How important is a resource system to you?

[Bothersome]

Yeah, I read the wiki. Thanks everyone, I now a little smarter today. OK back on topic. Yeah resources over MP.

[Scotius]

Maybe this is just Squad's way of making our space programs more realistic: We got to interesting places . . . . . and then the cool advanced programs got cancelled.

Great Now I expect my future budget in KSP to be cut year after year after year...

[Grizzlol]

I have seen multiple claims about the resources feature being 70-75% done. I am curious whether or not this is an official number. Citation needed.

My first guess would be that people are making assumptions based on the screenshots that were released. These images show us that progress has been made. No further conclusions can be drawn in terms of progression based on this. It is an understatement to say that it takes a lot of work to implement a feature of this magnitude. I suppose the (somewhat arbitrary) number is not really important, but it makes even less sense to bin the whole idea the closer it is to 100%, even if it does not turn out to be the greatest thing.

[SkyRender]

I have seen multiple claims about the resources feature being 70-75% done. I am curious whether or not this is an official number. Citation needed.

My first guess would be that people are making assumptions based on the screenshots that were released. These images show us that progress has been made. No further conclusions can be drawn in terms of progression based on this. It is an understatement to say that it takes a lot of work to implement a feature of this magnitude. I suppose the (somewhat arbitrary) number is not really important, but it makes even less sense to bin the whole idea the closer it is to 100%, even if it does not turn out to be the greatest thing.

From a game design perspective, their decision makes sense (even if it doesn't from the end-user perspective). The resource system they had planned didn't really fit the scope of the game as it stands now. Long-run, possibly after they've got the main game scope-complete and are considering things to add later, it might make sense. But for now, it was a branch which consumed a huge amount of resources without any promise of fitting with the goal of adding features which were easily accessible to all users. You might be surprised how often games have big features axed like that. It's very common. Eagle-eyed players can often spot the frayed edges around where these complex systems got torn out or simplified.

[Themohawkninja]

From a game design perspective, their decision makes sense (even if it doesn't from the end-user perspective). The resource system they had planned didn't really fit the scope of the game as it stands now. Long-run, possibly after they've got the main game scope-complete and are considering things to add later, it might make sense. But for now, it was a branch which consumed a huge amount of resources without any promise of fitting with the goal of adding features which were easily accessible to all users. You might be surprised how often games have big features axed like that. It's very common. Eagle-eyed players can often spot the frayed edges around where these complex systems got torn out or simplified.

Not really. You just detect where the resources are and use a part to pick them up and one more to convert it into fuel. It's quite simple and should fit into the tech tree quite nicely.

[FITorion]

Not really. You just detect where the resources are and use a part to pick them up and one more to convert it into fuel. It's quite simple and should fit into the tech tree quite nicely.

That would be a simplified version of what was being done. What was being done was many resources allowing for construction of parts and buildings in orbit or on other planets. It would have been glorious. KSP is not complete to me without being able to build an operating civilization across all the planets and moons in the system.

[Themohawkninja]

That would be a simplified version of what was being done. What was being done was many resources allowing for construction of parts and buildings in orbit or on other planets. It would have been glorious. KSP is not complete to me without being able to build an operating civilization across all the planets and moons in the system.

Right? I keep wanting to build a base, but I never have the will since there is no PRACTICAL reason to. With resources, I would jump at the chance to build a mining base.

[Rastaman]

Life support and resources. Without them, it's not complete.

[Nemoricus]

This poll lacks the option I would have liked to have chosen: Resources is quite possibly one of the most important features for late game play.

The game is quite enjoyable without them, but the possibilities they open up would provide for a great many new mission profiles. In that regard, I consider it to be a feature on par with docking, and something I hope will become available before too long.

[SlinkyBlue]

Yesterday, I flew a one-way ship carrying three colony pods to Duna. They landed, and I logged off after spending 30 seconds admiring the antennae's extending and retracting.

I hope squad understands this. Sure, it's a hell of a lot of fun getting there. Once you're there, that's where the game kind of fizzles out. It doesn't matter if there's another person with me on the planet if all we can do is plant a flag and jump around.

Likewise, NASA wouldn't bother with sending a rover to Mars just so it can make some sweet jumps.

.... (i think)

Edited December 15, 2013 by SlinkyBlue

[CaptainArchmage]

Resources are absolutely necessary to consider this game to be complete or even past a certain percentage complete. With the level of complexity I'm seeing in the new update, with the ability to tweak the thrusts on your solid boosters (for example), I don't think the complexity of a resource system is going to be an issue at all. I would in fact consider resources to be a requirement for the next few updates, if not even the next update.

The resources system had mentioned tweakables, but we now have those in the game. It is high time to move on. Research bases in career mode provide a very good reason to establish a continuous presence (i.e. space station, base) on other planets. Resources and spreading colonies or bases to other planets would make the other planets further out a lot more accessible and give us a lot more to do.

[Rastaman]

Yesterday, I flew a one-way ship carrying three colony pods to Duna. They landed, and I logged off after spending 30 seconds admiring the antennae's extending and retracting.

I hope squad understands this. Sure, it's a hell of a lot of fun getting there. Once you're there, that's where the game kind of fizzles out. It doesn't matter if there's another person with me on the planet if all we can do is plant a flag and jump around.

That nails it.

Resources can be part of the challenge. It they are implementing multiple other planets further out than Jool, Kerbals are going to need a lot of fuel and air to get there and do science or whatever. You'll need to find and extract stuff to achieve this.

[Guest]

I really enjoyed exploring the solar system after learning how to play the game. Getting into orbit, rendezvous and docking, and landing on other worlds were all great and enjoyable experiences. But after that, exploration was what I enjoyed most. Hunting down easter eggs provided hours and hours of fun. It seemed there was a story in mind at the time with easter eggs, along with the history of the games development. These things were interesting. Resource mining with kethane also provided hours of enjoyment for me, because it also gave me a sense of exploration and achievement. I feel like development has stagnated and lost direction at this point however. I hope the threads popping up today regarding resources serve as a wake up call. I want to see HarvesteR and his team get back on track and have a happy ending to the story that they began with the easter eggs. For me, resources are important, but not nearly as important as having new things to explore. Multiplayer is not a big draw for me. I don't feel the need to share my playing experiences with others in real time. Posting and bragging here on the forums is plenty enough.

[Tophir]

Somewhere in between "I will lose interest in KSP without it", and "It sounds fun, but I'll still enjoy the game without it".

I've heard that the reasoning behind the unimplementation of it is due to the complexity on the part of the player. I don't see how this is a valid reason, since the player could simply choose to ignore the whole system, and if they want to, pick it up later.

You don't have to dock ships, but the option's there, so why not give us the option of resources as just that; an <u><b>option</b></u>.

Anyone else feel the same way?

I agree with this completely, for me it shows how squad is forgetting the hardcore gamer and now focusing on the new player. How they said the science system was sort of a tutorial rather than a challenge. Saying that the resource system was to complex and instedd opted to simplify it and then abandon it all together.

[pcpeggs]

It isn't so much that resources are important to me - rather multi-player is that UN-IMPORTANT to me. I would much much much rather see the application of Squads time and effort into giving exploration a PURPOSE.

Like others have said, I love the construction, I love the launch and the flight, I love the landings...but then....<crickets>...

I would love to pickup actual rocks. Not just right clicking and clicking contextual menus... maybe dig for something? Maybe land look for something specific in a specific region...

I would love to make a base and have to maintain it.

I would love assigned missions, pre-requisite goals, hell...maybe even a bit of a story or mythology to go with you know - the game.

I can't stand this ever increasing urge to make EVERYTHING multiplayer at the expense of gameplay. Not everyone enjoys or needs to be connected to friends at all time. I would rather have a full game experience than half assed goals with half assed parts in a half assed multiplayer that I'll never use.

[CougarMagnum]

This.

I totally agree. There are different (and more realistic) ways of giving us more things to do in our explorations. The truth is that space exploration is almost exclusively reserved for science, both in game and real life, and so I think our activities should reflect that. Ideas like building bases for long term research are valid, but the argument for colonizing other worlds for resources is missing the point. If you're looking to play Kerbal Space Colonies, then there are mods for that. Anyway, just my opinion.

Also, there should have been another option in this poll: "Not sure, but I trust SQUAD's direction for this game."

According to this poll, half of our Kerbal friends will lose interest in KSP, but I just don't believe that.

[Landwalker]

I feel like I've missed some significant announcement about resources... which isn't surprising, since I don't follow all of the seemingly infinite outlets of information related to KSP. I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to link me up with whatever sparked all of this Resource Riot business?

[GhostSpecter]

I've played this game since 0.14 and I've got to say resources would mean just as much to me as docking was.

Also the problem with build a Duna base or Munar base is whats the point once your already there walk around the surface for hours and hours?

Or building and maintaining a mining colony with In-Situ Resource Utilization in addition life support could then afterwards be added to the game and would make it so much easier to keep your kerbals alive once resources are implemented.

[SkyRender]

I feel like I've missed some significant announcement about resources... which isn't surprising, since I don't follow all of the seemingly infinite outlets of information related to KSP. I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to link me up with whatever sparked all of this Resource Riot business?

This is mostly where the upset comes from. The short version is that SQUAD has decided to shelve the expanded resource system as it was outlined back in 0.19 and take the game's development in a different direction, because they don't feel resources add enough for most of the player base. Many assumptions, arguments, debates, and discussions have emerged as a result of this statement, and I actually feel very sorry for the devteam for how much of a headache it's no doubt giving them to have to deal with it all.

[Procyon]

It's not the "end all be all" but that being said, i was looking forward to having a reason to go to all the moons and planets besides just going there. Currently it feels like practice, designing the ships, going to the various planets, learning how to land on each one ect. It currently kind of feels like preparation for when you have something to do, when you get there, beside land, look around, nod to yourself and head back home.

I crash things and run things out of fuel, so i have to match random orbits, landing close enough to targets and such just so i can run rescue missions, there is an objective.

[EdCase]

Somewhere in between "I will lose interest in KSP without it", and "It sounds fun, but I'll still enjoy the game without it".

I've heard that the reasoning behind the unimplementation of it is due to the complexity on the part of the player. I don't see how this is a valid reason, since the player could simply choose to ignore the whole system, and if they want to, pick it up later.

You don't have to dock ships, but the option's there, so why not give us the option of resources as just that; an <u><b>option</b></u>.

Anyone else feel the same way?

100% this. Exactly how I feel

[Madrias]

Honestly, I didn't really care if they added resources or not. My thoughts on it is as follows: If Squad decides resources have to be shelved for the time being while they do a different project, so be it. As they said "Shelved for the time being", we might still get the resources later. Right now, they're working on things that might make resources look like child's play. Maybe they're adding more parts, maybe they're stomping on that massive list of bugs, maybe they're working on multiplayer, or maybe they're actually building the resources, but saying they're shelving them to stop the "Hay, guis, kan we haz resourcez in 0.2x? kthxbai!" posts every time they make an update.

Here's the thing: We're not Squad. We don't know their reasonings for everything, and we don't know what their end plan is. What we do know is they're working on something.

If I were to have to pick one thing, just one thing, to see in 0.24, I'd love to see them do a pure bug-fix update. But maybe in 0.24, we get plane parts, or more rocket engines, or 3.75m stuff. Maybe we get resources. Maybe we get planets. Maybe a new solar system to explore. Or maybe we get something no one ever thought of, but ends up being epic.

[FITorion]

I feel like I've missed some significant announcement about resources... which isn't surprising, since I don't follow all of the seemingly infinite outlets of information related to KSP. I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to link me up with whatever sparked all of this Resource Riot business?

http://www.twitch.tv/ksptv/b/487174346

11:55

[SyberSmoke]

With the recent news about resources and multiplayer and so on. I got to thinking about what resources are to me. Many think that it is about exploitation, going to another planet and stripping it bare. But I think resources are something different.

To me the ultimate goal of a space program is to get people, many people onto another planet to become a self sufficient colony. But while this is the long term, in the short term it is about resources. Air, Water, Food, Waste, construction, and people.

To me resources are about getting Kerbals that are not astronauts onto a planet. Getting habitats there for the people. Finding the water they need, growing the food they need, and balancing their needs with what can in time be provided. To me it is more like the path you take in an RTS then it is Minecraft.

The benefit to this would be you do not have to monotonously tend to everything. There can be contracts by companies to send additional goods to a colony. And research can be expanded and done by the people there. You do not need to know or manage every kerbal, just give orders and help them grow and do better. And there can be events and tragedies, damage to a habitat could mean an emergency mission with a rough deadline. But doing it is a sense of accomplishment that is far more rewarding then just collecting 50 tons of ore from the Mun to build that next rocket.

This is the system I would like to see...make mining abstract and keep it about managing an ever growing space program. So what would resources be to you?

Edited December 15, 2013 by SyberSmoke

[ArmchairGravy]

I have installed two mods: Flight Engineer and Kethane. I had the most fun so far in sandbox getting a Kethane mining/refining/transport system set up so that my SSTOs get refueled by deposits on Minmus. I went through a lot of different designs, and learned a lot about launching massive payloads, and got good at docking in the process. I would love to see some flavor of resourcing "standard", but it is an advanced-player arena that if poorly implemented would drive everyone batty.

So while I'm disappointed that Squad is pulling back on resourcing, I'm glad to hear it was for the right reason: it wasn't fun.