Publicly Viewable Development Wishlist/Roadmap

[allmhuran]

Career mode has been the main focus of Squad ever since 0.21 (released a year ago) and they probably thought about it during 0.20s development.

For sure, I don't really mean that I would expect Squad to come out and say "Don't know what you're all waiting for, KSP is only about building and launching rockets".

But just what is career mode in terms of gameplay? By itself the term doesn't really mean anything.

Better, I think, to describe it via the gameplay mechanics it involves. Originally science... which we both agree, I think, needs another pass in terms of the actual gameplay. But does Squad think this? I don't know. We now know it also includes contracts, reputation and funds... but that's very recent information about an update on the verge of release. Perhaps more importantly, all of this is still fundamentally about building and launching rockets. And that's fine, I love building stuff in KSP and seeing if it will fly (pun intended). This is the quintessential idea Harv had, the fundamental aspect of the game that makes KSP what it is. But it doesn't include anything about bases, satellites, space stations, and so on. It doesn't imply that anything follows from there. (I don't think clicking dialog boxes to "do science" counts).

The curiosity is, I think, about what upcoming mechanics might take us beyond the "build and launch" game, and not so much the fact that whatever it might be falls under a label known as "Career Mode". Plus, of course, all of those other topics that come up repeatedly and always get a lot of community attention, like aerodynamics, IVAs, etc.

[Greenfire32]

I'm not sure it would be a good idea. If I'm not mistaken, it was this way a long time ago, and stopped when the community grew too large, as people started to demand things and complain heavily everytime something didn't go according to plan. As the game approaches scope completetion, the community is likely to become even larger and much more excited about the future completion of the game. Keeping some sort of log like this might be rather time consuming, and I'm not sure how much it might affect development. Not only that, but as we've seen in the recent past, some people react very very badly to some features being crossed out in favour of others, and I don't think anyone wants stuff like that to happen again.

I'm not completely against, but I can see it doing more harm than good.

But it doesn't have to be anything too terribly specific. Something like:

"These are our goals for the next couple of updates (in no particular order):

• Aerodynamics – You want a better model, We want a better model. Time to get it working!

• Fairings – Kinda comes with the Aerodynamics so...better do that as well.

• Telescopes & Other Star Systems Discovery. More info later

• Bug fixes and Optimizations. Because of course.

These are things that we are confirming being worked on for the next couple of updates. We don't know which is coming first, but this is what you can expect for the next couple of development cycles. You'll notice multiplayer isn't in there when we said we'd work on that. Don't worry, we still are, but it's not coming anytime soon."

Just something that tells the community that they have new & exciting things coming for us. It doesn't have to be something that details the entire developmental process from now until "official release."

[tetryds]

But it doesn't have to be anything too terribly specific. Something like:

"These are our goals for the next couple of updates (in no particular order):

• Aerodynamics – You want a better model, We want a better model. Time to get it working!

• Fairings – Kinda comes with the Aerodynamics so...better do that as well.

• Telescopes & Other Star Systems Discovery. More info later

• Bug fixes and Optimizations. Because of course.

These are things that we are confirming being worked on for the next couple of updates. We don't know which is coming first, but this is what you can expect for the next couple of development cycles. You'll notice multiplayer isn't in there when we said we'd work on that. Don't worry, we still are, but it's not coming anytime soon."

Just something that tells the community that they have new & exciting things coming for us. It doesn't have to be something that details the entire developmental process from now until "official release."

But they already do that.

[Greenfire32]

But they already do that.

They do on a per-update basis, but that gives us no real status on what the future holds. For example, Squad would normally say something like, " Next update is Areodynamics!"

What does that mean? Are they including new airplane parts? Fairings? Will the current model be outright thrown away or will there be a buffer period for people to get used to the new model? Will we have "wind tunnels" to test potential crafts?

All I'm saying is, they could be just a little more transparent and maybe not ONLY talk about the next immediate update, but perhaps the next 2 or 3 in advance as well.

[Guest]

this is what you can expect for the next couple of development cycles.

Basically your post except for this. I want to see the whole roadmap, the whole plan, not just what is coming up in the next update or two.

[cpast]

Basically your post except for this. I want to see the whole roadmap, the whole plan, not just what is coming up in the next update or two.

Would what you're asking for even have to be broken into "this update" or "that update", or is it just "here's roughly what we want in by 1.0"?

[KN_Namida]

Would what you're asking for even have to be broken into "this update" or "that update", or is it just "here's roughly what we want in by 1.0"?

I guess it's the second, what Squad wants to include in KSP by the time 1.0 is released. Not in a particular order.

[Guest]

Would what you're asking for even have to be broken into "this update" or "that update", or is it just "here's roughly what we want in by 1.0"?

It'd be madness to break it up by what update. What 1.0 should look like (not necessarily what it will look like) is what I'm talking about.

[Ignath]

Would what you're asking for even have to be broken into "this update" or "that update", or is it just "here's roughly what we want in by 1.0"?

My vote goes for the second of your statements, just a release from SQUAD that says:

"These items are roughly what we want to address before the final 1.0 release:

1. Aerodynamics retouch: We know the aero is wonky, we're going to make some passes to fix it

2. MOAR PARTS

3. BLABLA

4. BLABLABLA"

Obviously replacing all the numbered items with SQUAD's hopes/intentions for the "gold" copy.

[allmhuran]

Next Squad devnotes (exactly as written):

Hey fans, here's a rough list of things we would like to address before 1.0:

1) BLABLABLA

...

[Ignath]

Next Squad devnotes (exactly as written):

Hey fans, here's a rough list of things we would like to address before 1.0:

1) BLABLABLA

...

If so, we should demand recognition for it!

[Rowsdower]

Basically your post except for this. I want to see the whole roadmap, the whole plan, not just what is coming up in the next update or two.

This isn't a terrible idea, but our road map changes a lot from update-to-update. We want to be careful in how this info is presented, should any potentially disruptive situations develop from it, particularly in the event of said changes. That being said, after we get First Contract launched and playable, we will discuss this internally and see if there is any realistic way to accomplish this request.