Guess I'll make another thread about this mess.

[Minmus Taster]

This is going to be a somewhat emotional response more then a logical one. Feel free to merge this into another thread, I have a feeling I'm not the only one who's going to make one of these.

 

I remember first watching the trailer for KSP2 in 2019. I don't know if I knew KSP even existed at the time, and if I did I only ever knew it as the simulator I'd watch people doing heavily modded missions in on YouTube. I still remember watching a video someone made on a crewed flight to Pluto in RSS.

I remember finally being able to play the first game on a work laptop, when exactly I can't remember but I remember becoming hooked to it. Through the pandemic years I would play it instead of attending most of my online classes, probably not good for my education but I have no regrets. All the while I, like many others, waited for any good news on the second games development. The trailer also introduced me to M83, now a favorite band of mine.

To say the current situation hit hard is an understatement. Especially since it seemed like there may have been hope for the game to recover from its launch. As corny as it sounds Kerbal really did help me through a hard time in my life and many others through a low period in our history. I wanted and still want this series and this game to survive and give us all a chance to keep having new experiences for years to come. Not to mention introducing new fans to the games.

I still want to believe so badly that this will somehow pan out but with almost no proper communication and the writing seemingly on the wall I think this is the end of the road for Kerbal 2. Maybe I'll be proven wrong and I definitely want to be but I don't think I will. I just wanted to make this post to say how much this world means to me. That being the community that grew around this game. Speculating on the game and all the things we'll be able to do when it finally releases (and becomes playable) has genuinely been some of the most fun I've had online. 

I just wanted to get my feelings on this out, I seems I'm not the only frustrated one. But I love this community that we've all become a part of and it's a good feeling to know that through all this we've (mostly) had each other's backs. I look forward to all our usual tomfoolery in the first game if push really has come to shove here.

[SunlitZelkova]

This franchise changed my life too.

I first learned about KSP2 in 2020. I had heard of KSP long ago (in like 2015 or 16) from a YouTuber called PhlyDaily. I had guinea pigs from 2015, but in 2020 one passed away, followed by another just weeks later. This hit me very hard. I did not have any human friends at the time, due to a combination of mental health issues and moving around due to my parent’s divorce.

2016 was the darkest year of my life so far perhaps. I was struggling immensely in school and in a few months would lose my the last of my human friends.

I would sit on the couch with one of my pigs in the evenings, and he would look up to the ceiling a lot. I interpreted this as him wanting to go to the Moon.

Also at this time I was interested in Soviet history. So through a combination of being enamored with the Soviet mass song “14 minutes to start” (the refrain of which is in my signature) and my pig’s desires, the seeds of a new interest in space travel were born. I had originally been interested in space during elementary school, but dropped it after my parents divorced.

But the dark times continued. I was bitter, neglected to spend time with my pigs, and focused on war and conflict.

Things changed in 2020. I lamented how I was never able to take all of my pigs to space (I planned to make a cardboard rocket and blast off with them to the “Moon” and let them run around on the surface). Now two of them never could.

I became interested in spaceflight again at last. I revisited Wikipedia articles for the first time in nine years about rockets and missions. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted to be able to go to space myself, just as I “partook in combat” virtually through video games during my interest in historical wars.

I recalled that rocket game, called “Kerbal” or something from that PhlyDaily video so long ago.

I looked it up and lo and behold, not only was KSP thriving, a sequel was in the works called KSP2.

I was blown away by the trailer. The dreams of my childhood, going to the Moon and then interstellar, returned to my mind.

KSP1 seemed out of reach for my computer. KSP2 promised better graphics. I was hyped. I still ended up finding a work around to play KSP1 and learn the ropes in the meantime, but I remained highly excited about KSP2.

To be honest, the (still rumored) death of KSP2 does not bother me much. It’s what happens to the franchise that does.

After I bought KSP, I was able to go to orbit, land on the “Moon”, and I even attempted to go to “Mars” (I played stock and simply imagined it was the real solar system, because my computer couldn’t handle RSS). But it was something that seemed like magic, like stepping into a real life spaceflight simulator, compared to what I did in my elementary years: drawing rockets and then cutting them out and playing with them as toys.

KSP fundamentally changed my life in that it gave me a positive hobby. So many video games involve some degree of violence, and yet this one is peaceful (although I did build an SA-2 Guideline replica once lol). As a result I was able to have a really good pandemic experience.

The amount of time I spent playing dropped in 2022, as another of my pigs passed away, and I so strongly identified KSP with being with him, while also lacking coping skills to deal with his passing. But the interest in space exploration remained. Through all the ups and downs, I feel I have been a much happier person in 2020-2024 than I was in 2012-2019. KSP was a big part of that.

I only played sandbox mode through these past four years. In 2024, simultaneous with starting college, I will be starting my first ever science save, with a goal of building a space program during my time as an undergraduate.

What will happen now? At first glance it seems like it should be fine, but KSP social media accounts and even this forum moved very heavily into promoting KSP2 (as an example, the KSP2 section of the forum is above that of KSP, despite the game not even being finished, and the only creations showcased on Twitter now are all from KSP2).

Will they make an about face and return to promoting KSP content? Will Private Division want to continue supporting KSP if it just makes people think about how they failed to deliver the second one, thus hurting their brand name and reputation?

I certainly hope not. I voice my fears not to sow panic, but in search of solace.

[Bej Kerman]

17 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Will they make an about face and return to promoting KSP content? Will Private Division want to continue supporting KSP if it just makes people think about how they failed to deliver the second one, thus hurting their brand name and reputation?

Whatever happens, KSP 1 doesn't have much to stand on now being out of development and KSP 2 having become a pillar of the brand's identity. 

[KincaidFrankMF]

15 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Whatever happens, KSP 1 doesn't have much to stand on now being out of development and KSP 2 having become a pillar of the brand's identity. 

Apart from the human cost to the dev team themselves, that's probably the worst part of all this. Development of KSP2 killed off further development of KSP1. I'm not sure if there's a precedent for putting that genie back in the bottle and resuming development of an earlier game? Seems enormously unlikely.

[Bej Kerman]

56 minutes ago, KincaidFrankMF said:

Development of KSP2 killed off further development of KSP1

Development of KSP 1 would have died either way. It's not random that KSP 1 development stopped well before KSP 2 went public, it was too cumbersome and buggy to keep developing and the intent was for KSP 2 to serve as a fresh codebase for Intercept to develop with.

[Stevie_D]

16 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Whatever happens, KSP 1 doesn't have much to stand on now being out of development and KSP 2 having become a pillar of the brand's identity. 

If I were the KSP franchise owner I wouldn't want KSP2's reputation to be the pillar of the brand's identity.

That reputation right now is for late, buggy, cold garbage with disingenuous publishers and silent devs.