Simple relocate of Monolith at KSC

[Daripuff]

Just now, ZooNamedGames said:

I do care, but leave them as is. If I want to go there; it's my intended destination, not an accident.

But....

How did you ever know about the existence of them prior to 1.1.3? 

Prior to the update, there was no way whatsoever for you to see the monolith if you didn't already know where it was and where to look!  You couldn't see it from the main overview of KSC, and you couldn't see it from your launch screen from KSC.

[ZooNamedGames]

I've been here since .19. I know the Easter eggs, I've been there and done that.

1 minute ago, Daripuff said:

But....

How did you ever know about the existence of them prior to 1.1.3? 

Prior to the update, there was no way whatsoever for you to see the monolith if you didn't already know where it was and where to look!  You couldn't see it from the main overview of KSC, and you couldn't see it from your launch screen from KSC.

 

[Daripuff]

1 minute ago, ZooNamedGames said:

I've been here since .19. I know the Easter eggs, I've been there and done that.

Of course!  Just like every other easter egg in every other game, you found it by one of two ways:

One: Accidentally stumbling upon it in your exploration of the game.

Two, reading about it onine and seeking it out.


There are no easter eggs that are simply placed in the center of the very first screen that see when first starting your game.

That's not an easter egg.

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, Daripuff said:

Of course!  Just like every other easter egg in every other game, you found it by one of two ways:

One: Accidentally stumbling upon it in your exploration of the game.

Two, reading about it onine and seeking it out.


There are no easter eggs that are simply placed in the center of the very first screen that see when first starting your game.

That's not an easter egg.

It's an eyesore to you since you know of it. To those who haven't, they don't see it. 

So why cheat others out of seeing it?

[Daripuff]

Just now, ZooNamedGames said:

It's an eyesore to you since you know of it. To those who haven't, they don't see it. 

So why cheat others out of seeing it?

It's not cheating them out of it.  Relocating it off camera would make it the worst kept "secret" of KSP.

In order to find this "secret" they would merely have to:

A: Be bothered enough to explore in the most basic of manners. (Serously, ANY exploration of the KSC WHATSOEVER would reveal this "secret"  Including just panning the camera to inspect the backside of buildings)

B: Be bothered enough in their desire to find easter eggs to look up on the internet the fact that all they have to do is rotate the camera on the main screen to reveal this "secret".

 

If someone can't be bothered to explore for easter eggs on their own, or look up easter eggs online, they are not the type of person who would enjoy easter eggs.


Tell me, how did you find your first easter egg in the game?

It wasn't shoved in your face, I can guarantee that.


Right now it's nearly insulting how non-hidden it is.  

These are supposed to be secrets, nifty little things to find to reward you for exploration.

Putting this one dead center of both the main in-game "menu" screen and the default launch screen is... Tacky.

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, Daripuff said:

It's not cheating them out of it.  Relocating it off camera would make it the worst kept "secret" of KSP.

In order to find this "secret" they would merely have to:

A: Be bothered enough to explore in the most basic of manners. (Serously, ANY exploration of the KSC WHATSOEVER would reveal this "secret"  Including just panning the camera to inspect the backside of buildings)

B: Be bothered enough in their desire to find easter eggs to look up on the internet the fact that all they have to do is rotate the camera on the main screen to reveal this "secret".

 

If someone can't be bothered to explore for easter eggs on their own, or look up easter eggs online, they are not the type of person who would enjoy easter eggs.


Tell me, how did you find your first easter egg in the game?

It wasn't shoved in your face, I can guarantee that.


Right now it's nearly insulting how non-hidden it is.  

These are supposed to be secrets, nifty little things to find to reward you for exploration.

Putting this one dead center of both the main in-game "menu" screen and the default launch screen is... Tacky.

My final comment is; it's your problem, you cannot speak for other players who are new to the game.

You don't know what new players are thinking or doing. 

And seriously- don't jab players based on their signature badges. You don't know what they mean.

[Daripuff]

1 minute ago, ZooNamedGames said:

My final comment is; it's your problem, you cannot speak for other players who are new to the game.

You don't know what new players are thinking or doing. 

And seriously- don't jab players based on their signature badges. You don't know what they mean.

1: It's not just my problem. I've seen multiple threads of complaints.  The desire to move it or remove it, etcetera.  My proposed solution would make it just as easy to find for those who could be half bothered to look, and would remove it from being an eyesore to those who dislike.

2: I do know what new players think/do.  I was a new player a year and a half ago.  I was intrigued by secrets when I stumbled upon a mun arch by accident during my exploration of the Mun, and then got to looking and reading about the other secrets the game had to offer.  This led me to finding the monoliths, including the KSC monolith in its original, buried state.

3: Are you honestly upset that I assumed your badge that said "explore" meant that you had a desire to explore?  Yes, I clicked it and read that it didn't meant that at all.    But are you honestly standing up and defending the point that you are NOT an explorer?  That you have NEVER in the game just went somewhere to see what was there, just to go there for the sake of going there, with no knowledge of your goal whatsoever?    I wouldn't be proud of that, but if you are, that's all you, and I think that mindset is a very, very small minority of players in this game.
 

My summarized point is this:

Relocating the monolith to just off-camera to the south of KSC (still on the flats) wouldn't make it difficult to find at all.  All it would take would be the most cursory airplane/rover/rotate camera exploration of the KSC, and it would be visible, to pique the curiosity of those who are curious.

If someone isn't curious enough to explore the KSC in any way, then they're not curious enough to hunt down easter eggs, and therefore knowledge of that monolith does nothing to them. 

So why bother to put the in the middle of two of the main screens of the game?   Those who care to explore would find it even if it weren't (as they did before 1.1.3), and those who don't care to explore won't do anything with the knowledge it is there.

 

[CommanderSmith]

It seems to me that the problem lies not so much in the location of the Monolith (as it hasn't changed, and there were no complaints before), but rather in its size. Yes, I understand it is rather large, but there are things one can do. You can, of course, simply ignore it. I've barely looked at it since the update; I don't think it's shoved right up in your face. You can, as someone suggested, put a big box around it (which is an ingenious and rather amusing workaround), or we can politely ask SQUAD for a simple resize to it's old way, or perhaps slightly larger than that, if that's the direction they wish to go.

On the discussion of new players, I am of the opinion that many players, especially those who play stock and without looking online for tutorials and whatnot, will not know of the existence of anomalies or easter eggs. Giving them one fairly noticeable example right at the beginning would inspire them to search further. I think my first easter egg was one of the Mün arches back in the old 0.18 demo, and that got me hooked on them. Had my landing site not been within 3 km (-ish) of the arch, I may have gone much longer without discovering them. I don't seem to recall ever noticing the Monolith at the Space Centre, maybe due to size or other reasons (I'm not even sure if it was there at that stage). If I had seen that, I would have been inspired more and earlier to scour the universe for more of them.

One final thought, if nothing can be done about it that meets your individual satisfaction, incorporate it into your own canon. For me, I see that Monolith as the reason the Kerbal Space Program was established, to search for more of these artefacts and discover who "SQUAD" are.

Let's not attack people over how they believe this situation should be managed, because in the end, SQUAD determine what happens, and we must go with the flow (mainly because I'm fairly sure that anomalies are hard-coded into the game). 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

The Monoliths were increased in size because on certain "terrain detail" settings they were swallowed up by the ground.

Reducing their size isn't really an option as it will deprive some players of ever seeing them. (Especially players with older computers.)

I'm not sure how difficult it would be for SQUAD to move it, but I don't think that's really necessary, it's meant to be obvious (it always has been, even before it was made bigger) the entire point of the KSC monolith is to clue you in to the existence of the other monoliths/easter eggs.

[THX1138]

Make it destructible! 

 

Putting a box around is a stupid "solution" because the box will be just as ugly as the monolith but even more obvious.

Edited August 1, 2016 by THX1138

[Blaarkies]

3 hours ago, Daripuff said:

1: It's not just my problem. I've seen multiple threads of complaints.  The desire to move it or remove it, etcetera.  My proposed solution would make it just as easy to find for those who could be half bothered to look, and would remove it from being an eyesore to those who dislike.

Most of those threads that want to move the Monolith are rated 1-2 stars. That says something more about them, than the poll that resulted in a 80% vote to NOT move it.

Every time I launch, I see that stupid ocean shoreline-kind-of-hilly-mountain backdrop, and it is really an eyesore for me, I wish we could move it. It was put dead center in my launch screen, just so that I can see there are other oceans/mountains/shoreline to explore...it kind of ruined the experience for me, I wanted to stumble across those oceans myself .

I agree, all natural/ancient/historical features of Kerbin should be moved off-camera. How about KSC flats for 20km north of the launchpad

[Codraroll]

I think that, with the size change, the purpose of the monolith changed. But it's still legit.

It went from being an easter egg at the KSC site to a "hint", of sorts. Players see it, think "What's that over there?", build a rover to head over to it, and might realize that there could be more of those monoliths around. It's easier to spot now than it was earlier, but instead of being the only monolith a player was likely to find, it is the promise of more monoliths being in the game.

Now, all the monoliths need is a purpose, a reason to seek them out, maybe with a text hinting at the placement of the next one, and we could have a fun little easter egg hunt in-game. Personally, I'd make a little plaque at each one, readable the same way flag plaques are, vaguely hinting of where the next monolith could be found. Reading them would add a contract to seek out the next one. The last monolith would point at the Kraken lying on Bop. Upon finding it (but only after having found all the monoliths), a special part, the Kraken Drive, would be unlocked.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Codraroll

[Rocket In My Pocket]

6 hours ago, THX1138 said:

Putting a box around is a stupid "solution" because the box will be just as ugly as the monolith but even more obvious.

That hurts my feelings.

...I worked like... really super hard on that box! 

(In all seriousness, yeah it's a pretty "ugly" solution but mainly because it put's a huge "craft" HUD marker on the thing.)