KSP Weekly: Without labor nothing prospers

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone.  Another exciting week full of progress on all fronts, so without keeping you waiting any longer, let’s start. 



Localization is looking good and we’re mainly looking at formatting and the last few string changes while we work with our grammar plugin colleagues (Lingoona) to improve some of the finer points in different languages.  Correspondingly, we did a first round of performance profiling KSP without Lingoona, identifying several GarbageCollector (a form of automatic memory management .NET uses) spikes in FixedUpdate methods.  Later this information will be used together with the Lingoona integration to minimize the effects on GC related to localization. 

Our Devs were also busy refactoring the Localization class to its final structure and method names which gets us another step along the road.  The class and names will only change now if we find issues, which means we can bring more focus to the performance testing phase (as it shouldn’t change now).  It also means we can update the API documentation we have and start testing and polishing it for the modding community, so less time is needed when adjusting mods for 1.3. 

That’s not all, we’ve finished with the integration of Asteroid Day mod into the 1.2.9 pre-release and not only that, it is now localized and being tested by our dedicated QA team.  That said, we would welcome any and all feedback from the Community on how balanced the Asteroid Day contracts are in a career game play-through. 

We also want to give a shout out to the localization volunteers, who continue to amaze us all with their dedicated effort.  There are still issues in the game that need attention besides languages, so now that has “mostly” been dealt with, bug fixing continues. 

We are always on the lookout for more testers, so if you think you have what it takes to create comprehensive bug reports and can dedicate time each week to KSP testing, then please make yourself known.  We always read the issues on the public bug trackers, (especially the Pre-Release) so there is your marketplace to demonstrate your skills in problem solving and research. 

In other news, console testing continues with daily builds from Blitworks being put through their paces on both platforms, and now we’re more able to concentrate on the refinements in controls and general gameplay rather than outright bugs.  Many long hours are being dedicated to getting all things ready for the inevitable releases of each project.  An example of the testing our QA team has been busy with are the console achievements system, which took longer than what we expected due to the thoroughness of the team.  A good thing is that during all this testing, we still haven’t had any save files blow up on us yet either. 

Now that we’re getting closer to the release date of the console build, we’ve been also very busy preparing the communication materials.  That includes updating videos and images for the respective stores of each console, among other things. 

Let’s move on to the progress we’ve made with the upcoming Making History expansion.  This week, the work on improving and finalising various aspects of the design has continued.  Specifics for this week include focus on how Kerbals are chosen and assigned to vessels for Missions within the Mission Builder and at how specific parts of a vessel can be selected when applying constraints to a Mission. 

Additionally, we have been working on some of the under the hood code, such as getting the basic and generic version of the code for part failures working.  When a part fails, it has to stop doing what it does normally and we have to lock the player controls on it.  Development work continues on this aspect along with many others.  We also have to remember whether a part has failed when the vessel goes into stasis and when it is saved and loaded. 

We have also continued polishing the expansion system integrating key signatures for the asset bundles, as well as fixing some bugs and making some improvements for our internal build processes and tools.  The elements for the new UI have received some attention too and work continues on delivering the parts that the artists have been providing to be tested for gameplay options.  QA then tests and provides feedback on these parts that is dealt with to improve the ingame performance of these new parts. 

Finally, we encourage you to participate in our latest KSP Challenge - Build and Fly a Space Shuttle!  This time around you’re challenge is to build “reusable” winged orbiters which can carry Kerbals to orbit and return safely, as well as be capable of horizontal landing.  We also have an amazing badge designed by FCISuperGuy especially for those who have created a shuttle for this challenge!  Check it out and share your creations! 

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!