Kerbin in Orbit of Jool

[birdog357]

Is it my imagination or do I remember someone coming up with a config that placed Kerbin in orbit of Jool a while back?

[Streetwind]

This is extremely easy to do with Kopernicus. Like, "done in 60 seconds", to parody a well-known movie title. Well okay, a bit more than 60 seconds if you first have to research where precisely you want it to be around Jool, but the act of writing the config is done really quickly.

However, there's more to it than just placing Kerbin there. The game actually calculates many things in reference to Kerbin (or rather, in reference to whatever the 'homeworld' is). For example, all solar panel output is defined to be the values given in the part configs, at the sun distance of the homeworld, and scaling with the natural square-cube-law from there. So if you put Kerbin in orbit of Jool, then you will have full normal solar panel output at Jool, not the greatly reduced amount you would expect to get at Jool in a stock game. In the inner solar system, solar panel output will be massively increased, and out at Eeloo, you'll still get pretty good performance. This means that if you were to make such a config, you would then have to think about rebalancing solar panels. And that is only one of several such things.

Additionally, because the game is so dependant on Kerbin's position, you may encounter visual bugs. For example, if Kerbin is in orbit around anything other than the sun, then the sun will not visibly move in the sky in the space center view. It will reset to its proper position whenever you load the space center (come out of a building or return from flying a ship), but as long as you stay in the space center view, it will remain fixed in the sky.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Streetwind

[birdog357]

I'm not sure, but it wasn't just a simple move. I think every planet got shifted around and reshuffled and the whole system expanded a bit.

[Streetwind]

Oh, you're looking for the name of a mod, not for advice on a config? Should have said so

There are quite a few planet packs that expand the stock system, but only few that move Kerbin (due to the aforementioned complexity of the issue). In fact, I only know one that puts Kerbin in orbit of a gas giant, though not specifically Jool. That mod is called New Horizons, and it is not currently up to date.

[birdog357]

5 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Oh, you're looking for the name of a mod, not for advice on a config? Should have said so

There are quite a few planet packs that expand the stock system, but only few that move Kerbin (due to the aforementioned complexity of the issue). In fact, I only know one that puts Kerbin in orbit of a gas giant, though not specifically Jool. That mod is called New Horizons, and it is not currently up to date.

That's the one. Thanks.