Kerbal Space Program 2 Adds in Colonies, Interstellar Travel, and More

Published: September 6, 2019 12:30 PM /

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kerbal space program 2 logo

I had the chance to attend a presentation on Kerbal Space Program 2 while at PAX West, and I learned a lot about what people can look forward to in the sequel. Everything that was shown and said to be a coming feature tells me this is going to be a massive sequel with a ton of new content for KSP fans. It's so much bigger, so many new challenges, and so many new ways for you to kill your Kerbals. I imagine KSP 2 is exactly what fans of the series want out of a sequel.

Kerbal Space Program 2 Improvements

One of the first things mentioned out of the gate was for new players to the series. Kerbal Space Program 2 is going to have a revamped tutorial with a lot more detail to explain how the game works and the science behind it. Developer Star Theory Games also mentioned that this may even be valuable to veterans of the series, as there may just be some information in there they never knew. Plus, anything that can help you out on the fundamentals of a complex game like this is a good idea.

kerbal space program 2 colony mun
A colony on the Mun.

Before getting into the new features, Star Theory said there are a bunch of quality of life improvements to the game, including the UI. The biggest one they showed is that you can now work on separate sections of a rocket, or whatever you're building, by themselves and then put them together on one screen. So, no more do you have to work around everything on one screen and can then just fit everything together in the end. In a similar vein, they've also added a plan view, which has a grid pop up in the background so you can align everything perfectly. No more guessing.

Beyond that, a lot of hardware and pieces to build with have either been modified or improved for the sequel. There are a bunch of other smaller changes too, which they did not go into detail.

Kerbal Space Program 2 New Features

The biggest new feature shown off were Colonies. Now, once you land on a different planet or the Mun, you can establish a colony there. You can then build that up to a new place to launch from in the future, traveling further into space than you ever could in the original game. You'll be able to both launch from colonies and build ships there.

kerbal space program 2 colony
A colony out in space.

Colonies are not just limited to on some sort of planet either. You can make space stations that just float out in space, where, yes, you will be able to launch from as well. However, they noted that requires a whole different kind of technology to do that correctly. Just a new set of challenges for players to try out.

The final thing mentioned is that you'll be able to build ships for interstellar travel. So, the Kerbals will now be able to travel to different systems. Getting to this point is definitely a very late-game thing for Kerbal Space Program 2, and something you'll have to build towards. Interstellar travel brings with it a whole lot of new technology, science, physics, and hardware you'll have to contend with. Star Theory said that the science they're using for interstellar travel is grounded in what science tells us is plausible now.

So, there's new secrets to discover beyond the small section of space we were limited to in the original Kerbal Space Program.

Kerbal Space Program 2 is set to release next year on PC.

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Andrew Otton
| Editor in Chief

Andrew is the Editor in Chief at TechRaptor. Conned into a love of gaming by Nintendo at a young age, Andrew has been chasing the dragon spawned by Super… More about Andrew