At what point do you see yourself "committing" more seriously to KSP2?

[RileyHef]

Hi all,

I have been a big fan of KSP2's development since 2019 and have played since release day. However, I have noticed that I (and many others) are not "committed" to the game like I was with KSP1. I'll play around for a few hours during each update release, but even after "For Science!" I found that I did not want to seriously progress with an Exploration save given the incomplete nature of the game. I did a few missions and haven't touched the game since early January. This contrasts my KSP1 experience as I loved to spend countless hours in a single career save building an agency with multiple programs, long term goals, etc. I had saves that lasted years and never got bored.

I've been seriously thinking and realize that I do not consider KSP2 a worthwhile time investment until a certain variable or two change. I think this is the same for most people, too. A few of the "variables" that I commonly see are from people waiting for bug fixes, performance improvements, major milestones, mods, or even full 1.0 release. I am curious to hear what people dream of one day doing in KSP2 that will get them "committed" to the game like they were with KSP1. Keep in mind I am not asking for complaints about features or early access, but instead I want to hear what you can't wait to (hopefully) do in this game in the future and why.

For me, I really share Nate Simpson's dream of going to a planet, establishing a small colony, and sending a rover to collect/return resources for the very first time. I want more of a substantial reason to visit celestial bodies other than collecting science points and the nice view. I want to have a true reason to build space stations and explore uncharted territory. So, I don't really see any reason to take the deep dive into KSP2 until 0.5's resource update drops. I can live with the bugs, performance, and other missing features - I don't even care about other things such as multiplayer or interstellar travel. But I really really want resource collection for creating new colonies. I'm also seriously holding out for IVA and other Kerbal-centric features. Something about not getting a 1st person view of a Kerbal's perspective while on missions has really broken the immersion and any investment I had in my Kerbals. I just don't care for them in KSP2 right now like I did in KSP1.

Anyways, I'd love to hear what other gameplay/story dreams people are waiting on before investing more heavily into KSP2.

[MechBFP]

I am waiting for a time when the game is more or less feature complete from a single player perspective and is of an equal or higher level of polish than KSP1. Then I can actually sit down and enjoy it without getting irritated by it. 

[calabus2]

I'll be committed to it when it changes developers and dev teams. That will never happen, so here we are. 

 

Edit: Welp... studio shut down. That's step one. Now to get the the IP to a publisher and team that knows what they are doing

Edited May 2 by calabus2

[Presto200]

I agree that IVA view is one of the things that I hope for with every patch as a quality of life thing. I don't have much time to play KSP but when I do I play KSP2 (probably mostly because my crafts are mostly simple and I don't deal with bugs) so I guess you can say I'm already "committed" .  Anyways, I think the things that I am most excited to see is just quality of life things that come with each update, I am just enjoying watching development of the game and looking at how far we have came from launch. I also am very excited for roadmap things to come (I share interest in recourses and that's why I always voice my yearn for recourses to come before interstellar). 

[Scarecrow71]

As I mentioned in another thread, the thing that keeps me playing KSP1 is the contract system.  I know that a lot of people don't like it, and that is ok because you should be able to play the way you want.  Not everyone is going to like the same stuff.  But I want...nay, NEED...direction and a reason to play.  KSP1's contract system does that.

What i think the contract system does well is that it gives me a purpose.  Something to do.  Go here, or build this, or check that out.  I don't care about science points or funds (although early game funds are great as you have to plan around them).  What I care about is the system continually generates things for me to do.

Now, the contract system isn't without problems.  Some missions are repetitive.  Some are simply ridiculous (I have half the tech tree filled out in my current save and I got a contract to pull off 2 grand tours).  Some don't make any sense.  So it isn't perfect by any stretch.

I loved the story missions in KSP2, and I couldn't wait to play just to do them.  But there weren't enough of them, and once you were done that was it.  While KSP1 continually generates contracts, KSP2 just has a set amount and that is it.  And so, when I finished them, I just put KSP2 away and went back to KSP1.  And what really hurts is that someone on discord confirmed that, even with colonies, there are no plans to alter or add to the story missions.  Sigh.

So yeah, I'm kind of waiting for the game to give me a reason to keep playing.  Which I doubt happens any time soon.

Edited April 16 by Scarecrow71

[Flush Foot]

Failure to launch?

You need Moar Boosters More Missions!

Aka agreeing with @Scarecrow71

[Presto200]

I would like to point to this interaction between @Scarecrow71, @Flush Foot, and myself over on the "Why Play? (suggestions)" forum, 

I think bringing back procedural missions that allow for gameplay away from the main story arch (that you don't have to complete main missions to get more of) would be great for the community to "commit" more to KSP2. It would definitely make each save file feel more personal and would be a reason to come back everyday. Obviously you would want the missions to be better than the KSP1 career missions but I think procedural missions would bring a lot of players closer to KSP2 than KSP1

[shdwlrd]

When colonies drops. I need a reason to go somewhere other than Kerbin. Science doesn't do it for me. 

[Superfluous J]

I've got about a dozen games I want to play right now, and time to play maybe 3 on a regular basis. So, I order those games based on how much I want to play them *right now* and pick the top one. The calculus on that is complicated and done entirely in my subconscious so I can't really explain it, but it involves raw fun, what I feel like doing at the time, how tired I am, how much time I have to play, and how long it's been since I played a particular game.

KSP2 tends to reach the top of the list every week, sometimes twice a week sometimes once very 2 weeks, and I tend to play for a few hours before the itch is scratched and it drops back down the list.

Colonies and/or bug fixes will surely increase the "raw fun" but I've no idea about how it will affect the other factors, so I don't know how much (if at all) it will increase the time I play it on a weekly basis. For example, my very favorite game for all of 2020 and most of 2021 was Dyson Sphere Program. I kind of burned out on it though and haven't even opened it since a massive update that added enemies and combat back in December 2023. Had you asked me in 2022, I'd have said adding enemies would have pegged it right at the top of the list where it would likely stay for months.

Time will tell, I suppose.

[Pthigrivi]

So Im definitely going to dip in and try out colonies and interstellar but what Im really here for is resources. Thats when KSP becomes a real game for me. Probably gonna be a minute but thats fine. I like dabbling in the meantime. Even to do that more seriously though Im going to need to see some major improvements to maneuvers, transfers, and flight planning. 

Edited April 16 by Pthigrivi

[steveman0]

I'd say I already committed pretty seriously. When they said that we'd be able to play our exploration save through all later updates I was all in. I was feeling an itch to revisit KSP1 just before FS! release was announced as imminent so I held off on the revisit of 1 to pick up 2 again. Everything about the mission structure was just miles ahead of the repetitive contracts of the original so I went full on with completing the core story missions.

I still have a few side missions but my completionist side had me collecting as much science as I could along the way. I'd estimate between missions and scanning I got roughly a quarter million. This is good as I saw recently that colonies plans to fit in at tier 4/5 of the tech tree so I can dive right in once it comes out.

I'm on a bit of a break for a few other games that have been on the back burner for a while. I'm sure a few good bug fixes might pull me back in to knock out another 10k science collection or a mission or two. I expect that colonies will offer much to do such that knocking out the current array of side missions and science collection won't detract from the new experiences to explore.

Edited April 16 by steveman0
Clarifying a point

[Presto200]

44 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

So Im definitely going to dip in and try out colonies and interstellar but what Im really here for is resources. Thats when KSP becomes a real game for me. Probably gonna be a minute but thats fine. I like dabbling in the meantime. Even to do that more seriously though Im going to need to see some major improvements to maneuvers, transfers, and flight planning. 

I once again am promoting my thread about Recourses coming before Interstellar  

[Turbo Ben]

I've been out since 0.1.3 released and broke joystick control. Haven't even tried For Science! so don't know what state the game currently is in. I'll be back when HOTAS support is there and if the bugs are fixed, I'll probably play for a while. Until then modded KSP1 is keeping me entertained just fine.

[The Aziz]

I'm at that point in life where no matter what game it is, it grabs my attention for two weeks at most, then I leave it for few months. I can hardly remember what I was doing in KSP2 the last time I played (in January? February?) but I'll probably dive back in after something good drops, be it bugfix patch (depends on which bugs are fixed) or content update. It's unlikely to ever change, that's just how I play. I see no option for long term commitment, unless the new content is so vast that I'll be discovering it for months.

[cocoscacao]

KSP 1 gameplay with KSP 2 graphics would be enough for me to have fun for a few months. I do wait for colonies & other updates, but my major drawbacks now, are time-warp limit (workaroundable, but boring to do so), and toggling through orbits for docking... I need QOL stuff atm.

[MARL_Mk1]

3 main details for me to stick playing KSP2:

- Proper camera controls. Camera at the moment is horrendously bad. It is really bad. So bad that it throws me off. Already sent them detailed feedback about it a while back.

- Performance. I'm not sticking with KSP2 until performance matches or improves that of KSP 1's. 

- Sense of progress. Science update was nice but it's lacking. Colonies might aid, but I feel I won't feel complete until we get resource gathering and robotics. I just can't hop onto a new game with less features than KSP1 currently has.
 

[Scarecrow71]

3 minutes ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

but I feel I won't feel complete until we get resource gathering and robotics

Although this may have changed, it was confirmed that we won't ever see robotics prior to 1.0.  And at that, we may not ever see it in stock or DLC.

[MARL_Mk1]

2 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

Although this may have changed, it was confirmed that we won't ever see robotics prior to 1.0.  And at that, we may not ever see it in stock or DLC.

Guessing a mod will show up in the future, like Infernal Robotics did for KSP1.

[RileyHef]

13 hours ago, steveman0 said:

they said that we'd be able to play our exploration save through all later updates

Is this true, and if so can someone reference this? I always figured that current saves are always at risk of being broken by future updates and that's been a big reason why I haven't bothered to go far or create too many elaborate crafts.

[Flush Foot]

32 minutes ago, RileyHef said:

Is this true, and if so can someone reference this? I always figured that current saves are always at risk of being broken by future updates and that's been a big reason why I haven't bothered to go far or create too many elaborate crafts.

I am struggling (for now) to find it written down / spoken in a video somewhere, but I do remember someone saying they put only gave us Sandbox and Exploration modes when For Science! came out so that these saves could be the ones that persist through the next few (all?) Roadmap feature-updates.

[Presto200]

1 hour ago, RileyHef said:

Is this true, and if so can someone reference this? I always figured that current saves are always at risk of being broken by future updates and that's been a big reason why I haven't bothered to go far or create too many elaborate crafts.

 

52 minutes ago, Flush Foot said:

I am struggling (for now) to find it written down / spoken in a video somewhere, but I do remember someone saying they put only gave us Sandbox and Exploration modes when For Science! came out so that these saves could be the ones that persist through the next few (all?) Roadmap feature-updates.

Skip to 12:35 and he talks about the exploration game mode, this was at the unveiling of For Science! video credit to: @ShadowZone

[Flush Foot]

Thanks @Presto200... no YT at work so I couldn't use my headset nor larger screen to zip around all such videos (tried going off 'YT transcript searches' instead on my phone) and didn't find that reference in the videos I clicked onto.

[NexusHelium]

21 hours ago, RileyHef said:

Anyways, I'd love to hear what other gameplay/story dreams people are waiting on before investing more heavily into KSP2

None. I mean, obviously I'd like some major changes to the game (I'm not a phycopath) but I'm pretty invested in the game already.

I've been playing the game since the day of infamy (the launch lol) pretty much everyday with an exception of a month or two worth of days cut out. I haven't run out of things to do yet cause I just kinda make up my own things to do.

17 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

the thing that keeps me playing KSP1 is the contract system. 

I completely agree with this. The contracts in KSP 1 were wacky (sometimes) and at least fun to do and made sense (most of the time ) but for KSP 2 (at least for now) I just kinda make up my own contracts and work from there. I like to take inspiration from other people, the missions in KSP 1, or even just making up my own "contracts" and challenges. It's kept me glued to the game cause I just naturally (and accidentally) think in the morning "what else is there for me to do in this game?" and something completely insane immediately comes to my head and sometimes I get it done in one or two day (something like creating a commnet system at every planet even with no reason for it) and sometimes it takes several weeks (something like my Project DebDeb, which included a massive mothership and space stations around every planet.)

I've never run out of things to do because there are a lot of things to do... I just have to find out what they are. Which leads me to being invested right now and keeps me patient until the next big thing that will create more wacky things to do!

Edited April 16 by NexusHelium

[Director_Valle]

I like to role play my own space agency, so I set my own goals, contracts to me are just a way to gain some science and a feel that there are more actors (other than myself) in Kerbin. I build orbital infrastructure, I do not launch huge behemoths, if I need a large ship, I split it into multiple modules and assemble it in orbit. So what do I need before switching to KSP2:

- The precision maneouver tool.

- Data more handily available (inclination, period, eccentricity, etc.).

- Orbital construction.

Last one is optional, as docking can be good enough for starters, but some stuff you need to assemble in orbit… but I guess an orbital colony (shipyard) will fix this too.

[Scarecrow71]

2 minutes ago, Director_Valle said:

if I need a large ship, I split it into multiple modules and assemble it in orbit.

I tend to do this myself.  Although, I have been known to try launching behemoths for hours before stepping back and doing this. 

2 minutes ago, Director_Valle said:

- Orbital construction.

Last one is optional, as docking can be good enough for starters, but some stuff you need to assemble in orbit… but I guess an orbital colony (shipyard) will fix this too.

I don't think this is optional.  We need the ability to cleanly dock in orbit and then go about our constructing business.  The fact that KSP1 has EVA construction but KSP2 does not is mind-boggling.  I mean, forget orbital colonies - KSP1 has the ability to bring parts with you in storage containers, and then open the EVA construction mode to attach those parts.