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Science and Tech Tree with Tom 'FRIIIDAAAAAAAAY' Vinita - KSP 2 Dev Chats


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"Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species’ might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds." - Carl Sagan

I am excited again for the first time in months. This will be the first big proper update to the game and I can not wait. Great job team!

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I just have one rather important question.

Why the starting node has a Kerbal capsule if the only thing the Kerbals are useful for are the surface samples (and potentially surveys), since everything else can be done remotely and sent through the commnet?

 

I won't bother at this point asking why it's the science points as currency for purchasing parts again, I guess Tom explained it pretty well.

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I absolutely love this dev chat and I love Tom.. he's the most charismatic kerbal story-teller ever. Glad to see that ban which prevented him from appearing in new videos was lifted. :D Guess now the kraken can really be slain, eh?

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Will we also be seeing a return of the Tiered KSC upgrades (eventually) like in KSP1?

One reason why I never really played the science mode, and instead just went to career, is because it just felt wierd launching basic, jerry-rigged rockets on pads that look like they were built for interplanetary missions.
And now, with ksp2's new artstyle going with essentially riveted tin cans for early-game parts, the disparity between a proffessional launch complex, and early bargain-binned rockets feels even greater.

Lastly, if Tiered KSC buildings are to make a return, then #Bringbackthebarn

Edited by RedderThanMisty
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I have the impression that KSP2 development is maybe nine to twelve months ahead and the published pre alpha updates just mirror the definitive base to further progress and build on a very quality oriented product. It would be just logical when developing such a software with focus on longterm (Hundreds if not even thousands of hours sometimes) playability, much unlike most other games. 

Common gameplay bugs can be solved `"on the fly by" with such a method, without disturbing the main roadmap of gamedesign.

I can grasp where KSP2 is going and my feeling is more than happy about the carefull communication about the direction this company takes..

Nate Simpson seems to me to be a well worthy and adequate administrator of KSPs legacy, and i think he is well aware of his responsability, much respect to the directors of KSP2 from here.  For science!!! :D

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Seems that the idea here is that the real problem with KSP1’s tech tree came down to balance and QOL, which… can’t really argue too much with that. I maintain an unlockable science encyclopedia would be a great intangible way to add to the experience, but as far as an actual progression mechanic goes, this all seems sound so far.

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52 minutes ago, RedderThanMisty said:

One reason why I never really played the science mode, and instead just went to career, is because it just felt wierd launching basic, jerry-rigged rockets on pads that look like they were built for interplanetary missions.

Well, the VAB designed to get the Saturn V to the moon was designed before the moon landing itself or even the Saturn V (In 1965)

Edited by NexusHelium
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The tech tree improvements seem nice, nothing too radical but just nice. I do wish we heard more about the science parts though, hoping we get a dev diary about them or something in between now and release. It doesnt seem like there will be new non science parts which sucks, heres to hoping we will get some come .2.1

Oh also diving bell looking thing is confirmed to be in the aquatic sciences tab and the desc is to explore the depths sooo, diving bell gaming 

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Great watch.

I saw you guys transmitting from the pod without any antennas, so I guess it's safe to assume pods will have at least a basic comm antenna integrated on them? Does it consume electricity as well? It was also visible that the pod can hold more than a single result from the same experiment.

As for the rest, it still looks like my initial assessment of basic QOL and minimum changes from KSP1.

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42 minutes ago, Strawberry said:

The tech tree improvements seem nice, nothing too radical but just nice. I do wish we heard more about the science parts though, hoping we get a dev diary about them or something in between now and release. It doesnt seem like there will be new non science parts which sucks, heres to hoping we will get some come .2.1

Oh also diving bell looking thing is confirmed to be in the aquatic sciences tab and the desc is to explore the depths sooo, diving bell gaming 

Well, I’m happy for the science parts to remain a Christmas surprise.  Also, I’m gonna go out on a limb and bet undying glory there’s a discoverable in the lake on Vall.

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Just watched the video, and it was fun and enlightening.  And left me with a bunch of comments and questions.  And you are all lucky enough now to get to read them.  :)

For starters, Tom is one passionate guy.  Excited, happy, nervous, all over the place passionate about this game.  His energy is infectious, and made me want to fire up KSP2 right now.  You could see him almost come to tears when talking at the end about how happy he is that we all stuck around and got through this painful time.  It was really cool to see how grateful he was, and to hear how excited he is.

Secondly, I've got some questions/comments that I'm hoping @Nate Simpson or @Dakota or one of the other staff members can answer/address.  Or at least say "You'll find out when For Science! drops next month".  Or something like that.

  1. A quick review of the tech tree (through what we were shown) reveals that we will still be building rockets before we build planes.  Why was this decision made, and what went into making that decision?  Is it because the game is supposed to primarily be about rockets and space, or is it because the (perception of the) majority of fans/players of the game are more interested in rockets?  Or did you just have to make a decision and here we are?
  2. All throughout the video, Tom continuously talked about making decisions on what nodes to collect, and then at the end he was talking about having nodes open on tiers that are prior to the one you are focused on.  This, coupled with the ingenuity of players, can make parts obsolete before you even get to them.  As an example, I recently created a lander that had no legs, which makes landing legs pointless if I go that route.  I know other players have done things that make parts obsolete (I'm looking at those nano-crystalline players who made it to Jool without upgrading any buildings in KSP1).  Will there ever be a way to hide parts you don't want to use, or to hide nodes you will never purchase?
  3. Tom had to actually go onto the surface of Kerbin to collect the surface sample, which is a change from KSP1 (where you only had to exit the pod and could hang on the ladder even well above the surface and get the sample).  While I like the change, I'm just curious if this is now the standard?  Will we still be able to get samples while hanging on the ladder, or was that changed in KSP2?
  4. Speaking of data and science, Tom transmitted what he could back to the KSC, and then took the actual sample itself upon recovery.  Are we going to be required to transmit reports back to the KSC, or can we just bring them all home with us?
    1. On this note, I'm curious about what happens when we transmit data back to the KSC under different situations, such as time warp.  Will that actually work?
    2. Are we allowed to spend transmitted science points immediately, or do we have to wait for the ship that sent them to get back?  Would be nice to be able to in the event we need parts for a rescue mission.  Not that anyone has ever had to rescue Kerbals.  Just saying.  Or something.  Look - snacks over there!
    3. And while Tom stated this, that was far too many science points for a simple launch.  More than 100?  It takes massive grinding to get that many around the KSC in KSP1.  Will this be corrected prior to the release?
  5. I didn't see any heat effects during Tom's descent back to the surface of Kerbin, even though he was traveling rather rapidly prior to parachute deployment.  We have been told that heat and atmospheric effects would be included with 0.2.  Has something changed?  Or did Tom simply get lucky enough to not generate them due to altitude and speed?
  6. Tom and Nate both mentioned dozens of discoverables around the Kerbolar system.  I'm curious to know if there are any clues given in-game as to their locations?  Will we get some kind of music, or cut-scenes, or even messages to let us know we might be close?  As someone who hasn't ever even seen the Mun arch in-game (with over 1000 hours played), it would be rather disappointing to not be able to find these in-game (and I'm not very good at just wandering about and getting lucky).
  7. Tom and Nate both mentioned potential challenges, and to me they both sounded like the Caveman Challenge from KSP1.  I'm wondering if the introduction of Science here will force part count or weight limits at any point?  In KSP1, before you upgrade anything, you are limited to 18 tons and 30 parts; will KSP2 ever have anything like this?
  8. Will there be a way to review previously collected science reports?  In KSP1 we can do this (somewhat) so we can see where we have gone previously and avoid going there again unless we really want to.

All told, the video was good.  Can't wait for the 19th!

Edited by Scarecrow71
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I'd like to point out, it was shown that surface sample collection took time to complete. I doubt that surface sample collection is exclusive in this regard, I think its safe to say that at the very least, some science parts taking time to complete is confirmed because we've literally seen one. 

image.png?ex=657b761a&is=6569011a&hm=e87

Also we already saw this through code, but the video confirms crew requirements for science as well (happened when reentering command capsule, I assume the experiment being interrupted is the crew observations? The final potiental science requirement we saw in code was for resources being needed to run the thing, maybe thatll be the radiation survey parts gimmick?

image.png?ex=657b76b1&is=656901b1&hm=275

Edited by Strawberry
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1 hour ago, Scarecrow71 said:

 

  1. I didn't see any heat effects during Tom's descent back to the surface of Kerbin, even though he was traveling rather rapidly prior to parachute deployment.  We have been told that heat and atmospheric effects would be included with 0.2.  Has something changed?  Or did Tom simply get lucky enough to not generate them due to altitude and speed?

(heating image thats way too large for some reason)

Spoiler

rn_image_picker_lib_temp_f350f7c0-ddc0-4

For literally a second at 17:53 we saw some during ascent, according to darrin the fact that the heat showed is not a bug, but heats been tuned since then (presumably to not make it so jank). 

Edited by Strawberry
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1 hour ago, Scarecrow71 said:

A quick review of the tech tree (through what we were shown) reveals that we will still be building rockets before we build planes.  Why was this decision made, and what went into making that decision?  Is it because the game is supposed to primarily be about rockets and space, or is it because the (perception of the) majority of fans/players of the game are more interested in rockets?  Or did you just have to make a decision and here we are?

I would guess because of difficulty. You can slap together a rocket, much like Tom did, and it'll work with no effort while being satisfying. Harder to put together a plane and do the same - think of the no experience player. I think it's conceptually more complex since it's not just lighting a fire in a tube and watching it go.

 

I see Tom decided to come straight at me at 30:12.

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