For a more exploration and discovery in KSP

[mustard]

Now, i have a dream ... for Release 1.5.or more (or DLC) I would like that Squad a little dropped the improvements of the UI and the addition of parts, we have enough and the mods complete perfectly.
The players have largely covered the ability of the game and I think that what is missing now in the game is the exploration side.
 

Currently the planets are empty, desert of dune, some Eggs on Mun but except that nothing to discover.
It would be good to offer players something to look for, discover. I will dream to see volcanoes, lava, canyons, cliffs, geysers, methane rivers, caves and other geological particularities to discover, and also tornadoes, fog (useful for EVE the copy of Venus) ... and why not traces of life or vegetation to look for, it will increase the interest of the science of the game It also add big asteroids and comets to resimulate the Phylae mission.

 

Please Squad, now, improve the exploration's features in the game. We need a goal we need to explore and discover the world in the game,

Today we have the tools, but we don't have contents

[Wjolcz]

Actual science equipment that does scientific stuff would help a lot: microscopes, spectrometers, magnetometers, infrared and UV cameras, telescopes that actually work and can find stars, galaxies and nebulae.

There are so many things to do in space yet somehow all we can do is gather "science" (more like research) points to spend on tech. And once the tree is done there's nothing else to do.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Wjolcz

[Tyko]

I really want a reason to land and stick around for a while. Timed experiments that take from hours to weeks to run would be cool. I spend hours building a craft and flying a landing mission which culminates in a 5 minute landing to collect science and plant a flag.

I do realize that, if you don't use a life support app you can just time warp past it.

[GrouchyDevotee]

A couple of great big space telescopes, for instance; Hubble, Kepler, Webb, Tess etc. 

Bio-domes for off world bases.

 

[Pthigrivi]

Totally agree with the OP. There have been a few threads about this but I really do hope the next DLC is about planetary exploration. Part of the trick of it is the scale of these worlds and just how many surface features you'd want to populate them with. It seems like there could be one set of ground scatter surface features like ice crystals and geological formations that could be spread somewhat thickly in some biomes, perhaps 1-5km apart on average so that no matter where you landed you'd be a quick hop or rover's drive away. Other more valuable sites like geysers, volcanoes, fossils, etc could be much less common, just a few to several per world, and would be more in the category of the anomalies we already have. These would require being mapped and the player executing a precision landing.

The main question for me is how do these actually become a part of the gameplay and not just eye-candy for someone lucky enough to find them. The first part is mapping. I like kerbnet, especially when it comes to landing maneuvers, but Im just not looking at the window often enough to spot those question marks consistently. The probes already have a probability of discovery, so I'd love an option to automatically mark rare anomalies and surface features with waypoints when they come into range of an active flight. That way your probe with the survey scanner could slowly map for anomalies in the background. With this and a low-res biome overlay in map mode players would have the tools to plan landing sites ahead of time.

The main thing is they really need to be worth something--bonuses to science and/or rep--so players are incentivized to seek them out, bring rovers, and precision land. It could be that the more common ground-scatter level surface features could simply yield an additional surface sample worth 50% more or so. Collecting these samples could even be a special experiment that only scientists can perform. The anomaly scale ground-scatter could themselves have small biomes around them that pay out 100% more for all experiments run there. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Pthigrivi

[kBob]

This has been a dream for a long time.  But now that they have done a DLC, there is a bit of hope that some of these things might yet appear...along with  an upgrade in the graphics so all those new things look their best.

[Gargamel]

On 4/27/2018 at 1:17 PM, Tyko said:

5 minute landing to collect science and plant a flag.

What are you doing with the other 4 minutes? 

[Wjolcz]

I really don't know how to make science any more fun and rewarding. Right now it's just points to collect. Nobody cares as long as they can unlock another tech node with parts. After all that is unlocked science becomes useless no matter how hard you try to make it enjoyable (as if it ever was).

The only thing I can come up with is randomized deep sky objects and their archive (+the ability to name them). You launch a telescope and look for things to observe (sudden flashes of light, dim clouds of gas and dust). Then you aim the telescope and the image you find would be randomized: interacting galaxies and nebulae with random colours and shapes, globular clusters, star-forming regions, light warped around other galaxies and stuff like that.

Either that or replace science with rep and actual interesting missions.

[Drunkugly]

Been thinking about this for awhile.  The thing that feels missing in the late game is some large scale project that you can direct your space program towards.  Once you've explored most of the planets, it starts to feel like repetition.  There's not a lot to actually do or see on the planets once you've landed a few times.  So I would suggest megastructures and terraforming as end game objectives.  

The idea starts with base building.  Right now you can design and build your own surface bases and space stations.  What I"m suggesting is a modular system with pre-set parts that can be mixed and matched.  In addition, you'd want prerequisites to parts being attachable to bases and stations.  The idea is to create a sort of mini game of it.  You could start with basic housing for Kerbals, requiring a powerplant and a food growing module.  Once these basic needs are met, you can then add further components like mining, refining, science lab.  And maybe one step further, enhancement modules like water recycling to improve the farming module.  Each one of these modules would require Kerbals to staff them, thus they'd act as a break on unrestrained building and force you to balance everything.  

 

Once you had your base or space station sufficiently developed, it would then be capable of supporting one of the mega projects you can unlock in the tech tree.  A space station could support a massive telescope that could take several launches to assemble and place, the idea being the further from Kerbin you are the more science it will ultimately be able to produce.  Or a space based massive laser to launch solar sail probes; the idea being to get them to a sufficient percentage of the speed of light to make them interstellar.  On Duna you could build a base that would support terraforming it into a second Kerbal.  You could add large projects that would thicken the atmosphere and allow liquid water.  The few ideas I've seen would be large space mirrors to heat the surface, or a large magnetic field generator in the Duna/Sol Lagrange point to protect the planet and allow the atmosphere to thicken ( https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/).  Once the atmosphere was thick and warm enough, you'd begin to see lakes forming on Duna.  Then you could add modules to your ground base that would transplant life to the surface.  Ultimately you'd end up with a second Kerbin, with varied biomes to explore.  

Lots of things to add to the tech tree and to shoot for.

 

At any rate, I know there a mods that do some of this, but it'd be nice to have it all integrated into the stock game.

[Mark Kerbin]

Planetary exploration dlc...

 

DLC  !!!

but...

Planetory Exploration!!!!

Eh Squad has proved that they aren’t going to make bad dlc. I’d buy it.

 

Im thinking parts that are more surface oriented, surface experiments that take time to run... experiments that need you to move to multiple point in a certain area to work, maybe a better ore system. Also for a general update, improving the terrain would be nice. You know so you can just land anywhere and assume it will be flat.