How about interesting sites on different planets?

[cratercracker]

I've always suffered of planets being boring after the first time i landed on them. I think that we can improve it by adding objects like mountains rivers valleys etc. Like for example adding an analog to Olympus mons to Duna's surface or large craters on Moho that would be bouth great and posssible....

[MinimalMinmus]

While the general idea is good, keep in mind for the olympus mons: it is as big as France... and so, past the large cliffs at its base, there is almost no change in the elevation but a looooooooooow slope for the rest of the ascension.

[The_Rocketeer]

I made a similar but more-elaborate suggestion a couple months ago:
 

 

[regex]

If you're just looking for mountains and stuff they're already there. Back in the halcyon 0.21 days I went roving on Moho and reached downhill speeds above 50m/s for literally kilometers. Even Dres has some interesting features as you drive around.

[InterStellarExplorerKid983]

I believe that they already have such as the arch on the Mun, Kerbal Face on Duna, or the Pyramid on Kerbin.

Hey just saying.

[Magzimum]

Both the Mun and Dres have awesome canyons. Multiple planets have interesting craters, with sometimes very steep crater walls. There are oceans on three (Kerbin, Eve, Laythe). The poles of several planets are incredibly rugged. I think it would be nice to have some even rougher peaks (like on Kerbin)... but in my opinion, the macroscopic features mostly in place.

But it's the small details that makes something really interesting. And small details are quite hard to create. We have some easter eggs, and you can have some terrain decorations (rocks, trees) but I don't think it's reasonable to demand more.

[Jollyrodger22]

I feel like this is a good idea haven't actually landed on any plants or moons except the mun and minimus but in YouTube videos but in those duna and others just look boring

[KerikBalm]

On 2/13/2017 at 2:13 PM, cratercracker said:

I've always suffered of planets being boring after the first time i landed on them. I think that we can improve it by adding objects like mountains rivers valleys etc. Like for example adding an analog to Olympus mons to Duna's surface or large craters on Moho that would be bouth great and posssible....

Duna already has multiple valleys that are presumably dried rivers, it does have some pretty high mountains such as at 18 N 217 E and 42 N 246 E

However, they don't look very volcanic. Its vallets and rivers though... they really come out in a mod I made giving duna some seas filled with brackish water:

Spoiler

with a higher sea level, and zero modification of the terrain otherwise... the one above had a few features deepened to have valleys flooded instead of dry:

Additional pics

 

 

Partially dry channels at this sea level height (also somewhat visible in the previous pic):

Eve could use some more channel and river features, but there is less to be done for the atmosphereless bodies, as features that look like they were carved by liquid make no sense. Duna could use some sand duns I suppose, with features that actually look like windswept dunes, not just bumpy terrain.

Anyway, its hard to make something like the real thing, so I took real data from the most interesting terrain in our solar system aside from Earth, and made a ksp planet out of it:

phase #1: Add an ocean to a scaled down MarsL

Spoiler

(yes, the vertical proportions are exaggerated)

Phase 2: color the coasts green as if there is life there:

Spoiler

Then of course, scatterer and EVE clouds:

You've got your rivers, deltas, islands, your rift valleys, your impact craters, your volcanoes, etc...

 

[Dafni]

48 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:

 

 

yo @KerikBalm that looks awesome! Care to share this?? You should make a mod that replaces Duna with 1) your scaled down Mars, and 2) with the terraformed one. That would be so nice.

Anyway, great work. Looks very nice.

[KerikBalm]

*I've also played around with many different atmosphere colors for it

So far I've never uploaded any files for the Duna with oceans version, but that version doesn't REplace Duna, it DISplaces Duna. Duna becomes a moon of that planet (dubbed Rald), and Ike becomes a much more distant moon of "Rald".

I also made a version where the KSC is "moved" to Rald - making Duna somewhat like Mun, and Ike somewhat like Minmus:

(an early career Rocket)

Here its a bit obvious that the clouds of Rald are just duplicates of the clouds for Duna

No Eve clouds installed on this one:

(for some reason, the title screen makes Duna appear much closer)

Spoiler

Early career spaceplane flying over Rald's green plains:

 

With red skies instead of blue or more greyish:

Spoiler

 

[Wjolcz]

As said by others: everything is pretty much in place, unless we're talking about procedural craters Mun has. Still waiting for other planets to get them.

But I also think the game still lacks a lot of ground-based experiments. IMO things like robotic soil arms/drills, magnetometers and cameras which yield actual data could make searching for interesting sites much more engaging.

[Dafni]

1 hour ago, KerikBalm said:

 

So far I've never uploaded any files for the Duna with oceans version, but that version doesn't REplace Duna, it DISplaces Duna.

 

 

 

Thank you! Now I remember seeing that, thanks for reminding me. I'll have a look at this and comment in the thread later on

[KerikBalm]

5 hours ago, Veeltch said:

As said by others: everything is pretty much in place, unless we're talking about procedural craters Mun has. Still waiting for other planets to get them.

But I also think the game still lacks a lot of ground-based experiments. IMO things like robotic soil arms/drills, magnetometers and cameras which yield actual data could make searching for interesting sites much more engaging.

Well, as I've posted before in other threads, there's still quite a bit more that could be done. Kerbin pretty much lacks any canyons, rift valleys, deltas/alluvial fans, etc. Its only got a few rivers (side note, lakes of liquid above 0 altitude would be nice).

Duna is actually not very detailed, we have just a handful of very wide valleys, and thats it. There isn't really any detail that you can't see from 100 km away/in orbit. No need to get up close, you've pretty much seen as much as there is to see from orbit (a few easter eggs aside). 

Many bodies are seriously lacking in the procedural crater department... but... lets look at the moon for inspiration:

We could have features like this from old volcanism:

lava channels that lamost look like signs of past water:

I guess the canyons on Mun, and possibly dres are supposed to be some sort of Graben:

Mun could definitely use some "mare" that are relatively crater free and smooth (competition with minmus flats perhaps?)

Ike badly needs more detail. Dres could use some work but at least it has some craters and a canyon.

Gilly could use procedural craters, but the other terrain features above wouldn't really fit a small body with an undifferentiated interior (no reason for past volcanism or crustal contraction, etc). Ditto for pol, perhaps Bop too. Minmus is.... well completely unrealistic but unique enough to leave as it is for gameplay purposes.

Vall... needs work too. I'd recommend inspiration from Ganymede and Europa... Eeloo is close enough to how I think Val should be, but it could use a few craters (what OPM is too much IMO) and more cracks of various sizes. But Vall... Vall's terrain really just looks like a noise function (because it is).

Eve is another body that could have some interesting terrain features that make sense added. Again, rivers, deltas/alluvial fans, canyons, etc... Its got seas... so how about some terrain that actually looks like there is an active liquid cycle on the planet (ie regular percipitation)

...

And for all bodies with water shaped features.... when there is something resembling a river bed, can we also see things resembling tributaries?

 

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by KerikBalm

[RatchetinSpace]

The terrain itself needs alteration in my opinion. The Mun and Kerbin look pretty good but Laythe is god-awful in someplaces, with cliff textures roughly interrupting a clunky 0.17 sand texture.

[Scoutman1121]

If this were to happen, the update would take a long time considering almost everything needed to be changed in a small portion of a way.

Also, they should add things like items from a past civilization on the planet or something. (I know that's not very realistic but it would be fun to try to find all of it)

If they added items from past civilizations, and collected all the pieces for a specific item, you could use it. These may include very powerful engines, or very very fast communitrons.