How far is KSP2 from completion?

[Dr. Kerbal]

I have just been wondering, does any have any idea on how far KSP2 is from competition? Im just curios and was confused on what is Alpha and Beta is.

[HebaruSan]

The currently announced release date is sometime in calendar year 2022.

https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/game/kerbal-space-program-2/

But, you say, I want to know more than that. I regret to inform you that that isn't going to happen. The only people who know how the work is going are those doing it, and they're not going to say anything to contradict an announced release date unless and until a new release date is announced.

Edited April 22, 2021 by HebaruSan

[MechBFP]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

[Dr. Kerbal]

1 hour ago, MechBFP said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

Thanks for the link @MechBFP. Really helped me understand.

1 hour ago, HebaruSan said:

But, you say, I want to know more than that. I regret to inform you that that isn't going to happen. The only people who know how the work is going are those doing it, and they're not going to say anything to contradict an announced release date unless and until a new release date is announced

Thank you for trying to help. 

[jastrone]

from what we have seen i think the spaceflight part of ksp 2 is done and I think they now are working with colonies planets and gamemodes

[dave1904]

2022-2021=1 If my math is right it's about about 1 year away from completion. 

[Guest]

One thing that a lot o people is not getting, this is not KSP1 and it's not a EA indie game.

We got spoiled by the old blogposts of KSP, with the devs interacting directly with the community but this is not the case for a game like KSP2.

There's a separation between development and PR/community management, yes, sometimes you get a dev directly interacting with the forum, but what he can say or not is approved by the marketing people and has to follow a precise marketing strategy, that's why you get a lot of "I don't know if I can say more than this" or "I can't wait I can show you x feature".

That also means that lack of new reveals doesn't mean the development stopped.

[Dr. Kerbal]

5 hours ago, Master39 said:

One thing that a lot o people is not getting, this is not KSP1 and it's not a EA indie game.

We got spoiled by the old blogposts of KSP, with the devs interacting directly with the community but this is not the case for a game like KSP2.

There's a separation between development and PR/community management, yes, sometimes you get a dev directly interacting with the forum, but what he can say or not is approved by the marketing people and has to follow a precise marketing strategy, that's why you get a lot of "I don't know if I can say more than this" or "I can't wait I can show you x feature".

That also means that lack of new reveals doesn't mean the development stopped.

Thasnk for the explanation and theories. It does make sense though if this was the case the. Any news from the KSP2 devs is good news though.

[Hellenic]

I have a small theory of my own regarding the feature videos and how close the game is to release. Now I'm assuming these feature videos will only cover the largest features of the game (future tech, colonies, multiplayer, etc.) and were meant to release on a steady schedule leading up to release before the delays and their production being disrupted by COVID-19. This is complete speculation but I expect there to be like 5-6 major feature videos in total or left to make. So while its not exactly an exact answer its not a bad idea to use the releases of feature videos to gauge how much longer we may have until release.

[MechBFP]

On 4/22/2021 at 1:47 PM, Hellenic said:

I have a small theory of my own regarding the feature videos and how close the game is to release. Now I'm assuming these feature videos will only cover the largest features of the game (future tech, colonies, multiplayer, etc.) and were meant to release on a steady schedule leading up to release before the delays and their production being disrupted by COVID-19. This is complete speculation but I expect there to be like 5-6 major feature videos in total or left to make. So while its not exactly an exact answer its not a bad idea to use the releases of feature videos to gauge how much longer we may have until release.

This is my thoughts as well. Seems pretty obvious to me that the PR train was getting up to speed, then abruptly put on the brakes, and is now starting to roll again. In my opinion that means they are probably just a bit ahead of the original schedule from back when they put on the brakes.

[Kernel Kraken]

On 4/22/2021 at 4:42 AM, Master39 said:

One thing that a lot o people is not getting, this is not KSP1 and it's not a EA indie game.

We got spoiled by the old blogposts of KSP, with the devs interacting directly with the community but this is not the case for a game like KSP2.

There's a separation between development and PR/community management, yes, sometimes you get a dev directly interacting with the forum, but what he can say or not is approved by the marketing people and has to follow a precise marketing strategy, that's why you get a lot of "I don't know if I can say more than this" or "I can't wait I can show you x feature".

That also means that lack of new reveals doesn't mean the development stopped.

I think indie games spoiled me. I could suggest a new UI feature or a new skybox or something and have a conversation with the singular dev about how it could be implemented and what balancing problems it would introduce. With AAA companies working on multi-million-dollar franchises, what management says PR says the community wants goes, with the stipulation that the time spent implementing the feature will increase sales enough to make the time spent worth it. People need to stop expecting this to be a small community project with dozens of pre-release versions and blog posts and community input and take it as it really is: a triple-A game from a triple-A publisher with a triple-A development timeline. It's not a bedroom blog post anymore, it's a boardroom meeting about development costs and profits. It's like when Microsoft bought Mojang. The game got support from one of the biggest tech companies on earth, but you couldn't reblog Notch's Tumblr posts and ask if he could implement a hunger bar. 

I really hope T2 doesn't do to KSP what Microsoft did to Minecraft. Seeing the "Bedrock Edition" still makes me a little sad

Edited April 27, 2021 by Kernel Kraken
Spelling, grammar, extras.

[PlutoISaPlanet]

3 hours ago, Kernel Kraken said:

I think indie games spoiled me. I could suggest a new UI feature or a new skybox or something and have a conversation with the singular dev about how it could be implemented and what balancing problems it would introduce. With AAA companies working on multi-million-dollar franchises, what management says PR says the community wants goes, with the stipulation that the time spent implementing the feature will increase sales enough to make the time spent worth it. People need to stop expecting this to be a small community project with dozens of pre-release versions and blog posts and community input and take it as it really is: a triple-A game from a triple-A publisher with a triple-A development timeline. It's not a bedroom blog post anymore, it's a boardroom meeting about development costs and profits. It's like when Microsoft bought Mojang. The game got support from one of the biggest tech companies on earth, but you couldn't reblog Notch's Tumblr posts and ask if he could implement a hunger bar. 

I really hope T2 doesn't do to KSP what Microsoft did to Minecraft. Seeing the "Bedrock Edition" still makes me a little sad

I do not think T2 will make that mistake. The people behind this game are awesome, and as Squad said, "the ksp 2 team has tools and resources that we just do not have."

I truly believe this game is in the right hands.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Kernel Kraken said:

I really hope T2 doesn't do to KSP what Microsoft did to Minecraft. Seeing the "Bedrock Edition" still makes me a little sad

And yet the underwater update, the End update, the nether one and the cave and cliffs update are the best things happening to Minecraft since the implementation of pistons back in the beta.

We shouldn't default to "publisher bad/ indie good" either.

 

[Hellenic]

11 hours ago, Master39 said:

And yet the underwater update, the End update, the nether one and the cave and cliffs update are the best things happening to Minecraft since the implementation of pistons back in the beta.

We shouldn't default to "publisher bad/ indie good" either.

 

Agreed. While I despise corporate greed my alarms haven't set off yet for this game. As you said, aside from the weird micro-transactions on the Bedrock Edition Minecraft has been doing quite well under Microsoft.

[Kernel Kraken]

11 hours ago, Master39 said:

And yet the underwater update, the End update, the nether one and the cave and cliffs update are the best things happening to Minecraft since the implementation of pistons back in the beta.

We shouldn't default to "publisher bad/ indie good" either.

 

Oh, I'm not defaulting to "publisher bad". Microsoft has been a net positive for Mojang and Minecraft as a whole (funding, advertising, better console support, ect..) I just meant how there's microtransactions and Minecoins and paid mods and paid skins. I just vehemently hate microtransactions. I also really hate how they've taken the Bedrock edition of the game, which is just the pocket edition (dumbed down, features like the redstone system completely different from the original version, some features like official raytracing are Bedrock-only) and have started marketing it as the main Edition, leaving the older and more popular Java edition as an afterthought. Many things that work in the Java edition just don't work in Bedrock.

With that ramble out of the way, I really just meant I hope T2 doesn't try to over-monetize KSP 2 with microtransactions and such. 

[Hellenic]

2 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said:

Oh, I'm not defaulting to "publisher bad". Microsoft has been a net positive for Mojang and Minecraft as a whole (funding, advertising, better console support, ect..) I just meant how there's microtransactions and Minecoins and paid mods and paid skins. I just vehemently hate microtransactions. I also really hate how they've taken the Bedrock edition of the game, which is just the pocket edition (dumbed down, features like the redstone system completely different from the original version, some features like official raytracing are Bedrock-only) and have started marketing it as the main Edition, leaving the older and more popular Java edition as an afterthought. Many things that work in the Java edition just don't work in Bedrock.

With that ramble out of the way, I really just meant I hope T2 doesn't try to over-monetize KSP 2 with microtransactions and such. 

I don't think micro-transactions will be a problem for KSP, On that note DLC seems to be on the table, and only God knows how many $20 DLCs are going to be put out post launch.

[Kernel Kraken]

1 minute ago, Hellenic said:

I don't think micro-transactions will be a problem for KSP, On that note DLC seems to be on the table, and only God knows how many $20 DLCs are going to be put out post launch.

But Microtransactions are still a possibility. I'm not going to stop worrying about them until KSP 3 is released. Just imagine: "200 KerbCoins to unlock this part of the tech tree early in our official KSPOnline servers!" 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Kernel Kraken said:

Oh, I'm not defaulting to "publisher bad". Microsoft has been a net positive for Mojang and Minecraft as a whole (funding, advertising, better console support, ect..) I just meant how there's microtransactions and Minecoins and paid mods and paid skins. I just vehemently hate microtransactions. I also really hate how they've taken the Bedrock edition of the game, which is just the pocket edition (dumbed down, features like the redstone system completely different from the original version, some features like official raytracing are Bedrock-only) and have started marketing it as the main Edition, leaving the older and more popular Java edition as an afterthought. Many things that work in the Java edition just don't work in Bedrock.

On the other hand Microtransaction were the base of 90% of the server way long Microsoft acquisition, and they rewrote the game from scratch with a more stable base and released it for free (they could have presented it as a sequel and have all the rights to do so) with universal cross platform compatibility and they still keep the old Java edition not only with  the same content of the new version, but most of the snapshot of future updates happen on it.

 

1 hour ago, Kernel Kraken said:

But Microtransactions are still a possibility. I'm not going to stop worrying about them until KSP 3 is released. Just imagine: "200 KerbCoins to unlock this part of the tech tree early in our official KSPOnline servers!" 

Only if they put someone that knows nothing about the game industry in charge of the project.

If done competently the worse case scenario is the Paradox model, any more aggressive than that (with proper microtransaction instead of DLCs) and you start loosing money in the form of PR damage.

1 hour ago, Hellenic said:

As you said, aside from the weird micro-transactions on the Bedrock Edition Minecraft has been doing quite well under Microsoft.

I never really stopped playing it, usually once or twice a year I open a small private server where I play with my usual 3-5 friends (our first private server had a world height limit of 128), this last 2 updates, the Nether and the Cave and Cliffs it's the first time in like 5 or 6 years that we're back following the latest snapshots and considering playing a Vanilla save on Bedrock instead of a Forge one.

[K^2]

They haven't locked down the features yet, so at least a year out on something this size. Based on what we've seen, I think quite a bit more. Fall 2022 is the earliest I'd expect it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up slipping a bit. I mean, there's always an option to cut and rush, but it doesn't sound like there's any pressure to do so at this point.

[PlutoISaPlanet]

53 minutes ago, K^2 said:

They haven't locked down the features yet, so at least a year out on something this size. Based on what we've seen, I think quite a bit more. Fall 2022 is the earliest I'd expect it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up slipping a bit. I mean, there's always an option to cut and rush, but it doesn't sound like there's any pressure to do so at this point.

Fall or summer seem likely to me. I doubt the game will be released in winter if it slipped. So fall 2022 is the latest we see this game.

[K^2]

57 minutes ago, PlutoISaPlanet said:

Fall or summer seem likely to me. I doubt the game will be released in winter if it slipped. So fall 2022 is the latest we see this game.

That's likely the target. But I don't think they're going to worry too much about letting it slip into holiday season. This isn't like an FPS or sports game that's going to be eaten by competition. I think KSP stands distinct enough that it will make roughly the same kind of sales regardless of whether it comes out in the summer or winter. So if they'll think they need more polish time, I don't think anyone in PD/T2 will object to a late November to early December release. Again, I don't think they see it as ideal scenario, and I'm sure late summer to early fall is the target, but if it slips, it slips.

Now, if it slips past holiday, then they'll probably want to delay it longer and we might see a spring '23 release. Very much not ideal, but nobody wants to release in January/Februrary, unless the game is a total flop, and you're just trying to make some money on people suffering from contend draught and ready to play anything.

[PlutoISaPlanet]

9 minutes ago, K^2 said:

That's likely the target. But I don't think they're going to worry too much about letting it slip into holiday season. This isn't like an FPS or sports game that's going to be eaten by competition. I think KSP stands distinct enough that it will make roughly the same kind of sales regardless of whether it comes out in the summer or winter. So if they'll think they need more polish time, I don't think anyone in PD/T2 will object to a late November to early December release. Again, I don't think they see it as ideal scenario, and I'm sure late summer to early fall is the target, but if it slips, it slips.

Now, if it slips past holiday, then they'll probably want to delay it longer and we might see a spring '23 release. Very much not ideal, but nobody wants to release in January/Februrary, unless the game is a total flop, and you're just trying to make some money on people suffering from contend draught and ready to play anything.

Agreed, the only reason I believe the holiday season is very unlikely is because it seems to have never been a option.

[Minmus Taster]

I think it will happen midway through2022, just over a year from now.

Sometime in late spring early summer.