Huge Blue Horizon --- Theories about the 7th Planet

[SkyRex94]

Hello KSP-Community,

i follow these Forums since i started playing KSP. I know there've been several Threads about GP2, but I have some Theories that were'nt fully mentioned yet and decided to create an account here to share them with you and ask for your opinion. And afterwards i would like to describe how i would imagine my personal ideal GP2.

But first, the important things, the Theories:

I think everbody agrees that the next planet will most likely be a Gas Giant. And it was mentioned that Eeloo will be a moon around it. Most of the community expect at least this to happen, so Squad will most probably do it that way. So second GG(Gas Giant) behind the Orbit of Jool with Eeloo as a Moon.

Also was announced that Squad aims for Scope-completition first before adding new stuff, wich already exist(like planets).

And fact is whenever they can they aim to not break saves with an update. # Here starts the Theorie, the new 7th Planet can't realisticly be on Eeloos orbit because Gas Giants wont be stable with intersecting Orbits. So Eeloos Orbit has to be erased and a new one has to be created fully behind Jool. Eeloo will change into the SOI of new GG. And that will probably break saves with everything related(Ships) to Eeloo intercepts and SOI. As it is probably easy to create the gas giant (no Surface, so only the outside looks) it would be preferable for squad to implement the new Giant as soon as the next save breaking update. They dont have to implement the Rings to that point (if it will have ones, but its high on the wishlists) because i suspect they'll be only cosmetical and not physically realy relevant. And they dont have to add more moons than Eeloo to this point, because they dont exist till now and they can add them later.

So they can add everything later but probably they would like to implement 2nd GG and Eeloo's transition as soon as the next save breaking update. They just have to create a (temporarly) no-ring-Giant, wich should be the easiest planet creation of all ,and move another.

I would wish that will be 0.24 but i cant predict that. I dont know if it will break saves.

Now the wishing part. How would my ideal 2nd GG look like (Take Inspiration here Squad!!!):

First properties: maybe ca. 10000km Radius but only slightly more Mass than Jool (Big but not dense. like Saturn)

Orbit Radius ca. the Distance from Eeloos current Apoapsis from Kerbol, but nearly round , not intersecting Jool

Name: Suggest a good one maybe starting with 'S'

Optics: Color BLUE !!!!! I want it to be a blue Giant, it would be my Mission target Nr.1!

Blue like Neptune, maybe a bit brighter and Rings, Blue Rings. And maybe some Big Storm like the Big Dark Spot Or the Big Red Spot in our System Inspiration:

I dont want to be pic heavy, some more:

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/contentblob/1729624/timg485x273blob/6949378 our Neptune

http://i.imgur.com/0fCDzz4.png The WIP GP2

http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/112/0/6/101125_gas_giant_by_avmorgan-d3ekt0l.png

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6XgktZgsnQg/TdSaGb0TiHI/AAAAAAAABX8/TowtrDvr4cQ/s1600/BlueGasGiant.jpg

http://preview.turbosquid.com/Preview/2014/05/25__12_10_05/ice%20moon.jpg95543c7e-d4d0-47ba-88d2-1218de8c72e2Original.jpg

(the last could actually be nearly Eeloo infront of it)

I hope my Theory is true, even if it will first be without rings and has only Eeloo as its moon, Eeloo would be my Vacation Target of Choice, imagine that (up) view from your eeloo Base far far away but realy beautiful.

So two Questions:

What do you think of the Theroy at least GP2 could come before Scope-Completition?

And how would your ideal GP2 aka 7th Planet look like (hopefully BLUE atleast ) and what properties?

P.S: English is not my native language, so feel free to correct me

[DerpenWolf]

By the sound of things most of its moons are already probably figured out!

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Gas_planet_2

[Wallace]

What I wana know is, once Eeloo is a mun of GP2, will be get a new plutoid dwarf planet to replace it?

[Jodo42]

GP2, and Eeloo being its moon, was Novasilisko's idea, and he's no longer a dev. He had a lot of ideas which were never implemented. Check out the pages for the Joolian moons on the wiki and this link for some of his ideas.

GP2 is never going to happen.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Jodo42

[magnemoe]

GP2, and Eeloo being its moon, was Novasilisko's idea, and he's no longer a dev. He had a lot of ideas which were never implemented. Check out the pages for the Joolian moons on the wiki and this link for some of his ideas.

GP2 is never going to happen.

Why not?

I feel that the reason we don't have more planets is because its some work to make them well, it will also increase memory use and slow things down, mostly as players will have more missions.

In short its on the todo list but low priority.

[dryer_lint]

Nooo! Don't move Eeloo, I liked it where it was

GP2 does sound awesome though. I'm hoping it'll have some small, randomly generated moons that we'll be able to "discover" and explore.

[NFUN]

Assuming they move Eeloo into the orbit of a gas giant, I bet Squad will add in a placeholder planet in the same orbit as Eeloo in such a way as to not mess up saves files, or at least to only screw up a few. Eeloo might be resized a bit in its new orbit.

Supplementary Theory: A new body will be put into the current orbit of Eeloo, being almost (but not quite) entirely unlike the original. In other words, Eeloo will remain in its orbit, but retextured (but not remodeled) and renamed to ensure savefile well-being. When the new gas giant is added, a moon named Eeloo having similar textures to the original will be put into place, to follow the early plan in spirit

[Jodo42]

Why not?

I feel that the reason we don't have more planets is because its some work to make them well, it will also increase memory use and slow things down, mostly as players will have more missions.

In short its on the todo list but low priority.

Nova talked about resources, "crystal planets," cryovulcanism on Laythe, dozens upon dozens of moons, and even a backstory for the Easter Eggs in KSP, along with a host of other ideas that never came close to being implemented. To top it all off, out of the blue, for reasons which remain undisclosed, he got fired.

GP2, as envisioned by Nova, is never going to happen. Simple as that.

[jfull]

GP2, and Eeloo being its moon, was Novasilisko's idea, and he's no longer a dev. He had a lot of ideas which were never implemented. Check out the pages for the Joolian moons on the wiki and this link for some of his ideas.

GP2 is never going to happen.

If by that you mean that GP2 as Novasilisko intended will never happen, then you're probably right.

If you mean that Squad will never ever add another gas giant with moons, I really doubt you're right about that.

Edit: saw your other post and now I understand what you meant

[jfull]

To top it all off, out of the blue, for reasons which remain undisclosed, he got fired.

Honestly, it sounds like maybe he was trying "seize the reigns" of KSP and take the creative direction to places that the other devs didn't want it to go.

He might not even have been doing it intentionally, but might just have been the kind of person who aggressively tries to implement their own vision without realizing it.

Edited July 10, 2014 by jfull

[ddavis425]

GP2 isn't happening, it was Nova's idea and he's not on the team anymore. Squad isn't adding any more planets until the current ones have more things to do with them.

[Caelib]

I would venture to guess that GP2 will have rings ... and maybe that's why they haven't added it yet?

[LethalDose]

GP2 is like many other previously-discussed-then-apparently-ignored features of KSP, I still hope that they will make their way into the final game, but SQUAD has been so negligent with communicating anything beyond "contracts iz comin'!" for the last few months, I certainly don't expect this, or any other similar features, to make it into the game prior to launch.

The only reason GP2 may be more likely than some other features is that it's not needed for "scope completion". It's another planet, and there are already planets in the game. Basically, it's content and not a mechanic. At this point, I agree that if it makes it's way into the game (HUGE if), then I don't think we'll be seeing it until after scope completion, and who knows what that entails.

[Kerano]

I'd like to see GP2 at some stage, and I'm sure it'll come eventually. I wouldn't expect it in 0.24 though.

[GluttonyReaper]

GP2 is like many other previously-discussed-then-apparently-ignored features of KSP, I still hope that they will make their way into the final game, but SQUAD has been so negligent with communicating anything beyond "contracts iz comin'!" for the last few months, I certainly don't expect this, or any other similar features, to make it into the game prior to launch.

The only reason GP2 may be more likely than some other features is that it's not needed for "scope completion". It's another planet, and there are already planets in the game. Basically, it's content and not a mechanic. At this point, I agree that if it makes it's way into the game (HUGE if), then I don't think we'll be seeing it until after scope completion, and who knows what that entails.

Exactly. In any case, it's probably not a good idea to introduce any new planets right now. Doing so would probably be quite nice in the short-term (yay, new planets!) but in the end, would just be delaying features that actually add to the gameplay. I believe (although I could be wrong) that one of the devs mentioned that it was a quality over quantity ideology, and that more planets would be kinda pointless until the current ones actually had more stuff (biomes?, better landscapes?) to do on them.

EDIT: Not what I was looking for, but relevant: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entries/303-A-rant-about-development-asymptotes#comments

Edited July 11, 2014 by GluttonyReaper
Added stuff.

[r4pt0r]

id want gp2 to have atleast 1 moon with an atmosphere.

Edited July 11, 2014 by r4pt0r
foolish me typed planet instead of moon.

[SkyRex94]

By the sound of things most of its moons are already probably figured out!

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Gas_planet_2

Yes I know these plans. They were made ages ago. And besides Eeloo none of these bodies exist, wich means if they stick to this plan they can simply add the other moons after scope completion without breaking anything. But Eeloo is there today, most of the Community expects it becomes a Moon of GP2, so it has to be moved and if this will break saves, what i think it will, it would be the best plan to move it as soon as the next save breaking update. At least only with the new Giant and Eeloo beeing the only moon for now, but that would be the minimum to get to a state were they only have to add new planets and not modify/move old ones.

[Steampunked]

That's a far stretch, considering that the only person that has creative control over the game is HarvesteR, with little to no input of everyone else, even coming up with terms that have no definition and to confuse the users, like "scope completion" and things like that. A big term that doesn't mean anything in the real life of game development.

While you may be referring to some political goings on that many of us are unaware of, as an engineer who works on offshore energy projects that have shifting work scopes (and often time shifting schedules and milestones), the idea of "scope completion" absolutely makes sense in the real world.

"Scope Creep" is the enemy of scope completion. It is what happens when you keep expanding on to what your current objectives and milestones are. Eventually you have to lock in what your expected deliverables are going to be and stick to them. "Scope Completion" is just another way to say that those locked in deliverables are done.

Currently the work scope for this game project is career mode, and that work scope is broken up in to many smaller tasks that needed to get accomplished along the way. Once the game has a functioning career mode the devs can sit back and say "check mark... the meat of the game is done".

Just my 2 copper.

~ash

[SkyRex94]

Some more thoughts about the color of 2nd GG:

You know i want it to be blue, but what are the posibilities and chances, leaving Novas Prototype besides:

What it wont be:

Purple/Pink: Uncommon for celestial bodies and we already have an unique purple Planet : Eve

Black: Although i think it is physically possible, it would be rather boring to not see clearly clouds and the things that make these Giants good-looking

Green: Jool is already Green, there probably wont be two GG with the same Color (Diversity and so...)

Yellowish: Because its the analogy for our Saturn and Saturn is already yellowish and if it gets rings it would be too similar. Jool has'nt Jupiters color ether.

So what would be left:

Red-ish, Blue-ish or White-ish

But i doubt white-ish makes sense, because i dont know which gas as an atmosphere would reflect all wavelengths back into Orbit, so i doubt its physically possible(and interesting)

Leaving Red and Blue - ish as the most probable Options. I pointed out in the first Post how much i am for a blue one, but i can't see any reason to exclude Red. So what would you prefer and how would you imagine your personel GP2?

P.S. lets start suggesting a good Name. "Satir","Safire" and "Syfye" came to my mind till now.

[Sky_walker]

Ekhm...

Duna is red.

"Scope Creep" is the enemy of scope completion. It is what happens when you keep expanding on to what your current objectives and milestones are.

Ekhm... truth to be said: we don't even know if they have any concrete objectives. From what I read: It looks like they're jumping on whatever comes up. Be it asteroids, multiplayer, or whatever else they feel like doing next week.

[SkyRex94]

Yes Duna is Red. And Laythe and Vall are blue. But these are realistic colors of planets, unlike Purple. And we have purple on Eve so its unlikely to have two unlikely purple planets. I hope it won't become red but blue instead, but logically red, although Duna, is not so unlikly as purple is through Eve.

[Sky_walker]

I vote for blue.

Or a shade of white. I always liked the looks of Uranus.

Yes Duna is Red. And Laythe and Vall are blue. But these are realistic colors of planets, unlike Purple.

Imagine Eve surface is covered with alien microbes.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Sky_walker

[apex-prey]

Any thoughts to a matalic color posabal to be a rust color and a name I like miasma

[kujuman]

Ekhm... truth to be said: we don't even know if they have any concrete objectives. From what I read[emphasis added]: It looks like they're jumping on whatever comes up. Be it asteroids, multiplayer, or whatever else they feel like doing next week.

Just curious as to whether or not your forum join date is indicative of your join date in the community. Because you've really missed out.

Let's travel to the world of Feb 2012 and see what we thought was coming then, shall we?

"Astronaut Complex : Hire and train kerbonauts Research and Development : Discover and Improve Parts (from a tech tree)

Part recovery[3]

Runway : to land on or launch from (placeholder implementation added)

Spaceplane hangar : A secondary VAB, that allows for horizontal (belly-down) construction

Mission Control Room : Create flight plans and take on missions and challenges

Tracking Station: Keep track of orbiting objects and ongoing missions

Observatory : Discover new celestial bodies to visit

"

" Asteroids"

Oh yeah, no concrete objectives there

And while I can't find it easily (because the forum changed platforms and got screwed up and such), I definitively remember thinking when I read the announcement that they were officially working on multiplayer was, "Yay, I thought we'd have to wait much longer before they worked on it". MP was always on the "nice to have, but we're working on it dead last if feasible" list.

[SkyRex94]

I would venture to guess that GP2 will have rings ... and maybe that's why they haven't added it yet?

Since i doubt Rings will have physical impact, thus being only optics, they can add them after Scope Completion, but introduce GP2 (temporarily) without rings soon, too get Eeloo to final position.