A week in... 10% still playing

[Terwin]

Steam says I have 2 minutes of play-time and I last played on Feb 24th.

Why?  Launching through steam does not work for me, so I run it with a short-cut to KSP2_x64.exe in my games folder.

 

Remember all the advice about not playing from your steam directory because it will mess-up your mod installs?  I expect that is also having quite a large impact on the steam statistics, even if there is not much in the way of mods just yet.  Old habits die hard

 

I can tell you that I have played KSP 2 a lot more than steam thinks I have, even if I am not playing as much as I will once there is some form of progression.

 

I suspect that the launcher is having problems because of my multiple monitor set-up(3 monitors with two different sizes), but as the KSP 1 launcher did not work for me either, I just shrugged and created my own short-cut a few minutes after downloading the game.  While I will likely leave a review once KSP 2 is more feature rich, I am not expecting any of my future play-time to be reflected on steam, especially considering how frequently I used mods in KSP 1.

 

Edit: I got KSP1 from the squad store, so my only 'KSP' activity on steam shows me downloading KSP 2 and abandoning it in less than 5 minutes.  Not sure how many hours I played KSP1, but my hours played would be at least 4 digits.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Terwin

[RocketRockington]

We'll see if the patch moves the needle.  Based on the preliminary list of bugs, I don't expect much change in trajectory,  but of course there could be additional fixes making thier way in.

[The Aziz]

It's not going to make a revolution, not until big features start appearing. It's gonna do a spike and then drop to steady but low-ish levels.

Also remember it's a middle of the week.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

I'm actually thinking that if the patch is solid, we'd get back up to 2500 player levels.  Like there were when I started this thread.  If it's relatively minor... 

I do expect a spike over the weekend as people check out the patch - I'm mostly talking about persistent players.

[MechBFP]

8 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I'm actually thinking that if the patch is solid, we'd get back up to 2500 player levels.  Like there were when I started this thread.  If it's relatively minor... 

I do expect a spike over the weekend as people check out the patch - I'm mostly talking about persistent players.

I doubt the game will be that much better with the first patch. There is simply too much stuff broken for them to possibly fix it that fast.

Even after 3 patches, it will probably only barely get to the level it should have been released in.

[LameLefty]

The game is broken as heck in some fundamental ways - hopefully the patch will focus not on some of the … questionable … UX decisions, but on core game-breaking things like trajectory projections being completely wrong when leaving an SOI (see the bug report I posted tonight for a good example); physics glitches like legs falling off and landers sinking into terrain and/or hopping around when changing focus to a Kerbal on EVA; staging glitches and parts failing to separate; etc. 

Yet, despite all that, Steam tonight tells me I have 60 hours of playtime already. Admittedly, I’d have had a lot more SATISFYING 60 hours minus all the bugs. But I’m still playing, so I guess there’s that.

[Jacke]

I'm none too happy about the state that KSP2 was released in, especially considering the price.

However, I also think even if it didn't have a lot of the bugs that it does, there still would have been a similar drop-off in online active KSP2 users.  The number of systems in the game is rather low.  Doing the best in sandbox-only requires quite a bit of self-directed play.  That alone would lead to a drop-off.  I'm sure there will be spikes in activity with each patch too.

[RaBDawG]

On 3/14/2023 at 7:23 PM, RocketRockington said:

We'll see if the patch moves the needle.  Based on the preliminary list of bugs, I don't expect much change in trajectory,  but of course there could be additional fixes making thier way in.

Patch wont change a thing.  They aren't even fixing ANY of the major bugs lol.  Not adding any new content either, not adding heat, and its been 3 weeks since launch.  Crazy.  

[Scarecrow71]

5 minutes ago, RaBDawG said:

Patch wont change a thing.  They aren't even fixing ANY of the major bugs lol.  Not adding any new content either, not adding heat, and its been 3 weeks since launch.  Crazy.  

You have a source that told you what the patch will and won't definitively include?

Edited March 16, 2023 by Scarecrow71

[Fluke]

3 minutes ago, RaBDawG said:

They aren't even fixing ANY of the major bugs lol. 

I guess having the KSC follow you through space isn't considered  a major bug to you.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

2 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

You have a source that told you what the patch will and won't definitively include?

Ouija board.

[Siska]

But is there going to be a patch? It's 16th of March and i don't see it.

Did developers release patch release for different timezones?

 

[regex]

29 minutes ago, Siska said:

But is there going to be a patch? It's 16th of March and i don't see it.

Here on the Best Coast USA it's only 8:30am, most developer-like people have just rolled out of bed and are getting oriented to the day, sipping on their coffee. There's at least another 7 hours left to go in the work day, give them some time.

[Scarecrow71]

26 minutes ago, regex said:

Here on the Best Coast USA it's only 8:30am, most developer-like people have just rolled out of bed and are getting oriented to the day, sipping on their coffee. There's at least another 7 hours left to go in the work day, give them some time.

Well, all of us cool developers in PDT were up and online by 6 this morning.  Myself included.

[The Aziz]

We got a large spike and the update barely dropped, less than hour ago. My guess it won't stop there yet.

Edited March 16, 2023 by The Aziz

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

We are back up to 10%.  Evening of the patch.

I'm happy with it enough to predict that we don't get as precipitous of a drop this week; meaning I think people who were really frustrated, but also really interested who dropped for a while may stick.

If the second patch is at all as comprehensive as this one was... I'd actually think we'd start seeing the numbers creep upward as EA gets rolling.

(Still calling this Beta-ish at this point.  Last few weeks felt like an Alpha more than anything.  But while I'm finding a lot of bugs still, frustration is WAY down).

[The Aziz]

It evened out at the bottom just below the peak a day earlier. I call that a successful update. Of course the initial post-update hype will cool down soon, but I guess this time because the performance hasn't improved that much (looking anywhere near KSC is painful). Not because of the countless bugs.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

2 hours ago, The Aziz said:

It evened out at the bottom just below the peak a day earlier. I call that a successful update. Of course the initial post-update hype will cool down soon, but I guess this time because the performance hasn't improved that much (looking anywhere near KSC is painful). Not because of the countless bugs.

Yeah, sadly the big improvement in frames won't show up till the PQS merge is complete, but things like having higher part craft should be mitigated by the short term updates. 

 

That said, I am definitely getting better frames in the vicinity of KSC.   Nothing huge but going from 12 FPS to 17 is a large percentage increase. 

[The Aziz]

from 1 to 2 is a 100% increase, yippee!

Meanwhile, player count is going up again

[Moons]

21 hours ago, The Aziz said:

from 1 to 2 is a 100% increase, yippee!

Meanwhile, player count is going up again

On 3/17/2023 at 11:17 AM, The Aziz said:

It evened out at the bottom just below the peak a day earlier. I call that a successful update. Of course the initial post-update hype will cool down soon, but I guess this time because the performance hasn't improved that much (looking anywhere near KSC is painful). Not because of the countless bugs.

 

 

What is the point of trying to be overly positive when reality is different?

The game still has way less players than KSP1 - at this moment:

KSP1: 3450

KSP2: 1500

The patch just did a short peak - but even that wasnt really high - i was expecting way more of the initial players to test the first patch.

Its weekend and the player count is going down already.

https://vginsights.com/game/954850

https://steamcharts.com/app/954850#All

 

To be honest i think its not looking good for the game - development has to be changed and pricing has to be changed in my opinion. (for example reducing the scope of the base game - reduce the price focus on getting that to 1.0 as a solid base and then go for other features as DLC etc.)

I think the initial price is way too high for what it is in EA but also in general will act like a deterrent - especially for casual gamers and other people interrested in the game.

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Moons

[The Aziz]

I don't care about KSP1? The player count doubled compared to let's say 15th, and kept being high a day after update, and it's going back up. It's going to peak in about 8 hours again, let's see what's there.

[RocketRockington]

KSP2 failed to reach a peak of 1000 players for the first time today (peak was 918 -  3.5% of its peak player count) - and bottomed out below 400.

  We're still likely 1.5 weeks away from the next patch, so unless the next patch makes a more significant difference,  around, or the patch cadence gets faster, KSP2 may be dwindling for a long while - likely at least until Science gets released.

Edited March 29, 2023 by RocketRockington

[Superfluous J]

Yeah but how many people are checking how many people are playing it each day? Those numbers have got to be massive.

[RocketRockington]

Just now, Superfluous J said:

Yeah but how many people are checking how many people are playing it each day? Those numbers have got to be massive.

Likely.  KSP2 salt mining idle game would probably outsell KSP2 at this point!  Even better - it's free.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

56 minutes ago, RocketRockington said:

KSP2 failed to reach a peak of 1000 players for the first time today (peak was 918 -  3.5% of its peak player count) - and bottomed out below 400.

  We're still likely 1.5 weeks away from the next patch, so unless the next patch makes a more significant difference,  around, or the patch cadence gets faster, KSP2 may be dwindling for a long while - likely at least until Science gets released.

Ouch. I did my part. I loaded up the game, confirmed it still sucks, then kind of messed around in the VAB anyway.

Also, had to cap the framerate. The title screen jumped up to 550. I don't remember if it was WOW or something else, but there was a game a few years ago that fried out people's graphics cards because of the same issue. Seems to be something that warrants looking into.