The things I am missing in KSP2 [very early access]

[azgar]

The long awaited KSP2 is here.
I am wondering, should I have to let it mature a bit before buying, like some bugs to be worked out first?
I mean, anger and frustration are not that healthy and won't add much to the fun?
Could not do very much in space recently, because Kraken tends to pull the ships off course and make them spin.

But anyway, let's concentrate on good things:
* Procedural wings
I love procedural wings. With the same part you can do both F-104 Starfighter and U-2 Spy plane. Great.
You can stack them one to another. (tip: if you try to attach a new section to the tip of existing one, it turns out inverted. Attach it to the root, then slide to the place. , but works).
What I would really like is to store fuel in the wing.
I would like mass of the wing to depend on it's area. Right?
Probably the ability to choose a symmetric profile wing, so it could work better as vertical surface?
And maybe bring back add-on control surfaces? Sometimes it might be easier to just add flaps to existing wing than to multisection.
Oh! Please! Make the control surfaces to induce drag when they move. "Crow" airbrake, when you deploy flaps down and ailerons up is a thing. Or have a twin tail that turns symmetrically left and right to airbrake.

* Little (but important) things
Please let me name parts. Like when I right click the part, properties tree is brought up with 16 of wing sections. Good luck finding the right one. If I only could name them "Main wing outer section" and the left and right parts where the same part until I want to control them individually (for whatever reason).
Please, in procedural parts, can the number by the slider be editable? I want the wing angle be .50 picking it with a slider is 
The blueprint mode is interesting, yet it seems it needs a lot of improvement to become a thing.
Both for move-rotate tool and the maneuver planner can I have a separate control in the bottom of the screen so when I use it I don't accidentally click on another parts of another planets?
Multiscreen? Because with all that technical popup windows like engineering reports and procedural menus and part property panels... You know, not all of us have that 60" curved 8k monitors like game development people surely do.
Oh! Aerodynamic data window is cool. But can it pls close automatically when I retreat to VAB? Or, at least have a little X in the corner so I can close it? Thanks.

* Moar procedural parts
Like... really.
Procedural fuel tanks. You draw it like a fairing, then specify the proportions of the different fuel types inside.
Procedural fuselages. Same thing, actually, but maybe non circular cross section?
How about procedural engines? Play with turbine, burning chamber and nozzle size to get what you need?

* Propellers
You see, NASA sent a helicopter to Mars. We could use some props both for thrust and lift too. Put a small prop on kerbal to paraglide. Build an ultralight plane. Multicopter? Combustion engine and electric? Please!

* Autopilot
I mean SAS is cool. But as traveling in an atmosphere is loooooong, the device that would hold a bearing and altitude would be great. Or, at least, bearing and horizon. So instead of letting the plane straight go for half an hour, could put on autopilot and go do some chores time warp. Or bring the plane up in the sky, separate the rocket, go to space, and the plane would fly on until you get time to come back and land it.

Good work, KSP 2 team, actually. Thank you.
Hope the game is as fun as KSP soon and much more.

Edited March 6, 2023 by azgar

[kicka55]

I like the procedural wings too but there is a balance between giving people freedom and constraints. I know most people will say more freedom = better but that's just not ideal game design. KSP2 wants to be recognizable. If you see a craft on a screenshot you want to be able to tell, hey this is KSP2 right there. Nice what you did with the tools you had! If you give people all the freedom in the world you will not recognize the game at all anymore. It could be KSP2 but it could also be any other space game or maybe even a render. 

And then there is a part of creativity. If you get an assignment in arts in school for example, your teacher will always give you some kind of constraint. Be it time, tools, topic, etc. That's not coincidence.! Creativity requires constraints to get to work efficiently. It's like sitting infront of a blank piece of paper and you shall paint something. Anything! It's soooo hard! But now let me give you some prompts: Paint a toy car made out of Lego. Sooo much easier! The key to becoming a good artist is to constrain yourself. I hope you get what I mean. Constraints are also very important to make the player feel comfortable while playing the game. Not too many, but enough! And that's a tough one to figure out for sure!

Lastly I want to mention ingame progress. At some point they will want to add a mode where you progress from early rockets to fancy near and far future rockets. Starting out with small and few parts is just perfect especially for new players. You just have 1-2 tanks to stack and that's it. Even with this little freedom you can already build a whole bunch of different designs. I would bet most people enjoy the KSP1 career in the early stages much more than later on. Because they have fewer parts and more constraints.. (no proof for that though, so it's just my own experience).

I hope I got my point across though. Some level of procedural is alright, but the devs / designers have to make tough decisions on how much is too much. Maybe they will experiment with it, I don't know. I think procedural prop engines would be great. Vary blade number, length and thickness to adapt them to the planet you want to use them on. The KSP1 system was fiddly to say the least. 

Keep thinking about what you'd like in the game though, always great to have a good read! Cheers!

Edited March 6, 2023 by kicka55