KSP2 - 3 hours of Day 1 EA

[Cailean_556]

Okay... I have some good and some bad experiences in my first session of KSP2. I'll get the bad experiences out of the way first.

BAD EXPERIENCES

The new UI

I will get used to it, but it rubbed me the wrong way just enough to make me want KSP1's control scheme back.

Colours

I love the fact that I can colour my rockets. What I don't like is that apparently the colour black is unobtainable on rockets. My chosen colour scheme is black and a brightish green. On the campaign set up screen, the colour appears black. Go into the VAB, my rockets are dark green and bright green. Go to change the colour, can't make it any darker. Change to blue, to see if that's darker. No, it's just dark blue now. Change to red - red appears darker than blue or green but the 'black' is still with a red tinge. I don't want a tinge. I wanted black. If I wanted a tinge of colour, I'd have made the colour more colourful than simple black. I can't drag the little colour circle any lower, nor can I tweak the opacity any higher/lower. I don't want a dark and bright green rocket, I wanted a black and bright green rocket.

Delta V

Colours aside, I expected there to be some differences in designs for rockets between KSP1 and KSP2 - 1. because the parts are different and 2. the values of engines have been tweaked, so I expected things to be different. I use a lot of 'Delta/Falcon-9' style influence in designing my rockets. That's probably not going to change in KSP2. However, what has changed is the dV read outs... And the way in which they're calculated. TWR in a vacuum? Burn time? Will 16,000dV on Kerbin equate to 16k dV on Eve? I don't know, because I can't check.

Kerbals unable to re-enter their pods after EVA

Got a Kerbal (Bill) into orbit. Decided to re-develop the orbiter I used for Bill into a Munar lander. Jeb's turn to shine. Lands on the Mun. I get him out and go for a quick jaunt on the Mun before decided to return to Kerbin. Enable the jetpack, fly up to the pod - the "Press F to Grab, press B to Board" options appear. Press F. Nothing happens. Press F again. Nothing happens. Press F repeatedly. Alternate F and B. Swear under my breath whilst pressing F and B. Nothing. Figure it might be because a part has somehow clipped the exit perhaps. Switch to Bill back in orbit of Kerbin - his orbiter has no attachments anywhere near what could be considered the exit of the pod. Get him out. jetpack around the ship for a few seconds, go to get back in. Options appear on screen. F. F... FFFFFFF... (Swearing) FBFBFBFBFBFBFBF... (Swearing).

Haven't tried the other pods yet, maybe I'll do that next time I play.

Fuel feeding BETWEEN tanks as opposed to INTO tanks when using Fuel Lines

Classic 'Delta/Falcon 9' style 3-body rocket with an upper stage intended to be an orbiter. The outer tanks have the small, non-gimballing engine (LVT-30), the central has the gimballing LVT-45. Fuel line from the outer tanks to the inner. This works as I expected it to, or at least seemed to, as the staging seemed to go as planned (at least on the occasion I used it - we'll see if it works again when I try it next time.

Made a beefier rocket of a similar configuration that uses a modified version of the orbiter as a Mun lander, added a medium orbit/TMI stage and used large tanks for the core/central body then mediums for the outers - outers are intended to feed the central tank and be jettisoned when empty. Has over 11,000 dV (more than enough for a Mun landing and return). Launch. Everything going well - sluggish on take off due to a TWR only slightly above 1.0 but we started to gain speed and altitude quickly. Keeping an eye on the staging information, notice that the tanks are draining equally. Not only that but it seems that, although the stage's dV is dropping, the tanks Methalox seems to be stuck in a loop: main tank is dropping from 50 units of LF (I thought this was going to be CH4 now?), down to about 45 or so then jumping back up to 50. Weird, but I let it ride. Notice my Apo is over 100km (my intended orbit) - I still have my side boosters and the core attached, and they all still have fuel - so I kill all 3 engines, with the stage information stating I still have fuel (around 1/3). I stage the boosters - my core stage has no fuel. Stage again. The orbital/TMI stage has fuel (as expected) so I use that to circularise and burn for the Mun without further issue.

(EDIT) Fuel feeding BETWEEN stages

I can't get this to happen consistently, but for some reason on occasion the rocket seems to consume fuel from the stage above it. Number of intended Mun landers have either been stranded on landing, or unable to even made a TMI from Kerbin orbit due to the stage below the lander/TMI stage taking its fuel.

Jeb MIA when I go to switch back to him from Bill after seeing if Bill could return to the pod from EVA.

After the whole 'being unable to get back in my pod after doing an EVA' thing with Bill, I position him in such a way that he won't float away (too far) from his orbiter and switch back to Jeb. Or I would have if he were still available. The Mun lander is still there - uncrewed, I might add - but Jeb is no longer selectable on the Mun. I didn't 'Return to KSC' or recover him - or destroy him by accident, he's just gone. Where? I assume he is One with the Kraken.

Mun lander fell through the Mun

Switch to the Mun lander on the surface. Or should I say, sub-surface. As soon as it loads, I notice I have a negative (and falling) altitude, the camera is, I initially think, clipped through the Mun's terrain however I very quickly realise it's the craft that's clipped and is now falling through the Mun. While this is a 'sandbox' and losing a craft in such a manner has no real consequences other than lost time and opportunity, and this is EA, this is the point at which I stop playing KSP2 to write this.

(EDIT) Re-entry effects

I know, and can understand, that the re-entry effects were disabled for the demo however why/how are these not in the base game at launch when they've been in KSP1 for almost a decade at this point and this game was delayed for several years in order to deliver a better product!? Yes, this is EA. Completely, totally understand.  But energy usage is non-existent, re-entry/thermal effects/heat is non-existent. These aren't "nice to have" features, these are CORE features of a space/rocket simulation. Especially for the sequel of an already-established space/rocket simulation game.

Overall Impression after my own hands-on

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I don't mind the whole 'some features are missing' - there's still plenty for me to do right now. I'm not overly concerned about there being no science to do, as I understand that it probably needs a bit of a rework to cater for colonies and whatever else you have planned. But what I do care about is that what *IS* in this game *AND* KSP1 currently, I expect the *SEQUEL* to do as well, if not better than the original - straight off the bat. KSP1 currently does a few things better - mechanics wise. It calculates TWR per stage, for example. I can also assess how my craft will work in a vacuum in KSP1, something I cannot yet do in KSP2. The manoeuvre nodes seem to work better and I can see Apo/Peri information better in KSP1 when making nodes than I can in KSP2. Staging and fuel seems to work better.

For a sequel, this currently feels like a step backwards from the original. Kraken and wobbly rockets I can live with. Or at least adapt to. Craft falling through terrain, after 3 years of extra development time, is not something anyone should expect - even in EA. Kerbals going missing without context as to why. Things that worked (as intended) in KSP1 don't seem to work as well or at all in KSP2. I know it's going to get better, and I look forward to the future developments, but if craft and Kerbals are  disappearing and breaking or falling through terrain for no reason - why am I wasting my time? I want to play KSP2 to explore and progress (granted I can't progress like I want to - i.e. a career mode, but it is coming eventually), not have to keep going over the same old stuff because last 10 times I've landed on the Mun to explore, my ship fell through the ground and my Kerbal disappeared. I call that wasting my time, and time is a precious commodity for me to balance between my love of space/games/PC, my family and my partner.

GOOD EXPERIENCES

Graphics, sound, lighting, music, immersion.

There's no denying KSP2 is beautiful and is only going to get better.  Graphically, I'm lucky I have an RTX 3080.

The sounds, in flight, in the VAB or just in general, are amazingly pleasant to my ears. Even with a lingering sinus infection currently.

Lighting is equally amazing. Watching the sun's rays dance over my orbiting spacecraft as the sun 'rises' from behind Kerbin. Approaching the Mun, or going behind it and being encased in darkness. Loving it so far. Very pretty.

Music. Normally, I turn this off. But I might leave it on, at least until I've gone to each planet and moon at least once. The music gives you a sense of awe, at least it does for me. Looking forward to finally getting to other bodies and hearing their unique music.

Immersion. We can go more places with this, but what we have now is pleasing. The radio-chatter on launch, post stage, pre/post-burn, when we enter/exit an SOI. Liking it. Can't wait to see what IVA looks like and what other immersive elements you guys add.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Cailean_556
Encountered other issues during another play session

[Klapaucius]

Re colour:  I could not get a pure black either, but I can get a very dark grey (almost black) with no tint.

[sunsetteOS]

For me, the major issues I've run into so far are all frustratingly game-breaking.
- The mun arch randomly teleported to my ship in Mun SOI after I quickloaded, causing my ship to immediately crash.
- I tried to have a Kerbal go on EVA in orbit and the  pod they came out of exploded for seemingly no reason.  Collision issue?
- There's just a lot of weird QOL things gone, one of the biggest ones being that focusing on a planet you have an encounter with does not shift the orbital path there, maneuver notes have been made difficult and sluggish to use, moving the camera is sometimes agonizingly slow and requires big mouse movements, etc.

I feel like a few months down the line a lot of these issues will be fixed, but for a $50 game ~3-4 years into development (Early Access or not), I have to say it's a little disappointing.