32:10 [twitch question: Clippy Kerman?]

"We'd absolutely LOVE a picture of Clippy Kerman ;)"

[That refers to the "April Fool's day" forums prank.]

33:20 [twitch question: since there are more airplane parts, would you consider having Firesplitter, like propeller engines stock, as well as more types of jet engines?"]

"We're not 100% sure on where... how we would add more stuff to the tech tree in at least 1.1 or 1.2, but its not outside of the realm of possibility. We're kind of giving a quick look at the tech tree this time around, nothing major, we're trying to make sure that it just makes a little more sense. ... We wrote a new tool, that lets you modify the tech tree on the client, and have different tech trees within different save files. People no longer have to break their game in order to modify the tech tree. 'cause that was kinda crazy."

[Note: this was

discussed at length in Devnote Tuesday here

. It's a modders tool, right now being used for Squad's internal testing of changes to the tech tree, for 1.0.]

35:00

Long talk about a bunch of twitch questions about testing, opening up their internal testing to the public,

same stuff that has been discussed over and over, in these forums

.

38:40 [twitch question: Where do Kerbals live?]

"Our internal joke, is that Kerbals live underground. They kinda have to, because the space program has driven the entirety of Kermanity, underground ;)"

46:00

"Thank you for watching Squadcast - I love doing it for you guys. those last two weeks without you, sucked. The first I was too

ill

, the second one I was too

busy

, but this one I was like, MAN I have get home in time, I have to do Squadcast... and then, getting here, earthquake happens! .... Yeah, there was a little earthquake happened here in Mexico City, it just happens every now and then, it freaks a lot of people out... to me, i've been around them so long, that, it's just like ...

'OH, I guess the GROUND is moving,'

you go through the house, make sure your gas lines are ok, your pipes are ok, that your building is in... proper structural condition... and, then you move on with your day. In this case, I was like

'Aha! not even God can stop this show today!'

This would have been the perfect moment by the way, for my internet or power to cut down."

47:30 [twitch question for modders: with Frizzank's new IVA's, will there also be more stock props to choose from when assembling IVA's?]

"Yes! Frizzank made a bunch of new props, (he reused a couple 'cause he's an efficient kinda guy,) but most of everything is new..."

50:50 [twitch question: new tagline for 1.0?]

We have something internal, but we have to go through proper tests to make sure it is the

right

tagline, so... nothing [official to announce] just yet.

[speaking only for himself]

"I have considered some silly things like "KSP 1.0: 'this is only the beginning' ... 'a new beginning,' 'a new start,' but that gets kinda ruined because i'm a big fan of Arrested Development."

52:20

New IVA's presentation

58:00

Next week on Squadcast:

Female Kerbals!

"Just being themselves, in the game."

Edited March 22, 2015 by basic.syntax
indented answers below the questions

[tater]

Thanks for posting this.

[Francois424]

Thank you so much for this. Most of my questions where answered.

The only one I got a fuzzy response to was the propellers. Someday I will have my electric drone/plane. (stock)

[theJesuit]

Great indepth transcription cheers. I feel for Maxmaps though. I was in the Christchurch NZ 2010 2011 quakes and jitters and checking house contents are a pain. I pray all is well.

[FishInferno]

50:50 [twitch question: new tagline for 1.0?]

We have something internal, but we have to go through proper tests to make sure it is the

right

tagline, so... nothing [official to announce] just yet.

[speaking only for himself]

"I have considered some silly things like "KSP 1.0: 'this is only the beginning' ... 'a new beginning,' 'a new start,' but that gets kinda ruined because i'm a big fan of Arrested Development."

I really think that 1.0 should just be "Kerbal Space Program"

[Renegrade]

Thanks for the summary, basic.syntax

11:30

[ What's up with this satellite contract? Checking back at KSC, Max remembered accepting the contract, but it dawned on him that he had rolled back to a previous save state, where he

hadn't

accepted the contract! Face, meet palm. Something about a Win8 upgrade, and pulling down an older steam cloud save. The last 10 mins of getting to the Mun - just went down the drain. I think we've all done stuff like that

]

I love Max, but he's a real ScrubLord when it comes to playing KSP... Cloud sync problem, suuure..

[Superfluous J]

Nice summary! Thanks!

"Now, I know we talked about reducing the number of features... but I want you to know that none of the things that have been shared with you so far... are even remotely at stake... I am not 100% sure that we can put in the UI elements that we want to do for the Kerbal skills, so you can see delta-v for example..."

Now I know why they haven't mentioned dV readouts in any devnotes.

[cantab]

Regarding delta-V, I'd been in favour of a heavily simplified readout. Lowest stage with engines in the VAB, current stage in flight. That makes the calculation code a lot simpler and will still be plenty useful for the more straightforward rockets. There's always KER for when you have the more complex requirements.

[Thomas988]

Now I know why they haven't mentioned dV readouts in any devnotes.

IKR?! I'm so sad we will not get a stock Delta-V readout, too. C'mon, that's all I needed to start going interplanetary!

[dryer_lint]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this!

Glad to hear that they've been listening to the community when it comes to moar testing. And as far as the April Fools joke goes, the problem wasn't the joke. It was pretty dang funny. The problem was that, first of all, it wasn't released near April 1st, and second of all, lots of companies actually do do that stuff... but not SQUAD, never

One thing that bugs me however is the "tagline" for 1.0. We had a forum thread on this a while back and pretty much everyone ended up agreeing that it was a special version, and "Kerbal Space Program" was the best fit. Nothing more, nothing less. Just "Kerbal Space Program: 1.0".

[RAINCRAFTER]

Thanks... But I thought someone else was doing this earlier!

[Whirligig Girl]

You forgot my favorite part, where Maxmaps said he really liked the HypeTrain

[pxi]

Thanks for the summary!

19:20 [twitch question: rovers?]

"There are plans to do something fun with rovers, they are kinda cool toys, and I think we can show something cool with them."

[interpretation:

Eventually

. Nothing was shown today.]

Are we sure that Max was talking about ingame rovers, I didn't see the question in chat, but I got the impression that he was referring to the rovers they were gifted a few years back.

[Whirligig Girl]

Thanks for the summary!

Are we sure that Max was talking about ingame rovers, I didn't see the question in chat, but I got the impression that he was referring to the rovers they were gifted a few years back.

http://www.gatheryourparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/KSPQ02-700x380.png

He was talking about Squad's rovers.

[biohazard15]

We listened to you guys, and decided to further extend our test cycle

Glad to hear that. Better late than buggy.

Kasper's early April 1st prank on the forum update

Just another stupid joke which only its author finds extremely funny. Like these Ks a year ago, which promptly broke the forum. The idiot who came with such idea should be shot. Then hanged. Then drowned. Then fished out and shot again, just in case.

"Kasper has put me in a very awkward position.... where I have NO idea how to out-do that [forums prank] for [the real] April 1st... if we have TIME to do an April 1st kinda thing, 'cause all of our pipelines are super tight right now."

Just don't do anything. Pretty please?

[Lord Aurelius]

[ What's up with this satellite contract? Checking back at KSC, Max remembered accepting the contract, but it dawned on him that he had rolled back to a previous save state, where he hadn't accepted the contract! Face, meet palm. Something about a Win8 upgrade, and pulling down an older steam cloud save. The last 10 mins of getting to the Mun - just went down the drain. I think we've all done stuff like that ]

Since when has KSP supported Steam cloud? Is a new feature for 1.0 (which would be awesome)?

[Barefoot Friar]

What April Fools joke are they talking about?

[Norpo]

What April Fools joke are they talking about?

Oh god, why did you have to ask.

tl;dr version: Kasper played a joke that they were changing the forums to basically be FacebookFarmPremiumVille, and some people didn't see that it was a joke.

Really, I would think Walt "Clippy" Kerman ("An in-forum assistant will see that you are writing something, and inform you it can help") would of been hint enough.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Thank you for posting this!

+rep

[klgraham1013]

Having a delta v readout on maneuvers but not for your craft is unacceptable for 1.0. Get it done, Squad.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Thanks... But I thought someone else was doing this earlier!

Yeah, me, but this week has been a bit difficult IRL for me. Lot of bad stuff happening which meant I missed the Squadcast when it aired. Though, basic.syntax did such a good job, I'm considering just letting him/her do it now, much better than my attempts

[biohazard15]

Oh god, why did you have to ask.

tl;dr version: Kasper played a joke that they were changing the forums to basically be FacebookFarmPremiumVille, and some people didn't see that it was a joke.

Really, I would think Walt "Clippy" Kerman ("An in-forum assistant will see that you are writing something, and inform you it can help") would of been hint enough.

First is just plain stupid.

Second would be understood only by those who had some experience with WinXP.

In short - there should be no April Fool joke on this forum. At least not something that messes up with its functionality.

And yes, I'm still pissed about last year's "joke". That was plain idiotic thing to do. Squad, if you have no better ideas - it would be better to do nothing. Seriously.

[dryer_lint]

Yeah, me, but this week has been a bit difficult IRL for me. Lot of bad stuff happening which meant I missed the Squadcast when it aired. Though, basic.syntax did such a good job, I'm considering just letting him/her do it now, much better than my attempts

You guys have different styles. Basic.Syntax seems to prefer direct quotes, while you (OWK) generally use written summaries.

Clearly, the best solution is...

(why don't you both do it? )

[basic.syntax]

Yeah, me, but this week has been a bit difficult IRL for me. Lot of bad stuff happening which meant I missed the Squadcast when it aired. Though, basic.syntax did such a good job, I'm considering just letting him/her do it now, much better than my attempts

Now that I know what you go through, I will celebrate your efforts even more That took close to four hours of pausing, and going back, and noting the words down, then rewinding it again because I forgot a word... and then making it nice with italics and formatting to try and capture HOW Max said things. I was hitting refresh on the forums while I was doing it, waiting to see if an OWK post, or someone else would appear - I would have stopped, then. So consider this a "guest host" effort, for this week When OWK is on a roll, the job gets done, in record time

[GusTurbo]

First is just plain stupid.

Second would be understood only by those who had some experience with WinXP.

In short - there should be no April Fool joke on this forum. At least not something that messes up with its functionality.

And yes, I'm still pissed about last year's "joke". That was plain idiotic thing to do. Squad, if you have no better ideas - it would be better to do nothing. Seriously.

What was last year's joke? I don't remember it.