If you could redesign/improve the Kerbol System, what would you do?

[Ultimate Steve]

Oh, boy.

OVERALL: More things to do on the planets. Dramatic terrain in places, procedural terrain like the Mun has. Clouds. Realistic looking oceans.

KERBOL: Nothing really to change. Maybe make it a bit smaller?

ABLATE: Small body waaay closer to the sun than Moho for a challenge.

MOHO: I'd give it rock geysers, because why not? I'd also turn up the procedural craters to the extreme, and I'd make the moholes go all the way through the planet, because why not? I'd also add a small asteroid moon.

EVE: I'd bring back the crystal moon. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you must look at these. I'd make Eve slightly more red.

GILLY: A big crater, I guess.

KERBIN: Kerbin is amazing just the way it is.

MUN: Mun is also fine.

MINMUS: Random crystals sticking out from the surface in places.

DUNA: Make the poles less of a pain to look at. If you've been to Duna's poles, you'll know what I'm talking about. I'd also give it 2 more moons, a small captured asteroid in elliptical orbit and a lava moon.

IKE: Bring back the magic boulder! I'd also make a few deep pits to make it worth exploring.

DRES: A few on rails moonlets. Also, an actual asteroid belt.

JOOL: A big spot and a polar hexagon. And rings. Many more moonlets, including elliptical and retrograde moonlets.

LAYTHE: A bit more icy. Slightly more appealing color on the beaches. Bluer oceans. A good landing site on the Jool facing side (again, if you've tried to land there, you know what I'm talking about).

VALL: More dramatic cliffs, like straight up and stuff. I'd also make the terrain more slippery than usual (maybe).

TYLO: Thin, barely noticeable atmosphere. More craters.

BOP: Make the big crater more pronounced.

POL: make everything 1.5x taller and more dramatic. Reduce gravity just a tad. Shorten day length.

GAS PLANET TWO: If we could have GP2 and GP3, I'd say a Saturn and a Neptune. However, if I could have only one, I'd say an ice giant because I'd already added Saturn's features to Jool. It would have a wide array of strange moons, like a Titan analog, one with its own submoon, and one with a mountain that exceeded the height of the atmosphere.

EELOO: Give it a Charon analog. Maybe have a barycenter. Also, a few more tiny sub-Gilly moons.

WERNHER'S COMET: Self explanatory.

[[insert_name_here]]

I would add a tidally-locked planet orbiting Kerbol. It would have a large gravity with a radius larger than Kerbin by a little bit, and have a very high but relatively thin atmosphere (around 120km high), making it hard to land on and take off from. Also it would be cool if it orbited Kerbol in the opposite direction to the other planets. The side facing the sun would be a volcanic rocky wasteland with lakes of lava that damage your craft and craggy, dark mountains as well as generally rough terrain. The dark side of the planet would be flat and completely covered in ice. In the middle would be a kind-of liveable desert area, and then a strip of ocean in between the desert and the ice cap.

 

As well as this, I would add a ringed gas giant with three moons. One moon would have a very high inclination, almost polar orbit. However, it would be rich in fuel making it a good spot for a fuel station. One moon would have a very small, tenuous atmosphere and it would be covered in all sorts of awesome terrain, perfect for flying around in spaceplanes (although the atmosphere would be so thin that there would be no point in bringing air-breathing engines). It would also have a huge mountain that goes above the atmosphere. The final moon would orbit EXTREMELY close to the gas giant at periapsis and super far out at apoapsis (basically extremely high eccentricity) and would resemble a captured asteroid. That should make for some cool views from the surface of the moon.

 

Finally, I would add randomly-generated comets orbiting Kerbol.

 

That would be all in terms of new celestial bodies. As for modifications I would make to existing bodies...

Laythe: Poles. Also, some awesome, fluffy clouds.

Kerbin: Clouds would be nice here as well.

Eve: Also clouds. Very thick, pink-coloured clouds that completely obscure Kerbol almost all the time (although the light would still be there).

 

Basically, clouds. LOTS OF CLOUDS. I know mods do this fantastically, but I would like to see clouds in the stock game.

 

Dres should have more craters. I mean, it's surrounded by asteroids and has no atmosphere. Of course it should have more craters. Not too many, but more. The terrain should be more bumpy and irregular. Not steep ridges/mountains but more shallow, rocky, bumpy terrain.

Duna should have dust storms that block out solar panels, reduce visibility and disrupt communication signals. That would be cool.

I would also give Eeloo a very small, almost completely unnoticeable atmosphere, just to make it more realistic.

 

Also, I liked a few of the suggestions @Ultimate Steve had, specifically the ideas of more dramatic terrain on Pol, crystals on Minmus and slippery terrain on Vall.

[kraden]

@Ty Tan Tu I'm pretty sure it's compatable with 64bit. I threw it on a GPP install just to see how stable the system was and what the mod was like (GPP must be run in 64bit). I also did this in 1.2.2, I don't know when the mod was last updated. 

[Galileo]

18 minutes ago, kraden said:

@Ty Tan Tu I'm pretty sure it's compatable with 64bit. I threw it on a GPP install just to see how stable the system was and what the mod was like (GPP must be run in 64bit). I also did this in 1.2.2, I don't know when the mod was last updated. 

I tested principia a couple weeks ago and it seemed to work ok. It recently got an update too  

is this the thread you got it from?

 

[kraden]

59 minutes ago, Galileo said:

I tested principia a couple weeks ago and it seemed to work ok. It recently got an update too  

is this the thread you got it from?

 

No actually, I just found it on github. When I had tested it before, Lily took a dive and crashed . If it worked for you though, I may need to update and give it another shot. We'll see if I can get a better handle on the flight planner this time.

[wumpus]

Eh?  Most things I've grumped about pretty much comes down to moving mods into stock.  It hardly requires a full redesign.

I'd like the level 1 VAB to be a barn (I didn't play back when it was, I just love the image).

As noted in the current (as of 10/4/2017) thread, Bill and Bob's names should be reversed (I didn't notice until the thread pointed it out).

[Delay]

I'd change some things in the Kerbin system. I'd make the Mun a bit smaller (maybe 150km instead of 200?). That big rock is too difficult to miss in my opinion. And give it some  slight inclination, maybe 2-4° New players are immediately introduced to the concept of inclination this way, instead of "waiting" for Minmus.

(However, I'd would (for me anyways) destroy geostationary orbits around Kerbin, as I use the Muns lack of inclination as a "this is equatorial" marker. Still, I'd like to see that.)

Oh, and I'd also remove/change Kerbins, The Muns and Minmus' perfect 0 eccentricities.

Summary: I'd make the Kerbin system less perfect and more "introducing" for players who don't know anything about orbital mechanics yet. It's the first thing they see and it sets the tone for the rest of the game.

[Julien Kerman]

1)  I would like a tiny asteroid around Kerbol in a highly eccentric and inclined orbit (periapsis at Duna's orbit // apoapsis way beyond Jool // inclination 25 deg).  So basically the counterpart of Sedna in our system.

2)  Make Jool & Kerbol a little bigger.

3)   Add more moons to Jool & make Laythe a little more icy. 

4)  Add a new planet (maybe even instead of Dres) which is tidally locked relative to Kerbol, so that is is half water, half ice.

5) Add more surface features (caves for example)

 

Edited October 4, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[purpleivan]

Hmmmm... let me think.

The system needs planet "99", a mysterious cream coloured planet with a massive brown alien structure sticking out of it.

After all it has pistachio (Minmus), chocolate (Bop),  tutti frutti (Pol), chocolate with choc chip (Moho) and strawberry (Duna)

[FungusForge]

 

2)  Make Kerbol a little bigger.

I've never really liked the sun being so much larger than everything else in the relative scale of the game, so I'm curious why you'd want the sun bigger.

[Julien Kerman]

 

I've never really liked the sun being so much larger than everything else in the relative scale of the game, so I'm curious why you'd want the sun bigger.

Maybe 400,000km instead of 261,600km. Why ?? I dont know exactly, actually it is enough if Kerbins orbit would be farther out.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[RedPandaz]

On 10/19/2015 at 8:48 AM, Chiboko said:

I'd add a binary planet system with a small moon doing a figure of 8 between them, this moon would be about half the size of minmus, have a tiny SOI but not show up on the map so you need to land a beacon on it before you can reliably find it.

The MAgic Boulder would work well for that ^^ Just make it bigger and landable

[zengin11]

I would probably add a saturn-esque planet, a gas planet like Jool, but a little smaller, and with large rings.

[Geschosskopf]

Wow, what a necro.  But I'd make OPM stock.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Geschosskopf

[Chel]

I would make asteroids randomly impact or pass very close to Kerbin.

[FungusForge]

17 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

I would make asteroids randomly impact or pass very close to Kerbin.

So.... no change at all then?

[tater]

1. Increase the scale. So many problems with KSP are a direct result of the "mini" scale. This could be to approximately the Sol system, or it could be to at least another real solar system---meaning a real sized sun, smaller than Earth Kerbin with lower gravity, but at least plausible, etc.

2. I'd make more planets and moons than get played in any given game, and randomize the system as a career option for replay.

3. More interesting terrain at the scale size of spacecraft.

[Kerbital]

Way more varied land features and higher resolution textures. Current planets look very uninviting and plain. 

[Cadet_BNSF]

On 10/17/2015 at 8:10 PM, Pthigrivi said:

It could also be tidally locked,

I don't think it should be tidally locked. More like Mercury, which is close to being tidally locked.

In addition, I think an on-rails quasi-satellite of one of the bodies would be cool, kind of like 3753 Cruithne

An additional gas giant somewhere. Hmm, thats got me thinking. Hot Jool anyone?

A trojan body, either of Tylo, or Duna

 

[Fuby2809]

On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2015 at 8:11 AM, Francois424 said:

I would fully develop it to continue to match (more or less) our system.

So adding Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, each with a few moons (say Saturn and Uranus gets 4, Neptune gets 3, Pluto gets 2).

I want something very very close to Halley's Comet trajectory, but since everything is scaled it would be too. Perfect to land a base on if not in a hurry and take it off at the Neptune analog for a rather free (if only long) ride to the edge of the system.

Once those are all added, add stuff/flesh-out/improve ground texture for any and all celestial bodies... including the skybox.

All of these addition would simply double (perhaps more) the time it takes the players to wrap-up everything. With 64-Bits memory should not be an issue and for lower systems, just make a menu option to uncheck the extra planets after Jool if they don't have enough memory or to load the basic (ie current) textures.

I feel the outer planets are sorely missing and even tho we have amazing mods to correct that, I'd love the official stock game to take care of this.

Everyone would have the same system and it does not matter if no one goes to Uranus or Pluto, it would be a fun option to have.

EDIT: I might change the color of Kerbol into an orange-red sun. I'd have to test and see how it affect luminosity and gameplay... if too dark it becomes annoying afterall.

No not a free ride you have to match it's speed to land so there's no point because you're already on a path to Neptune.

[juvilado]

There are many mods that do that. But i always wanted more places to visit.

[Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut]

Kerbol: A bit bigger.

Moho: A bit more closer to Kerbol, with active volcanos and great craters. Maybe a bit smaller.

Eve: With the size of Kerbin, and with more rivers and a inactive (but not extint) volcano. With less gravity and a smaller atmosphere (maybe 80 KM).

Gilly, a bit bigger, with more gravity, and in a retrograde, less inclinaded and in a almost cicular orbit arround Eve.

Kerbin: With caves and more rivers, and more space centers, and ground bases in the poles.

Mun: A litte more away from Kerbin, with more montains, more biomes and more easter-eggs.

Minmus: Bigger, and with frezzed "rivers"

Duna: A bit closer to Kerbol, and with one litte lake in a crater on the equator, and with a really big canyon like Valles Marineris.

Ike: A capturated asteroid like Gilly, and with a very inclinaded orbit, and the Magic Boulder orbiting Ike as a official sub-satelite of Ike.

Between Duna and Jool, a asteroid belt, with Dres orbiting inside the belt.

Dres: With bigger canyons, a more grayer surface, more craters, some asteroid-moons and a very higly concentration of ore in the entire planet.

Jool: With a great spot, and closer to Kerbol.

Laythe: With a surface almost completally solid, with some lakes and a more dense atmosphere (like Titan).

Vall: With a gray surface, a tiny atmosphere and active criovolcanos.

Tylo: Smaller, with less gravity, darker areas and a really bigger cave with a own biome.

Bop: A oblate moon, and a more noticiable crater on the north pole and a bigger Kraken.

Pol: Smaller, with less gravity and a big crater, like the big crater on Mimas.

Eeloo: A texture like Pluto, a bit bigger, and 3 moons (analogues to Charon, Nix and Hydra).

Edited October 21, 2017 by Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut

[OhioBob]

I wouldn't do much.  If I wanted to make big changes, I'd just start from scratch and create an entirely new solar system.  That being said, there are a few things about the stock system that bugs me from a realism point of view.  Just a few tweaks here and there would take care of it.

1. Some of the atmospheres aren't very realistic, but I've already fixed that with Realistic Atmospheres.
2. Kerbol is really disproportioned compared to the other bodies.  I'd reduced it's radius and give it properties consistent with real life main sequence stars (similar to Ciro is GPP).
3. I think Eve is too dense, so I'd lower it's surface gravity to about 1.2 g.
4. To compensate for Eve's lower gravity and keep it a difficult place to launch from, I'd probably bump its surface air pressure to 10 atm.
5. I think Jool is not dense enough for its size, so I'd increase it's surface gravity to about 1.2 g.
6. Mun is way too close to Kerbin (at its current distance, Kerbin would be tidally locked to Mun).  I'd move Mun out to a semimajor axis of about 38,000 km.

There might be a few other tweaks that I'd consider, but these are the main ones.

(These changes assume the stock bodies are at a scale that is 1/10th the radius and 1/100th the mass of their real life counterparts.)
 

Edited October 22, 2017 by OhioBob

[Avery616]

I would give jool some rings. And add another planet with a multitude of moons around it like said jool. Maybe even add deep space planets.

[Clonos]

Add NovaSilisko's ideas. Oh what do i like them... (also that super far planet which the civilication threw easter eggs in the system)

On ‎21‎-‎10‎-‎2017 at 3:45 AM, Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut said:

Kerbol: A bit bigger.

Please, Kerbol is already big enough compared to the rest of the planets xD

(Jool is 6000 KM in radius, while Kerbol is 261.000 KM)