Randomised monolith locations

[pandaman]

As the title suggests, randomise the locations and amounts of monoliths at the start of any new save.

The other anomalies like the temple, Mun arches, ufos etc. could stay as and where they are.  But the monoliths, as they are all the same standard model,  should (I guess) be fairly easy to locate randomly.

Not a big change, unless at some point the monoliths serve some actual game function, but it would add a bit more variety and something to search for that you can't find the locations for on the Web.

They could possibly create 'signal spikes' on the narrow band scanner to at least give a stock way of getting a general location.  Or perhaps whoever put them there used them to mark localised high ore concentrations. So for a small radius (100m ?) around a monolith the ore density is doubled.

 

[Wjolcz]

I want a monolith orbiting Jool. You can't see it because the orbit doesn't show in the map view (and maybe should be randomized or change from time to time). Once you get close enough to it you get warped to a random location in the Kerbol system.

I don't care it's unrealistic. It would be a great reference and an awesome easter egg! Better than the stationary ones and way harder to find.

[fireblade274]

34 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

I want a monolith orbiting Jool. You can't see it because the orbit doesn't show in the map view (and maybe should be randomized or change from time to time). Once you get close enough to it you get warped to a random location in the Kerbol system.

I don't care it's unrealistic. It would be a great reference and an awesome easter egg! Better than the stationary ones and way harder to find.

You had me till the warping part; i think stumbling across a rather large random alien object in an invisible orbit would be really neat and simple to implement 

And for the record, I have never found 1 monolith, although I think I saw one once while I was coming in from re-entry on Kerbin for the runway, but I've yet to catch glimpse of it again, and it could have been the old KSC center (which is I guess is more Easter egg then monolith but not really?)

Edited March 7, 2016 by fireblade274

[Tex]

I support the idea of a fifty/fifty split. I think that the easter eggs that are in place should remain, so that easter egg hunters can see them and visit them. But perhaps certain ones like the Munar arches or even some new ones could probably be procedurally generated to give some variety. Honestly, I don't see many people hunting for them anyway.

[AbacusWizard]

2 hours ago, Veeltch said:

I want a monolith orbiting Jool. You can't see it because the orbit doesn't show in the map view (and maybe should be randomized or change from time to time). Once you get close enough to it you get warped to a random location in the Kerbol system.

I don't care it's unrealistic. It would be a great reference and an awesome easter egg! Better than the stationary ones and way harder to find.

 

OH MY KRAKEN IT'S FULL OF STARS

 

*end of transmission*

[Wjolcz]

6 hours ago, fireblade274 said:

You had me till the warping part; i think stumbling across a rather large random alien object in an invisible orbit would be really neat and simple to implement 

And for the record, I have never found 1 monolith, although I think I saw one once while I was coming in from re-entry on Kerbin for the runway, but I've yet to catch glimpse of it again, and it could have been the old KSC center (which is I guess is more Easter egg then monolith but not really?)

IMO interacting with an easter egg is way more fun than just staring at it.

Pun not intended. 

[Hannu2]

7 hours ago, Veeltch said:

I want a monolith orbiting Jool. You can't see it because the orbit doesn't show in the map view (and maybe should be randomized or change from time to time). Once you get close enough to it you get warped to a random location in the Kerbol system.

I don't care it's unrealistic. It would be a great reference and an awesome easter egg! Better than the stationary ones and way harder to find.

I would not like such mission ruining thing. Mission ruining random accidents are OK, but there should be more interesting story and logic behind them. Maybe some kind of large ancient space station which could be investigated. It could give much science and reputation points but also some probability of severe problems (for example illness of crew members, sudden accidents (explosions in modules where kerbals are) etc.). Kicking the ship on the other side of solar system is rather cheap and boring way to cause problems. Unfortunately, as far as I know, SQUAD and most players are against all pseudo random things. But maybe it could be a mod.

There is also one problem independent on personal opinions. It would be extreme improbable to hit a point like anomaly on random orbit around Jool. Probably only few of thousands of players would ever encounter it. If the game would not tell clearly what happened people would think that it was some bug. There has been bugs which disturb orbits in some versions.

[Gameslinx]

The return of the magic boulder.....

[Wjolcz]

1 hour ago, Hannu2 said:

I would not like such mission ruining thing. Mission ruining random accidents are OK, but there should be more interesting story and logic behind them. Maybe some kind of large ancient space station which could be investigated. It could give much science and reputation points but also some probability of severe problems (for example illness of crew members, sudden accidents (explosions in modules where kerbals are) etc.). Kicking the ship on the other side of solar system is rather cheap and boring way to cause problems. Unfortunately, as far as I know, SQUAD and most players are against all pseudo random things. But maybe it could be a mod.

There is also one problem independent on personal opinions. It would be extreme improbable to hit a point like anomaly on random orbit around Jool. Probably only few of thousands of players would ever encounter it. If the game would not tell clearly what happened people would think that it was some bug. There has been bugs which disturb orbits in some versions.

That's exactly my point. There's a ridicluously low chance of you encountering it because:

1. It orbits Jool, which means you would need horrendous amounts of dV to match the orbits

2. The orbit changes randomly (even lower chances of randomly encountering it)

3. You need to get really close to it (50 meters or less) to get you teleported.

All of these would make the chances of encountering the monolith miniscule, so there's almost no chance it can ruin your mission, unless you really try hard to ruin it.

[Tw1]

On 06/03/2016 at 9:31 AM, pandaman said:

 

They could possibly create 'signal spikes' on the narrow band scanner to at least give a stock way of getting a general location.  Or perhaps whoever put them there used them to mark localised high ore concentrations.

Something like this where you actually need to follow sensors to find stuff would finally bring some proper exploration to the game. Some of us have been suggesting things like this for years. Maybe some day.

I'd rather it lead to some new planetary features, but somthing with monoliths would be a start.