Flat Earth Mod

[LeetFeet]

Is there any flat earth mod? If no, can someone please make one?

 

No, I dont believe in flat earth, just want to have some other kind of experience

[Tex_NL]

I've never seen anything like a flat Kerbin mod. And I doubt there ever will be one.

For both the game and real life Newtonian physics just don't work for a flat planet. It would most likely demand a complete rewrite of the game.

[DStaal]

Nah.  What we need is a *Diskworld* mod: the 'planet' is a flat disk, on Elephants, on the back of a turtle, flying through space.  (I wonder - could you make it the central body of a solar system, and have the 'sun' be a moon around it?)

[VikingStormtrooper]

A medieval Ptolemaic geocentric mod using physics by Aristotle could be interesting only to show how strongly the civilization evolved in the last centuries.

At least a part of the humanity.

[Temeter]

8 hours ago, DStaal said:

Nah.  What we need is a *Diskworld* mod: the 'planet' is a flat disk, on Elephants, on the back of a turtle, flying through space.  (I wonder - could you make it the central body of a solar system, and have the 'sun' be a moon around it?)

You couldn't, because there would be no way to correctly simulate gravity. It's just physically impossible to have even gravity on a flat plane. There is no logical way to transition between orbital and flat.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Temeter

[Azimech]

I think it's funny.

Suppose you could flatten Earth to a pancake and make sure it remains that way. Gravity IRL AND in KSP would have it's center in the middle of the disk. everything on the surface would slide to the center of this disk. Escaping from that place would require TWR >1.  Every direction from that location is straight up.

You wouldn't be able to do anything useful with an object like that.

 

[DStaal]

4 hours ago, Temeter said:

You couldn't, because there would be no way to correctly simulate gravity. It's just physically impossible to have even gravity on a flat plane. There is no logical way to transition between orbital and flat.

Pratchett's Diskworld is typically depicted as a section of a sphere: Curved up in the middle.  (So: More of a 'shield' than a disk.)  And the elephant/turtle configuration is large enough that you could move the center of gravity down into the turtle, and get a fairly close to having the gravity on the surface being basically the same as if it were actually part of a sphere.  The elephants and turtle would have horrible gravity gradients - but they aren't normal anyway, so we can live with that.

It's in no way realistic.  But I think you might be able to model it in KSP. 

[Temeter]

5 minutes ago, DStaal said:

Pratchett's Diskworld is typically depicted as a section of a sphere: Curved up in the middle.  (So: More of a 'shield' than a disk.)  And the elephant/turtle configuration is large enough that you could move the center of gravity down into the turtle, and get a fairly close to having the gravity on the surface being basically the same as if it were actually part of a sphere.  The elephants and turtle would have horrible gravity gradients - but they aren't normal anyway, so we can live with that.

It's in no way realistic.  But I think you might be able to model it in KSP. 

Nah, the classic discworld is a disc. It's novels mention a few times how you can, on a clear day, often see the central mountain range in the far distance.

 

Edited February 19, 2017 by Temeter

[wasml]

Sorry - a bit off topic but - @VikingStormtrooper Have you seen this one?

 

 

[Kerbart]

23 hours ago, Azimech said:

I think it's funny.

Suppose you could flatten Earth to a pancake and make sure it remains that way. Gravity IRL AND in KSP would have it's center in the middle of the disk. everything on the surface would slide to the center of this disk. Escaping from that place would require TWR >1.  Every direction from that location is straight up.

You wouldn't be able to do anything useful with an object like that.

 

In KSP? Yes, because it's modelled that way. In real life? A flat earther will argue that our idea of gravity is wrong in the first place at that it doesn't point to a central location, but just "straight down."

It's the same as with the moan hoaxers, claiming "we have the photos, we brought back rocks" will easily be dismissed. If you're not with them, you're against them. Scientific "evidence" will just convince them that science is "in" the conspiracy "to hide the truth."

Having a flat earth in KSP to prove how unworkable it is will prove nothing to them; they will just claim we're using the wrong model.

[pellinor]

When putting a disc world resting on elephants in the game, why not also take a creative licence for the local gravity field? Define a (spherical) atmosphere around the discworld. Add a custom gravity field that is perpendicular at the disc, and converges to regular gravity at the border of that atmosphere (or maybe at the height where KSP allows on-rails movement).

[Dafni]

22 hours ago, DStaal said:

Pratchett's Diskworld is typically depicted as a section of a sphere: Curved up in the middle.

No offense, but that statement is not true, as Temeter has pointed out. The Disc is pretty flat. It does have some geography, i.e. mountains, but the Disc itself is flat.

 

[DStaal]

5 minutes ago, Dafni said:

No offense, but that statement is not true, as Temeter has pointed out. The Disc is pretty flat. It does have some geography, i.e. mountains, but the Disc itself is flat.

No offense taken.  It's my impression based on the images I've seen, that it's typically curved up in the middle.  (Some that come to mind are from 'The Last Hero'.)  But it's all artistic impression, and it's always described as a disk.

I've seen some images where it's very obviously curved, and some where it's very obviously flat.  At this point, it probably individual interpretation.  Either way, if you wanted to implement one in KSP, having a slight curve making it a shield - *very slight*, just enough for it to actually have a curve, and therefore a center you could put the CoG on - would allow you to avoid the problems of having a simple disk, while keeping it recognizably Diskworld.

[Deddly]

OK there were a few rules broken here, none of them by the OP.

Please remember to be respectful to everyone and try not to derail the thread. The discussion is: "Is there a mod that models a flat Kerbin?" Some nice answers already.

The discussion is not: "Should this thread exist?" or "Is the earth flat?" (We don't need another thread about that, so please don't bring it up here).

[Sigma88]

while it is theoretically possible to have a flat kerbin it would not be what you would want from a "flat earth" mod.

to be more clear, by using Kopernicus it is possible to deform kerbin so that it has a disc shape, and it is also possible to deform the oceans so that they cover the same area they cover on stock kerbin.

 

however, the gravity would still point to the center of the planet, not perpendicularly towards the disc. which means you basically end up with a huge mountain rim that goes around the equator.

 

if you are fine with that feel free to get in contact with me so that I can instruct you on how to make such a deformation, but I don't think anyone would be interested in that.

 

also, atmosphere can only be spherical, so you would not be able to get a disc shaped atmosphere to cover your disc shaped planet

 

PS: I don't get why everybody gets so fussed up about this topic, it's a nice idea to explore. just like the guy that made a "geocentric" system for kerbin (ktolemy something)

it's not like stock KSP is very realistic anyways

Edited February 20, 2017 by Sigma88

[CobaltWolf]

Hrmm... I think the only way this would work is if you actually did rewrite the gravity system to have the flat earth (or as I like to call it, Star Wars ) model of orbital mechanics, ie, you go straight up until you cut your engines, at which point you stop, and then you only move when have your thrusters on (ie, no conservation of momentum). Sounds fun but I think that's too deep into the game's code to be modified, no?

[Frybert]

A few more posts have been trimmed, remember this is about a mod, not your own personal feelings about flat earth.

[ZedNova]

Wouldn't work. Would require a whole rewrite of the core game... at which point you might as well make a whole new game with this principle at the start. The whole idea of flat earth in a space game that uses orbital mechanics is ridiculous.

[DStaal]

17 minutes ago, ZedNova said:

Wouldn't work. Would require a whole rewrite of the core game... at which point you might as well make a whole new game with this principle at the start. The whole idea of flat earth in a space game that uses orbital mechanics is ridiculous.

And that has stopped us before?

[Melfice]

18 minutes ago, ZedNova said:

Wouldn't work. Would require a whole rewrite of the core game... at which point you might as well make a whole new game with this principle at the start. The whole idea of flat earth in a space game that uses orbital mechanics is ridiculous.

Flat Earth? No. Probably wouldn't work.

Discworld, including the turtle and elephants? If you could get the model in? Sure. Would probably work. Probably. Maybe.