The New Monoliths (Spoilers)

[Leafbaron]

I wish the anomalies did something. Like if you visit them all it unlocks a hidden tech tree node for dark energy drives or something.

[lajoswinkler]

2 hours ago, Arsonide said:

Says who? What fun would an easter egg hunt be if the easter bunny put the eggs in the same spots every year?

It could certainly be said that unique, static landmarks make excellent easter eggs, because these static points of reference allow the community to relate to each other much better when someone posts a video of their super low orbit going through a Mun arch. It could also be said that procedural, dynamic points of interest make excellent easter eggs, because they allow people to discover new things on their own.

I don't think either one precludes the other, but both are definitely easter eggs.

You seem to be new to KSP. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to search for those back in the day when they were first released? Planets, even small as Kerbal ones, are enormous places. Even with huge number of players landing on various different spots, chances of encountering one are very small. If those things shifted around at random every time new game is started, chances of ever finding them would be virtually zero.

[swjr-swis]

53 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

You seem to be new to KSP.

Seriously? Arsonide. I need some popcorn, so badly.

 

56 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Do you have any idea how difficult it was to search for those back in the day when they were first released? Planets, even small as Kerbal ones, are enormous places. Even with huge number of players landing on various different spots, chances of encountering one are very small. If those things shifted around at random every time new game is started, chances of ever finding them would be virtually zero.

You sound like you're so 'old' at KSP that you're not aware of the new 1.2 KerbNet features. These days, them young whippersnappers find anomalies by scanning the surface through KerbNet... the anomalies pop up as question marks. Altitude, scanner and probe cores govern the field of view, so one can even scan the entire broadside of a planet with the right choices.

[Arsonide]

6 hours ago, Leafbaron said:

I wish the anomalies did something.

That sure would be nifty wouldn't it.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Arsonide

[Zoidos]

18 hours ago, lajoswinkler said:

You seem to be new to KSP. 

Thanks man. I just rapidly expelled a lot of mineral water through my nose onto the desk in front of me and my laptop, accompanied by a loud snorting/spluttering sound. In a meeting room full of people. Who then asked me whether everything was alright. Thanks for that.

[lajoswinkler]

1 hour ago, Zoidos said:

Thanks man. I just rapidly expelled a lot of mineral water through my nose onto the desk in front of me and my laptop, accompanied by a loud snorting/spluttering sound. In a meeting room full of people. Who then asked me whether everything was alright. Thanks for that.

Well you sure sound like that, as if you don't understand how lore is generated.

[Sequence]

22 hours ago, lajoswinkler said:

Well you sure sound like that, as if you don't understand how lore is generated.

Could you please expand on how having to use in game tools to find hidden sites doesn't generate lore, but having to look them up outside of the game or get insanely lucky to stumble over them does generate lore. I can't see the logical connection. 

Ultimately all the original easter eggs were mapped out using a mod that showed you where they are, just like the new mapping function does. So what's the difference? 

[Uncle Greggles]

1) The easter eggs are not impossible to find.

2) Having them be influenced by RNG does not stop us from telling interesting and consistent stories about them. 

3) There's still plenty of interesting fixed landmarks for challenging other players.

4) If random generation makes lore impossible, please explain Dwarf Fortress. In Dwarf Fortress the world, the civilisations, the people, the monsters, hell, even the musical instruments are generated differently each time. And yet the community seems to have no trouble generating and expanding upon consistent interesting lore. How is this possible?

[lajoswinkler]

On 11/28/2016 at 11:23 PM, swjr-swis said:

You sound like you're so 'old' at KSP that you're not aware of the new 1.2 KerbNet features. These days, them young whippersnappers find anomalies by scanning the surface through KerbNet... the anomalies pop up as question marks. Altitude, scanner and probe cores govern the field of view, so one can even scan the entire broadside of a planet with the right choices.

So now we're gonna pull out the mod card? If we're gonna talk about KSP, we're gonna talk about the stock game.

 

22 hours ago, Sequence said:

Could you please expand on how having to use in game tools to find hidden sites doesn't generate lore, but having to look them up outside of the game or get insanely lucky to stumble over them does generate lore. I can't see the logical connection.

It's not the same if you find something on a pole or on an island in the middle of an ocean. For something to become "a thing", it needs to have fixed properties; inside games, the best way to do it is not to move it around and connect it to a well known spot.

I'm spending my words here. If you don't understand it, you don't understand it.

 

 

16 hours ago, Uncle Greggles said:

1) The easter eggs are not impossible to find.

2) Having them be influenced by RNG does not stop us from telling interesting and consistent stories about them. 

3) There's still plenty of interesting fixed landmarks for challenging other players.

4) If random generation makes lore impossible, please explain Dwarf Fortress. In Dwarf Fortress the world, the civilisations, the people, the monsters, hell, even the musical instruments are generated differently each time. And yet the community seems to have no trouble generating and expanding upon consistent interesting lore. How is this possible?

1) If an easter egg is randomly positioned on a planet, chances of encountering it are next to nothing. I remember people flying around in planes, looking down, trying to find something. If one person found something, the news would spread around. That's one of the great things with games like KSP. If you scatter them randomly for each savegame, you completely lose that opportunity.

2) It's your opinion, and mine, and plenty of other people think it's not like that.

3) I'm talking about easter eggs in general. What would happen if all of them got randomized in locations. I thought I was very clear on that.

4) I can't comment on that because I have no experience with that game whatsoever, just like I don't with thousands of other games out there.

[swjr-swis]

15 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

So now we're gonna pull out the mod card? If we're gonna talk about KSP, we're gonna talk about the stock game.

You're gonna feel real silly when you load a craft in stock KSP, rightclick the probe core, and notice the 'KerbNet Access' button. Pro tip: it's also documented in the KSPedia (the icon of a white book with a blue rocket, under 'Communications network').

[Arsonide]

1 hour ago, lajoswinkler said:

So now we're gonna pull out the mod card? If we're gonna talk about KSP, we're gonna talk about the stock game.

KerbNet is a part of the stock game, a feature that I personally had a heavy hand in implementing. It allows you to map the surface of planets, visualizing the terrain, the biomes, and occasionally spotting where an anomaly is whether that anomaly is static or not.

1 hour ago, lajoswinkler said:

3) I'm talking about easter eggs in general. What would happen if all of them got randomized in locations. I thought I was very clear on that.

They aren't though, most of them are still static. However, if all of them were randomized...now that people have a stock way to find them, I don't think that would be such a terrible thing. It might even be a decent idea for a mod.

Edited December 1, 2016 by Arsonide

[Leafbaron]

Despite Randomized easter eggs we still have lore!

sweet sweet sciency, nerdy, Lore.

Edited December 1, 2016 by Leafbaron

[Zoidos]

On 29.11.2016 at 6:40 PM, lajoswinkler said:

Well you sure sound like that, as if you don't understand how lore is generated.

I was refering only to the sentence in the quote...

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

On 10/19/2016 at 2:43 AM, W. Kerman said:

No. Dres is a lumpy sphere shaped rock.

No. It doesn't exist.

[tosha]

I noticed that in 1.2 all the monoliths are bigger, and +100% more solid

[jd284]

I found a green monolith on the Moon (playing RSS), about 100km east of the northern "standard" one.

But it didn't do anything. Is the tech-unlocking feature a random effect? Or does it just not work in RSS?

[MinimalMinmus]

On 03/12/2016 at 1:52 PM, jd284 said:

I found a green monolith on the Moon (playing RSS), about 100km east of the northern "standard" one.

But it didn't do anything. Is the tech-unlocking feature a random effect? Or does it just not work in RSS?

Dunno, but I found Minmus' greenolith, an it unlocke a tech (experimental science). Also, it was a late-game tech, from my PoV, not the cheapest to buy at all!

[Archgeek]

Epic thread: 10/10

Literally ate some actual popcorn reading that.  Well done all.

[Garrett Kerman]

On 12/18/2016 at 4:09 PM, MinimalMinmus said:

Dunno, but I found Minmus' greenolith, an it unlocke a tech (experimental science). Also, it was a late-game tech, from my PoV, not the cheapest to buy at all!

Wait. Is this an actual feature? Can anyone confirm?

(I'm gonna go to Minmus to try it out now.)

[MinimalMinmus]

10 hours ago, Garrett Kerman said:

Wait. Is this an actual feature? Can anyone confirm?

(I'm gonna go to Minmus to try it out now.)

There are 2 "minoliths", one normal one in the northern hemisphere, and a greenolith, whose location is random.

I'm pretty sure every single body has a greenolith, and yes, when you come close you get a tech for free.

Edited December 20, 2016 by MinimalMinmus

[tab]

stocked carrier, i just found my firts monolith, on minmus. a message told me i unlock experimental motors.

i already unlocked all the tech-tree, its worthless in this case find the monolith (except for fun) or these are brand new techs?  cause i dont found a tech called experimental motor. i dont get it....

[omelaw]

3 hours ago, tab said:

stocked carrier, i just found my firts monolith, on minmus. a message told me i unlock experimental motors.

i already unlocked all the tech-tree, its worthless in this case find the monolith (except for fun) or these are brand new techs?  cause i dont found a tech called experimental motor. i dont get it....

There are two additional placeholder nodes in the stock game which are included in the table below, but have no parts currently assigned to them. The nodes appear towards the end of the Tech Tree, and are only displayed in-game when a mod (or mods) are installed which use them. These nodes are: Nanolathing, costing 550 Science, and Experimental Motors, costing 1000 science.

from http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Technology_tree

[meow123]

The wiki says that the green monoliths are randomly placed, not sure if that's right.

[MinimalMinmus]

1 hour ago, meow123 said:

The wiki says that the green monoliths are randomly placed, not sure if that's right.

Yes it is, I've visited Minmus' greenolith on two distinct places, on my two carreers (once on the lowlands and once on the midlands). 

[Just Jim]

I can now say that I have found them:

Spoiler

On every stock planet and moon, including the Mun and Kerbin.... Yes, there is a Green Meanie somewhere on Kerbin.

 

On 12/3/2016 at 7:52 AM, jd284 said:

I found a green monolith on the Moon (playing RSS), about 100km east of the northern "standard" one.

Oh??? Interesting....

I'm not using RSS, but I am using OPM... Has anyone found one on an OPM planet or moon yet? Curious minds really, really want to know!