Kerbal Space Program 2 Release into Early Access Feb 24th

[intelliCom]

On 10/30/2022 at 8:37 PM, The Aziz said:

The KSP elitist in me is confused and angry at the use of four Skipper engines as an asparagus stage for a Dres lander.

Distaste of spacecraft design aside, the canyon looks plain bad. At the absolute least, KSP2 will have very well-made terrain compared to KSP1, even with mods. It also mentioned that new parts would be available during early access, but we have yet to see any of them. I hope it's not just like a single new rocket engine, but actually a decent suite of parts to set KSP2 apart from KSP1.

Edit: I just realised I responded to a message from over 20 days ago. I am so sorry, and I have no idea how that happened.

52 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

You see the mess created in people's minds by the lack of communication?

Just repeating the same old information from 2019-2020 over and over again and just presenting the KSP1 + Interstellar mods feature set without coming through with the real answers and solutions. It just created a tense environment on the forums where every argument is dismissed as speculation, where there are no promises made because of fear of not delivering. Not to mention the "may or may not exist" aspect of the internal betting board in the Intercept offices.

What's the actual point of Early Access if everything is already decided upon or implemented? Bugfixing. So then if we strongly disagree with a way a feature is implemented, when can we give our feedback? Only during EA? Because I feel there's been a lot of interesting conversations and I don't see how they have informed the decision making process of the dev team.

How can the game ask for community feedback only during Early Access if in reality the feedback had been continuous for years without anyone at Intercept talking about the actual implementation of the systems? Example: how will the delivery routes system be implemented? Will we see automated flights and driving or will it be just a resource bump from time to time? Such a fundamental unanswered question.

I am in agreement with all of this. As much as we've been allowed to look into their processes and so on, does it really feel any different to 2019? I'm against rushing, but it feels like an absolutely sluggish pace. Given how we've already seen a lot of assets for the future though, at least that aspect has been developed well.

Also, I recall hearing that we're going to give feedback during each phase of development to make sure each update actually meshes well with the previous ones, and it's not just Early Access. I like the idea, but why they didn't decide to do this earlier baffles me.

Edited November 21, 2022 by intelliCom

[The Aziz]

We kinda have seen plenty of parts that aren't part of colony/resource/interstellar/science expansions. Legs, wheels, pods, radiators, wings, some engines (there's no point in putting a plasma/nuclear/mammoth2 engines later in the game unless they aren't finished yet for whatever reason). 

[Vl3d]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

We kinda have seen plenty of parts that aren't part of colony/resource/interstellar/science expansions. Legs, wheels, pods, radiators, wings, some engines

We've seen parts, but not integrated systems. There were parts already done in 2019, even more than we've seen recently. The cinematic trailer has parts. Mods have thousands of parts. It's not about the parts! We're in the dark about the actually requested systems.

What good are parts if the physics range does not allow control of multiple separated subassemblies?

Edited November 21, 2022 by Vl3d

[The Aziz]

If you're that anxious, not sure why, wait till the players have their hand on it and report back.

[Vl3d]

3 hours ago, The Aziz said:

If you're that anxious, not sure why, wait till the players have their hand on it and report back.

I'm not anxious, I'm curious about the game and I know that the simulation is greater than the sum of the parts.

[sweatbox]

11 hours ago, PopinFRESH said:

Given the context of the story Nate tells about the KSP2 contract, when T2 acquired the KSP IP, and when Nate became creative director at Uber Entertainment; the development of KSP2 likely started pre-production in late 2017. When it launches in EA next year it will be about 5 years of development, and like sweatbox this announcement gives me substantial pause in regards to the state of the game. What happened with KSP1 is irrelevant in this discussion in my opinion. The context of the previous communications over the past 3 years including the last delay announcement's phrasing appeared to set an expectation of delivering a feature complete game at launch. This announcement not only is a radical departure from that tone, it also lacks any indication as to the state of the roadmap features or any target/expectation of cadence for when they will be added.

Also the "just getting each feature finished and "polished" enough to enable for users — not starting on each feature from the beginning." when in context to the stated rational for early access just doesn't pass the sniff test. If you're at the point of "polishing" those features then the "getting users feedback on the core experience" is meaningless because it is not going to substantially change a nearly complete feature that is "just getting each feature finished and "polished" enough to enable for users".

I've also been very optimistic and looked forward to when KSP2 would launch. This announcement however seems like it came from a completely different direction when compared to the last 3 years of communications, and as such it gives me the feeling that Private Division had kicked the can as far down the road as they could and Take Two ran thin on patience and gave Private Division an ultimatum to either start generating revenue or cancel the project. I will check it out when it hits early access launch like I've said before, however, given the context of things I will very likely refund it and wait until there is at least most of the expected features and an established cadence of how quickly they are delivering the features on the roadmap.

Yes, this is exactly how I feel. The launch of EA sounds like they were given an ultimatum to start generating revenue for the project, at least when coupled with the apparent progress of the game up to this point along with the history of this game regarding changing studios and potential mismanagement. 

If this is what we need for the project to have continued support, and the missing features come in a reasonable amount of time after this release, then I'll be fairly satisfied. However to me this doesn't completely add up and frankly I was also of the expectation from the previous diaries/communications that they intended on delivering a feature complete title at release, not an early-access demo. 

It just doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at the tone and attitude of several of the developers up to this point in their communications. I'll inhale some copium for now, but until we have some sort of timetable for the new features I've lost some optimism for this title. Looking forward to at least trying EA and experimenting with the new systems.

Edited November 21, 2022 by sweatbox

[Luriss]

17 hours ago, sweatbox said:

Yes, this is exactly how I feel. The launch of EA sounds like they were given an ultimatum to start generating revenue for the project, at least when coupled with the apparent progress of the game up to this point along with the history of this game regarding changing studios and potential mismanagement. 

If this is what we need for the project to have continued support, and the missing features come in a reasonable amount of time after this release, then I'll be fairly satisfied. However to me this doesn't completely add up and frankly I was also of the expectation from the previous diaries/communications that they intended on delivering a feature complete title at release, not an early-access demo. 

It just doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at the tone and attitude of several of the developers up to this point in their communications. I'll inhale some copium for now, but until we have some sort of timetable for the new features I've lost some optimism for this title. Looking forward to at least trying EA and experimenting with the new systems.

Personally, I think it seems pretty clear that this game has gone through some level of development hell; between the studio change shenanigans, Covid, and the like I think it's a miracle that we're getting anything at all. It might just be me seeing things that aren't there but if you compare 2019 Nate with 2022 Nate it looks like the poor guy's aged a bit from the stress of it all.

 

My expectations are basically this: The game will release to early access with a steam review score somewhere in the 50-60s range with a lack of features, bugs, and poor performance cited as issues. After a wave of bug fixes and the like in the first month or two we'll start to see the first roadmap features come along 5-ish months after release minimum. The full game will probably be out by early 2025 at the earliest.

Now as a massive KSP fan I'll be buying into this thing no matter what (something I've never done before, and probably shouldn't do but eh) because, well, 1) it's KSP 2, and more importantly 2) I believe that in the long term KSP 2 has a decent shot of being lightyears ahead of KSP 1 in gameplay, scope, potential for growth, and most importantly, performance, once everything is ironed out. Release however? Yeeeaaahh nah she's gonna be bumpy.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Luriss

[Gargamel]

On 11/21/2022 at 5:36 AM, Vl3d said:

 

You see the mess created in people's minds by the lack of communication?

 

I do not.    
 

I’m looking forward to experiencing the game with a fresh set of eyes and wonder.    I do t have any preconceived notions of what the game will be exactly be.   It’s like Christmas morning.    Yeah I could peek at the gifts early, but that ruins the fun part of it.  
 

Since nobody outside of the dev team has any influence on what the game turns out to be, I think everybody would be a lot happier if they took the same approach.   

[Vl3d]

31 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

I think everybody would be a lot happier if they took the same approach.

The first video ever uploaded on the Kerbal Space Program YouTube channel is this one.

As you can see in the title, it's a promo video of all the game features - in game.

[Gargamel]

54 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

The first video ever uploaded on the Kerbal Space Program YouTube channel is this one.

As you can see in the title, it's a promo video of all the game features - in game.

How does that have any relevance to what I posted?   Or this thread? 

[Puangarua]

It’s getting closer and closer! 

[Minmus Taster]

4 hours ago, Puangarua said:

It’s getting closer and closer! 

3 months until the fandom either rejoices or falls into shambles lmao

[Admiral Fluffy]

Finally.

We will have it.

A bit late, but still here.

[Ryaja]

I believe it releases on national engineering week, yep it is on national engineer's week I just checked.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Ryaja

[StrandedonEarth]

Why so it does! Nice catch! I really doubt that it’s a coincidence…

I seem to out of likes… +1. I must remember to come back to fix that…

[Ryaja]

17 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Why so it does! Nice catch! I really doubt that it’s a coincidence…

I seem to out of likes… +1. I must remember to come back to fix that…

Ya, it is probably not a coincidence, also late new page!

[Defenestrator47]

On 10/28/2022 at 4:04 AM, The Aziz said:

Yet another reminder that graphically old gen can do wonders and I'm not making that up. Take a look at any game in the last 4 years. Even those released this year. They still work at 30 frames (hardware limitation specifically to keep that framerate stable) in 1080p.

I have a GTX 970.  I can run Darktide, which just released, at 1920x1080, with decent graphics.  It's very pretty, and it runs stably, and death to the heretic, blah blah blah.  The CPU and Mobo are from 2012.  The newest component is 32GB of ram I just got (I'm surprised they still have DDR3 that works with this antique still available) upgrading from 8 GB.  It's not PERFECT, but older systems can surprisingly keep up more than is let on.  Frankly the graphx card makers and the display makers like to say 'SIX MONTHS OLD?!  MY GOD YOU'LL BARELY DISPLAY A SINE WAVE!' but the reality is I played Control at max settings except ray tracing, which this card doesn't do, and enjoyed it tremendously (it's a fantastic game for SCP fans...the refrigerator is probably the best character out there).

A computer from a more recent build will, I am sure, run KSP 2, maybe not with all the graphics, but the game itself will run.  I will bet the minimum system requirements will still allow this abacus I run to run it.  Also now that prices on graphx have come down, I'm planning out a new system, because a decade is enough for this antique.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Defenestrator47

[NoxiousDead]

Perhaps I missed this as I skimmed the last 22 pages but do we have to wait until Feb 24 to buy the game that goes into early access on that date?  You can take my money now.  I'm good with that.

[Kerbalsaurus]

I didn’t see the early access video until today lol.

[Levelord]

Can't wait to wrangle with the Kraken in 2023!

[AtomicTech]

[jebycheek]

No any ideal encouragement for the progress but, i wish y'all keep healthy,you about to making history.

[Nicrose]

I have been excited for KSP2 for years, however the reality of early access is starting to sink in. I know we have all seen the games that stay in “early access” for years and those that just rush 1.0 and I'm concerned about where KSP2 falls into that. Im worried that at launch, it will grow old very quickly and cause subsequent releases to be less impactful and generally slow momentum, thus slowing development. Overall I am very hopeful and don’t want to come of as negative but as release gets closer and closer I find myself getting less and less excited as I know it will be very similar to KSP and what we can achieve in there. The new pieces will certainly be fun to play with but for how long? Especially without any incentive or ability to progress? I fear we will see all the new stuff there is to see until interstellar travel. Personally I really hope for quick updates, hopefully outpacing player exploration so we can start growing a list of objectives or destinations we are excited to reach rather than a list of things we are waiting for. Anyways, I would love to see if anyone else feels similar or how you keep excited regardless of the unknowns! 

[Gargamel]

Overlapping threads have been merged. 

[Bej Kerman]

5 hours ago, Nicrose said:

Especially without any incentive or ability to progress?

Just ask a sandbox player. Or anyone who doesn't need artificially imposed barriers to have fun