The KSP2 Journey Begins

[Nate Simpson]

The day is nearly here.  

This moment feels a little bit like dropping a kid off for the first day of school. We’ve got a lot of love for this game — we think we've prepared it for every eventuality, but we also know that it has more growing to do. We’re about to take the first steps on a journey that will eventually carry KSP2 through colonies, interstellar travel, and multiplayer.

Now the real learning begins!

What To Expect

On day 1 of Early Access, players will be able to create and fly vehicles in Sandbox Mode and visit any location in the Kerbolar System. They’ll also have access to our first four interactive tutorials, accessible via the all-new Training Center. These teach basic rocketry concepts to give new players a head-start on their space programs. You’ll encounter new parts, including new procedural wings, new wheels, new command pods, new cargo parts, and new engines (and the first of the new fuels – liquid hydrogen). To pave the way for the upcoming interstellar-class parts, we’ve also added a new, larger core size. As we progress through Early Access, we’ll continue to expand on all of these features.

We can’t wait to finally see what creative feats the community can achieve with the new procedural and color-customizable parts. Our environment team is eager to watch players explore the revamped terrains of the Kerbolar System (and are curious if they'll discover anything unexpected). The UX/UI team is keen to learn how the updated user experience feels - they've put a lot of effort into wrangling a very complex set of requirements into a new, more streamlined presentation. This is it — the moment has arrived when all our plans come into contact with reality!

There are many new features, big and small, for you to explore on day 1. We've put together this guide to give you an overview of what's new and to break down some known issues. Release day notes and future patch notes will also live here.

In the launcher you'll find reporting tools that you can use to tell us about any problems you've encountered, as well as to give us feedback about any other aspect of the player experience you think we should know about. This feedback will be invaluable to us as we continue to improve the game's stability, performance, and playability.

What Comes Next

Many new features will arrive as we continue development, including Science Mode, Colonies, Interstellar exploration, and Multiplayer. Take a look at our Early Access Roadmap for more details.

In the meantime, we're bringing back Weekly Challenges!

We intend to mix things up a little bit going forward, but the first challenge will be a classic Achievement Challenge:

• Primary goal: Fly to the Mun and get a picture of a Kerbal in front of the most interesting feature you can find
• Stretch goal: strand a Kerbal there and pick them up with a second vehicle, returning them safely to Kerbin
• Jeb-level goal: do any of the above on any other celestial body in the Kerbolar System
• Val-level goal: pronounce "Mun" correctly

If you want us to see (and maybe share) your achievement, use #KSP2WeeklyChallenge on social media, or share them in our official Discord.

Welcome to KSP2! The journey begins!
 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

On 2/17/2023 at 1:34 PM, Nate Simpson said:

Jeb-level goal: do any of the above on any other celestial body in the Kerbolar System

Calling Hax if you are not on the Mun or Minmus

(insider Neanderthal joke) 

Edited February 20, 2023 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Ahres]

My open response letter to one Mr. @Nate Simpson, Creative Director at Intercept Games.

Nate, I can't believe it's almost time. It's been quite the journey for the players, and even more so for the development team, I'm sure. It's funny, the dev team almost feels like friends to me after all the feature videos, dev diaries, and forum posts that we've seen from you, Shana, and others. We've gotten some insight on your personalities and interests and it's been fun to pick up on them. 

I wish I could say I speak on behalf of all players, in hopes that they share the same thoughts and sentiments that I do. Unfortunately, there will always be those who are both vocal and negative. While it can be constructive to have that feedback, I worry it can also slowly eat away at your sense of accomplishment and your pride. So I'm typing this out to you in hopes it's something that you and the team can hang your hat on as the first early access version becomes available to the world. 

What you and the team are attempting to accomplish is nothing short of impressive. Just ponder it... multiple solar systems at interstellar-scale distances right here in my office. Incredible. I've looked forward to this game ever since the announcement just those short years ago. The delays were a bummer, certainly. But as a true fan in your own right, I'm sure it was even harder on you. I honestly can't imagine the feeling of guilt and disappointment you've felt as the face of the team, knowing you had to tell us we had to wait longer. I like to think I'm someone who tries his darndest to understand others' perspectives, and so I apologize for any comments, etc. that the team has seen from the community that may have been taken personal or harder than any commenter might have realized. 

On a more positive note, let me just say that I am so pumped for the 24th. This is it. THE game. Kerbal Space Program 2. The sequel to my most favorite game ever made. I'm so excited for you and the team that you can finally share this with the world. I'm excited for Rafael's tutorials to be seen, that new players can pick up on some orbital mechanics without being intimidated. I'm excited for the parts! They look so good. Plus, the nostalgia will be prevalent getting to see some old parts now revamped. I'm most excited for the sense of exploration and discovery. The frontier spirit within me can't get enough of it. 

An in-person meeting seems unlikely, so this forum post is likely the closest I'll get to interacting with the team face-to-face. With that in mind, personally, this post seems underwhelming in conveying my understanding and my gratitude of the team. For that I apologize. There's so much more to say that likely will never be said. Regardless, let it be known to all at Intercept Games from myself, and the rest of us in the KSP Community:

THANK YOU

And Godspeed.

-Matt/Ahres

[MiffedStarfish]

This is the best you have after 4 or 5 years? What happened to "Improved User Experience" at launch? You  can't be too confident in that if you literally put a disclaimer saying  "Some UI elements can be challenging to interact with" in the other thread, and that's one of the standout features worth advertising?

The recommended specs are so absurdly high compared to the rest of the gaming industry that the overwhelming  initial reaction I saw to them was that it had to be a prank.  That might have been understandable if the graphics were in any way impressive. If you showed me a screenshot of the KSC and told me the game came out in 2012 I would have believed you. Why do half the "new" parts look basically untextured? So you want to sell me assets I've already paid for in KSP and let me sandblast all the detail away by colour filling them like its Microsoft Paint, great. Removing the non-procedural wing parts is such a massive slap in the face as well, they are absolutely not replaceable.

Performance looks dreadful in all the previews, which is just mind numbing considering the monster PCs you put them on and that it wasn't even running at 4k. What most confuses me though is that at some point, you were either misleading us or you genuinely thought you could launch in early 2020. If  it was 3 years ago, early access was just starting and KSP2 looked like it does now, I might be ok with it. But instead you're only releasing this feature-barren game on Friday and asking players to own a graphics card that wasn't even out by the original launch date.

Pretty much every single thing I've seen over the last few weeks makes me think you have bungled this completely, and I don't have an ounce of faith in your studio if this is all you have to show for your time so far.

Edited February 22, 2023 by MiffedStarfish

[The Aziz]

I hope the Weekly Challenge starts on Friday, not today

Just now, MiffedStarfish said:

<rant>

Ok.

[MechBFP]

I have to say that regardless of the good or bad that will come and go over the months, this is going to be one very interesting ride for the foreseeable future.

Congrats to everyone for making it this far, I definitely know what you are feeling right now and I hope things pan out for the best for everyone on the team and the project. 

Edited February 20, 2023 by MechBFP

[linuxgurugamer]

20 hours ago, MiffedStarfish said:

Pretty much every single thing I've seen over the last few weeks makes me think you have bungled this completely, and I don't have an ounce of faith in your studio if this is all you have to show for it so far.

When you develop your own game, you can be critical to the degree you want to be.

The system specs are going to be conservative.  Why don't you just wait a week and see what actually happens.

Yes, it's sandbox, but this is the foundation upon which everything else will depend on.  Once it is solid, the development will continue.

I'm looking forward to trying it out on Friday, I will be streaming it as I learn it.  My system is midrange, so will see how it really performs

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by linuxgurugamer

[gussi111]

I like how you told us that the high spec requirements is because you have the big upcoming features in mind  but actually it's because you are getting 20fps with a slightly larger rocket on an RTX 4080, I hope this will soon be improved?

[Catto]

the pessimism of redditors has scared me and i'm panicking about what to expect or not

[AlphaMensae]

It's Early Access, not the final game.  This is going to be familar to those who were around when KSP 1.1 was being developed--New Unity version, 64-bit...fun times!

We've been spoiled by having a stable base for years now. It's back to square one.

Edited February 20, 2023 by AlphaMensae

[mcpattyp]

There has been pretty clear trend in the community's response to the first real gameplay, and this thread is probably going to be read by Nate himself, so I'm not going to continue the nuclear ripping into the game because I think he understands what the community thinks.

But please, focus a large amount of resources in the coming weeks and months on large leaps in optimization. There is no way there is not plenty of headroom for optimization. Your entire early access strategy focuses on player feedback to guide the course of development, but if nobody can run the game sales are going to tank hard, and you wont have the feedback you need, and I assume you guys need sales to continue development, because you are a business. Please, increase accessibility to this game by lowering the monster system requirements. If you don't, there wont be anyone left to play it.

I know this dev team has passion for the game because I saw it in every feature video. It probably hurts to see the negative reaction. Focus up and work your asses off on making this game perform the best it can.

[SkyFall2489]

Well, I'm glad to see that it's still the Kerbal space program.

Not just a realistic aerospace sim, there's the fun little bits of chaos.

The massive trails of fire with a lawn chair strapped to the top, the massive piles of boosters clawing their way into the starry sky-so intimidating even gravity backs away and lets them pass, the workplace where "safety" is a four letter word...

The trying, failing, trying again no matter the cost...

This is what makes KSP what KSP is. I'm glad to see, from what footage I've viewed, that it's still there.

As long as the core of KSP remains, I'm optimistic that we will have a great game at some point. Maybe not just yet, but sometime.

And as for the performance:

First, you get the code to run.

Then, you get the code to run correctly.

Then, you get the code to run fast.

KSP2 is still in the second step. Performance comes later. Don't say the end is nigh just yet.

Whatever comes out of this mess, it'll be great.

Because it'll still be kerbal.

Edited February 20, 2023 by SkyFall2489

[gussi111]

2 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Well, I'm glad to see that it's still the Kerbal space program.

Not just a realistic aerospace sim, there's the fun little bits of chaos.

The massive trails of fire with a lawn chair strapped to the top, the massive piles of boosters clawing their way into the starry sky-so intimidating even gravity backs away and lets them pass, the workplace where "safety" is a four letter word...

The trying, failing, trying again no matter the cost...

This is what makes KSP what KSP is. I'm glad to see, from what footage I've viewed, that it's still there.

As long as the core of KSP remains, I'm optimistic that we will have a great game at some point. Maybe not just yet, but sometime.

And as for the performance:

First, you get the code to run.

Then, you get the code to run correctly.

Then, you get the code to run fast.

KSP2 is still in the second step. Performance comes later. Don't say the end is nigh just yet.

very well said  

[Joker58th]

Thank you Nate and the dev team!  This is going to be a blast!  I'm super excited to try out the new VAB tools!  Can't wait until Friday!

[BezKartuza]

Hope your company don't go bankrupt. And I wish you good luck! Is it true. I would really like to someday play normal KSP 2.

[jebycheek]

Love this game and hope it runs well,In the future of course,I will support it as possible as I can,but man, for a director,you and your words just not trustworthy.over years of development,so much passion yet so little to shown...

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by jebycheek

[HomingPigeon]

2 hours ago, Ahres said:

My open response letter to one Mr. @Nate Simpson, Creative Director at Intercept Games.

Nate, I can't believe it's almost time. It's been quite the journey for the players, and even more so for the development team, I'm sure. It's funny, the dev team almost feels like friends to me after all the feature videos, dev diaries, and forum posts that we've seen from you, Shana, and others. We've gotten some insight on your personalities and interests and it's been fun to pick up on them. 

I wish I could say I speak on behalf of all players, in hopes that they share the same thoughts and sentiments that I do. Unfortunately, there will always be those who are both vocal and negative. While it can be constructive to have that feedback, I worry it can also slowly eat away at your sense of accomplishment and your pride. So I'm typing this out to you in hopes it's something that you and the team can hang your hat on as the first early access version becomes available to the world. 

What you and the team are attempting to accomplish is nothing short of impressive. Just ponder it... multiple solar systems at interstellar-scale distances right here in my office. Incredible. I've looked forward to this game ever since the announcement just those short years ago. The delays were a bummer, certainly. But as a true fan in your own right, I'm sure it was even harder on you. I honestly can't imagine the feeling of guilt and disappointment you've felt as the face of the team, knowing you had to tell us we had to wait longer. I like to think I'm someone who tries his darndest to understand others' perspectives, and so I apologize for any comments, etc. that the team has seen from the community that may have been taken personal or harder than any commenter might have realized. 

On a more positive note, let me just say that I am so pumped for the 24th. This is it. THE game. Kerbal Space Program 2. The sequel to my most favorite game ever made. I'm so excited for you and the team that you can finally share this with the world. I'm excited for Rafael's tutorials to be seen, that new players can pick up on some orbital mechanics without being intimidated. I'm excited for the parts! They look so good. Plus, the nostalgia will be prevalent getting to see some old parts now revamped. I'm most excited for the sense of exploration and discovery. The frontier spirit within me can't get enough of it. 

An in-person meeting seems unlikely, so this forum post is likely the closest I'll get to interacting with the team face-to-face. With that in mind, personally, this post seems underwhelming in conveying my understanding and my gratitude of the team. For that I apologize. There's so much more to say that likely will never be said. Regardless, let it be known to all at Intercept Games from myself, and the rest of us in the KSP Community:

THANK YOU

And Godspeed.

-Matt/Ahres

What an eloquent and precise sentiment.   This. 1000% this.   

To those who somehow feel angry or frustrated, I hope you gain perspective and gratitude for a team that clearly cares (a lot) and is achieving what we, literally, dreamed of.

“Where expectations lie, gratitude cannot be.”   

Thank You!   

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, gussi111 said:

I like how you told us that the high spec requirements is because you have the big upcoming features in mind  but actually it's because you are getting 20fps with a slightly larger rocket on an RTX 4080, I hope this will soon be improved?

Ummm, let's see:

1. They were running on essentially development builds, not yet released. 
2. They are still working on cleaning up some of the bugs which were shown.
3. They haven't done any real optimizations yet
4. They are working to get it as stable as possible

Pick three.

[Astro648]

I CANNOT WAIT any longer for this game... fly safe Nate & KSP2 team!

[gussi111]

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ummm, let's see:

1. They were running on essentially development builds, not yet released. 
2. They are still working on cleaning up some of the bugs which were shown.
3. They haven't done any real optimizations yet
4. They are working to get it as stable as possible

Pick three.

This isn't fixable in a week or two mate. Like I sad I do hope that they fix these couple of issues soon.

[MechBFP]

18 minutes ago, gussi111 said:

This isn't fixable in a week or two mate. Like I sad I do hope that they fix these couple of issues soon.

If I had to wager a guess given current progress and previous experience, I would say that things will be a lot better in about 6 to 8 months.

It is a long time, but also not really a long time given the amount of work required.

[KerballingSmasher]

4 hours ago, Catto said:

the pessimism of redditors has scared me and i'm panicking about what to expect or not

It's reddit. Take everything they say with multiple grains of salt.

I think we're all thinking and trying to compare KSP2 to what we have now when we should be comparing it to what we had for KSP1 Early Access...

Now, think about it. What did we have in the game (more than?) a decade ago?

 

Not a lot.

 

But the game grew over time--very quickly, in some instances.

It's been optimized to be able to run on so many more machines than it was at first!

We've gotten so many new parts -- including MOAR BOOSTERS -- a trend that (for obvious reasons) is gonna continue here.

And just think about how many things we got after release, too! Two entire DLCs, somewhere around eight years of updates, and a wonderful community.

Oh, and weekly community challenges. Those are back already! (gotta say, love to see that they're back. It's been a hot minute!)

 

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is don't compare KSP 2 Early Access to the finished KSP 1 -- compare it to early KSP 1, and then pinch yourself that we're almost here!

 

 

12 minutes ago, MechBFP said:

If I had to wager a guess given current progress and previous experience, I would say that things will be a lot better in about 6 to 8 months.

It is a long time, but also not really a long time given the amount of work required.

Yep, based off of how KSP itself reacts to things in the system, I'd say that's about accurate. Stuff is gonna change fast and a lot of stuff is gonna change! (English good.)

[Greenfire32]

5 hours ago, MiffedStarfish said:

words

Back in my day, we didn't even have the Mun and we liked it!

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, gussi111 said:

This isn't fixable in a week or two mate. Like I sad I do hope that they fix these couple of issues soon.

Never said it was, but it _is_ all of what I listed.  Early Access means that you are essentially paying to be a beta tester.  Accept that, or just wait for the full release

[rmaine]

5 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

 

I'm looking forward to trying it out on Friday, I will be streaming it as I learn it.  My system is midrange, so will see how it a really performs

Might be neat to watch you streaming, but I'll be busy learning it myself. :-)