How do you feel?

[Aragosnat]

I feel fine. Also each had their strong points. Would like to point out. Some of us never got the chace to play 1.0.1 as it was not really even there for us to play within its short short short life.

[NecroBones]

Well, as usual I'm spending more time tweaking my mods than anything else, so I haven't had a chance to actually play the new versions yet.

[herbal space program]

I think that 1.0.2 is close to having the aerodynamic model right. Some things still exhibit silly behavior, but it's way better than 1.0.0 was. And there's nothing wrong with all this tinkering by Squad except for them having decided to call these releases 1.0+. I guess I can understand their eagerness to draw some kind of a line under their efforts, but even once they get the physics model perfected they game is still pretty sorely lacking on the content end. There are lots of things they can still do to improve that aspect that won't be nearly as difficult for them to implement as getting all this physics right, but they nonetheless really need to be done IMO before they can reasonably call the game complete. I suppose it all boils down to business for them, i.e. that they are feeling that they shortchanged themselves with this early access model and now they want another 20 bucks from everybody before they really finish the thing. I don't actually begrudge them that, but that doesn't change the fact that the game is really still only half finished and they know it.

[Robje]

There are lots of things they can still do to improve that aspect that won't be nearly as difficult for them to implement as getting all this physics right, but they nonetheless really need to be done IMO before they can reasonably call the game complete. I suppose it all boils down to business for them, i.e. that they are feeling that they shortchanged themselves with this early access model and now they want another 20 bucks from everybody before they really finish the thing. I don't actually begrudge them that, but that doesn't change the fact that the game is really still only half finished and they know it.

Like what are you thinking about?

[ArmchairGravy]

Previously stable rockets wobble like they're drunk on the landing pad and fly even worse, neither rockets nor space planes fly without having to constantly tweak their ascent profile, rocket landing gear won't survive re-entry, fairings cause more drag than they're worth, and all of my .9 and 1.0 designs had to be binned. Good times.

[SelectHalfling0]

I used to dislike 1.0.2, but now I prefer it.

[herbal space program]

Like what are you thinking about?

There are so many things that they could do to give the career game some real depth. For one thing, the great big Kerbolar system that they have created is essentially empty. Other than a handful of Easter eggs that are nearly impossible to find unless somebody tells you about them, there is nothing much to explore or discover on the surfaces of any of the planets. If you've seen one spot on the surface of Duna, you've pretty much seen them all. I understand that they can't populate all these vast areas with interesting detail everywhere you look, but they could certainly put a whole lot more stuff than there is now and actually give you some clues about how to find it in the process of game play. The contracts system seems like a really great way to do this, but AFAICT they have not made any attempt to use it for that purpose. For example, if you get a mission that tells you to go to Richard's Cranium Gamma, why not actually PUT SOMETHING there for the player to find? If you need to take scans of some kind from orbit, why not have them reveal the presence of some anomaly on the surface and thus automatically generate a mission to go check it out on the ground?

Apropos of that, the contracts system as I see it is totally die-stamped, spewing out barely different variants of only a handful of different missions, almost none of which involve doing anything particularly interesting. Adding some more variety and some more rewards other than the game currencies, as I suggested above, to these contracts would enhance the play experience immensely and wouldn't even really be so much work.

Finally progression of science, tech, and building upgrades is also totally slapped together. To make something like that work well, you need to first give it a lot of thought and then do a LOT of play testing, and the amount of time these systems have been in place has not been nearly sufficient to balance all the aspects and provide enough essential content. I'm not expecting Civ 5 or anything, but the way it is now there are whole aspects of it that just don't make sense and don't make the game any more fun to play. What is the point of having a flexible tech tree when there are giant upgrade walls that make it take so long to get enough money that you fill out everything below them in the process of saving it up? It would be much better if they just dramatically increased the entry costs for each tech node or part and either dropped the building upgrade idea entirely or made it about getting more and better science instruments instead of blocking all progress until you pay this giant lump sum. And on and on. It's just totally obvious that they put 10 times more effort into the sandbox part than into the career part, and even in the sandbox part it was all about getting their dauntingly difficult physics model to work and not so much about filling their universe with fun stuff to do and find.

Now after having unloaded all of that, I must hasten to add that I don't really blame them so much for having bitten off more than they could chew in terms of creating both this incredible simulation engine and all of the game content it really needs to make it live up to its potential. It was an extremely ambitious goal, and as I said before, I don't mind paying them more money to actually finish the game they started to build. If they called it 1.0 because they figured that most people would see it the way I do, then so be it I guess. But the thing just ain't done yet by a long shot.

Edited May 9, 2015 by herbal space program

[Bluntie]

People will complain. 1.0.2 isn't without problems, sure. But you people need to stop acting like it's the end of the world and trust in Squad to fix it. They're not morons.

[theend3r]

I'll tell you after B9 is updated and other mods introduce compatibility with the newest FAR. So in about a month I guess

[Robje]

People will complain. 1.0.2 isn't without problems, sure. But you people need to stop acting like it's the end of the world and trust in Squad to fix it. They're not morons.

I agree

There are so many things that they could do to give the career game some real depth. For one thing, the great big Kerbolar system that they have created is essentially empty. Other than a handful of Easter eggs that are nearly impossible to find unless somebody tells you about them, there is nothing much to explore or discover on the surfaces of any of the planets. If you've seen one spot on the surface of Duna, you've pretty much seen them all. I understand that they can't populate all these vast areas with interesting detail everywhere you look, but they could certainly put a whole lot more stuff than there is now and actually give you some clues about how to find it in the process of game play. The contracts system seems like a really great way to do this, but AFAICT they have not made any attempt to use it for that purpose. For example, if you get a mission that tells you to go to Richard's Cranium Gamma, why not actually PUT SOMETHING there for the player to find? If you need to take scans of some kind from orbit, why not have them reveal the presence of some anomaly on the surface and thus automatically generate a mission to go check it out on the ground?

That would, indeed be interresting!

[Commander Zoom]

"Tell her, I feel fine."

[Rufledt]

1.0.2 gets my vote, as well as whatever they do for the next one. They said they will keep adding stuff, and as far as I'm concerned that means everything will keep improving. I've personally never tried an update and didn't like it more than the previous version, just my opinion. Awesome job, Squad!

[zekes]

Im glad to see the majority of people like 1.0.2 the best - i dislike steps backward.

[8bitgammers]

it's not that i hate 1.0

it's just like it made all my stuff not... work?... or something.

now all i can seem to be able to create, it wont explode upon launching, are small ships.

i used to be able to do so much!and 1.0 help with that with new parts and everything, but

IDK it seems strange...

is there some new thing that shreds anything above a certain size?

...???...???...

[jwenting]

there we go again...