Planet Ideas And Names For The Future Of Kerbal Space Program

[daterxies]

Kinda searched, saw the Wiki but not sure how out of date it is... are there any future plans on making planets more interesting?  They are so meh right now.. really hoping at least something.

[sal_vager]

Welcome to the KSP forum daterxies, we have a main planets thread here with lost of ideas so I popped your post in here so you can join the conversation

[Dead Pixel]

My post is almost 3 years old and is still going strong!

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming!

[legoclone09]

7 hours ago, Old Man Jenkins said:

My post is almost 3 years old and is still going strong!

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming!

Wow! First post in 2.5 years! (wait no was wrong when looking at profile, )

On topic, I would like the Uranus analog. It's unique!

Edited April 11, 2016 by legoclone09

[Coeus]

One thing I would love to have, are more minor bodies and an additional gas planet, with moons like Titan, Iapetus, Io or Europe. This would really round the game. But I think the focus should first be on making the existing bodies more interesting. 

Edited April 11, 2016 by Coeus

[Grumman]

As I suggested last year, adding support for non-zero wind speeds and using that same feature to simulate a ringed planet. You could make a gas giant which effectively has a narrow band of thin atmosphere spinning at orbital velocities around it, encouraging you to either match velocities or use a heat shield to protect the craft as you pass through it.

A planet with airless highlands and oxygen-filled valleys would also be cool.

[msasterisk]

Asteroids up to class F or G. Those ones wouldn't be meant for redirecting, mainly for refueling or building bases on. They could even have SOIs based on their mass.

Also, a carbon planet, which is really dark, even in daytime. For all those hardcore players. It would also have a CO2 and CO atmosphere about as thick as Duna's.

[p1t1o]

Well, I think a great name for a planet would be p1t1o...

[KerikBalm]

So I made a modified duna... but I wanted to keep the old duna... then I thought... what about something like Theia?

Theia was supposedly a Mars sized body that formed at one of Earth's Lagrange points, but did not remain stable, and impacted the Earth... creating the Earth-Moon system and giving it a lot of angular momentum.... Well, if Duna is a mars analogue, then why not put a second Duna like planet co-orbital with Kerbin at a pseudo L4 or L5 point.

And then we'll pretend it had a higher proportion of heavy/radioactive elements in its core to keep its magnetic field going longer, so that it hold on to its atmosphere and water better despite being closer:

Something like duna, modeled after Theia, we'll call it "Thuna". and make it something between this:

and this:

Lets say panspermia between Kerbin and "Thuna" lead to photosynthetic life in "Thuna's" seas, giving it an oxygen atmosphere.

 

We'll say kerbin got lucky... one Theia like body formed at each L4, and L5, one of which impacted creating Kerbin's moons, the other remained stable... thus having a large moon and a large coorbital body.

 

It would be a good addition to the game I think... You could go "interplanetary" at any time, because there'd be no real transfer window. A thicker atmosphere combined with Duna's low gravity would make landing easier... airbreathing ability would make return super easy.

It would be an interplanetary "trainer" planet... a step between a trip to Mun or Minmus... but not as hard as a trip to Duna or Eve.

(look at that apoapsis on airbreathers!!!)

Edited April 14, 2016 by KerikBalm

[msasterisk]

4 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

So I made a modified duna... but I wanted to keep the old duna... then I thought... what about something like Theia?

Theia was supposedly a Mars sized body that formed at one of Earth's Lagrange points, but did not remain stable, and impacted the Earth... creating the Earth-Moon system and giving it a lot of angular momentum.... Well, if Duna is a mars analogue, then why not put a second Duna like planet co-orbital with Kerbin at a pseudo L4 or L5 point.

And then we'll pretend it had a higher proportion of heavy/radioactive elements in its core to keep its magnetic field going longer, so that it hold on to its atmosphere and water better despite being closer:

Something like duna, modeled after Theia, we'll call it "Thuna". and make it something between this:

and this:

Lets say panspermia between Kerbin and "Thuna" lead to photosynthetic life in "Thuna's" seas, giving it an oxygen atmosphere.

 

We'll say kerbin got lucky... one Theia like body formed at each L4, and L5, one of which impacted creating Kerbin's moons, the other remained stable... thus having a large moon and a large coorbital body.

 

It would be a good addition to the game I think... You could go "interplanetary" at any time, because there'd be no real transfer window. A thicker atmosphere combined with Duna's low gravity would make landing easier... airbreathing ability would make return super easy.

It would be an interplanetary "trainer" planet... a step between a trip to Mun or Minmus... but not as hard as a trip to Duna or Eve.

(look at that apoapsis on airbreathers!!!)

Cool! But there should be greenish patches of lichens on the ground or something.

[Nikolai]

On 4/13/2016 at 8:18 AM, msasterisk said:

Asteroids up to class F or G. Those ones wouldn't be meant for redirecting, mainly for refueling or building bases on. They could even have SOIs based on their mass.

As much as I love the idea -- small solar system bodies warm the cockles of my heart, or perhaps the sub-cocklear area -- AFAIK, it's not possible with KSP as she is built.  Asteroids are considered to be parts as far as the game is concerned, and as such, have no SOI.  This allows for procedural creation of asteroids and for their orbital parameters to change, but also means that their rotation is not persistent (without mods) and that they exert no gravity of their own.

[Gauga159]

New ceres analog because nobody likes dres And probably give kerbin a moon inbetween mun and minmus with an atmoshere

[KerikBalm]

5 hours ago, msasterisk said:

Cool! But there should be greenish patches of lichens on the ground or something.

yes, but at the moment, all I know how to do is add an ocean, change the ocean color, add oxygen to the atmoshoere, change atmosphere "thickness"/density, and color. I can also modify the heights... which I did on the shallower more greenish sea version, to deepen one of the channels so that it was water filled.

I would like the shores of the oceans/lakes to be greenish, and the icecaps to be smaller.

[Andem]

5 hours ago, Gauga159 said:

New ceres analog because nobody likes dres And probably give kerbin a moon inbetween mun and minmus with an atmoshere

I love Dres!

[sp1989]

Because of some sort of glitch with SVE I accidentally created Mustafar 

 

[WillThe84th]

They've incorporated  a mod into the game before, and they can do it again. OPM needs to be stock.

[Servo]

I'm not as much for an outer planet as for more stuff on the existing ones. Easter eggs are cool, but what about cities/bases and more stuff on the surface. It would only need to be loaded within like 10km so it wouldn't eat up too much RAM.

[p1t1o]

11 hours ago, sp1989 said:

Because of some sort of glitch with SVE I accidentally created Mustafar 

 

That looks a lot like Mordor 

[Gauga159]

22 hours ago, Andem said:

I love Dres!

not a lot of peeps like dres

[blorgon]

Wish KSP planets had this level of detail and variety.

[matsumorak]

7 minutes ago, blorgon said:

Wish KSP planets had this level of detail and variety.

that's too much to ask...

[Andem]

1 hour ago, Gauga159 said:

not a lot of peeps like dres

I beg to differ.

@Sanic!

@SpaceplaneAddict!

[blorgon]

3 hours ago, matsumorak said:

that's too much to ask...

Not..... really though....

This is really just the result of a fancy (and very impressive) algorithm. AND it was designed to build an entire, literal universe, meaning that it is pretty damn powerful.

Yes, it probably is too much to ask of SQUAD, but I see no reason why the game itself couldn't support this kind of worldbuilding, seeing as how terrain is already procedural. I really wish they—or anybody, really—would polish the terrain and add more assets than just one type of ore. I'd like to see rocks on a moon in one crater that are different than rocks in another crater. I want to be able to take ACTUAL surface samples, because, let's face it, there's literally nothing interesting to do on the surface of planets right now. There's nothing to be gained from doing surface samples, rovers don't obey physical laws, and bases and ground stations are destroyed upon reloading:

All of which would be at least tolerable if it were pretty to look at.

Edited April 15, 2016 by blorgon

[SpaceplaneAddict]

2 hours ago, Andem said:

I beg to differ.

@Sanic!

@SpaceplaneAddict!

I've arrived and my say is that Dres is probably in need of some more unique featres, like a read moon, and some more landscape features (other than the canyon).

[Sanic]

Dres is a wonderfully unique planet, with much to explore.

People might say it's "boring" or "dull" because they haven't been there, or don't appreciate the beauty of Dres.

Only a select few have been to Dres in the KSP community... But those few have really gone the whole ten yards for the lonely loved planet.

If you beg to differ, then actually go to Dres.

Really.