Discord AMA 2 - Shana Markham - SUBMIT QUESTIONS HERE

[dsplaisted]

Will we get aliens? 

Edited April 16, 2023 by dsplaisted

[Filip Hudak]

What resources will we need to manage to run a colony? (Population, electricity, materials, food,  etc...)

 

[joratto]

Would you like to see rogue planets in the game? Would you prefer a gas giant or a planet that’s landable?

[Starhawk]

Please tell us what you can about designing adventure mode.  What has been the process of bringing a solid gameplay foundation to player progression in KSP2?

 

Aside:

12 hours ago, Whackjob said:

2.) An alternate VAB without walls or ceiling or size restriction.  If I write the check for pain, please let me cash it.

You want the 'Colonies' milestone on the roadmap when the Orbital Assembly Building (or whatever it gets called) will appear.
I look forward to that.

Happy landings!

[Astr0Guy5]

Hey Shana,

We know that resource collection will be a vital part of KSP2 down the road, requiring us to venture out to many planets to gather materials.  We also know that there will be at least 3 star systems resulting in tons of planets.  How will the resources be distributed across so many planets in order to give the player a reason to explore every world?  If resources aren't the catalyst for exploration, how else do plan on motivating exploration?

[Jaypeg]

Will science mode be similar to ksp 1's Reasearchbodies mod where you have to launch telescopes/orbital surveys to discover bodies, and then launch probes to learn about their mass, etc?

[Superfluous J]

What in your opinion was lacking in KSP1's Science gathering/spending mechanisms, and what has been done to improve upon these?

Edited April 17, 2023 by Superfluous J

[TheEco92]

Repost: For the rockets, are there plans in the future to have a logistics-like setup for flights like RoverDude, including habitation and supplies? Or will it be more aligned to random events and a story-like journey, like in Mars Horizon?

[skylifeplays]

On 4/14/2023 at 3:00 PM, Ghostii_Space said:

Designing and tuning gameplay systems. ("How do players build colonies? What do we want them to manage? What actions do we want them to have?"

How would we build colonies? would we start out with a core and expand it through resources or would we launch the parts as inflatable pieces?  How would they be able to interact with other colonies with timewarp?

[almagnus1]

When can we expect the floppy rocket and aircraft wings falling off issues to be largely mitigated?

Shameless self-promotion plug:

 

[AtomicTech]

When can we expect auto-strut?

And

Will we ever see the reinclusion of the individual right-click info menu?

[LUCINNDA]

I had to abandon my Star Gater project. After managing to put some of the parts into orbit, the living module has been impossible to launch. Why?:

- VAB loading time: 10 minutes (real time)

- Loading time each time the parts menu appears in the VAB: 5 minutes

- Loading time from the launch button is pressed on the VAB until it is ready to launch: 20 minutes

- Loading time from READY button is pressed until the ship starts to move: 20 minutes.

- Loading time if there is a failure and the ship is destroyed: Infinite, I haven't had enough patience. Also, it forces me to restart the PC, because it leaves everything blocked.

They will think that my PC is from the last century, but no:

-Intel Core i5 12400F

-Asus Prime B660

- Ram 32 GB DDR4 3200

-NVIDIA GForce RTX 360Ti

I don't think there is any justification for these loading times. And you think of stellar colonies. I guess as a claim for the players. I think they should first make it so that a popup menu doesn't freeze the program for 3 minutes.

[whatsEJstandfor]

It seems that the consensus on these forums and in the Discord is that wobbly rockets are funny and cute while first starting out, but that they end up being a huge annoyance in the long term, and that using enough struts to mitigate the wobblyness can severely impact performance. Autostrut would help, but it's ultimately a band-aid solution. To enhance gameplay, performance, and be closer to the real world*, why not treat, for example, a stack of fuel tanks all as one rigid body?

*Welded seams should be as strong as the rest of the structure, so, rather than elastically bending at the seams, shouldn't the entire structure undergo a plastic deformation or a catastrophic failure?

[Pthigrivi]

Hi, Shana! I can't wait to hear more about the process here. Others have asked about life support and I am curious how hard a 'no' that is and whether simple 'snacks' and greenhouses are still being considered. I just feel like making kerbals part of the game and taking time into consideration could really bring the game alive. 

My real question though is about science since that's coming up next. It seems like resources and prospecting and picking sites for colonies and ISRU will be really important down the road. How have you thought about the way players map bodies and collect information that ties directly into other gameplay elements? How do you see flight information being visualized? Does this affect the way you see experiments working and the way science is collected?

Edited April 19, 2023 by Pthigrivi

[Jaypeg]

In regards to colonies, it has been said that we will have to bring a "colony module" to establish a colony, but what do we have to do after that?

Will we be able to bring more pieces to a colony and attach them via massive docking ports or do we have to build colonies via mining, etc? 

Are colonies physics based?

When will destructible KSC elements be added?

[S_Coriolis]

What are your thoughts on adding procedural parts for creative purposes, like structural panel, trust, beam and maybe glass panel ? Asking for a friend who would like to make a O'Neill cylinder megastructure.

Will there be snacks ? I can think of multiple experiments that Kerbals could do on EVA with a snack bag !

Also a statement, I think Kerbals are lichens, fungi that can do photosynthesis , thank you for your time.

Edited April 20, 2023 by S_Coriolis

[1109Miles]

1.  Will we ever get antimatter drives/reactors?

2.  Will the orbital scanner come back? If so, would it be in the science update or resource extraction?

[Dakota]

Answers here.