Limits of the Kerbol system

[icedown]

Well, knowing that, this has turned into how long will ksp run.  I've been accelerating at 180m/s² for almost 12 hours at 4x physics warp.  I'm passing 0.1c(30Mm/s) I stop accelerating for a while and when to max time warp so i'm just over 1600Tm above Kerbol.  No real oddities or problems.  The navball is a bit jittery though
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[Guest]

You see, Kerbol is actually the only star system in the Kerbal universe. What you see at night/in space aren't actually stars; they're the surrounding shell, also known as "Skybox" slowly corrupting itself. The dots are the centers of distortion, but they cannot be reached: every single "part" has a skybox around it, and that skybox is stuck to the part, even though they don't touch. Think of it like a field.

So, basically, it's the barrier that separates the Kerbal universe from ours.

[EGB9000]

What if Kerbol is the first star in its universe and the skybox is the much more recent background radiation?

[Loren Pechtel]

On 6/8/2016 at 7:14 PM, EGB9000 said:

What if Kerbol is the first star in its universe and the skybox is the much more recent background radiation?

Why assume there are any stars in the skybox?  Couldn't that be galaxies?

Anyway, you can get to interstellar space without mods or cheats.  I've had a parachute boosted to over .6c by the Kracken drive.  I deleted it since I didn't want it messing up my game.

[KerikBalm]

If you consider Kerbol to be inescapable despite the very real fact that you can put a craft on a hyperbolic trajectory... then nothing in real life is inescapable because there is no real SOI boundary where gravitational influence drops to zero. Even at the farthest reaches of the observable universe, the gravity of our sun will affect something (unless... weird quantum effects? in that case change it to the farthest reaches of the milky way, and we're back on track).

So it turns into a question of why KSP devs didn't add another star, which isn't that interesting of a question because the answer is just an obvious limitation of game resources and impractical travel times.

[Zeiss Ikon]

One of the other "sandbox world" games I play, There, lets you do whatever you like with impractical travel times.  Since avatars can walk on the surface of the ocean (until a few years ago, it was like blue concrete; since then, it's just about 1 m deep), in the early days one of the beta testers literally walked around the world.  As I recall, he had to log in every morning after daily maintenance, relog several times a day, and the trip took several months.  That game world is about the same size as Earth, however; a kerbal who could walk on the bottom of the ocean, could, barring visits from the Kraken, likely walk around Kerbin's equator in a matter of weeks (kerbals aren't fast walkers), not counting available time warps.

All this to say, if the devs had put another star a few light years away (or scaled like the rest of the system, a few Kerbal years away at lightspeed) someone would have gone there by now, if only with infinite fuel cheat.  IMO, interstellar travel isn't the focus of the game; it's about learning how conquering a solar system might be done, not about how to leave one.

[KerikBalm]

45 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

One of the other "sandbox world" games I play, There, lets you do whatever you like with impractical travel times.  Since avatars can walk on the surface of the ocean (until a few years ago, it was like blue concrete; since then, it's just about 1 m deep), in the early days one of the beta testers literally walked around the world.  As I recall, he had to log in every morning after daily maintenance, relog several times a day, and the trip took several months.  That game world is about the same size as Earth, however; a kerbal who could walk on the bottom of the ocean, could, barring visits from the Kraken, likely walk around Kerbin's equator in a matter of weeks (kerbals aren't fast walkers), not counting available time warps.

All this to say, if the devs had put another star a few light years away (or scaled like the rest of the system, a few Kerbal years away at lightspeed) someone would have gone there by now, if only with infinite fuel cheat.  IMO, interstellar travel isn't the focus of the game; it's about learning how conquering a solar system might be done, not about how to leave one.

Which game was this? Certainly not No man's lie with planets that make Kerbin look huge.

Also.... 1 world, assuming its the size of Earth as you claim... 40,000 km circumference. Assume a 5 km/h walking speed (average, according to wikipedia)... walking non stop would take 333 days.

 Eve Circumference: 4,400 km - Kerbin circumference: 3,800 km - Tylo Circumference 3,800 - Laythe Circumference: 3150 km - Duna Circumference: 2,000 km - Moho:1600 km - Eeloo: 1300 km - Mun: 1250 km - Ike: 800km

... I'll leave off bop, gilly, Minmus, pol.

Walking around all the bodies in KSP would be a distance of > 22,100 km.... it starting to look comparable to a walk around Earth... while some people do circumnavigate a body by land/sea, I don't know of any that do it by walking... let alone all the bodies.

Your guy that walked for several months in a game need to get a life...

Besides... going to another star would be very similar in terms of gameplay as a trip to Jool... so... what is the point?

[Zeiss Ikon]

1 minute ago, KerikBalm said:

Which game was this?

Your guy that walked for several months in a game need to get a life...

Besides... going to another star would be very similar in terms of gameplay as a trip to Jool... so... what is the point?

This was in a game called There (aka There.com); it's been around since about 2003-2004 time frame, with about a year-long closure in (as I recall) 2012-2013.  It's an online MMO without the overarching "game" found in games like WoW.  More like Second Life for people with old computers (when I started it, I chose it over Second Life because it would run on Win98 in less than 1 GB RAM, and SL wouldn't, though There now requires at least WinXP and 1 GB -- it runs well under Wine, also).

I won't argue that someone had way too much time on his hands.  FWIW, the walk was mostly a proof that it was possible, I haven't heard of it being repeated in the intervening decade-plus (though a bunch of folks have gone around in various vehicles).

The big differences between going to Jool and  going to another star system would be travel time and communication range -- go to Jool, and your kerbals can get help from home, eventually -- just point a dish at Kerbin and ask, get a confirmation (or at least a read receipt) in an hour, at most, then wait for transfer windows and orbit time.  Should be able to get what you need in a matter of a few in-game years, and unless you've installed life support mods, the worst that will happen is that the crew will complain about lack of snacks.  Go to another star system, in which your MET was in the centuries before you got there (sublight travel, even without dV limits), and you likely won't have the signal range (if enabled) to get a message back to Kerbin, if signal lag is enabled it'll take years just to get the request through and years more to receive confirmation that they're sending what you need -- and centuries of kerbal time for it to arrive.  Faster to build the capability to make what you need, if the mission planner actually remembered to send everything else needed...

[KerikBalm]

Ok, install OPM, and get rid of the communication range buff. A hohman to plock is about 39 years, and an RA-100 wont connect with the DSN of kerbin past Sarnus anyway.

If you want probe control, its easiest to go with local kerbal'd control

You want a game with 1 way suicide missions for kerbals? Probes that can never communicate? that die from lack of power because the RTGs decayed before they got within range to rely on solar power?