The Great KSP Plague

[NASI Director]

I remember a while back when I could look at new content everyday on the Spacecraft exchange, but that time has come and passed. Why has this happened? The double-edged sword named Update. Every time I log onto the Spacecraft Exchange, there is barely anything to look at anymore. Right now I'm stuck looking at Mulbin's stuff while I wait for the .21 update. This plague has happened before.

The beast of the forums gets infected with the soon release of an update, and slows down production of its precious, valuable content. Mostly during save-breaking updates such as the .18 and the .21 update. This will happen and until there is a cure for the side effect of save-breaking, the mighty beast of the Forums will slow down and hibernate until the update finally comes.

Much like the bear and the winter, the Forum will sleep until the update comes, and when it does, it will be more active than ever. Filling to the brim almost to the point of something like the forum massacre in April, the new content will come. After it gets its fill of sudden content, the raging river of the posts will slowdown into a slow river, something much more manageable.

Until then, the Spacecraft Exchange is at a crawl, waiting. Much like everyone else, I wait for the release of the update soon.

[AustralianFries]

As Ben has said:

I feel like activity across the entire forum has come to a grinding halt since we've found out save files will break in .21. I do hope the update comes soon...

(From my mission log thread).

I couldn't have said it better. I've lost all creative drive and all motivation to get anything done in my save. For the past three weeks, my day has been: wake up, check the forums, get discouraged.

But I'm not complaining. I'd rather an update take time to come out so the bugs can get worked out, rather than the devs prematurely release an update that isn't as good as it could be.

Edited July 19, 2013 by AustralianFries

[OrbitusII]

That's an interesting way to put it, Fries, and I do feel like activity has slowed down significantly because people are discouraged. My PPD hasn't gone down any, yet I'm struggling to find things to reply to.

[AustralianFries]

That's an interesting way to put it, Fries, and I do feel like activity has slowed down significantly because people are discouraged. My PPD hasn't gone down any, yet I'm struggling to find things to reply to.

Mine has gone down a bit. Not too much though. It was about 5.70ish, and now its roughly 4.30ish. (On my old account, before the forum account slaughter mishap, it was something crazy, like 13PPD or something.) I would have thought my current PPD would be a lot lower, considering I've only posted about once or twice per day in the last three weeks. It seems like it's not too hard to maintain it.

Edited July 19, 2013 by AustralianFries

[llamatoes]

I'd have to agree. When the shoggoth (I will from nowon refer to updates as shoggoths) hits,we will have a surge of new crafts using new parts, and then we will start having nice content, and my pps can go up.

[KerbMav]

I dont know about you - and I myself am more of an indoor type too - but I would think it might also have something to do with ... dont know ... summer?

But of course especially the space port is seeing reduced activity - why finalizing a project now not knowing what will have to be adapted to 0.21?

[ASnogarD]

Its the ASAS update that makes it hard to bother firing up KSP to be honest... not in a bad way mind you.

I mean all I can really do at the moment is basically mess with Lifters or design but not launch stations, perhaps mess with planes but then you wonder... will the Lifter spin with the ASAS update, or that Plane wobble so much in the next update.

Is it worth spamming struts to try fight a issue that may be already sorted out with the new update ? The old strut spammed craft may not need half the struts in the new update, but which struts ?

... easier and less rage inducing to simply wait for the update.

The Steam summer sale also impacts KSP as players are probably messing around with those games they never intended to play but couldnt resist the sale price.

[NASI Director]

I just hope Harvester can do something with his save-saving code. I will miss my 20+ missions at once.

[Amphiprion]

I like the idea of having to redesign everything and start fresh.. My designs improve every time I have to redo them..

[Skyrunner27]

Well it is a bit harder to do anything anymore when you know your going to have to restart after the update. I mean all I have been doing this week is preparing for the end of saves. I rushed to land on Minmus thinking update was around the corner. I have deorbited my two stations and have given up plans for making a Mun base.

[DerekL1963]

But of course especially the space port is seeing reduced activity - why finalizing a project now not knowing what will have to be adapted to 0.21?

Yep. I'm still playing, and enjoying, the current version... but the craft I was going to post to the Exchange are on hold until I see how they'll work.

[Themohawkninja]

If you save your saves in a separate folder, update to .21, and put the saves back in the .21 save folder, you will have lost nothing.

[air805ronin]

If you save your saves in a separate folder, update to .21, and put the saves back in the .21 save folder, you will have lost nothing.

You probably missed all the posts about the fact old save files will not be compatible with .21 because they had to change the way crews are manifested and attached to vehicles. To make your old save compatible will involve editing the old file to match new requirements, and even then its been implied there could still be problems.

So no....even if you do this with .21 you will still lose things.

[NASI Director]

If you save your saves in a separate folder, update to .21, and put the saves back in the .21 save folder, you will have lost nothing.

But moving 20+ missions to a new save is easier said than done. I wonder if old .crafts will still work?

[Themohawkninja]

You probably missed all the posts about the fact old save files will not be compatible with .21 because they had to change the way crews are manifested and attached to vehicles. To make your old save compatible will involve editing the old file to match new requirements, and even then its been implied there could still be problems.

So no....even if you do this with .21 you will still lose things.

Apparently, since I just head Scott Manley talking about it, and how he made a video of it.

I wasn't going to bother with it anyways, since it just means I will have a reason do go back to many of the bodies.

[CalculusWarrior]

As you can see, I am also slowing down in preparation for 0.21.

I...I don't know how this happened, all I wanted to do was a grand tour mission, then things just escalated from there... I think I have missions to every single planet now.

[DeltaV_]

I'm pretty sure that the loss of drive is the cause of the Kraken, forcing you to slow your KSP-playing to a halt so he can bide his time until he begins haunting your solar expeditions once again.

In all seriousness, though, I've noticed it too. Although it's worth it solely for the new textures and the SAS fixes.

[PwnedDuck]

As Ben has said:

(From my mission log thread).

I couldn't have said it better. I've lost all creative drive and all motivation to get anything done in my save. For the past three weeks, my day has been: wake up, check the forums, get discouraged.

But I'm not complaining. I'd rather an update take time to come out so the bugs can get worked out, rather than the devs prematurely release an update that isn't as good as it could be.

I'm starting to regret all the effort I focused on setting up bases or stations, but since they won't persist anyway, I am doing a lot of 'go-land-flag-leave-home' missions: I am in the middle of one to Eeloo right now, and fuel is running much lower than expected so it's getting dramatic A.K.A fun.

[Teek]

I'm still relatively new to KSP, so I've been using the last few weeks to polish up on my skills and experiment with mods. I have already accomplished a Mun landing, which I will probably end soon to attempt a safe return, I landed a Mun rover within 500 m of my lander in a different flight, built my first SSTO/spaceplane and put it into orbit. I still am working landing it though... I hope to accomplish that and practice with robotic arms and quantum struts before the update hits. I think it's important to set yourself new goals, but with effects beyond your current save. Try something you've never done before, set challenges, and create goals that will educate and entertain you beyond this current save!

[DChurchill]

I couldn't have said it better. I've lost all creative drive and all motivation to get anything done in my save.

Same here. I've been messing around with some design enhancements, but nothing major.

[Flixxbeatz]

Taking a break from doing [NS] videoseries now, might thinking to restart it once 0.21 arrives and nukes everything...

Will try to get the old crafts working in the new version.

[Panichio]

I plan to finally showcase some of my stuff which I'm actually quite proud of after I get some new hardware, if that makes anything better.

[Skorpychan]

I meant to land on Minimus again today, but running KSP in this heatwave makes the room heat up like crazy, and having to be up for work in the morning stops me doing it at night.

I have, however, cancelled plans for my munbase for now, because landing that much crap is a pain in the ass.

[espm400]

It's kind of funny; I said to myself when .21 was announced, that I wasn't going to bother with building stations or bases (I had just DL'd Deadly Re-entry and IonCross Crew Support and started a new save earlier that week), so I found myself just building stuff like replica fighter jets and bombers with B9 to pass the time. However, although I'm not new to the game (started in .16), I'm fairly new to taking it somewhat seriously, and I've found this to be a great time to learn things that were previously not in my repertoire. Things such as precision landings (two consecutive <20m landings on the Mun so far) and proper efficient designs and orbital burns, since I've always over-engineered to the point of ridiculousness. This, in turn, has inadvertently led to me creating the bases and long range ships that I told myself I wouldn't bother with until the new update. I gotta say, this game does weird things with my head...

Sidenote: I hope .21 isn't as mod breaking as .20. Getting used to stock atmospheric drag again isn't a fun prospect.