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What do you think kerbal cities would look like?


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The title says it all. If Kerbals are an underground civilization, I would imagine their cities would be very interesting and unusual.

I can't really think of anything more specific than that. I would imagine that if Kerbal civilization started underground, Kerbal homes probably started out as burrows of some kind, and it just grew from there.

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Something like this maybe? (Found this google searching for "underground city")

underground_city_by_tonymtc.jpg

Spoiler

EDIT: I feel I should add the source, since a lot of people seem to like this, the guy who made it deserves the credit: http://tonymtc.deviantart.com/art/Underground-City-65034768

 

Edited by Rocket In My Pocket
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The kerbals live in hills. When you do a crew report you get: "hey, I can see my house from here". The crew would be able to observe their house from that high up. So, to see their houses it must be in the surface of the planet. They must live in hills then because that is the only observable surface feature from those altitudes.

Edited by munlander1
Spell check failed me.
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6 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Something like this maybe? (Found this google searching for "underground city")

-snip-

That does seem kind of Kerbal...

1 minute ago, munlander1 said:

The kerbals live in hills. When you do s crew report you get: "hey, I can see my house from here". The crew would be able to observe their house from that high up. So, to see their houses it must be in the surface of the planet. They must live in hills then because that is the only observable surface feature from those altitudes.

Very interesting thought, I forgot about that crew observation. Makes sense, I agree!

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I do think Kerbals would have some human-like city structures in place, due to the aforementioned crew observation and the fact that they constructed the KSC with a very advanced level of design.

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28 minutes ago, Tex said:

I do think Kerbals would have some human-like city structures in place, due to the aforementioned crew observation and the fact that they constructed the KSC with a very advanced level of design.

Maybe they live in houses built in caverns formed under hills. :P

 

What do you think happened to them, then?

Edited by ThatGuyWithALongUsername
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26 minutes ago, ThatGuyWithALongUsername said:

Maybe they live in houses built in caverns formed under hills. :P

 

What do you think happened to them, then?

I personally think the fact that we don't actually see them in-game is just an oversight by developers who were, rightly, focused on building the space part of Kerbal Space Program. I believe they exist, somehow and somewhere. Maybe if I ever get the interest I'd try to make a mod for cities and such.

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I imagine doorways into big trees (ala the Keebler Elves) that lead to tunnels and caves with tons of struts supporting wall braces made of 1x1 structural panels with red lighting throughout.  Huge, over-engineered caverns chock full of snack and rocket part factories.  I guess the snacks are some sort of lichen/moss/algae derivative since there appears not to be any farmland up top.  Or maybe the snacks are made from those blind cave fish we always hear about on Nat Geo documentaries...that doesn't really sound all that appetizing, but hey I'm not a Kerbal. 

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2 hours ago, Tex said:

I personally think the fact that we don't actually see them in-game is just an oversight by developers who were, rightly, focused on building the space part of Kerbal Space Program. I believe they exist, somehow and somewhere.

I agree entirely with this, @Tex. But... wow:

3 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Something like this maybe? (Found this google searching for "underground city")

It's undeniable, IMHO: if Kerbs are a subterranean species (as the OP suggests), that is a very Kerbal urban architecture.  Nice find!

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10 hours ago, munlander1 said:

The kerbals live in hills. When you do a crew report you get: "hey, I can see my house from here". The crew would be able to observe their house from that high up. So, to see their houses it must be in the surface of the planet. They must live in hills then because that is the only observable surface feature from those altitudes.

I like your idea, and your logic; but...

The only Kerbals who can take reports are Kerbonauts, who as we all know live in the Astronaut Complex.

Thus if they can "see their house" we could assume that just means they can see the KSC. Not saying that's conclusive, but I doubt we'll ever truly know, or get a straight answer from SQUAD either way.

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10 hours ago, Tex said:

I personally think the fact that we don't actually see them in-game is just an oversight by developers who were, rightly, focused on building the space part of Kerbal Space Program. I believe they exist, somehow and somewhere. Maybe if I ever get the interest I'd try to make a mod for cities and such.

That's entirely possible. I wonder if you could somehow add buildings to Kerbin's terrain scatter? :P

I think there once was a squadcast (remember those?) where Max (remember him?) said that kerbals did in fact live underground. But that was a long, log time ago.

On the contrary, if Kerbals are plants, like some people think, than living underground might not work well for them.

The space center still isn't evidence that they know advanced construction, however. Remember that the tier 1 space center isn't as advanced.

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I think that, given the architecture of the Space Center and other buildings, Kerbals have a culture similar to humans, and therefore would have sprawling coastal cities with a large aerospace manufacturing (Houston or Seattle like). The old Kerbin City mod had something similar to that.

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Looking at the altitude of the VAB I've think that it would be houses of 5 meters of altitude approximated and the apartments would be of 70 tall meters, and they would look like a modern house and the tall buildings like modern apartments.

 

 

                                             

Edited by SpaceOdissey
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11 hours ago, Tex said:

I personally think the fact that we don't actually see them in-game is just an oversight by developers who were, rightly, focused on building the space part of Kerbal Space Program. I believe they exist, somehow and somewhere. Maybe if I ever get the interest I'd try to make a mod for cities and such.

That is an entirely realistic and reasonable answer and must be rejected as such.

Consider: KSC is at least the 3rd launch facility with still standing structures.(KSC2 and the island runway being the others)  Presumably there were more, but there is nothing left of them(looking at you Badlands!).  With that many Kerbal rockets being flung around, I expect that the residents gave up on re-building and all now live in underground bunkers.

This is why they are content to sit in a Mk1 cockpit for years and similar hardships: fewer worries about rocket shrapnel raining down on them.

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1 hour ago, munlander1 said:

I don't think proximity to the ksc matters. While you could just say "it's just the games mechanics" it does invalidate your point. Though it does not prove mine.

Considering the same Kerbal would say he could see his house even if asked twice at opposite ends of the planet I don't think there is much information we can glean from that statement in general.

Edited by Rocket In My Pocket
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5 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

I like your idea, and your logic; but...

The only Kerbals who can take reports are Kerbonauts, who as we all know live in the Astronaut Complex.

Thus if they can "see their house" we could assume that just means they can see the KSC. Not saying that's conclusive, but I doubt we'll ever truly know, or get a straight answer from SQUAD either way.

Ah, but real-life astronauts didn't actually live in the facility they worked in. The Astronaut Complex might have dormitories, sure, but unless they can fit an infinite amount of rooms into a finite space (realistically speaking, of course), then how can the potential infinite amount of Kerbal astronauts fit in there? One could assume that, like cities that exist but don't actually exist in-game, the Kerbals have houses somewhere near the launch complex. I'd imagine the plains just outside the KSC and before the mountains in the west could house a very nice city that all the KSC staff could live in.

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6 hours ago, Terwin said:

That is an entirely realistic and reasonable answer and must be rejected as such.

:D

Certainly. I mean, it's much more fun to come up with a vastly different universe based off direct observations than just assume the differences don't exist and are only caused by the developer's "laziness".

For example:

<offtopic>although unrelated, The Mun's description states that its discovery was "not all that long ago". Tylo was discovered as the first moon outside the Kerbin system, so probably after the Mun, and Bop is regarded in kerbal mythology as the "home of the Kraken". Thus, Kerbal mythology was still widely practiced "not all that long ago" instead of being the ancient religion that many players might assume it to be.</offtopic>

On a more related note, the fact that the Mun was discovered "not all that long ago" and the fact that Tylo was discovered through photography, a fairly modern technology, is evidence of Kerbals living underground because they probably would have noticed it sooner if the lived on the surface with a clear view of the sky.

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Stock Visual Enhancements mod adds city lights that can be seen from high up so Kerbin looks like a populated planet. But other than that, yeah, it feels empty indeed.

I guess part of the problem is the amount of extra work and resources that would be required to build a populated Kerbin which would not directly contribute to gameplay. Not to mention additional strain on your system to render it.

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If kerbal homes are in the game then they certainly aren't above ground or someone would have found them by now, and it doesn't make much sense for them to be underground because what's the point of having something in the game that you can't get to? I think it makes more sense for kerbal houses to be underwater. Kerbals can swim, and if they lived far inland what use would they have for swimming? Also, it is possible to explore the seabed using submarine mods or boats with scanners, so it wouldn't be impossible to reach and most of the sea floor is unexplored on kerbin. As long as it remains so my "myth" may have some merit. While I don't believe there are undersea houses there may be easter eggs in kerbin's oceans and if there isn't that would be a cool addition to the game. :)undersea_city_by_mrainbowwj-d9b21c7.jpg                                                                                                                                               

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