Asteroid spawning should be reduced...

[Clockwork13]

Edited April 11, 2014 by Clockwork13

[Technical Ben]

Might be an idea to add a time based limit. Thus it's not a "true" hard limit on numbers, but prevents "spamming" the radar. Say 1 or 2 rocks every few months or so (as in real life too, we don't get HUNDREDS ).

But I'd guess this current number is to help with bug testing. No point with the alpha if we found 1 rock every few kerbal years. In the final release it can be few and far between as it would also be an end game goal.

Nice screenshot though.

[Tery215]

I don't see a problem with this.

Currently existing asteroids are rather difficult to do anything with. Grabbing a dozen is extremely difficult, but still possible and considerably more entertaining. Just don't get addicted to finding asteroids please.

[MockKnizzle]

Maybe you just shouldn't click "track" on every single one?

[Dweller_Benthos]

I started a similar discussion here, seems you have a few tracked as well. If you just sit there and track asteroids, you'll easily get a thousand or more.

My question is, if you don't track them, and one is on an intercept with Kerbin, will it crash, or just disappear since you're not tracking it? I'd like to know if anyone has experienced an impact on Kerbin from an unknown asteroid, and actually saw it.

[regex]

I've been playing around with the generation code lately and I've found that they eventually disappear (vessel destroyed) if you don't track them. The game also has what appears to be a hard limit on the number of unknown asteroids available at a given time and will only replace unknowns that have been removed. So, don't track them, problem solved.

[Stazi]

Stop tracking every asteroid that shows up. If you don't track them, there's a limit of about 10-15 "Unknowns" that can be spawned at one time. They'll eventually go away after some time has passed, and a new one will spawn elsewhere to replace it.

[Twreed87]

Seriously, it's your choice to track them. That's like... launching a thousand ships and then complaining your universe is too cluttered and they should force you to wait between launching ships.

[boxman]

Why exactly do you have to press track on every single asteroid that spawns?? Is not like the game forces you to do so.

If you didnt do that they would automatically despawn and you would not have this issue.

[ArmchairGravy]

I think it's fine as is. If I don't want to mess with them I don't track them. If I have the urge to capture one there's a selection ready to go.

[Dogoncrook]

While troubleshooting an issue I noticed that everytime you switch to spaceport or vab, or tracking, in the debug menu something has a 50/50 chance of generating. I'm guessing it's an asteroid. Has anyone else seen this? I could of course be completely wrong.

[ScallopPotato]

The number of asteroids does seem to be realistic though.

I'm actually now afraid to track the asteroids because there's a good chance it's on a collision course with Kerbin.

[RocketPilot573]

Is Kerbin a planet? It clearly hasn't "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." It looks like it's in the solar systems asteroid belt.

[Tery215]

The solar system's asteroid belt is actually consumed by Dres. The random appearance of asteroids is mysterious, yes.

Also, Kerbin is significantly larger than the asteroids.

[Technical Ben]

Is Kerbin a planet? It clearly hasn't "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." It looks like it's in the solar systems asteroid belt.

It's not a "planet" then by that definition.

I can understand the spawn timing/number/rate etc being changed in the future.

[CalculusWarrior]

I have to say, I like the spawning rate currently in KSP. It offers a nice selection of asteroids, and if you don't like the candidates it chose, you can simply timewarp forward. That being said, the OP does show that you can fool with the system by tracking every asteroid which comes your way.

[LordQ]

A limit on the number of asteroids that can be tracked would be nice. And the limit should be able to be increased by launching telescopes and whatnot.

[regex]

It's not a "planet" then by that definition.

Interestingly, neither is Earth if you take that literally. From the same article:

Stern, currently leading the NASA New Horizons mission to Pluto, disagrees with the reclassification of Pluto on the basis thatâ€â€like Plutoâ€â€Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune have not cleared their orbital neighbourhoods either. Earth co-orbits with 10,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), and Jupiter has 100,000 Trojan asteroids in its orbital path. "If Neptune had cleared its zone, Pluto wouldn't be there", he now says.

OP's list of tracked asteroids isn't exactly excessive considering the largest asteroids in KSP are, what, like 20 meters across? Earth shares orbit with an estimated 980 asteroids over 1km in diameter. Now, the number of impactors changing in future versions, I can see.

[cantab]

If you do want to track a load of asteroids, remember you can disable showing their orbits in the tracking station and map view, so you don't have so much clutter. Until you want to visit one, at least.

And regarding impacts, well the only way to actually see it right to the ground is to send a ship to it and be flying that ship it as it enters the atmosphere. If you aren't flying something within 2.5 km of the asteroid, it will simply be destroyed "off-screen" when it gets below 20km or so just like any vessel - whether it's untracked, tracked, or even got your ship clawed to it with Jeb on board.

[J.Random]

"Mom, I've just shot myself in the leg. Please cut off my hands so that I couldn't do it again."

[Clockwork13]

"Mom, I've just shot myself in the leg. Please cut off my hands so that I couldn't do it again."

Ok, son.

*Cuts off hand*

[Vanamonde]

Moved to suggestions, but it's true; you're not obligated to track all of the asteroids which are generated.

[Dunbaratu]

The reason people track every asteroid is that you can't tell which ones have a danger of impacting Kerbin if you don't. While the game allows that to happen without consequence people won't assume that. They'll assume they MUST check for that danger.

How about showing the asteroids icon for asteroids that are bound for an impact with a different color, even when they're in the untracked "question mark" state? Then people wouldn't feel obligated to track all of them. They'd just track the dangerous ones.

Even if the game allows you to ignore the impact asteroids, players playing a more 'roleplaying' way will still want to pay attention to the ones that are going to impact. And right now the only way to do that is to track them, because you can't tell until then.

[KaBob]

I think a good solution would be to let us see their orbit by mousing over them without having to track. That way you don't have to track and then untrack a ton of asteroids until you find one with an orbit you want.

[mythbusters844]

Can't you untrack asteroids ? I remember that you can track an asteroid, check where it'll go, then untrack it and it will eventually disappear.