Fix the poles!

[maculator]

Every pole that has some sort of terrain inclination is broken.

I don't know since when this is the case, but now they're all "open" (one or two sides are folded up a bit so you can see through the planet.

This is annoying and should't happen in a game that has passed early access, alpha and beta status. And it should definitly not happen when it was just fine before!

That's a +250m gap.

And on a side note my rover and lander in the background jump in the air when I return to them, that also shouldn't happen...

[klgraham1013]

16 minutes ago, maculator said:

I don't know since when this is the case...

Since forever.  It's caused by the way they make planets.  I believe the problems been better or worse depending the version, but I could be wrong.  I don't think there's a solution besides making all the poles flat maybe?

Edited February 20, 2018 by klgraham1013

[qzgy]

6 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

Since forever.  It's caused by the way they make planets.  I believe the problems been better or worse depending the version, but I could be wrong.  I don't think there's a solution besides making all the poles flat maybe?

I thought/heard that in earlier versions a model, similar to the Mun Arch was just placed ontop to hide the scarring. This would be a possible option here, yes?

[maculator]

But in 1.2 I visited the northpole of the mun and it was a pointy pyramid, now its a "thing".

This is how it looked a few years back.

And now;

[klesh]

Could this be a result of the terrain seam fix that came with 1.3?

[Ultimate Steve]

I consider them interesting terrain features that are fun and challenging to explore, like the moholes. If you've ever been to Duna's north pole, you know how interesting the poles can get... Eve is another favorite of mine as far as poles go.

[maculator]

14 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I consider them interesting terrain features that are fun and challenging to explore, like the moholes. If you've ever been to Duna's north pole, you know how interesting the poles can get... Eve is another favorite of mine as far as poles go.

I love exploring the poles but I'd prefer them to be "closed".

[swjr-swis]

16 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

I believe the problems been better or worse depending the version, but I could be wrong.

I believe that statement could be true or false depending on how I read it, but I could be logical.

 

16 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

I don't think there's a solution besides making all the poles flat maybe?

I wouldn't mind that being the solution for the poles as a special case - except for Moho, where it's a feature.

More in general though, I wonder if they ever fixed the problem of terrain gaps at random locations away from the poles (corners of terrain tiles being disconnected and allowing one to fall under the surface).

[DAL59]

22 hours ago, maculator said:

Every pole that has some sort of terrain inclination is broken.

I don't know since when this is the case, but now they're all "open" (one or two sides are folded up a bit so you can see through the planet.

This is annoying and should't happen in a game that has passed early access, alpha and beta status. And it should definitly not happen when it was just fine before!

That's a +250m gap.

And on a side note my rover and lander in the background jump in the air when I return to them, that also shouldn't happen...

Don't fix the poles!  Its a famous part of the game.  

[maculator]

I don't mind pointy poles or deep holes. Physics going mad isn't aproblem either I just hate that they're open.

[Poodmund]

I opened an Issue/Bug with regards to this a while back on the Bug Tracker with reasoning as to why its occurring: https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/17005 

[MinimalMinmus]

I kinda like the poles that go haywire, it's kinda like the Far Lands from Minecraft... as you get closer, the terrain goes more and more distorted, until you reach what's pretty much the core of the warping.

[Starwaster]

On 2/24/2018 at 7:13 AM, MinimalMinmus said:

I kinda like the poles that go haywire, it's kinda like the Far Lands from Minecraft... as you get closer, the terrain goes more and more distorted, until you reach what's pretty much the core of the warping.

Except that this is nothing like the 'far lands' which you have to go to great lengths that most players just don't do and there's really not much of a reason to go there except for the novelty of it.

The polar regions of the planets in KSP is different, they're easier to go and there are reasons to go there: They have biomes that yield science and contracts might require you to visit them. Additionally, non-Kerbin planets have randomly appearing green monoliths that unlock random tech so you might find those at the poles as well.

There's really no good reason for deliberately keeping a bug like this around, where you can fall through the terrain and lose vehicles and personnel...

[SnailsAttack]

55 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

Except that this is nothing like the 'far lands' which you have to go to great lengths that most players just don't do and there's really not much of a reason to go there except for the novelty of it.

The polar regions of the planets in KSP is different, they're easier to go and there are reasons to go there: They have biomes that yield science and contracts might require you to visit them. Additionally, non-Kerbin planets have randomly appearing green monoliths that unlock random tech so you might find those at the poles as well.

There's really no good reason for deliberately keeping a bug like this around, where you can fall through the terrain and lose vehicles and personnel...

You don't think it's a game limitation? I've personally never been to the exact pole of any of the planets, but I wouldn't really mind having to avoid a small area near it to avoid losing my ships.

[Starwaster]

4 minutes ago, SnailsAttack said:

You don't think it's a game limitation? I've personally never been to the exact pole of any of the planets, but I wouldn't really mind having to avoid a small area near it to avoid losing my ships.

No I don't think it's a game limitation and I do think it can be fixed. It's almost certainly not a two line fix so it's going to require some work. When issues like this go unfixed, it's usually time limitations or other issues taking higher priority. It's also possible that in spite of the number of players being aware of this, it has't made it onto the bug tracker. If it's not on the tracker then the probability of being fixed drops down significantly. That's just the nature of development. If it is on the tracker then it should be poked at by players to put it back into developer awareness.

[maculator]

I haven't been on the bugtracker since a while. Last time I used it was when they released the beta and asked to test it.

How do I get there :S Will my old account stil work?

Because now that I think of it the poles are one thing, but the dishes should also be placed that they make sense and not look like somebody just sticked them in the mountains (You can walk under a few and saving there will cause mayhem). And of course landers jumping in air on load, but that seems to be a thing they're aware of.

[klgraham1013]

On 3/1/2018 at 8:18 PM, Starwaster said:

It's also possible that in spite of the number of players being aware of this, it has't made it onto the bug tracker.

Not an excuse.  If so many players know about it, surely Squad's internal QA does.  We are not Squad's unpaid bug-tracking minions.  That's typically the job of the game company itself.

Maybe this comes off as to harsh, but I'm tired of hearing that Squad might not know about something even though it's all over the official community forums.  They hired a community manager.  Surely, that person is aware of the bigger conversations going on in the community.

Edited March 3, 2018 by klgraham1013

[MinimalMinmus]

Unfortunately, with the current programming of planets it would be fairly hard for SQUAD to do anything without completely changing how planets are coded. This is due to the planet's height map being more or less a Mercator map, which causes extreme distortion at the poles.

[maculator]

I don't have a clue how coding of the planets works and I don't demand perfectly seamles poles. they can, and should stay interresting. "just" close the gaps, done.

Edit:

Clearification: A pyramid, a hole, a cliff; that's all fine and interresting to explore just somehow force those gaps to be blocked by a terrain panel or something.

@MinimalMinmus you for example have a nasty open southpole, lost a kerbal and a rover while exploring >:[

Edited March 4, 2018 by maculator