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

[Souptime]

Move the asteroid out to just beyond duna, it's too easy to get to one since they all encounter kerbin. and a binary system in-between dres and jool

[Neil Kermstrong]

1. I'd give Jool rings with actual asteroids, masses varying from B-E. From far away it would look like a hologram but if the player entered it there would start spawning asteroids up to 5km away to the player, and they would despawn completely if the player went too far, however they would be considered a normal asteroid and would gain a name if the player grabbed it with a klaw or marked it in the tracking station.

There would be an option of turning the asteroids on and off when creating the save, and in the game's graphics settings the player would be able to choose how many asteroids spawn at the same time, from 2-30 (would destroy CPUs)

2. Make the sun bigger, and at the same time making the planets farther from it

3. Add bigger asteroids, up to 1/5 minmus's diameter (yes that's REALLY huge, and I'd absolutely love that)

4. A way to change a planet's surface with some parts, not by changing it's material or temperature, but by changing it I mean making it flatter, and would take lots of time (stupid idea I know but would be great for ground bases)

5. More surface features that could suggest the planets/satellites' past, like if the planet was once an ice giant, if it had/could have light on it, and also adding science instruments for these things (some kind of chemcam would be cool)

 

1, 3 and 5 together would have a great potential for a DLC, but of course there would be more things other than that

[Neil Kermstrong]

uh

Edited September 8, 2020 by Neil Kermstrong
accidental repost lol

[theJesuit]

I'd make some minor tweaks

• Mün would be pushed out to require a 12 hour (2 day) of 18 hour (3 day) transfer with a minimal Hahmann transfer maneuver.    Also increase inclination to 6 degrees (what Minmus is currently).  With closeness and the large SOI, getting there shouldn't be too difficult from an equatorial Kerbin orbit still.

• Minmus increase inclination, and give some eccentricity.  Make the periapsis and apoapsis the descending and ascending nodes too.  Gives players practice on lining up transfer windows.

• Jool system, rearrange such as the suggestion from Principa.  Namely Bop to orbit retrograde to the system and the three lrager inner moons to have their orbits tweaked.  I'm not suggesting Principa, only the Jool system tweaked.

More radical ideas

• Minmus gets moved to Eeloo.  This just makes sense to be honest.  A Pluto/Charon analogue.
• Move Gilly to Duna.  I'm a little cooler on this idea but  only in that Eve just becomes much harder without the refueling orbital outpost.

Peace.

[Bej Kerman]

On 10/19/2015 at 8:44 PM, NovaSilisko said:

Uncomfortable quantities of minor moons

Something like this would be "seen one, seen them all". Perhaps not the best idea ever, looking at what the devs were thinking 8 years back.

[darthgently]

On 9/5/2020 at 5:10 PM, Leopard said:

I do incidentally love the idea of a planet based on the "Venus" from something like the early Sci-Fi novels,

This would be great.  A Duna from Bradbury's Martian Chronicles would be cool also with all the ancient abandoned alien tech

[TheOrios]

most of the system isnt bad, its just that dres and eeloo should be based off of their irl counterparts (ceres and pluto) more since those are very interesting while in game they arent

[Iapetus7342]

Kerbol - Rescale to be 10x smaller than our sun. Asteroids in orbits lower than Moho.

Moho - Make a little grey, add lava flows, decrease altitude and inclination slightly, add some more terrain.

Eve - T H I C K  cloud layers, some less liquid Explodium, rescale to be only a little larger than Kerbin, make less purple, add extra moon.

Gilly - Fine as-is, maybe a little terrain adjustment.

Kerbin - Ring system, add some more plant variety, terrain revamp, add 3rd moon, make Inland KSC usable.

The Mun - Minor inclination changes, increase altitude to more closely reflect our Moon, some more uneven craters.

Minmus - Increase eccentricity to match that of a captured comet, shrink a little bit.

Duna - Reduce ice caps a tad, make more rusty than red, smooth out a little, add a Deimos analog far out.

Ike - Craters galore, move The Magic Boulder into orbit once more, add plains of red dust.

Dres - Give it rings, add nameable minor moons (50m - 2km), add more biomes and terrain variety.

Jool - Make less green, shrink a tiny bit, add proper biomes, add global metallic hydrogen ocean at "sea level", add slightly visible ring system to reflect Jupiter's, add nameable minor moons (1-4km).

Laythe - Fix that weird atmosphere gradient, add geysers, increase size of ice caps, move out a little bit.

Vall - Add slight atmosphere mainly composed of water, add cracks revealing a subsurface ocean, move out to account for Laythe's new orbit.

Tylo - Reduce gravity, add ice plains on surface, move out to account for the new orbits, make slightly oblate, add submoon.

Bop and Pol - Fine as-is, maybe move out a tiny bit.

Eeloo - Recolor to match Pluto, add Charon analog, add nameable minor moons (100m-1.5km), give slight atmosphere, move out a fair bit.

Other - add Gas Planet 2, add analogs for Haumea, Eris, Makemake and Sedna, maybe add other stars?

Edited July 3 by Iapetus7342
I forgor dres

[KerikBalm]

 

1x scale is too small, but after 3x, then 4x, then 6.25x, it got too tedious, I would rescale the system to 2.25x (1.5x scaling to orbital periods/dV requirements)

Tilt the entire system 8 degrees so that kerbin has seasons and it's a little more complicated to go interplanetary

Make it a binary star system, with star #2 1'000 to 2'000 "KU" out.

Add a Saturn and Uranus/Neptune analogue.

See my linked thread for more details 

[tryharder]

Make the densities of the bodies in the Kerbol System realistic, improve on the surface features (rivers, lakes, mountains, canyons, etc.) to be more realistic, add weather effects to every object with an atmosphere, improve on visual effects, add a 2nd gas giant (Saturn analogue) with its own moons, and give Tylo, Ike and the biggest moon of the Saturn analogue a submoon.

Also, add local star systems outside of the Kerbol System, such as Wolf 359, Grm 34 and Ross 128 (in other words Kerbol is Lalande 21185), and allow for travelling to the real Solar system.

[dsplaisted]

I’d scale it up around  10x (parts would be changed to accommodate for this)

Edited July 24 by dsplaisted

[uncertified_engineer]

Like the guy said above i'd probably scale it up a whole lot more and make the planets just much more detailed and unique, especially more detailed geological features like canyons and volcanoes, add an extra gas giant with rings (basically opm). One of the problems i've always had with the stock system is that even with all the mods the stock planets often look cartoonishly bland. I've always adored the way the tharsis plateau and valles marineris look on mars.

[pandaman]

I'd upscale maybe 2x to 3x so as not to  require too much extra work, and especially system resources.   Parts maybe wouldn't need adjustment either.

Increase surface detail and textures.

Make Kerbin day 12 hrs, 6 hrs always felt too short, irrespective of scale/size.

A few extra small rocky moons.  

[jimmymcgoochie]

The problem with scaling up is that for many first time players, Kerbin is too big as it is. Very few players make it to orbit, even fewer to the Mun and fewer still land there. Larger planets just mean more delta-V is needed and things take longer to happen.

I have no issues with mods that add larger scale systems and I really like JNSQ's 2.7x scale, and I'm heavily into RSS/RO/RP-1 which is about 4x larger still, but that's a choice I made, not something forced by the game. Kerbin's orbital velocity being somewhere around Mach 6-7 makes spaceplanes and SSTOs viable, whereas for Earth orbital velocity is around Mach 23.

[Royale37]

I would make Moho closer to Kerbol, make it tidally locked, make the light side lava-hot. I would also add another ice/gas giant after Eeloo. Also an asteroid belt in the orbit of Dres and give it a ring like in KSP2.

Edited August 25 by Royale37

[Mr. Kerbin]

On 1/24/2023 at 6:09 AM, TheOrios said:

eeloo should be based off of their irl counterparts  pluto

Eeloo was made before New Horizons flew by Pluto; or in other words, we didn’t know what Pluto looked like when Eeloo was made. Same goes for Dres actually. (Dawn, the spacecraft that visited Ceres, went to it in 2015, but Dres was made in 2012)

Anyway…

Gas planet 2. Really, you don’t need Uranus and Neptune analogs, the only special moon is Triton, really.

Edited September 13 by Mr. Kerbin

[JeDoesStuff]

I would make minor adjustments to the scale of each body to make them more unique. Moho, Gilly, Mun, Minmus, Ike, Dres, Bop, Pol, Eeloo all can be landed on with very similar landers. For the minimalist, all you need is an ion engine, 1000 ec and a solar panel and you can do it easily for less than a ton. Here are the adjustments I would make:

• Moho: Slightly denser, roughly the surface gravity of Duna
  • This discourages the use of ion engines, which are OP on Moho
• Eve: No Changes
• Gilly: No Changes
• Mun: No Changes
• Minmus: No Changes
• Duna: Slightly larger, same surface gravity
  • This raises the orbital velocity slightly, making the margins a little tighter
• Ike: No Changes
• Dres: Slightly larger, orbital velocity of 410m/s
  • This is to help differentiate it more from Ike
• Jool: No Changes
• Laythe: fix the atmosphere model so the upper atmosphere isnt so dense
  • I hate 45-50km
• Vall: No Changes
• Tylo: No Changes
• Bop: No Changes
• Pol: Slightly smaller and denser
  • This increases gravity losses slightly, but its more just to differentiate it from Minmus
• Eeloo: Larger, similar to Vall, but significantly less dense
  • This help differentiate it more from the Mun, but also makes landing on it with an ion engine no longer worth it in a grand tour setting

Additionally, I would add the Quack Pack, since it adds a lot more variety to the game. As for unique bodies, heres a couple ideas:

• Ike sized trans-joolian object, on a highly inclined orbit (~30 degrees)
  • Far enough away that Ion engines require batteries, but large enough that you need a significant amount of them
  • Double Jools SMA, making it very difficult to reach
  • M-class asteroid moon, Slightly smaller than gilly
  • Very low density, requiring much more delta V due to higher orbital velocity compared to its gravity
• Gilly sized Commet
  • I know unoriginal but it would provide an interesting challenge for a minimalist
• Pol sized object within the orbit of Moho
  • due to the reduced potency of Messenger assists, it would be interesting to balance practicality and delta V required
• Alternis Tylo
  • Im a masochist so I think it would be cool

Thats all I got for now

[wafflemoder]

The Kerbol system obviously takes a lot of inspiration from our own solar system. But I feel that its charm really shines through in the places it diverges and so that's something I want to emphasis in this redesign. At the same time, I'm a planetary science nut, so I want to try to nudge things in the direction of realism for my own amusement, without sacrificing KSP's charm.

• Moho: Fine as is, maybe a bit bigger.
• Eve: Maybe less purple and slightly lower gravity (increasing its size to compensate so dV is the same or even higher)
  • Gilly: its a cute little potato, but can it be smaller? Alternatively an even smaller moon could be added instead.
• Kerbin: Fine as is
  • Mun: Could be made smaller to make an easier first target, as well as justify making Kerbol smaller to match. But it risks becoming too similar to Ike and Dres.
  • Minmus: Orbit is too regular for my liking, and it could really help differentiate it from the Mun. Could be made to be a bit trickier (10-15°, ecc = 0.05), a lot trickier (60°, ecc = 0.1-0.2), or fully retrograde as a captured object. If you want to go fully crazy, it could be instead made into a co-orbital quasi-satellite of Kerbin. Other than orbit, its difficult to explain icy flats could be reflavored as tarry glaciers which settled over time.
• Duna: Fine as is.
  • Ike: Embrace the Duna-Ike Binary. Make Ike larger (something like 170 km, or maybe 230 km if the Mun is shrunk down) to help differentiate it from Dres. Maybe add some reddening on the hemisphere facing Duna
• Dres: I liked the rings it had in KSP2, and think that could add a nice touch. Baring that, perhaps increase its rotation period and make it a bit oblate. That would make it quite a unique object in KSP, borrow inspiration from Vesta, and help justify the inclusion of rings. Maybe give it a friend in the asteroid belt, though truthfully Dres is massive enough to clear things out so maybe not.
• Jool: I like the green, but it feels almost painfully green. Something a bit more subdued could be fun. Beyond that it could be a bit more massive (120 vs 80 Kerbin masses) and I have some plans for its moons
  • Laythe: Oh boy, do I have plans. First off, I'd make Laythe smaller to help differentiate it from Kerbin (also helps with system stability), was thinking something closer in size to Duna, maybe 350 km. Also it could made a bit greener with a hazier atmosphere, showing off free chlorine as a byproduct of higher acidity HCl-rich seas lowering the freezing point of water and atmospheric CFCs giving ample greenhouse heating. Give it some volcanic terrain instead of its cratered appearance and chefs kiss.
  • Eeloo: What's it doing here? Well its a small cracked icy object, so its where Vall was
  • Vall: Further out, now where Tylo was. Maybe make it less blue and give it some craters
  • Bop: Fine as is, maybe moved a bit further out. Could it see it made into a captured moon on a retrograde orbit but alternatively a new moon could fill that role.
  • Pol: Fine as is, maybe moved a bit further out. Could also see it moved interior to Laythe as a mix between Io and Amalthea, but a new moon could also be added to fill an Amalthea-like role instead
• With Eeloo gone, a Joolian trojan could be interesting, perhaps make use of the originally planned Harvest (though that was supposed to be a Kerbin trojan)
• Tylo: If Eeloo was originally a Pluto analog, this Tylo is going to be an Eris analog, with higher SMA, eccentricity, and inclination than Eeloo had, all with the same challenges of Tylo. Importantly, this retains many of the challenges of Tylo, without destabilizing the Joolian system with a nearly Kerbin-mass satellite. Could be given an especially small moon to make things interesting, but that might make things too easy.

 

[Tecorian]

Moho - just fine

Eve - too purple, i would prefer more like the real Venus

Gilly - never visited

Kerbin - fine for me; Mun could be a little bigger and harder to land; Minimus should have more structures to discover

Duna - fine for me, a little bit more atmosphere to have a harder time to land, more eastereggs

Jool and his moons - fine, Laythe morerealistic ice caps and more strucural land, some more eastereggs - ancient civilisation?

Eeloo - i don´t need this one

I would prefer 1-2 more gasgiants, maybe also with rings and far out something like pluto + charon als al last final goal.

[Kimera Industries]

Moho- OK

Eve- Much less purple, I would prefer if it had less gravity than Kerbin to make it more like Venus. No oceans as well, I think that's pretty weird.

Gilly- OK

Kerbin- More realistic/ Earth inspired terrain

The Mun- Actually flat places to land, realistic looking craters

Minmus- Slightly more colors but otherwise OK

Duna- Less red, more orange and brown, smaller ice caps. A second moon.

Ike- Way smaller. Either that or go all in on the binary system thing.

Dres- Rings. Equatorial ridge. Do what KSP 2 did.

Jool- Colors other than green. Asteroids spawn in orbit around it. Faint dust ring.

Laythe- More large islands, terrain color other than brown. Would add trees.

Vall- Replace with small version of Eeloo.

Tylo- OK

Bop- Change appearance to look less lumpy and more like the properly sized moon it is.

Pol- Less drastic height changes, but otherwise OK. Might even trade places with Bop.

Eeloo- Redo the entire appearance, make a binary system like Pluto.

At least one more gas giant.

[KerikBalm]

On 9/17/2024 at 10:46 AM, Tecorian said:

Duna - fine for me, a little bit more atmosphere to have a harder time to land, more eastereggs

More atmosphere makes it easier to land, not harder.

On my custom system, I increased its surface gravity 25%, and cut it's atmospheric density/pressure by a factor of 3 : making it a much better Mars analogue.

Landing became much harder

On 8/23/2024 at 4:01 PM, jimmymcgoochie said:

I have no issues with mods that add larger scale systems and I really like JNSQ's 2.7x scale, and I'm heavily into RSS/RO/RP-1 which is about 4x larger still, but that's a choice I made, not something forced by the game. Kerbin's orbital velocity being somewhere around Mach 6-7 makes spaceplanes and SSTOs viable, 

SSTO spaceplanes are still viable at 3x and 4x scale.

I routinely was making ones that take >100 tons to orbit, although payload fraction was much worse than stock where it can be around 50%, the larger scales it drops down to like 10-15%

19 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

 Laythe- More large islands, terrain color other than brown. Would add trees.

Trees? No sunlight is way to weak there.

That's why I moved laythe to another star entirely in my custom system.

[Kimera Industries]

2 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

Trees? No sunlight is way to weak there.

Some kind of plant, then. How it survives would be beyond me, but Laythe deserves life.

[Tecorian]

10 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

More atmosphere makes it easier to land, not harder.

On my custom system, I increased its surface gravity 25%, and cut it's atmospheric density/pressure by a factor of 3 : making it a much better Mars analogue.

It depends, how you approach Duna.

If you build spacecraft with plenty of fuel for decelerating into a Mars Orbit, a denser atmosphere will be easier.

If you build them "Nasa-style" with a direct decent from space with no deceleration before, you will need defintitly heatshields an a better landing concept,

which influences also the size of the Starting-rocket, his travelling speed to Duna and so on.

I have also modified Duna similar to you, but only about 20% more gravity with actual no chance of the atmosphere.

And regular landing stuff on duna with scycranes

So, at least heatshields does make sense.

@stock duna, in my opinion, a heatshield makes no sense at all. simplified, you need only a barrel with fuel, a little engine and some chutes.

 

 

[KerikBalm]

15 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

Some kind of plant, then. How it survives would be beyond me, but Laythe deserves life.

There's more to life than photosynthesizers. They already gave Laythe Geysers

So I wouldn't be opposed to finding stuff like this:

Or, you can do as I did, and put it around another star, problem solved.

7 hours ago, Tecorian said:

It depends, how you approach Duna.

If you build spacecraft with plenty of fuel for decelerating into a Mars Orbit, a denser atmosphere will be easier.

If you build them "Nasa-style" with a direct decent from space with no deceleration before, you will need defintitly heatshields an a better landing concept,

I never found Duna's atmosphere to be a problem with heat, primarly due to Duna being small with low gravity ,so you don't come in that fast.

Note that the "fuel for decelerating into a Mars Orbit" (Duna?) will be less than fuel needed to land with less atmosphere.

Whatever the density your craft can sustain without overheating, you aim for that for the aerocapture. Thicker or thinner atmosphere just changes this to a higher or lower entry corridor. It doesn't change the fuel requirements, and you can still do a direct descent. A thicker atmosphere then saves you on thrust and fuel needed for touchdown.

On top of the mass savings, it also slows down the landing, and if thick enough can make it entirely passive, making it easier in terms of piloting skills.

It just plain makes landing easier.

[Kimera Industries]

8 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

On top of the mass savings, it also slows down the landing, and if thick enough can make it entirely passive, making it easier in terms of piloting skills.

For a realistic approach, you shouldn't be able to land on parachutes alone on Duna.