KSP Future DLC Ideas

[Kerbinchaser]

On 5/13/2018 at 8:17 PM, GregroxMun said:

(SNIP)

WOW. That was very in depth. I like those ideas. 

I want to be able to edit the planets in the Kerbol universe though. Kopernicus is too in depth for me and Squad making their own version would be great. 

 

However, the idea that you can visit every star in the skybox seems too far-fetched. You would need a LOT of processing power to do that. Maybe just add the brightest stars as visitable celestial bodies. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Lo Var Lachland
Kernal instead of Kerbol? XD

[Whirligig Girl]

6 minutes ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

WOW. That was very in depth. I like those ideas. 

I want to be able to edit the planets in the Kernel universe though. Kopernicus is too in depth for me and Squad making their own version would be great. 

 

However, the idea that you can visit every star in the skybox seems too far-fetched. You would need a LOT of processing power to do that. Maybe just add the brightest stars as visitable celestial bodies. 

I can garuantee you that an ingame editor would not be significantly easier than writing Kopernicus configs.

You're right that if every star in the skybox were visitable, it would need a lot of processing power. But that's only with the system KSP uses now. Ideally there would be a dynamic loading/unloading of bodies to fix this. And remember, most of it is procedural, all you need to store is the Right Ascension, Declination, Distance, and perhaps also the relative velocity vector for accuracy. You obviously wouldn't display the star as a full sun most of the time, just when you get close.

Squad could totally screw it up though.

 

Also the brightest stars tend to be distant ones just based upon probability. So if you were to limit the visitable stars to the brightest ones, you end up with distant, rare systems. Most known exoplanetary systems are around invisible stars.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

If we are going to dynamically load planets I'd be happy just giving the current ones some more personality- hand made geographic features, more stuff to do, danger, interesting parts, etc. You know, things you would see in a game. If you have a hundred planets to explore that have 8-12 biomes and all you can do on them is build a base, plant a flag, and get science what's the point.

[CobaltShock]

Obviously one dedicated towards space tourism. Hotels, specific attractions, you name it. Obviously this DLC would specialize with reusability in mind. Public campaigns, large paychecks due to wealthy notable tourists, tests that boost reputation (of parts of course). 

 

[Kerbinchaser]

3 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

I can garuantee you that an ingame editor would not be significantly easier than writing Kopernicus configs.

You're right that if every star in the skybox were visitable, it would need a lot of processing power. But that's only with the system KSP uses now. Ideally there would be a dynamic loading/unloading of bodies to fix this. And remember, most of it is procedural, all you need to store is the Right Ascension, Declination, Distance, and perhaps also the relative velocity vector for accuracy. You obviously wouldn't display the star as a full sun most of the time, just when you get close.

Squad could totally screw it up though.

 

Also the brightest stars tend to be distant ones just based upon probability. So if you were to limit the visitable stars to the brightest ones, you end up with distant, rare systems. Most known exoplanetary systems are around invisible stars.

Look, I DO agree that we need more interplanetary-travel. So far, I'm limited to the only celestial body being Eeloo while playing stock, but I would love more planets/star systems. A planet with Kerbin-like properties would also be AWESOME, as you could create a completely new Kerbin to live on.

[Pthigrivi]

16 hours ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

If we are going to dynamically load planets I'd be happy just giving the current ones some more personality- hand made geographic features, more stuff to do, danger, interesting parts, etc. You know, things you would see in a game. If you have a hundred planets to explore that have 8-12 biomes and all you can do on them is build a base, plant a flag, and get science what's the point.

This is sort of where I'm at on new planets. I'm not against it, but man it be nice if first we made the ones we already have more interesting. Until the surfaces themselves become a little more dynamic there really isn't any point in landing anywhere specific, bringing rovers, or doing anything but sticking a flag in the ground. We also need to get some better flight tools to help players plan interplanetary missions. I mean if 90% of players never leave Kerbin SOI what's the point in adding more planets?

[JetJaguar]

For an example of procedurally-generated intersteller systems, take a look at how it's done in Elite: Dangerous.  The entire Milky Way galaxy is explorable.  Each system is also it's own instance that is loaded during your hyperspace jump - the hyperspace animation is actually a loading screen in disguise.  There are a few cases of stars close enough together that flying to one in normal supercruise is possible, but when people have tried it they find empty space because the system isn't loaded.

I understand that the amount of data actually stored in E:D is not as much as you might think.  Since systems are procedural, you only need to save a starting seed to rebuild the system on loading.  Variety is a problem though.  No matter how much detail you add to the procedural generator, you will still eventually see the same sorts of generic planets over and over again.

Edited May 15, 2018 by JetJaguar

[GrouchyDevotee]

On 4/21/2018 at 2:16 AM, Gargamel said:

They will not release a DLC based solely on things already doable in mods.  There will be no sales.    

We need to offer ideas that are not doable in mods. 

The console market is ripe with possible sales.

DLC/Expansion packs;

1. Kerbal Avionics = An expansion or DLC to the games atmospheric dynamics, lift, drag, engines, heating, airframe stresses, etc. More cockpits, more engines, more wing shapes.

Can stock console game modify or create new aerodynamic parts and wing shapes? Current console game limitations are understandable, but the potential for a more in-depth aeronautical engineering function exists. Fine tuning the placement of parts with a controller needs improvements, I'm as clumsy as a pregnant Yak.

I would buy this as a stand-alone KSP expansion if and only if the Joystick becomes plug and play ( I honestly haven't even looked ). I say Stand-alone only for the purposes of keeping the console from throwing a cog.

 

2. Kerbal Colony = An Expansion or DLC that emphasises the building and sustaining permanent Orbital outposts,  and Bases on the Mun and Minmus. (Limit or eliminate the rest of the planets if necessary to run the game.)

Run it like a city builder, add a pile of base parts, the need to keep supplies arriving, expand and enhance life support systems, resource management and collection,  is radiation really a problem?

Tourists break things, need more snacks or wrenches, more science experiments ( orbital telescopes, Mun radar instillations ), just a couple robotics parts please?

I would LOVE to have the ability to change the  Mun and Minmus terrain to something replicating the actual moons or planets in our Sol system.

I have no idea how hard it is to create and map a planet in game, but seriously, a DLC to have the Kerbal Mun changed to Earths Moon, or Mercury, Titan, Pluto? seriously.. who want's to land on Pluto?!! Scale them to the same gravity and size as stock game models Mun and Minmus, just a really, really nice terrain package.

Reusable launch systems... after a set amount of launches, add an island into booster bay, very small,( like the size of a floating recovery barge) that gives 100% return on anything that is landed on it. I imagine Jean Kerman popping up and telling a player that because so many boosters have landed there, there is now an artificial island, we might try to land there.

I've always liked builder games, I would buy a Console KSP base building expansion, even if this DLC content could only be run as stand alone to keep my console from piling up, it would be a welcome addition.

 

3. The Standard console game = needs the addition of a couple more airports/launch sites, a couple of space station parts like a hydroponics bay and an advanced space telescope ( just a couple new awkward heavy parts similar to a scan sat) Have these available for Mun base.

Again, the console version already seems to be running a little hot, so no need to blow a gasket trying make these things happen.

 

It would be a neat idea to somehow link the progress between the various stand-alone games, like science level, or money, but not necessary at all.

As far as playability on console goes, something like a 'mechjeb tab' would be nice, but really just displaying the already available in game data in a nice easy to read box would make this game far more accessible to new console players.

*I'm so impressed and thrilled at how far the console game has already come.

I have only ever played Kerbal Space Program on my PS4, I bought it early and I've enjoyed it immensely.

Edited May 15, 2018 by GrouchyDevotee

[GrouchyDevotee]

On 5/13/2018 at 6:17 PM, GregroxMun said:

Kerbal Space Program: Making Starships

Features

• A full galaxy filled with stars and other deep sky objects including Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Nebulae, Globular and Open Clusters, and detectable but not reachable other galaxies.
• Astronomy with telescopes, on the ground and in space, can help the Space Program detect planets around other stars by the radial velocity method or transit method, or detect asteroids and distant planets and dwarf planets in the solar system.
• Every star in the "skybox" can be visited.
• Procedural star systems and planets, as well as a few hand-made stars and planets.
• New solar system objects, including asteroids, dwarf planets, and comets. A handful of hand-made ones, most are discoverable and procedural.
• A few more timewarp scales, and on-rails thrust (allows for brachistochrone trajectories and long-range ion missions to be flyable in real time)
• A variety of high energy interstellar propulsion methods at the endgame.
  • Laser sails, requiring expensive laser projectors on KSC or in space.
  • Solar sails
  • Nuclear Pulse Rockets
  • Fusion Rockets
  • Ramjet Propulsion, utilizing space-breathing engine technology (actually takes in interstellar hydrogen from ramscoops)
  • Wormholes, can be opened in space from prexisting microsopic wormholes and allowing for instant, orbitally linked teleportation to the destination.
  • And finally the warp drive, the epitome of starship technology. 
• A few handmade solar systems, including some classics from science fiction.
  • Rocheworld, a very compact double planet.
  • Mesklin, a rapidly spinning planet of 0.16 Jupiter masses. (16 in real scale)
  • More systems, some of them with playable habitable planets. Games can be started on procedurally generated systems as well.
• Simulation of General and/or Special Relativity and Lightspeed delay for probe control and science transmission.

Kerbal Space Program: Making Homes

• Orbital construction
• Colonization of other planetary bodies, at first with habitats, eventually building up to self-sustaining cities based upon PQSCity (built-in to the planet, not just surface ships)
• Emotional stability/sanity of Kerbals.
  • Kerbals have different compatibilities with each other based upon their Stupidity, Courage, and Charisma values.
  • Kerbals (other than BadS = true) will go insane without other Kerbals for too long.
  • Few Kerbals left alone with each other for long enough may grow to dislike each other.
  • Insane Kerbals are incapable of flying ships. Very insane Kerbals may do dangerous things, like staging or thrusting or spinning the ship.
  • Kerbals sleep for 2 hours out of a 6 hour day when in timewarp. (They're always alert outside of timewarp)
• Health of Kerbals.
  • Starving, suffocating, prolonged exposure to very low gravity or to very high gravity, and physical injury from crashes may damage kerbals, reducing their Health Points. They can heal with time in nominal conditions, or by eating more food. Below a certain percent of hp, based upon their Constitution value, they will pass out. If they reach zero they die. Passed out Kerbals can in some cases regain consciousness, but if they don't have a doctor onboard to revive them they may die.
• Kerbals make noise and language--mouse over their portraits to hear them. They chat with each other, mission control, 
• Kerbals with physical distinctions, like hair color, height, body proportions, and skin tone. These are controlled with genetics.
• Kerbal reproduction and genetics model, for population growth. (Or eugenics, if you want... )
• Endgame: construction of launch sites on other planets.
• Construction time mechanics for Space Center buildings and alternate space center sites.
• Procedural cities around Kerbin, populated with cars and Kerbals--it would be odd to have cities on other planets before cities on Kerbin! Destroy buildings there for a massive reputation hit and huge fines, possibly leading to the cancellation of the space program.
• Planets have many different resources to be utilized in different ways, including water and mulch (mulch is a reference to USI Life Support, and represents waste products that are also full of bottleneck elements like nitrogen and phosphorus, without which you can not grow food.
• Agriculure, aeroponics, and hydroponics simulation.

 

yes this is perhaps overdone, and honestly in Squad's current state I don't trust Squad not to royally screw these ideas up if they were made. Here's a more down to earth suggestion:

Kerbal Space Program: Making Probes (small enough to just be an update)

• Speed of Light delay for science transmissions and communications.
• Probe control tech tree:
  • Begins with the stayputnik, which can only receive live control signals and have a delay. No flight computer, no SAS.
  • Then you get the basic flight controller, including the orbit vectors.
  • Then you get programmable computers with a scratch-like programming system with a similar UI as the Mission Builder.
  • Then at the endgame you get computers that have kerbal-like intelligence, and function as pilots in their own right.
• Packets of control input are displayed as dots travelling along comm paths, and clicking on them will display a log of the inputs. They can't be removed once sent, obviously.
• Speed of light is changeable in the game settings.

All this in a single download for console, now available in VR!!

Make it so.

 

[Gargamel]

13 hours ago, GrouchyDevotee said:

The console market is ripe with possible sales.

Yeah, the console market is a great place for DLC's, but......  I don't know how the sales of KSP for the console actually went, but with what they released the first time around, it was considered to be unplayable, with the update fixing a lot of stuff.   You'd know better than I.  

But they gotta look at the market.  OF the console players out there, how many would they expect to buy a DLC?  Would those sales figures justify the investment of doing a DLC?  

And then, if you give the consoles a DLC that PC doesn't get, that creates a fork, in both the code and the community.  What is "stock" becomes a question, and depending on what features the console version gets, there may be some backlash from the users of other platforms KSP is on. 

I'd love to give ya the support you want, but I can only ever see console KSP being the red headed step child of the bunch, 2 updates behind and a murky future ahead. 

[GrouchyDevotee]

1 hour ago, Gargamel said:

And then, if you give the consoles a DLC that PC doesn't get, that creates a fork, in both the code and the community.  What is "stock" becomes a question, and depending on what features the console

PS4 Console version plays awesome!

I'd like a couple of small things to play better controller wise, but this Enhanced Edition version 1.01 is functional, stable, and great fun.

I very much doubt that the selection available for the console crowd will ever be able to compete with all of the MODS the PC community has created.

If there is any future for consoles, then there will be a market for the new and improved Kerbal Space Program.

 

 

[kBob]

KSP: Sky Gods.

Give us a bunch of airplane parts (like props), weather (at least winds, so gliders too) and places to go (airports and some eye candy).  And contracts to fly Kerbals around (auto pilot needed) the planets (the ones with atmo of course).  And an air plane construction hanger.  I'd sell a kidney to buy that DLC.

[Mrcarrot]

On 4/25/2018 at 5:40 AM, REMD said:

DLC for better planets please

Why would SQUAD make us pay for something that mods can do- and shouldn't have to do? The planets in KSP have been in need of an art pass since they were released in their current state.

[kerbonara]

I think it is clear to everyone that KSP can be improved a lot, everywhere. But to me the main issue is that I end up losing interest in the game after doing a few interplanetary missions. There is not much goal in the end game, no more reason to travel so far. I have the techs and cash I need, I could set up a base now, but what would it help me achieve? What for?

The DLC I hope to have is one giving more purpose to the end game, involving colonization perhaps, a more detailed exploration, some missions that are actually fun and elaborated, life support. What I want is, once I have landed in a planet, feel that there is much to do there. That I will discover things that will require me to design and send there new ships or bases. That I will have to gather resources or tech to colonize that piece of dust in the middle of space. I want the exploration of the planets to be fun, instead of just clicking for science points that I don’t actually need.

I can have fun with the rest of the game, but the end game is really lacking to me.

[Pthigrivi]

14 minutes ago, kerbonara said:

I think it is clear to everyone that KSP can be improved a lot, everywhere. But to me the main issue is that I end up losing interest in the game after doing a few interplanetary missions. There is not much goal in the end game, no more reason to travel so far. I have the techs and cash I need, I could set up a base now, but what would it help me achieve? What for?

The DLC I hope to have is one giving more purpose to the end game, involving colonization perhaps, a more detailed exploration, some missions that are actually fun and elaborated, life support. What I want is, once I have landed in a planet, feel that there is much to do there. That I will discover things that will require me to design and send there new ships or bases. That I will have to gather resources or tech to colonize that piece of dust in the middle of space. I want the exploration of the planets to be fun, instead of just clicking for science points that I don’t actually need.

I can have fun with the rest of the game, but the end game is really lacking to me.

This is what makes a habitation mechanic so appealing, because it creates a real incentive to use hab modules and centrifuges and stuff. If they added some big fancy ones at the end of the tech tree along with some big reactors and a VASMIR engine or two there'd be more to strive for. Of course eventually like any game if you play it long enough you're going to max the tech tree and have a million bazillion dollars, and then its just going to be personal challenges, land on and return from each planet, set up permanent bases on Duna and Laythe, etc. 

[Wjolcz]

On 5/17/2018 at 6:49 PM, kerbonara said:

I think it is clear to everyone that KSP can be improved a lot, everywhere. But to me the main issue is that I end up losing interest in the game after doing a few interplanetary missions. There is not much goal in the end game, no more reason to travel so far. I have the techs and cash I need, I could set up a base now, but what would it help me achieve? What for?

The DLC I hope to have is one giving more purpose to the end game, involving colonization perhaps, a more detailed exploration, some missions that are actually fun and elaborated, life support. What I want is, once I have landed in a planet, feel that there is much to do there. That I will discover things that will require me to design and send there new ships or bases. That I will have to gather resources or tech to colonize that piece of dust in the middle of space. I want the exploration of the planets to be fun, instead of just clicking for science points that I don’t actually need.

I can have fun with the rest of the game, but the end game is really lacking to me.

Not to derail this thread but KSP should be like this (I mean interesting) without any DLCs. There still is room for improvement when it comes to science (actual scientific instruments and space telescopes) and I don't want to turn this post into a rant but I would hate a DLC that does something stock KSP should have done a long time ago.

About the colonization part: I'm not sure if that would make me to go places more than once. But then it depends how it would be handled, I guess. If I could build launch pads on other worlds and trade resources between colonies (to build more stuff or hire more crew, or just to make money for the space program) then that might actually be pretty fun.

Edit: OK so I guess what I'd like to see is a DLC like this: Build colonies to dig for resources (to make parts) or send them to Kerbin for money (KSC would have infinite number of parts but not money).

Now imagine having two colonies in the Jool system. One on Vall and the other one on Laythe. You need a greenhouse on Vall but don't have enough resources to build it there. What you can do is either mine and launch the resources (using resources) from Laythe or send it from KSC (paying for it). You would have to think if you should expand the Laythe colony, move the crew from Vall to Laythe and wait a couple of years for the greenhouse OR risk losing the resources from Laythe in order to expand Vall colony quicker but if you fail the crew on Vall will die.

It would probably never happen though. Might be a fun mechanic nevertheless.

Edited May 19, 2018 by Wjolcz