"A lot of work is definitely still ahead, but 2016 is looking like it might be a mighty fine year for us"

[Kerba Fett]

I found that line in the latest Dev Blog to be pretty interesting. Last april when they made a big fuss out of leaving early access I assumed there wasn't a lot of work to do. Now it's 8 months later, they're still adding features and they've gone back to admitting that the game is nowhere near finished. So when will it be finished? Later this year? 2017? Is there even an estimate?

 

I for one would be happy enough with a nice stable 64 bit version so I could choose my own mods without running out of memory rather than waiting for Squad to build all their favorite mods into the stock game.

They've already spent plenty of time to make stock versions of Kethane, FAR, and Deadly Reentry. Version 1.1 is supposed to have the stock version of Remote Tech.

Instead of spending time to duplicate what someone else has already done, why not work on stuff that modders can't do? More interactive IVA's that we can move around in would be a great start. Perhaps working on the performance of ships ships with high part counts would be possible. Maybe they could do some official modding tutorials rather than the random patchwork of info that's out there now.

I'm sure there's a huge list of things that only squad can do if they weren't distracted by trying to add new content that modders have already done. 

[Terwin]

9 minutes ago, Kerba Fett said:

I'm sure there's a huge list of things that only squad can do if they weren't distracted by trying to add new content that modders have already done. 

I expect that a majority of what is feasible to do already has mods for it.

But just because a Mod exists for something before Squad gets around to it, does not mean it should come off of Squad's to-do list.  (a good example of this would be the stock bug-fix mod)

Also, Mods are a good indication of what things are important to the players(if a mod is in use by a large number of players, that may indicate that it would be a good thing to prioritize for the core game, especially if it is already on the to-do list).

Finally, KSP is highly modable, I am not aware of anything aside from the Unity game engine that could not be changed by a Mod, so if no mod exists for something, it is probably not important enough to worry about just yet.  (note: I am not 100% confident that a Mod could not replace the Unity 4 engine with a different engine, I just suspect it would be very very difficult)

 

 

[Robotengineer]

1.0 was just a marketing thing as far as I can tell. It could have been .27, .91, .99, or anything else and still have the same content and quality level. IMO, 1.0 felt like just another release, albeit one with more content than the releases shortly (relative to KSP development timespan) before it.

I don't think the game will ever be 'finished', at least in terms of all of the features being added, all of the artwork being polished/redone, etc, because of two things: 1) Computers and the engine are limited. Even with U5 and 64bit, the game will only be able to grow so much before it won't run. 2) Different players will have different definitions of finished. The game will be finished when Squad is done developing it. KSP will be 'finished' in the way that a dead animal is finished, not in the way that a masterpiece is finished.

[pandaman]

19 minutes ago, Kerba Fett said:

I found that line in the latest Dev Blog to be pretty interesting. Last april when they made a big fuss out of leaving early access I assumed there wasn't a lot of work to do. Now it's 8 months later, they're still adding features and they've gone back to admitting that the game is nowhere near finished. So when will it be finished? Later this year? 2017? Is there even an estimate?

 

I for one would be happy enough with a nice stable 64 bit version so I could choose my own mods without running out of memory rather than waiting for Squad to build all their favorite mods into the stock game.

They've already spent plenty of time to make stock versions of Kethane, FAR, and Deadly Reentry. Version 1.1 is supposed to have the stock version of Remote Tech.

Instead of spending time to duplicate what someone else has already done, why not work on stuff that modders can't do? More interactive IVA's that we can move around in would be a great start. Perhaps working on the performance of ships ships with high part counts would be possible. Maybe they could do some official modding tutorials rather than the random patchwork of info that's out there now.

I'm sure there's a huge list of things that only squad can do if they weren't distracted by trying to add new content that modders have already done. 

'Finished' is very subjective, there are always new things they can add or old things they can tweak, so it probably never will be 'finished' as such.

[Vanamonde]

Terminology changes over time. Calling it 1.0 no longer indicates that a game is "finished." KSP's development is more open-ended, and the developers add the content they believe benefits the game, whether it resembles an existing mod or not. 

Also, moved to development discussions. 

[klgraham1013]

Projects being finished is less about quality or features, and more about when development stops.  You can never do everything you want, and soon enough, you just have to let it go and call it done.

I would love to go back to the days when 1.0 meant something. 

[Andem]

@klgraham1013 1.0 did mean something... going out of early access.

[klgraham1013]

8 minutes ago, Andem said:

@klgraham1013 1.0 did mean something... going out of early access.

I would love to go back to the days when leaving early access meant something.

KappaKerman

Edited January 16, 2016 by klgraham1013

[Frozen_Heart]

On ‎10‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 1:01 PM, klgraham1013 said:

Projects being finished is less about quality or features, and more about when development stops.  You can never do everything you want, and soon enough, you just have to let it go and call it done.

I would love to go back to the days when 1.0 meant something. 

I prefer game development these days where 1.0 is meaningless. A game can continue being improved constantly over time to keep bringing new players in and keep the old ones engaged.

[Snark]

I have to say I've never really understood the controversy over calling it 1.0, or being unhappy with the fact that Squad's still putting features in.

I've spent an insane number of hours playing this game.  Blissfully.  And it cost just US$27.  That's an incredible value proposition.  And then the devs just keep on adding more and more goodies, making the game cooler, and I get all that for free without lifting a finger?  What could there possibly be to complain about?

And I have to say:  I've been pretty happy with where Squad has chosen to put their engineer-hours, for the most part.  I like their choices about features to add to the game.  (Well, except for all the love being lavished on spaceplanes for patch after patch after patch while actual rockets just languish... grumble grumble)

Better aero was really important to add to the game; it was a huge hole, a desperately needed missing feature.  Ditto re-entry heating and heatshields.  Adding resource mining was also really important.  I think telemetry's also worthwhile adding to the game.

I don't think of that as "Squad wasting time building something that modders have done already."  I think of it as "Squad is putting great features into the game, as fast as they can, on a demanding development schedule, and they can't help it if some modder somewhere has already made a feature like that at some point."  Actually, I think it's great that way:  by the time Squad gets around to adding a feature to the game, they've had time to see how the community has reacted to earlier mod-based versions of the feature, so they have a higher likelihood of "getting it right" when they ship it.

To make an analogy:  The modders are the pioneers and homesteaders.  Squad is putting in roads and residential subdivisions. It takes longer.  Both serve their functions.

Heck, if Squad never added a feature that modders have done already, the game would have stopped developing long ago, and would be immeasurably the poorer for it.

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Snark