No New Comms System in 1.1

[ThaZeus]

Guys they really aren't a marketing company, they were but they evolved. The did what every companydoes from time to time and did something new and it payed off! Take Nintendo fr exampe the originaly made cards and they decided (on a whim!) to start makeing video games. and now they are one of the largest video game companies in the world! Who does that sound like to you? (*cough, cough* SQUAD *cough,cough*)  

On another note: I totally agree with the deleyaing of comms networks! Unity5 and 64 bit are HIGHEST priority (to me). But keep up the good work in developing this game! It still has so much potential!

[zKrieg]

On 2/8/2016 at 4:44 AM, marach said:

, @zKrieg for example, they should get their heads out of their asses

Apparently not everyone in this community is mature enough to handle differences in opinion. Hopefully you'll learn to respect other peoples opinions as much as you expect them to respect yours.

You praise the game but than proceed to make excuses for the discrepancies. We call that hypocrisy. You can't have it both ways.

Edited February 13, 2016 by zKrieg

[Hannu2]

On 8.2.2016 at 8:13 AM, Virtualgenius said:

Would it have made the release if the console ports been put to one side and all the resources focused on the release of 1.1 for PC 

I do not believe that they are so independent production lines as SQUAD says. I am sure that console ports limit developing of PC game. But on the other hand, SQUAD needs money from console customers. I fear that without that income they would decide earlier that it is not economically feasible to develop KSP anymore. It is sad reality that restrictions of consoles affect to most commercial PC games.

I love KSP and have lots of opinions what SQUAD should do in my opinion. In many cases they are very different things than they actually do. But I can not complain quality or game value of KSP or demand more than I have got. I paid 23$ (If i remember correct, it was 18.0). I have played more than thousand hours. Maybe 2000 (I do not want to know). More than any other game ever. Fun for the buck ratio of KSP and mods are at least order of magnitude greater than any other entertainment product I have ever seen. And it will be even better because SQUAD and modders make updates and more content without extra payments. I would have no problems to pay more if I would get something interesting.

[Creature]

1 hour ago, Hannu2 said:

I would have no problems to pay more if I would get something interesting.

My thoughts exactly.

I love KSP, it's well worth the money and then some. But I've been on a hiatus for almost a year after the massive letdown that career mode was, just waiting for some new and actually interesting gameplay elements to be added. And I'm still waiting. But Unity 5 port is obviously the most important thing they need to be doing right now, also because it enables future content in a completely new way.

But I think they really should hire a designer who has experience in designing sand box-type games with progression and economy elements to create a completely new and actually interesting career mode. Call it an expansion, name it Kerbal Space Race and slap a 20€ price tag on it. If it's even remotely good, I'll pay and I bet many others will too.

The way I see it, Squad has been doing this for a while now and they've delivered a succesful product. They're not two guys in a shed coding a game, or a marketing company dabbling in game development or a tiny indie group just trying to make a small profit. They're an actual game company with a good reputation, experience and great product which has sold a significant amount of copies. It just bugs me that I'm a happy customer ready to shower them with money if they would just up their game but they seem to have no interest in that. Instead it looks like they're re-developing the same game over and over and adding content that's not really content. I hope this will change after 1.1 and the whole U5 hassle is over.

[Foxster]

10 minutes ago, Creature said:

My thoughts exactly.

I love KSP, it's well worth the money and then some. But I've been on a hiatus for almost a year after the massive letdown that career mode was, just waiting for some new and actually interesting gameplay elements to be added. And I'm still waiting. But Unity 5 port is obviously the most important thing they need to be doing right now, also because it enables future content in a completely new way.

But I think they really should hire a designer who has experience in designing sand box-type games with progression and economy elements to create a completely new and actually interesting career mode. Call it an expansion, name it Kerbal Space Race and slap a 20€ price tag on it. If it's even remotely good, I'll pay and I bet many others will too.

The way I see it, Squad has been doing this for a while now and they've delivered a succesful product. They're not two guys in a shed coding a game, or a marketing company dabbling in game development or a tiny indie group just trying to make a small profit. They're an actual game company with a good reputation, experience and great product which has sold a significant amount of copies. It just bugs me that I'm a happy customer ready to shower them with money if they would just up their game but they seem to have no interest in that. Instead it looks like they're re-developing the same game over and over and adding content that's not really content. I hope this will change after 1.1 and the whole U5 hassle is over.

I agree with you completely here. 

They have been tweaking the same game for a while now and the console ports look like more of that. 

I want to throw money at Squad for more content but we just don't get it. 

The radio-range thing was the closest we were getting to some new content and we aren't getting even that for now. So, what's hard with them throwing us a bone here? A couple of extra planets, some new tech, the discovery of a space alien's' base on the far side of Eeloo, a hinge or rotating part, the ability to mine holes into the ground and explore subsurface, sharks with fricking lasers on their heads, something!

[Columbia]

21 hours ago, marach said:

-snip-

Good point, but there was really no need to attack zKrieg.

He has an opinion, and you have an opinion about it. There's no need to tell them to "get their head out of their asses".

[KerbMav]

9 hours ago, ModZero said:

Could you please spread some information then, instead of strongly worded posts? If there was news about Squad splitting, I've certainly missed it, and you're the first time I hear about it. Everything else, including this forum's footer, reference "Squad S.A. de C.V.", which I'm pretty sure is the same old company. I mean, sure, I know that it's a distinct team with distinct tasks and maybe even their own office (though even in dev notes not more than a year old I remember mentions of someone helping with the main Squad operation - but it was just once and mentionable, pretty unusual I guess), but "hey, it's separate companies" would be significantly bigger than that. Seriously, the only reason not to dismiss what you write out of hand is your mod status.

Depends on where you are looking?

https://trademarks.justia.com/864/97/squad-86497655.html

"Party Name MONKEY SQUAD, S.A. DE C.V.

Goods and Services: Children's educational software; Computer game software; Downloadable educational course materials in the field of science, geography and astronomy; Educational software featuring instruction in science, geography and astronomy; Video and computer game programs"

 

Nevertheless, I imagine that founding a new company is time and money consuming; telling someone in your employment to use a budget to create a new division and fund something different from what your company usually does seems a lot easier?

[Temeter]

13 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

I can't believe this is coming up again so soon after the last time I had to say this. Squad is not a marketing company. some of the people now making KSP were working for a marketing company when they got the idea for KSP. They were split off from the marketing company several years ago as their own sub-company. They do not do marketing. Most of the people now working for Squad have never done marketing. KSP is Squad's first game, but it is the only product that this game software company currently makes. 

Please stop repeating this misinformation. 

While you're right in how there is a clear distinction between the parent and sub company, isn't the marketing company itself called SQUAD? Remembering it like this, and from the KSP website:

 

Quote

OUR GAME'S HISTORY
FROM TINFOIL TO 3D SIMULATION

Squad started out as a marketing agency, specialising in interactive technologies development. Every year, the owners of the agency asked their employees to come up with original projects, and if there was a good and viable idea, it could get developed. Felipe was an employee at Squad for some time when one day he couldn't take the stress of marketing anymore. He tried to quit, but the owners insisted he instead presented a viable video game project idea.

Not really believing his luck, Felipe set out to finish a pitch document for one of his childhood projects. Kerbals are the name of the little tin foil men that manned fireworks he took apart and turned into rockets as a child in his native Brasil. Four and a half years later, we are proud to present the outcome of this endeavor, Kerbal Space Program 1.0.

 

Edited February 9, 2016 by Temeter

[rkman]

3 hours ago, Creature said:

They're an actual game company with a good reputation, experience

The only experience they have is with KSP.  

Experience with one project that is not yet finished is not a lot of experience.  

Also they are not actual game company, they are a PR company with game dev devision that is working on its first project. 

 

 

[sal_vager]

Guys, this doesn't really matter...

There's lots of games companies, from huge multinational corporations such as EA churning out Madden clones, to one man bedroom programmers with fresh new ideas, they are both still registered companies.

And somewhere amidst all that are the team from Mexico we know as Squad.

They are a company making a game, so they are a game company.

EA also has a marketing division and when EA was founded it was also by people from other industries, but is still a games company.

The guy who made that indie game you had so much fun with may also be a plumber, but he runs his own games company.

Squad started with marketing, now they are making games, and KSP is the first.

 

So I'll ask you all to stay on topic, this thread was started to discuss the comms relay being put back to a later update, Squads status is irrelevant.

[Creature]

20 minutes ago, rkman said:

The only experience they have is with KSP.  

Experience with one project that is not yet finished is not a lot of experience.  

Also they are not actual game company, they are a PR company with game dev devision that is working on its first project. 

 

 

Semantics. They are a company which developed and released a game, they have a sizeable team only developing the game and nothing else. They have a commercial product which has sold a significant amount of copies and generates a sizeable revenue. They publish through Steam. They're workign on a console port. For all intents and purposes that makes them a game company.

Also the last time I checked, KSP is officially launched as a finished product.

They have 3 (?) years of experience now, one succesfully launched product, collaborations with for example NASA and kerbalEDU, merchandise and an active community. Maybe we have different standards for what counts as experience, but I'd say that's quite a alot already. Yes it's nothing compared to the grand old masters and Blizzard-level megacompanies, but in their own league Squad has done a lot and they've gone through the whole process now.

Honestly I don't understand why so many people seem to have this huge need to categorize Squad as something else than a medium-sized independently funded game studio? I think that's a pretty cool thing to be.

[AlamoVampire]

@Creature It is NOT semantics. They are an advertising company first and foremost. The ONLY reason they are the company on this game is because harvester i think it is was ALLOWED to make this game while still doing his primary job. 

[Xavven]

22 hours ago, Creature said:

It just bugs me that I'm a happy customer ready to shower them with money if they would just up their game but they seem to have no interest in that. Instead it looks like they're re-developing the same game over and over and adding content that's not really content. I hope this will change after 1.1 and the whole U5 hassle is over.

Yeah, at this point I'm ready to pay more money for a KSP expansion or DLC if Squad could beef up their team more and get us content faster. This coming from a player who generally hates money-grubbing game studios. You know the kind -- the ones that seem to have a new DLC every 2 weeks and they charge you $7 for a re-skinned item with slightly better stats and "5 new Steam achievements!" .... whoop-de-do.

Squad, on the other hand, may be playing a business strategy that is too conservative. I'd gladly shell out $5 for Gas Planet 2 (sorry - hope that doesn't derail the thread further), and I'd pay in the range of $25 for a re-done career mode. Not a career mode contract tweak, mind you - that's already coming in 1.1 and it will surely help. I'm talking about a true space race against an adversary, with monthly budgets, monthly costs to running the program, kerbonaut salaries, the ability to take out loans, and huge reputation hits when your adversary snatches a world first from you. That would be awesome! Anyway, just don't go overboard with the DLC/expansions. Too many will kill a game, too.

[Starhawk]

It seems to me that the details of SQUAD's corporate organization are pretty far afield for this discussion.

The Unity 5 upgrade is an enormous part of KSP's evolution.  It will allow further development on the game that wouldn't be possible with the old engine.  The fact that it necessitated a rewrite of the UI system, while an enormous burden on the development team, is a huge boon for the game and for the players.

I have no idea what, if any, performance improvements will be seen with the new version.  I am optimistic.

Far more importantly, I expect that the UI will have more polish and less glitchiness since it will no longer be three completely different UI systems all interfering with each other.

Features will be added in the future which I'm sure I'll enjoy, but what I'm really expecting is a smoother gameplay experience where the interface doesn't get in the way.  If I get that, the wait for this update will be very worthwhile even without any other changes to the game.

Happy landings!

[Columbia]

In all honesty, if 1.1 goes great (and I'm sure it will be) I'll be a happy man already.

All Kerbal Space Program is missing in my experience is performance improvements.

[zKrieg]

That's all I expressed a desire for was performance improvements and people act as if someone had spit in their mother's face.. I find it hypocritical that so many are willing to praise the game and then in the next paragraph they give us multiple excuses for the discrepancies. They need to reflect upon why they need to make those excuses because you can't have it both ways.  

From my experience all Unity 4 games have had issues.  It's almost a shame it is so widely used because it has caused many frustrations for everyone. Both coders and gamers. I've got a couple games that switched over to Unity 5 and the improvements came mostly in stability. I think 1.1 is going to be great so not having a new communications system with 1.1 isn't going to make or break the game for me. It lends more hype to 1.2.

Edited February 10, 2016 by zKrieg

[Majic]

So far, I'm...

1. Mildly disappointed the new comm system features had to be pushed back, but not heartbroken, and would rather they do it right than do it fast.

2. Very supportive of the Unity 5/64-bit engine upgrade, because once that's in place and reasonably debugged, it's going to have a huge positive impact on all aspects of the game.

3. Not concerned about what kind of company Squad is, as long as they take good care of KSP.

4. Mildly amused at some of the drama, but suggest not letting the different ways we love the game come between us.

Eyes on the skies. 

[AlextheBodacious]

NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO My base will NEVER be done! What have you done to my Mun Cellphone Towers, Squad!? THEY ARE NOT GOING TO EXIST! This was the only part of 1.1 I cared about! Auughguhuhg!

I'm NOT sorry for this rant!

[Atlas2342]

On 2/5/2016 at 11:17 AM, RoverDude said:

And while a mod has a lot of leeway in their QA process (as is evidenced by my frantic week of debugging USI-LS and MKS ), you don't have the same luxury in the stock game, especially when it touches so many areas.  And I expect folks would agree that we want this to be totally rock solid when it goes out the door.  And I expect you will not be dissapointed  

Does semi-dissapointed count?

[Halo_003]

IMO, priorities should be:

1. Unity 5
2. Stable 64 bit
3. Long term purpose/mission for rovers/orbital probes
4. Refinishing rocket parts like the jet part treatment.
5. Antennas

I am totally okay with pushing antennas back, I have RemoteTech to use in the mean time. There's no mod for 64bit and Unity 5.

[DoctorDavinci]

So I just finished reading through this whole thread and have to say it reminds me of back in the day when 'script kiddies' would complain about the hacking scripts they were downloading and then proceed to tell the creators of said scripts how to create scripts with little to no knowledge of programming or logic processes etc......

All I can say is some peoples kids ... less talk, more action

As for Squad, keep on keeping on guys ... excellent work so far

 

 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2016 by DoctorDavinci

[Kar]

On 05/02/2016 at 5:18 AM, Francois424 said:

... 64 bits is top priority for me.

...

That!