KSP is coming to the Wii U

[Starwhip]

You people need to quit hating on the Wii U. It's a capable game system. I have it, and some of the game hold up excellent graphically, especially Smash Bros. and Mario Kart. I'm sure they can optimize KSP to run pretty decently on Wii. The only downside is lack of mods.

Speaking of Smash Bros...

Is Jeb now a serious contendor to be in smash at some point in the future

That could be interesting.

[BlueCanary]

Will console KSP be like console minecraft, as in getting content later than PC versions and having less features available? Or will it be a complete mirror of PC KSP? Is that even possible with console hardware?

[Majorjim!]

That statement needs some context though. Damon Baker said:

We feel we have the definitive version on Wii U because of our interface…You’ll be able to

utilize the touchscreen and the GamePad in a number of different ways from actually

building the spacecraft and navigating the spacecraft and even getting different

perspectives. You’ll be able to fly the spacecraft from the cockpit utilizing the GamePad

as a different viewpoint.

Has anyone here used the Wii U touch pad? Building with it will be an absolute nightmare. Seriously, you wont have anywhere near the precision of mouse and keyboard. I can place things with pixel perfect precision with the mouse. LOOL Nintendo, in my eyes, died a long time ago. After the gamecube in fact.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, your post made me think of a few points points. I agree myself that they are not a very good band but secondly they never said it was their primary aim. Another point is that Squad are not artists but software developers who are in the business of selling a game, being they are also primarily businessmen.

After a couple of recent news announcements from Squad I think the way to influence them to do what we want is to make them think it will hurt profits to NOT do it...

I notice you didn`t actually disagree with anything in my post, I didn`t even call them a band and in fact you agreed that they were in the music business as businessmen. What they said was that the reason they were in the music *business*, rather than just making music for the sake of art, was to sell records. If they were only concerned with the art they would not have started on the road of selling records, in a similar way if Harvester only cared about making his game about `little green men` for art/himself etc we would not have even known about it. Instead he started on the road of making KSP into a business and like the universally despised UB40 he didn`t do that to NOT sell copies.

The last point was, it was supposed to be a humorous/witty quote.

When did everyone around here lose their sense of humour?

EDIT :

Myself I could not care less whether KSP can be implemented on a Wii-u, a PS4 or an Xbone. I have net been made angry by the less than perfect Mac version and I have not been driven into a frenzy of angry posting about Linux having a 64 bit client. The 3rd party team developing KerbalEDU does not affect my day much either and the EDU version actually has features I would like in the standard client.

I am actually happy they decided to not replace the Devnotes with the announcement this time.

The game is vastly improved since I first started playing and there are signs it will continue to improve. If modding becomes easier and the API allows more access then removing the memory ceiling is really all that is needed and that looks likely. The features I like most are added by mods anyway.

Yes it may not have made much sense.. I had three hours sleep before a 13 hour shift.. Sorry mate.

[nightingale]

Personally I find this far more exciting than any of the other console announcements. Not because I care about any of the consoles (PC master race, etc.), but because the 2 GB limit of the Wii U may force Squad into implementing some sort of load on demand system for all​ platforms.

[magico13]

Personally I find this far more exciting than any of the other console announcements. Not because I care about any of the consoles (PC master race, etc.), but because the 2 GB limit of the Wii U may force Squad into implementing some sort of load on demand system for all​ platforms.

This would be wonderful, except that without mods and without the texture duplication bug with DX9 KSP pretty easily takes up less than 2 gigs of RAM, so they won't be forced into looking into a load on demand type system.

As for the announcement in general, I think if they cater the controls to it properly it could work pretty well. The Wii U really isn't that powerful though (I have one, it lags with actual Wii U games quite badly sometimes, even Netflix takes a minute to open. The lack of power is very noticeable), so I do worry about how much you'll really be able to do. Hopefully this forces some serious optimization, which will translate back to the PC version.

I'll probably get it (depending on how much it costs) simply because I have a Wii U already. Though it's very, very likely I'll just stick to the PC version when I actually want to play.

[Superfluous J]

"We feel we have the definitive version on Wii U because of our interface…You’ll be able to utilize the touchscreen and the GamePad in a number of different ways from actually building the spacecraft and navigating the spacecraft and even getting different perspectives. You’ll be able to fly the spacecraft from the cockpit utilizing the GamePad as a different viewpoint."

Haha right...

No in marketingspeke he's totally correct. You just need to translate

KSP is coming out on the Wii-U.

[SelectHalfling0]

It would certainly be easier to create a usable user interface (gamepad).

[DMagic]

Will console KSP be like console minecraft, as in getting content later than PC versions and having less features available? Or will it be a complete mirror of PC KSP? Is that even possible with console hardware?

The only real comparison that I can think of is with the city builder/murderous dictator simulator Tropico (if you haven't played Tropico you should go play it now, it's great). The game simulates each citizen, where they work, live, go to school, who their family is etc..., and it's all very CPU dependent. On the PC there is a limit of around 2000 people per island (there are ways to increase this, but you will always run into CPU performance problems at some point), but on the XBox version the population cap was reduced to something like 500-600.

The game was otherwise the same, but limited to much smaller cities.

Without any mods I would expect KSP to work fine on consoles, just with some similar kind of part limit, or maybe just with terrible performance above a certain point. It doesn't seem like it should be that hard to get RAM usage down, cut most of the textures down by 1/4 and you would probably be close to the Wii U's 1GB limit, or put a little effort into cleaning up all of the wasteful texture usage and get the same effect with less of a drop in quality; the other consoles shouldn't have a problem with that.

[SkyRender]

Honestly, the Wii U is the only platform I can see handling KSP well from a control perspective outside of the PC. Convoluted interfaces would be necessary to carry over most of the functionality of the PC version to typical consoles (building in particular would be a nightmare with analog sticks), but the presence of an actual touchscreen ups the options considerably. The hardware limitations are not even half the big deal they're being made out to be; I've heard tell of people getting KSP to run just fine on less powerful hardware before. Really, controls are what make or break a game more than anything else (loading times being the next big one on the list). And in that regard, the Wii U version will potentially be the best version after the PC one.

[xtoro]

I see only one way to build easily with joysticks and touchscreens...

First, parts won't float around in the air. Everything will be like using widgets. You pick a part and it gets attached to the last node in the part tree. From there you would have an option like holding ALT where it snaps from node to node. Or, widget style where it will slide along the surfaces and you place it where you want, then add symmetry or rotate, and then press the attach button.

For joysticks it's easy. One stick moves the part, the other rotates the camera. Pressing the left and right triggers rotate on one axis, and the Dpad rotates the others. Hold A(or PS4 symbol) to snap to node like holding ALT on PC. Press B for symmetry. Holding Y while rotating gives more precision. Pressing X attaches the part in place. The second set of trigger buttons zoom in and out.

Wii touch screen will have to adapt some other way.

[Bedwyr]

Good grief are some of the reactions in this thread out of proportion. I'm happy to see some of the silly reactions earlier in the thread have died down, but still... my word. Without much more information I can offer nothing more than some worry that they can pull off three console ports in succession, congratulations and best wishes to Flying Tiger, congratulations and best wishes to Squad for expanding the popularity of the game, and a warm welcome to console fans.

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: "[squad] is not your ...... This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly [squad] is, indeed, your ....., and should be out there [programming] what you want to [play] right now. People are not machines. Writers and artists [and programmers and designers] aren't machines."

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

Words of wisdom from a wise man, certainly applicable here, and worth remembering to bring your role as fans and occasional co-creators in the mod-universe back into proper prospective.

[Superfluous J]

I see only one way to build easily with joysticks and touchscreens...

First, parts won't float around in the air. Everything will be like using widgets. You pick a part and it gets attached to the last node in the part tree. From there you would have an option like holding ALT where it snaps from node to node. Or, widget style where it will slide along the surfaces and you place it where you want, then add symmetry or rotate, and then press the attach button.

For joysticks it's easy. One stick moves the part, the other rotates the camera. Pressing the left and right triggers rotate on one axis, and the Dpad rotates the others. Hold A(or PS4 symbol) to snap to node like holding ALT on PC. Press B for symmetry. Holding Y while rotating gives more precision. Pressing X attaches the part in place. The second set of trigger buttons zoom in and out.

Wii touch screen will have to adapt some other way.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[StrandedonEarth]

Latest news: ksp is being ported to tassimo machines

KSP: Keurig Space Program. The MkI-2 capsule is shaped like a K-cup

[waterlubber]

I don't even. Well, OK, the port itself doesn't concern me as long as it doesn't harm PC version. But NINTENDO????? What, noone remembers their abuse of the Youtube Content ID system? And Squad intends to do business with them? Seriously?

The second that Nintendo puts a claim on any video or anything related to KSP will be the end of the community forever.

[CalculusWarrior]

KSP: Keurig Space Program. The MkI-2 capsule is shaped like a K-cup

I'd play that.

[Superfluous J]

I got you all beat. I'm playing KSP on a slide rule.

/actually own a slide rule.

/have vague memories of how to use it.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Has anyone here used the Wii U touch pad? Building with it will be an absolute nightmare. Seriously, you wont have anywhere near the precision of mouse and keyboard. I can place things with pixel perfect precision with the mouse. LOOL Nintendo, in my eyes, died a long time ago. After the gamecube in fact.

[...]

Have you ever tried WASD editor cam? Really awesome mod for building, let's you get really close to every part in the craft. It made the SS1 not a complete nightmare. Not really relevant, I know, but it really makes building easier.

I think the WiiU will be up to KSP because of performance improvements in KSP.

[Majorjim!]

Have you ever tried WASD editor cam? Really awesome mod for building, let's you get really close to every part in the craft. It made the SS1 not a complete nightmare. Not really relevant, I know, but it really makes building easier.

I think the WiiU will be up to KSP because of performance improvements in KSP.

Thanks man, but to be honest I have no use for it. I've been using the VAB since day one so I am totally at home with the camera. I can get as close as I want to every part. Take a look inside my old X-37b made from cubic struts. That was a tight fit!

[Linear]

Wow, game must be really well optimised to run on that piece of crap. Congrats, Squad/FT! :-)

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Thanks man, but to be honest I have no use for it. I've been using the VAB since day one so I am totally at home with the camera. I can get as close as I want to every part. Take a look inside my old X-37b made from cubic struts. That was a tight fit!

Okay, I have no doubt that you can build without it.

[Linear]

I'm starting to think the console versions won't be as close to the PC version as initially thought.

Tri-core under developed processor with 2gb memory, running a game that's struggled/failed to keep to 60fps on modern core i5 desktops with 4gb+ ram, unless U5 is a crazy performance, it must be a very different game. As much as I'd hate to see that.

[Majorjim!]

Okay, I have no doubt that you can build without it.

He he, thanks man. I am happy you wanted to share with me.

[Mysterion]

But they're not done with it .-.

That's the PROBLEM. They released a very much so unfinished product. In my personal opinion, realistic aero and reentry damage should have been put in before a full version. Those are pretty big changes to be placing in the first full release. At least Minecraft had their stuff together before releasing a full. Now they're IMPROVING on what they've done.

Squad is by no means a bad company, and I'll stick with them. Hell, I'd sink with them if KSP was a sinking ship. But they're not perfect, they've made alot of mistakes. They're bound to make more. Scrutinizing every mistake isn't how things are fixed. Civilized discussion is.

Not sure if I've just contradicted myself there, but in the end...

TL;DR: Squad is definitely messing up, and they definitely have messed up, and will mess up. But they- like us- are human, and so we should give them the benefit of the doubt.

[RyanRising]

My reaction went like this: "Oh, haha, this is like that 'Is playing KSP cheating?' thread. *click* Wait, this can't be right. They're serious?" But then I realized that, power aside, the Wii U seems to have the best controlling system for a game like KSP that has appeared on a console.

[herman]

My advice to any who wish to complain: learn to do so tactfully. Insulting 10 million people who bought a Wii U by declaring that they're all "kids, soccer moms and grannies" is not tactful. Not even a little.

When did being tactful ever get anywhere? All I've seen from KSP people is tactful since the porting madness started months back, and it hasn't done anything (except give us more ports). If you bought the game and want to influence it, being clear and opinionated is the way to save it. Not being milquetoast until its too late.

Consoles are great for arcade games, but not simulations, and nearly everyone on this forum wants some sort of simulation. The console market will not want the same things we do, and will move development in another direction.

Long range prediction: Given the proven market, in two years we'll see competent KSP clones dividing the market. Squad will be neck deep trying to sell schools Wii's, faxing NASA for more licensing rights, and creating yet another set of jet engine parts.

KSP has an opportunity to be the king space simulator for a long time, but they're wasting their lead.