Kerbal Geography!

[ryan234abc]

THE GREAT GEOGRAPHY HUNT!

This is a thread dedicated to the exploration of the Kerbol system, in the hopes of finding the ideal picnic spot and the most exciting flight challenges nature can build!

I've been wondering for a while about the geography of KSP. As far as I'm aware, little goes into development of the actual land, rather specific areas where easter eggs are found. However, given a bit of searching, I think there are some unique and good looking areas to find in the Kerbol system. For example, Laythe has beautifully flat poles providing great sunset views of Jool (see below). Rivers on Kerbin provide great flying opportunities and the mountains north of the inland KSC harbour great visuals as the sun peeks from behind the peaks!

This leads me to the topic of discussion! The Kerbol system isn't always geographically interesting - mountains and oceans seem to be the most exciting prospects to an untrained eye. However, have you found any hidden geographical gems? Anywhere you landed your command pod, crashed your plane, anywhere debris survived a fall that has left you stunned at the views around? I've been exploring the system with the hopes of finding a perfect spot to land and take in the view but I still feel this search would be so much easier with the help of the community! Please comment with your stories of places you've stumbled upon that are truly jaw dropping! Screenshots, co-ordinates or simply your accounts of these sights are welcome here!

[Rath]

may I suggest looking at this thread?

 

[surge]

Pretty much anywhere the "terrain scattering" loads in beautiful trees for me to look at while parachuting over the grasslands.

Due to the multithreaded way the game works, this doesn't always happen, but occasionally I screw up just so, and it does. It's especially beautiful when I come down near the coast so there's an ocean nearby as well - reminds me of my time in Vanuatu.

Edited April 7, 2017 by surge

[Mikki]

I found last year a very interesting place on Laythe;

Everyone knows the peninsula where the KSC is built on, a nice flat well-mowed green even plane, perfect to fool around with rovers, airplanes, misguided capsules and thelike...

The thing is, anyone who tried to land a spaceplane on Laythe might have found that there is hardly flat soil around for a nice and safe touchdown...
Especially for bigger MK3 Spaceplanes which really need a bit more space to takeoff again...

Really?

On Laythe, i found a similar peninsula (in size of the KSC area) on a larger island, close to sealevel, and best thing is it is nearly exactly on the equator, which spares expensive planechanges in orbit... Said peninsula is on a certain westcoast to find, and features a very long (around 3000 meters at least) nearly perfect flat ridge, wide and long enough for the largest contraptions, the perfect place for a base to make landfall. If i remember correctly it has sufficient ore density (about 7-8% average) to wrap up a ISRU station, at least well enough to refuel even with the small fuel converter in a pleasant time.
The direction of the ridge is very close to east - west direction, also nearly perfect.

Its located in a vast gulf, the coastline wraps to west in the northern area. A excellent view at sunset.

This is my next target again, i try to get there soon all stock...  Gonna post a picture of the place here.

Edit: Oh, i have a flag there!
 

A picture from above, said ridge is the dark line across the peninsula in the center...



And the coordinates of the flag as seen from orbit, warning this is a spoiler to newer forummembers, don`t look if you want to discover yourself!

Spoiler

You have been warned! 
 

Edited April 9, 2017 by Mikki
More info :D, and the pics

[fourfa]

Ore concentration is randomized every time anyone starts a new save, so it's likely any other player going to that spot will find a different amount.  Could be more, could be (especially if you pick a higher difficulty setting) less.  The default ore setting on Hard mode for instance - most of the Kerbol system has zero.

[ryan234abc]

On ‎08‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 0:34 AM, Rath said:

may I suggest looking at this thread?

 

Definitely interesting, I never thought about the origins of Kerbin geographically. I mainly did this thread to find some decent looking places, but your thread takes it to the next level!

 

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far! Some great discussions here! In contrast, I think I found the WORST view - the margin between white and red on Duna. The colours combine to create a sickly 'strawberry milkshake' colour. No thank you! Next stop, Vall. I'm hopeful for this one...

[MythicalHeFF]

Go to Eve's North Pole, you'll find something.... interesting. Not to mention it also looks really creepy with Scatterer installed... 

[ryan234abc]

 

On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 5:00 AM, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

Go to Eve's North Pole, you'll find something.... interesting. Not to mention it also looks really creepy with Scatterer installed... 

Genuinely horrifying. This is an exemplary find! This sent chills down my spine. Speechless. A perfect example of what I was looking for - although I doubt we'll be picnicking here anytime soon!

Edited April 13, 2017 by ryan234abc