42nd Kerbin Biome

[bewing]

On the wiki, in one location, it claims that there are/were 42 total biomes on Kerbin. A very propitious and philosophically important number. In previous versions, apparently the 42nd was a structure called the VAB South Complex Building -- which seems to no longer exist. It is certainly not listed in the wiki under the VAB biomes list anymore, and I can't find it.

 

So can it truly possibly be that there are only 41 biomes on Kerbin now? How could such a travesty be true? I was hoping that "Deep Underwater" would be the new 42nd biome, but the other submariners and I tried that, and it doesn't work. (But i think it would be really cool to make people explore underwater to get more science points!) Maybe a tiny cavern someplace? You park on top of it to be "landed" and then float inside to get "splashed" maybe?

 

[Snarfster]

I think there's a biome at the kerbal space center that is only available at a certain level of upgrades. Might be that.

[Rithsom]

7 hours ago, Snarfster said:

I think there's a biome at the kerbal space center that is only available at a certain level of upgrades. Might be that.

I know for a fact that the tier 1 R&D does not include the Main Building, Wind Tunnel, etc. biomes that the tier 3 one has. This probably applies to the VAB as well.

[bewing]

Actually, I've tested that in detail. (In fact the R&D Main Building is available at tier 1, but the Tracking Station Main Hub is not.) At a full tier 3, the VAB South Complex no longer exists -- and I'm sure it did exist in some previous version of the game. And it's not listed on the wiki Biomes page, anymore, either. And if you spend a minute and count all the Kerbin biomes that are on the Biomes list, it comes to 41. If you look at the Kerbin wiki page, it says 42. And includes the South Complex building.

My whole deal is simply that if one "biome" disappeared from KSC, then I'm hoping a new one pops up somewhere else. And I'm wondering if anyone has seen it, or if there is a rumor that it will appear in a future version -- once the bugs get worked out of underwater travel, for example.

 

[LordKael]

As much as I would love for 42 to be the number of biomes on Kerbin, I would honestly prefer another dozen or so be added. I think "deep underwater" should be like "space high above _____" and Squad ought to implement a couple of oceans, with "on the surface of XYZ Ocean", "Below the Surface of XYZ Ocean", and "Deep beneath XYZ Ocean" for each. Then, after a certain range, just say "deep underwater"

 

[bewing]

Well, more biomes would certainly make the science points come easier at the beginning. But I actually have just more than enough of those to do what I want -- it's money to upgrade my R&D building that's my grinding bottleneck (as with several other guys on the other thread).

But the thing about other non-structure biomes is that all 9 of the current ones can have a status of both "SrfLanded" and "SrfSplashed". So the nice thing about a SeaCave, or DeepUnderwater, or an additional "Ocean" biome is that you can still become both landed and splashed in each. (Where splashed means "not touching the ground", and landed means parked on the bottom of the ocean or on top of the sea cave.) And then the kerbonaut's RCS jetpack suit needs a slight negative bouyancy so you can do EVAs and take surface samples down on the bottom just like on land. And then the Ocean biome would be out even farther offshore than the Water biome, of course.

 

Edited December 7, 2015 by bewing

[Aetharan]

The VAB South Complex exists on the second-level VAB.  It's the trio of small, hangar-looking buildings south of the main building itself.  I didn't think to check the first-level VAB, and the career I'm on right now doesn't have funds to upgrade to the third, but I can assure you that the biome exists, whether the Wiki reports it or not.

Edit:  After further testing, I can confirm that the VAB South Complex is available only with a second-level VAB.  The buildings in question don't exist at the first or third levels.  I've edited the wiki page on biomes to reflect my findings (including a minor edit concerning the availability of the Astronaut Complex location biome.)  This actually makes for the first missable content I'm aware of in the game, outside of contracts.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Aetharan