Kerbal Geocaching mod

[Dingbat1967]

[ Plz note, I am not a mod-writer, I have participated a little bit in KMP mod as a tester ]

There are two big recurring requests that I see from time to time on reddit and other KSP communities.  

1) No really good multiplayer (yes, I know about KMP/DMP)

2) No places to go to once you visited all the bodies in KSP.

I was thinking, why not a Geocaching mod for KSP?

Here's the idea ...

Central database that keeps track of where Caches are located in the Kerbol system (requires some sort of central server somewhere to keep track)

People can deposit caches all over the Kerbol system.

People can find hidden caches and once found, log the cache as found on the central site.

This would provide an indirect way of doing multiplayer, and it would make it possible to have "places to visit" (ie: find caches).

You could even implement travel bugs.

 

For those who don't know, this is geocaching:  http://youtu.be/1YTqitVK-Ts

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I would think that it wouldn't be that terrible to implement.  From what I understand, KSP already has an extensive coordinate system that combines time with location.  So it would be fairly easy to map out "objects" in locations at any point in time so really, the challenge would be to have a centralized database to keep track of all the deposited objects.  With all the waypoint mods, scanning mods and other reward modifiers, you could even have science/prestige points allocated based on the difficulty of the location of the cache.

Someone placing a cache in the middle of the eve-ian ocean for instance, the cache would be very difficult to reach so could aware a lot of money and or prestige or science.

 

[DerekL1963]

I think that without significant moderation the database would quickly be filled with the equivalent of skirt lifter and guardrail micros.  (For the non-cachers, these are "junk" caches usually placed on lampposts in parking lots or roadside guardrails.  They don't bring you anywhere interesting and are generally extraordinarily easy to find - which lets those who play the "numbers game" rack up a large number of finds with very little effort.  They are... very controversial in the caching community.)

With care however you could implement any number of interesting challenge series though, such as the equivalent of a DeLorme challenge.  (Finding a cache in every biome of a given world as the equivalent of finding a cache on every page of a DeLorme atlas.)

[linuxgurugamer]

• How would objects be found?  
• Would they be classified as an anomoly?  
• Something else?
• How would they be downloaded from the centralized caching server?

I see this as being a two-fold development effort:  One on the web server side, and one on the KSP Mod side.  Both are rather significant