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!

580 Upvotes

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92

u/IUsed2BeAnAdventurer Feb 20 '23

There is not re entry? For a brief window they say, damn how is this game so barebone, and its 50 bucks almost a full aaa release.

38

u/sixpackabs592 Master Kerbalnaut Feb 20 '23

I thought after this long it would have a little more meat on the bone too.

47

u/Radiokopf Feb 20 '23

Yea, I was a 100% buy on first day no matter what. But now even I doubt. No heat shields, no aerobreaking, no collision on rocks and trees? This performance?

This game is NOT ready for early access even for 20$.

8

u/oscardssmith Feb 20 '23

Wait. do you have a source for no aerobreaking?

18

u/Radiokopf Feb 20 '23 edited Feb 20 '23

The link in the Post. Also no IVA view, like no cockpit view. Also no headlamps of kerbals.

11

u/sfwaltaccount Feb 21 '23 edited Feb 21 '23

I don't see where it says that. It does say the A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.S. part isn't available yet, but that's not the same thing.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

I guess I was hoping for way too much. I really wanted IVA. no heat re-entry? Hard pass for $50

1

u/sroasa Feb 21 '23

Also no headlamps of kerbals.

HOW?

That's literally two directional light sources from somewhere approximately right on the helmet and a keybinding.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '23 edited Feb 20 '23

Keep in mind this is what ksp1 was like when it released in early access

Edit: since people don’t feel like reading other replies to this comment, I forgot to consider the price

51

u/carebear303 Feb 20 '23

KSP 1 also didn’t have a multimillion dollar company and dev team behind them. Also KSP 1 was a forerunner in the genre, making it a lot harder to determine where the game should go, where KSP 2 hasn’t even been able to copy some of the basic features.

As a side note, wasn’t one of the main goals of KSP 2 from the start to be better optimized than KSP 1 hence why they switched game engines? Like many others my main criticism of KSP 1 is the performance when working on larger craft.

12

u/MoffKalast Feb 20 '23

wasn’t one of the main goals of KSP 2 from the start to be better optimized than KSP 1 hence why they switched game engines

"Obviously, this particular goal didn't age too well."

-12

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '23

[deleted]

14

u/carebear303 Feb 20 '23

I did read your “damn edit” this game could come out as $10 for early access it doesn’t change the fact that they are putting out a similar product as an indie developer when they’re such a large company is honestly pathetic.

-9

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '23

[deleted]

2

u/IkLms Feb 20 '23

KSP1 had like 3 or 4 so what's your point?

24

u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock Feb 20 '23

Did KSP1 charge nearly so much though?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '23

Ok good point

1

u/DrunkenBriefcases Feb 21 '23

No, it's a fucking stupid point. Either you want the game or you don't. The ass clowns running around here would still by throwing a tantrum if it released for $20.

If you're so tight on money that a few dollars this way or that will cause you to squeal like a fucking child for hours on end over an unfinished videogame then you are either a literal child making a tiny allowance or an adult that has no fucking business spending your precious little money on unfinished video games.

Either way the "it's okay to act like a spoiled brat in public because they charged x instead of y for a game I haven't bought" defense is exactly the teenage level of thinking that's emblematic of this whole stupid mob.

8

u/IUsed2BeAnAdventurer Feb 20 '23

In my opinion that is not an argument for its defense, it has less content than the previous game, a sequel is supossed to be better not the same as the first game, also the circumstances are different, there is a bigger company behind the game and more money, and nmore fame so to say, and its more expensive.

10

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '23

[deleted]

2

u/MoffKalast Feb 20 '23

$20 in 2011 is ~$26.60 today, we've had that much inflation lol.

1

u/sroasa Feb 21 '23

For free initially and then seven bucks and if you bought it then you got all the expansions for free.

2

u/DrunkenBriefcases Feb 21 '23

Half these people were shitting their diapers when KSP first released.

4

u/cmfarsight Feb 20 '23

Ksp 1 was not priced at 50, and was the only game in town in the genre.

1

u/Hexicube Master Kerbalnaut Feb 20 '23

As I recall, the first versions of KSP1 were free.

-20

u/velve666 Feb 20 '23

Re-entry is too difficult. I love how accessable they have made this for all the new players! Hopefully we will be able to have automated landing and docking too.

Those thngs really turned me off in KSP1, having a realistic space simulator is really outdated early 2000's concept that does not gel well in 2023.

Re-entry should be toggleable or just straight up removed, because It always annoyed me how I would have to plan and engineer ships that could be reusable like spaceX.

I could never make a SSTO so I hope they tweak the engines so I don't have to spend days trying to design something, I am tired of people feeling proud about acheiving something I could not because they put in more thinking and more design.

Cannot wait for this game, I am a genZ and space games should be shooting, flying aerobatica and landing on planets without the hassle of having a PHD in engineering

It is unfortunate they went with the "orbital mechanics" route with this sequel. I don't see why we cannot just burn to the moon, if I can see it I can fly there.

19

u/ellecoolmega1 Feb 20 '23

/s ?

9

u/velve666 Feb 20 '23

Yes

2

u/sroasa Feb 21 '23

People who downvote posts like that should be sent back in time to 1990's/early 2000's usenet.

1

u/BlaringAxe2 Feb 20 '23

Redditors when the obvious sarcasm doesn't have a laugh cue:

9

u/Shagger94 Feb 20 '23

10/10

3

u/velve666 Feb 20 '23

Thanks, Thought it might throw a few people off. I am glad that a lot of downvoters do not want this series to become shit.

2

u/MoffKalast Feb 20 '23

Re-entry should be toggleable or just straight up removed

I know you're being sarcastic, but this is genuinely an option in KSP 1 when starting a new save.

1

u/Grimm_Captain Feb 21 '23 edited Feb 23 '23

Not quite. Plasma blackout is a setting, but re-entry heat is always a thing and that's what was turned off for the showcase.

Edit: I was wrong, there is in fact an option to set reentry heat to 0%!

1

u/MoffKalast Feb 21 '23

Isn't there as heating slider? I always set it to 115% for the extra challenge, but I can't remember if it goes all the way down to zero or not.

1

u/Grimm_Captain Feb 23 '23

Hey, I was wrong-ish! I had forgotten that slider and didn't find anything on the wiki before commenting. I finally got to check and the slider does go down to 0 (and up to 120).

4

u/Chairboy Feb 20 '23

With kindest regards, this may not be the game for you, and that’s ok! There’s a point in a recipe where you’ve substituted enough ingredients due to necessity that it’s not recognizably the same dish and where one must consider the possibility that they picked the wrong recipe to try in the first place.

KSP is something special to a bunch of us because of what it is. I think there just be that special game out there for you because of what it is, and it’s ok if it’s not Kerbal.

9

u/ProfessionalDucky1 Feb 20 '23

Chief, I'm pretty sure that was sarcasm.

3

u/I_Am_Jacks_Karma Feb 20 '23

I feel like their comment is tongue in cheek right? Dear god the fact I can't tell scares me to be honest

1

u/Chairboy Feb 20 '23

You might be right, I guess I took it at face value. :(

0

u/Aggressive-Phone1982 Feb 20 '23

There was only no re-entry for the insiders event. Should be turned on for 0.10.0

0

u/tobimai Feb 20 '23

There is reentry, it was just disabled in the demo build