Shine On, You Crazy... Planet?!?

[Nate Simpson]

Happy Friday, brave Kerbonauts!

A little bit of a slow news day here at Intercept Games as we gather feedback and data from our latest update and continue to work on stability, perf, thermal, and new features. I’ve spent more time than usual over the last week building rockets in the 0.1.2 build, and I’m relieved to see that my own personal points of frustration are mirrored in the feedback we’re getting from the community. I know we may sometimes seem remote, or that it may feel like your feedback submissions are falling on deaf ears. Not only are we collecting and reviewing your feedback, but the frequency with which you’re reporting on certain issues is incredibly helpful to our goal of prioritizing fixes. As always, we appreciate your patience as we work down the list and shore things up for update 0.1.3.

On the subject of updates: our update cadence is going to slow down a little bit. There are a couple of reasons for this, not least of which is that every time we release an update, we divert resources that would otherwise be focused on continuing to improve the game. We are always balancing our desire to improve the current Early Access experience against long-term goals that involve more time investment. This is a very personal issue for me, because as a fan I want the game to be perfect and awesome right now! But since genies don’t actually exist, that’s not how we’ll arrive at the best version of KSP2. We will continue to release updates prior to our big Science Feature update, and hopefully a slower update cadence will mean that when they do go out, they contain more robust improvements. We are still working out what that exact cadence looks like, and I’ll update you here when I know more.

Among the improvements that we’re seeing this week here at the studio, our planetshine system has taken a very big leap forward, and the next patch will feel quite different at night. Now, reflected light from planets and moons is much more apparent both in space and on the night side of a celestial body. A little sample of what Jool-light looks like on the surface of Laythe:

This week’s challenge: we’re building sci-fi spacecraft! There are already some very impressive entrants appearing in the KSP2 Discord ... check this thing out (by @S_Coriolis)!

That flux capacitor! MWAH!

Please also check out our TikTok! Our community team is very active over there, and their meme skills are quite breathtaking.

Have a great weekend!

[Davedavidson]

works for me

Science mode + thermal system is going to improve sales by at least 1 copy xD prolly a lot more tho

[DibzNr]

Oooh Laythe looks absolutely stunning under that Joollight! It's a little saddening to see update cadence slow down but at the same time I do believe that it's for the best, after all quality > quantity, and if every patch is on the same scale as patch 1 it may not be many more updates until this game is in a great state, I'm very excited to see what's in store for this game's future and can't wait to see it live up to its full potential!

[ShadowZone]

Thanks for the update, there's just one thing I would like to know more about:

20 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

our update cadence is going to slow down a little bit.

Are we talking every two months instead of every month? Quarterly? Yearly? "When it's done!"( © John Carmack)?

[Nerdy_Mike]

4 minutes ago, ShadowZone said:

Thanks for the update, there's just one thing I would like to know more about:

Are we talking every two months instead of every month? Quarterly? Yearly? "When it's done!"( © John Carmack)?

I don't want to speak for Nate, but soon as we have more info we'll share that, but it won't be yearly lol.

[Vortygont]

Glad to see new information about next update! I can't wait until the number of annoying bugs will be reduced to critically small values. Hopefully with a longer schedule the number of fixes will increase significantly. It will also be interesting to try out the improved lighting system myself. I'll miss it until the next update

[Strawberry]

6 minutes ago, ShadowZone said:

Thanks for the update, there's just one thing I would like to know more about:

Are we talking every two months instead of every month? Quarterly? Yearly? "When it's done!"( © John Carmack)?

Dakota clarified a bit more on discord, Im guessing likely 1-3 more weeks between update?

[Vortygont]

1 minute ago, Strawberry said:

Im guessing likely 1-3 more weeks between update?

I would boldly state that an average of 3-4 weeks

[rnt_hank]

I'm glad the team is taking their time to make a good update rather than rushing to stick to a schedule.  Keep up the good work everyone, we're all looking forward to it!

[kanabeach83]

ridiculous. 50€ for that?? Really ?? now that the money is in your pocket, by chance the rate of updates decreases. I'm not at all surprised. when I see that for ksp1, the bug still persists, I can't even imagine KSP2. a disaster. it's good to want to bring in money, but you still have to justify it. the game is unplayable, even with a good config. ksp1's bugs are again on 2, but worse. corrupted save, exploding ship, no aero, no science, honestly, with more than 2000h of play on ksp1, I am giving up your buggy license forever and one thing is for sure: I will never be fooled into buying again early access. It's a well-disguised scam, congratulations..

Edited April 28, 2023 by Geonovast
Fixed formatting.

[Emanuel01]

If this means more development time invested in new features, then I'm happy for it. Right now I'd say the biggest problem in the game is lack of features, specially the lack of progression. There's only so much you can do in sandbox before it starts feeling kind of pointless.

hat's my point of view at least. Just hope this isn't an excuse and what's really happening is a reduction in development time overall. 

[Nerdy_Mike]

26 minutes ago, Strawberry said:

Dakota clarified a bit more on discord, Im guessing likely 1-3 more weeks between update?

In the coming weeks Nate will communicate as our communication will still be coming regularly. The team just wants to ensure we're being honest with everyone here as to what we're planning. I know I joked earlier about updates not taking a year and that is true. I think I speak for everyone at Intercept Games in saying that we're very excited for the future and thankful for all of the support from the community. 

[Dantheollie]

Unfortunately this news is going to be received very poorly by some members of the community. I appreciate that the team has come forth and clarified this issue for us. It gives us a little more certainty

I trust that time will mold KSP2 into what we have dreamt it to be, but patience is a virtue... A virtue not always found in aerospace-crashing enthusiasts

[HammerTyme]

The past 2 updates were a month apart. If we assume it will now be about 1.5 months between updates, and according to Nate there will be more updates (plural) prior to Science (let’s assume 3 since he didn’t say a couple. He said “more updates” ) that’s another 4.5 months away at a minimum. That brings us to mid September now as an earliest possible time to see the first major roadmap update.   That’s about 7 months after release. 
 

Im a little bummed about this, I won’t lie. I was hoping it would have been a quarterly thing. 4 months or so between major updates.   Nonetheless, I still love this game. I have a little over 100 hours in it now and I play it almost daily if not every other day when I have time.  It definitely seems to have a bright future ahead of it.   Maybe once these initial patches roll out more, the bigger roadmap patches will come quicker.  Time will tell.   Either way I’ll be a longtime follower and player of this game.  Thank you devs for doing what you do. 

[Little 908]

Rip, I guess its gonna be years until we finish the roadmap 

Honestly the early access hasn’t been going great, and I think this is the breaking point for me, I don’t think the game will be at the 1.0 release for quite a long time. I might hop into the game now and then for updates and maybe to update my tips and tricks, but I don’t think playing it for 30 hours every two weeks, is going to be fun. 

I’ll probably still be on the forums 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Little 908

[Meecrob]

42 minutes ago, Dantheollie said:

Unfortunately this news is going to be received very poorly by some members of the community. I appreciate that the team has come forth and clarified this issue for us. It gives us a little more certainty

I trust that time will mold KSP2 into what we have dreamt it to be, but patience is a virtue... A virtue not always found in aerospace-crashing enthusiasts

Yup, slowing down updates with some vague thing that roadmap milestones will be reached faster? I'd believe it if it was explained how. As is, this is like an algorithmic black box...I cannot see the moving parts underneath, so therefore I cannot gauge the progress being made...I'm just asking for some info to help me get what is being done.

[Strawberry]

5 minutes ago, Meecrob said:

Yup, slowing down updates with some vague thing that roadmap milestones will be reached faster? I'd believe it if it was explained how. As is, this is like an algorithmic black box...I cannot see the moving parts underneath, so therefore I cannot gauge the progress being made...I'm just asking for some info to help me get what is being done.

Some more context in short, basically instead of nearly all the dev team focusing on one area (bug fixes), they're spreading their resources out more to focus on more stuff. This means we'll likely get less bug fixes and longer time in between updates but the updates will have more features in them. 

[Davedavidson]

2 hours ago, kanabeach83 said:

ridiculous. 50€ for that?? Really ?? now that the money is in your pocket, by chance the rate of updates decreases. I'm not at all surprised. when I see that for ksp1, the bug still persists, I can't even imagine KSP2. a disaster. it's good to want to bring in money, but you still have to justify it. the game is unplayable, even with a good config. ksp1's bugs are again on 2, but worse. corrupted save, exploding ship, no aero, no science, honestly, with more than 2000h of play on ksp1, I am giving up your buggy license forever and one thing is for sure: I will never be fooled into buying again early access. It's a well-disguised scam, congratulations..

The state of ksp2 is ridiculous  but if you think ksp1 has too many bugs at this point then you have no room to stand on bc you will never be happy.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Davedavidson

[twich22]

We went through it with KSP 1 and it ended up being great. We will just have to do the same with KSP 2. Cant wait for the next update!

[MechBFP]

I agree with this approach. The game simply isn't worth playing for more than a couple hours at this point with the complete lack of content (at least for previous KSP1 players), so there is little point fixing anything but the core issues that would impact the implementation of future content, and those fixes can come with those content updates.

It is going to be the only way to actually get anyone to start playing to be able to get any feedback as well.

[Heretic391]

Thanks for the update, sounds good to me. I definately prefer bigger updates rather than more frequent smaller updates.

 

Wow Laythe looks great! I think most of us would hesitate to time warp past the night when that shine is introduced! 

[Pyritin]

I understand the need to push forward and deliver on the feature set, but I'd lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed. Still have pretty critical bugs in every aspect of the core loop of the game that's in which makes the game pretty hard to enjoy (and many endeavors flat out impossible). The thought that more content is then being built on this shaky foundation doesn't really leave me with a great feeling either. Have to wait longer to have fewer bugs corrected and then have even more added to the pile via new content with even longer periods between improvements for the ever growing pile is a bit of a hard pill to swallow, especially given how terribly large that pile has been since day 1. I have no doubts in the teams enthusiasm to see this through, but I am concerned whether the community and the publishers have the patience it's going to require to see that enthusiasm produce results.

[Redneck]

multiplayer ready yet?

[bradyns]

Longer time in the oven for updates (slower cycles) hopefully also means good QA before each larger update.

[Scarecrow71]

5 hours ago, Nate Simpson said:

On the subject of updates: our update cadence is going to slow down a little bit. There are a couple of reasons for this, not least of which is that every time we release an update, we divert resources that would otherwise be focused on continuing to improve the game. We are always balancing our desire to improve the current Early Access experience against long-term goals that involve more time investment. This is a very personal issue for me, because as a fan I want the game to be perfect and awesome right now! But since genies don’t actually exist, that’s not how we’ll arrive at the best version of KSP2. We will continue to release updates prior to our big Science Feature update, and hopefully a slower update cadence will mean that when they do go out, they contain more robust improvements. We are still working out what that exact cadence looks like, and I’ll update you here when I know more.

This is just...I can't even find the right adjective to describe how painful reading this was.

Look, I get that development takes time.  And I get that you can't just push a magic button and make everything all happy.  But after years of delays and poor communication, the game is released in a state that is barely playable, and now the updates the game needs to get to a better state are going to be delayed?  With no real communication as to the length of delays other than "We are working on it and will tell you more later"?  That is EXACTLY what we got told during the 3 years immediately prior to EA.

I'm sorry, but this is a slap in the face to the community.  A large portion of us have tried defending the company and its decisions, saying that things will get better and the game will be good and just wait and be patient.  My faith in the company and hope in the game has waned.  And while I am just one person, I'm not the only one who feels like this.  Heck, I put KSP2 down until the next update which, from the sound of it, may come...soon?  Or later?  Or in the sometime?

I simply can't do it any longer.  We paid you for this.  We paid you for the privilege of early access, during which you promised regular updates, bug fixes, new parts, and roadmap features on a regular cadence which you now are saying you can't do because...why, exactly?  You are busy working on roadmap features that are way down the road?  Looking right at the images of the devs playing multiplayer here; there is ZERO reason to be working on that with the state the game is in right now.

Again, I'm done.  I'm going back to KSP1 because that at least is playable.  When you decide to finally get KSP2 to the point it should be, and you get to releasing bug fixes and new content on a real cadence (which begs the question as to why Shana even talked about new content in the AMA) I'll be back.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Scarecrow71