KSP2 seems like it might be like that.. It seems quite star-citizeny with final AAA graphics and audio, but the core mechanics and UX rather fucked. I reckon it could take them years to fix it if they do. Fixing the core core stuff in a game with final assets already done is like repairing an engine thats running.
There was so much dodgy slimy stuff going on with the publisher also,
https://wccftech.com/kerbal-space-program-2-dev-fired-employ... the fact that they kept development closed for years, then release garbage into early access and charge €50.. I think they might have no intention of fixing it and are just making a cash grab now while there is still so much goodwill floating around from KSP1.
Imo there is an opportunity here for a smart small indie team to scoop them and make the real successor to KSP faster than the KSP2 team can fix their crap.
I'm hoping that KSP1 gets an open source engine re-implementation, ideally with optional physics fixes. Performance and physics jank were the two problems with KSP1 and it sounds like KSP2 didn't address those at all.
I mean, adding trees to a rocket game? Who asked for that? All they really seem to have done is make the game require a more expensive GPU for no good reason.
I was thinking it would be cool to make the real KSP2 using the rigs of rods engine (same one used in beamNG drive more or less) rather then awkwardly simulating intra-vehicle forces by having the vehicle made of an arbitary amount of seperate rigidbodes, instead make it from one mesh but with soft body phsyics.
Note: Juno new origins is sort of a KSP sucessor. Its rock solid, but the ships are 100% rigid which definitely affects gameplay and decreases the challenge and fun perhaps.
There was so much dodgy slimy stuff going on with the publisher also, https://wccftech.com/kerbal-space-program-2-dev-fired-employ... the fact that they kept development closed for years, then release garbage into early access and charge €50.. I think they might have no intention of fixing it and are just making a cash grab now while there is still so much goodwill floating around from KSP1.
Imo there is an opportunity here for a smart small indie team to scoop them and make the real successor to KSP faster than the KSP2 team can fix their crap.