It’s no secret that the launch of Kerbal Space Program 2 has been a difficult time for developers Intercept Games. Thankfully, a patch is due this week which will hopefully start to piece the troubled game back together.
The highly-anticipated sequel to the hit 2011 game launched onto Steam early access and hoards of delighted fans piled in, only to find the game something of a buggy mess. At the moment, user reviews are heavily split between positive and negative, which stands in stark contrast to the original’s universal acclaim.
Posting on a Steam update, creative director Nate Simpson had this to say:
"Right now, our goal is to release that patch next Thursday (March 16th). Provided QA does not uncover any show-stopping bugs over the next few days, that date should hold. If they do run into something unexpected that needs to be fixed, that date will slip. We have done a fair amount of hand-wringing around whether we should announce the target date for this patch when there is a non-zero chance of a delay, but we know this topic is very important to you all, so we're doing our best to keep you all in the loop. We’ve also already completed a nice queue of fixes to go into the second patch, but we’ll talk more about that after we’ve got the first one out the door."
One of the biggest bugs that Intercept Games was looking to fix was the notorious Kraken drive bug, which created incredible reverse thrust when an engine nozzle was accidentally obscured. Unfortunately, fixing it required taking out the unique physics the Kraken drive was known for, which is a shame, but necessary for the good of the game.
The patch is due to drop on Thursday, March 16, as long as everything goes to plan, as detailed above. If you’re an avid Kerbonaut, keep your fingers poised above the downloads screen, but don’t expect your ride to be an easy one. After all, even more patches are on the way.