An overview of the development-related answers from the recent AMA.

[Blind Dead McJones]

I'm excited for new planets and especially for improvements on the old ones. In particular I'm looking at Moho and Eeloo. Moho is implied to have dormant/periodic volcanic activity (at least according to the wiki), which might be the reason that the moholes exist, and it will be interesting to explore a planet with volcanos. And I saw somewhere that they want to add ice geysers to Eeloo which will make it a lot more interesting than a white mun that's a hundred times harder to reach. There's also something I saw somewhere that Eeloo might be downgraded to a moon of the next major gas planet.

There could also be opportunities for more science. I've said elsewhere that Duna really should have at least two biomes (polar and temperate, probably) which is plainly obvious just by looking.

[Wanderfound]

I'm reading that as "a big maybe right now" as in "we'll do it after we add biomes to the existing planets".

(it had better be that, in any case..)

Certainly hope they get onto it soon. One of my biggest disappointments in 23.5 was spending weeks getting an orbital lab and lander to Duna (early days for me in KSP, long list of epic stuffups requiring repeat launches) only to then find out that it was pointless to land on Duna more than once except for sightseeing.

I would love a Saturn equivalent, though. Gotta have a ring system somewhere.

[Renegrade]

I read it as "we have literally no plan for the future beyond the next update", so hopefully you're right.

I do suspect that plans are a rather... non-concrete thing at Squad Games HQ. :/

I dearly hope planets don't get swept under the rug. I'm certain I've seen developer posts promising more planets.

Certainly hope they get onto it soon. One of my biggest disappointments in 23.5 was spending weeks getting an orbital lab and lander to Duna (early days for me in KSP, long list of epic stuffups requiring repeat launches) only to then find out that it was pointless to land on Duna more than once except for sightseeing.

Reminds me of when I was designing a mission to send a lab to Duna to re-use lander parts.. then I realized, lab weighs a lot more than a handful of Science Jrs. :/ So biomes are definitely something I want too --along with a deeper science tree. :/

I wonder what's involved on Squad's end to implement them? I would have probably just scribbled up a simple tool and handed it off to the Art department if I had to do it...

I would love a Saturn equivalent, though. Gotta have a ring system somewhere.

That would definitely be neat. "Dust Sample from Sata's Rings" !

Edited July 29, 2014 by Renegrade

[skyace65]

in regards to female kerbals [insert AC unity joke here]. Can't wait to see what building gets added.

[LethalDose]

This is incredibly dumb and should have been a big "yes". Kerbin needs more planets in a very big way.

This. See below.

Why is it we have to go to Reddit or Twitter or god knows where else to see this kind of thing? Heaven forbid the devs actually do something like this on the forums they provide.

Also this. I complained about this back at KerbalKon (where they couldn't be bothered to announce Multiplayer DURING KK!!!), and Rowsdower said they're gonna keep doing it.

I do suspect that plans are a rather... non-concrete thing at Squad Games HQ. :/

I dearly hope planets don't get swept under the rug. I'm certain I've seen developer posts promising more planets.

The only dev post I've seen in regards to more planets was from NovaSilisko(sp?), and he hasn't been with SQUAD in probably over a year now.

I find these responses extremely disheartening. If even new planets are a "Maybe", then I have no freaking idea about what "content" is going to be added after "scope completion" (WHICH IS STILL UNDEFINED!!!!). I seriously don't know why it's worth bothering telling Squad what we want anymore. Mods, hand out some reprimand for that if you want, but it's true.

[NovaSilisko]

In reference to hugo redoing spaceplane parts. Not sure if this has surfaced on the forums yet but I figure I should post it here for context. The new mk1 cockpit model, vs old:

[The Jedi Master]

Uh, LethalDose, I think Scope Completion is pretty clear. It means the state at which the original 'vision' for the game is implemented and playable. This includes everything from polished planets to better aerodynamics to more tutorials.

On that note, sorry to hear that resources are unlikely (though it should be made clear that they still aren't impossible), but glad to hear that life support will be optional. Also, yes, the unfinished IVAs will finally be addressed! Yeah!

[skyace65]

Uh, LethalDose, I think Scope Completion is pretty clear. It means the state at which the original 'vision' for the game is implemented and playable. This includes everything from polished planets to better aerodynamics to more tutorials.

On that note, sorry to hear that resources are unlikely (though it should be made clear that they still aren't impossible), but glad to hear that life support will be optional. Also, yes, the unfinished IVAs will finally be addressed! Yeah!

Thats not what scope completion means at all. scope completion means when the groundwork for all future features has been laid

[The Jedi Master]

Thats not what scope completion means at all. scope completion means when the groundwork for all future features has been laid

...That were not part of the original 'vision'. Extra things like multiplayer and such.

[WillHop]

In reference to hugo redoing spaceplane parts. Not sure if this has surfaced on the forums yet but I figure I should post it here for context. The new mk1 cockpit model, vs old:

-snip-

I know you used to be a dev, but where did you get this from?

[cpast]

I know you used to be a dev, but where did you get this from?

Maxmaps's twitter, I think.

EDIT: Yup.

[regex]

Maxmaps's twitter, I think.

EDIT: Yup.

Man, why don't we see that kind of stuff here? I need a Twitter and Reddit account now?

[cpast]

Man, why don't we see that kind of stuff here? I need a Twitter and Reddit account now?

You don't need a Twitter account to view Maxmaps's tweets; I don't have one. You don't need a Reddit account to view Maxmaps's Reddit posts; I know this, because I don't have one. Both Reddit and Twitter seem to also be considered legitimate PR outlets, and things like that tweet don't work well in anything but a devnote here (which only happens weekly).

[regex]

You don't need a Twitter account to view Maxmaps's tweets; I don't have one. You don't need a Reddit account to view Maxmaps's Reddit posts; I know this, because I don't have one. Both Reddit and Twitter seem to also be considered legitimate PR outlets, and things like that tweet don't work well in anything but a devnote here (which only happens weekly).

Wouldn't it be great if there were one place someone could go for all the KSP development related stuff? Maybe someplace "official"? Too much to hope for, I suppose.

[razark]

Wouldn't it be great if there were one place someone could go for all the KSP development related stuff? Maybe someplace "official"? Too much to hope for, I suppose.

Perhaps Squad could get around to getting their own website some day? That way we could just get the whole story, instead of having to track down multiple different locations to get bits and pieces.

[Red Iron Crown]

Man, why don't we see that kind of stuff here? I need a Twitter and Reddit account now?

I hear you. I even follow the official KSP accounts on Twitter and Facebook, but even that is insufficient. Apparently I need to stalk follow every Squad employee on Twitter and reddit to be sure I don't miss anything. Gonna have to look into whether they have a mySpace page, or maybe geocities. And don't forget alt.rec.ksp, might be getting new stuff there.

More seriously, there really should be one place/account where new info arrives and from which it flows to the other outlets. I don't even care that much where it is, I despise reddit but if I knew an official KSP account there which always got the news first I would grin and bear it. But having a random account/site deliver the news first, sometimes from personal accounts, is frustrating for anyone trying to keep their finger on the pulse of KSP. Why is this being made difficult?

[Rowsdower]

Man, why don't we see that kind of stuff here? I need a Twitter and Reddit account now?

Because that's his personal Twitter account. If he were to say, "hey, post this everywhere or just give it an RT," that'd happen." Larger pieces of info or notices of info-worthy events, such as the AMA are always posted to our official channels. If you'd like to keep up with his twitter account or /r/kerbalspaceprogram, you may do so without being a member to either site, but it's not every day we do Reddit AMAs and it's not every day that Max posts KSP stuff on twitter so it may not be worth it. We will always continue to mention our big confirmed news here, our tumblr and all our official channels.

Oh and might we steer this a bit more back onto the topic of the answers at hand?

Edited July 29, 2014 by Rowsdower
But wait, there's moar.

[regex]

Uh, LethalDose, I think Scope Completion is pretty clear.

The problem is that no one knows what "scope completion" really is and all these vague "maybes" aren't really helping.

[Eric S]

Uh, LethalDose, I think Scope Completion is pretty clear. It means the state at which the original 'vision' for the game is implemented and playable. This includes everything from polished planets to better aerodynamics to more tutorials.

Polished planets: depends on what you mean. More planets would be content, and content isn't covered by scope completion.

Better aerodynamics: not covered by scope completion as I understand it. Scope completion means that all the components used to build the game are there, not that those components are in their final form. We have an aerodynamic system, it's just a rather unrealistic one that has been called a placeholder on at least some previous occasions.

Tutorials: The mechanics of the tutorials, yes, the actual tutorials fall under content.

I found some of the answers in the AMA concerning, but I don't find the idea that they consider themselves nearing scope completion a bad thing. Yes, I want to see a better aerodynamic model, but from the definition of scope completion that they've been throwing around lately, it wouldn't be covered by scope completion. I'm not at all opposed to more planets as long as there's more to it than just another number on a delta-v map, but again, unless you're looking at something really unusual, it would be content, so not covered by scope completion.

[TheKutKu]

I agree with squad, it is better if they improve the current planets before adding other.

However, i think that 1 or 2 gas giant (and their moon) and some asteroid belt would be nice.

[Rowsdower]

The problem is that no one knows what "scope completion" really is and all these vague "maybes" aren't really helping.

HarvesteR wrote an article recently, much of which is about SCOPE COMPLETION and what it means. If you're looking for something that says "X, Y and Z features will define scope completion," such a roadmap is still being discussed. As he mentions, though, scope complete doesn't quite mean game complete. If it doesn't fit now and if it doesn't fit at scope completion, perhaps it will still get its due down the road - thus the use of maybe. While we make it a point not to promise things, at this point, there's still others that we don't want to entirely rule out, either, not unless they've had the chance to be explored, rexplored then explored once more.

Since there's a similar thread to this in regards to Max's quote about planets, I'm closing this one.