Not made by SQUAD, it's gonna be shit
Q: What engine will KSP2 run on?
A: Kerbal Space Program 2 is developed using Unity.
If there is any reason to believe it might be shit it is this part of the FAQ:
Q: What engine will KSP2 run on?
A: Kerbal Space Program 2 is developed using Unity.
If the goal for the sequel was to be built from the ground up, they really should have used the opportunity and went with UE4. This game is too ambitious and ideally would need its own damn engine, but that is of course costs time and money take 2 might not be willing to spend.
Still, if they make better use of physics acceleration from the start...
I imagine the reason they stuck with Unity is to ensure ease of modding for the "baked-in" community and recycle whatever code and assets they want to reuse.
The lead dev and core that made KSP left ages ago anyway. Now sure they still have RoverDude and some other good former modders but it was HarvesteR, Mu, C9 and NovaSilisko that are responsible for the core features. Also more likely than not Take 2 was probably pissed off at dealing with Squad's greedy owners who screwed the original devs that left. Ideally they could also poach some former devs or modders. In the end they can't fuck much with the design unless they gimp the editors or dumb down the physics based mechanics.
The entire simulation core has been rewritten. Multithreading has been addressed but I won't get into it because people define it differently. Way fewer bottlenecks, much more optimized is the idea.
Kerbin's overall geography is the same. Other planets have had facelifts to give additional geographic history. The kerbin system has the same bodies. The game engine now allows for axial tilts.
Overall design philosophy behind terrain: "No two landing sites should feel the same."
You can now create rockets in individual sections and piece them together. Yay QOL! There is also blueprint style build mode that makes placing and aligning parts easier. The VAB is overall much much larger.
Colonies: You can build anywhere you can land. You don't need flat ground. Colonies are built, not grown, and will need resources supplied in order to build Colony buildings and any rockets/vehicles you build at them.
Much higher part counts are going to be available but they can't give numbers at this stage of development.
Planet rings have big rocks. Felt a bit like Elite, was pretty cool.
the new system allows easy engine clustering
- Q: Will single-player still have all the same familiar game modes, i.e. sandbox, science, career?
- A: No. There will be sandbox (pretty much same as now), and then there will be another mode called "progression" which is sort of a combination of science and career modes, aiming for the best of both.
- Q: Will science and R&D still work pretty much the same way?
- A: Yes.
- Q: What's the tech tree like? Is it still "kerbals first, probe cores later"?
- A: Still TBD.
- Q: Will there still be the same sorts of science experiments? New ones?
- A: It's changed in a few ways, but not at liberty to say more than that at the moment.
- Q: Still biome-focused? Are they still called "biomes"?
- A: Not sure.
- Q: Will any KSP 1 features be dropped, and if so, which? For example: ISRU, CommNet, asteroids, heating, etc.
- A: That's a bit complicated to answer if you ask "any", since there are tons of features in KSP 1 and not all of them are going to work exactly the same way in KSP 2. But for the ones specifically mentioned here: yes, ISRU will still be a thing, with a way to detect from orbit. There are still asteroids. There's still CommNet, and it still needs LOS. Heating's a thing, though the dynamics may change a bit and can't talk about those details right now.
- Q: How customizable will the UI be? (navball position, etc.)
- A: They want to make it very flexible. They're trying to make the UI more easily moddable than before. As for player-customizability, details are still TBD. They're aware that players can be very particular about how UI elements are arranged, and want to make people happy.
- Q: When will Star Theory people start engaging with players in the KSP forums (e.g. to answer questions, get feedback, etc.)?
- A: Don't know an exact date, but Soon™.
- Q: What's the plan for Mac and Linux support?
- A: We want KSP to be available to as many players as possible at launch, but can't say more specifically than that right now.
- Q: Will KSP work on a locked-down PC? As in, can be installed by an admin user, then run by non-admin users?
- A: Don't know, would need an engineer for that.
- Q: Will we be getting KSP 2 merchandise? When?
- A: There will definitely be merch, don't know when though.
- Q: Will we have the ability to refuel or transfer resources to craft on a planet/moon surface without the need to dock to them?
- A: <knowing nod, he gets why this is important> Absolutely yes. No comment on the details, though.
- Q: Will we see parts inspired from existing real-world spacecraft that have yet to be featured in KSP 1? Such as the Orion capsule, etc.
- A: No plans for Making-History-style replicas, but definitely "inspired by" types of craft.
- Q: Will the Making History parts be included?
- A: Currently no plans to bring those in, in particular. There are some parts that appear to have become so indispensable that they may bring them in, though.
- Q: What about part sizes? Will new sizes be available?
- A: Two new sizes. No comment on how big.
- Q: Will any new parts be based on cancelled concepts like NASA's Constellation program or un-built proposals like Lockheed Martin's Mars Base Camp?
- A: There are echoes of Constellation. We use this stuff as our reference materials, so there's a lot of "inspired by" stuff.
- Q: Will there be periodic equipment failures / maintenance?
- A: No. <grinning> I expect modders will jump right on that, though.
- Q: Will there be specific hazards to exploration (e.g. sand traps for rovers)?
- A: Definitely yes (to hazards that is, not necessarily to sand traps). No comment on details. By the way, there are lava planets, wink wink nudge nudge.
- Q: Will there be camera tools to make it easier for people to put together their own cinematics? (flyby, etc.)
- A: Putting in lots of work on the camera system, but can't be more detailed than that right now.
- Q: Will we have any form of automation? For example, if I were to launch my Daedalus and then swap over to some other craft, would the Daedalus continue accelerating?
- A: <big grin> Absolutely yes. That's a really important feature and is a big deal to have. Continuing to accelerate while switching control elsewhere is a thing.
- Q: Will it be possible to fly multiple ships in atmosphere at the same time? For example, to emulate a SpaceX booster recovery?
- A: Would really like to enable that and are trying to do that. Still working on it.
- Q: Underwater exploration: what can you find?
- A: You should go explore and find out! <grin, wink wink, nudge nudge> Exploring will have rewards, hint hint. There are going to be many bodies of liquid.
- Q: What about jet engines and airplanes?
- A: Stock parts are mostly still there. No comment about new airplane parts.
- Q: What about the aero model? Will it be like KSP 1, or something more like FAR?
- A: We don't want to confuse players who are used to flying in KSP 1, so it'll have a very similar aero model.
- Q: Will part damage work like in KSP 1?
- A: No comment.
- Q: Will it be possible to start a new career on a planet other than Kerbin?
- A: No.
- Q: Will it be possible to start a new career at a further tier in the tech tree? i.e. start a career at 1970s-equivalent rather than 1950s-equivalent
- A: No.
- Q: Will the "anomalies" of KSP 1 still exist? Will there be new alien artifacts on new planets?
- A: Get out there and find out! <grin, wink wink, nudge nudge>
- Q: Is there life more than trees and cactus and Kerbals in KSP2? Can the Kerbals find something out there?
- A: Get out there and find out! <grin, wink wink, nudge nudge>
- Q: Will we get something like air augmented rockets for use on worlds without oxygen in the atmosphere?
- A: Interesting idea. No current plans to do so, will look into that.
- Q: Will there be flags and decals?
- A: Planning to, yes.
- Q: Will kerbals get more stuff that they can do while EVA?
- A: No comment.
- Q: Will we get KAS/KIS functionality in the stock game?
- A: None currently planned.
- Q: Will there be Ansel support?
- A: Don't know.
- Q: Will it be possible to build a colony on Kerbin, e.g. so the player can make their own alternate launch sites?
- A: Absolutely yes!
- Q: Will there be mods for console, e.g. some sort of modhub?
- A: Don't know.
- Q: Will we see more variety of biomes / geology? e.g. volcanism, very dense atmospheres, completely liquid planets, etc.
- A: Absolutely yes.
- Q: Will the kerbals get more vocalizations, to go along with the new emotes?
- A: No talking. Lots of screaming, though. [Snark note: I heard a demo of this the other day. It was hysterical.]
- Q: Are vessels still a tree structure? Can there be multi-path / loops?
- A: Don't have a detailed answer for that. Things are still in development.
- Q: Will there be a playable demo?
- A: Don't know.
- Q: Will we be able to mod new science "situations"? e.g. if we wanted to have experiments for low / middle / upper atmosphere. In KSP 1 it's an enum and therefore unmoddable.
- A: Not specifically aware of any obstacles to that, but I'm not the authority on that.
- Q: Will there be bigger asteroids?
- A: Possibly.
- Q: Will you use Unity ECS?
- A: Don't know.
- Q: Will there be tools for porting KSP 1 part mods to KSP 2?
- A: Not planning to.
- Q: Will something like PartTools be a thing?
- A: There will be a replacement for PartTools, designed to be easier to use.
- Q: Are you using PBR shaders? Will you be providing any tools to help people convert existing mod textures to PBR?
- A: Heavy use of PBR, yes. No conversion tools.
- Q: Will you include FleX support for GPGPU acceleration?
- A: Don't know.
- Q: Will there be tools to aid interplanetary missions? i.e. transfer window planner, something better than guessing angles
- A: Yes, absolutely. No comment about specific details, though.
- Q: Will there be persistent rotation?
- A: Yes.
- Q: Will sound be muffled as you gain altitude?
- A: Yes.
- Q: Will rocket plumes change with gaining altitude (i.e. pressure-dependent)
- A: Yes.
FYI supposedly there will be no weather and clouds which is the first piece of decline news so far
I don't know man, as beautiful as it might be to look at weather, failing a mission because you drop in the middle of a storm seams frustrating and outside the reasonable scope of the game.
FYI supposedly there will be no weather and clouds which is the first piece of decline news so far
FYI supposedly there will be no weather and clouds which is the first piece of decline news so far
Clouds were visible in one of the "early pre-alpha gameplay" vidyas they released.