Ideas for the New Secret Feature in 0.25!

[Superfluous J]

Personally I'm going with destructible buildings, laying the groundwork for a whole building-your-space-center feature, that will hopefully include buildng space centers anywhere on the planet.

...and maybe eventually other planets.

[mythbusters844]

Personally I'm going with destructible buildings, laying the groundwork for a whole building-your-space-center feature, that will hopefully include buildng space centers anywhere on the planet.

...and maybe eventually other planets.

Wow! I agree that if the secret feature is destructible buildings, then the big feature would be a tycoon-style progression of building your space center.

Edited September 23, 2014 by mythbusters844

[sjwt]

I want to see the Space Kraken from the videos randomly crawling out of the goo pods on maned missions, all glowing and stuff and it removes parts that you have to go EVA to collect and reattach..

[Hannu]

I do not know but I really hope that you are wrong. Unfortunately, I also fear that it is the new direction of game development. Essential actions move to Kerbin and the real thing will be an easy fly to simple planet, get points in 30 seconds and fly back. It is sad, KSP should be a space flight game and not childish fancy explosions when you run into a building or managing the money and building of ground stuff.

Destructible KSC would need huge amounts of work hours and I can not understand if SQUAD use resources to that kind of futility instead of developing all planets to the level of Kerbin and Mun. Detailed terrains and textures, biomes, procedurally generated craters and other details, new different scientific experiments etc. That is what KSP should be, but the next big thing in current development line will probably be the pseudorealistic red tape with the municipal building supervision and when you get launch pad ready after 4 hours of playing the environmental authorities ban the rocket engines.

[randomness5555]

Well- Gas planet two would be funny. You don't expect to go out to your eeloo lander and find it's moved a few million miles along with the planet it's on, which is also now in orbit around something else. Or the Eeloo gysers-flinging kerbals around anyone?

While I don't really think either of those will be the new feature,it would certainly be funny.

[KerbMav]

So since his last post:

You forgot to mention that it is a cool yet rather small thing, and that it's only possible because of all the groundwork that we put in so a big 0.26 big feature would be possible. This being the reason why our art team is chained to their desks undertaking that massive project.

and until he told us that it had been guessed 22.09.14, 17:33 [uTC+01:00 (CET)]

Just so you guys don't go insane, by now it's been guessed. It'd be insane if with the combined brainpower behind it, some people hadn't nailed it squarely yet.

there have been these suggestions:

So the above criteria. Combined with the new Strategies, and existing Career functionality so far... I would say the feature is that if you have a run of catastrophic failures, resulting in deaths. Your space program will be punished. Such as no Kerbaled flights until your Rep is above a threshold again.

Kerbals that are leaving the Space Programm because they were treated badly.

Asfaik no mod has done this, You have to deal with the consequences, skilled Players treat their kerbals well, it should not happen too often.

And as preparation for more kerbal integratino in 0.26 it would also fit.

Remember this is also something max "had fun doing over and over" according to some official post a few weeks ago.

Plausible since .26 is to introduce more Kerbal management - but was this really planned for .26? Only recently Maxmaps announced that the Kerbal feature will not be in .25 due to reasons.

Maxmaps's hint that nobody guessed it pretty cleanly rules out destructible buildings.

That said, nobody else has guessed dead Kerbals as far as I've seen...

;1430124']So' date=' as long as dectructible/repairable buildings are kinda confirmed, we colud guess what is the base they are preparing...

And, voila!

Will we be able to build a space center somewhere else?

As long as buildings are now repairable, seems that they will be buildable?[/quote']

Could he really mean to differentiate between desctructable and damagable buildings?

The community might split him the same way he had to split hairs here.

I have another theory for the secret feature: Asteroids that aren't redirected don't just plop onto Kerbin's (or whatever celestial body's) surface (or-if left alone-disappear in that body's atmosphere). Instead, they would impact and create a massive explosion along with other problems. This fits all the criteria (including what Maxmaps has just said): 1: It wouldn't exactly be common as not all asteroids are on an impact trajectory with Kerbin. 2: Skilled players won't encounter it as much because they would simply redirect the asteroid. 3: If the asteroid does hit Kerbin, you'll have to deal with its consequences. And 4: No mod has ever done it before.

I already ruled this out for me - but going back maybe they think skilled players would be able to achieve orbit for the asteroids and not crash them into Kerbin?

Terrain deformation?

What would be the big feature in .26 then?

Still a mistery though: If there is something new at KSC that ensures the secret feature happens a bit more often ... what in Kerbols name??

[XIRA]

The secret is the ability to destroy the ksc. And in 0.26 there are going to be cities etc. Placed on kerbin... something like that i guess

[Parkaboy]

I'm still sticking to my previous guess: that we're getting kerbal NPCs walking around the KSC, probably procedurally generated, investigating debris and crash scenes. I believe this would be the groundwork for a Kerbin-wide application of the same principle in .26: cities and buildings, bursting with life with NPCs walking the streets. But we're not getting destructable buildings.

I might be wrong, but if I'm not, I reserve the right to say "I told you so".

[FleetAdmiralJ]

I suspect we're not getting actual destruction of structures, but probably more like persistent scorch-marking and decals. It's small in terms of game-play, possibly fun to do (via crashing), and opens up possibilities that involve new art for a bigger feature later (such as an environmental overhaul).

I'm actually leaning towards this as well. The .26 massive update they're talking about (many new 3D models) highly suggests destructible buildings, but if this update is "small" then it isn't specifically that this time. But if it is a small but necessary step to implementing that larger feature, something like deformable/alterable terrain would make sense, and would fit all of the criteria. And would be fun to do. Imagine an asteroid coming in fast retrograde with FAR aerodynamics. I wonder what type of crater it could make if we had surface deformation

What would be the big feature in .26 then?

I think it would be more along the lines that the code they'd have to write to make terrain deformation necessary would be needed if they wanted to apply it to making building damageable in .26. It's not that terrain deformation itself is per se necessary, but the coding behind it might be.

The reason why I don't think it has anything to do with reputation like kerbals leaving your space program has to do with the fact with how does that tie into the art department needing to make numerous new 3D models for .26. What would the the plausible new feature in .26 that would require that many new 3D models but would require a reputation feature like that, either as a feature or as a codebase?

Edited September 23, 2014 by FleetAdmiralJ

[Deadpangod3]

First, fleet detected above ^

Maybe its some launch narrative like "engine flameout, go for staging." Or something like that.

Then I will have to murder my speakers when all I hear is "Pull up. Pull up." In a high pitch Kerbal voice

[KerbMav]

From HIS reddit post some time ago:

You won't have to wait long on the feature now. Just a quick recap to keep our expectations from rocketing out of the atmosphere too hard.

It's something no mod has done before. It's a small feature built upon a large amount of code which will allow us to make the 0.26 main feature (For which the massive art project begun) If you're good at the game you won't even run into it. If you do, and you're playing career, it will have potentially game-ending consequences for your space program.

We'll show it all as soon as we have a stable enough build to make videos and streams about, which will signify we're just about set for the release.

[NecroBones]

If you do, and you're playing career, it will have potentially game-ending consequences for your space program.

That makes me wonder if it's Kerbal-splatting at KSC, leaving streak-decals on the runway.

Eeew.

[KerbMav]

I keep failing at combining many ideas with "a big art feature" ...

http://webmup.com/1OTj8

Watch the horizon at 07:00 ?!

Edited September 23, 2014 by KerbMav

[xtoro]

The new explosion animations didn't give it away? It's a blast radius for explosions. The bigger the tank, the bigger the boom, causing more damage to other parts, potentially setting off a chain reaction if you have many large tanks. A precursor to damageable parts and atmospheric reentry damage (although I hate using the term "reentry" for any atmospheric entry, you know what I mean). Skilled players will likely not encounter this. When was the last time a "skilled" player blew up on the launch pad? It's been a long long time for me...

Once again...

[Sean Mirrsen]

I keep failing at combining many ideas with "a big art feature" ...

http://webmup.com/1OTj8

Watch the horizon at 07:00 ?!

I see what looks like some buildings hiding behind a hillock. Can anyone tell if it's possible to see the KSC or any other existing structures like that?

[KerbMav]

I see what looks like some buildings hiding behind a hillock. Can anyone tell if it's possible to see the KSC or any other existing structures like that?

I have not played stock for months - but has the sky always looked that cloudy at a distance?

[NecroBones]

Well, since we're talking about a potentially career-ending feature, perhaps what we're seeing is simplified destructible structures, leading to 0.26 getting multi-stage destructible, repairable, and constructable structures?

I think I'm going to stop playing the guessing game until we have hard data.

[Aethon]

I keep failing at combining many ideas with "a big art feature" ...

http://webmup.com/1OTj8

Watch the horizon at 07:00 ?!

Hmm. Eagle eye. Gotta work so not much time to re analyse that gif. I assumed ( always a mistake ) the aircraft crashed on KSC somewhere but, now I'm not so sure. I can see some buildings on the horizon. How could I have missed it!?

We need to get the crew in the image analysis lab on this one. Seems easy to triangulate those mountain peaks and find where this 'crash' occurred. Where's Red Iron Crown. He was sure able to pull some detail out of 'The Rowsdower Image'.

[Deadpangod3]

.... Guys.

My idea bulb is a black hole now.

It's.

BANKRUPTCY!

Not done by a mod,

Good players will have lots of money's, new players might not,

It can end your space program.

It's small, but deadly to space programs.

It. Fits. Perfectly.

Bankruptcy.

Max said, it will end your space program, check,

Good players probably won't experience it, check,

New players probably will, check,

Not done by a mod, check,

Guessed before, check.

*hides in a mun bunker incase of wrongness*

This is my guess, based own at max has said and the discussions in threads.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Vanamonde

[Lazro]

HarvesteR has also been having a lot of fun with it, so unless bankrupting your space program is fun...

[Alshain]

Max said, it will end your space program, check,

I don't think anyone said it would end your space program. Also there is a thread for this already.

[Alshain]

It can end your space program.

Citation Please?

[Deadpangod3]

Citation Please?

From HIS reddit post some time ago:

You won't have to wait long on the feature now. Just a quick recap to keep our expectations from rocketing out of the atmosphere too hard.

It's something no mod has done before. It's a small feature built upon a large amount of code which will allow us to make the 0.26 main feature (For which the massive art project begun) If you're good at the game you won't even run into it. If you do, and you're playing career, it will have potentially game-ending consequences for your space program.

We'll show it all as soon as we have a stable enough build to make videos and streams about, which will signify we're just about set for the release.

Citation.

(Tenchar)

[Chewy]

I'm guessing its a kerbal memorial or graveyard. If you go to Johnson Space Center in Houston, you see memorials for all astronauts killed in service with a tree planted for each lost life. It meets all the criteria... It wasn't guessed until recently, it would involve the artwork team, and it would only be experienced by those killing kerbals.

EDIT: it also makes sense with the administration/ public relations/ reputation system. You kill a kerbal, then you lose rep... But you can restore some of the rep by spending money on a big expensive memorial.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Chewy

[sp1989]

I also read that they wanted to introduce the feature and let people discover it to their own surprise.