I'm a little worried about the future of this game...

[AlamoVampire]

MKI:

Like I said: WHEN APPLICABLE.

Look, I KNOW it is unfinished. BUT, if SQUAD said: Welp Guys, with the addition of the parts in the ARM pack and <IF IF IF IF IF, I forget if .24 has them, so, lets assume they do for this> .24 are the LAST parts you are EVER going to get, EVER. That would do heavy heavy heavy damage to this game. yes, there are mods for parts, I use NOVAPUNCH for parts and proc fairings as well, but, like I said. At SOME POINT it would be lovely to have them STOCK. I think iirc they plan on at SOME POINT adding in atmospheric affects <as in reentry heat/damage <<the two really do go hand in hand, see DE as an example>> and atmospheric DRAG> fairings will become an absolute NECESSITY, at which point, either we ALL get something like Proc Fairings or SQUAD folds that mod INTO the game.

Look, there is a LOT left to do, I know it, but, to follow Sandworm's philosophy leads to a dry game with no real future in it. that is why I said: They SHOULD focus on parts WHEN APPLICABLE.

And not all modders are willing or ABLE to take on the mods of others by either lack of skill in that area OR licensing set up by prior modders.

[Seshins]

I like the KW style fixed fairings, i used procedural for a long time and whilst i have absolutley nothing against the mod, KW style fairings provided a more enjoyable challenge for me.

[MKI]

MKI:

Like I said: WHEN APPLICABLE.

Look, I KNOW it is unfinished. BUT, if SQUAD said: Welp Guys, with the addition of the parts in the ARM pack and <IF IF IF IF IF, I forget if .24 has them, so, lets assume they do for this> .24 are the LAST parts you are EVER going to get, EVER. That would do heavy heavy heavy damage to this game. yes, there are mods for parts, I use NOVAPUNCH for parts and proc fairings as well, but, like I said. At SOME POINT it would be lovely to have them STOCK. I think iirc they plan on at SOME POINT adding in atmospheric affects <as in reentry heat/damage <<the two really do go hand in hand, see DE as an example>> and atmospheric DRAG> fairings will become an absolute NECESSITY, at which point, either we ALL get something like Proc Fairings or SQUAD folds that mod INTO the game.

Look, there is a LOT left to do, I know it, but, to follow Sandworm's philosophy leads to a dry game with no real future in it. that is why I said: They SHOULD focus on parts WHEN APPLICABLE.

And not all modders are willing or ABLE to take on the mods of others by either lack of skill in that area OR licensing set up by prior modders.

If they are not going to add any more parts, then they probably aren't going to add any more things that will affect the parts, such as reentry effects and heat shields. They wouldn't add a part of the game without making parts to interact with the new changes.

They just worked with NASA on making a NASA ARM mission, with it they brought new parts. They were not needed to redirect an asteroid but that is really what they are for.

Take the latest changes to career mode, it brought more parts. Career mode brought more parts. You also must take into account how they sometimes bring in new parts that are just new, such as the rapier and new probe parts a few patches ago. Along with new large to smallX4 and large to smallX3 converters.

They add parts when it is necessary. If they added better atmospheric effects, they will add parts for them. Until then, they wont.

I do not think they will go the other way, make effects for parts they want in the game. So they wont add faring then add atmospheric effects later. (unless they planned to but meet problems) The Dev's will probably keep working on career mode for some time, and leave flashier things to the modders.

The Dev's don't focus to much on Parts, they focus on gameplay with parts. KSP is more about building rockets, its also about flying them and using them to explore. Focusing only on building them(the visuals) but making no real point of using them to fly isn't how the Dev's work. They rarely make parts that are purely visual, if ever. If it doesn't work with game play, or open up new game play options already in the game, or coming with the part (take the claw) they probably wont do it.

[Kaptain]

I managed 300 hours in a week once... it was a long week. So what!!!

[Seshins]

Hopefully career mode will still receive a good amount of attention, what with multiplayer now in the works...

[Kaptain]

i don't understand multiplayer, how can that work with time warp? and what stops me from crashing into your spacestation when I feel destructive? sounds as bad as SimCity online... and that was a huge fail.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Kaptain

[John Crichton]

I actually hope Squad focuses a lot of attention on mod support. There will always be more modders than them, so it makes sense to give them the best support possible to make this game live on.

I don't care who adds features...as long as they're being added.

[John Crichton]

i don't understand multiplayer, how can that work with time warp? and what stops me from crashing into your spacestation when I feel destructive? sounds as bad as SimCity online... and that was a huge fail.

I can already picture Jeb in a giant ram spaceship fitted with claws that rip apart space stations...it would be glorious!

[Scotius]

And that's exactly the reason why majority of players is on the fence when it comes to multiplayer in KSP. So far this community is awesome - helpful, mostly reasonable and incredibly creative. Some of collaboration projects leading to several players building incredible space stations or whole space programs are simply amazing, and i would happily join such community. But with multiplayer, there is always a danger of a troll sneaking in. I don't want to lose my 400+ parts space station just because someone thought ramming it would be fun.

[Frank_G]

Hopefully multiplayer will include private online sessions so you can game with a handful of friends.

[cantab]

i don't understand multiplayer, how can that work with time warp?

A fair point. It might be that timewarp considerations force the multiplayer to be in small groups. If it's just a handful of people, everyone can agree "yes let's timewarp now".

Said small groups would also reduce the chance of griefing. Just don't play with the people you don't know and trust. Issues of griefing - and plain carelessness - could also be dealt with by giving the host an option to "restore ship".

[Joe32320]

The only mod that I think should absolutely be in the base game is a stripped down version of Kerbal Alarm clock, which would allows you to warp to apoapsis and periapsis, the ascending and descending nodes, any encounters, and possibly closest approach, and the ability to choose a time to come out of warp if you need to wait for a transfer window. Cause it is a bit tedious trying to judge when to come out of warp.

With kerbal engineer, especially in the VAB, I generally think it's better for people to have messed around with the base game first, without all the numbers, and then allow them to choose whether or not they want a mod that gives them all that information. Don't get me wrong, I now wouldn't go anywhere without kerbal engineer, but when I first started out in the game, I very much operated on the "put more boosters on it" principle , it was only later on that I focused on building rockets that were well designed for the job I wanted them to do.

The only thing I do wish was displayed like KE is the apoapsis and periapsis, which would be useful information to have when launching/doing a hohmann transfer, and you're not having to switch to and from the map view all the time.

[Dodgey]

i don't understand multiplayer, how can that work with time warp? and what stops me from crashing into your spacestation when I feel destructive? sounds as bad as SimCity online... and that was a huge fail.

Go have a look at KMP, it's a multiplayer mod for KSP that looks like it was the reason that Squad changed their minds about multiplayer, it has an ingenious way of dealing with the time warp issue.

As for your other point, isn't trust between friends enough?

[Javster]

275 hours in less than 7 days is indeed impressive.

CLEARLY he invented a warpdrive

[LordFjord]

I'm a little worried about the future of this game...

I am not.

We have a great base game that is extended massively via mods. How better could it get?

Especially with asteroids, extended career mode planned and multiplayer.

The pinnacle for me would be: multiplayer coop-career mode together with friends, extended by mods.

[CaptRobau]

Squad should deliberately not do anything that can be done by mods creators. Forget the new parts. They add nothing that hasn't been covered by KW or Anvil. Squad should focus on core development to empower modders.

For instance, they should make sure that carrier mode allows US to create missions. The community can easily deliver hundreds, even thousands, of creative missions. We can also balance them. Squad should not waste their time authoring missions. They should only develop an interface to empower us, as opposed to the dreaded tech tree that remains very difficult to modify. See the 'mission controller' mod.

While I agree that Squad doesn't need to move everything modders have already done to stock, some things are simply needed for Squad's vision of the game to work. Large rocket parts are one of those things. Squad wants people to also be able to build Saturn V-like vertical rockets to lift large payloads into space, instead of the asparagus 2.5m staging we had access to till now. That requires 3.75m parts, even though those have been done before. Will admit that Squad could do a better job opening up the game even further for modding. There shouldn't be a plugin needed to change biomes or the tech tree layout.

[Kaptain]

Ok, I will try to check out KMP. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm used to online games like D2 or D3 or WoW a lot of blizzard games... which I'm well over and resent at this point... so I worry about the online things I hated in those games finding a way into kerbal. All the greifing and trolling and pure assholes on my server. I had to quit all that and kerbal was an awesome way to fill my time, I have learned so much I always compare it to my art or music talents. I'm just afraid of it being wrecked by jerks.

most people here are way more awesome then WoW forums or chat btw

[Whirligig Girl]

275 hours in less than 7 days is indeed impressive.

Well it's obvious. KSP's time in bigger on the inside. It's an inverse of the all-nighter gameplay, and a cousin of the TARDIS.

[Nemrav]

haven't read the entire thread but......

the estimated 10,000 KSP modders, thanks to official tools, can do a lot more than <12 devs in a similar time period.

main differences though are that the devs can make big changes to the core game without effecting performance, in addition they have the engine which happens to be unity, which co-incidentally has the most time saving features of any engine (anti-unity users tipically ignore that)....

Don't worry though, they would have released another patch by now, had they not run into a couple last minute bugs (this part is official).

edit : to the OP, as far as dev/modders working together, there are some cases of it already happening, many of the devs are actually just modders who ended up doing so good they got hired... to do it...... the best example of this is Chad Jenkins (or C7 studios). latest example of modder co-operation was Ferram4 showing the devs upon request a value in the game that hindered joint stability.

common compared to other games, however its still pretty rare.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Nemrav

[Kaptain]

I don't mean to argue but I'm gonna, the last patch came out on my birthday.. 4 months ago Dec 15th. after they said they were gonna release patches more frequently in smaller dosses.... guess that didn't work out. I laugh but I understand, the NASA ARM add-on and .24 all together is a lot to work on. I guess this kinda stuff is why there are no release dates on new patches. I still love kerbal.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Kaptain

[Liowen]

It comes down to one simple thing; do you want a stable game, or one with lots of shiny but buggy program. Using your example of "if it was released today" example I would rather they use their time making things more stable than adding in more parts just for the sake of more parts. Mods can be created by players to enhance the game and players can decide to install them, as they see fit, to enhance their game play. While certain parts that are only mods currently should be added at some point to the core game in some fashion, I do not believe that they should take importance over making the game stable. There are other mods that make the game more difficult that could implemented, however they should still be at the players option if they want to play with them on or not. In the end there should still remain a place for mods even after release, and should not be looked at as a bad thing if the person using them in their game play is having fun. Having fun playing a game should be the player and developers main goal, and to me this has been lost in many games but I am thankful this has not been the case with KSP so far. I hope it remains that way for a long time to come.

[Starwhip]

He's using time dilation, speeding up the rest of the universe so that he may play more KSP

You must teach me this trick, sir.

[Red Iron Crown]

275 hours in less than 7 days is indeed impressive.

Well, the OP did 180 hours in the first three days, less than 100 in the next four must have been like taking a break.

[Kaptain]

We don't need a brave new world. We need a smart new world!

[Pursuedtank]

I don't mean to argue but I'm gonna, the last patch came out on my birthday.. 4 months ago Dec 15th. after they said they were gonna release patches more frequently in smaller dosses.... guess that didn't work out. I laugh but I understand, the NASA ARM add-on and .24 all together is a lot to work on. I guess this kinda stuff is why there are no release dates on new patches. I still love kerbal.

I'm on my phone so I can't find it now but harvestr posted somewhere that they were doing that until they found that it ended up taking slightly less time to release a lot less stuff, because the bug fixing took a similar amount of time regardless of the content.