Science = Discovery mechanic, and thoughts on the solar system.

[Whirligig Girl]

So now 1.0 has been released, so here's some thoughts on where we could go from here.

I was a little disappointed in the scanning mechanic. The time problem of scanning shouldn't be what was held back, as it takes time to mine ore and convert it into fuel.

The big scanner should, instead of instantly providing a full scan of the planet in a polar orbit, would be a scanner to provide low detail information during a flyby of a planet. This would be great for Voyager type probes. The tiny scanner should be the high quality scanner that works in a low polar orbit.

I'm still wishing you couldn't even properly see planets in the tracking station in high quality unless you have flown by it, and then it's still fuzzy. You should have to use the scanner to get height data for the map view. A camera part would allow the ability to produce high quality maps in the map view of the planets (and perhaps a 2D cylinder map as well).

I really want all map view data to have to be gathered by science stuff. Atmosphere analysis gives the atmospheric composition, barometer gives the scale height and surface pressure, thermometer gives the temperature of the planet, gravimeter gives the mass and gravitational parameter. We might also be able to get the mass if we could observe the orbit of the planet's moons? Seismic Accelerometer would give surface gravity.

Maybe even the planet descriptions could be updated with information.

Also, give Moho back its superheated atmosphere, especially since we have the new heat system! But of course, don't tell the player it has the superheated atmosphere, make players use thermometers first, and then have the probe explode!

The Sun needs some love too. Give it a superheated atmosphere too perhaps, so that parts burn up based on heat tolerance. If you can get a science package down there, you'd get a lot of science!

Jool. It has cloud bands. Different science biomes could be made here, so that flying through the different cloud bands would provide different science. If wind is ever made a thing, the cloud bands could have varying windspeeds, maybe even rather extreme speeds.

Vall should have some kind of cryovolcanic geysers, which could cool down parts of a craft (just for completeness, wouldn't do much in practice), push the craft around, and provide a considerable amount of science if you fly through it.

Laythe, meanwhile, could have volcanoes. They would heat up a craft by passing through the plumes, push you around, and provide lots of science from flight through it. The plume could travel a few kilometers downwind. The actual volcano would be extremely hot, but if you could get a surface sample without burning up, you'd get good science. While we're at it, maybe Kerbin could have one or two volcanoes, while Laythe may be covered in them.

Eeloo. After New horizons flyby, more consideration might be put into making Eeloo a better Pluto analog. For one, even if it is supposed to be in a resonant orbit with Jool, it should be put much further out anyway because it would greatly add the challenge of getting there, up to real life levels. It should definitely be given one really big moon (in the lore, it would be defined as a binary system), in a low orbit. There are other really cool dwarf planets in our solar system, so maybe Eeloo could take traits from all of them. Maybe Eeloo should rotate really fast like Haumea, giving it an oblate shape? Maybe you could do that to Eeloo's big brother.

GP2. A second gas giant could be a cool thing to add, but to be honest, until we have much more interesting stuff on our current planets and moons, we don't really need another gas giant with moons.

If you ever decide to add new planets, I could not more recommend hiring the guys behind Outer Planets Mod. Seriously, those guys have done a brilliant job. If you ever make more planets, they're the guys to go to.

I think it's not too bad to suggest more planets now that KSP's memory footprint has been made so low, and Unity 5 is coming soon.

So, heartfelt congratulations to the entire Squad team on the release of 1.0. Let's hope this isn't the end, but rather just the beginning. I'm sure this game will only get better and better with time.

[Joonatan1998]

I think The Sun should have "biomes" at least for the poles.