Places of interest worth visiting on Kerbin?

[space_cowboy]

Hi Rocketeers

I'm a 1 week newbie at KSP and just starting out on career mode and from my many failed attempts at getting into orbit I noticed I am receiving science for collecting soil samples from my various landing spots back on Kerbin. I have so far collected samples from Sea, Grasslands, Highlands, Desert and Ice Cap are there others I am missing?

So I thought it might be a useful excercise to find places of interest to visit on Kerbin. I did try the search button without success. Can anyone give me some pointers on what is to be found and a rough location?

I was trying for the highest altitude landing spot but unsure where that would be? I have had a few attempts at parachuting down on to mountainous regions but usually I miss. However on the couple of occasions I have had success the rocks have destroyed my capsule and Kerbal. Maybe I was just unlucky or maybe rocky landing sites are to be avoided?

[theend3r]

Try finding some of the anomalies, especially the flying saucer and pyramids.

[Astronaut]

Everywhere, its the most interesting planet in my opinion and has more biomes and anomalies than anywhere else.

[Jodo42]

Everywhere, its the most interesting planet in my opinion and has more biomes and anomalies than anywhere else.

Actually the Mun has more biomes.

Regarding the OP, check <a href="http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/List_of_easter_eggs#Kerbin">this</a> page if you want a list of the anomalies on Kerbin. Major spoilers obviously, but no exact coords. If you really want them <a href="http://www.kerbalmaps.com/">...</a>

Hover over the stack of sheets under Kerbin's globe in the top right and click the box next to "Anomalies".

Edited February 11, 2014 by Jodo42

[Vanamonde]

space_cowboy, the launchpad and runway are both soil types. Really. Try it.

[gdnoz]

I have a searing urge to check the center island of that beautiful crater.

[Mmmmyum]

The pyramids are underground now though aren't they?

[Silverchain]

The pyramids are underground now though aren't they?

I couldn't find them again when I last looked, but I think I've seen someone post a picture of them saying it was from .23 - will check again later.

On topic - I would recommend visiting the big circular crater basin, especially with a plane, there's nice cliffs along the south edge. KSC2 is good to find, and it's nice to fly to the pole, though good luck finding (anything interesting) without precise coordinates.

I have yet to visit the badlands, keep meaning to send a plane over to visit!

Edited February 11, 2014 by Silverchain

[KerbMav]

This will be one of the rare times that even I will say/ask such a thing:

Is it really that time consuming and complicated to make sure the anomalies are where they are intended to be?

[Geschosskopf]

So I thought it might be a useful excercise to find places of interest to visit on Kerbin. I did try the search button without success. Can anyone give me some pointers on what is to be found and a rough location?

I was trying for the highest altitude landing spot but unsure where that would be? I have had a few attempts at parachuting down on to mountainous regions but usually I miss. However on the couple of occasions I have had success the rocks have destroyed my capsule and Kerbal. Maybe I was just unlucky or maybe rocky landing sites are to be avoided?

Kerbin is the prettiest planet in the game with all sorts of places to go sightseeing just to enjoy the natural beauty. So if you've done enough science to suit you and are done with anomalies, just go touring. There are scads of really cool geologic features scattered all over and they're definitely worth seeing. And perhaps building a vacation home for Jeb at. The mountains and badlands are especially interesting.

Before you go touring, you need a map. I recommend using KerbalMaps.com to plan your trip. This incidentally will show the highest point on Kerbin, which is a mountain located at 61.5784 N, 46.3733 E, as well as the biomes and anomalies if you want to grab some of them while you're out. But it's discovering the cool random things the procedural terrain system spits out that IMHO is the reason for the trip. So look at the map for places where the terrain looks likely to combine several elements and go have a look.

An easy bit of coolness to find is what I call "Mount St. Kelens". This is a big volcanic-looking mountain sitting alone not too far NNE of KSC. The east side is all blown out like its namesake.

Now, to get the full enjoyment of the cool geography, you have to land there. This requires a plane with not only the range to go and return, but also insane STOL or ever VTOL performance, and the structural rigidity to take rough landings. If VTOL ain't your thing, go for STOL by just piling on more wing area until you can take off at 20-25m/s, then go straight up with a TWR > 1. With such a plane, you don't need anything even approximating level ground; all of Kerbin is your runway. So you can do stupid airplane tricks like this:

Airbase Island is overrated

[theend3r]

The pyramids are underground now though aren't they?

No, they're not. I visited them this version.

[HazelPine]

Alright! lets do some piramid flying! Anyway, a cool place to visit is the biggest river halfway to the north pole. It has awesome cliffs and looks awesome in general!

[space_cowboy]

Thanks for all the info and maps. I have since got the samples from The launch pad, runway and KSC and grabbed a piece of the Badlands. I managed to land in the centre of the crater in the mountains due WEST of KSC but it only registered as mountain sample. But I'm definitely going to need to start building planes to see Kerbin properly, I am finding it a little time consuming trying to bring that command pod down in a precise location.

Edited February 18, 2014 by space_cowboy

[Silverchain]

Definitely, planes are the way to go to get around Kerbin. Especially if you have a particular destination in mind - a high, fast plane can zoom through the top of the atmosphere or make a suborbital hop and it's much quicker than flying the whole distance at low level.

[Cerberus738]

I've found the pyramids and the ufo in 0.23. First time for me! The UFO is underground if you don't have the terrain detail on default. Thought that was odd. I've left my setting in default and the pyramids are sitting properly. The crater monolith is below ground. Just a corner sticks up. The only one I can't find is the monolith due west of ksc. My understandingsis that it's floating way up but I haven't been able to find it.

[KerbMav]

Visible on default - whatabout higher?

[Claw]

The only one I can't find is the monolith due west of ksc. My understandingsis that it's floating way up but I haven't been able to find it.

I found one by accident the other day, I didn't even know it existed. I think it was north, not too far from KSC. My detail is on default and it was sitting properly on the ground.

[Cerberus738]

There's one a couple km north of the ksc runway... it's that the one you are talking about?

[Claw]

There's one a couple km north of the ksc runway... it's that the one you are talking about?

Yeah, I think so. I went and found it again. It's a couple km northeast of KSC. It was a couple meters off the ground. But now I'm guessing that's not the one you're talking about.

[MrAnonymous]

Download the mod SCANSat. It lets you scan the planet of biomes, anomalies, elevation differences, and other things. I just downloaded it and it is great. You can find plenty of places to go to with this mod.

[Cerberus738]

Yeah, I think so. I went and found it again. It's a couple km northeast of KSC. It was a couple meters off the ground. But now I'm guessing that's not the one you're talking about.

Ha ha yeah the one I'm talking about is supposed to be somewhere near the southern peak of the mountain range directly west of ksc. I've been using Scansat to find anomalies and it marks one there but I can't find it. I read somewhere that it's floating way up in the sky around there .lol

[Claw]

Ha ha yeah the one I'm talking about is supposed to be somewhere near the southern peak of the mountain range directly west of ksc. I've been using Scansat to find anomalies and it marks one there but I can't find it. I read somewhere that it's floating way up in the sky around there .lol

Ahh. I was trying to use scansat to find some of that stuff, but it kept crashing KSP. I finally gave up and uninstalled it.

[Redgum]

Think my recent flight over the mountains to the north east of KSP launch pad qualifies as interesting. I've dubbed the mountain where the river cuts through its eastern slope as 'Saw-back' mountain due to the rather pixelicious outlines :-)

[Grand Lander]

Flying to the second Kerbal space center is worth visiting.