Any update of when to expect new content?

[Ferio]

Is there any word yet on when we expect new content?

Sure there are a lot of bugs still and current state is not really playable, but next to bugs and performance issues I wonder when we can expect the first large content update?  It's really quiet from the developers regarding this, unless I missed something?

Of course we have the roadmap, but that's without dates, so we may be looking at next year for some content update, if it happens.

How is the current development? Is every single person working on fixes and performance or is there a different team which has focus on content only?

Feels like we need a big content update soon to keep the game running and people interested. Would love to have more updates on what's currently being worked on and how, instead of silence for a long time.

 

Any word from the developers? 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Ferio

[Lyneira]

The latest I've seen mentioned from the Community Managers is that they're still highly prioritizing bugfixing for stability and performance. No hints of any kind for when new content might drop. So far, the dates for patches we got have been announced less than a week ahead of time.

Personally, I'm not holding my breath for the next milestone (Science) when just trying to do any sort of complex space mission, without the constraints that acquiring and returning science adds to the mix, still runs into so many bugs, frustrating at best, mission ending at worst.

[pandaman]

Hmm.

Much as I am itching for more content too, it really  doesn't feel as if the game is in a suitable state for it to be worthwhile just yet.

Far too many bugs and glitches etc to be worth investing much time into 'serious' missions.

To the point where I'm purely doing R&D type missions to test out launchers and probe deployment methods etc, ready for when I can actually build and use functional probes and use them.

[Little 908]

I mean, if we only get bug fixes for a year, the game lacks anything new to enjoy, since its basically the same as modded ksp 1. So they would be fixing bugs for the 0 players playing the game. So it kinda is required for new content to come in.

[Ferio]

1 hour ago, pandaman said:

Hmm.

Much as I am itching for more content too, it really  doesn't feel as if the game is in a suitable state for it to be worthwhile just yet.

Far too many bugs and glitches etc to be worth investing much time into 'serious' missions.

To the point where I'm purely doing R&D type missions to test out launchers and probe deployment methods etc, ready for when I can actually build and use functional probes and use them.

Yes agreed, but that's why I hope there's more than one team working on the game, so in the end stuff can be released together.

[TLTay]

They're not giving a timeline. 

The game was first advertised to release (presumably complete) in early 2020. Now we here. Adjust hopes and expectations accordingly.

[RaBDawG]

Game is broken.  If I had to guess, Id say at LEAST 8 months before new content.

[Alexoff]

The main question is, will the new content be good? If the main game is released in this state, then there is no reason to expect new content to be done well, and not break what was fixed yesterday.

[K^2]

4 hours ago, RaBDawG said:

Game is broken.  If I had to guess, Id say at LEAST 8 months before new content.

That's not how it works. Different teams work on different kinds of problems. If all that Intercept does is fix problems, a lot of the team are left twiddling their thumbs.

From the perspective of getting the most use out of people effectively alpha-testing the game, yes, having roughly the same content from version to version is good. But also, people will start losing interest in the game, and even these who play will fall into the routine, which is exactly the reason that QA isn't catching some of these bugs (besides, likely, being understaffed in a typical industry fashion).

So it's very likely that we'll be getting a trickle of new content with future patches. I don't think interstellar is coming until a lot of the things are nailed down, but some new parts for science and resource gathering are extremely likely to land in the next month or two. Even if not all of the associated functionality is available right away.

[RocketRockington]

4 hours ago, K^2 said:

So it's very likely that we'll be getting a trickle of new content with future patches. I don't think interstellar is coming until a lot of the things are nailed down, but some new parts for science and resource gathering are extremely likely to land in the next month or two. Even if not all of the associated functionality is available right away.

Didn't you say something like this before the first patch?  Maybe I'm misremembering.We haven't seen new content in the first two months of release. 

I think their engineering team is still nearly entirely committed to big fixing, and there's very little additional content that can drop without engineering involvement.  Based on @Gotmachine 's data mining, a lot of the content is already in the shipped code, it's just waiting for thr necessary systems to be there..  But of course, when a project massively screws up their project management and hires too many cartoonists and too few software engineers, it ends up being a bottleneck.

 

[Strawberry]

4 hours ago, K^2 said:

I don't think interstellar is coming until a lot of the things are nailed down, but some new parts for science and resource gathering are extremely likely to land in the next month or two. Even if not all of the associated functionality is available right away.

Resource gathering is nearly the last thing on the roadmap, so thatll be like a year at least until we see that. We know that nerteas vacuum engines and heating should be coming Soontm, personally Im guessing the former within the next 1-2 patches and the latter in the next 2-3 patches. I think they'll wait till the game is more stable and performant (very hard to say when thatll be) until they release science, so no clue when thatll come out but I feel like itll be a few months. The basic framework for science seems to be done at the very least.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Strawberry

[RaBDawG]

5 hours ago, Strawberry said:

Resource gathering is nearly the last thing on the roadmap, so thatll be like a year at least until we see that. We know that nerteas vacuum engines and heating should be coming Soontm, personally Im guessing the former within the next 1-2 patches and the latter in the next 2-3 patches. I think they'll wait till the game is more stable and performant (very hard to say when thatll be) until they release science, so no clue when thatll come out but I feel like itll be a few months. The basic framework for science seems to be done at the very least.

Its been two months and the game is as broken as it was on release.  Optimization is still a mess.  They are not going to release new content until they fix the game which based on the fact there have only been two patches in 2+ months and the game is still very much broke, its going to be a LONG time for new content.

[Strawberry]

10 hours ago, RaBDawG said:

Its been two months and the game is as broken as it was on release.  Optimization is still a mess.  They are not going to release new content until they fix the game which based on the fact there have only been two patches in 2+ months and the game is still very much broke, its going to be a LONG time for new content.

The game still has a long way to go but to say its as broken tells me you haven't actually played initial and patch 1/2 a meaningful amount. 

[K^2]

19 hours ago, RocketRockington said:

a lot of the content is already in the shipped code, it's just waiting for thr necessary systems to be there

A lot of the systems are there too. Obviously, I can't tell what sort of a shape they are all in, and at least some are definitely just stubbed in, but also, a lot of the parts the team can add can run on combinations of existing systems.

It's certainly a constraint on what can be added, but it's not a hard blocker to add some new content to keep people playing and providing feedback.

19 hours ago, Strawberry said:

Resource gathering is nearly the last thing on the roadmap, so thatll be like a year at least until we see that.

I don't think they want to drop everything related to surveying planets, deploying extraction bases, storage, refining, and transport of said resources all in one go. Yeah, having a surface scanner like what we had in KSP before there is a way to extract resources might be almost cosmetic, but it's the sort of thing they can do without dragging in all of the dependencies. They can also add the resources themselves, storage tanks, and some portable versions of refineries for some of them. Again, similar to what we had in KSP to store ore and convert it to fuel.

I do not expect a full working system soon, but I do expect components of it to show up relatively early, gradually building up to it. It's a better way to use the team's resources, a better way to test for problems early, and a better way to keep at least a fraction of the community engaged. There are no real downsides, and if something along these lines doesn't happen in the next patch or two, I would actually start worrying a bit about the project. (Which, I'm sure a lot of people would claim is overdue, but so far the patches have arrived on the kind of schedule and with kind of fixes that I have expected, and the receipts are right here on this forum.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

18 hours ago, Strawberry said:

The game still has a long way to go but to say its as broken tells me you haven't actually played initial and patch 1/2 a meaningful amount. 

I have - and it's left me dispirited. 

I agree with the thought that we need to see parallel development and bug fixing or it's a dead title. 

 

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

Judging from the latest announcement of Nate, the update before the Science update is going to include some new engines and probably other new content, though I wouldn’t expect a lot of new content.

It’s unclear how many updates before science so we can’t say for sure if this next update is the one with new parts or not.

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by GGG-GoodGuyGreg

[Alexoff]

Judging by previous announcements, in the previous patch there could have been heating and atmospheric effects on parts

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

3 hours ago, GGG-GoodGuyGreg said:

Judging from the latest announcement of Nate, the update before the Science update is going to include some new engines and probably other new content, though I wouldn’t expect a lot of new content.

It’s unclear how many updates before science so we can’t say for sure if this next update is the one with new parts or not.

 

I read that, look at the patch cadence (sample set, acknowledged) and think "Science" is June. 

 

 

Nate said, "We’re also working on a few new parts, which we expect to release prior to the Science update" - so if we guess the next patch should drop within the next 10 days or so? 

June. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Scarecrow71]

On 4/21/2023 at 12:19 PM, Strawberry said:

The game still has a long way to go but to say its as broken tells me you haven't actually played initial and patch 1/2 a meaningful amount. 

I'm with @JoeSchmuckatelli on this.  I've got a couple hundred hours in, and I have decided to put the game down until at least the next patch.  Simple, core functionality that exists in KSP1 does not exist here.  There are major bugs that make the game unplayable in some instances.  And the dev team is all but ignoring these in favor of working on roadmap features that are several steps away.

I have lost faith in this game and this company.  This is why I almost never buy games in early access.  And I really wanted this one to be different. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Scarecrow71

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

10 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

I almost never buy games in early access

I do - and generally have good tolerance for them - but the things I've mentioned (communication strategy, price, etc) and the fact that absent 5fps improvement - the core functions (let alone features) remain broken don't bode well. 

Don't lose all hope. 

They might just pull it off. 

... 

... 

(but yeah, quit banging your head against the wall) 

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

21 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

[…]

I have lost faith in this game and this company.  This is why I almost never buy games in early access.  And I really wanted this one to be different. 

I totally get this. I got burned with CP2077 and promised I’ll never buy without plenty of reviews being out there. 
Then KSP2 made a fool out of me again.

Never buying EA or preordering anything now.

Never. Ever. 

[Strawberry]

21 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

IThere are major bugs that make the game unplayable in some instances.  And the dev team is all but ignoring these in favor of working on roadmap features that are several steps away.

I am concerned theyre rushing too much into new features but its hard to say if they actually are. There's a lot of unknowns behind the scenes that make things difficult to say. Without new features the players ksp2 already has will continue to dwindle, and these metrics are important for both being able to track bugs and also potentially take two support. But without bug fixing they can't maintain a playerbase for long. Its a tight rope to walk, though personally I dont think we should get science before heating, I dont think we need a perfectly solid and mostly bug free game before science, but I do think we should at least have the foundations of one before science. Science will cause the player count to spike, and I think itd be best if the game was in a state to where it could maintain that spike of players.

[thewhitemetroid]

Science,  exploration, and whatever iteration of a career mode they are coming with are the things I'm interested in. I would love to see new features soon, however this game is a slog. It's not fun. New features would just be unpolished turds right now.

[pandaman]

10 hours ago, thewhitemetroid said:

Science,  exploration, and whatever iteration of a career mode they are coming with are the things I'm interested in. I would love to see new features soon, however this game is a slog. It's not fun. New features would just be unpolished turds right now.

That is my fear too.

I think some new content/ features could, and should, be added gradually with  patches.  Partly for good PR and partly to get feedback.

But I think there are a lot of current bugs and issues that need to be fixed that will just prevent us using some new features so bugfixes are a priority.

[-dbv-]

On 4/23/2023 at 11:29 PM, GGG-GoodGuyGreg said:

I got burned with CP2077

But the CP2077 release was nearly perfect compared to ksp2. I had zero problems running it on max settings with RT enabled.  There were some minor mission based bugs and the console version was crap (who exprected that this game would run on middleclass hardware from 2013?) but overall I wouldn't count CP2077 as a failed PC start.