Iterations

The KerbalPowers roleplay have been ran and stopped several times across the years, and each single "run" of the game is designated as an "iteration". We are currently (as of July 2021) in the fourth iteration of KerbalPowers : KP 2.5. Many changes have been made over the course of the years, resulting in radically different gameplay and settings, the core spirit of the game - that is, a geopolitical roleplay on Kerbin where players embodies fictional nations on the little green men's planet - has been conserved since the beginnings, and several nations and players have been present across multiple iterations.

Kerbal Nations

Kerbal Nations was the original iteration of the KP lineage, starting when the Naval Battle League Campaign mode based on the KSP forum was shut down for roleplaying. The game was established on an external forum by two active players and very quickly joined by the previous threads creator. Though this game did not last long it established the core of the community and basic ideas of the format. Soon after the basis of KP1 began to form as recruitment of a larger playerbase to maintain activity took place.

KP 1

KP 1 was the first iteration of the KerbalPowers powers format where many of the unique standards of the game have emerged such as craft simming, the setting itself, and the step away from scripted outcomes. The game eventually came to an end as escalating conflicts paired with the lack of any combat mods at the time such as BD armory led to any larger scale wars being untennable.

Several follow on roleplays came after KP1 but almost all were failed starts that died off within a number of weeks and diminished the community alongside creating a sense of fatigue. In late 2016 the future GM of KP2 dictated that they would create the next iteration but not for several months to allow a period of rest. KP2 began in mid 2017.

KP 2

KP 2 was the longest and largest iteration of KerbalPowers so far, ran between June 2017 and September 2019. The changes brought by KP 2 have served as a base for subsequent iterations and are the de-facto standard nowadays (most notably, restricting the size of nations). Many aspects of the present iterations are borrowed from KP 2, as a continuation of its legacy. From KP 2, it has been attempted to carry over the player-made lore across iterations as much as possible, to allow for complex national histories to emerge. Some nations even dating from KP 1, a core base of players have been present in the community for several real-life years.

KP2 came to an end due to a combination of factors varying from escalating conflicts, an internal cabal of players hostile to the game itself, troubled leadership, a coordinated player exodus and decanonisation effort, and the exit of remaining experienced players soon after.

KP 2.3

After the end of KP 2, and considering the successive reports of Kerbal Space Program 2 (on which KP 3 was planned to launch), some players decided to take on themselves to revive the game in the meantime for those who couldn't wait for the next iteration, KP 3. Thus, KP 2.3 was created in January 2020, borrowing the spirit and lore of KP 2 as its legacy. With the same goals in mind, and originally set for a short lifespan, the successive postponements of KSP 2 made it clear that it would last longer than anticipated. As a result, what was originally a testing ground for new game mechanics had to be expanded into a more structured iteration, leading to a new iteration.

KP 2.5

KP 2.5 was started in January 2021 as an attempt to fill the gaps of the short-term planned KP 2.3 by providing a new set of mechanics that are an improvement of the temporary KP 2.3 mechanics. This iteration comes with the addition of several new aspects to allow for more in-game interactions, such as Resources and Colonies. KP 2.5 aims to fill the gap between KP 2.3 and KP 3, and to offer an improved experience over the previous iterations by addressing some important game design flaws. KP 2.5 is the current iteration of KerbalPowers.

KP 3

KP 3 was originally planned to be the iteration directly following KP 2, and is planned to be the first roleplay to use KSP 2 as opposed to the original. As it's start will depend on KSP 2 still unconfirmed release date, a precise starting window for the game is presently unknown.