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Do you feel KSP is ready for 1.0?

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Do you think KSP is ready for 1.0?  

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  1. 1. Do you think KSP is ready for 1.0?

    • Yes
      256
    • No
      692

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Phawks

Phawks

Posted
Posted

This is my second post in almost two years. I'll firstly say that I do not like much (if any) of this community, and I disagree strongly with Squad's [lack of] direction.

That being said, the TL;DR of the rest of this post is this:

KSP is not ready for Beta, let alone full release. Squad, if you go through with this, objective reviewers who don't already fondle themselves to KSP will tear you a new one and you will go back to being an unknown, run-down marketing unit. KSP is already known for being a [comparably] polished product among Early Access games and there is no external reason for such a sudden and rushed release; whatever is pushing you to shove KSP out the door is not the community or the [potential] playerbase, it's either internal BS (which has plagued your team since 0.15 and cost you both key developers and your best creative talent) or some tainted and otherwise misguided perception of the community's desires.

I've played KSP since version 0.11 and joined the forums when I bought it at version 0.14. I'm one of the earliest players in the community. I've played every version on the day of its release. I don't believe that gives me any authority here, but I figure it qualifies me as someone other than a 12-year old who just picked the game up yesterday.

You just went into Beta. Beta is typically when the game goes on feature lock and subsequent releases are focused on tuning and optimizing. 0.90 didn't optimize anything. I run the game on an i7 with 24 GB of RAM and a GTX 780, and I still get 10-40 FPS depending on the segment of the launch I'm in and what craft I'm using. That is far from acceptable. You cannot add entirely new systems for the 1.0 release and expect to have a positively reviewed product. Every release since version 0.15, when experimentals went behind closed doors, has released with major bugs, some of them game-breaking and requiring day 1 fixes. I don't give a damn how much time you spend in QA and experimentals, your testing team simply isn't large enough and diverse enough to beat the size and diversity of the community. If you release 1.0, it will be played immediately and reviewed on those immediate playthroughs. Those reviews will be bad and they will sink your project and any future projects of your team. Granted, said team seems to be mostly hired-modders-of-the-month and changes often, but whatever future team operates under "from the makers of Kerbal Space Program" will already be viewed negatively.

Unity 5 just came out. You have an opportunity to finish these major new additions (aerodynamics and resources are fundamental systems, not just content), release another beta (0.91), fix the bugs that break everything on the first day (there will be some, I will bet on it), and spend an entire update upgrading KSP to Unity 5. I know it isn't a magic fix-all, but it's damn close. There will be plenty of improvements in graphics, performance, et cetera, and once THAT is polished up, then you can think about releasing a finished product.

What do I expect from a final product? Glad you asked. I want an optimized product free of bugs and that will perform as expected on my hardware. If I have a $2000 computer that can run most current AAA games at high settings, I expect equally high performance for this product. I would like something that isn't outdated at release, particularly referring to Unity 4. I would like a product worth the $60 you're probably going to try squeezing from it. I would like a 64 bit executable so I can use all the mods I need to make your game feel complete. Speaking of which, what's the KSP endgame? What's the objective of career mode? To unlock the whole tech tree? Then what? Explore? Why? Is there anything to discover, now that Nova is gone and with him the mystery of the anomalies and their backstory? Is there anything to do besides fly there, drive around there, plant a flag there, and leave? Is there another "there" when all the "there"s in the solar system have been visited? Saying "it's up to the player" is a cop out, but I'll give it to you. Still, you don't give the player much of anything for colonization or even an interesting story or mystery to uncover.

So in closing, Squad, don't be stupid. Wisen up. Focus on the product and not the money. You listened when the community told you to be more transparent. Listen now when they're telling you to polish your product before you throw it away. And if you choose to barge straight ahead, well, that's your own problem. I will make a bet with you, though. I want a dime for every review that says "Don't let the exit from Early Access fool you, Kerbal Space Program is still very much unfinished and in need of work," or some variant thereof. I should make back the ten bucks I gave you awful damn quick. You still have my card on file, since I bought the game before you ever even talked about a Steam release, so you can just credit the funds there.

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Superfluous J

Superfluous J

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Posted
This is my second post in almost two years. I'll firstly say that I do not like much (if any) of this community, and I disagree strongly with Squad's [lack of] direction.

I'm just curious, why don't you get along with much (if any) of this community when most of what you said agrees with what appears to be the vast majority of us?

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JedTech

JedTech

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Posted

Frankly, I am offended that Squad did not allow this wonderful community to beta test KSP before they released it.

They should have released .91 and .92 and so on until features were tested and polished (with the communities help!)

But go ahead Squad. Go do this without us. See how far you get.

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Phawks

Phawks

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Posted (edited)

Edit: let's not get side-tracked, please.-- Vanamonde

Returning to the topic at hand; judging by Maxmaps's posts on Reddit, Squad is pulling out all the stops and going balls to the wall with this, community opinion be damned.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2zbd54/maxmaps_on_twitter_now_considering_that_adding_as/cphdfr2

The next release will be 1.0, it's a milestone we (as a team) are holding ourselves towards. Even if we don't have a publisher, even if we can set our deadlines to whenever we please, to do so just to make sure we can add every cool feature we think about is irresponsible and a bad practice for our development in general.

You guys deserve the best we can make as a team. It is deciding what is best that we're working on. Thus the feedback request. Maybe it's best for some stuff to wait til 1.1.-Maxmaps

Squad, listen to your damn players and tell your puppetmasters at Squad HQ to screw off and let you do your job properly. I'm really hoping these stupid decisions are coming from someone higher than HarvesteR, because I really don't want to believe this dev team is actually as stupid as they're appearing to be. If you continue this course of action, you will fail miserably and the majority of this community would have every right to abandon you and your work as a result. If I was a prospective customer and was following these events, I wouldn't touch KSP with a ten foot pole. KSP is about to end up on a list with Watch Dogs and Squad is about to end up on a list with Ubisoft. Toss some shoddy DRM in while you're at it; go big or go home, right guys?

Edited by Vanamonde
Keep it on-topic, please.
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KSK

KSK

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Posted (edited)

Edit: let's not get side-tracked, please.-- Vanamonde

Some of your comments I happen to agree with. However, speculating on the eventual release price of KSP (and speculation is all it is) is pointless in the absence of any comment from Squad. I also believe the release price will strongly influence any reviews, so dire predictions of poor reviews are premature at best. On a similar note, comments such as " Focus on the product and not the money" are unfair and borderline insulting. Firstly they imply that Squad aren't already doing this, and secondly, whether the players like or it not, Squad have to focus on both. No point having 90% of a perfectly polished and bug free game that never gets released because the developers run out of cash. And 'perfectly polished' is always going to be an extremely subjective opinion in any case.

Edited by Vanamonde
Off-topicness.
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Nemrav

Nemrav

Posted
Posted

oh... Hello, its this thread again, I haven't seen you in a looonggg time....

Well.... nothing has actually changed since page.... 5 ? People still say its a bad decision to go directly to 1.0 after only 1 "beta" release because that means development will stop (disproven), reviewers will hate the game (since nobody here has played 1.0 we have no clue) and its going to be buggy (unknown), and unoptimised (disproven due to the dds textures).... In the vast minority they say who cares ? its another update with another name and its only a name, it won't change anything... (unknown)

Also Phawks, you do realise that insulting people to try and make your posts more "valid" will place you in the entire forum's eyes as "immature" and also make them in people's eyes less valid, the people you will see in the hype train threads are simply people doing it for a joke and they will be perfectly normal insightful people anywhere else in the forum... You should also try and keep your posts ~1 paragraph tops because otherwise people will say tl;dr... On the note of not releasing with unity5, you do realise that it was released less than a month ago and that 1.1 is almost beyond a doubt going to be a unity 5 and optimisation update....

(and btw: you must have great english essay skills to be bothered writing a 5 paragraph persuasive text for.. the internet, you should teach me some time.... you forgot the support for paragraph 3)

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JimmyAgent007

JimmyAgent007

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I wonder why they cant move the deadline, someone over their heads make the call? Some sort of outside pressure? They seemed all set for multiple beta updates. Maybe they signed a Non-Disclosure-Agreement and cant actually come out and tell us.

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Jouni

Jouni

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I didn't see any contradiction. It's quite common that people can set their own deadlines, but once they have committed to them, there are some external reasons that force them to stick to them.

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Superfluous J

Superfluous J

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Posted
Even if they have set their own deadline and want to stick to it, is there really a reason they have to stick to 1.0?

I've come up with a few theories. My current favorite is that HarvesteR made a deal with Squad that they could take all profits and just pay him his salary until he finished the game. Now he wants to finish the game so he can quit his job and open his own company.

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klgraham1013

klgraham1013

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I've come up with a few theories. My current favorite is that HarvesteR made a deal with Squad that they could take all profits and just pay him his salary until he finished the game. Now he wants to finish the game so he can quit his job and open his own company.

I could definitely see some contract shenanigans considering no one could have imagined the success KSP would have.

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Yakuzi

Yakuzi

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Posted (edited)
I personally don't see the contradiction. Yes, we absolutely set our own deadlines, no, we cannot move it willy-nilly as it would be going back on all of our planning and meetings.

But you can move "willy-nilly" on already confirmed features for 1.0? If you can't even get in all the features confirmed for release, why this incredible desire to push for 1.0?

EDIT: plus what razark said above

Edited by Yakuzi
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Maxmaps

Maxmaps

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But you can move "willy-nilly" on already confirmed features for 1.0? If you can't even get in all the features Squad already confirmed for release, why this incredible desire to push for 1.0?

As we've said before, we have met the criteria we originally designed as 1.0, there no incredible desire as much as us being responsible. We're evaluating our current plan to make sure everything can get done in time, and is brought to the proper quality that it should be at in order for it to be 1.0. If that means holding back some of the minor additions to the 1.0 plan, then we are okay with it.

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Yakuzi

Yakuzi

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Posted (edited)

But if responsibility is your main focus, why not have an "actual" beta testing phase (e.g. at least one iteration before 1.0) so the community can help you get rid of all the bugs and assist in game balancing so 1.0 will be as good as can be at release. We've given heaps of good KSP feedback before and else why bother calling 0.90 "beta" in the first place.

EDIT: considering 1.0 will have a huge amount of new content, isn't a actual beta test the most responsible thing to do? Releasing it would be the most irresponsible thing to do... my opinion of course

Edited by Yakuzi
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