KSP Weekly: Farewells and new beginnings

Welcome to KSP Weekly, everyone. Another week full of work and advancements in every project. It’s great to see things taking shape and of course we want to tell you all about it, so without further ado, let’s dive in.



Let’s begin with the development front, where we’ve been working on translation strings as well as including the AmbientLightBoost adjustment for the next prerelease. We have also been working on some of the base systems for the expansion and creating some of the basic elements for players to create their own missions. This system keeps track of bundles and loads content on the fly (asynchronously) and it was designed as a proof of concept providing an alternative method of building native asset bundles in Unity. Its strong features are avoiding adding more content to the loading process and loading on demand as well as including an integrated export pipeline in the KSP project, and taking advantage of native bundle assets.

This brings us to the fact that the final aspects of the Mission Builder’s design is almost done, which is laying the groundwork to the task that the Devs will be performing in the next several months.

In other regards, there’s been some bug hunting as well as the maintenance of the bug trackers to keep them tidy and current. For example, this week some of the Devs spent the earlier part of the week fixing a planetary graphical glitch that could be caused by using the map view and time warp. Some have spent many hours poking at all the obscure corners of the game - mostly looking for words displaying in an incorrect language, since it’s a high priority to get every translatable thing into the hands of the language volunteers ASAP. There are still a lot of open issues around for the KSP prerelease - but the number is shrinking fast, which is a good sign! We hope that all you bilingual folk will join the hunt soon, so we can get this version working nicely.

The Devs want to take this opportunity to give lots of props to the players who have been adding issues to the pre-tracker so far. We do notice when you put in the extra effort - we just wanted to let you know.

While the Devs flesh out the infrastructure and interface for the Mission Builder, QA have been busy testing the new parts for the expansion as well as the usual localization work. The parts are looking great, and suit their designed roles really well. They also complement the existing parts, so we’re sure that players will make some very imaginative craft. Localization has seen nearly all strings being translated, so it’s just the final bug fixes and polish remaining. There’s still some way to go, so keep those reports coming for any problems you spot. Console testing is also being conducted with focus shifting to the control schemes while looking out for any hint of the save corruption. It’s looking pretty good so far.

In the art department, we’ve been performing some adjustments to the localized versions of the KSPedia. Either, replacing images with UI in Japanese, Russian & Spanish or, thanks to the suggestions of our Russian volunteers, updating the text with better translations.

But that is not all, our artists are also working on UI development for the expansion, trying to stay within style and sketching lots of possibilities. And of course, the work on the expansion’s new parts continue by Roverdude’s talented hands. And since folks were sad that they did not get any part pictures last week, we figured we would make up for it this week! Can you guess where these parts are inspired from?

We also started a new forum trend this week: The KSP Challenges - regular themed challenge threads where you’ll be able to share your achievements with the wider community. This week challenge is called “Making a hole in one on Moho”, click here to learn more. We’re eager to see what can you make, so let’s have some fun.

Finally but not least, we are very saddened to see one of our dearest colleagues part ways in search of new adventures, we’re talking of course of the legendary sal_vager.

Here are some words from our staff to you, mate:

Badie: I want to wish Mat all the best in his next adventures, I learned so much from you, thanks for your help every time I needed, for making me laugh and for everything you did for the community! All the best Mat and I hope you can come to Mexico! I´ll miss you

Roy: I would like to say goodbye to Mat (sal_vager), he teached me quite a bit of KSP and I wish him the best in his upcoming adventures, I’m sure we will spend some time playing through Steam or suggesting new games between your travels. I hope you have lots of fun!

JPLRepo: I’d like to say farewell to Mat (sal_vager) an old round great guy. Who has not only been Squad staff for some years but has put a lot of time into the community forums in his own free time as well as a moderator. It is very sad to see you go, but I hope you do well and all the best for the future!

TriggerAu: It’s sad to say bye to Mat, he’s a great member of the KSP family and helped SO many people over the years from community, to staff; testing, design, discussion and friendship. But, he says there’s this thing called sunshine out there and he’s going to get some. All the best Mat!

Squelch: This week we also bid a fond bon voyage to Mat who is taking a break from KSP for a while. We will all miss him terribly, and hope that his return is safe and speedy.

Technicalfool: I’ll be looking after Mat’s console test kits while he’s off globetrotting. One of the kits comes with a pink post-it note that reads “QA Headset - Scott M”, so I’m guessing that one’s seen almost as much of the world as Mathew’s about to. I’ll try not to wear the controller out while helping to find the best ways of using the controller.

Naturally, sal_vager wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye the way he knows best - with some poetry, of course!

With trepidation the time has come I take leave of Squad, I face the sun Each new day, new sights, new sound Next step unknown, see what’s around My journey unplanned, unplannable To see the world, while I’m still able With exaltation my time has come To find myself, I chase the sun

Thank you for everything dear friend, we wish you all best in your journeys. :)

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

