Despite taking nearly three years longer than expected to arrive, Kerbal Space Program 2 (opens in new tab) was in pretty rough shape when it debuted in Early Access in February. Performance was rough and buggy: one Steam user described it as "too Early Access for Early Access."

Hopefully that situation will improve later this week. According to developer Intercept Games, "performance improvements and bug squashing are well underway" with the first patch for Kerbal Space Program 2.

"If QA doesn't find any glaring bugs over the next few days, that date should hold," creative director Nate Simpson wrote in a Steam update (opens in new tab). If we run into an unexpected bug that needs to be fixed, that date will shift." We've been racking our brains quite a bit about whether or not we should announce a target date for this patch when there is zero chance of a delay, but we know this topic is very important to you, and we're doing our best to keep you informed."

One of the major issues addressed by the patch is a fix for a bug that causes the nozzle of a Kraken engine to produce a large amount of backfiring when it is disturbed: if you are working on a Kraken ship, the "unique" physics it depends on are about to disappear forever" Simpson warns that Intercept is also finishing up fixes for the second KSP2 patch, but won't mention it until the first patch is launched.

For players who want to know in depth how these things work, a long blog by graphics programmer Mortoc delves into KSP2's graphics and performance, and how the developers are fixing and testing issues with the game article (opens in a new tab). It's a little on the dense side, but the important point (in my eyes) is that the early access release allows developers to see what's working and what's not working in the game.

"With a game as complex as KSP2, there are a dizzying number of areas we can spend our efforts on, and the feedback we are receiving is invaluable in helping us focus our time on the issues that affect players the most," Mortoc wrote.

Kerbal Space Program 2 has a "mixed" rating on Steam (opens in new tab), with positive and negative user reviews literally split 50-50, at least for now. However, the response to Mortok's update, and Simpson's patch announcement, has been generally positive, or at least hopeful: as a user named Cyberfips wrote in a Steam discussion thread (opens in new tab), "Keep trying. If you stumble upon a problem, maybe someone in the crowd has a better idea."