PS4 Announcement Discussion

[sal_vager]

Should be easy enough to get used to the controls, I play KSP with touchpad and keyboard, it's not bad.

[Arsonik]

...Alrighty.

To be fair I mostly was in agreement with your position. It is the people going on about controls and hardware limitations, calling the doom of the game because of... minecraft? And so on and so forth. The amount of pure speculation in this thread isn't unusual except that most of it is unfounded. You just happened to be the first person I commented to.

-snip-

Edited June 17, 2015 by KasperVld

[KasperVld]

I appreciate the more constructive discussions we've been seeing, but Squad's financial position is not something we're comfortable discussing, or seeing discussed in these forums

[RocketPilot573]

Honesty I think most people are more upset about the lack of devnotes rather than the whole PS4 thing. The same goes for reddit.

May I suggest, Devnote Wednesday?

[Akira_R]

As long as this doesn't result in any sacrifices having to be made on the PC version in order for things to work on the PS4 version then I could really care less.

I would never change platforms simply because you wont be able to mod the console version, and trying to build intricate satellites and spaceplanes on a game pad sounds horrific lol, however I realize the goal here isn't to get people o migrate it is to open the game up to a wider audience.

-snip-

Edited June 17, 2015 by KasperVld

[RocketPilot573]

Also HarvesteR just posted this article: (In case anyone misses it)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content/345-KSP-and-Unity-5

[Randazzo]

I will admit I am not looking forward to an influx of console kiddies on the forums though

Yeah, it'd be a shame to see the forum riddled with immature, hysterical posts or anything like that.

[pandaman]

Like most on here I was a bit disappointed with the Dev notes. Yes, PS4 is a hugely important thing for KSP, whether or not it is of interest to any of us individually, it's not to me, I don't have, and will very likely never have a console, but I understand the significance of it.

I felt let down by there being no actual Dev notes of any sort. I knew there likely wouldn't be much news on 1.0.3, but a few words along the lines of "Only back in the office yesterday so nothing much to report, 1.0.3 progressing well please bear with us while we get it as good as we can" would have been nice, and may well have avoided a lot of the anger.

Will PS4 have an impact on normal development? It must have some impact, yes of course some Dev time will be needed to communicate, check and approve etc, but it may also help in other areas and speed some things up as they find solutions to some problems. So I don't think it will be a major issue overall.

I really don't get all the outright hostility towards squad on this thread, in particular in regard to how much money they have made and how they should spend it. It's their business and they should run it as they see fit.

Whilst adding more devs sounds like a good plan it may not be the best way for them to work (too many cooks spoil the broth, and all that), they know their business better than any of us, it's their choice.

I do not agree with how they do things all the time, but being hostile is counter productive.

[Accelerando]

That's sheer speculation, we have no idea what money Squad has not spent or on what. Perhaps we are starting to see the benefits of more development money right now, with the collaboration (hiring?) of FT for the PS4 port. Which, Maxmaps has said has already paid off with their Unity 5 help.

Most of the two years for resources was spent working on other features... and deciding what the resource system should be. Actual implementation was handled in much less time, by RoverDude, who crafted a variation of Karbonite. Career mode got most of the focus in recent updates, with the addition (v.90) and then expansion (v1.0) of Arsonide's Fine Print contract extensions.

Karbonite being essentially a variation of Kethane, and Resources being Karbonite stripped down to the bare minimum. This is exactly what I mean; this very model was present and popular two years ago. So it took two years to come to the conclusion that what the community wanted was stripped down Kethane, one way or another? I am somehow skeptical.

As for Flying Tiger, I will once again question the "help"-fulness of a company that makes such gems as Hookups Wallpaper. (And yes, I will always harp on this. I will never not harp on this. For this is a Bad Thing.)

The Aero overhaul is part of the simulation. It could have been released without new spaceplane parts. I think its awesome that we did get the new parts, and the bigger wings and landing gears. (Only Squad could say if one was waiting on the other.) Squad has always straddled a line between simulation and gameplay; FAR in my view, was always going to be "too FAR" for Squad's taste.

I completely agree that it could have been released without the new spaceplane parts, but that's not what I mean. From my memory, it was SQUAD themselves who said that because of spaceplane parts that the aero overhaul was being held up, at least back when Chad was a part of the team. I'll have to dig that up, sorry. However, to address your other point: NEAR was launched nearly a year ago. Ferram has consistently shown that he is a capable coder who is well up to the task of making aerodynamics simulations for KSP. My point being that KSP could have had better aero two years ago - which would already have been months after the initial release of FAR.

There's no need for "lines" between simulation and gameplay, but that's a whole other topic and I've said what I'll say with regards to that here.

let go? More speculation. We only know what some have chosen to share. The last two to announce that they are leaving Squad did so in the Devnotes, suggesting they left on good terms.

Good terms or otherwise, the point is that they left, and during their time the game didn't garner much benefit to its gameplay from most of them. (Which is not to say that they are not good modders, nor developers.) I appreciate that the work was done, and I applaud the modders who signed on to take their time, but when all's said and done the end result has mostly been fetch quests, which is really an extension of "make rocket go place, come back". That's not interesting to me and, judging from that thread about resources you linked, not to a lot of other players either.

While it's true that the community is full of talent, Squad has in fact tapped that talent from time to time. Witness RoverDude's work on the resource system, Arsonide's contracts, and Porkjet's spaceplane parts.

I have witnessed all of these things and I am left spectacularly underwhelmed, as you see me now.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Accelerando

[TheRag]

Yeah, it'd be a shame to see the forum riddled with immature, hysterical posts or anything like that.

Simple enough, let them build their own forum if the integration proves terrible for the forums. Or install a section dedicated to only the consoles, like a sub-forum.

[Rainbowtrout]

Let's have a peek at the Keybindings, and a diagram of a PS4 controller. Looks like we may be missing a couple of buttons. Without a doubt, action groups would be ruined. I also think building in the VAB would be quite awkward. Controls-wise, KSPS4 will be lacking.

Mods. Mods turn this game from great to amazing. Like another game with a large modding community that was ported to console following an official release... *cough* *cough* I've played Minecraft on Xbox 360. The large worlds (part of Minecraft's allure) are trimmed down immensely, and you have to PAY for texture packs and skins, which are free on PC. Judging by this (Best example I could find), if mods are available, they probably would end up being paid for. Probably.

But let's look at the positives. This will bring wider recognition. Hell, one day I could go to my local GAME, and see KSP, in full public view, as a bestselling game, and a child picks it up. That would make me happy.

[cantab]

I will just say, I've tried KSP on Xbox 360 controller the dual shock 4 and xbone controller, none of them where any good in the slightest within the editor.

-Sam

All that shows though is that KSP's editor currently isn't suited to gamepads, not that a gamepad-friendly editor is impossible.

I appreciate the more constructive discussions we've been seeing, but Squad's financial position is not something we're comfortable discussing, or seeing discussed in these forums

Does Squad not have to publicly file accounts or similar? I don't know the rules on businesses in Mexico.

[Sandworm]

A port to Sony?

I know that every developer dreams of a mincraft-style buyout, winning the lottery is fun, but such pandering leads to nothing. Sony is not interested. They aren't going to grab the latest hot indi game today just because Microsoft bought minecraft yesturday. Porting it over to ps4 in hope of creating buzz is not going to get their attention.

KSP should address the longstanding issues that, today, now, right now, are limiting KSP. Just look at youtube. There aren't any great KSP vids anymore. It's just dozens of half-hearted kids playing "career mode for beginners" with views in the low thousands. Manley's zombiewalk through career mode is downright depressing. If Squad wants new buzz it needs to correct the horrific mission system and make career mode actually fun. Abandon the indi-trope of procedural generation. KSP will never be a roguelike. Revert to authored, story-driven mission packs that can be written by the community. That will restart the youtube buzz machine and theoretically get Sony's attention.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Sandworm

[Robotengineer]

Also HarvesteR just posted this article: (In case anyone misses it)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content/345-KSP-and-Unity-5

Perhaps the devs at Flying Tiger aren't as bad as we thought. Good article, more than makes up for not having a devnote. It even restores most of my belief that Squad will do a good job.

[Red Iron Crown]

Does Squad not have to publicly file accounts or similar? I don't know the rules on businesses in Mexico.

They're not a publicly held company, they don't have to open their books to anyone but the taxman. Just as in the rest of the world afaik.

[xtoro]

By no means do I intend on starting a console war by saying this, because although I own several, I'm a PC player. But, when comparing the PS4 and XBox One's hardware, I'm surprised that the PS4 is the choice. While the PS4 has a slightly better GPU, KSP is CPU intensive and is not heavy on the GPU as it does not use things like bump mapping etc. When you compare the CPU's, they both use the same 8-core processor: Custom 1.75 GHz AMD 8 core APU (2 Quad-Core Jaguar modules). But the XBox's processor has a higher clockrate, therefore higher throughput.

Like I said before, KSP's bottleneck is in the physics calculations done by the CPU. If it's rewritten so that it uses the GPU for physics calculations, then the PS4 would be the way to go.

Just my 0.02 m/s.

[Orionkermin]

Will we at least be getting better gamepad support for the PC version with this? I wouldn't mind occasionally flying with my xbox controller when my wrists are aching. Still want to build using the mouse though...

[Orbital Vagabond]

Lol. Everyone is freaking out about the UI, and it sounds like the UI is being revised to be PS4/U5 compatible... Hello Skyrim interfaces.

Did anyone else thing Harv's little "footnote" came off as passive aggressive/rude?

[worir4]

Will we at least be getting better gamepad support for the PC version with this? I wouldn't mind occasionally flying with my xbox controller when my wrists are aching. Still want to build using the mouse though...

You can already do this. I fly my craft with an Xbox controller. I can post my settings file if you want me to.

[KasperVld]

Lol. Everyone is freaking out about the UI, and it sounds like the UI is being revised to be PS4/U5 compatible... Hello Skyrim interfaces.

Or, as HarvesteR posted it:

Please reassure the skeptical that we're not going to get a UI intended for console play on the PC. I hope to see a KSP that realizes the potential of the PC platform and not something pared down and reduced in information.

No, not by any means. Our UI overhaul will indeed support development of a console-friendly UI, but that will be for the console version only. The PC UI will work just the same as it does now, maybe even get a few improvements for itself in the process.

Remember, KSP is a PC game being ported to run on a console. The port is branching off the main PC development code, not the other way around. We did need to work together for the Unity5 part though, because that affects everyone.

Cheers

[Guest]

Lol. Everyone is freaking out about the UI, and it sounds like the UI is being revised to be PS4/U5 compatible... Hello Skyrim interfaces.

Confirmed as Not A Thing. We're keeping the PC interface for the PC version.

No, not by any means. Our UI overhaul will indeed support development of a console-friendly UI, but that will be for the console version only. The PC UI will work just the same as it does now, maybe even get a few improvements for itself in the process.

Remember, KSP is a PC game being ported to run on a console. The port is branching off the main PC development code, not the other way around. We did need to work together for the Unity5 part though, because that affects everyone.

Cheers

[Orionkermin]

You can already do this. I fly my craft with an Xbox controller. I can post my settings file if you want me to.

Sure, I'd love to give it a shot.

What do you do about clicking on parts in flight and such? Just use the mouse for this? It would still be nice if they made it so the UI would change dynamically depending on the last input device it received a signal from. One of my favorite things about modern PC gaming is how easy it is to go back and forth between both K&M and gampad. (For most big games)

[cantab]

Businesses typically consider their finances confidential information. So do most individuals for that matter. For better or worse it's how things are. We also know Squad don't even want KSP sales figures to be public, as shown by them having demanded Steamspy not publish figures for their game.

[Guest]

-snip-

Squad's forums, Squad's rules.

Edited June 17, 2015 by KasperVld

[Tankman101]

Thread in nutshell:

/r/pcmasterrace is leaking

/kspg/ is trying to hijack this topic in order to "warn" everybody about supposedly how bad squad is (Apparently they are literally hitler).

Drama llamas making speculations when they haven't even read any information (Not the same as honest mistakes.

Sane discussion of the implications and corrections of mistakes.