If you could redesign/improve the Kerbol System, what would you do?

[planet-creations]

Everyone is forgetting Gas Planet 3 

[JadeOfMaar]

Necro post... But the topic is interesting enough.

If I could make planets I would re-imagine and maaaaybe rearrange a few of the existing planets, delete the others, and pad the system a bit with purposely dull moonlets possibly with interesting names. I'd also provide a wider variety of climates at the atmospheric worlds including a Titan-alike (Lord knows what Eve may be analogous to), and concerning resources I'd give it the same care and level of challenge and convenience as I've given to Galileo's or Gameslinx's planet mods.

I won't give any clue as to the exact arrangements of planets and moons as I see it. My idea(s) for my own planet mods run deep... Revealing them will ruin them. :p 

Edited July 9, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[Ho Lam Kerman]

I'd implement OPM. I play on a Mac, but that potato still can manage to handle it. So I don't think it'll hinder memory, and might be a fun idea to implement. Also I would like a few cometary objects on very elliptic paths, and some asteroidal objects in the general orbit of Dres. I might consider having the Kerbin asteroids moved out to Dres. I might even consider having the "Toy" camp and the "Geek" camp of Jool Trojans. Lagrange points would be discussed too.

Basically, I'd like a system inspired by our own. I like realism, but not RO-type hardcore realism.

[0something0]

make asteroids spawn around Jool to simulate the countless small moons it has.

[tecanec]

More procedual generation.

Part of the goal with most space programs is exploration, but what fun is it to explore if you can read everything online?

My suggestion would be to make most (if not all) terrain procedually generated, and maybe add some procedually generated moons around some planets (especially Jool).

[Aerodinamic Potatoe]

well, in my opinion ..

renovations of current planets:

kerbol: it would make it 4 times bigger, and maybe they'll say, you're crazy! but no, I would increase the distances between the distances between planets by 4, and the sizes of the planets were x4 too

Moho: blocked by tides, lava and a lot of volcanic activity on the side that points towards kerbol, a BIG sleeping volcano with a lake of lava inside, a biome of gigantic inactive shield volcano with a hollow center, with a fall that would lead to a dungeon deep with an open roof, would give an incredible view, on the other side an ice cap, and a VERY THIN atmosphere that settled on the ground, very low, only 10,000 meters above sea level, would give overheating to ships that do not have radiators Believe me, re-entry will be the least of your problems.

Eve: gravity would decrease to 1 g and atmospheric pressure would increase to 20 times its current pressure (I know, it may sound exaggerated but the atmosphere of the real Venus is more than 90 times that of the earth) realistic hydrocarbon seas with very reflections fresh, but that the liquid is totally opaque, without transparency, a HIGH PLATEAU that is flat on the top, perfect for landing there, the atmosphere would make it so dense that the surface is invisible in pink-purple clouds, that in the sunset-sunrise is a bright green, it would make the side of the atmosphere pointing towards kerbol shine so bright that it looks white, with violent vortices, and nights with great rays, although, I would prefer that its seas were not completely purple, that they were metallic silver ! and that there are precipitations of what would seem purple metal showers

Gilly: terrain improvements, and since it is an asteroid it would not need a big crater, only small potholes in its surface, it would double its radius, and would add a very high protrusion that (as asteroids are irregular) it is possible to crash it from orbit, I honestly OBVIOUSLY would make gilly silver, I say obvious, because brown asteroids are not very common, at least silver but with different colored spots on their surface

Kerbin: clouds, realistic sea, there may be better geological formations such as rivers and caves that do NOT have to be filled with water when reaching 0 m above sea level, cities, rainfall, 10 degree axial tilt

Mun: better terrain, '' something '' interesting to see, like the munar arch, BUT MORE INCREDIBLE, like a cliff that goes down to WELL below, that the surface is not mixed, such as mun being light gray, and having large dark gray spots ...

Minmus: a MICRO atmosphere, you know because if minmus is a planet with frozen seas, there should be sublimations in small quantities, although, I would not add it as `` atmosphere-atmosphere '' but as a thin slope of a meter high above The frozen plains, I would also add crystals that come out of the surfaces, but that do not come out of the plains, it came from uneven terrain, since, something frozen would not crystallize objects, I thought about it for a long time.

Dune: less atrocious slopes, less polar ice, small lakes scattered throughout the equator, more detailed terrain, if you have seen the images of Mars, you will notice that the surface is rugged, and full of outstanding stones

Ike: remove blockage of tide (it is a headache) add magic boulder, make it smaller, its surface is clear and metallic and it reflects a lot of light

dress: a planet with many craters that is brutally bombarded, it should have many craters, have lava cracks, since it was very hot from frequent impacts, it would have a ring of dust, and several mini moons, the planet would have a gray surface dark with small metallic spots and lava stains inside craters, it will have a large crater that will have lava in its center

 

jool: it had less green color, it was more yellowish, its gravity would increase it (it seemed illogical to see that laythe and jool have the same gravity in the stock) it would increase its gravity to 3g, it would make it have hexagons at its poles, and great northern lights , together with perpetual rays that shine brilliantly, would add white ice rings to it, and laythe would shepherd the rings, it would have abrupt atmospheric bands and it would have several eddies

 

laythe: it would be the end of the jool rings, since these would extend from the low space of jool, to laythe, laythe would have inclined rings, and laythe would have a 45 degree inclination, to make it abrupt, I like the idea, to the atmosphere, that perhaps did not seem logical that it was like those of Eve?, I explain to them, if it has great seas, greater is the rate of evaporation, it would be a very humid and cloudy atmosphere, although it would be difficult to see the surface, it would have more land, with more sandy colors, and volcanic islands, it should be emphasized that laythe is strongly anchored to the tides of jool, in the case of IO in the real world, it has a lot of volcanic activity because the gravity of jupiter would stretch and contract core heating it up a lot, this is what would happen with laythe, also, I would like very bright polar caps and auroras for the magnetic field of jool: 3

vall:nothing remarkable, terrain improvements, geysers, surface glass, higher mountains

tylo:It would almost turn it into titan because its gravity is illogical to not have an atmosphere, it would have an atmosphere of 1.5 atm, and it would be the methane atmosphere so, it would be green or yellow-orange

bop: nothing, a bigger kracken and make it spin faster

pol: make it more beautiful, it looks very ugly to me in its current form, it would make it softer, and with a color palette also soft, with a polar ring

eelo: well, it would make it more like pluto, and it would take it VERY far from kerbol, it would put a thin atmosphere, it is so cold that the gas would not resist accumulating there, it would also add geysers, and that the planet is almost completely flat, because it would be frozen

planets I would add:

miss: a planet that would be very close to kerbol, and that is a gas giant with a trail of gas being expelled back because kerbol with the solar winds starts its atmosphere, it would not have moons, they would be torn from its mother in a burning death or in a lost death in space

cyndilu: a planet that orbits Eve in a high orbit, it is a glass planet, with a VERY high adiabatic index it absorbs so much heat that glass is a sea of molten glass, its atmosphere should be metal at our current temperature, but no, it's plasma, that plasma never touches the ground, because the plasma floats on the surface, making the planet impossible to enter, and from the outside it would look white (I know it's absolutely unrealistic but I hope nova silysco listens to me)

and OPM those are all planets, THANKS :3

Edited April 13, 2020 by Xander el interplanetario
error

[Clockwork13]

- Make Jool a lot bigger

- Move all the planets much farther apart. Right now, I feel like going to different planets is too easy. Real life space missions basically never thrust all of the way to a distant planet because of how far away they are, but instead use gravitational assists and other tricks to make the trip. In KSP, gravitational assists are hardly ever necessary to get somewhere.

- More procedurally generated features. For most of the planets in-game, once you've seen it once you have basically seen it all. Procedurally generating some terrain and land features could make exploring more worthwhile..

- And lastly, the Gas Planet 2 that we were all promised but never got.

[Superfluous J]

Wow here's a blast from the past. I even recall that post I made 2 years ago

Anyway, here are my notes for the changes I will be making to KSP2's system when the game comes out, presuming (as I am hoping with every hope in my body) that you can make Kopernicus-style changes by modifying stock configs (or even better, with a stock version of Module Manager):

• Moho: Axis tilt to match its orbit. Rotation so it rotates 3 times per 2 orbits, like Mercury.
• Eve: Axis flipped so it rotates backwards, like Venus.
  • Gilly: Axis tilted to match its orbit around Eve. Rotation so it rotates in some fraction of its orbit, like Moho.
• Kerbin: Axis tilted 23 degrees, like Earth.
  • Mun: Axis and orbit tilted 6 degrees from Sun, like Minmus is now. No real reason, just wanted it not in Kerbin or Sun's line.
  • Minmus: Axis tilted 23 degrees from Kerbin, or 0 degrees from Sun. To make interplanetary from Minmus easier (Hey it doesn't have to be ALL harder)
• Duna: Axis tilted 25 degrees, like Mars. Rotation still locked to Ike.
  • Ike: Orbit and tilt to match Duna's axial tilt. Rotation still locked to its orbit.
• Duna/Ike Alternate: Make Ike a bit bigger and make Duna/Ike a true dual world, depending on how (and if) KSP2 handles that.
• Dres: Axis tilt to match its orbit. Maybe add a thin ring if it's easy.
• Jool: No change.
  • Laythe: Remove oxygen from the atmosphere (sorry but it makes no sense even in this silly universe)
  • Vall: See Eeloo.
  • Tylo: No change.
  • Pol: Orbits Tylo in some way. I've always wanted a moon to have a moon.
  • Bop: Axial tilt to match its orbit.
• Eeloo: Axial tilt to match its orbit.
  • Vall: Orbits Eeloo. Eeloo needs a Charon!

[Aerodinamic Potatoe]

I like the ideas

[kerbiloid]

Crash the Minmus on the Mun and make it a glacier. Otherwise there's no reason to build anything on the Mun when you have the easy Minmus.

Tilt the Kerbin (about 23° or so) and let me make a proper Kstonehenge with Kerbal Konstructs and start predicting eclipses and etc.
(Otherwise how should I choose proper astrological moments for the launches?)

Edited April 17, 2020 by kerbiloid

[BallistX]

I had a few ideas:

0. The Sun: In-game renamed to Kerbol, made into a Red Dwarf Star

1. Moho: Make it have ice in the polar craters that are never illuminated, make the Mohole smoother due to ice.

2: Eve: Nothing really changed, except i would make it spin in the opposite direction.

2a. Gilly: Useless space rock, I would shatter it in two different moons on a similar orbit. The bigger fragment would keep the name and the smaller one would have a different name. Eve would also have a ring at Gilly's apoapsis and inclination, the fragment would be inside that ring at a low eccentricity and with it's apoapsis at the same spot as Gilly's.

3. Kerbin: I'd add hurricanes at mid-latitudes and aurorae.

3a. Mun: Would add dark grey seas relatively flat with very few craters.

3b. Minmus: Would add a 0.02 atmo pressure atmosphere that ends at 2000 m above the flats.

4. Duna: Would add a tiny asteroid moon on a 2-3 resonance with Ike, with it being on the inside.

4a. Ike: Would give a massive red spot of Duna ejecta.

5. Dres: I'd give the Loneliest Planet a ring in the spot where the Dresteroid Belt is and a 3km radius moon inside of it, containing traces of magic boulders.

6. Jool: I'd give it an expansive ring system, the spot on a 2:1 resonance with Laythe would not have any ring material because Laythe would destabilize it, also a 25km radius moon on a 2:3 resonance inside of Laythe marking the edge of the ring, with a faint ring above it, elongated to a 50km radius on the sides that face Jool and opposite due to tidal forces.

6a. Laythe: I would massively reduce the amount of water and make the rest a sulfur yellow color with orange and red impact Ejecta, there would only be water in the Poles and massive volcanic activity on the side that faces Jool and opposite.

6b. Vall: It would receive massive geysers spewing out a subsurface ocean, and made smoother and paler.

6c. Tylo: I would make it more like Ganymede and also give it a tiny Moonlet of 1km radius.

6d. Bop: I would make it an icy moon instead of rocky and dark, put it in a retrograde orbit too. Make it larger to keep the same mass with less density.

6e. Pol: I would maybe change it's colours to make it look better.

7. Eeloo: I'd give it a massive moon about 4/5 of it's size, but the same mass, rocky, and much denser, i'd also put a barycenter that they both orbit.

8. Extra dwarf planets: A bunch of tiny planetoids corresponding to the respective classes of real life TransNeptunian objects: Plutinos (2:3 resonance with Jool), Twotinos (2:1 resonance with Jool), Scattered Disk Objects (Extreme inclinations and eccentricities with at least 30 times the distance from Kerbol to Kerbin as their perihelion), and Sednoids (At least 50 times Kerbol-Kerbin distance perihelion and a Semi-Major Axis of 150 times Kerbol-Kerbin, insane eccentricities)

8a. The major ones: I would add one extra major Plutino half the mass of Eeloo, Two major Twotinos, the first being 2/3 of the mass of Eeloo and the other 2/5 of Eeloo. Four major Shattered Disk Objects, the biggest being the size of Duna but 4/5 of it's mass, the second and third almost identical at 4/5 of Eeloo's mass, and the last 1/3 of Eeloo's mass. And finally five Major Sednoids, The largest at 4 thirds of Eeloo's mass, the next with an Apohelion of 2000 times the Kerbol-Kerbin distance and half the mass of Eeloo, third has 2/5 Eeloo's mass and the two last 1/5 and 1/6 Eeloo's mass respectively.

Edited April 17, 2020 by BallistX

[Mamboo07]

I would put in Saturn, Uranus and Neptune for the Outer Kerbal System as well Pluto and the 5 dwarf planets with Planet Nine too.

• Saturn = Sarnoe (Is bigger than Jool, has small moonlets like Pan, Atlas and Daphnis.)
• Uranus = Urisma (Would be titled on it's side.)
• Neptune = Neuso (It's moon Tyros, an analog of Triton orbits in the opposite direction.)
• Pluto = Polio (Has an binary orbit with it's moon, Karoin.)
• Haumea = Halema
• Makemake = Makim
• Eris = Ecrul
• Sedna = Senod 
• Planet Nine = Yuggroh (The name is a reference to the planet from Lovecraft.)
• Spoiler

  Moons of Sarnoe

  • Krolos = Titan
  • Eeloo = Enceladus
  • Mirela = Mimas
  • Iris = Iapetus
  • Dioio = Dione
  • Rreahu = Rhea
  • Treteios = Tethys
  • Hyeres = Hyperion
  • Pobon = Poebe

  Moons of Urisma

  • Miril=Miranda
  • Arno=Ariel
  • Umar=Umbriel
  • Tricot=Titania
  • Oborn=Oberon

  Moons of Neuso

  • Tyros=Triton
  • Naidu=Nereid
  • Poiti=Proteus

  Moons of the Trans-Neusoian Objects

  Polio

  • Karoin = Charon

  Halemaa

  • Haila & Nalca = Hi'iaka and Namaka

  Makim

  • Makato = MK2

  Ecrul

  • Dyimoj = Dysomia

  Yuggroh

  • Hyros (it's fictional)

   

Oh and it's nice to meet you guys, first time here.

[Aerodinamic Potatoe]

Hace 4 horas, Mamboo07 dijo:

Pondría en Saturno, Urano y Neptuno para el Sistema Kerbal Exterior, también Plutón y los 5 planetas enanos con el Planeta Nueve también.

• Saturno = Sarnoe (es más grande que Jool, tiene pequeñas lunares como Pan, Atlas y Daphnis).
• Urano = Urisma (se titularía en su lado).
• Neptuno = Neuso (Es la luna Tyros, un diálogo de las órbitas de Tritón en la dirección opuesta).
• Plutón = Polio (Tiene una órbita binaria con su luna, Karoin).
• Haumea = Halema
• Makemake = Makim
• Eris = Ecrul
• Sedna = Senod 
• Planeta Nueve = Yuggroh (El nombre es una referencia al planeta de Lovecraft).
•   Ocultar contenidos

  Lunas de Sarnoe

  • Krolos = Titán
  • Eeloo = Encelado
  • Mirela = Mimas
  • Iris = Japeto
  • Dioio = Dione
  • Rreahu = Rea
  • Treteios = Tetis
  • Hyeres = Hyperion
  • Pobon = Poebe

  Lunas de Urisma

  • Miril = Miranda
  • Arno = Ariel
  • Umar = Umbriel
  • Tricot = Titania
  • Oborn = Oberon

  Lunas de Neuso

  • Tyros = Tritón
  • Naidu = Nereida
  • Poiti = Proteus

  Lunas de los objetos transneusianos

  Polio

  • Karoin = Charon

  Halemaa

  • Haila y Nalca =  Hi'iaka y Namaka

  Makim

  • Makato = MK2

  Ecrul

  • Dyimoj = Disomia

  Yuggroh

  • Hyros (es ficticio)

   

Ah, y es un placer conocerlos, primera vez aquí.

But,hawmea is oblated

[KingKerb]

Here's how I would change the Kerbol system (Bold is new objects, Italics is moons, Underline and Italics is submoons):

• In general: Stock EVE and scatterer, colliders for surface scatter, caves, new skybox with mostly black and few stars.
• Kerbol: I would lower Kerbol's radius to a more realistic value, while increasing it's gravity in order to keep it's mass the same, as well as renaming it to Kerbol.
• Ablate: 360 kilometers in radius, tidally locked. The side facing Kerbol would have an ocean of lava, while the side facing away would have a massive ice cap. The lava side would have a thin atmosphere of volcanic gas, while the frozen side would have no atmosphere at all. Surface gravity would be 0.45 g, and atmospheric pressure at sea level would be 0.02 atm.
• Moho: Not much changed, but the Mohole would be more smooth, and be surrounded by a large network of caves. 
• Spud: 9 kilometers in radius, made of pure iridium, mostly smooth with few craters, in eccentric orbit of Moho taking it from as close as 1,000 kilometers to near the edge of Moho's sphere of influence. Surface gravity of 0.1 g.
• Eve: Size increased to 800 kilometers, gravity decreased to 1.4 g. Atmosphere pressure would be 50 atmospheres at sea level, and the oceans would be made of liquid gallium, giving them a silver color. Sea level would be lowered to turn the oceans into large lakes. Atmosphere would be filled with dark purple clouds stretching from sea level to 30 kilometers up, meaning that the entire planet would be almost completely dark. Atmosphere would be 65 kilometers high.
• Faz: 75 kilometers in radius, 0.06 g of gravity, visually the same as the old moon of Eve with massive crystals that was originally going to be in 0.17 but was scrapped in development.
• Gilly: Same as stock in appearance, now orbits Kerbol with periapsis near Eve and apoapsis near Kerbin.
• Kerbin: Mostly unchanged, better/more realistic terrain textures, colliders for surface scatter, which would be on every planet, as well as stock EVE and scatterer. Biomes would be redone, with forests looking like real forests and trees being crowded together everywhere, while deserts would have cacti scattered around, but being mostly empty other than rocks. Caves and deep sea trenches should also be added.
• Mun: More interesting terrain, more contrast between light and dark on the surface. Size reduced to 170 kilometers
• Pok: 23 kilometers in radius, lots of small craters, orbits Kerbin in eccentric orbit from about 45,000 kilometers to to about 80,000 kilometers.
• Suk: 800 meters in radius, rocks everywhere.
• Duna: More varied terrain, small lakes near equator.
• Ike: Better terrain, otherwise unchanged
• Magic Boulder: 700 meters in radius, covered in green streaks like the original boulder, has large network of caves nearly reaching to center, with monolith located inside. Gravity would be 0.005 g. Same orbit as original magic boulder.
• Dres: More varied Terrain, Dres canyon extended to be nearly as long as Dres is wide, with smaller canyons branching off, and with large cave systems in it's walls. Rest of the planet would have more detailed terrain. Radius of 90 kilometers, surface gravity of 0.05 g, actual rings at dresteroid belt.
• Veelo: Equatorial radius of 77 kilometers, polar radius of 41 km. Very light in color, with craters scattered across surface. Surface gravity of 0.03 g.
• Thralt: Radius of 49 kilometers, same colors as stock Mun, crater scattered around. Large mountain 15 km tall covering half of planet. Gravity is 0.03 g.
• Ferros: Radius of 35 km, made almost completely of iron, surface gravity of 0.07 g. Planet is almost devoid of craters except for one massive crater covering roughly an eighth of the planet's surface. Lot's of steep mountains and cliffs.
• Yarovsk: 700 km in radius, covered in rusted copper, similar to the planet Kuprus from Extrasolar. Has atmosphere 60 kilometers high with pressure of 2 atmospheres. Planet covered entirely in mountain ranges, with massive cave systems everywhere. Surface gravity of 1.2 g.
• Kamo: 224 kilometers in radius, heavily crated, very dark in color, making it almost indistinguishable from space. Surface gravity of 0.25 g.
• Jool: 6500 kilometers in radius, now yellow with small swirls of green where algae live. Atmosphere 400 kilometers high and gravity of 2.5 g.
• Melth: 100 km on short axis, 150 km at longest. Red in color, with gravity of 0.05 g.
• Laythe: Oceans replaced with 5 or 6 large lakes, with moss and lichens growing on the coast. Large canyon systems would cross the planet. There would be lot's of volcanic activity.
• Crast: 400 kilometers in radius, covered in craters. Otherwise not much. Surface gravity of 0.5 g, in binary system with Permios.
• Permios: radius of 400 km, planet covered in deserts except for ice caps. Large dried out oceans cover the surface. Surface gravity of 0.5 g, and atmosphere 50 km thick with surface pressure of 0.6 atmospheres and oxygen.
• Tylo: Completely redone, now a massive ice moon 1,500 kilometers across. covered in hills and cracks in the ice with craters scattered far apart on the surface. Thin atmosphere 40 kilometers thick with surface pressure of 0.3 atm and surface gravity of 1.8 g
• Vall: Radius of 215 km, surface gravity of 0.12 g. Mostly the same as stock when viewed from space, with better textures, but with subsurface ocean and lots of caves below surface.
• Bop: Mostly unchanged from stock, better textures.
• Pol: Mostly unchanged from stock, better textures
• Gron: 30 km in radius, green in color, otherwise normal, besides retrograde orbit. 0.01 g of gravity.
• Bluv: 9000 km in radius, blue, gravity of 2 g. Same atmosphere height as Jool. Massive ring system.
• Tildus: 1500 meters in radius, gravity of 0.005 g. Large cracks in surface and caves which go through the planet.
• Daleth: 150 kilometers in radius, has one giant crater on surface like on Mimas in real life. Has lots of smaller craters and a surface gravity of 0.03 g
• Minmus: 80 km in radius, atmosphere 20 km high with pressure of 0.05 atm. Appearance mostly same as stock, but with less deformity. Gravity of 0.015 g. Has subsurface ocean.
• Telto: 530 km in radius, atmosphere 120 kilometers high with surface pressure of 3 atm. Kilometer-deep lakes of liquid methane on surface, gravity of 0.3 g. Basically Titan.
• Rhys: 320 km in radius, has rings and is covered in ice, with craters. Gravity of 0.09 g.
• Intra: 6 km in radius, shepard moon for rings of Rhys. Looks like a hamburger, gravity of 0.0007 g.
• Outra: 8 km in radius, shepard moon for rings of Rhys. Covered in deep fissures, gravity of 0.0009 g.
• Jall: 180 km in radius, half dark grey, half white. Has equatorial ridge and lat's of caves and craters. Gravity of 0.035 g.
• Hype: 50 x 40 x 30 km in radius along each axis, looks like a deformed sponge. Gravity of 0.008 g.
• Phil: 26 km in radius, orbits in an eccentric retrograde orbit around Bluv. Gravity of 0.004 g.
• Eckel: 2000 km in radius, ice giant. Atmosphere 200 km thick, gravity of 0.7 g. Yellow with a red north pole.
• Thol: 280 km in radius, half of planet covered in tholins. Gravity of 0.06 g.
• Oksis: 550 km in radius, crust made of ice with oceans of liquid oxygen. Atmosphere is 85 km high, pressure of 0.9 atm. Gravity of 0.4 g.
• Zilly: 68 km in radius, normal outer solar system moon. Gravity of 0.01 g.
• Poseidon: 2400 km in radius, atmosphere 300 km thick. Basically Neptune when it had the Great Dark Spot. Gravity of 1 g.
• Pro: 41 km in radius, dark in color. Gravity of 0.0075 g.
• Teltonus: 160 km in radius, large amounts of cryovolcanic activity. Lot's of caves and mountains on surface, orbits retrograde. Gravity of 0.05 g.
• Nelson: 33 km in radius, bright in color, eccentric orbit around Poseidon. Gravity of 0.00675 g.
• Uraut: 3500 km in radius, looks like Uranus, atmosphere 300 km thick, 0.95 g. Has giant floating chunks of diamonds in atmosphere. Spins retrograde, and all of it's moons orbit retrograde.
• Crakol: 130 km in radius, covered in deep canyons and has cliffs up to 15 km tall. Has deep caves stretching more than 10 km below surface. Gravity of 0.02 g.
• Mermos: 200 km in radius, pink in color. Gravity of 0.04 g.
• Umbara: 214 km in radius, very dark grey in color, covered in tall rock spires up to 100 meters high, with few craters. Gravity of 0.045 g.
• Teltia: 300 km in radius, light reddish gray in color. Gravity of 0.085 g.
• Ubor: 265 km in radius, medium-dark gray in color. Has lots of caves and craters. Gravity of 0.055 g.
• Cucumber: 32 km in radius, gray, shaped like a cucumber. Only one of Uraut's moons that orbits prograde. Gravity of 0.007 g.
• Eeloo: Retextured to look like Pluto, atmosphere 100 km high with pressure of 0.05 atm, 0.06 g of Gravity.
• Karn: Basically kerbalised Charon, 90 km in radius with gravity of 0.0175 g.
• Hauseo: Equatorial radius of 170 kilometers, polar radius of 60 kilometers. Gray with patches of tholins, has rings. Gravity of 0.03 g.
• Hili: Same size as Outra, covered in bright ice.
• Matka: 270 km in radius, oceans of water and land covered in Iron Oxide, making it and it's atmosphere red. No oxygen, thick atmosphere 90 km thick with pressure of 20 atm and filled with greenhouse gases. Ocean is over 15 km deep and has underwater caves. Gravity of 0.275 g.
• Trius: 100 km in radius, northern third of planet is dark gray, southern third is covered in tholins, everywhere else is light gray. Gravity of 0.08 g
• Ern: 230 km in radius, white in color and covered with deep canyons. Atmosphere 100 km high with pressure of 0.05 atm, 0.07 g of Gravity.
• Roja: 49 km in radius, bright red in color, covered in small craters. Gravity of 0.009 g.
• Selp: 180 km in radius, red in color from tholins. Gravity of 0.04 g. Has eccentric orbit around Kerbol, similar to Sedna.
• Ploon: 1750 kilometers in radius, has large ice caps and oceans of liquid nitrogen. Atmosphere 90 km thick with pressure of 1.5 atm. Gravity of 2.5 g.
• Clif: 270 km in radius, has large cliffs, made of ice. Gravity of 0.06 g.
• Dot: 30 km in radius, normal outer solar system moon. Gravity of 0.008 g.
• Rouge: 13000 km in radius, dark red in color. Atmosphere 550 km thick. Gravity of 4.5 g, rouge planet. Massive ring system.
• Midnight: 430 km in radius, covered in craters, with limited cryovolcanic activity. Gravity of 0.2 g.
• Hydrosos: 600 kilometers in radius, oceans of liquid hydrogen. Atmosphere 100 km high with pressure of 0.5 atmospheres. Gravity of 0.5 g.
• Shel: 28 km in radius, dark red in color from tholins, shaped like walnut. Gravity of 0.008 g.
• Igov: 7 km in radius, brown in color. Has mysterious igloo shaped formations and caves all over surface. Gravity of 0.0008 g.

Spoiler

Is it ok that this post literally took me 3 days to write?

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by KingKerb

[Entropian]

Relevent XKCD:  https://xkcd.com/2258/

[DunaManiac]

Kerbol: Unchanged, if it were any other color it would screw things up from an aesthetic point of view.

Moho: Mostly unchanged except the addition of inactive volcanos and solid lava flows, to give the impression that it was once active, but no longer is so.

Eve: Unchanged, except it's atmosphere is even thicker, I'm annoyed with EVE/Scatterer in this situation, because it pointlessly obscures landing sites, which would make Eve missions MUCH harder, especially with the oceans involved.

Kerbin: Again, I would actually oppose stock clouds/scatterer because it would slow down the game a lot, not even midlevel graphics cards can run it at >20 fps. (unless you're talking about sci-fi visual enhancements) But other than that virtually unchanged other than forests and some indications of cities, even if it's only from orbit.

Mun: A little bit less craters, but mostly okay.

Minmus: A little bit less of a difference in height between the flats and normal terrain, as well as slight variation in the height of the flats, but very slight to not interfere with base building.

Duna: The duna canyon is much larger and more defined, small amounts of craters added, maybe even mountains like Olympus Mons?

Ike: Unchanged

I would probably add a small moon close to Duna as a phobos analog.

Dres: Downsized, maybe a moon just to splice things up.

Jool: Unchanged, except faint rings. Maybe procedurally generated asteroids as "moons"?

Laythe: More realistic islands to make it look more like an archipelago, visibly colder, volcanic islands in the oceans.

Vall: Large cracks in the surface to look like Europa.

Tylo: Unchanged.

Bop: Unchanged except craters.

Pol: Unchanged.

Eeloo: Unchanged.

Maybe something like GP3 instead of more gas giants, it would feel like a riff on our solar system or OPM.

[Yellowburn10]

All I would want is the long-ago promised Gas Planet 2. I've been wanting something like it ever since I learned about it, and while mods have delivered such in droves, having something "official" would be great as well.

[Space Nerd]

I'll just resize the sun to a more realistic number and rename it to Kerbol, stock system untouched, add OPM and MPE with some extra moons and minor planets, but with a separate Enceleadus analog, and add a planet 9 analog but with a solid surface and thick tall hydrogen atmosphere slightly thicker than Eve and moons for it, at least one will have an atmosphere .

Edited August 29, 2020 by Space Nerd

[jimmymcgoochie]

I don’t have any comments on Moho, haven’t really been there or looked closely at it much.

Reverse Eve’s rotation and Gilly’s orbit to match, then add a second little moon around Eve orbiting retrograde (the same direction as Gilly does now). Lower the sea level on Eve so that there aren’t nearly so many bodies of water and the atmospheric pressure would be 5 atmospheres at sea level rather than 4, but make the atmosphere slightly thinner overall (80-85km).

Shift the Mun’s inclination slightly, less than a degree but enough to make it marginally harder to get to and a bit less likely to cause a total eclipse at the KSC. Minmus stays as is.

Duna’s terrain could be more pronounced, maybe with a couple of old volcanoes (there are a few in the JNSQ version of Duna and they’re pretty spectacular) and deeper valleys. Ike could also do with a bit more interesting terrain but is OK as it is.

Dres? What’s that?

Jool is fine as it is; rings would be overkill unless they were incredibly thin, and then hardly anyone would see them. Laythe is OK, Vall is OK, Tylo might be better with an incredibly thin (0.01atm, 40km or less) atmosphere- its gravity would justify it considering what Laythe has- and that would make it a slightly different challenge to land on: slightly less delta-V due to air drag, but also atmospheric heating. Laythe, Vall and a Tylo should have the same resonance as Io, Ganymede and Europa and all tidally locked to Jool too. Bop should be retrograde to make it more challenging to get to, Pol is fine. Maybe a few more outer moons of Jool, little more than captured asteroids or a Trojan trailing behind Tylo, enough to throw an occasional spanner in the works when coming in/out Jool’s SOI or going between the moons.

Eeloo could use a moon or two, or something else to make it more interesting.

In terms of adding new planets, a binary planet would be more interesting than a gas giant- 2 planets orbiting a barycentre, not as close as Rask/Rusk and with enough space for low orbits of both planets individually inside abnormally small SOIs, with moons orbiting the barycentre rather than the individual planets. Maybe it could be added beside Dres, with the canyon facing the other planet, so there was something there worth visiting... While a new planet(s) further out would allow gravity assists from Jool, unless it was put really far out so even nuclear rockets would struggle to get there directly I don’t see the appeal. OPM is a little bit too like the real solar system to be stock and I don’t see the appeal of having lots of small planetoids and dwarf planets on the outer fringes of the system.

And once those adjustments are made, slash the number of biomes on each planet and moon to no more than 6, except Kerbin. With fewer biomes per body, filling out the tech tree will require more planets and moons to be visited and with more planets and moons to visit the total biome count would be similar overall.

I don’t see any need for a rescale or reposition in the stock system, it needs to be easy enough for beginners to get into space and fly around once they’re there. Larger systems are fine for mor experienced players or those who want a challenge, but the game has to cater to everyone so stock scale is more than adequate.

[Leopard]

option in settings to "Randomise system parameters", and a slider for the amount from 0 to maybe +/-15% - changing planetary gravity, atmospheric density, upper limit of atmosphere, orbital radius, maybe science return and similar

point - you now need to go somewhere to explore, not just use what you remembered/looked up last time, and its optional.

parameter changes occur when you initiate the save, and don't vary further

[Bej Kerman]

Kerbol system isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed, that's how I see it.

[jimmymcgoochie]

1 hour ago, Leopard said:

option in settings to "Randomise system parameters", and a slider for the amount from 0 to maybe +/-15% - changing planetary gravity, atmospheric density, upper limit of atmosphere, orbital radius, maybe science return and similar

point - you now need to go somewhere to explore, not just use what you remembered/looked up last time, and its optional.

parameter changes occur when you initiate the save, and don't vary further

Planetary Diversity mod does a lot of this if you pick those options, although I’ve never used it in that way so I haven’t seen its effects myself. While having a game that is different every time would keep things fresh, it would also make it that much harder to get help from others as the stock system is fixed for everyone but modifying it would probably make your version totally unique.

[RobertaME]

Not to rain on anyone's parade... I mean, people are free to like what they like... but I just find it interesting that with a very few exceptions people just want to make the Kerbol system exactly like the Solar system. I find myself thinking the exact opposite... that if anything the Kerbol system is already too much like the Solar system and should be changed to be more different, not more similar. Then there is Kerbol itself...

Let's get real. A star with a radius of 261,600 km is not a type G2 star. Kerbol should be more like a K3 with a peak blackbody frequency of about 623 nm. In terms most people can understand, the RGB of Kerbol should be 255 (FF), 200 (C8), 149 (95). (kind of a bright peachy-orange shade like Epsilon Eridani) Either that or it would have to have a radius closer to 700,000 km like Sol and every other G2-type star we've ever seen. Stars are the radius they are for reasons that get very complex, (relating to the balance point of the outward pressure of hydrogen fusion versus the inward pressure of the mass of hydrogen) but suffice it to say that they are never seen as Main Sequence stars more than a a few percent off the "standard" scale of the H-R Diagram... and we've looked at millions of examples and have never seen an exception. The function of stellar radius in Sol units (~696,000 km) is approximately equal to (T / 5780) x √L_A x ε,  where T equals the temperature in degrees Kelvin, L_A equals the Absolute Luminosity relative to Sol, and ε is the Emissivity of hydrogen, approximately 0.994. Making it even smaller would result in it becoming even redder, dimmer, and cooler.

This isn't even touching on Kerbol's mass, which is so low (1.7x10²⁸ kg) it wouldn't even be classified as a tiny M9 Red Dwarf, the smallest of which have 10 times the mass of Kerbol. That low of a mass would make Kerbol not a star at all, but a sub-stellar Brown Dwarf. As a type K3 star, consistent with its size, Kerbol should have a mass of about 1.5x10³⁰ kg, or about 75% the mass of Sol and nearly 100 times its current mass. If people want to argue that physics works differently in KSP, I would counter that these stellar effects are a result of the basic functions of gravity and nuclear forces, which is shown to work exactly the same in KSP-land as here. (the inverse square rule presides and matter follows the same mass-density functions as the natural universe)

Change: Make Kerbol a class K3 star, the same size it is now, but reduce surface temperature to about 4,700°K, make the light slightly peachy orange in color, and increase the mass to 1.5x10³⁰ kg.

Result: Planetary orbits would need to move accordingly to fit the new stellar dynamics. Kerbin would shift outward to an orbital radius of about 37.4 million km to the correct "Goldilocks Zone" for a K3 star, instead of only 13.6 million km (where, if over a G2-type star, Kerbin would be a baked wasteland with a surface temperature of 832°K) with an orbital period of about 210 Kerbin days. (52 Earth days) The other planets would shift outward proportionally. (about 2.75 times their current orbits) While this makes distances between planets greater, their much higher orbital velocities  would make close approaches occur twice as often, increasing the number of launch windows for minimal ∆V.

Moho: Should be tidally locked and larger, to be realistically sized for its mass.

Eve: Dump the "Venus Analogue" junk and move Duna here... a vast desert wasteland with a thin CO₂ atmosphere and no ice caps. Surface temp about 400°K and size/mass are shifted to something more realistic. Ike gets less mass to have a realistic density, but is otherwise unchanged.

Kerbin: Keep the size the same and just think of Kerbin as having a super-dense core... like say pure Osmium under pressure. (I know this is counter-intuitive, considering my suggestions for Kerbol, but I have to draw the "realism" line somewhere and planetary density is a good a place as any) The Mun is fine the way it is, unrealistic mass/density and all. Minmus should have a higher inclination, say about 20° or so, and a larger eccentricity, say about 0.2 and in a 2-1 sync with the Mun. It should also be the first "realistic density" body you encounter.

Duna: Move a real-sized Eve here and make it the way we used to think Venus was like... tropical jungles, etc. High CO₂ count in the atmosphere, along with a significant amount of atmospheric water green-houses the planet into a semi-livable state instead of it being an ice-ball. Complete it with a low oxygen content (about equal to 4,000m on Earth) and plant life. Gilly is fine, just adjust its mass to match its size.

Jool: Bigger... much bigger. Right now it's about Earth-sized. Blow it up to Neptune sized or larger and we're good. The moons all get the "real size" inflation, with Lathe becoming an iceball, as it should be. (we now have Eve to be the planet with free oxygen to play with space-planes on)

Dres & Eeloo: Realistically sized and Dres moved out beyond Jool's orbit, making them both Kuiper-belt objects. Then add about a dozen more, all unique and not like anything we have in the Sol system, along with procedurally generated asteroids, all outside Jool's orbit. (seriously, if Kerbin was getting bombarded as often as occurs in the game as it stands, life on Kerbin would still be microbial, having been blasted back to their beginnings over and over the way it happened here during the Late Heavy Bombardment period) Procedurally generated comets are cool. (Imagine catching a Shoemaker–Levy 9 over Jool!)

See a pattern? Kerbin and the Mun stay "travel sized for your convenience" while the rest of the bodies in the system get the realism treatment, satisfying everybody. This keeps the difficulty to start the same, allowing for a learning curve with unrealistically small bodies to make entry into the game as easy as it is now, with fun missions to the Mun having similar value as we have currently, but then ups the difficulty curve by going RO once beyond the Mun. Minmus then becomes where you learn how to deal with realistic planetary sizes. The best of both worlds.

Above all though, the Kerbin system needs to be less like ours as it sorta breaks suspension of disbelief. The odds of another system evolving like ours are so far remote that I can't take it all all seriously. (I just ignore it and pretend they're more different)

YMMV.

Edited September 4, 2020 by RobertaME

[Sanic]

Cringe: Well thought out, interesting replies

Based: Adjust Ike, re-color Moho, integrate Outer Planets Mod 

[Leopard]

On 9/3/2020 at 9:10 PM, jimmymcgoochie said:

Planetary Diversity mod does a lot of this if you pick those options, although I’ve never used it in that way so I haven’t seen its effects myself. While having a game that is different every time would keep things fresh, it would also make it that much harder to get help from others as the stock system is fixed for everyone but modifying it would probably make your version totally unique.

point is you make it an option, by default "off", becomes something maybe under the difficulty levels, and perhaps applied differently to planets further out - further from Kerbin and you know less without going there, maybe have an observatory you can upgrade to find a bit more, and allow for some science experiments that don't provide 'science!' they provide information - e.g. observe a planet for a while and find the upper edge of its atmosphere and density information

I do incidentally love the idea of a planet based on the "Venus" from something like the early Sci-Fi novels, obscuring cloud cover (good target for a radar sat scanner!), mix of oceans, dense jungle terrain thats dangerous to land in and similar, a world thats a challenge less because its actively trying to kill you and more because there are not that many good/safe landing spots, but could perhaps benefit water craft and aircraft