Introducing For Science! - Major Content Update Out in December

[Mr_Regurgitator]

I wish this came a little earlier, but I am excited for this to be out.

[Infinite Aerospace]

5 minutes ago, atomontage said:

I agree to PDCWolf.

It would be  very cool to see science experiments to actually take time to perform and consume a resource (say EC). Yes, Kerbalism style.
The brilliant level would be if it also required some situations or other resources (be in a polar orbit only, dayside only; mine ore the same time the experiment is performing, etc). Yes, full Kerbalism style - personally I love it.

Also modders have already dug out (months before) the time constraint for experiments. That makes me believe.

Otherwise its not that fun to simply click a button and get instanteneous science points.
(Perhaps it also could be toggable in difficulty settings? Or is it too much?..)

I've said for a long time that all of this stuff should be scalable. For example, is the reward immediate or does it take time. That should be a parameter, that can be altered depending on difficulty. I can fully appreciate the overarching theme of trying to make the game more accessible but at the same time it needs to be challenging for those of us who've been playing for years.

[HammerTyme]

Let’s goooooooo!!!!!!

I can’t wait for this. Thank you!

[Superpluto126]

HYPE HYPE HYPE!

[Infinite Aerospace]

38 minutes ago, nestor said:

Discoverables is the term we use. 

You able to provide a little bit of detail as to exactly a 'discoverable' is? We talking like relics, some sort of evidence of events before? That sort of thing?

[Stephensan]

called it...

 

hope to see more in the following days and weeks for more info!

[JustDark]

I say this with love and a decent amount of frustration in my heart, but...

IT FRIGGIN TOOK LONG ENOUGH!!

 

 

 

Im glad to finally see an actual content update though

[MechBFP]

18 minutes ago, Infinite Aerospace said:

Yeah that's good to see, it's good to see those complaints were listened to. I honestly think that was just a bit of an oversight on their part.

I actually just noticed the per stage TWR in the screenshot in the OP. I glazed over the details in the screenshots until now.  So yes glad to see it and hopefully many others like it. 

[pipe]

We're so back

[Gonb]

WE ARE SO BARACK !! 

[nestor]

36 minutes ago, Infinite Aerospace said:

You able to provide a little bit of detail as to exactly a 'discoverable' is? We talking like relics, some sort of evidence of events before? That sort of thing?

Discoverables are points of interest of different kinds that can award you science. 

[RealKerbal3x]

I see this as a reason to continue to be cautiously optimistic (and also make my first post on the forums in [checks notes] four months).

Keep going, things can only get better.

[nestor]

59 minutes ago, RalphKerman said:

not sure how to interpret the tech tree screenshot. The top row has "Mun Landing" as an 80 point "technology" in it, but you don't "buy" a Mun Landing, you achieve it via the technology you have bought and resarched in the other parts of the tree. So why would it "cost" 80 points to unlock? Or is that a description of technology you absolutely need to be able to land on the Mun and that technology costs 80 points?

Mun Landing is the name of the tech tree node.
 

We will be sharing more info on the tech tree leading to the release.  Same with other Exploration Mode systems. 

[LameLefty]

Yay! I’ve landed on almost every body in the Kerbol system, found all the anomalies, etc. so I’m excited to see some progress towards the game I want KSP2 to become. Thanks for not giving up, team.  Bring it! 

[Little 908]

Feel like this is the real start of ksp2

[kicka55]

Here an advice as a long Kerbal early access supporter: Don't release the update 2 days before Christmas.

[Strawberry]

1 hour ago, RalphKerman said:

I am not sure how to interpret the tech tree screenshot. The top row has "Mun Landing" as an 80 point "technology" in it, but you don't "buy" a Mun Landing, you achieve it via the technology you have bought and resarched in the other parts of the tree. So why would it "cost" 80 points to unlock? Or is that a description of technology you absolutely need to be able to land on the Mun and that technology costs 80 points?

And there appear to be 4 pages of tech tree for now (guessing by the 4 numbers on top and the scrollbar in the bottom).

Nate does show off the whole tech tree as of current in the presentation, since the stream is still on going I cant timestamp but it was roughly 2 hours ago. Stream is here: 

 Quality is low so I cant exactly be confident that Im reading these nodes correctly, but each of the four pages of the science tab is themed around a planet (Kerbin, Duna, Jool, and finally Eeloo). I think its likely advancing these pages will be gated by doing missions. The Jool tab has a node that seems to be titled deep space mechanics, so thats likely the mission gate for accessing the Eeloo tab. The duna tab the only thing that seems fitting as a gate is a science node titled modular launches (stream is blurry so I could be very well misreading these), which is interesting. A few other interesting things is that there appears to be aquatic science, and radiation science in the tech tree. I'm hoping someone there took a higher quality video of it that way we can actually firmly read the tech tree.

1 minute ago, kicka55 said:

Here an advice as a long Kerbal early access supporter: Don't release the update 2 days before Christmas.

The team has christmas break so theres an inherit limit on how late it can be for december.

[NovaRaptorTV]

Whelp, time for me to learn how to edit videos in the meantime. Because I'll be playing this non-stop when the science update drops. Looks like I'll be busy on the youtube front as well as twitch!

Seriously, to the mad lads at intercept, thank you for the phenomenal work!

[regex]

18 minutes ago, Strawberry said:

I think its likely advancing these pages will be gated by doing missions.

No, there will be no mission gating (thank loveing god), Nate has already addressed this. The pages are likely just themed "flavor" or based on what the devs think is required for such journeys.

[Strawberry]

3 minutes ago, regex said:

No, there will be no mission gating (thank loveing god), Nate has already addressed this. The pages are likely just themed "flavor" or based on what the devs think is required for such journeys.

I worded that in a confusing way, im not refering to mission system when i say missions, im refering to some nodes having a checklist of land on mun. I could be completely wrong about this, but i think the existence of pages and the pages being themed around celestial bodies makes this likely. All speculation, so could be completely wrong about this.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Strawberry

[Deddly]

AURORA! 

[StarmanJude]

7 hours ago, Intercept Games said:

Hello Kerbonauts! 

Some exciting announcements as we enter the chilly months. 

In December, we'll release a major content update for Kerbal Space Program 2! In past dev diary posts and video dev chats we've referred to the update as Dot Two or Science. We're thrilled to officially dub this update... 

For Science! 

(Yes, the exclamation point is part of the update name. It’s the most important!) 

We’ve been sprinkling in sneak peeks of For Science! at the end of dev chats for everyone to digest. While we have more to share in the coming weeks, here are some features to expect from the update: 

(Please note all images are work in progress!) 

 

Exploration Mode 

The For Science! update introduces a new game mode called Exploration Mode. In this mode, you collect and transmit Science from unique biomes across the Kerbolar System; and then redeem Science to unlock new part technologies. 

Why is it called Exploration Mode and not Science Mode? In future updates, this mode will allow for resource collection and utilization, as well as the establishment of automated resource delivery routes. We want you to be able to continue the campaigns you start in December through all future colony, interstellar, and resource-gathering updates. 

  

Science Collection Parts and Interface 

As the name states, all new Science collection parts help collect Science. These parts are physically consequential, meaning shape and mass should be taken into consideration when building vehicles. 

The Science collection and transmission interface gives you the heads-up when there's an opportunity to take measurements or collect a sample. The research inventory gives a detailed view of all Science collected during a flight with clear information about what's been learned and what conditions need to be met to claim Science rewards. 

 

Tech Tree 

The Research and Development Center is open! Science can be used to unlock new categories on the tech tree, allowing the creation of more advanced vehicles. You can scout and preview future nodes to plan through dozens of part families. 

 

Mission Control 

Mission Control is also open for business - meet Dr. Keri Kerman who will send you on increasingly-challenging quests from learning about basic rocketry to attempting to build and maneuver an entirely new kind of vehicle. 

 

Heating and Thermal 

The days of stress-free atmospheric re-entry will come to an end with atmospheric re-entry heating and thermal behavior for parts. When For Science! releases, take those heat shields seriously! 

Wobbly Rockets Improvements 

We've been hard at work improving the wobbly rockets issue. An enhanced joint system will dramatically reduce wobbliness of large vehicles. 

Aaaaaand More! 

We can’t tell you everything, that’ll ruin the surprise! 

With this update there will also be significant improvements to quality of life and performance! As we continue development, we strive to make KSP2 playable on a wider variety of PCs. 

---

In other exciting news, today we’re at Space Creator Day – Creative Director Nate Simpson gave a first look at For Science! to space enthusiasts and creators. He also chatted with creators about the update and answered their questions. 

Check out their channels in the coming days for exclusive interviews and gameplay (and because they make great content!): 

• ShadowZone 
• Matt Lowne
• SpaceExplorerW 

Thank you for your patience as we gear up for the update, look forward to more information soon! 

As good as this seems. I'm still extremely disappointed in the lack of community involvement or an apology. This should have been rolled out back in February, not almost an entire year after release. I'll remain reluctantly optimistic.

[DunaManiac]

I'm really happy to see that the team is making some progress on Science. however, I won't get on the hype train just yet. December is pretty late, considering at that point the game will have released 10 months ago - how come the team's apparent expectation it would be done in only a few weeks stretch out that far?

8 hours ago, Intercept Games said:

In this mode, you collect and transmit Science from unique biomes across the Kerbolar System; and then redeem Science to unlock new part technologies. 

My major complaint is this: how exactly is this new science system any different from the science of old? We still have the hated science biomes, and an arbitrary "Science" unit for a tech tree. This seems like a far cry from the totally revamped science system that a lot of people expected before release, and more like a simple rebalancing of KSP1's science system. Could anyone from the development team create a dev diary or devchat to shed light on this topic?

8 hours ago, Intercept Games said:

In future updates, this mode will allow for resource collection and utilization, as well as the establishment of automated resource delivery routes.

This might just be a misunderstanding on my part or poor wording, but does this quote suggest that resource collection is exclusively for "Exploration Mode," meaning that in ordinary sandbox mode we will not be able to use any ISRU converters for vessels and colonies?

This image I find interesting, because of the very nice looking science-lab type (perhaps?) part. It is interesting that  apparently certain experiments can only be returned to KSC for science rather than transmitted for a reduce penalty. It would be cool if this stimulates robotic sample-return missions early on, with sample collection containers and sample collection experiments.

8 hours ago, Intercept Games said:

The Research and Development Center is open! Science can be used to unlock new categories on the tech tree, allowing the creation of more advanced vehicles. You can scout and preview future nodes to plan through dozens of part families. 

So far the new tech tree seems pretty much the same as before, which is not what I was hoping for. My main question is this: are we still going to start every new career with a command pod + SRB a la the original, or are we going to first get access to probes or aircraft and then graduate to manned flight? I would be disappointed if the latter turned out to be true.

8 hours ago, Intercept Games said:

Mission Control is also open for business - meet Dr. Keri Kerman who will send you on increasingly-challenging quests from learning about basic rocketry to attempting to build and maneuver an entirely new kind of vehicle. 

Once again, this seems to be similar to the contract system of KSP1, albeit without the randomness and a more tutorial approach, and with science as a reward rather than funds. Are these intended to be simple guides designed to point newbies in the right direction, or are they an important part of gameplay that cannot be ignored?

8 hours ago, Intercept Games said:

With this update there will also be significant improvements to quality of life and performance! As we continue development, we strive to make KSP2 playable on a wider variety of PCs. 

That's a pretty big promise to make, and has been made many times in the past. I will be watching to see whether it comes true.

All in all, happy to see the new reentry effects and that wobbly rockets are being addressed and worked on, but I am still skeptical (perhaps more than most) about the new science system.

Edited October 21, 2023 by DunaManiac

[Superfluous J]

Can't wait to find out more. I might be buying myself an early Christmas present this year...

[Acid_Burn9]

Sounds optimistic. We'll see how it turns out.