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Hotfix Summer


Nate Simpson

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Good afternoon, intrepid Kerbonauts!

Lots of stuff to talk about today! As many of you know, a couple of new bugs were introduced with last week’s v0.1.3.0 patch. The most significant of these bugs relates to a loss of atmospheric drag (and physics in general) when capsules are decoupled. For the first time ever, we issued a hotfix to correct that issue yesterday morning.

Yesterday’s v0.1.3.1 hotfix also contained a fix for a VAB bug in which fairing editor UI elements were drawing on top of one another.

We discovered after yesterday’s hotfix that people were unable to launch the game outside of the Private Division launcher. This was not intentional, and has been fixed — due to a configuration error on our end, we accidentally included Steam’s built-in DRM. KSP2 is DRM-free, just like KSP1. The fixed update was pushed to Steam this morning. Sorry for the headache!

We’re testing a second hotfix (timing TBD) that corrects the blurry navball issue. And because we’re sneaky little devils, we’re also doing some testing around a fix for the SOI transition trajectory bug. If these fixes prove stable and low-risk, we’ll release a second hotfix. Fingers crossed! The work that’s gone into the SOI transition issue — number 2 on our top-ten most wanted bugs list — deserves a special mention. Engineers David Tregoning, Mark Jones, and Shalma Wegsman put in colossal efforts to both track down the cause of the issue and to craft a solution. This one has been a long time coming, and it’s great to be able to knock such a big item off the list.

The credit for the fast turnaround on all the latest fixes goes to a well-coordinated joint effort between engineers, production, and QA. We’re still learning as we go, but things are feeling good.

Bugs: The Next Generation

Based on the Bug Reports subforum, these are the community’s 10 most-upvoted bugs:

  1. Orbital Decay [25 votes]
  2. Incorrect Maneuver on Inclination Change [10 votes]
  3. Cannot Change Craft/Vessel Name in Tracking Station [9 votes]
  4. AIRBRAKES Deploying on Roll [9 votes]
  5. Camera Resets Position Map View [8 votes]
  6. Graphic Glitches on AMD [8 votes]
  7. Engine Sound Effects Not Playing [7 votes]
  8. Cannot Change Symmetry While Holding Strut [7 votes]
  9. Center of Mass/Thrust/Pressure Vectors sitting on VAB Floor [6 votes]
  10. UI Artifacting [6 votes]

Note: Navball Blurry [18 votes] and SOI Trajectory Line Issues [18 votes] have been left out of the above list since we're considering them for the second hotfix.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit bugs in the subforum. Even if you don’t have a new issue to report, your upvotes help us determine the relative priority of the bugs that have already been posted. While we investigate the bugs above, two other non-feature items also feature in our top ten:

  • Rockets are still too wobbly
  • SAS causes runaway pitch oscillation for aircraft in flight

Lots to do! Thanks again for submitting such detailed and well-documented bug reports. It’s going to be a busy month!

Art Director Kristina Ness AMA

Did you catch our Art Director’s AMA yesterday? She was asked lots of interesting questions, many of which ranged well beyond the domain of art. She gave fantastic and detailed answers, and if you missed the stream, it’s definitely worth watching here. With the help of streaming-wizard Dakota, she even got to show off some visuals as well! You can find a transcript of the AMA here as well. Thanks, Ness!

KSP2 Steam Sale

This is the second week of Private Division’s 20% off sale for KSP2, which ends on July 13th. If you’ve got any friends who you think might enjoy the last little bit of heat-free reentry during Early Access, now’s a great time to tell them about the sale!

Weekly Challenge

Last week’s Jool 5 challenge produced some of the coolest, most ambitious craft designs we’ve seen in KSP2. Check out this absolute unit from DarlesChickens:

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Or this beauty from Razorback:
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And here’s a unique one from Tr1gonometry:
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We know that in the Wobbly Rocket Era, missions of this kind can be extra challenging. Kudos to everybody who braved the bugs and slipped the surly bonds of Kerbin regardless!

This week’s challenge? You’re putting on an air show! Build a maneuverable stunt plane and show off your fancy flying skills. Buzz the tower! Under the bridge! Do some barrel rolls! To get specific:

  • Primary goal: Fly an inside loop, an Immelmann turn, and a split-s turn
  • Secondary goal: Fly an outside loop, a barrel roll, and a hammerhead stall turn
  • Jeb-level goal: Fly under the R&D Bridge as fast as you can
  • Val-level goal: Fly under the parking garage bridges (from the water), under the R&D bridge, and then back through the parking bridges
  • Tim C-level goal: Fly a loop arouund the R&D bridge so that you pass under it twice in one maneuver

Don’t forget to wear your G-suit — you’re about generate some wing loads that’ll make your crew chief very grumpy! While your screenshots are always welcome, video capture will be the best way to show off your maneuvering prowess. Good luck!

Summer Changes

Now that summer’s here, with all its vacation-related comings and goings, I’ll be letting other parts of our team handle forum posting for a while. In the coming month, you’ll still see the following on the forums:

  • Bug report updates
  • More AMAs
  • Challenges

In addition, we’ll be uploading more gameplay clips to our social channels.

I’ll still be lurking both here and on Discord, so you’ll see me in the comments from time to time. We’ve got a lot of good momentum coming off the last update and we’re already making great headway on the next one. I’m looking forward to sharing our progress with you soon.

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13 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

More AMAs

Is it possible to choose in advance those questions to which the interviewee will be able to answer something other than "thanks for the feedback, to the forum!"? It seemed to me that the questions should somehow be coordinated in advance so as not to embarrass the person in front of the camera.

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Showerthought of the day:

If being a software engineer required professional licensure like other disciplines, game releases like this wouldn't happen, because people could (rightfully) lose their privilege to practice.

Yes, I've seen the counterarguments, but software is so integral to our daily lives, it's well past time to put some responsible constraints on the industry.

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  • KSP2 Alumni
9 minutes ago, debdeb said:

Will we continue to see patches and hotfixes throghout the summer? Or are you waiting until the end of vacation time to continue with those updates.

Hah, I brought this up when we were trying to figure out the title for this one. "Hotfix Summer" is just a joke related to the phrase "hotgirl summer," and does not imply that additional hotfixes are coming past the second one mentioned above.

Development will continue even without the weekly "upnates," so the hope is that the next one of these you see from Nate will have lots of new and exciting things to talk about.

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10 minutes ago, Dakota said:

Hah, I brought this up when we were trying to figure out the title for this one. "Hotfix Summer" is just a joke related to the phrase "hotgirl summer," and does not imply that additional hotfixes are coming past the second one mentioned above.

Development will continue even without the weekly "upnates," so the hope is that the next one of these you see from Nate will have lots of new and exciting things to talk about.

You should really make the titles reflective of the content of the post and not some silly pun.

 

Also, when are the weekly updates resuming?

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58 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

And because we’re sneaky little devils, we’re also doing some testing around a fix for the SOI transition trajectory bug. If these fixes prove stable and low-risk, we’ll release a second hotfix. Fingers crossed!

This would probably be the most amazing thing since the original EA launch itself.  We all want this fixed in a patch, but if you manage this in a hot fix?  Gosh darned it all to heck this would be cool.  Cooler than the first time I figured out how to actually get to the Mun.  If you guys make this happen, my faith in the company, and the franchise, would be restored, and this would give me reason to play KSP2.  I can deal with the orbital decay bug.  SOI transitions...not so much.  So thank you for working to get this one squashed!

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13 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

This would probably be the most amazing thing since the original EA launch itself.  We all want this fixed in a patch, but if you manage this in a hot fix?  Gosh darned it all to heck this would be cool.  Cooler than the first time I figured out how to actually get to the Mun.  If you guys make this happen, my faith in the company, and the franchise, would be restored, and this would give me reason to play KSP2.  I can deal with the orbital decay bug.  SOI transitions...not so much.  So thank you for working to get this one squashed!

Glad to hear it :)

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1 hour ago, NovaRaptorTV said:

Man, you guys deserve a raise! Thank you guys so much, and get some much needed rest whenever you guys can!

We'll settle for snacks and hugs. Generally fuel to get us through the weeks. 

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Thank you for the weekly update as usual. And thank you for fixing the at atmospheric drag/physics issues with the command pods while doing a re entry. 
 

Orbital decay is the next major issue I hope is fixed soon. Other than that I’m happy with how the game is running currently. I’m excited to see the future big roadmap updates.  HOTAS is still my number one biggest feature I’d like to see in game sooner rather than later.  It would have been awesome to have for this weeks air show challenge… having smooth input controls with a joystick or Gamepad would make flying in this game so much better.  It would also help with rockets wobbling because having smoother controls is better than 0-100% input keyboard  presses. 
 

 

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I'm trying my best to not be a stick in the mud, but you guys seem to be more happy talking about raises than answering questions. I think it is reasonable when you say there are not going to be weekly dev updates for an unspecified amount of time, to ask you to specify the timeframe. You are trying to sell a commercial product. This isn't a few people in their college dorm making a fun project in their spare time. You have a major studio behind you. Your product launch did not go well. Now you are telling us you are removing a "feature" of the community temporarily. Do you not see how this looks bad? Are there going to be updates in the meantime or is this quarter a write off?

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1 hour ago, Meecrob said:

when are the weekly updates resuming?

Don't have a current timeframe in-mind. Depends on a variety of factors, considering these updates are a whole lot of work from a whole lot of people!

We aren't fully disconnecting either, we just wanted to set the expectation that there might not be a message from Nate next week.

Our other planned comms will still happen though - and of course if there's a hotfix/patch, there will be release notes posted here as well.

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Thanks for the update. The recent hotfix was much appreciated, and a second one correcting the SOI bug would really be great. While I may have been critical of the state of the game recently (hopefully in a constructive fashion), I've always done so in good faith and I'm rooting for you guys to deliver the game I've always dreamed of. Let's go guys!

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6 hours ago, Alexoff said:

Is it possible to choose in advance those questions to which the interviewee will be able to answer something other than "thanks for the feedback, to the forum!"? It seemed to me that the questions should somehow be coordinated in advance so as not to embarrass the person in front of the camera.

I actually disagree with this. It’s a way of letting the community know this is something a part of the team would like to work on but they need to hear that from the community and not just the team. 

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