Gaming The Kerbal Space Program - Version 1.2.x

[diogom]

Hey, I just thought, has the planet in KSP been named yet? I thought of "Planet Kearth" :lol: Still downloading...

 

[Stevodoran]

Great Release

 

[Jarvitä]

I can confirm the "stack sticks to pad until you press space" bug is still present. Also, got some weird camera wobbling (not shaking like before, just rotating around the target) while in orbit.

 

[iamwearingpants]

I found the liquid engines not powerful enough to take advantage of the tank stacking, so I made the engines twice as powerful, but made the tanks have half the fuel. Now my rockets are really tall!

I love realism!

 

[Jarvitä]

Weird (new?) bug - the planet dissapears entirely at ~1500km.

 

[iamwearingpants]

Weird (new?) bug - the planet dissapears entirely at ~1500km.

That's an old one.

 

[HarvesteR]

Yeah, those bugs are known, and we'll try to get to them in the next version.

I'm starting to plan version 0.8.1 right about now, and I've set up a poll in the Dev forums so people can help us choose what is more important in the limited time we have.

I must also tell everyone that version 0.8.1 will probably be the last update to the free Demo. After that we'll put up the preordering pages for the first release of the full version.
(unless of course, there's such an ugly bug in 0.8.1 that we have to do a 0.8.2 hotfix... but hopefully that won't happen)

If we can manage, we'll add bugfixes and important things to the Demo, while we work on the full version. We want this demo to be as close to the full experience as possible, minus all the new features, of course

Cheers

 

[iamwearingpants]

Yeah, those bugs are known, and we'll try to get to them in the next version.

I'm starting to plan version 0.8.1 right about now, and I've set up a poll in the Dev forums so people can help us choose what is more important in the limited time we have.

I must also tell everyone that version 0.8.1 will probably be the last update to the free Demo. After that we'll put up the preordering pages for the first release of the full version.
(unless of course, there's such an ugly bug in 0.8.1 that we have to do a 0.8.2 hotfix... but hopefully that won't happen)

If we can manage, we'll add bugfixes and important things to the Demo, while we work on the full version. We want this demo to be as close to the full experience as possible, minus all the new features, of course

Cheers

How much will it cost? I don't have much money, and KSP is a priority!

 

[HarvesteR]

We haven't decided on a price yet. But it won't be expensive (it's an Indie game ).

Also, during development, the price will be significantly discounted, since by buying the game now means you're contributing to the continued development of the game, and helping us appease the wrath of the powers-that-be (bosses :lol.

Cheers

 

[diogom]

I edited the engines, gave them twice the power, but left fuel as it is. Using only two fuel tanks and one engine, I'm now at almost 4000km altitude and still going up!
KSP is even more awesome now, thanks a lot! (not because of the editing, by the way :b)

 

[astrosammy]

Poor Kerbalnauts... I guess I just reached escape velocity! Man, this is so addictive! What payment methods will be available? No one in my family has a credit card, and I don't like to use Paypal...

 

[Chub777]

I edited the engines, gave them twice the power, but left fuel as it is. Using only two fuel tanks and one engine, I'm now at almost 4000km altitude and still going up!
KSP is even more awesome now, thanks a lot! (not because of the editing, by the way :b)

You have just given me an idea...

 

[diogom]

BTW, this full version... will there be a discount for OF members? :tiphat: Dumb question, but who knows.

 

[Chub777]

A few minutes later:

After some config file editing...

"Kearth" turns into a small green blob that reminds me of a tennis ball:

Out of the solar system:

Nice effect here (I had only started using my 2nd tank here):

It's still going at 80,000 m/s + and fuel hasn't run out yet.

 

[HarvesteR]

Poor Kerbalnauts... I guess I just reached escape velocity! Man, this is so addictive! What payment methods will be available? No one in my family has a credit card, and I don't like to use Paypal...

Well, we haven't yet set up our store... I'm not sure how it'll work actually (web stuff was never my strong suit)... but we'll make sure we put in as many payment options as possible. The last thing we want to do is leave people wanting and not being able to get the game.

BTW, this full version... will there be a discount for OF members? :tiphat: Dumb question, but who knows.

Hmm... :lol:

Maybe we can have a special pre-ordering discount as well... but that's really not for me to decide... The powers-that-be still have to have their say on this matter... (I think they aren't even aware yet that we've gone over 5k downloads and nearing on 6k by now :facepalm: )

Cheers

---------- Post added at 11:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 PM ----------

Just hit 6k downloads! :woohoo::jiggy::hotcool::thumbup:

Cheers


EDIT:
@Chub777: I was gonna ask how on Kearth you had managed to extract that much dV, then I read the 'after some config editing' bit
I'm glad the modding interface is proving itself useful! It was definitely worth the trouble to step away from the hard-coded standard assets

Cheers again!

 

[Eli13]

OK two things, first I think I may have had the farthest yet voyage. Poor little guys, cept Jebediah, he's loving this:

(I accidentally pulled the chute)

Second, there are these odd G-force fluxes, it goes from G1 to 15+ and back down again, I captured it right at the 15 spot. Not really a big deal, but it might be good to know for future reference.

 

[RisingFury]

Two bugs to report:
- When a liquid engine is coupled with more then one tank, sometimes when the fuel in the first runs out and the engine transitions to the second tank, the FPS drops a lot. This doesn't happen every time there is a transition though. Sometimes though, if there are two transitions (3 tanks), the FPS drops at the first one and the second one, making the game crawl at 1 frame every few seconds.

- Sometimes, when the chute is deployed at the capsule gently (well, at some ~12 m/s) hits the ground, the crew is KIA. A few other members noticed it too, but none of us were able to reproduce the bug under controlled circumstances.



Also, I understand the decision is not yours, but I'd advise against setting a price juts yet. I understand how much effort it takes to write a game like this but here are some reasons against:
- The game currently offers very little content, compared to what the full version will offer when it's done.
- The game is riddled with bugs, some found, some have yet to be found.
- There are many improvements to be done - especially in the area of making the game run faster.
- You'll lose a significant portion of your testers, because - let's face it - people like free stuff.

I think it's arrogant to expect people to pay for an unfinished product, regardless of how low the price may be and how much discount you'll offer them later. You're after all, handing them an unfinished product to be bug tested!

My advice would be to offer people a free version that will allow them to test the game's engine, but code in enough limitations to prevent them from fully enjoying the game. Holding back the full content of the game would be one idea. That way you give people the chance to test your software and to wet their appetites.

 

[HarvesteR]

Hmm ok, one thing at a time...

About the Fuel Tank bug, that's a new one for me, I've never seen it happen here, but I'll keep an eye out... it might be reproduceable.

About the crashing into terrain with parachutes, yes, that's a known bug. What happens is that the terrain collider is failing to correc itself to the curvature of the planet, and it will flip inside out when past 90° lat. from the space center. This will be completely solved by the new terrain engine, but since that might take a while, I'll see if I can just tweak the current one so it works right.


Now, about the sales model, I beg to differ here. I don't see it as expecting people to pay for an unfinished, bug-filled product. I see it as offering the opportunity for people to buy the game ahead of time (if they want), and by doing so they're helping keep the project going, which is something we can't keep up indefinitely without doing this.

I was the one who proposed this plan when I pitched the concept. It is the only plan that has a chance of working. A game on this scale would likely take 2 years to get in a feature-complete state, not counting the time in beta... We simply don't have the resources to fund a 2-year project entirely, even with a 3-man team.

That said, I'm not saying we'll be taking the demo away or anything like that. I'm fully aware that the free demo is the entry point for people to get a feel of the game. And it helps if that feel is as close as possible to the full version, minus the content.

So it's quite likely that the demo will still see updates in the future... albeit not as frequently as these weeks, since we'll be concentrating on the full version... but any improvements to the engine, bug fixes and changes in gameplay mechanic will be added to the demo whenever possible. And I plan to make sure this happens.

Cheers

 

[APDAF]

Do it like minecraft a little bit at a time.

 

[HarvesteR]

Do it like minecraft a little bit at a time.

That's the plan, yes

A little update:

Today I finished up the symmetry code for the VAB. There is now a new button in the VAB interface, that let's you cycle through 6 different symmetry modes, for none, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8-sided symmetry.

There is also a new angle-snap option that will snap surface-aligned parts to 30-degree increments around the stack.

All this now ensures parts are centered and aligned, in a ragequit-free manner

This following week we'll get to the atmospheric drag corrections, and if there's time, a clipboard area for parts, so you don't have to delete everything to add a part between others.

Cheers