Kerbal Space Program 2’s rocky launch (opens in new tab) This past week’s early access was met with a flurry of comments, arguments, and disagreements among the game’s community. Bugs and performance issues along with features deemed “missing” are a lament among audiences and critics (opens in new tab), while others are very happy that the graphics are beautiful and the “rocket still goes up”. Here at PC Gamer, Noah Smith said the early access launch was “only for experienced astronauts”. (opens in new tab)
Some players blamed it on the decision to launch the game in early access, seeing it as a corporate decision by publisher Private Division after a studio change and three years of delays. Those flames were fanned for some, tempered for others, by the information that dataminers and modders began to find within the KSP2 code. A data miner reported (opens in new tab) finding “most of a … modding API, multiplayer sync code, colony management and supply route setup, research, aircraft heating” and more among the code.
Private Division didn’t specifically confirm that these data-driven features are in development, but the publisher generally responded to what the community had discovered: “What players are revealing is evidence and confirmation of the enormous amount of work that has been done under the hood to set up Kerbal Space Program 2 for the new features coming to early access like colonies, interstellar travel, and finally multiplayer. Players are also finding other crumbs, and we’re very excited to share those when the time is right, but we don’t want to spoil anything!”.
The publisher also emphasized that the game’s release plan was not neutered, as some players have suggested, from a management axis to an early access release rather than a full game. “The decision to release in early access did not affect our feature set. The complexity of the game, like the original, means that KSP 2 is made better by the early access process where we can work with our community,” they said.
It’s a strong confirmation from Private Division that more work has gone into the KSP2 than is immediately apparent in the currently limited features. It’s no surprise that there’s so much unfinished work in the code – a game of engineering and experimentation uniquely afforded in the Early Access model, where nearly completed features are skipped because they produce critical bugs that can’t be fixed in time. Additionally, development artifacts remain in code continuously. Many famous mods are based on finishing and “resetting” such content cuts or feature cuts in games.
For their part, Private Division seem genuinely grateful for all the fan feedback, some of which is quite extensive – like a massive open letter (opens in new tab) signed by dozens of Kerbal Space Program modders. “We’ve already seen a rapid increase in our ability to test implemented features and adjust how we prioritize things based on feedback from the community, and that’s only 4 days since launch!” they said.
“The community has been experiencing bugs and performance issues, some of which we were already working on fixes, and some new ones that we didn’t know about yet, but are now actively working on fixes for. We are incredibly appreciative of the community’s patience and I’ve been touched by all the supportive feedback that we’ve seen it on Discord, the forums, the subreddit, and Steam.”
Private Division also directed players who were curious or confused about the state of development to the pre-release and release day notes for examples of known bugs and performance issues in the first early access release of KSP2.
Kerbal Space Program 2, now in early access direct from the publisher on Epic and Steam, is the sequel to what we’ve long called one of the best flight sims on PC and one of the only ones that simulate deep space travel who does it.
psa_from_a_dataminer_stop_calling_the_devs_lazy by r/KerbalSpaceProgram