Parts and Circumstance

[MechBFP]

Thanks for the update!

I am good with posts along the same lines that balance ongoing remediation work with upcoming content.

[Mushylog]

I didn't realize people were getting worked up on the lack of information. On the contrary, I was given the impression that you guys really are very transparent with us. Each update post is a treat, Nate!

I love to learn about the Behind The Scenes of this game. It's so cool to see who made X part, and what was their job on it. It really puts to perspective that this isn't just a software we bought, it really is a big, rich, complex computer video game. I love it.

I'm really happy about the AIRBRAKEs part coming in next patch! I'm not even worried about the Grid Fins, if they don't make it next patch. We'll have plenty of time to play with the AIRBRAKEs, the (grabbing?) docking ports and! these BEAUTIFUL engines. The game is getting crispier every week, with the weekly challenges.

[Little 908]

Can't wait to have me some lovely grid fins 

[The Aziz]

Nice.

I got to ask though, what's the functional difference in grid fins and airbrakes? I guess airbrakes are mostly for slowing down (though in KSP1 they were ridiculously overpowered) and grid fins are more for steering a long tube.

Buuuut does that mean there's a chance of functional 1st stage landing process?

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, Dakota said:

Just highlighting this line:

This is a big priority for us and we hope to have more details to share soon to ensure y'all are stayed up-to-date and are providing us the information we need to get bugs fixed. Happy Friday

Solid, straightforward post in this OP.  Appreciate your highlight, here, as well.

I've been critical - but this was well done.  ...and welcome.

GL!

[SethM]

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

ANYWAY... we have some nice content news! Update v0.1.3.0 will be the first KSP2 update to contain not only bug fixes, but a few new parts. Right now, we can confirm the arrival of the following:

• A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E
• Clamp-O-Tron shielded docking port
• Clamp-O-Tron Inline Docking Port
• MK2 Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port
• Cornet Methalox Engine (new small extensible-nozzle orbital engine)
• Trumpet Methalox Engine (new medium extensible-nozzle orbital engine)
• Tuba Methalox Engine (new large extensible-nozzle orbital engine)
• S3-28800 Large Inline Methalox tank (longer version of large methalox tanks)

wooohooo!

thanks for the update nate!

[kicka55]

I think generally you just have to get into the mindset of an indie developer like Felipe. Just one guy with no big corporation in the back when you talk to the community. I know it's hard but at the end of the day people just want to communicate with people, not some politician talk fluff. That's how social media works. That's why Elon is that popular. 

[MaxPas2Bol]

I don't buy KSP2 for the moment. I'm a nooby french player of KSP and I reed all of your dev update to see the best moment for buy KSP2.
I share the opinion of someone here, it takes dev update with a lot of precision  as possible. I had the impression that development was considerably slowed down after these two patches.
In the current state, what I expect the most is a stable game so that I can flourish in it. Content is important but stability is the reason number 1 for my choice.

Thanks for this precision, keep it up. 

[schlosrat]

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

Therefore, here are a few of the biggest issues we’re wrangling with right now:

1. Vehicles in stable coasting orbits sometimes experience orbit instability/decay - Status: possible fix in progress
2. Trajectories change when vehicles cross SOI boundaries - Status: fix in progress (see below)
3. Certain inline parts cause aerodynamic drag numbers to spike - Status: under investigation
4. Returning to craft from VAB causes craft to go underground (possibly related to Kerbals and landed vehicles dropping through terrain while being approached) - Status: possible fix being tested
5. Decoupling events result in various issues including loss of control, incorrect controllability of decoupled subassemblies, loss of camera focus, and other issues - Status: may have many causes, but some fixes in progress (see below)
6. Save files get bigger over time (TravelLog experiencing "landed" status spam) - Status: fix being tested
7. Opening part manager causes major frame lag - Status: experiments ongoing
8. Major post-liftoff frame rate lag immediately above launchpad (associated with engine exhaust lighting) - Status: fix being tested
9. Root parts placed below decouplers cause issues with stage separation - Status: under investigation
10. Vehicle joints unusually wobbly, some part connections unusually weak - Status: under investigation

We’re tracking down some strange vehicle behaviors associated with spurious autostrut errors. As we’ve discussed here before, some radially-attached parts are reinforced by additional invisible autostruts to improve their stability. It turns out that these autostruts don’t always break cleanly during decoupling events, and may be the cause of some of our more frustrating decoupling issues (including those where detached vehicle elements appear to still affect one another’s behavior). We’re still investigating this one, but we have high hopes that its correction will result in a reduction of mission-killing errors.

Finally, we have zeroed in on the cause of some of the trajectory errors we’ve been seeing - especially the situation in which a trajectory changes spontaneously when crossing an SOI boundary. This one is deep in the code and its correction may end up fixing a few other downstream issues. This is a complicated problem, however, and we may not solve it in time for the June update. We should know more about this one soon.

I gotta say I do like your top 10 and prioritization approach! That you've tracked down the cause and are actively working a solution for the SOI transition bug is frankly huge. I'm not surprised it's deep in the code . I'd imagine this one has been in your top 10 since soon after learning about it, and it's really encouraging to know that you've got a fix in progress. Honestly, your numbers 1, 2, and 5 are by far some of the most annoying ones I've had to deal with, and it's great to hear that you're actively pursuing fixes for each - even if they are each quite complex.

All in all, this candid progress and the understanding that your prioritization is very similar to most folks on this side of the fence is really encouraging. I don't think it's surprising, but it is music to my ears and I very glad to hear about your progress.

Edited May 26, 2023 by schlosrat

[KawaiiLucy]

6 minutes ago, kicka55 said:

I think generally you just have to get into the mindset of an indie developer like Felipe. Just one guy with no big corporation in the back when you talk to the community. I know it's hard but at the end of the day people just want to communicate with people, not some politician talk fluff. That's how social media works. That's why Elon is that popular. 

I find the devs from Coffee Stain Studios nail this pretty well with Satisfactory's weekly community updates via community managers. If they run into issues, they usually use this form of communication to inform the players, they don't just share the good stuff either. We get it in the form of forum posts for KSP 2, but the video format CSS is going for makes the communication feel even more direct and honest.

[schlosrat]

Oh, and the new engines look gorgeous! I'm wondering how they work on landing though? In one of your videos the nozzle bell clearly extends past the reach of the legs. Do these nozzles work in a degraded lower thrust mode when the bell extensions are retracted? How does this work with landing? I suppose we'll get to see!

Yay! Moar toys!

[Razor235]

This is exactly the sort of breakdown I was trying to convey would be helpful.  While my overall opinion of the game's state hasn't changed, having the additional context here really does wonders to address at least some of my concerns.  Thank you, and keep it up!

ETA:  I still think a public bug tracker tool would be much appreciated, especially if it makes updates like these less cumbersome to track and put out for you guys.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Razor235

[Monger]

Short answer:

Great update! Keep posting like this! 

Long answer:

I have been a dev/sw architect for two decades now. As we all know, excrements regularly hits the fan, and you have to keep your customers away from spiralling into a excrements storm.

Imho, what most customers want, is to trust you. They will follow you even with unpopular decisions, as long as they get the impression that you are in control, and you are listening.

Give them that. Repeat what you have learned from the community, so the community feels heard. Then give a little insight into your daily work, that shows that you are professionals that know how to deal with things.

Imho you don't even have to promise anything (or vaguely hint at some promise). Show a little of the process how you deal with things, and celebrate your successes. 

[Alexoff]

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

My last post here received a lot of comments, many of which expressed doubt, frustration, and in some cases even anger about either the seeming lack of progress on KSP2 or the perception that I am concealing some dark reality about the state of the game. Our team has been reading your comments and asking one another if there’s some way we can do better.

As you can see, negative motivation works quite well.

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

"stay quiet until you’re absolutely sure" ethos

oh my...

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

We are still testing the new grid fins. Because these parts require some special part module support, engineering work is ongoing. Due to the complexity of this work, we don’t believe grid fins will make it into the v0.1.3.0 update.

But... but this is an ordinary fin in its functionality, only the model is different and it needs a smaller angle of rotation!

 

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

Status: possible fix in progress

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

Status: experiments ongoing

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

Status: under investigation

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

Status: fix being tested

It seems like it's taking a long time...

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

5 minutes ago, Alexoff said:

As you can see

Stop with the negative waves, maaan. 

[LameLefty]

Thank you for the transparency.  I am someone who loved the initial release and had super high hopes(96 hours in-game, most of that within the first 6 weeks), but had become disillusioned with the slow pace of updates. I haven't played in weeks and won't, until the trajectory bug is corrected. But having said that, I appreciate your demonstrated ability to be a bit introspective with this week's post, and share the thought processes that go into your planning for future bug-fixes and feature updates.

[weohuelva]

Hi

When you land on a planet, it can't be that the stones can be transferred to see if that can be fixed... little by little it becomes a great game... a hug nate

[HammerTyme]

This is the 2nd time you have gave me a shout out Nate.  The first one is when you showed off my first Space Station a couple weeks now. And now I’m very happy that you guys took my suggestion for this weeks challenge for the community to build a space station!! Love it!! I honestly haven’t seen many people building them yet in the discord screenshots channel. So I can’t wait to see some new designs from people.   Building space stations and docking parts together in orbit is my favorite part about this game so far.    I’m also very excited to see new docking port parts coming in the next update!!!!  You guys are awesome, keep doing what you’re doing.

Now I need to come up with a very clever Space Station design for this week… I better get to work. 

[schlosrat]

27 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Stop with the negative waves, maaan. 

Great reference to a great movie! And I concur. I think the correct response when you get something good is "thank you".

[schlosrat]

38 minutes ago, Alexoff said:

But... but this is an ordinary fin in its functionality, only the model is different and it needs a smaller angle of rotation!

I'm not an expert on parts, my mods are all about maneuvers and such. That said, there's been some really interesting work going on in the modding community to make working grid fins - mainly by @LuxStice. From his posts I got the impression it wasn't all that simple. That said, if you're itching for grid fins, then take a look at SORRY - it may have what your looking for.

[sleepy_eb]

Thanks Nate. The dev team are doing a great job and we are enjoying your game

keep squashing bugs guys, thanks for the update.

[000PainKiller000]

I'm glad that the comments can finally shift to a more positive and optimistic direction. Reading through last week's was depressing. Honestly releaved. 

We've gave moderators a lot of work, haven't we,?  (sorry lol )

 

[Astro648]

[Pyritin]

I am glad to see that @Nate Simpson and team can recognize when they've erred and are willing to correct course. I appreciate the more detailed update and hope it continues. I look forward to you all finding a way to track bugs in a continued transparent manner (even being able to see the last part of those sentences saying what stage of the bug resolution the issue is in would help a lot). While I still think the team has a lot to go to regain the trust of the community and player base as a whole, this update is definitely a step in the right direction and it is much appreciated.

[FlazeTheDragon]

Lets GOOOOO, drag is finally being looked at.

Cant wait to start doing cargo ssto's...... and ''torpedo boats''