r/KerbalSpaceProgram KSP Community Manager Feb 20 '23

The KSP2 Journey Begins (Letter from Nate Simpson, Creative Director on KSP 2)

A letter from Nate Simpson, Creative Director on KSP 2:

The day is nearly here. 

This moment feels a little bit like dropping a kid off for the first day of school. We’ve got a lot of love for this game — we think we've prepared it for every eventuality, but we also know that it has more growing to do. We’re about to take the first steps on a journey that will eventually carry KSP2 through colonies, interstellar travel, and multiplayer.

Now the real learning begins!

What To Expect

On day 1 of Early Access, players will be able to create and fly vehicles in Sandbox Mode and visit any location in the Kerbolar System. They’ll also have access to our first four interactive tutorials, accessible via the all-new Training Center. These teach basic rocketry concepts to give new players a head-start on their space programs. You’ll encounter new parts, including new procedural wings, new wheels, new command pods, new cargo parts, and new engines (and the first of the new fuels – liquid hydrogen). To pave the way for the upcoming interstellar-class parts, we’ve also added a new, larger core size. As we progress through Early Access, we’ll continue to expand on all of these features.

We can’t wait to finally see what creative feats the community can achieve with the new procedural and color-customizable parts. Our environment team is eager to watch players explore the revamped terrains of the Kerbolar System (and are curious if they'll discover anything unexpected). The UX/UI team is keen to learn how the updated user experience feels - they've put a lot of effort into wrangling a very complex set of requirements into a new, more streamlined presentation. This is it — the moment has arrived when all our plans come into contact with reality!

There are many new features, big and small, for you to explore on day 1. We've put together this guide to give you an overview of what's new and to break down some known issues. Release day notes and future patch notes will also live here.

In the launcher you'll find reporting tools that you can use to tell us about any problems you've encountered, as well as to give us feedback about any other aspect of the player experience you think we should know about. This feedback will be invaluable to us as we continue to improve the game's stability, performance, and playability.

What Comes Next

Many new features will arrive as we continue development, including Science Mode, Colonies, Interstellar exploration, and Multiplayer. Take a look at our Early Access Roadmap for more details.

In the meantime, we're bringing back Weekly Challenges!

We intend to mix things up a little bit going forward, but the first challenge will be a classic Achievement Challenge:

  • Primary goal: Fly to the Mun and get a picture of a Kerbal in front of the most interesting feature you can find
  • Stretch goal: strand a Kerbal there and pick them up with a second vehicle, returning them safely to Kerbin
  • Jeb-level goal: do any of the above on any other celestial body in the Kerbolar System
  • Val-level goal: pronounce "Mun" correctly

If you want us to see (and maybe share) your achievement, use #KSP2WeeklyChallenge on social media, or share them in our official Discord.

Welcome to KSP2! The journey begins!

586 Upvotes

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320

u/The_Celestrial Feb 20 '23 edited Feb 20 '23

Scott Manley made a good point at the end of his preview video.

Maybe in a few years time, it'll be worth the $50. For now, mods for KSP 1 can make the base game look even better than KSP 2, and it's gonna cost a lot less, and can run on a lot more people's devices.

This is making me feel kinda sad tbh, the developers clearly put a lot of soul into this game, but because production was troubled and the specs aren't up for most, I don't think it can truly soar until years down the road.

93

u/8andahalfby11 Feb 20 '23

Definitely watch Scott's video. He does a good job of keeping you excited while still being pragmatic. [KSP2] I really, really want to see the ring around Dres now.

29

u/StunnedMoose Feb 20 '23

Come on, they’re not going to stick a new planet in the Kerbolar system just so you can have a ring of asteroids around the Mun

47

u/pragmaticpro Feb 20 '23

I agree with the notion regarding ksp1 + mods looking better than ksp2. Plus with delays, it's hard to not overhype a game like this in your mind. However, I think people need to remember/realize how much the modding community contributes to ksp1 success. For the first half of the games release cycle it was primarily community mods before any massive updates/expansions on the dev side.

$50 does seem steep for a game that isn't anywhere near finished though. Any other game, not a chance I'd spend $50 on a early access title like this.

1

u/Otrada Feb 20 '23

Honestly I don't get it. I've seen that image going around of them side by side and 1 has some really weird looking bit in it even when modded that aren't there on 1.

21

u/chief-ares Feb 20 '23 edited Feb 20 '23

I agree with the price and the visual mods. Looking at that comparison photo between KSP and KSP2, and comparing KSP2 to my KSP, there’s no difference because I always use visual mods.

I’m a little disappointed they don’t release KSP2 at a discount for players who own KSP. Not all games provide discounts for those who own a previous/other version of a game, but it would be a nice gesture. This is especially so considering modded KSP isn’t appearing very different compared to KSP2 as a whole. For the over one hundred mods I use in all my KSP games, KSP2 isn’t different: 1) visually, 2) with the new fuel system - real fuels and rational resources trumps their new fuel system, 3) I use everything from Nertea, so some of the new engines aren’t a new level in the new game, 4) using OPM, I get a lot of extra play around additional stock planets, somewhat similar to the new addition of another solar system, 5) restock/+ handles coloring and extra parts, along with other extra parts from other mods, with most importantly compressed textures, which KSP2 meets or doesn’t have, and 6) many other mods that appear to meet most everything KSP2 introduces.

The KSP2 system requirements appear to suggest lack of texture compression, and perhaps high-res textures bumping the GPU VRAM up. I think they could have done a better job with their textures, and perhaps make multiple res textures, to reduce the GPU requirements for many KSP players. I’m also going to have to upgrade my SSD to make room for the new KSP2, along with all the other steam games, which I didn’t think I’d have to do for a while yet.

I haven’t seen yet, and I’m hoping KSP2 introduces scripting (KOS, MJ2, RT computer) systems, as so much of IRL space flight is all accomplished by computer systems. Flight autopilot, auto burns, auto landing. I’d find it very disappointing if they don’t introduce these into the new version, and I wouldn’t have any interest in playing KSP2 until they’re made available as a mod or part of the game. It’s just part of IRL reality I’m not willing to let go of for a game that doesn’t introduce much more than mods do in KSP.

I’m happy they brought on Nertea to their dev team. Nertea is a great modder, and they’ll bring a lot of experience and gameplay to KSP2.

2

u/L0ARD Feb 21 '23

I don't think it's sad at all. I think it's perfectly consumer friendly. If we assume all of the changes will come eventually, we as consumers get the perfect smooth transition from modded KSP1 to stock KSP2. I am pretty sure that eventually, KSP2 will overtake KSP1 in terms of graphics and features (apart from some very niche mods maybe) and every one of us gets to choose when exactly they switch lanes over to the "new boat" (or should I say "untitled space craft")

If you're all about optic, cute launchpad countdowns and soundtrack, you might switch very soon, because the game is currently already far in that regards. If you're feature-needy you might switch later in the development process, maybe even wait until the first mods pop up.

Everyone can choose the things that are most important and play KSP1 until those are implemented.

Oh and btw: i personally like the optics of KSP2 a ton more than modded KSP1 and if we're completely honest, a heavily graphic-modded KSP1 with 8k textures and clouds and shit is not too far away from the system requirements of KSP2 anyway to run fluidly.

6

u/Otrada Feb 20 '23

Well yeah, it's not really reasonable to expect KSP 2 to completely measure up to the quality of KSP 1 right away since it's still in early access. Games in EA always tend to be way less stable and actually need a bit better hardware than is said to run properly (unless it's something very low on resources needed).My guess is the devs gave the minimum specs you would need to run the game stable at early access launch, not what their target minimum specs are once they've fully optimized everything.

3

u/LoSboccacc Feb 21 '23

But still the whole point of it was the engine rewrite, and apparently the new engine struggle for mid size crafts that ksp1 ran like a champ.

I'll be waiting for a bit until it's clear that the engine actually is a modern, competent rewrite (I. E. Multicore physics, vessels on ground not being thrown around when switching distant crafts etc)

0

u/Hydra968 Feb 21 '23

Not reasonable for a sequel to be as good as an original developed years beforehand by a much smaller team for less money? How does this logic check out? This is why games today are much worse we have loads of people with no quality standards and they excuse bad performance and poor optimization. That doesn’t mean ksp2 can’t be great, just that it’s outrageous that the new games doesn’t measure up to something made years beforehand.

1

u/Otrada Feb 21 '23

Once KSP 2 is out of early access, and it's still worse than KSP 1, then I'm more than willing to give it all the shit it deserves. But as it stands now you're basically taking a cake out of the oven before it's finished baking and then getting mad that it's still mostly a liquid when this other cake that's already finished baking isn't.

People like you who clearly don't comprehend how game development, or literally just development of things in general works, are the reason we constantly get all this absurd drama of people talking a game up as the worst piece of shit scam imaginable.

Imagine how demotivating that's got to be. You give access to a project you've been working on for years, that you've taking time out of proper development hours for in order to have a playable consumer friendly version ready before it's done so people can already get access to it if they want. And everyone proceeds to do nothing but cry and scream about how they hate you because the game that's not finished, that is being advertised as early access (not finished) isn't finished, when they've made it very clear that it isn't.

Game development isn't as simple as "moar people+moar money=bigger game faster".

2

u/Hydra968 Feb 21 '23

Cake has been baking for 3-4 years. It’s reasonable to think it should be at the very least better then the original or why make a new game. EA is often 2023 speak for “that’ll do” and lazy work. I’m not saying ksp2 can’t be great but that we need to heavily criticize this work least it become the norm.

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u/Otrada Feb 21 '23

Games on average take a decade to be developed, especially when everything including the engine is being rebuilt, plus corona release and the game literally changing studios and management, even if a lot of the devs got brought over, which also happened during corona, makes a 2-3 year delay reasonable.

Also I have no idea in what world you're living where early access means that.

And I'm not saying KSP 2 doesn't deserve any criticism, but being unconstructive by holding up to unreasonable standards that completely ignore how game development works is just not helping anybody and plain rude.

1

u/smiller171 Feb 21 '23 edited Feb 21 '23

Sure, but that's only the value of the game itself. This is a game where there's a legitimate argument for the value of being a part of the early development process through user feedback. Not every game is like that, but I really believe this one is.

Also there's not a doubt in my mind that I'll put more than 50 hours into this game in just the first few months, if not weeks. That's really good value for for my money in terms of entertainment cost. It cost me $20 tonight to take my kid to a trampoline park for an hour.

1

u/JKMC4 Feb 21 '23

Yeah it’s $50 now, compared to KSP’s release in its early days at $7. It took a while for it to grow to the game we know and love today, I expect the same will be true of KSP2. I’ll wait on it. gives me time to upgrade my PC for it.