Jump to content

Planet Ideas And Names For The Future Of Kerbal Space Program


Dead Pixel

Recommended Posts

Perhaps something highly eccentric or inclined or both like Pluto. Maybe comets? Asteroid belts?

I like the idea of asteroid belts. But anything further out than Eeloo is practically Unachievable without FTL travel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would suggest i titan like planet (bigger then the irl thing) in the gap between dres and duna. its orbit is VERY inclined, but almost a circle. It has a think atmosphere and it has difficult visibility with some king of mountains or volcanos. It would be called trourlog.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like idea of a planet with extremly low visability, constant storms etc, combined with an extremly limited safe landing zones, high mountains , deep ravines and so on. This will force a mapping mission before any attempt to land.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd really like a moon that's very, very close to a gas giant, like skimming its atmosphere close. It would be racked by tidal stress, causing volcanoes, lava rivers, and massive canyons. It would also have high winds due to it skimming the atmosphere of a gas giant. Basically, it would be what Moho failed to be.

My second idea is a short-period comet. Basically an icy rock the size of Gilly or smaller, with a highly elliptical orbit. It would come way close to the sun, closer than Moho, offering opportunities for direct sunspot observation. After that, it would zoom to the farthest reaches of the Kerbol system, at least twice as far as Eeloo. This would offer a stepping-stone to other stars, as a ship could go into orbit or land in the comet and exit as soon as it was far out, effectively giving free delta-v.

My third idea is Rare Events. These would basically be special cosmic events that would happen once every 5-10 in-game years. Here are my ideas for a couple.

Asteroid Near Miss: An asteroid about half the size of Gilly flies by Kerbin. You can land on the asteroid. It has a randomly-generated periapsis as low as 100 kilometers. Once you have landed a ship on the asteroid, it becomes persistant, and enters a visible solar orbit, in which you can visit it again. If you do not land on it, it disappears when it exits Kerbin's SOI. If you plant a flag on it, you are given the opportunity to name it.

Comet/Asteroid Impact: A comet or asteroid enters an impact trajectory with a Solar system object. Think Siding Spring or Shoemaker-Levy. These objects never impact Kerbin, and have a variable size based on the object they are impacting. Thus, an object with the mass of 1/8 Gilly would impact Minmus, but an object the size of Pol would impact Jool. These will cause visible craters and a large debris field, possibly endangering bases. When one impacts a sea such as on Laythe or Eve, it creates a tsunami, endangering any island or coastal bases.

For when other solar systems are added:

Novas: The star explodes, destroying or seriously damaging any planets. Objects that are not destroyed, such as comets at their apoapsis, plutoids, and far-out gas giants, undergo these effects:

Darkness: Lots of it. After the nova is over, all surviving objects are plunged into darkness. Solar panels don't work at all, unless the object encounters another star.

Solar Panel Overload: The exploding star overloads any deployed solar panels on ships orbiting around it, or any bases on its undestroyed planets. The solar panels turn black and are completely unfixable.

Orphan Planets: The surviving planets are cast away from the star, at least until they encounter another one. These orphan planets have a 15% chance of being cast toward Kerbol, making Orphan Planet Flyby another Rare Event.

Neutron Stars: If the star has a large enough mass, it turns into a Neutron Star. These have very, very large densities, and the planets of stars that turn into these are not orphaned.

Naturally, some stars such as stars with low mass like Kerbol never actually supernova.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you could do an aerobrake and save the fuel, assuming it has an atmosphere.

For when mining is added and you need to get resources, especially LV-N and RTG nuclear material, I can imagine a tiny, airless, fuel rich planet in a near polar degree inclination as far out as Jool or Eeloo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A Gas Giant moon with atmo (non-oxygen) orbiting retrograde

A Gas Giant moon without atmo orbiting retrograde

A Gas giant moon with it's own (Gilly/Bop-sized) moon

A planet with atmo with a a highly inclined retrograde orbit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A ringed planet for sure, and maybe a comet in a highly elliptical orbit. I'd also like to see dynamic effects on the surfaces of the already existing planets.

Also, a black hole far away. (easter egg?)

If you go inside, after crossing the event horizon, you'd end up EVA in a room kinda like this:

btMciMH.jpg

Cause this game doesn't have enough references to it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hmmm, maybe a planet with an extreme inclination?

29up0gm.jpg

I like this idea. It would provide a unique challenge because you would really need to master timing your burns so you get the intercept at the point where it crosses Kerbin's orbit, or need a huge rocket to change your inclination enough to get there.

Personally, there are three things I would like to see:

1. A planet that orbits or rotates retrograde. If it orbits retrograde, it would need an atmosphere to slow down in, and the gees from slowing down would be huge. It could possibly be a gas giant.

2. Not a planet, but just general tilted axis that the planets rotate on. It isn't realistic that all planets rotate at a perfect 90 degree angle to the direction of their orbit.

3. Again, not a planet, but asteroids and comets. Comets would mainly be for visual effects, but you could land on asteroids.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I say a double planet of a desert planet (tan, not red) and a water planet and both of them have a size and atmosphere similar to Kerbin. Orbiting a different star. Double planet wiki

But for this we need N-body physics... and that doesn't seem feasible at this point. :/

Also, I think they should implement building space centers with VABs and such on other planets when they add other stars. Would make traveling extreme distances easier. (Maybe with a limit of 1 per star system?)

Edited by mr_yogurt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Binary systems need N-Body physics to work right.

Not necessarily, so long as you have everything orbiting the barycenter then a binary system is quite feasible in KSP. True, you couldn't have things orbiting the individual objects, but it could work well enough for a game.

I'd definitely like some rings around planets. It would add so much ambience to flying around gas giants... :D

Edited by OrbitusII
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...