Planetary Enhancements

[Pthigrivi]

 

So there were a number of nice ideas in a design your own Kerbol system thread not too long ago, but I thought we could tighten things up and think about specific ways in which the different existing worlds could be made more interesting. I'm sure people have GP2 ideas and other planets and binary stars and all that stuff, this isn't the thread for you! This is purely about ways to beautify and invest in the marvelous system we already have!

 

For my own part, some broad strokes:

 

Biome Hierarchy: At the moment the planets themselves feel very flat, in that you can land pretty much anywhere and things play out basically the same: you land, click some stuff, and take off. Unless you've already been to that biome or are mining there's really no reason to land in any particular location. A big step to change this would be to give some biomes higher science multipliers than others. For instance the Mun's polar lowlands, while difficult to land on, might entice players if they could gain more science from landing there. Some level of differentiation could be applied everywhere, and the multipliers really should be mapable, so that players could send ahead orbital scanning probes before carefully selecting a landing site.

 

Surface Features: I'm pretty conscious that this could end up a modeling nightmare, so I tend to think the way to do this is to design just a few different models and then pepper them across different planets. They could either be single outcroppings like anomalies, or scattered more or less evenly every kilometer or so in some biomes. These too could potentially be mapable, but should at least be visible from a short distance so skillful pilots could make precise landings near them and rover-drivers would know what to head for. Each could be worth varying science and experience bonuses. They could also indicate high ore concentrations. A few examples could be Interesting Rocks, Ice Crystals, Geysers, Volcanos, Cryovolcanoes, Fossil Beds, Stromatolites, Primordial Goo, etc. This would go a long way to encouraging rovers. These could also be integrated into the world first contracts.

 

Visual Enhancements: So some of these have been suggested a million times, I only repeat them for thoroughness. These might include: clouds, aurora, richer textures, waves along ocean edges, reflections, non-obtrusive weather, (rain, snow, dust-storms), volumetric landing effects, boat wakes, wheel dust and tracks, etc.

 

And a rundown:

 

Kerbol: Flares might be too much to ask, but a corona would be amazing. It would probably fry anything that got too close but possibly very cleverly built probes could skirt the edge and record data.

 

Moho: To be honest I haven't been since 1.0.5. Is heat a big deal here? It should be! Probably only Interesting rock formations here but there could be Ice in polar craters, possibly a volcano or two. Even though Moholes were an anomaly it’s part of the lore now and could be played up.

 

Eve: I'd love to see some volcanoes here. Aurora, clouds, etc would be nice as well. The surface in general could have a much more blackened volcanic look and the the oceans could have a metallic shine. I think it might be nice also if just a few worlds, Eve included, allowed for atmospheric xenon refining if you had a big ISRU converter and intakes on board.

 

Kerbin: Lots of surface features, obvious visual enhancements as well as a deeper look at ground scatter, different species of trees, shrubs, grasses, kelp in the oceans, etc. Cities and farms would be amazing but probably beyond reach.

 

Mun: Interesting Rocks and Ice Crystals in a few craters. I'd personally also like to see its albedo increased, it seems a bit drab at the moment?

 

Minmus: Dense sharp ground scatter along slopes and some shininess to many of the surfaces. What also could look amazing would be a thin layer of mist across the lowland plains. It might even be detectable by atmospheric instruments.

 

Duna: Here it might be nice to see a little more texture diversity. Rippled sands and rockier soil. Monument valley style buttes in a few places could be cool. There could also be a few geysers, ice crystals around the poles and mountain tops, and maybe a couple of fossil beds.

 

Dres: I don't know if axial tilt is still impossible with Unity 5, but this could be a nice place for it. Also a nice experiment would be a dusty ring. It could be quite thin, probably not dangerous, but could count as a biome. Duna itself could have deep sink holes and chasms containing Ice, Interesting Rocks etc.

 

Jool: Definitely a more intense cloud-system and aurora would be big.

 

Laythe: Thin clouds, waves, texture diversity all. Also cool as ground-scatter might be big dry coral heads on land, as well as a few very rare surface features like fossil beds, stromatolites, and primordial goo. Maybe also xenon refining?

 

Vall: Here I would love to see a very thin, low, yellowish atmosphere, perhaps 1/4 the density of Duna. It wouldn't be as useful for interplanetary capture as Tylo or Laythe, but on approach from a Jool orbit brave pilots could graze very low through valleys to slow down. I think it could even hang as low as to leave the peaks in vacuum. It might also be neat to see a number of small lakes, as well as geysers.

 

Tylo: Tylo is tough and something about its bleakness is beautiful, but here, just to give it something special there might be a few cry-volcanos.

Eeloo: I’d love to see an overhaul to bring Eeloo more in line with what we know about Pluto, with new textures and geography. It might also be cool if it had an ultra-thin atmosphere and cryovolcanoes, just to make it worth the trip.

Edited December 5, 2015 by Pthigrivi

[jros83]

Keep in mind there's already a lot of movement the program has to constantly calculate and update at any given time, and the more you add, inevitably performance will degrade. I'll take stable but sometimes stale over slow but sometimes breathtaking any day. It will be hard to enjoy an ice geyser at 7fps.

[Pthigrivi]

Yeah this is largely in anticipation of new memory being opened up in the coming updates. Also most of these effects would be physicsless.

[TyrannoFan]

Some great ideas here. I've always wanted cave systems, but I understand why they probably won't ever be implemented.

Also, sand dunes and wavy sand patterns on Duna DO exist. They just don't appear that often. And by don't appear, I mean that sometimes when you load the game up and go to the same spot on Duna, you'll have crappy Minmus-like textures. Then other times, you'll get this lovely sand dune pattern. I have no idea what triggers it. Sometimes, the terrain textures get stretched along one axis for some reason. Here's a link to an image that shows you the wavy sand texture if you haven't seen it.

[Tw1]

I think a useful step would be to move from just the discrete model of "biomes" to a continuous one, where sceince readings are determined by the distances between your instruments and certain points (Gameobjects?), or by altitude, or by combining numbers from already established systems. 

This way, there will be a lot more things to do while landed. New experiments could be based on modern geological surveying tools.

 

I like most of the ideas here (maybe not sharp things on Minmus, beings all smooth is kind of it's thing.)  It's got to retain any unique character of each planet, and should be procedural, (with factors like ground slope, latitude, etc, playing into it.) They also get someone involved who has at least studied some geology. 

[pandaman]

I certainly like the OPs ideas here.  The concept of the biome system bring less rigid with variations in science (similar, I suppose, to how ore concentration varies) with 'hotspots' at interesting terrain features is a nice one.

[Pthigrivi]

Tyranno yeah I was sure Id seen it before but in my last few missions nothing and I started to think I'd imagined it haha. Is it regional or ground-scatter? 

With any kind of payout scaling like this balance is going to be an issue. Is a hard-to-reach location on the Mun worth more than an easily reached location on Duna? I tend to think the bonuses aught to be marginal, 50% at most and usually more like 10%. Surface features might start at 25% and top at 200% for some of the really rare ones on Laythe or Eve. The main thing would be to make it easy for new players to just land anywhere and get a decent benefit from it, and allow veterans to optimize and be rewarded for skillful landings and exploration without breaking the game. In general I think this would do a lot to add longevity, as even long time players would be mounting missions to volcanos on Eve or searching for signs of life on Laythe. 

[cubinator]

I would like to see rovers become more important, last time I used one was a looong time ago. Now I just use my mad skills to do a precise landing on places I want to visit. Driving rovers is also currently boring and time-consuming. I think it all comes down to how much science we can do on the surface. Right now, you just land, Observe Mystery Goo^TM, Materials Bay, Seismometer, Negative Gravioli Detector, etc. and you're done. Drive a hundred kilometers to the next biome if you want and do the same thing again. I think this could be fixed with different science areas closer together. This could be done with something like the "Interesting Rocks" thing mentioned above. I would love to experience getting out of my space capsule, planting a flag, and looking over the hill and seeing some strange formations or anything that makes me want to say "Ooh, let me go check that out!" Something worth walking a few kilometers other than a great view of Kerbin or a fun crater to slide down. Something worth driving 20km over rough terrain to gather rock samples from. I realize that all this might be too much to ask, and I can wait until I go to Mars myself if that's the case. But it'd sure be nice to get a little taste of what's to come.

[Torgo]

I would love it if we weren't stuck with static planets and moons, and had something procedural generated instead. 

As it is now, once you've been to a place one game, it's going to be the same exact thing every time the rest of your life, no matter how many times you restart. There's no more sense of discovery, and why bother scanning when you already know exactly where to go?

I know nothing like that is remotely possible for 1.1 or probably not until 2.0 if ever, but it would add a lot of replay value. 

[Alshain]

No sun flares, sun flares are a product of cameras, your eyes do not have sun flares.  They are immersion breaking, I want to go to space not send a camera there.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Alshain

[jros83]

2 hours ago, Alshain said:

No sun flares, sun flares are a product of cameras, your eyes do not have sun flares.  They are immersion breaking, I want to go to space not send a camera there.

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

[Alshain]

7 hours ago, jros83 said:

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

 I thought you meant Lens Flares.  My apologies.

[nikokespprfan]

On 5-12-2015 01:17:22, Pthigrivi said:

Eeloo: I’d love to see an overhaul to bring Eeloo more in line with what we know about Pluto, with new textures and geography. It might also be cool if it had an ultra-thin atmosphere and cryovolcanoes, just to make it worth the trip.

I'd like a binary "moon" for Eeloo.

[Andem]

Eve should have some sort of atmospheric danger... as far as we know, it's nearly impossible to stay on Venus for more than a few minutes, due to the heat and corrosive atmosphere. Eve... Eve may as well be Kerbin with  toxic atmo. I want my ships to experience overheating If I don't have a crap-ton of radiators.