KSP hidden story

[Garbonzo]

Recently I was watching an old ksp Easter egg video and learned about a developers original intentions to implement a story in ksp. Some of the Easter eggs you can see now like the SSTV hill on Duna were supposed to lead the player to a hidden planet full of the ruins of an ancient civilization. I wanted to know your guys' thoughts on the addition of something like that. Personally I would be absolutely thrilled to play interplanetary detective in ksp, finding clues on different planets. I can't imagine how the idea was scrapped, it would add a lot to the game in my opinion. 

(If you guys agree and the devs don't want to do it, you know what to do, mod makers)

[MinimalMinmus]

Honestly, I'm agreeing, it's kinda sad the idea was ditched.

I'm not sure about the doability of the whole thing however.

[galactictaco]

it was probably scrapped because it would either need to hand hold in the missions or be left so vague and impossible to figure out as to be a community project that no single player ever really figured out since you'd need help even figuring out half the easter eggs exist. who's going roving in the desert looking for ancient ruins when you know you're probably on the wrong side of the planet?

[The_Rocketeer]

@galactictaco I don't think it would be so hard to make discovering a hidden world an engaging and intriguing puzzle-play element to KSP without detracting anything from the current game or being so obscure as to be unsolvable. I think the bigger problem would be internet spoilers giving the game away, which could only be partly avoided if the clues and associated world's orbit weren't predictable. Tricky, certainly, but even so I think it would be awesome to see it done well.

[tater]

Borrow from Pohl's Gateway.

Put a world in a random (each game) orbit beyond Eeloo. It might even be a retrograde, polar orbit. Set it so that it is a "supersize" asteroid, that requires the asteroid day stuff to discover, and in fact you need to discover it from far out in the solar system.

When you get to it, it's a stargate, and flying through it takes you to a new star system to explore.

Edited March 26, 2017 by tater

[Wjolcz]

13 minutes ago, tater said:

Borrow from Pohl's Gateway.

Put a world in a random (each game) orbit beyond Eeloo. It might even be a retrograde, polar orbit. Set it so that it is a "supercargo" asteroid, that requires the asteroid day stuff to discover, and in fact you need to discover it from far out in the solar system.

When you get to it, it's a stargate, and flying through it takes you to a new star system to explore.

I'm not against this.

[tater]

4 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

I'm not against this.

Bloody autocorrect. "Supercargo" was "supersize," yeesh.

[jofwu]

I like the idea. Some sort of story on the side is a big thing the game is missing in my opinion. It should require visiting all the planets with crew and leave clues about where to go next. An extra planet would be a great prize. The new expansion missions feature will probably be perfect for it.

But I'm doubtful it will happen, and it would probably be too easy for the spoilers to spread.

[dr.phees]

16 hours ago, tater said:

Borrow from Pohl's Gateway.

Put a world in a random (each game) orbit beyond Eeloo. It might even be a retrograde, polar orbit. Set it so that it is a "supercargo" asteroid, that requires the asteroid day stuff to discover, and in fact you need to discover it from far out in the solar system.

When you get to it, it's a stargate, and flying through it takes you to a new star system to explore.

Yes, would be nice.

"a new star system" would require either procedurally generated planets, which could be a nice DLC, or simply open/activate a jumpgate-system to moons of the various planets, allowing a kind of late-game alien-tech travel network. Nice addition and a end-game goal.

Minor critique: Retrograde polar orbit doesn't make sense.

[tater]

8 minutes ago, dr.phees said:

Yes, would be nice.

"a new star system" would require either procedurally generated planets, which could be a nice DLC, or simply open/activate a jumpgate-system to moons of the various planets, allowing a kind of late-game alien-tech travel network. Nice addition and a end-game goal.

Minor critique: Retrograde polar orbit doesn't make sense.

Needn't be perfectly orthogonal to be polar, merely highly inclined. So it could be moving clockwise, but at an extreme inclination, near 90 degrees. I'm obviously talking about a solar polar orbit.

[DarknessHasLost]

22 hours ago, Garbonzo said:

Recently I was watching an old ksp Easter egg video and learned about a developers original intentions to implement a story in ksp. Some of the Easter eggs you can see now like the SSTV hill on Duna were supposed to lead the player to a hidden planet full of the ruins of an ancient civilization. I wanted to know your guys' thoughts on the addition of something like that. Personally I would be absolutely thrilled to play interplanetary detective in ksp, finding clues on different planets. I can't imagine how the idea was scrapped, it would add a lot to the game in my opinion. 

(If you guys agree and the devs don't want to do it, you know what to do, mod makers)

There is a story that can be made.

So you know the Monolith outside the KSC, if you've seen the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Monolith is a simple black stone, that invokes worship and extreme technological growth and Evolution.

The Kerbals have no Know society outside of the KSC. THE MONOLITH CAUSED THE KERBALS TO EVOLVE INTO SPACE

[razark]

I prefer to make my own stories, rather than follow someone's prewritten one.

[tater]

There's an implicit story in KSP already, so it might as well be a good one. There are competing programs, for example.

[Wjolcz]

I don't have much hope anymore but I will say it anyway: IMO a great way to implement the story element for KSP could be a sequel. The following includes my imagination going wild and spitballing.

Once upon a time there was a tribe of big-headed green creatures. A black rock came from the sky and they started getting smarter really quick (doesn't affect their lack of fear though). They quickly start dreaming about flying machines. A bunch of smart guys build it and need someone to test the machine. One of the kerbals comes out of the quickly growing population of these little green creatures. It's [INSERT YOUR NAME HERE] Kerman. He wants to be a pioneer and many of his kind quickly follow the trend. The small society is developing newer and much more sophisticated methods of keeping their silly contraptions longer and longer aloft. During one of the record-breaking flight attempts our brave hero named [INSERT YOUR NAME HERE] spots a red barn on the coast while going south. He sees little things flying vertically and leaving trails of smoke while going higher and higher. He loitters for a while and goes back to his people to report this odd observation. An expedition is sent and it seems there's a different tribe trying to make their way to the stratosphere and beyond, except without wings because apparently they forgot to invent them. The two tribes get closer together and decide to settle near each other to share their tech and concepts. Many years from now the original place of their meeting will be known as Kerbal Space Center, but before that happens someone has to clear their way to the stars...

Now, to make things clear, I just came up with all this on the spot. It's just an idea. The player would be the pilot (obviously) and have some sort of linear-ish story to follow (story missions about testing and contacting the other "tribe" +additional side missions/races/scientific research/whatever). I imagine it as some sort of side by side story of two schools of flying. One with wings and jets/piston engines (with the player as the Top Gun) and one with rockets (with Jebadiah, who would be occasionally mentioned during the player's adventure but never actually appear until later on/by the end). After some time the rocket program would become dominant (and the place would be called KSC) and player's XYZ Kerman would be one of the white suits kerbals with his own, individual story to follow except with more airplanes than rockets (and LKO SSTOs later on to spice things up a little bit).

TL;DR: KSP about Jeb's adventures in space and "Unnamed Kerbal Sequel Game" about [PLAYER'S NAME] Kerman living long enough to pilot Wright-like gliders and SSTOs and have great adventures and thrills every kerbal pilot should experience during his/hers 200 year long life.

I wouldn't even be mad if @SQUAD just looked at this, decided they are making it a thing and never credited me for the story. I would even thank them by buying it.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Veeltch