Planet Ideas And Names For The Future Of Kerbal Space Program

[SunJumper]

I'd love it if there were randomly generated asteroids near Dres, inside Laythe's orbit, and beyond Tylo's orbit. No more than 20km across, they would be namable by the player, rather than the game, and one could land on them for profit.

The first such body I'd land on, I'd name "Manley".

[UncutSupersonic]

I would like to see a new planet/moon that has life on it. I know the devs did not want to add aliens, but I was thinking more on the line of something like algae.

[Rage097]

I think that an asteroid belt between Duna and Dres would be cool. It would also be more difficult to navigate to Dres & Beyond due to the fact that asteroids will be blocking your path.

[Pulstar]

I think that an asteroid belt between Duna and Dres would be cool. It would also be more difficult to navigate to Dres & Beyond due to the fact that asteroids will be blocking your path.

Well in real life it's not that hard to navigate the asteroid belt. It's not really an Empire Strikes Back "rocks everywhere, dodge fast!" belt, it's more like "oh there's a rock 300 000km to the left of us, and another one over there a mere 3 million kilometers away" belt (the numbers are probably off but you get the idea). Basically it's lots of emptiness with the occasional rock. In gameplay terms that means that sometime you might get an encounter, by accident, once every couple dozen flights beyond the belt.

[Rage097]

Well in real life it's not that hard to navigate the asteroid belt. It's not really an Empire Strikes Back "rocks everywhere, dodge fast!" belt, it's more like "oh there's a rock 300 000km to the left of us, and another one over there a mere 3 million kilometers away" belt (the numbers are probably off but you get the idea). Basically it's lots of emptiness with the occasional rock. In gameplay terms that means that sometime you might get an encounter, by accident, once every couple dozen flights beyond the belt.

True. It would still be slightly more difficult/enraging though.

[SunJumper]

Well in real life it's not that hard to navigate the asteroid belt. It's not really an Empire Strikes Back "rocks everywhere, dodge fast!" belt, it's more like "oh there's a rock 300 000km to the left of us, and another one over there a mere 3 million kilometers away" belt (the numbers are probably off but you get the idea). Basically it's lots of emptiness with the occasional rock. In gameplay terms that means that sometime you might get an encounter, by accident, once every couple dozen flights beyond the belt.

Probably less than that. I don't think any significant flybys have occurred by accident (one that might enter the "SOI"), but this may not be that impressive, as only 9 flights have travelled through/into the belt.

[satcharna]

A bigger problem would be micrometeorites. Asteroid belts aren't just the big rocks, there are plenty of smaller ones too, everything from tiny grains of sand to the large asteroids, and if you're going quickly enough, any of them could be lethal. The large ones would be easier to avoid, but picking up a few grains of sand would be significantly harder, which necessitates some form of armour for protection.

[Xellith]

Other than a planet that goes the opposite way to the existing planets, I would rather squad just work on the existing planets we have rather than add new ones.

[Crusher8000]

A brown dwarf or maybe a mysterious planet like in Solaris.

[OrbitusII]

A planet, either Mun or Tylo sized, that shows signs of a huge impact. The main surface feature would be a giant crater that takes a large part out of the planet. Spreading out from it, there would be rifts that stretch for hundreds of kilometers. If it was closer to Kerbol, the impact area could still be molten; alternatively, the impact is very recent and the deeper cracks have magma at their lower depths (I prefer this second one.

I like this one, lava would be a nice addition to the game.

As to asteroids, they might not make a huge impact on travel to Dres, Jool, Eeloo, etc. but it would definitely add in some good ambience.

[Tristavius]

It took me a long time to realize how clever they've been with the current planets, in giving you a sequentially harder set of challenges with different solutions required and different pros/cons. If you really stop and think about the setup of the Kerbin system, every planet and it's moon combinations is designed to learn (and test) a different skill.

I'm really not sure what should come next... most of the bases have been covered so far, so yeah, I think I'd like to see improvements on the current worlds first. For example, weather conditions, more scenery (OK it'll just be interesting rocks on most worlds) and maybe some different terrain type modeling that effects rover handling (and landing!), for example..

Frozen lakes on minmus - very little grip and control and a very hard surface to thump down on

Coarse Sand on Duna - softens landing a makes rover handling a little harder

Fine sand on Laythe - stronger effects of the above

You get the idea. Weather effects and atmospheric effects would be good too. Moho is supposed to be a baking hot radiation soaked hellhole, but actually it just feels kind of dull.

An ice world with an atmosphere would be quite nice too... maybe a terran world leaving or entering an ice age, with nice tropical green around the equator and heavily frozen ice caps descending.

[Tristavius]

Infact Moho: lets see some molten rock that you really don't want to be driving over!

[Rage097]

I would kind of rather them add some more detail/dynamics/objects to the surface of existing bodies because there's really not much to explore on the surface of most planets within a reasonable distance from a random landing site. Maybe some underground areas like caves or weather patterns for some planets.

[Dead Pixel]

I'd love it if there were randomly generated asteroids near Dres, inside Laythe's orbit, and beyond Tylo's orbit. No more than 20km across, they would be namable by the player, rather than the game, and one could land on them for profit.

The first such body I'd land on, I'd name "Manley".

Scott Manley

[WhiteWeasel]

hmmm, maybe a planet with an extreme inclination?

[Xander3838]

I'd like a planet or moon with extreme rotation and an oblate shape, a binary planet, an asteroid belt and a planet with rings. A few comets and a planet like Sedna would be nice too.

[M5000]

>A planet with very high inclination, yes.

>A planet that is almost at the edge of Kerbol's SOI. So much so that it would be nigh useless to try and orbit above it if you wanted to do a rendezvous-style insertion with it.

>Asteroids everywhere.

>A planet with a beautiful ring system.

>Some kind of gas giant with a solid core that would be cold, but have a ton of atmospheric pressure. Solar panels would be useless on the surface, as the atmosphere would block out the sun far before you even saw the surface.

>One planet, somewhere, that's exactly as life-friendly as Kerbin. Low rad levels, magnetosphere, temperature, atmosphere makeup/pressure, similar gravity, water, plant life, the works. A home away from home.

>A planetary system that has all of its planets orbiting VERY close so much so that encounters would be very challenging to get how you want.

[DJEN]

We need a "conventional" Jovian planet.

Jool is a fantasy superjovian, so we'll need a conventional, realistic one.

Also, a brown dwarf at the edge of the system would be cool too.

[Canopus]

We need a "conventional" Jovian planet.

Jool is a fantasy superjovian, so we'll need a conventional, realistic one.

Also, a brown dwarf at the edge of the system would be cool too.

Why is it a superjovian?

[satcharna]

Jool is approximately the size of Earth. Far from superjovian.

[OtherDalfite]

Jool is approximately the size of Earth. Far from superjovian.

Let's not forget that the Kerbal universe is scaled down quite a bit. I think what the original poster meant was that Jool contains bodies that give gravity almost similar to Kerbin, the Kerbal's "Earth". In reality, Ganyemede, the biggest moon in the solar system, is only a bit bigger than the moon.

[Stelith61]

I want something with a Miranda Style geology. Prefferably around the next gas giant maybe?

[Tophir]

I would like to see a 51 Pegasi b style planet although Moho may be in the way...

[erkha343]

A brown dwarf or maybe a mysterious planet like in Solaris.

Wait, it was a planet? I thought it was a star?

>A planet with very high inclination, yes.

>A planet that is almost at the edge of Kerbol's SOI. So much so that it would be nigh useless to try and orbit above it if you wanted to do a rendezvous-style insertion with it.

>Asteroids everywhere.

>A planet with a beautiful ring system.

>Some kind of gas giant with a solid core that would be cold, but have a ton of atmospheric pressure. Solar panels would be useless on the surface, as the atmosphere would block out the sun far before you even saw the surface.

>One planet, somewhere, that's exactly as life-friendly as Kerbin. Low rad levels, magnetosphere, temperature, atmosphere makeup/pressure, similar gravity, water, plant life, the works. A home away from home.

>A planetary system that has all of its planets orbiting VERY close so much so that encounters would be very challenging to get how you want.

Gas giants have a rocky core, but before that there's a liquid layer. I also want a high inclination planet, or maybe a comet.

[Daze]

Planet/Moon with thick atmosphere that heavily obscures vision would be cool (challenging landings).

An Europa style with ocean accessible by cave or something similar