What happened to the SPACE in KSP?

[ex_]

I would really like to see KSP do a better job of taking you to that next level of space exploration. Colonization. Let's admit, that while learning stuff from space is cool and useful, what we're all really intersted in, in the long-term, is getting to the point where people are born, live, and die in space or outside of Earth/Kerbin. It's part of that question... what's next for the human race?

KSP should cater to that more. It let's me mine fuel from bodies. It let's me put Kerbals all over the place... but then what? why are they there? I know there are life-support mods and such, but waht I would really like is to make KSP more of an RPG once you progress to a certain point. Once you initially colonize a world, you should be able to help that colony grow. You would need to build all infastructure at every world you intend to inhabit, and once you have enough to support perminent colonies, have the game actually encourage you to do so.

Then, contracts like "ferry this loser to that god-forsaken place" actually make sense. They are colonists, and you are transporting them to their new home. Think about it.

One major hurdle for this is how many things you have flying around the game. If you build enough to make this a reality, most of our computers would start to suffer greatly.

[Legendary Emu]

I'm pretty sure colonization is out of the scope of the game. The closest KSP could get to it would be to have dedicated base building things and long term science and contracts and things.

[selfish_meme]

I like the idea I had for the Dunatian in my sig as far as making it interesting, a pretimed scenario where you have to complete a task before making a rendevous. I found a normally tedious rover journey much more engaging once I had some time invested and there were consequences involved.

Edited November 13, 2015 by selfish_meme

[peachoftree]

I know that this is probably way out of scope, but I would love to have planets that look like the Long Dark, with much more rugged terrain and better visual effects. I want to be coming don't to a planet and get 100m to the surface and be like, oh crap I cant land here there is a 40 degree slope with a field of boulders. Mountains should be proper mountains, with overhangs and pointy peaks, not just the majority of rolling hills we see in KSP. There should also be dynamic weather. I.E duna bases become more red and dusty over time, snow on kerbin etc. One more thing that needs an upgrade is the skybox, it looks really grey and empty, stars blend into the background too much.

Screenshot for reference

Edited November 13, 2015 by peachoftree

[Just Jim]

Actually, with the recent discoveries on Encelidus, I wonder if NASA isn't already designing a submarine!

[Choctofliatrio]

I like the idea I had for the Dunatian in my sig as far as making it interesting, a pretimed scenario where you have to complete a task before making a rendevous. I found a normally tedious rover journey much more engaging once I had some time invested and there were consequences involved.

Ooh... It'd be cool to add that kind of stuff. Perhaps add built-in random events or scenarios to help spice up gameplay. I don't mean the lame ones that the game normally has (I don't remember exactly, though)

For example, one scenario COULD be to have a preexisting colony in a very difficult spot to get to (bottom of the ocean, idk) and try and rescue a Kerbal from there before the time limit runs out. Or there's an impending asteroid impact that needs to be stopped. Players could make their own scenarios and download other people's. This wouldn't interfere with the basic game modes, as it'd be an extra option to select.

[wolfedg]

It may be just me but it seems this argument comes up in some form no matter what they do. If they focus on spaceplane parts then the rocket crowd gets upset, if they focus on rocket parts the space plane crowd get upset etc. I've been around here long enough to realize that they generally rotate the types of patches each time. One patch you might get new rocket parts, another focuses on aerodynamics, another focuses on spaceplane parts, another focuses on unfinished IVAs, another focuses on optimizations, ...ui, ...tech trees, ...space center buildings and grounds, planets, navigation ui, ...etc... Of course sometimes some of these are mixed into one patch, but there are only so many things they want to put into a single patch project.

Nothing to worry about. Sooner or later they will get around to what you want upgraded.

[selfish_meme]

Ooh... It'd be cool to add that kind of stuff. Perhaps add built-in random events or scenarios to help spice up gameplay. I don't mean the lame ones that the game normally has (I don't remember exactly, though)

For example, one scenario COULD be to have a preexisting colony in a very difficult spot to get to (bottom of the ocean, idk) and try and rescue a Kerbal from there before the time limit runs out. Or there's an impending asteroid impact that needs to be stopped. Players could make their own scenarios and download other people's. This wouldn't interfere with the basic game modes, as it'd be an extra option to select.

You can make a lot of them yourself for sharing like I did, use hyperedit to put an asteroid on a collision course etc.

[Temeter]

It's impossible to avoid complaint-threads, isn't it?

Water and aircraft engines are done now because they were delayed for a very long time, the blue cement/explodium mixture was some of the oldest code in the game. And it was delayed because this is a game about space in the first place.

Duh.

[Talavar]

Personally I'm perfectly fine with the space portion thus far.. All I want is a damn hinge to be added so I can stop fighting with my habitat units while trying to connect them to build a base on the moon! lol

[paul23]

Just a simple update that I've been suggestion since 0.23:

Why do spacecraft not store their rotational speeds? - Just like planets, ships also have a rotation given to them during the physics loading, but it gets removed when being set on rails. A simple update would be to just add a rotational speed to the object when it is being put on rails. That would be more realistic, fun (you can give a satellite a rotation so it orientates itself automatically to the sun) - and add a whole set of extra variables to the system.

All by just remembering the rotational speed (3 numbers).

[Mister Spock]

I think KSP is already a pretty great game, but I do wish there were more to do on planets once we've landed there. The resource-extraction stuff is great, and that will keep me busy for a while. But there are other possibilities too. The discussion on colonization on the preceding page is one idea, but I understand that might be outside the scope of KSP, and mods like UKS do address it. A more challenging science mini-game is also partly addressed by mods, but I think there might be room for more innovation in science: e.g., designing science projects the way we design rockets. Another possibility has also been discussed in these forums: more interesting places to explore on planets, and more varied rewards for doing so. Easier said than done, I know.

[John FX]

[quote name='paul23']Just a simple update that I've been suggestion since 0.23:

Why do spacecraft not store their rotational speeds? - Just like planets, ships also have a rotation given to them during the physics loading, but it gets removed when being set on rails. A simple update would be to just add a rotational speed to the object when it is being put on rails. That would be more realistic, fun (you can give a satellite a rotation so it orientates itself automatically to the sun) - and add a whole set of extra variables to the system.

All by just remembering the rotational speed (3 numbers).[/QUOTE]

I think you would like the mod `persistentrotation` as that is exactly what it does.