Welcome to our official newsletter, KSP Loading…! If you want to learn about all the current developments of the KSP franchise, then this is the place to be!
First of all, we hope all you Kerbonauts are safe and well during this pandemic. These times have been difficult for most and in such times it’s important to hang in there, do our part, and follow hygiene and safety measures to help stop the spread of this virus. Our hearts go out to those who have lost someone or their livelihood during these difficult times. Like everyone else, we have had to adapt to the current circumstances, but it hasn’t stopped us from continuing our work and hopefully bringing players some relief and joy with regular updates that keep KSP fresh and fun to play. Our best wishes to all of you, hang in there, and stay safe.
And now, let’s talk about everything KSP!
Kerbal Space Program Update 1.11 on PC
If you’ve been following us on our social media channels, by now you’ll know that we are currently working on KSP’s next major update, Kerbal Space Program 1.11: Some Reassembly Required! In this KSP Loading we’ll talk about the suite of quality-of-life features that we’ll include in this update to improve the game experience, as well as our continuous effort to revamp the textures of all of the game’s celestial bodies, plus some new light parts that will brighten up your day.
Joolian moons get a revamp
With this update, we will continue with the overhauling of the rest of the Joolian satellite system with Bop, Vall and Tylo. These moons have been popular destinations for intrepid space explorers and now they will look better than ever before, with high-quality texture and graphic shaders. As we’ve done with all of the revamped celestial bodies, players will be able to switch between legacy and high-quality options. Take a look at these previews and start preparing your next mission to these mysterious, yet beautiful moons!
New Light Parts
Illumination variety has been fairly limited in KSP so far, with only 2 light options available in the game, but with this update we’re changing that. Some Reassembly Required will add new lights parts to the game, including some smaller, physics-less lights, that will allow players to further customize their creations. These will also come with a white and black trim variant to match with different craft styles.
Additionally, we’re including a couple of deployable lights. These are lights that can be deployed, just like deployable science parts, and will work through the use of an unbelievably efficient integrated solar/battery/LED system without the need for an attached craft or EC power source
Let’s get those lights on and see what creative contraptions you can come up with these new light parts!
New RCSs
Two new smaller Reaction Control Systems are being added to the part repertoire: The RV-1X Variable Thruster Block and the Place Anywhere Linear RCS Port. Additionally, both the RV1X and the classic RV-105 Thruster Blocks are getting 5-, 4- (the original configuration), 3- and 2-horned Orthogonal variants. These smaller RCS will be perfect to make your probes, drones or smaller crafts more mobile and versatile.
Quality of Life Features
As mentioned above, we want to include several QoL features within this update, some of which have been drawn directly from player feedback. These include the following:
Warp to Sunrise
We are adding a new button alongside the Warp arrows that when clicked will warp the game until the sun rises over the currently visited celestial body for the landed vessel. That way players won’t ever miss those sunrises.
Improved visibility for the map filter
We are improving the visibility of the map filters, too. Currently there is no on-screen indication of this functionality and players have to discover it on their own. Now access to these tools will be visible in plain sight and readily available for all players to use at will.
Landed Part/Vessel anchoring
A side-effect of the game’s physics has caused some headaches by having vessels without landing legs or wheels to slowly slide when they are resting on the ground under different circumstances such as steep slopes. To help the players deal with this, we will be adding a new internal function to vessels to help anchor themselves to the ground. Similarly, we have improved Kerbal friction, which basically means that our little green astronauts won’t slide so easily from steep slopes either.
KAL improvements (Breaking Ground)
For Breaking Ground players, we’re also making some improvements to the KAL that will allow for more complex robotic setups, such as the ability to enable/disable a KAL on a craft as an action. Moreover, Kerbals on EVA will be able to activate KAL on crafts if on-the-spot adjustments are needed. These simple, yet significant changes will certainly help to exploit this powerful tool better, letting players have more control over their contraptions.
KSP 2
Kerbal Space Program 2 is a very ambitious project and everyone at Private Division and Intercept Games is committed to delivering the best possible experience to KSP fans. For this reason, Nate Simpson, Creative Director of KSP 2 informed the community last week about the decision of releasing KSP 2 in 2022 instead of fall 2021.
We knew we were taking on an immense technical and creative challenge when we started this project. [...] We’ve heard time and again from this community that quality is paramount, and we feel the same way.
Click here to read more.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to post some previews, feature videos and dev diaries to keep everyone up to date. In fact, recently we got a brand new entry to the KSP 2 Developer Insights series. Titled Kerbals, The First New Look, this developer insight was written by Intercept Games’ 3D Animator & Content Engineer, Paul Zimmer, who talks about the wide range of personality and emotional traits that Kerbals will display in KSP 2. We highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t done so already.
Developer Insights #6 - Kerbals, The First New Look
Additionally, we also got some cool images showcasing team color, lighting variations and Xenon fuel factories for the upcoming game. Check it out here.
Remember, you can share and download crafts and missions on Curse, KerbalX, the KSP Forum and the KSP Steam Workshop.
That’s it for this edition. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!
Happy launchings!