Unity 5 and planetary axial tilt in new KSP versions

[lajoswinkler]

Summer starts in a bit more than one hour. The Sun is at its highest apparent position in the sky (peak of analemma) and this day has the longest daytime in the entire year. It's solstice.

Meanwhile, KSC is permanently having a scorchio weather.

I've heard Unity 5 will enable KSP to use tilted planetary bodies, which is something very important as a teaching tool. What do you think when will KSP get axial tilts?

Main question - do you want it to happen?

[WWEdeadman]

Even if they don't end up tilting any of the stock planets, I sure am looking forward to mods using that possibility.

[NFUN]

Even if they don't end up tilting any of the stock planets, I sure am looking forward to mods using that possibility.

Mods basically can do that, in a gimped sort of way. RSS simulates it by making the inclination of every orbit off by 23 degrees, which functionally simulates tilt. Having actual tilt would be pretty cool though.

[GluttonyReaper]

Mods basically can do that, in a gimped sort of way. RSS simulates it by making the inclination of every orbit off by 23 degrees, which functionally simulates tilt. Having actual tilt would be pretty cool though.

The issue with how RSS handles it is that everything has the same tilt when you do that, and of course it makes the map screen a bit more confusing. It will definitely would be nice to have actual tilt, if only for Uranus's sake.

[Red Iron Crown]

Axial tilt would be great, it would add some reasons to do non-equatorial launches and make the system more varied and interesting.

Pushing this over to Suggestions and Development Discussion.

[Wjolcz]

I agree. Having axial tilt for planets would be awesome.

[Nemrav]

Yes, axial tilt is needed. Didn't they have something to say about wanting to have a while ago in a squadcast... Something not nessesarily for the Kerbin system but adding challenge further out... As far as I recall, they just disabled, locked the planetary tilt for now to avoid a certain bug(s)

(be warned this is recollection, not exactly fact)

[Red Iron Crown]

Yes, axial tilt is needed. Didn't they have something to say about wanting to have a while ago in a squadcast... Something not nessesarily for the Kerbin system but adding challenge further out... As far as I recall, they just disabled, locked the planetary tilt for now to avoid a certain bug(s)

(be warned this is recollection, not exactly fact)

An interesting suggestion from a long while back was to have Kerbin with an axial tilt, the Mun in equatorial orbit, and Minmus at an inclination that matches the plane of the ecliptic. This would give the benefit of making it relatively easy to put something in a good orbit for interplanetary trips by matching planes with Minmus.

Edit: Found it, with this MSPaint diagram courtesy of guigui30000:

Edited June 21, 2015 by Red Iron Crown

[NecroBones]

An interesting suggestion from a long while back was to have Kerbin with an axial tilt, the Mun in equatorial orbit, and Minmus at an inclination that matches the plane of the ecliptic. This would give the benefit of making it relatively easy to put something in a good orbit for interplanetary trips by matching planes with Minmus.

I LOVE that idea. Fantastic.

[Guest]

Yeah, really hoping Unity 5 allows this because it's a Big, Interesting, Realistic Game Mechanic.

[Tankman101]

I've heard Unity 5 will enable KSP to use tilted planetary bodies...

Where did you hear this?

[NathanKell]

There's nothing to prevent it now (or two years ago), it's just a fair amount of work to rewrite all the code that assumes a planet's orientation is just a rotation around the worldspace up-vector.

[Einkleinermensch]

So... Squad now don't want to improve tilts, right? And in next builds the don't plan this too?

[tater]

This would be a great idea. I'd ask for another nod to realism that I know mods could add... The Mun should be larger and more massive. It would be a cool design choice if the player's first missions past kerbin had some legit choices like Apollo: Mun direct ascent, Kerbin Orbit rendezvous, lunar orbit rendezvous, etc. 1-or 2-stage lunar landers... That or swap the Mun and Minmus and do this (Mun in the inclined, farther out position, but larger).

[NoMrBond]

It would be neat, but I also think it should be a 'tickbox' difficulty option which people can enable at/to their own peril/taste.

[samstarman5]

An interesting suggestion from a long while back was to have Kerbin with an axial tilt, the Mun in equatorial orbit, and Minmus at an inclination that matches the plane of the ecliptic. This would give the benefit of making it relatively easy to put something in a good orbit for interplanetary trips by matching planes with Minmus.

Edit: Found it, with this MSPaint diagram courtesy of guigui30000:

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2014/22/1401545942-amazing-paint-skills.png

The one thing I like about this is it makes Minmus the defender of Kerbin like the Mun is now for incoming flights such as from Duna. The thought of that little guy being the one to turn my perfect approach into a vertical death-plunge into Kerbin or throw me back out into Solar SOI tickles my fancy.

It would be neat, but I also think it should be a 'tickbox' difficulty option which people can enable at/to their own peril/taste.

I don't see that being all that practical considering the overall effect it would require. This sort of element would pretty much have to be a core part of the game or not be there at all. But, as Red Crown illustrated, the difficulty curve would still start out easy from Kerbin and its moons. And there really wouldn't be that big of a change in difficulty, anyways. There are enough biomes on Duna alone that would require a change in orbital attitude alone to get an approach to. With the navigation system as it is(with a couple extra nodes in stock coming soon, I hope) finding the way to get there is already available and made easy.

If you need practice, just take a couple flights to Minmus and on your return aim for as close to the KSC as you can.

Edited July 20, 2015 by samstarman5

[Esme]

I would LOVE to see varied axial tilt on planets and moons!