KSP AmA Discussion thread

[bsalis]

Oh well, I suppose I'll have to wait for later to learn of any big revelations.

Might not be a big reveal, but some news on next steps of Career mode...

HarvesteR: As for what's coming in the near future for Career Mode, We've got a couple of major features that we are already planning, which will be closely integrated with the existing gameplay, and I daresay if it all goes as planned, should make for a pretty awesome overall experience.

More specifically, we've got Contracts coming soon, which will let you take on proper objectives, to earn funds and reputation (or lose them) should you succeed (or fail).

Then there's the Funds and Reputation mechanic itself, which will require you to spend funds to launch ships or hire crews, and manage your space program's reputation to get better contract offers and generally keep Kerbalkind pleased with your progress towards conquering space.

This is just a very brief explanation of those features. We'll get into more detail on them as we get there.

There was also a comment by HarvesteR that the Career-mode-as-Tutorial is NOT a temporary thing.

No answers at all to anything related to Resources too. This is telling, and personally not an issue for me, but will be to many.

[Hacktech]

Did the team answer any resources related question last night?

[vexx32]

I didn't see any when I was looking through, but I could easily have missed something.

[lazarus1024]

Might not be a big reveal, but some news on next steps of Career mode...

There was also a comment by HarvesteR that the Career-mode-as-Tutorial is NOT a temporary thing.

No answers at all to anything related to Resources too. This is telling, and personally not an issue for me, but will be to many.

My only real fear with that is the unanswered, "what happens if your rocket fails?"

I am hoping it is more of a max budget for each launch is what you are earning instead of straight up cash which you then have to pay out for each launch (succesful or failure). Otherwise if you bork a few launches, you'd have no money. Or you'd have to go back to being grindy if you miss a few launches and then have to do 10 "get a capsule in to orbit and back down safe" missions or something.

[Eric S]

There was also a comment by HarvesteR that the Career-mode-as-Tutorial is NOT a temporary thing.

Not quite what he said. To clarify, he said that the tech tree organization was taking the place of a more traditional tutorial for new players, and as a way of changing the challenge for veteran players. The more important clarification being that he was talking about the tech tree, not about career mode overall.

HarvesteR: The tech tree was always meant to work as an introduction tool to KSP. A more 'conventional' tutorial would have probably worked too, but it would be exceedingly long and pretty boring. Plus, I think a game should always give players means to discover it by simply playing, and this is what we set out to do with R&D.

I don't think any player, veteran or first-timer, would enjoy sitting through an overly long 'lesson' on what each part does. And more importantly, they wouldn't get to experience first hand the problems that some parts exist to solve. If you've never experienced the problem of tall ships falling over on the pad, then you won't fully appreciate the fact that launch clamps exist.

In the end, the R&D system works to let everyone experience the process of gradually developing your space program, learning as you go how to overcome the problems you encounter. For new players, this allows them to get into the game without having to sit through an introduction, and for veterans, the restrictions are also a good thing, as they set them (or rather 'us') up with new challenges that require us to come up with new ways to tackle old problems.