What do you guys/gals really want from this game?

[quasarrgames]

It seems (to me) that what most people on these forums seem to want this game to be is orbiter with ship-building. Am i correct in thinking this, or am i horribly wrong? (i dont know)

It seems like realism and limitations=fun, and the more struggle and effort that goes into creating and executing a mission, the more enjoyable it is. This makes a little sense to me, because it makes achievements more authentic, and since so much effort was put in, the payout is more satisfying.

Frankly i'm just here for the ability to create my own spaceships and fly them around, something which so few other videogames provide, at least in a scope equal to KSP's. Orbital mechanics and all that was just a little tidbit of knowledge that i'm glad i know now. For this reason i'm slightly against the drive for realism, as more limitations=less capability=less capacity for creativity. But Whatever. Just my two cents.

So, what do you want from this game? do you want a harder, more realistic experience, or do you want an easy, creative one, or maybe a little bit of both, ore maybe something else entirely? I'd genuinely love to hear!

[Thomas988]

I want better terrain. What KSP currently just does not feel very interesting (such as Duna and Moho, in my opinion). I don't know how Squad could create high-definition terrain, but I would certainly kill to have it.

I'd also ask for full-scale planets, but that would be better off as a toggleable option or DLC.

[foxkill2342]

I want to have a career save where I am running a cargo operation traveling from planet to planet having random adventures.

[regex]

It seems (to me) that what most people on these forums seem to want this game to be is orbiter with ship-building. Am i correct in thinking this, or am i horribly wrong?

I would think otherwise, but...

I personally want a highly-detailed sim from this game. Information overload, additional fuels, proper ISRU, no abstractions (any more than necessary, anyway, I'd rather not be designing the wiring harness for my SAS module), a realistic solar system scale, etc... I won't get that, although RO/RSS gets pretty close.

I think 1.0 hit a nice sweet spot for the stock game. It's still a light-hearted game/sim but it has enough detail to make things interesting and the new systems will make modding it for realism even more awesome.

do you want a harder, more realistic experience

Realistic =/= harder. Seriously, quit spreading this meme.

[Slam_Jones]

Everyone wants something different (ESPECIALLY in a sandbox game).

For example, I've been using it more as a ground-vehicle simulator: building cars and crashing them and such. The current aero system isn't great for it, so I've modded my game to make rover creation/testing more pleasant and enjoyable.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who haven't even begun to do anything like what I'm doing.

TL;DR - everyone wants something different, and that's okay.

[quasarrgames]

I want better terrain. What KSP currently just does not feel very interesting (such as Duna and Moho, in my opinion). I don't know how Squad could create high-definition terrain, but I would certainly kill to have it.

I'd also ask for full-scale planets, but that would be better off as a toggleable option or DLC.

Interesting . Might i ask why? for the sake of making the game harder or more realistic?

I want to have a career save where I am running a cargo operation traveling from planet to planet having random adventures.

That sounds really cool I so want that!

[Frozen_Heart]

I'd like a tad more realism. Heat management, very simple life support.

Also the stats of parts moved towards realism as well. That went completely out the window in the name of balance. (e.g vacuum engines have the power of hair dryers on Kerbin)

Proper scale as well.

[adinfinitum]

Honestly I'd rather have the game be more realistic than not, my ideal game would be orbiter/flight sim where I can make whatever ship I want, extending off into future tech and colonization in late, late game. I love orbiter and flight sims, but only having the packaged ships and no station construction gets boring after a while

I've definitely noticed the divide between the two groups of people, and I'd been meaning to make a thread like this with a poll attached. It'd be like before you played KSP did you play a) orbiter, flight sims, c) a&b, and d) none of the above.

[Raptor9]

...I don't know how Squad could create high-definition terrain, but I would certainly kill to have it...

Seeing as killing Kerbals is an acceptable gameplay mechanic, I don't think your argument holds much weight.

[ddenis]

First of all and most of all I want to see polishing of this game... Where each element is in harmony with everything else. And I ok if little new functionality would be added... But it's a dream.

This game never would be polished.

[Col_Jessep]

I'd like planes and spaceplanes to be more relevant for science gathering. I know, tall order but it would be nice.

[Yakuzi]

1. Interesting planetary surfaces to explore

2. A proper career mode with (weekly/monthly/annual) funding, wages, mission proposals and planetary exploitation (would require Kerbal Alarm Clock or equivalent).

3. Informative craft details (dV would be the bare minimum), guestimating how your new craft will work get's old pretty quickly

[Renegrade]

So, what do you want from this game? do you want a harder, more realistic experience, or do you want an easy, creative one, or maybe a little bit of both, ore maybe something else entirely? I'd genuinely love to hear!

*cough* ore?

I like the abstractions and simplifications and small scale, but I insist that at least high level, general scientific principles apply. For example - you need to expel mass for a craft to move. No infinite electrical engines ala Space Engineers. Solar power obeys the inverse-square law. Aero has at least a passing resemblance to reality (nosecones help, not hinder, and long craft are better than wide craft, for example). That sort of business. Basically, giving you the feel of an actual space program, but without getting into the nitty gritty of having to worry that a particular stage has enough helium to push all the fuel out of the tank etc.

[razark]

I'd love to see more realism in the science. Something more than the "push button, number goes up" thing it's got now. Also, more stuff to do on planet surfaces would be nice, and more purpose to satellites. I don't care about real-sized planets. It would make a great option, along with random/procedural starting solar systems. The miniature system is fine by me, as long as the physics is scaled to keep the same challenges that are faced by actual spaceflight. Heating should be an issue on re-entry, SSTOs should be a challenge, aerodynamics should treat planes like planes, etc. I've really grown tired of the "craptastic" aesthetic that's been attached to the game. Parts found by the side of the road or junkyard was cute at the beginning, but it's become kind of annoying to me, along with the "treat KSP as a lolsplosion generator!" thing. I'm not a big fan of fluffy sci-fi stuff like warp drives. I'd like to see future technology kept more to the hard sci-fi aspects. Colony building could be an interesting way to get younger people to start thinking about what it would actually take to make us a multiple-planet species. I would love to see a career mode that takes you from 1930's level sounding rockets and propeller planes and drags you through early uncrewed launches, the beginnings of the jet age, pushing the envelope further, faster, and higher with every flight, until you're finally ready to put a Kerbal into space and beyond. (Ok, yes. I want a game of The Right Stuff, Kerbal Edition.)

As for the hard/challenging/realistic vs. creativity/fun, I think that there is plenty of room for creativity in a realistic system. It took a lot of creativity to make Apollo happen. There were a lot of challenges to be conquered, and a lot of people came up with some very creative ways to make it happen. Just because Armstrong didn't ride a SSTO plane to the moon doesn't mean the LM wasn't creative. Lunar Orbit Rendezvous was a creative solution to the problem of a building and launching a massive lander. Hell, the even made a folding car!

Realism just means that you have to be creative in a different way. Some people find their fun in finding a creative solution to a challenging problem. "I can't build a spaceplane the way I want" doesn't mean you're prevented from being creative. It just means that you need to find a different way, just like the fact that I can't build a spacecraft that flies with no engines doesn't mean I can't build something else. It just means that propulsionless rockets aren't an option.

That's my thoughts on what I like and don't like. They don't match yours, but that's doesn't mean that neither of us can have fun, or that either of us is wrong. We just have different ideas. (It most likely means that neither of us is going to get the perfect game we want, though.)

Edited May 12, 2015 by razark

[Tourist]

Honestly, for me, this game felt almost feature complete when they added docking, even though career mode had not been implemented yet, everything else has been gravy. Squad has done a good job.

Having said that, I think career could use a bit more work. An end state would be good. For instance, land (and return science from) at least Mun, Moho, Duna, and Eve and/or Tylo (maybe not Eve). Also, a purpose for science after the tech tree has been opened up... I say this because in my last shot at Career (before 1.0) I'd opened up the entire tech tree, having only gotten as far as Minmus.... and I wasn't even really grinding science (not sure if I could manage that since release, not that far yet.)

One way they could do it would be to have some uber expensive tech at the very end of the tree, which requires you to get a lot of science... this tech being essentially just a win state. A "warp drive" or some such (I was thinking along the lines of Scott Manly's interstellar series.)

Also more complex contracts would be good to. Perhaps, a Mun shot, which requires you to place satellites around Mun and Kerbin first (for the TV signals of course) so that completion of the contract has multiple stages to it. Ie placing and arranging the satellites, launching the mission. etc. This would not be too hard, the contract types already exist, they just need to merge them.

I know much of these things can be done by mods and community challenges, but would be good to see it implemented in stock.

[sumghai]

My one true (and unchanging desire) for KSP was, is and always shall be for SQUAD to fully open up the game's API and provide more parameters/options/documentation for the stock PartModules, so that add-on authors can fully extend the core game to cater for any and all playstyles

[Robotengineer]

My one true (and unchanging desire) for KSP was, is and always shall be for SQUAD to fully open up the game's API and provide more parameters/options/documentation for the stock PartModules, so that add-on authors can fully extend the core game to cater for any and all playstyles

This. If this happens, nearly all of my wants could be solved by mods.

[match]

I'd like to see the science experiments pay off more than points to increase the selection of stuff to use. (An abstraction, at best.)

Something along the lines of thermometer + barometer (at low altitude) = ?? i dunno, greater understanding of sound barrier? Aerodynamic parts now 10% cheaper to build?

Sounds a bit cheesy and reeks of crafting like some MMO... but I don't get a huge sense of accomplishment from simply achieving points.

[luizopiloto]

what I want from thing game? multiplayer... mmo style... and a bit less drag on low altitudes...

[NonWonderDog]

Also the stats of parts moved towards realism as well. That went completely out the window in the name of balance. (e.g vacuum engines have the power of hair dryers on Kerbin)

That part, at least, is much more realistic than it used to be. For an engine with a 100:1 bell on the end, a sea-level Isp of 50 or less is perfectly reasonable. In order to gain an extra 40 Isp in vacuum you pretty much have to give up any possibility of operating in atmosphere. The visual models of the engines don't match that at all, unfortunately.

Also, THANK YOU devs for finally making engine thrust vary with Isp.

[Motokid600]

More interesting and detailed surfaces. A higher resolution texture would be a nice start. Then perminent foot prints and rover tracks

[Aerindel]

I want a game that simulates the Kerbal space program. This means that it must have strict internal consistency but not necessarily realism with the outside world. Right now it has neither.

I also want a story of some kind. Something like an alien artifact near the KSP that gives the location of one on the Mun, which leads to one on Minmus...and so on until you find some cave on Laythe with an alien starship inside with anti-gravity drive that you can get in and fly as an endgame reward. I like sandbox games but I absolutely think they should all have some kind of story and some kind of ultimate in game goal. Even minecraft had this.

[HoloYolo]

MOAR PLANETS! And I just don't want more, I want variety. Like a comet there, a moon for Eeloo etc.

[quasarrgames]

Very interesting perspective Razark

I'd love to see more realism in the science. Something more than the "push button, number goes up" thing it's got now.

However, i've heard this argument time and time again, but i've never seen any real ideas as to how to make science good. What is it that would make science everything you wanted it to be? Minigames like "find the various mineral deposits in the soil sample" or "calculate the acceleration due to gravity by comparing the planet's size to your orbital velocity"? Or just a simple discovery system where you know jack squat about a planet until you actually conduct experiments on it (although i think this would still require clicky incrementation) ? Or maybe something i haven't thought of? I'd like to know.

[Tank Buddy]

I'd like a tad more realism. Heat management, very simple life support.

Since Re-entry heat has been implemented I actually would not mind simple life support. I also agree with what was mentioned before: RSS as a DLC. I think some of the graphical and audio mods (hot/cool rockets, cloud scatter, planet shine, collision FX, RCS sounds, etc.) would bring the game to my highest expectations in the realm of audio and graphics. (Maybe add sonic booms and other audio features for transsonic flight)

Or just a simple discovery system where you know jack squat about a planet until you actually conduct experiments on it

If SQUAD made fairly detailed reports for each instrument and planet I think I would enjoy collecting science.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Tank Buddy