DLC Suggestion: Taking Flight

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

Have you ever found the airplane parts in KSP severely lacking? Have you ever wanted to carry around passengers in KSP and buy and sell aircraft as they evolve from WW1 era biplanes to a380s? If so, then this DLC would be for you! It would contain:

• A LOT of airplane parts, ranging from basic wing pieces for early planes, such as the Wright Flyer and such, to humongous jet engines, like those on gigantic jets such as the a380 and 747. Also would include spaceplane parts.
• A new game mode, "Aviation Mode", which would be a little like career mode, but instead of building airplanes, you would buy and sell planes and configure them. 

What Aviation Mode would include:

• Buying and selling and configuring airplanes
• Airports all around Kerbin
• Planes evolving over time
• Being paid when "passengers" "buy" their tickets
• Hire and pay flight crew
• Compete against other airlines (powered by AI)
• Have the option to fly some flights and also have the ability to have the flight fly by itself: for the first flight to a place, you would have to manually pilot it, and could choose to pilot any flight or just let it fly on its own (useful for very long flights, such as between the KerbinSide North Pole and South Pole bases).
• Air races
• Procedural wings and fuselages
• Node-based autopilot system
• Stuff for dogfights

Thanks, BottleRocketeer

If you have any questions, ask down in the thread below. Also, please answer the poll after reading.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Bottle Rocketeer 500

[Snark]

My vote would be no... I play KSP for the rockets and space travel, and every hour they spend working on airplanes is an hour that they're not working on rockets or space travel.

I'm sure that there are some airplane loving folks who might like something like this... but I would not be among them, myself.

[mattinoz]

I think you'd need to add train pilots to fly routes themselves.

Hey I'd support as DLC but think it would get a better treated as seperate game so it could throw away all assumptions of the current career mode and build a real Tycoon trade mechanic. Might also help to trim down the physics load by making it just about flight.

Just my 2c.

[Gargamel]

I'm on the fence one this one.   I do think KSP needs more planes in the game somehow, but that involves flying them.  But @Snark has a good point too, it's a space game. 

I think removing the piloting side of it from the gameplay is not a good way to go.  But I do like the idea of running an airline.   But I'm not sure if this is DLC worthy though, maybe it is, aside from the addition of additional runway locations around the planet.  

I think though that the majority of this could be done with a mod, using contracts, and added locations throughout the game. 

[evileye.x]

I dunno, but why do you need such DLC when you already have Airplanes Plus, Kerbin Side and GAP ?

Edited April 2, 2018 by evileye.x

[ARS]

Personally, I'm on the border between yes or no. I agree that airplane parts is very lacking compared for rocket parts, which is understandable, considering KSP is a space-themed game. But in order to keep the theme between aircraft and rockets consistent with space, is giving more options for spaceplanes. Currently, spaceplane-specific parts is even more limited than airplane parts. We only have spaceplane parts based from space shuttle. It would be great if there's more spaceplane parts, especially the one based from Buran spacecraft (previously, KSP (in rocket and spaceplane category) has US-based parts, before finally giving Soviet-based parts in making history (just in rocket category) it would be nice to complement it with Soviet-based spaceplane parts

[The Aziz]

We already have so many plane parts in game that is focused on space. Do I need to remind how people were complaining about the big addition of these somewhere in late alpha, instead of actual rocket/space exploration parts that still feel lacking in some categories?

[The_Rocketeer]

@The Aziz ok, first KSP is focussed on whatever you do when you play it. It's set in space, on planets, and the game typically involves travelling to, exploring or just mucking about on those planets with wonky contraptions you built out of a selection of not-quite-specification parts. Themed subsets of not-quite-specification parts to travel to, explore and generally muck about on those planets in new and diverse ways is A-ok by me. I would say I have more interest for this than Making History at the moment - I got it free and haven't tried it yet.

@evileye.x That argument goes for pretty much everything currently modded in KSP, and it always falls down right here: Mods have drawbacks. Official/paid content always has advantages that mods can't touch, like contractual obligations on support.

 

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

4 hours ago, Gargamel said:

I'm on the fence one this one.   I do think KSP needs more planes in the game somehow, but that involves flying them.  But @Snark has a good point too, it's a space game. 

I think removing the piloting side of it from the gameplay is not a good way to go.  But I do like the idea of running an airline.   But I'm not sure if this is DLC worthy though, maybe it is, aside from the addition of additional runway locations around the planet.  

I think though that the majority of this could be done with a mod, using contracts, and added locations throughout the game. 

@Gargamel Sorry, I forgot to include in the OP that for the first flight to a place, you would have to manually pilot it, and could choose to pilot any flight or just let it fly on its own (useful for very long flights, such as between the KerbinSide North Pole and South Pole bases).

 

2 hours ago, ARS said:

Personally, I'm on the border between yes or no. I agree that airplane parts is very lacking compared for rocket parts, which is understandable, considering KSP is a space-themed game. But in order to keep the theme between aircraft and rockets consistent with space, is giving more options for spaceplanes. Currently, spaceplane-specific parts is even more limited than airplane parts. We only have spaceplane parts based from space shuttle. It would be great if there's more spaceplane parts, especially the one based from Buran spacecraft (previously, KSP (in rocket and spaceplane category) has US-based parts, before finally giving Soviet-based parts in making history (just in rocket category) it would be nice to complement it with Soviet-based spaceplane parts

@ARS I will also include spaceplane parts in the OP, because it would be about in the same category as planes, as they are bothe assembled in the SPH.

[evileye.x]

1 hour ago, The_Rocketeer said:

Official/paid content always has advantages that mods can't touch, like contractual obligations on support.

Contractual obligations on support is a quite moot point, because let's be honest - mod authors iron out particular bugs faster with a help of community members. And often mods releases are higher quality than the SQUAD's updates.

So, in my opinion, developers better be focused on making base game a better platform for modding.

There are things that cannot be modded in. Making history gave us steerable parachute and another suit model, which is great. And ... that's it I guess?.. 

 

Asking devs to throw in some plane parts ... I guess it's a waste of time for those who asking in a first place.

I have quite opposite problem - there are to many high quality plane parts mods... SXT, Airplanes Plus, KAX, KRX, B9, OPT, MK4, QuizTech Aero Pack  - really hard to choose. What SQUAD can offer in this department? I dunno.

 

Really better ask for editor improvements, new exploration mechanics/things to do in career and "under the hood" stuff / bugfixes. Again, it's just me...

Edited April 2, 2018 by evileye.x

[The_Rocketeer]

1 hour ago, evileye.x said:

Contractual obligations on support is a quite moot point, because let's be honest - mod authors iron out particular bugs faster with a help of community members. And often mods releases are higher quality than the SQUAD's updates.

It's moot for mods that are still supported. That would be the point.

But there's much more to this than that. I have a legal relationship with Squad, which empowers me as a consumer. I don't have that with any mod developer ever.

[Wjolcz]

Yes. But as a separate game. Though a DLC is also optional so I don't really understand all the people saying it would kill the spirit of this game. Don't like it - don't buy it.

Add air races, add all kinds of engines, add multiplayer, maybe weapons, replace all the parts with procedural ones, upscale Kerbin and IMO you would have another bestseller.

I would buy a game like this and I've seen a couple of people here on this forum saying they would too (we had a thread about it some time ago).

Edited April 5, 2018 by Wjolcz

[Tyko]

On 4/1/2018 at 8:43 PM, Snark said:

My vote would be no... I play KSP for the rockets and space travel, and every hour they spend working on airplanes is an hour that they're not working on rockets or space travel.

I'm sure that there are some airplane loving folks who might like something like this... but I would not be among them, myself.

I'm with Snark on this one. I wouldn't buy a plane-centric DLC, even to support Squad, because it's not the direction I think the game should go.

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

2 hours ago, Wjolcz said:

Yes. But as a separate game. Though a DLC is also optional so I don't really understand all the people saying it would kill the spirit of this game. Don't like it - don't buy it.

Add air races, add all kinds of engines, add multiplayer, maybe weapons, replace all the parts with procedural ones, upscale Kerbin and IMO you would have another bestseller.

I would buy a game like this and I've seen a couple of people here on this forum saying they would too (we had a thread about it some time ago).

Adding air races to the OP

[juanml82]

On 2/4/2018 at 12:43 AM, Snark said:

My vote would be no... I play KSP for the rockets and space travel, and every hour they spend working on airplanes is an hour that they're not working on rockets or space travel.

I'm sure that there are some airplane loving folks who might like something like this... but I would not be among them, myself.

I agree with you, but considering how many mods add airplane parts and how popular they are, I think there is a significant market for Kerbal Aeronautics Program

[Gaarst]

The only reason I build and fly planes in KSP is because I find space too boring in stock. I've never launched anything from the runway in my modded install.

Either way we don't need more parts, we need more mechanics. Making History hasn't made space a tiny bit less boring once you're done discovering the new parts.

[ARS]

On 07/04/2018 at 4:46 AM, Gaarst said:

Making History hasn't made space a tiny bit less boring once you're done discovering the new parts.

Basically my standard KSP "unboxing" procedure whenever new version comes up:

-install it

-play sandbox

-see if there's new parts

-try it a bit

-5 minutes later... Time to go back to my heavily missed orbital base