Unofficial Official "But the depots" Watchalong Thread.

[PDCWolf]

Since the total silence started a couple months ago, some people have clung to watching the depots as the only "official" source that work is being done. Basically, SteamDB publishes when a change is made to the game's files in any of the public or internal branches, meaning we can keep up to date with internal updates applied to the game so long as they're distributed via the Steam internal delivery system to other devs or internal testers. This was thus the method used during the months of silence to know work was being put in towards 0.2.2, and even afterwards, work still was being put in (god knows towards what) until the day the WARN went effective.

So far, the depots were last updated 4 days ago.

tl;dr: click this link and keep watch on the branches. If any work is done on the game we'll see it.

You're all also invited to bet on when the depots will be updated again in this thread... and my initial bet is on never.

 

[The Aziz]

It's either never or when a new team picks it up.

[Scarecrow71]

Using the current week to determine if the depots are going to be updated is fruitless due to America's birthday yesterday.  Regardless of industry, most companies that operate in the continental 48 don't do a whole lot of work this week, giving employees a chance to go out and blow stuff up with whatever legal fireworks are available in their necks of the woods.  So saying that the depots were last updated 4 days ago isn't much of a surprise, at least not to me.

With that said, my bet is that we've seen the last of the updates on this particular build of the game.  The development studio has been shut down, and the developers and most (if not all) of the direct support staff have been told to not log onto the company's network any longer, and the effective date of the WARN has now come and gone.  I highly - HIGHLY - doubt that anyone at Take Two or Private Division is doing any work on a game that has effectively been cancelled, what with other projects that are still viable and in development potentially needing the hands and minds.  Even if another company or group of investors were able to purchase the rights to the IP, the current version of the game would be shelved, with a new version more than likely getting developed.

This is all, of course, speculation on my part based on the facts that we know (or are at least privy to).  I could very well be way off.  But if I had $100 to just throw down on a bet, I'd bet that the depots never get updated again.  Again, not for the current version of the game.  And let me be clear in stating that I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

[PDCWolf]

2 hours ago, The Aziz said:

It's either never or when a new team picks it up.

2 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

With that said, my bet is that we've seen the last of the updates on this particular build of the game.

I of course agree with both of you here, but this is exactly why the "official" word matters zero when the people that have the authority to make "official" announcements are the ones who get to make or lose money depending on what they say. The official statement so far is as follows:

Quote

"On April 18th Private Division successfully launched Moon Studio's No Rest for the Wicked. The label continues to make updates to Kerbal Space Program 2 and plans to release Wētā Workshop Game Studio's Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game in the second half of 2024."

So if the date for the next depot update is really never, we would've effectively been fed another "official" lie.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Hmm. If the odds are adjusted accordingly and we wanna wrangle a hard date on that never.. I would be inclined to take that bet.

What are we at on.. less than 6 months? 10/1 .. [snip]

I'd toss 100 down once it's gets somewhere close to 20/1.

Not because I think it's a good bet or anything.. I just have some impulse control issue related to dopamine triggers.

Edited July 5 by Vanamonde

[RUD Everyday]

The last record update was around 8 hours ago 

[PDCWolf]

2 hours ago, gfdgfherytrey said:

The last record update was around 8 hours ago 

Good opportunity to clarify: "Record update" means the store page was updated, not the game files.

EDIT: I checked, they removed the roadmap and all mentions of promised features.

EDIT 2:  I'm home now, and I can indeed see the roadmap, so I'll chalk it up to me being distracted by work when I checked.

Edited July 6 by PDCWolf

[atomontage]

11 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

Good opportunity to clarify: "Record update" means the store page was updated, not the game files.

EDIT: I checked, they removed the roadmap and all mentions of promised features.

It still shows up for me.
(BTW I can't attach  a screenshot for some reason. Can't upload, can't paste from imgur - the paste windows becomes red when I click on "insert into post" with an imgur link. I can try with a direct link though: https://imgur.com/a/RirXfmq )

[Scarecrow71]

25 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

Good opportunity to clarify: "Record update" means the store page was updated, not the game files.

EDIT: I checked, they removed the roadmap and all mentions of promised features.

If this is true - and I won't be able to hit the steam page until I'm on my PC tomorrow - then that is as official as we will get on the game's cancelation.

[Kerbart]

27 minutes ago, atomontage said:

It still shows up for me.
(BTW I can't attach  a screenshot for some reason. Can't upload, can't paste from imgur - the paste windows becomes red when I click on "insert into post" with an imgur link. I can try with a direct link though: https://imgur.com/a/RirXfmq )

It still shows for me as well. Not that I see anything else in it than nobody's there to care about updating it. Don't think I have the illusion it means the game is still being worked on.

Edited July 6 by Kerbart

[herbal space program]

16 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

It still shows for me as well. Not that I see anything else in it than nobody's there to care about updating it. Don't think I have the illusion it means the game is still being worked on.

Still there for me too.

[The Aziz]

The only "update" on steamdb was score percentage change. Down another %. 

[RayneCloud]

Watching the depots is only going to make you angrier or more disheartened. Depots being updated means almost nothing for the end user. It only means that someone, is doing some sort of work on something. Maybe. Could be merges, could be pushing updates to branches, who knows. 

[PDCWolf]

29 minutes ago, RayneCloud said:

Watching the depots is only going to make you angrier or more disheartened. Depots being updated means almost nothing for the end user. It only means that someone, is doing some sort of work on something. Maybe. Could be merges, could be pushing updates to branches, who knows. 

It's still hopeful for some to see changes to the depots, even if we're left to wonder who is it and what they're doing.

[DeadJohn]

Seeing updates on Steam could mean a lot of things. That includes the possibility that former staff might still have active accounts to modify what's on Steam.

The studio shutdown unsurprisingly left some gaps. One IG website is still advertising jobs in Seattle; no one removed that in the 5 weeks since the studio shutdown became public knowledge. Another IG website still lists laid off staff as being employees with varying levels of permissions. Maybe there's no one left to deal with security?

Edit: Just so it's clear, I have no illusions that fired staff are enhancing the software for free.

Edited July 6 by DeadJohn

[Skorj]

3 hours ago, DeadJohn said:

Seeing updates on Steam could mean a lot of things. That includes the possibility that former staff might still have active accounts to modify what's on Steam.

Updates might be automatic, but it's likely PD has a support team for older software.  It's common in the industry (if not so much game dev) to have a small support team that supports all the out-of-date software versions that still have users, in case of critical crash bugs or security bugs.  Support teams get no glory, but they do some amazing work with unfamiliar codebases.  If we get another bugfix patch, we'll know the support team is working, and probably did the last patch as well.

[TLTay]

Holy smokes, are there still people clinging to hope even after all this? Take a rest from it. It's over.

Edited July 6 by TLTay

[The Aziz]

2 hours ago, TLTay said:

Take a rest from it

Why didn't you?

[rebel-1]

The project is dead. Stop trying to "dig out the stewardess."

[RayneCloud]

8 hours ago, DeadJohn said:

Seeing updates on Steam could mean a lot of things. That includes the possibility that former staff might still have active accounts to modify what's on Steam.

The studio shutdown unsurprisingly left some gaps. One IG website is still advertising jobs in Seattle; no one removed that in the 5 weeks since the studio shutdown became public knowledge. Another IG website still lists laid off staff as being employees with varying levels of permissions. Maybe there's no one left to deal with security?

Edit: Just so it's clear, I have no illusions that fired staff are enhancing the software for free.

I can tell you from personal experience, that you only keep your steamworks backend access if the person you were working for / with, forgets to revoke it. That, and you are 99% likely to loose all access to all accounts as soon as the  doors close. Email, Chats, all of it gets shut down and locked out. If, the people shutting this down remember to... 

[DeadJohn]

58 minutes ago, RayneCloud said:

If, the people shutting this down remember to... 

Those people may have been laid off, too.

I have no skin in this game since I didn't buy into EA. I'm interested in it from the perspective of software project management and IT security.

[Biggen]

KSP1 has had changes under 12 months ago in some of its branches too. Do we really think there are more releases coming of that as well?!

[Ashiepoppy]

The depots were last updated over a week ago at this point. It's safe to say the game has reached what amounts to "brain death"

[Infinite Aerospace]

8 hours ago, Ashiepoppy said:

The depots were last updated over a week ago at this point. It's safe to say the game has reached what amounts to "brain death"

Yup, nine days since the last update. I think given how regular these updates were before, that it's pretty much that the lights have been switched off, no-one is there anymore. Kerbal Space Program II is, as if now 'dead'. Whether it'll be resuscitated or not, remains to be seen but that's a pretty open ended question, and I've personally got zero faith that will happen, especially with Take Two's track record.

[Skorj]

It's nice that someone did that last bugfix patch.  I guess it was too much to hope for another.  The sad thing is, with the game-breaking bugs fixed and some sort of colony system, KSP2 would finally offer something KSP1 doesn't (beyond graphics).  But if I bought the IP, I don't think I'd bother, would be rather hard to get players' attention at this point to change reviews back to positive, even if someone did make the game something reasonable. 

I do still think the Kerbal IP still has value though, for a KSP3, just not in T2's hands.  That bridge is thoroughly burnt at this point.  And as we've been discussing in other threads, it doesn't have to be Kerbals to capture the spirit of the game that many find lacking in Juno.  Heck, maybe Dean Hall and HarvesteR will collaborate at some point.  KSP2, though, seems like there's nothing left but the funeral.