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I hope this goes well. I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics. Hopefully all the people who paid for the cu

I hope this goes well. I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics. Hopefully all the people who paid for the current in-development version are not left high and dry in terms of updates and bugfixes. I also have heard the rumors that the team was not treated well, and that the game was never really the focus of the company. I think it may have been a side project of one of the developers on a totally unrelated product (ie. not even a game).

yellow_postit 9y ago
To each their own, but this kind of sandbox game to me works better with simpler graphics as it leaves more to the imagination.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- StavrosK 9y ago
  How do you mean? You still see everything, what's left to the imagination when something looks worse? It's not like a book where you can add your own details...
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago
  'Simple' aesthetics and high-quality graphics aren't mutually exclusive. You can have cartoony looking games that still benefit greatly from better lighting, among other things. The big thing that I'd like to see are atmospheric effects and better rocket plumes. I very much agree that the simple aesthetic works really well for the game, but there's a lot that could be done.
- LoSboccacc 9y ago
  simple is orthogonal with quality https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2lryka/heres_a_link_to_b9s_barn_critiques/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2lryka/...
dingo_bat 9y ago
I would love it even if they keep the same graphics but make the physics better and more free of bugs.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
> I hope this goes well. I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics. I second this. I've used many graphics improvement mods in the past. The good thing is, graphics quality is almost an orthogonal performance factor for the game - it's mostly CPU bound due to physics computation anyway. What I'd love to see is more realistic FX (flames, particle systems, explosions) and better lightning and shadows. Especially the latter would make other worlds more beautiful. > I think it may have been a side project of one of the developers on a totally unrelated product (ie. not even a game). The story goes more-less like this: Squad is a marketing company. One of their employees was burning out and wanted to leave, and they offered him to let him develop his side project if he stays. This side project grew into Kerbal Space Program, and now is the most recognizable product of the company. As for the more recent news about mistreatment of KSP team, this is a completely separate story (and to this day I'm not really sure how much truth there is to it; back when I hung out on /r/KSP the issue was quite muddy).
ferongr 9y ago
The problem is not graphics, but rather, the limitations of Unity that make it unsuitable for anything else but lowest common denominator multi-platform games with clearly defined limits. Space Engineers is another game hampered by Unity.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  KSP is nowhere close to the limits of Unity, though, as proven by the modding community which (~1 - 1.5 years ago when I was last playing) provided better textures, atmospheric effects, better particle systems, and even shader-based atmospheric scattering. It would be entirely possible to incorporate all of that, in a more polished form, into the base game, given enough development time and will. I mean, this is how my modded KSP looked back in time of 0.25C: https://i.imgur.com/yBahDMr.png https://i.imgur.com/yBahDMr.png. I could name AAA space sims that look worse (esp. in terms of immersion).
  - ferongr 9y ago
    Graphics are irrelevant, I'm talking about physics. Stock KSP graphics are "good enough".
    - eriknstr 9y ago
      Your original comment read as if you were saying that Unity was to blame for what the graphics look like.
      - Fifer82 9y ago
        Again I would say that if he did say that, he would be correct. Sit me down in a room of 20 games, and tell me to identify unity games by simply playing each computer. On the 20% chance that I can't instantly tell by looking, a wee swipe of the mouse and the complete lack of responsiveness finalizes all I need for 100% success rate.
        9y ago
slg 9y ago
>Hopefully all the people who paid for the current in-development version are not left high and dry in terms of updates and bugfixes. How long is a developer expected to keep improving a game? Maybe it is the old console gamer in me, but it wasn't that long ago that a game developer was done with a game when it was released. This game has been public for 6 years, been on Steam for 4 years, and been out of beta for 2 years. I don't get how customers can complain about a lack of commitment to the game especially considering the low price the game was usually offered at. I wouldn't blame Take-Two one bit for trying turn a bigger profit with more paid content or a complete sequel.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  It's an interesting balance. On one hand, games were historically 'dead' at release. On the other, they were at least theoretically done at release. That's no longer even a goal for many developers today - features get deferred, and players get used as a massive QA team. KSP as it first hit Steam was fun, but obviously incomplete. KSP 1.0 was viable as a finished product, but had obvious, planned upgrades unfinished. After-release support was pretty obviously planned from the beginning. As for how long, though, I don't know. I'm exceedingly happy with the KSP I got for my money, and unlike some games they could have quit support before now without upsetting me. So as long as Take-Two keeps a decent business model, I'll happily pay for further content.
  - xanderstrike 9y ago
    > features get deferred It's actually the opposite, bug fixes get deferred in favor of more features. Fixes make your player base happy, but they already paid and are therefore not worth any more money, new features drive sales.
    - deciplex 9y ago
      Mojang is particularly aggravating about this. They spent like a year completely reworking The End and adding hang-gliders or whatever, and meanwhile furnace carts have been broken for like three years, and the fix is apparently like a dozen lines of code or something. In fact the entire mine cart and track system should be overhauled if they're really serious about improving the game - but instead they just keep adding more stupid shit nobody asked for. Not to mention a lot of the good mods are still on like 1.6 or something because obviously no one is going to diligently update their mod over the course of ten years or however long Mojang wants to keep this up.
yellowapple 9y ago
"I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics." Would a remake really be necessary for that? Sounds to me like it'd be more of an art asset replacement/upgrade (which was already in the works at one point, IIRC). Modders have already been pumping out all sorts of art assets with pretty high visual quality, and KSP's already on a modern engine (Unity 5). The graphics are already pretty modern. Maybe not photorealistic, but KSP's more cartoony graphics are part of the charm anyway. If I wanted hyperrealism, I'd be playing Orbiter or installing that one spaceflight mod for X-Plane.

yellow_postit 9y ago

To each their own, but this kind of sandbox game to me works better with simpler graphics as it leaves more to the imagination.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
StavrosK 9y ago
How do you mean? You still see everything, what's left to the imagination when something looks worse? It's not like a book where you can add your own details...
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago
'Simple' aesthetics and high-quality graphics aren't mutually exclusive. You can have cartoony looking games that still benefit greatly from better lighting, among other things. The big thing that I'd like to see are atmospheric effects and better rocket plumes. I very much agree that the simple aesthetic works really well for the game, but there's a lot that could be done.
LoSboccacc 9y ago
simple is orthogonal with quality https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2lryka/heres_a_link_to_b9s_barn_critiques/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2lryka/...

dingo_bat 9y ago

I would love it even if they keep the same graphics but make the physics better and more free of bugs.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

> I hope this goes well. I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics. I second this. I've used many graphics improvement mods in the past. The good thing is, graphics quality is almost an orthogonal performance factor for the game - it's mostly CPU bound due to physics computation anyway. What I'd love to see is more realistic FX (flames, particle systems, explosions) and better lightning and shadows. Especially the latter would make other worlds more beautiful. > I think it may have been a side project of one of the developers on a totally unrelated product (ie. not even a game). The story goes more-less like this: Squad is a marketing company. One of their employees was burning out and wanted to leave, and they offered him to let him develop his side project if he stays. This side project grew into Kerbal Space Program, and now is the most recognizable product of the company. As for the more recent news about mistreatment of KSP team, this is a completely separate story (and to this day I'm not really sure how much truth there is to it; back when I hung out on /r/KSP the issue was quite muddy).

ferongr 9y ago

The problem is not graphics, but rather, the limitations of Unity that make it unsuitable for anything else but lowest common denominator multi-platform games with clearly defined limits. Space Engineers is another game hampered by Unity.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
KSP is nowhere close to the limits of Unity, though, as proven by the modding community which (~1 - 1.5 years ago when I was last playing) provided better textures, atmospheric effects, better particle systems, and even shader-based atmospheric scattering. It would be entirely possible to incorporate all of that, in a more polished form, into the base game, given enough development time and will. I mean, this is how my modded KSP looked back in time of 0.25C: https://i.imgur.com/yBahDMr.png https://i.imgur.com/yBahDMr.png. I could name AAA space sims that look worse (esp. in terms of immersion).
- ferongr 9y ago
  Graphics are irrelevant, I'm talking about physics. Stock KSP graphics are "good enough".
  - eriknstr 9y ago
    Your original comment read as if you were saying that Unity was to blame for what the graphics look like.
    - Fifer82 9y ago
      Again I would say that if he did say that, he would be correct. Sit me down in a room of 20 games, and tell me to identify unity games by simply playing each computer. On the 20% chance that I can't instantly tell by looking, a wee swipe of the mouse and the complete lack of responsiveness finalizes all I need for 100% success rate.
      - 9y ago

slg 9y ago

>Hopefully all the people who paid for the current in-development version are not left high and dry in terms of updates and bugfixes. How long is a developer expected to keep improving a game? Maybe it is the old console gamer in me, but it wasn't that long ago that a game developer was done with a game when it was released. This game has been public for 6 years, been on Steam for 4 years, and been out of beta for 2 years. I don't get how customers can complain about a lack of commitment to the game especially considering the low price the game was usually offered at. I wouldn't blame Take-Two one bit for trying turn a bigger profit with more paid content or a complete sequel.

Bartweiss 9y ago
It's an interesting balance. On one hand, games were historically 'dead' at release. On the other, they were at least theoretically done at release. That's no longer even a goal for many developers today - features get deferred, and players get used as a massive QA team. KSP as it first hit Steam was fun, but obviously incomplete. KSP 1.0 was viable as a finished product, but had obvious, planned upgrades unfinished. After-release support was pretty obviously planned from the beginning. As for how long, though, I don't know. I'm exceedingly happy with the KSP I got for my money, and unlike some games they could have quit support before now without upsetting me. So as long as Take-Two keeps a decent business model, I'll happily pay for further content.
- xanderstrike 9y ago
  > features get deferred It's actually the opposite, bug fixes get deferred in favor of more features. Fixes make your player base happy, but they already paid and are therefore not worth any more money, new features drive sales.
  - deciplex 9y ago
    Mojang is particularly aggravating about this. They spent like a year completely reworking The End and adding hang-gliders or whatever, and meanwhile furnace carts have been broken for like three years, and the fix is apparently like a dozen lines of code or something. In fact the entire mine cart and track system should be overhauled if they're really serious about improving the game - but instead they just keep adding more stupid shit nobody asked for. Not to mention a lot of the good mods are still on like 1.6 or something because obviously no one is going to diligently update their mod over the course of ten years or however long Mojang wants to keep this up.

yellowapple 9y ago

"I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics." Would a remake really be necessary for that? Sounds to me like it'd be more of an art asset replacement/upgrade (which was already in the works at one point, IIRC). Modders have already been pumping out all sorts of art assets with pretty high visual quality, and KSP's already on a modern engine (Unity 5). The graphics are already pretty modern. Maybe not photorealistic, but KSP's more cartoony graphics are part of the charm anyway. If I wanted hyperrealism, I'd be playing Orbiter or installing that one spaceflight mod for X-Plane.