EP2 ideas?

[peewee69]

I know, I know; we haven't even got EP1 yet, (but I am looking forward to it!).

I have been thinking a lot about what I would like to see for the next expansion pack and wanted to share my ideas and invite you all to share yours!

My idea;

KSP: The Search For Life

I would like a more substantiated reason to do science, other than just unlocking new parts. I would like the data to actually mean something, be useful in some way.

So, in The Search For Life, you would take various measurements in the Kerbol system looking for that "sweet spot" where life may exist. The goal (finally! an end-game to KSP!) is to prove extrakerbestrial life in the fastest time possible, posting your results to an online leader board.

This would have to happen in a randomly generated system of planets and moons, which would have to be discovered by telescopes first before any missions could be sent there. Perhaps one of the bodies could even host intelligent life and a Kerbal would have to be sent there to make first contact.

What are your idea's?

[Technical Ben]

Automation and future tech. With the SpaceX, Blue Origin and SSTO first stage booster designs and successes (some of those), let alone NASA/ISS testing VASMIRs, the probable is now becoming the practical in space exploration.

[Leafbaron]

KSP: Interstellar

Give up hope and Start Farmin'! 

"We used to look up at the sky and wonder about our place in the stars, now we look down and wonder about our place in the dirt."

Introducing Blight free corn (for now), sadly okra didn't make it. 

[Whirligig Girl]

Kerbal Space Program: Galactic Adventures.

The first major feature is a local cluster of around a hundred procedural star systems, orbiting around a central supermassive black hole. This should provide a decent analogy of the distribution of real stars. Mostly red dwarf stars, many orange stars, some yellow stars, a few white stars, rare blue stars, rare red giant stars, and rare red supergiant stars. Throw in a neutron star, a few white dwarfs, and a stellar-mass black hole as well. The seed for the procedural generator defaults to 0, but can be changed to another number for a new universe if you want.in the settings config.

In addition to the procedural local system, there are a few analogues of notable real world (and maybe some fictional) exo-systems. Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri, TRAPPIST-1, etc. Some planets, just a few, will have life on them. (Probably just trees and grass or something simple, but how cool would it be to have alien animals that you could grab with a claw and bring home for examination)

Distances between these objects should be on the scale of 1/10 lightyears.

The second major feature is a set of different interstellar technologies that become available only after most of the rest of the tech tree is unlocked. The Advanced Tech Tree would gain you access to fission and fusion technology, laser propulsion, laser communication, and antimatter technology. In addition, there are many improvements to the stock rocket parts that can be unlocked. This Advanced Tech Tree can be split into several parts, corresponding to the state of the art space engine of that part of the tree. Slowboat, Relativistic, and Superluminal.

Slowboat drives are basically just really powerful rocket engines that allow a ship to go to another star system within hundreds of years instead of hundreds of thousands. (Strictly speaking with timewarp extension you could go interstellar with a conventional rocket.) These would be fusion rockets and Nuclear Pulse Rockets. Slowboat drives are also terrific for fast interplanetary travel.

Relativistic drives are even more powerful engines, and include such things as ramjets and antimatter fuel. We also get matter replicators which use ore as a resource.

Superluminal drives become more advanced and powerful as you go up. The superluminal drive is the Warp Drive, which allows faster than light translation through space, at the cost of lots of power. Theorhetically the velocity attainable by this drive is unbounded, but it would require far too much energy to be practical after around 100c. They also do not account for the actual speed of the destination, so if you go from the fast Moho to the slow Jool you're gonna need a rocket to slow down. Towards the end we also get some really out-there sci-fi stuff like short-range teleporters which can teleport objects between two stations. At the end we get matter/energy torch drives and energy/matter object replicators. We also get FTL ansible for instant communication with probes and science transmission.

The third major feature is the inclusion of Special Relativity and Time Dilation. From a vessel-centric viewpoint, time appears to go by faster and faster as you approach the speed of light. From an outside perspective, the ship's acceleration appears to decrease. This is coupled with the capability for thrust, both high and low, under timewarp. In addition, signals now actually travel at the speed of light, and probes need flight computers to execute manuever nodes from a distance. The speed of light can be changed in the save file, but defaults to 1/10 the real world value.

Up until the third part of the Advanced Tech Tree, this should be a hard science expansion. (At least as hard as Stock KSP is.)  At the third part it should still be tough. I expect some amount of research into the real physics of the Alcubierre drive to be used for warp. And please don't have the strange colored ball that USI Warp Drive uses, that would be a tremendous disappointment. If you're doing it with an expansion pack and you have black holes anyway, you might as well have a good warp effect shader.

There would be a few technological advancements here that mods could not feasibly do here. A procedural star system generator would require something new for sure, and the special relativity simulator as well. Obviously this would be a much much bigger expansion than what I think we expect from Making History.

[steve_v]

11 hours ago, peewee69 said:

I have been thinking a lot about what I would like to see for the next expansion pack and wanted to share my ideas and invite you all to share yours!

My sole idea for EP[x]: Better performance (physics + runtime GC). Everything else is secondary (except bugs of course).

Edited April 7, 2017 by steve_v

[Whirligig Girl]

6 hours ago, steve_v said:

My sole idea for EP[x]: Better performance (physics + runtime GC). Everything else is secondary (except bugs of course).

No, don't make that an expansion pack, for Kraken's sake! That's what patches and updates are for!

[steve_v]

11 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

No, don't make that an expansion pack, for Kraken's sake! That's what patches and updates are for!

Well, I'd happily pay for a better game engine as a DLC.

[Whirligig Girl]

3 hours ago, steve_v said:

Well, I'd happily pay for a better game engine as a DLC.

But you already paid for the game. And not everyone does want to pay for such a thing.

[steve_v]

19 minutes ago, GregroxMun said:

But you already paid for the game.

Indeed, I purchased it as soon as a GNU/Linux build was available, and I've been waiting 3+ years for respectable performance.
If I knew it would still be stalling every 10 seconds and struggling to maintain two-digit FPS at 250 parts by version 1.2, I would have spent my money on something else.
 

19 minutes ago, GregroxMun said:

not everyone does want to pay for such a thing.

I don't want to pay for it either, but if a paid DLC is the incentive needed for Squad to fix the game, so be it.

 

14 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

That's what patches and updates are for!

Patches and updates clearly aren't cutting it, as the game still runs like slapped-together proof-of-concept tech demo.

Enough with the pathetic framerates and constant GC stutter already. I don't want to see any more content until the game runs properly.

But this is obviously straying off-topic, so I'll leave it at that.

Edited April 8, 2017 by steve_v
Holy ****, this editor is ******* horrible!

[juanml82]

1 hour ago, steve_v said:

Indeed, I purchased it as soon as a GNU/Linux build was available, and I've been waiting 3+ years for respectable performance.
If I knew it would still be stalling every 10 seconds and struggling to maintain two-digit FPS at 250 parts by version 1.2, I would have spent my money on something else.
 

I don't want to pay for it either, but if a paid DLC is the incentive needed for Squad to fix the game, so be it.

 

Patches and updates clearly aren't cutting it, as the game still runs like slapped-together proof-of-concept tech demo.

Enough with the pathetic framerates and constant GC stutter already. I don't want to see any more content until the game runs properly.

But this is obviously straying off-topic, so I'll leave it at that.

I agree with Steve. I rather have a KSP 2 with modern graphics, an engine that doesn't load every single texture in the game in the system ram, fleet and ship planning and managing tools made stock from day 1 (like KAC, dV readouts and better node editing), on rails propulsion for ion engines and solar sails, coded in some way that doesn't run physics calculations even when no force is being applied  and something to do in the planets than an expansion for a KSP 1 which has shown its limits already.

[klgraham1013]

Final Frontier and customizable Kerbals.  The theme being Kerbal individuality.

Edited April 8, 2017 by klgraham1013

[MiffedStarfish]

I just had a great idea:

Blast Effect:

Kandromeda

You are part of the first wave of colonists arriving in Kandromeda, Keleus Cluster. You have traveled, awake without eating because kerbal biology in experimental x1000000000 timewarp for 60 seconds. You would be running out of resources, but kerbals don't need resources to live. You and your team of specially picked astronauts must find a safe place to live by traveling the system in the Kempest, a shuttle with a pathetic T/W ratio and around 50m/s of Delta-V. No one is really sure why your doing this, as the obvious planet to colonise is this one, it even has oxygen:

                                                       

Though some suspect it may be to do with an A.I found in an ancient vault, referred to in awe as the "contract generator" which only known function is to spit out random strings of words, forming sentences which make about as much sense as colonising a place a minute away. The catch is, a space hazard called the skourge is ruining your facial muscles, and the only expression you can pull is opening your mouth and looking around with cold dead ey- oh wait.

...I'm only Kerbal, after all, don't blame the game on me...  ...Don't blame the game on me...

(I am not attempting to critise this brilliant game, just making some jokes.)

 

Seriously though, if I could choose anything to have in a DLC it would be to implement the half finished story behind the Easter eggs that was scrapped, with some changes. This community is incredible, and an ARG of sorts would be a brilliant challenge.

[septemberWaves]

Thread has been moved to Suggestions subforum.

[klgraham1013]

On 4/10/2017 at 3:50 AM, MiffedStarfish said:

Blast Effect: Kandromeda

We want less bugs, not more.

[jofwu]

KSP Space Race

The key feature is the introduction of AI competitors in Career Mode.

There are an additional 4-6 space center locations on Kerbin's equator. There's a handful of great spots with sea to the East. When you start a new Career game (maybe also Sandbox and Science variants?) you select your starting KSC location and the number of AI competitors. You have to compete with the AI for Contracts, Funds, Science, and Reputation.

There's lots of ways you could take this, but here are a few ideas:

• The basic World's First and Explore X contracts give most of their reward to the player who completes them first. You only get a little something for following in their shadow.
• Each Agency has a multiplier for every player based on former dealings. Each successful contract will give you a boost with that Agency, and the sooner you complete it the better. Failed contracts hurt your relationship (on top of the general Reputation penalty).
• Many contracts are offered to multiple players. You can see if another player has taken one that you have selected. The person to finish it first gets the bulk (or all) of the reward. If an Agency really likes you, they are more likely to offer you exclusive contracts
• Some contracts call for direct competition. It might ask for players to send up the most tourists in a single launch, and whoever gets the most wins. Or they may ask you to deliver some payload to the surface of the Mun, and whoever gets there first wins.
• Some contracts call for direct cooperation. For example, it may ask multiple players to contribute to a station together, or visit someone else's base, to get a shared reward.
• Science could be a point of competition as well. It would probably go too far to say that the first person to collect Science from a situation/biome steals it from anyone else. But you could give a bonus for the first person in each case, encouraging players to go somewhere new.
• Sabatoge of other players is punished so that the game doesn't devolve into an ICBM war. (perhaps that's open to be disabled by mods for people who want to build in combat)
• Add a "press center" building where you can check up on what other players are up to, how they stand with different agencies, insight on what tech they have, see what contracts they've taken, etc.
• Add Strategies that play into all of these new mechanics.
• You could go a few ways on how the AI works. I don't see a reason to make him actually process launches, burns, etc. that you aren't present for. From your perspective it's mostly just going to seem like they're spawning ships in orbit and sending them around to do contracts. He mostly just needs to be able to keep track of fuel usage so that he doesn't cheat. You'd have to limit how fast he can build/manage. The real trick is teaching him to design ships. It would obviously be best if he could procedurally generate ships for different purposes following some basic design rules. (rather than work with a set of predefined ships)

Lastly:  Multiplayer? Ideally, this would all be set up in such a way as to allow for playing with other humans rather than AI.

 

[mattinoz]

On 08/04/2017 at 0:45 PM, GregroxMun said:

But you already paid for the game. And not everyone does want to pay for such a thing.

Funny you say that but to me it seems most new versions of games are engine and graphics upgrades with minor gameplay improvements. I mean look at SimCity series and we still paid full price each time.

[Whirligig Girl]

1 hour ago, mattinoz said:

Funny you say that but to me it seems most new versions of games are engine and graphics upgrades with minor gameplay improvements. I mean look at SimCity series and we still paid full price each time.

Sure a totally new game and a new engine and new art assets and the whole kerjigger is one thing, but an expansion pack that requires the full game already is a different thing. That would make it twice as expensive for a new buyer.

Edited April 12, 2017 by GregroxMun