I have a feeling...

[Wjolcz]

I have a feeling that this game is either going to be soon abandoned by the devs, or getting a MASSIVE and very needed overhaul some time soon. Here's why:

-The original team has been disappearing for a while now, but some time ago we witnessed 3 members leaving (one of them lead dev). Maybe they know something we don't and they decided that it's time to abandon the ship, or maybe it's just a coincidence. If it's the "abandon ship!" scenario, then they probably didn't want to be associated with a game that is soon going to be abandoned and never finished. Who would want a coder with such a thing on their resume?

-The game has been released on consoles. To me KSP is no console game material and is probably nowhere near playable with a pad. Yes, they were always saying they wanted to release it on as many platforms as possible, but the console release almost overlaps the leave of Ted, Harv and Dan. That means it's either a "grab the cash 'n' leave" scenario, or a coincidence again.

BUT! what it can also mean is the game is going to get an overhaul. Why? Because the console players are not able to install mods (unless it's actually possible. I don't own any of these next gen consoles so my information might be lacking). What that means is all the needed, essential and most popular stuff will finally become stock (hooray for KER, Strategia and Kerbal Alarm Clock!).

So to conclude: don't get me wrong. I try to be rational and I'm not a "Rocket fuel can't melt I-beams" type of guy (who am I to judge that, though? Maybe I've just become one by posting this?). It's just a feeling I'm having right now. Maybe I'm wrong and nothing happens, maybe the devs will keep adding things and listening to the community as they always have.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Veeltch

[Snark]

I'd caution against jumping to too many conclusions.

I say that not as someone with inside knowledge of Squad ('coz I'm not a Squad employee, I don't have any more access to that info than you do), but rather as a professional software engineer with a couple of decades' experience in the industry.

54 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

-The original team has been disappearing for a while now, but some time ago we witnessed 3 members leaving (one of them lead dev). Maybe they know something we don't and they decided that it's time to abandon the ship, or maybe it's just a coincidence.

Or it could be option C, "Because a large, lengthy project has completed and it's time to consider what project to work on next."

People in software move around all the time.  It's very common in my industry for people to hop companies every few years.  And it's not a random distribution in time:  the most common time for folks to switch companies is, not surprisingly, right when they finish a major project.  (Because you're always working on a major project, and you'd really prefer not to leave right in the middle of one.)

So it's not a "know something we don't", nor is it a coincidence.  It's just what normally happens at software companies, all the time.  People go, other people arrive, life goes on, product gets shipped.  It's the circle of life.

58 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

-The game has been released on consoles. To me KSP is no console game material and is probably nowhere near playable with a pad. Yes, they were always saying they wanted to release it on as many platforms as possible, but the console release almost overlaps the leave of Ted, Harv and Dan. That means it's either a "grab the cash 'n' leave" scenario, or a coincidence again.

Well, the console had to come out sometime, didn't it?  And presumably they'd like to wait until after the last really major KSP update for a while, so that it'll be the latest thing, right?  So.... right about now, a few weeks after 1.1.3, seems like a pretty reasonable time to be releasing.  Certainly it's not much of a "coincidence".

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

BUT! what it can also mean is the game is going to get an overhaul. Why? Because the console players are not able to install mods (unless it's actually possible. I don't own any of these next gen consoles so my information might be lacking). What that means is all the needed, essential and most popular stuff will finally become stock (hooray for KER, Strategia and Kerbal Alarm Clock!).

...No.  This is not how it works.

Certainly there are lots of neat things that have been done in mods, which the stock game lacks.  It's really cool that there are such great mods out there.  Some of them are the kind of thing that you look at and say, "That should be stock!"

And over here, on the other hand, is the stock game.  Look!  It's missing all these really great things that some mods have!  Why haven't they put all those goodies in the game?

You seem to be assuming that the reason "why we don't have these neat goodies in stock" is because the Squad devs just say to themselves, "Oh heck, there's a mod for that, we don't need to build this." 

No.  The reason is not "because nobody yelled at them loud enough", the answer is simply "because they haven't had time to do everything and are still working on stuff."  Just because "there's a mod for that" doesn't mean that Squad will ignore it.  What about contracts?  Or reentry heating?  Or more-realistic aero?  Or ISRU?  Or remote telemetry?  All of those are things that existed as mods long before Squad got around to adding them as stock features.  Doesn't seem to have prevented Squad from implementing the features anyway.

There are a lot more potential features to create than there are hours to create them in.  Squad can't do everything at once, they're working as hard as they can, and features go in as they go in.

Squad has always wanted the stock experience ot be a good one, and keeps working at making it better.  It's not as though the sudden influx of a bunch of console-players-who-can't-mod changes that.

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

What that means is all the needed, essential and most popular stuff will finally become stock (hooray for KER, Strategia and Kerbal Alarm Clock!).

Essential to a small, vocal minority of people.  There are plenty of players who would prefer that KER (or whatever other mod you name) not be present in stock.

There are lots of reasons why any particular mod doesn't have an equivalent stock feature uet.  Those reasons are the same now as they always were.

[Bloody_looser]

TL;DR version: Looks like SQUAD finally pulling off the fraud to steal my five bucks I've paid several years ago. Or maybe not.

[kBob]

Kay sera sera.

Or why worry?  Unless you have insider knowledge there isn't much point.  Either KSP will die a quick death soon, or it will become the best ever selling program in history...or more likely somewhere in-between

Edited July 12, 2016 by kBob
sera or sara: going with the song spelling

[Wjolcz]

2 hours ago, Snark said:

What about contracts?

Very poorly implemented.
 

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Or reentry heating?

It's OK.

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Or more-realistic aero?

It sure is better than it used to be.

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Or ISRU?

Meh.

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Or remote telemetry?

Never asked for it and still wondering why it's being implemented.

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Squad has always wanted the stock experience ot be a good one, and keeps working at making it better.

I'm sure they are, but the game still leaves many (including me) wishing for a proper overhaul.

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Essential to a small, vocal minority of people.

Oh, really?

2 hours ago, Snark said:

There are a lot more potential features to create than there are hours to create them in.  Squad can't do everything at once, they're working as hard as they can, and features go in as they go in.

I thought the exact same thing, but then saw this.

All I'm saying is I'm concerned about what's been happening recently. Not trying to bring chaos to the forums, nor spread false rumours.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Veeltch

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, Snark said:

There are plenty of players who would prefer that KER (or whatever other mod you name) not be present in stock.

I have played a lot with KER, but before that I learned about delta-V and transfer windows with a calculator and a protractor at my side. It was really informative, and I like tapping out my KSP-oriented variant of the Rocket Equation mid-flight to see if I can go a little further. Now I choose not to use KER because I like having to use my calculator during flight. I would be ok with a stock delta-V meter in the VAB/SPH only, because I don't like having to empty all the fuel tanks to see my dry mass.

As for "The KSPocalypse is coming!", I see no reason to assume that. The player base grows every day, and those who have given it a little time find it to be great fun, and many of those have gone on to do really cool, elaborate things in our little space game.

"The future will be ok!" -xkcd

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I like that the first big move after the latest group left is to do a massive code/bug cleanup. This shows me that the current group is taking the project seriously and want to get it to the next level. I feel like, Unity permitting, the next release will be a good one and it will be more awesome from there.

[Wjolcz]

26 minutes ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

I like that the first big move after the latest group left is to do a massive code/bug cleanup. This shows me that the current group is taking the project seriously and want to get it to the next level. I feel like, Unity permitting, the next release will be a good one and it will be more awesome from there.

I really hope it's true. I haven't seen the new team in action, though. That's what fuels my concenrs about the future of the game.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Veeltch

[Vanamonde]

I have a feeling that somebody starts one of these threads every few months. 

[Wjolcz]

Just now, Vanamonde said:

I have a feeling that somebody starts one of these threads every few months. 

I must have missed them then.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

Very poorly implemented... It's OK... It sure is better than it used to be... Meh... Never asked for it and still wondering why it's being implemented....

Yes, but regardless of your opinion of how good or not these features are:  they got added.  The presence of mods didn't stop 'em from getting added.

Conversely, the absence of mods isn't going to prod them more for new features than they were prodded already.  It's not like there are suddenly going to be more work hours available in the week.

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

I'm sure they are, but the game still leaves many (me including) wish for a proper overhaul.

...Yes, but what exactly do you mean when you say "proper" overhaul?  They're overhauling it all the time.  They're adding new features.  They're making existing features better than they were.  That's their job.  That's what every Squad dev is doing, all day, as they program on KSP.  What else would you have them do besides what they're doing now?

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

Oh, really?

Yes, really.  That says "dV display".  That does not say "KER".  KER is a hell of a lot more complicated than just a dV readout.  You could certainly go by that poll (though I'd say there's a lot of selection bias in that survey, since participants are self-selected)... but you could also go by "what percentage of all KSP players have KER installed".  It's a lot compared with most other mods... but I doubt it's >50%.

Name any given feature that's not in the game... and there are going to be people who can see that it's obvious that we should add this mod to stock.  And another group of people who can see why it's obvious that we SHOULDN'T.  There are people who can't imagine playing without MechJeb, or KER.  And there are people who don't use 'em and don't want 'em.

Name any feature they're thinking of adding to the game.  There are going to be people who say "yay!  finally!"  And then there are going to be people who say "never asked for it and still wondering why it's being implemented."  There are people who really, really want telemetry and are delighted this is finally being made stock.  And there are people who hate the idea.

It's simply impossible to please everyone all the time.  Every single decision a software company makes to include or exclude a given feature is guaranteed ot make somebody unhappy.  So all they can do is work on prioriitizing features, based on player demand and/or how difficult/risky the feature is to implement, and keep working on making it "better"... while always acknowledging that there are going to be people who aren't happy about each decision.

Which is what they're doing, and what they've been doing for years, and I hope they keep doing.

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

I thought the exact same thing, but then saw this.

Not sure how that bears on anything, here.  The statement stands:  There are more potential cool things to do in KSP-- or in any piece of software-- than there are engineer hours to implement.  So they have to prioritize.  It's how software production works.

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

All I'm saying is I'm concerned about what's been happening recently. Not trying to bring chaos to the forums, nor spread false rumours.

...and concerned for what reason?  Because a few Squad employees are doing what people who work in this industry usually do?

Of course everyone's entitled to their own concerns, so if you're worried, you're worried.  However, for my part-- just based on what I've observed during the course of working more than 20 years in this industry, for a variety of companies large and small-- I haven't seen anything yet that strikes me as unusual or alarming, it just seems pretty much par for the course in the software biz.  So you can take that assessment for what it may be worth. 

[Corona688]

5 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

I have a feeling that somebody starts one of these threads every few months. 

You'd be wrong, it's every few days.

[cubinator]

1 minute ago, Vanamonde said:

I have a feeling that somebody starts one of these threads every few months. 

That's quite true. People are always frightened that everything is going to turn upside down and go wrong, but really it's not that bad, unless we're talking climate.

[Wjolcz]

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

Yes, but regardless of your opinion of how good or not these features are:  they got added.  The presence of mods didn't stop 'em from getting added.

Conversely, the absence of mods isn't going to prod them more for new features than they were prodded already.  It's not like there are suddenly going to be more work hours available in the week.

I feel like I lost the clue about what we were talking here.

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

They're making existing features better than they were.

Is that a personal opinion?

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

Yes, really.  That says "dV display".  That does not say "KER".  KER is a hell of a lot more complicated than just a dV readout.  You could certainly go by that poll (though I'd say there's a lot of selection bias in that survey, since participants are self-selected)... but you could also go by "what percentage of all KSP players have KER installed".  It's a lot compared with most other mods... but I doubt it's >50%.

I'd like to know the actual number of people who play with KER/MJ installed and the ones who don't. Also how many of those who never did still play the game.

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

It's simply impossible to please everyone all the time.

I am fully aware of that and don't think it will ever be possible, but the fact is the game is still unfinished.

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

Not sure how that bears on anything, here.  The statement stands:  There are more potential cool things to do in KSP-- or in any piece of software-- than there are engineer hours to implement.  So they have to prioritize.  It's how software production works.

I'm just curious how much time did it take to implement that in KerbalEDU and if the code of the "basic" KSP differs so much that simply "copying-and-pasting" that part of code is not possible. I mean, it probably isn't, given there was a complete UI overhaul (code-wise, as far as I am concenred). If so, then I'm ok with waiting 'til 1.5.

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

...and concerned for what reason?  Because a few Squad employees are doing what people who work in this industry usually do?

Mainly because an unfinished product is being released to a platform which doesn't include the ability to modify the game, thus rendering it difficult to play, because of the state it is in. Though I guess I might be mistaken. Maybe the console release was simply rushed because there a demand for it. I just don't want to see devnote saying "There's the dV and console version for you! Our work here is done!".

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

Of course everyone's entitled to their own concerns, so if you're worried, you're worried.  However, for my part-- just based on what I've observed during the course of working more than 20 years in this industry, for a variety of companies large and small-- I haven't seen anything yet that strikes me as unusual or alarming, it just seems pretty much par for the course in the software biz.  So you can take that assessment for what it may be worth.

I really, really hope it's true and nothing unusual.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Veeltch

[ZooNamedGames]

Not going to get deep into this discussion but I simply want to say I agree with everything @Veeltch has said so far. 

Especially on the topics of DV read outs and NOT having a telemetry system. To me it feels too RO and doesn't belong within the Kerbal universe, but that's just me.

[Snark]

3 hours ago, Snark said:

They're making existing features better than they were.  That's their job.

 

2 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Is that a personal opinion?

Nope.  I'm pretty sure that that is, in fact, their job.  What else would their job be?

Certainly you can criticize whether you think they're succeeding at that job.  My impression is that you think they're not doing so great.  Personally, I think they've been doing a pretty good job, given the constraints that they have to work under, but I'm simply basing that on what I've seen in the past couple of decades that I've been doing this sort of thing for a living.

My point is that simply saying "I hope they give it an overhaul" isn't a super useful thing to say, because it's not specific enough.  They're always overhauling it.  That's why they're busy all the time, working on KSP, rather than sitting around watching YouTube cat videos or whatever.

What is a useful thing to say would be, for example:  "I would really like feature X to be added to the product.  I hear that you're adding feature Y, which doesn't appeal to me; I think the time would be better spent elsewhere."

3 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Mainly because an unfinished product is being released to a platform which doesn't include the ability to modify the game, thus rendering it difficult to play, because of the state it is in.

Just how do you justify calling KSP an "unfinished product"?

Is it because it doesn't have every potential feature that every user (such as yourself) would like it to have?  Because by that definition, every single piece of software ever made is unfinished.

Or is it because the Squad devs are still working on the product and releasing new versions?  That's a reasonable definition of "unfinished", I suppose, in the purely literal sense.  But if that's your definition, then when you say "an unfinished product is being released to the console", you're simply saying "Squad is releasing the console while development continues on the game."  Yes, well, so?  Should Squad not release a console version until KSP has been put to bed permanently and is, to all practical purposes, dead?  They could do that, I suppose, but I don't think the console players would thank them for that decision.

I contend that the game is perfectly playable in stock.  Mods are fun, yes.  They can offer new perspectives, new variety, extend the play time.  But they're not necessary.  The stock game is perfectly playable, plenty of players do so and enjoy it.  I played it myself, unmodded, for a few months before I decided to dip my toe in the water, and I had an absolute ball doing it.  Would I still be playing the game today, after a couple of years, as much as I do, were it not for mods?  Perhaps not.  But even if I had simply played those few hundred hours of unmodded KSP and then put it down and moved on with life-- that still would have been a lot more enjoyment than I ever got out of any other $27 computer game, and I would have still recommended it to my friends as a game worth buying.

Of course, whether the stock game is a viable one that can stand on its own two feet is a matter of opinion; reasonable people can disagree.  You can certainly say that for you, it's "unfinished."  But you can't say that it's objectively unfinished, i.e. for everyone, because nobody can speak for everyone.  I certainly wouldn't presume to know what the opinion will be of a broad group of potential new users (i.e. console players), and I hope no one else would, either.  Console players can and will make up their own minds, and we'll see how the console version does.  If it takes off like a... um... hmm, having trouble coming up with a relevant metaphor... well, anyway, if it turns out to be wildly popular, then we'll know that it works just fine as it is and the stock game can succeed on its own.  If it tanks, well, there are various possible reasons why it did, and we won't really know (though I'm sure there will be no shortage of fingers to point.) 

[AlamoVampire]

fun truth nugget: Squad has 0 zero obligation to do ANYTHING MORE than what we have RIGHT NOW. Also, imagine what it must be like to spend all day looking at lines of code, chasing bugs, accidentally making NEW bugs fixing OLD bugs. Its soul crushing Id imagine. After some point, they need a new project. What comes tomorrow will come. Good, bad, what ever it may be. Enjoy today.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Not going to get deep into this discussion but I simply want to say I agree with everything @Veeltch has said so far. 

Especially on the topics of DV read outs and NOT having a telemetry system. To me it feels too RO and doesn't belong within the Kerbal universe, but that's just me.

Telemetry will be optional same as the career and science or if you have to purchase kerbals, not sure if it will affect science transmit or also control of probe. 
For me dV readout is required, note that this will mostly be helping experienced players who has an idea of the dV costs.
However this is planned future features.

At one point Squad will say they are done with KSP. Will they drop it, probably not unless they start working on an spin of based on KSP. 
DLC would be one thing, probably more planets, also more parts and other types of parts like propellers, perhaps also some new features. 
Another option would be an KSP 2. 




 

[ZooNamedGames]

3 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Telemetry will be optional same as the career and science or if you have to purchase kerbals, not sure if it will affect science transmit or also control of probe. 
For me dV readout is required, note that this will mostly be helping experienced players who has an idea of the dV costs.
However this is planned future features.

At one point Squad will say they are done with KSP. Will they drop it, probably not unless they start working on an spin of based on KSP. 
DLC would be one thing, probably more planets, also more parts and other types of parts like propellers, perhaps also some new features. 
Another option would be an KSP 2. 




 

I still say planets are unlikely. As to propellers, we have to wait and see. KSP 2 is 99% unlikely as there's nothing to upgrade that you wouldn't put in the original product instead. If it's just different entirely why not just add it to the main game instead making a whole new one. Besides when they drop KSP, it'll be for good, as they'll move onto more profitable ideas.

these are just all my opinions.

[Wjolcz]

5 hours ago, Snark said:

Certainly you can criticize whether you think they're succeeding at that job.  My impression is that you think they're not doing so great.

I actually don't. I think they are doing great, but they are not focusing on the right thing. As if they didn't have any long-term plans and the idea of how the game should look like. The Goliath engine looks great, but the career mode not so much.

5 hours ago, Snark said:

That is a useful thing to say would be, for example:  "I would really like feature X to be added to the product.  I hear that you're adding feature Y, which doesn't appeal to me; I think the time would be better spent elsewhere."

That's what I'm doing all the time in the S&DD subforum.

5 hours ago, Snark said:

Just how do you justify calling KSP an "unfinished product"?

Is it because it doesn't have every potential feature that every user (such as yourself) would like it to have?  Because by that definition, every single piece of software ever made is unfinished.

Simply adding new and shiny parts to a broken game won't make it finished. And that's what's been happening for a while now. A finished product is when the basic idea is fully implemented and made playable/usable. The game is nowhere near playable in stock. I guess we could discuss about if playable means "going interplanetary" or "guessing, building and exploding".

5 hours ago, Snark said:

 

I contend that the game is perfectly playable in stock.

Well, it certainly is. If you don't want to go interplanetary or know the exact dV, that is. Most KSP players don't even go interplanetary, because of the lack of basic information (there's the thread somewhere about it). I guess we all could just yell "Do the math like I do!" at them, but the problem is they won't. It's easier to download KER and KAC. I know. I'm one of them.

5 hours ago, Snark said:

Or is it because the Squad devs are still working on the product and releasing new versions?  That's a reasonable definition of "unfinished", I suppose, in the purely literal sense.  But if that's your definition, then when you say "an unfinished product is being released to the console", you're simply saying "Squad is releasing the console while development continues on the game."  Yes, well, so?  Should Squad not release a console version until KSP has been put to bed permanently and is, to all practical purposes, dead?  They could do that, I suppose, but I don't think the console players would thank them for that decision.

And again: simply releasing new things without fixing the old game mechanics doesn't make a game "better" or "finished". I thought that 1.0 meant that the game is "feature complete", but appearantly I'm wrong.

I just don't want KSP to become the second Minecraft, where the dev team got reduced/replaced and features that were previously worked on abandoned. Simply adding MOAR STUFF instead of finishing and fixing what should've been fixed won't make the game anywhere near good. I regret spending money on Minecraft and I don't want to regret spending money on KSP.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, ZooNamedGames said:

I still say planets are unlikely. As to propellers, we have to wait and see. KSP 2 is 99% unlikely as there's nothing to upgrade that you wouldn't put in the original product instead. If it's just different entirely why not just add it to the main game instead making a whole new one. Besides when they drop KSP, it'll be for good, as they'll move onto more profitable ideas.

these are just all my opinions.

Planets are cool and would sell well as an dlc, no matter if most don't go to them
Other part packs would also be popular, both of this is pretty easy to make. 

Going after something else seems unlikely to me, they are kind of an one tricks pony, note that KSP has sold well, we know its more than one copies sold something who is a lot for an indy game. Dropping the only game they have and go for something new and unproven would be risky, an spinoff might work as it would not be so much work. 
KSP 2.0 would be an new engine and other major changes but keeping the core gameplay. 

 

[Kerbart]

12 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

Simply adding new and shiny parts to a broken game won't make it finished. And that's what's been happening for a while now. A finished product is when the basic idea is fully implemented and made playable/usable. The game is nowhere near playable in stock. I guess we could discuss about if playable means "going interplanetary" or "guessing, building and exploding".

In a perfect world Squad could indeed spend the next two years debugging existing code without adding a single feature.

We do not live in a perfect world.

Existing customers would complain because “the game isn't developing,” and sales would decline for the same reason as “Squad has abandoned active development and is only rolling out bug fixes.”

In order to keep the product commercially alive, and most of the customers happy, they have to add new features on a regular basis. Ironically, more bugs get fixed this way. If they had decided to go down the “fix bugs only” path three years ago, sales would have slumped and development would have stopped two years ago.*

if you're talking about game mechanics instead of bugs: the game is expanding with every release. I'm not sure how mining, contracts or career mode are ”shiny parts”

* yes, that is speculation, but I'm fairly confident about it.

[Sirad]

14 hours ago, Veeltch said:

I have a feeling that this game is either going to be soon abandoned by the devs, or getting a MASSIVE and very needed overhaul some time soon. Here's why:

 

I have a feeling that the current situation can be described as following....:

There is currently a team of People (dev) whose Job is to drink out all the Water in the Atlantic Ocean.

3 of those left the Team, others joined and the Company changed the color of the straws from Blue to Green.

And this is taken as a rational and good sign that the Job gets done soon(tm)

[ZooNamedGames]

29 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Planets are cool and would sell well as an dlc, no matter if most don't go to them
Other part packs would also be popular, both of this is pretty easy to make. 

Going after something else seems unlikely to me, they are kind of an one tricks pony, note that KSP has sold well, we know its more than one copies sold something who is a lot for an indy game. Dropping the only game they have and go for something new and unproven would be risky, an spinoff might work as it would not be so much work. 
KSP 2.0 would be an new engine and other major changes but keeping the core gameplay. 

 

They've made mention they don't want to do DLCs, and especially not paid ones. So again, unlikely.

Parts either will be added to stock or not. That's how it goes.

As to planets, as I told someone else earlier, if no one goes to them then it negates the purpose of them existing. Especially since players often don't even leave Kerbin's SOI, so why bother adding more planets when you don't visit the ones we already have.

I disagree, Squad proved they are capable of something and if they put the same effort into something else they will likely again succeed.

There's no suitable spin off that would fair well independently as it would be considered just a minor side character overshadowed by the main game and considered inferior. As to KSP 2, again why remake when you can build upon what you already have?

17 minutes ago, Sirad said:

I have a feeling that the current situation can be described as following....:

There is currently a team of People (dev) whose Job is to drink out all the Water in the Atlantic Ocean.

the Company changed the color of the straws from Blue to Green.

And this is taken as a rational and good sign that the Job gets done soon(tm)

This is no way degrading the comment, as I get the point you were making, so call this more silly than anything else-

changing the color of the straws help them drink up the ocean?

[T-Bouw]

Yes, I've got a similar feeling.
But the game is (almost) finished, so it's time to move on.
I'm good with Squad abandoning KSP after they've fixed (most) bugs. Especially the game-breaking ones. And perhaps some more minor pollish.

Yet, I also have a feeling that KSP tasted like more for Squad and that another game is bound to be produced by them and/or former employees.
Looking forward to that!