About to be a new player questions

[ussoldier2002]

Hi everybody,

I am about to purchase this game in a couple of days. I have a few questions if you don't mind helping me out.

1. I have done some research on editing the textures and land masses on Kerbin but I'm unsure of a couple of things.

Can I use a gray scale map that I exported from Simcity 4 and use it for Kerbin?

If I can use the map from SC4 how hard is it to overlay the pictures of my cities from SC4 on Kerbin? I know it won't look all that great but I would prefer to see something other than green grass. Plus I have pretty much created my own universe and it would be cool to incorporate it into this awesome game.

2. I saw a MOD on here the adds city lights to Kerbin so it looks like lit up cities on the night side. If I download that can I "paint" where I want the lights to be or is does it just put lights somewhere random?

3. Let's say I create an airplane that I want to test or something. Do I have to take off from KSC or can I place the plane anywhere and fly?

4. Can I rename plantets easily?

5. Can I remove planets easily? I want to remove the second moon around Kerbin. No real reason but it bothers me lol.

I am sorry if these questions are foolish but I am still learning. I know I have more questions but that's all I can think of right now.

[KerikBalm]

I can't really answer these in much detail, or at all for most, but....

#3) Without modding, yes, all newly spawned craft start at KSC.

There are mods that add other start locations (even extra-planetary launchpads), so this can be changed, I don't know how much effort it takes.

#5) I know mods move them around, so I know it can be done... easily? I don't know.

I was expecting more basic spaceflight questions, and building questions

[ussoldier2002]

Awesome, thank you for the responses. Sorry for the mis-leading title

[Starhawk]

Hello ussoldier2002, and welcome to the forums!

Most of these questions are probably best asked somewhere in the Add-Ons section of the forum.

The folks who mod a lot frequent those sections regularly.

Happy landings!

[Dawnkeeper]

I became accustomed to people modding a game before starting it the time, but modding before getting the game is new

Edited August 14, 2015 by Dawnkeeper

[ussoldier2002]

Thank you Starhawk. I will post over there. I was hoping for a new players forum but didn't find one.

Dawnkeeper: What can I say? I am an over achiever and kind of an idiot ha ha ha.

Thanks again for the help guys. I will post this in the add-ons section.

[ussoldier2002]

Ahh one more thing. Can I change my prefix to answered or does a moderator have to do that? I can't seem to find out how to change it. Man, I hate being the new guy lol.

[Mastikator]

The city lights thing is a part of Environmental Visual Enhancement mod, it doesn't quite work in 1.0+ versions and hasn't been updated AFAIK.

The KSC has an airplane runway.

You can't rename planets easily. For instance Real Solar System does not rename them.

HyperEdit lets you move planets around, change their gravity and rotation. Not sure about resizing the planets though.

[Starhawk]

Ahh one more thing. Can I change my prefix to answered or does a moderator have to do that? I can't seem to find out how to change it. Man, I hate being the new guy lol.

You can change the prefix. Just look for the thread labeled How to Change Unanswered to Answered.

Happy landings!

[jackboy900]

Hi everybody,

5. Can I remove planets easily? I want to remove the second moon around Kerbin. No real reason but it bothers me lol.

Whilst you may want to take it away I would highly advise you keep it as it is way easier to and on/orbit than the mun and teaches you about inclanation.

[Snark]

Whilst you may want to take it away I would highly advise you keep it as it is way easier to and on/orbit than the mun and teaches you about inclanation.

+1 to this!

KSP is a lot of fun (and very addictive!), but it does have a steep learning curve. The folks who designed the game did a pretty good job at setting up the solar system in a way that gives you a nice, "graded" experience, with each next objective helping to teach you more skills that will help with later objectives. I'd suggest sticking with the stock solar system for at least the first little while until you get comfortable with the game. Once you have a feel for how l33t you are and what your in-game experience is like, then is a good time to start thinking about tinkering with the solar system.

The solar system as it stands has pretty good analogs for much of the real solar system:

Moho -> Mercury

Eve -> Venus

Kerbin -> Earth

Duna -> Mars

Dres -> Ceres

Jool -> Jupiter

Eeloo -> Pluto

I expect that will keep you happily busy for a good long time. If you end up "finishing" all of those and are looking for additional challenges, there are mods out there which add more planets to the solar system. By far my personal favorite (and, I think, the most popular) is Outer Planets Mod. It adds analogs for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, along with a better Pluto-analog. The mod is gorgeous and professional-quality. But it can wait until you've got a good handle on the inner solar system.

[Champ]

The folks who designed the game did a pretty good job at setting up the solar system in a way that gives you a nice, "graded" experience, with each next objective helping to teach you more skills that will help with later objectives.

I agree, except on one point :

You get the missions to land on the mun BEFORE the missions to land on minmus. This is stupid : landing on minmus is far easyier, you should have those missions before.

BTW, i agree with other folks here : don't delete minmus ! Lovely little moon : low gravity, lots of flat lands.