[1.11.x] Snarkiverse v1.2: Rearrange the solar system for challenge & variety.

[Snark]

What it does

Rearranges various aspects of the kerbal solar system to provide some variety and challenge.

Download from SpaceDock
License: MIT
Source files

 

Note: No new content; this is not a planet pack. You won't find any new moons or planets here. This just takes some of the existing moons & planets, and moves them so that a career playthrough is a different experience.

(On the plus side, this means it's extremely lightweight and won't be a drag on your computer.)

Note: Requires Kopernicus (not included).

 

---

How to install

1. Install Kopernicus, which is not included here. This mod requires Kopernicus to work, and won't do anything without it.
2. Unzip the contents of "GameData" to your GameData folder, same as with most mods.

Caution: As with any solar-system-altering mod, it's not recommended to install this mod into the middle of an existing career; doing so runs the risk of ships getting stranded, put into weird orbits, or being snatched into orbit around a different celestial body. Best to install before starting a new career.

 

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FAQ

• Q: So what did you change, and why?
• A: See the "What does this change, and why?" section, below.
• Q: What the heck? No new planets, moons, or artwork? Isn't that a pretty half-assed way to make a mod?
• A: Yes.
• Q: I installed it but nothing happens.
• A: You forgot to install Kopernicus.
• Q: Can I install this on my existing career game?
• A: In principle yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. Rearranging the solar system in the middle of a game can have odd effects (ships ending up in odd places).
• Q: Is this mod compatible with Outer Planets?
• A: Yes. When OPM is installed, Eeloo stays in orbit around Sarnus. Sarnus moves inwards to where Jool used to be, and all the other outer planets move inward correspondingly.  (Except for Plock, which moves into Jool orbit, since Jool's lonely now with just three moons. (Also because Plock was the one OPM planet that I find myself rarely visiting. Now there's still a reason to go to Jool. )
• Q: How about Kerbol Origins?
• A: Yes, this one too! Also works when *both* OPM and Kerbol Origins are installed. The Kerbol Origins patch does some significant rearrangement... try it and see!
• Q: Is this mod compatible with <some other solar system mod>?
• A: I wouldn't bet on it. I haven't tried this out or tested with anything other than OPM, so use at your own risk.
• Q: I get weird buggy-looking motion of my ship when it leaves Pol's or Gilly's SoI.
• A: Known issue; I think it's a Kopernicus bug that happens when a celestial body has an overridden SoI size. You can fix it by doing a quicksave-and-reload right after leaving Gilly's or Pol's SoI.
• Q: Hey! How come my game's not as pretty as all those screenshots in the gallery below?
• A: That's because those f/x come from Scatterer and Stock Visual Enhancements. This mod itself doesn't do anything to visuals, it simply rearranges planets & moons.  (So if you want your screen to look like these shots, just install those mods... though if you haven't run them before, be warned that they're a major hit to your machine and you'd better have a high-end graphics card and plenty of RAM.)

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What does this change, and why?

(See gallery below for screenshots.)

• Moho
  • Significantly closer to the Sun (bring radiators!), in a much more eccentric orbit.
  • Gilly orbits it in a low equatorial orbit.
  • Rationale: Altered orbit raises the dV needed to get there, adds to challenge. Providing Gilly helps to mitigate the challenge (convenient place to mine fuel), and makes Moho more interesting (I always found it really dull to visit).
• Eve
  • Now has Ike as a moon instead of Gilly, in a fairly Mun-like orbit.
  • Otherwise left Eve alone.
• Kerbin
  • The Mun is now in a radically different orbit: inclined 62 degrees, highly elliptical, significantly lower. It orbits Kerbin exactly once every two days, on a path that brings it sweeping majestically across KSC's eastern sky at periapsis.
  • Minmus no longer lives here... but it's not too far away! See Dres, below.
  • Science values from the Mun are significantly lowered, to account for the proximity of Dres.
  • Rationale: Mun/Minmus were the most important places to add novelty, since I've been to them so many times. The Mun sees a lot of traffic, so I wanted to give it really nifty skyviews of Kerbin looming overhead.
• Duna
  • Now has Pol and Bop orbiting close in, somewhat mimicking Phobos and Deimos.
  • Ike has gone away (it now lives at Eve).
  • Pol and Bop are carefully placed to be even more annoying than Ike used to be, for anyone wanting to put satellites around Duna.
  • Pol's SoI at periapsis actually comes within one kilometer of the top of Duna's atmosphere, and Bop's periapsis is actually somewhat lower than Pol's apoapsis (they're in resonant orbits so they never collide).
  • Result: There is nowhere "safe" to put a satellite in low or even medium Duna orbit. (evil cackle) The moons' low orbit also makes for some nifty screenshots.
• Dres
  • This planet has now moved to be a "pseudo-satellite" of Kerbin. That is, it's still a planet orbiting the sun, outside Kerbin's SoI... but its orbit is identical to Kerbin's except for being slightly eccentric and ever so slightly inclined.
  • The result is that Dres is perpetually about 140,000 km from Kerbin. From Kerbin's viewpoint, it appears to "orbit" once a year. You can go there at any time (no launch windows!), and a trip just takes a few days.
  • Credit where credit is due: I've shamelessly stolen this idea from the moon Aptur in KillAshley's excellent mod New Horizons. If you haven't played that mod before... give it a whirl. It's tons of fun.
  • Science value of Dres has been reduced to Minmus levels, since it's a lot more easily accessed than it used to be.
  • Speaking of Minmus... it now orbits Dres.
  • Rationale: In the stock game, I never, ever visit Dres. It's small, dull, and inconvenient to get to. So I wanted to move it somewhere that would give me a reason to visit it, and provide some navigational challenges along the way. Moving Minmus there also helped to liven things up.
• Jool
  • Moves inwards to the location of Dres' old orbit, so as not to leave a "gap" in the solar system.
  • Since it has lost its moons Pol and Bop to Duna, it gains Eeloo as a satellite (see below).
• Eeloo
  • This is now a moon of Jool, in a highly eccentric and inclined orbit that brings it squeaking past Vall on every orbit. Pe inside Vall, Ap outside Tylo.
  • Rationale: Like Dres, this is another planet I never, ever visit in the stock game, and for pretty much the same reasons: small, uninteresting, and inconvenient to get to. Plus, Jool needed a friend after losing Pol and Bop.

 

How about Kerbol Origins?  What does the compatibility patch change?

Spoiler

The Kerbol Origins compatibility patch not only does some significant rearrangement, but it also changes the properties of several of the planets and moons, as follows:

• Corolet:  Smaller orbit, exactly 2 Kerbin years long; apoapsis is inside Jool's orbit, whereas periapsis takes it within 1.7M kilometers of the sun.  Passes very close by Kerbin on every orbit.
• Faz:  Moves slightly closer in to Eve.
• Harvest:  Is now a moon of Sarvin, occupying exactly the orbit that Eeloo does in "vanilla" Kerbol Origins.
• Keelon:  Major overhaul! 
  • Moves to an identical orbit to Kerbin... but exactly 180 degrees apart, on the opposite side of the Sun from Kerbin.
  • Now has rings!  (It steals Rega's rings and scales them up.)
  • Rega has moved to become an inner moon of Keelon.
  • Gravity increased to close to 3g.
  • Very fast rotation rate, just over half an hour!
  • Atmosphere is now oxygenated.
  • Revised biome map:  there's now a new "Equatorial Zone" biome that covers a belt several degrees wide all around the equator.
  • Playability implications:  The very fast rotation rate means that equatorial surface gravity is effectively only about 2g.  Also, vessels in low equatorial orbit now have a surface-relative velocity significantly lower than Kerbin's, making reentry gentler there.  Those changes, plus the oxygenated atmosphere, means that Keelon is now a friendly place for air-breathing SSTOs... as long as they stay at the equator.  However, when you get away from the equator... it's harder. 
• Manai:  Orbit slightly adjusted to play nice with Keelon's rings.
• Rega:  Loses its rings.  Becomes an inner moon of Keelon.
• Sarvin:  Moves inward to the position of Jool's old orbit in the stock solar system.  Gains Harvest as a moon.

Aside from actual changes, the compatibility patch also does a few "quality of life" tweaks:

• Various tweaks to timewarp altitude limits of smaller bodies, for playability.  (In general, allow faster timewarp at lower altitudes.  KO sets a lot of these fairly restrictively.
• Bugfix for the reporting of most KO bodies with atmospheres, so that the surface pressure and atmosphere height display correctly in map view.
• Removes the RA-1000 relay dish from the game, since it's not needed (none of the KO bodies is any further out than stock system's Jool).
• Also removes the "Solar Battery", for no particular reason other than that I don't care for it and it seems just to add clutter, as far as I'm concerned.

(See gallery below for Kerbol Origins screenshots.)

 

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Why would anyone want this?

I don't know about you, but I've been playing KSP a lot. For several years, over the course of thousands of hours. I've been to Mun and Minmus so many times I've got their geography memorized better than the state I live in. There's a very real risk of things getting... stale.

Rearranging the solar system is a way to keep things fresh for me; it provides a new set of challenges and strategies. My goals were as follows:

• Give me a reason to visit the places I never, ever go (Dres, Eeloo). It's like getting new planets for free!
• Jazz up the places I do go, but which aren't very interesting to me.
• Provide a very different experience for the places I visit a lot (Mun, Minmus, Duna).
• Eye candy. Arrange bodies to give nifty views when orbiting or landed on them.

You'll note that what I haven't done is to completely rejigger the solar system. I've left the overall design more or less intact. That's because I like the stock system-- I think the Squad team did a great job of designing the solar system, overall.

It's just that I've played around in it so much for so long that I'd like to try mixing things up a bit.

 

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Gallery of changes to stock solar system

Note: This is NOT a visual f/x mod. The pretty clouds and other effects you see in the screenshots below aren't from this mod. They're from two of my favorite f/x mods, Scatterer and Stock Visual Enhancements.

You don't need those mods to play with this one.

Spoiler

Solar system

Moho & Gilly

Eve & Ike

Kerbin & Mun

Initial view from KSC when starting a new game.

Duna, Bop, & Pol

Bop: spoiler warning!

Spoiler

Dres & Minmus

Jool & Eeloo

 

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Gallery of changes to Kerbol Origins

Spoiler

Solar system overview

Notable features visible above:

• Sarvin's new orbit (where Jool used to be, in the stock solar system).
• Corolet's new orbit (two Kerbin years long).
• Keelon, in its 180-degrees-opposite-Kerbin orbit.
• Sharp-eyed observers will note a pale pink orbital track outside of Sarvin's.  That's Sarnus, since this screenshot was taken with both Kerbol Origins and OPM installed.

 

Keelon system

^ Overview of Keelon and its three moons, with rings.  You can see Rega as the innermost (light gray) moon.

^ Air-breathing SSTO, cruising at high altitude on Keelon.  Manai rises in the background, against the backdrop of Keelon's rings.  Rega dimly visible at top right.

^ Lander on Manai.  Keelon visible in the background, against the rings.  Revus is the small dot near the top of the image.

^ Another Manai view, showing the full arc of the rings.  (No, I don't know why the shading for the atmosphere cuts off sharply around the image's midpoint.  Go ask Scatterer.) 

 

Corolet

^ Corolet's exactly-two-year orbit takes it very close past Kerbin on each pass, just outside Kerbin's SOI-- it practically goes between Kerbin and Dres!  Above you see it nearing the closest point of encounter.

^ A Corolet orbiter says hellow to Kerbin & Mun, as Corolet goes screaming past Kerbin at over 9 km/s relative.

^ Corolet at periapsis, just 1.7 million kilometers from the Sun.

^ Bring radiators!

 

[HebaruSan]

Would you like any of the ancillary mods (OPM, Scatterer, SVE) to be referenced as optional dependencies (recommended or suggested) in CKAN?

[Snark]

4 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

Would you like any of the ancillary mods (OPM, Scatterer, SVE) to be referenced as optional dependencies (recommended or suggested) in CKAN?

Well, it's compatible with OPM, but it certainly doesn't depend on it.  If there's a way to document that relationship, that would be great, thanks!  (Just want to make sure that it's not marked as depending.)

As for Scatterer and SVE... it doesn't really depend on them, nor does it have any particular compatibility config to make it work-- it just works by default (happens to be compatible).  Certainly I haven't provided any custom config for them.  Again, if there's a way of indicating that it's compatible (but not dependent), then that would be nice, but it's not a must-have.

Thank you for thinking of this, though!

[Razhiel]

Wow , it looks awesome ! I think I would try it ^^

[Snark]

On 5/17/2018 at 10:08 AM, Razhiel said:

Wow , it looks awesome ! I think I would try it ^^

Hi, and welcome to the forums!    Hope you enjoy!

[theJesuit]

This is a great idea!  Thanks for providing it.

Peace. 

[Jesusthebird]

Cool. I think this mod would be complete so to speak, with a new Dv map. For referencing of course :)

 

ima install this later tonight :) 

[Snark]

Just now, Jesusthebird said:

Cool. I think this mod would be complete so to speak, with a new Dv map. For referencing of course

That would, indeed, be nice... except that it would be a chunk of work and since I never use dV maps myself, I'm not super motivated. 

FWIW:

• No bodies have been resized or physically tweaked in any way-- all I've done is to move them.  So the escape velocity of every body is the same as it was before.
  • Well, okay, except for Gilly.  I doubled its mass to make it easier to snuggle it right up close to Moho.  But oh gee whiz, you need about 15 m/s extra to escape Gilly.  Somehow I don't think anyone will be worrying about that.
• The dV map among Eve, Duna, and Kerbin is unchanged, since they're still in their original orbits.
• Going between Jool and any other planet is the same as Dres used to be (since Jool's now pretty much in Dres' former orbit).
• Going to Dres from anywhere except Kerbin is essentially the same as going to Kerbin, since it's in nearly the same orbit.
• Going between Dres and Kerbin is... funky.  There's not really any minimum dV, other than "escape the SoI of the planet you're orbiting".  It's a matter of "do you want to take 20 days to get there, or 4 days?" and pick a number.
• Going between Moho and anywhere else is going to get more expensive due to Moho's lower orbit.

[Dman979]

"this is neat"

[Goody1981]

Snark - you’ve done it again, such a simple mod but gives so much ...thank you!

If I wasn’t right in the middle of a stock Jool5 for submission to the challenges forum, I’d download this right now. I guess I’ll have to wait a bit.

PS I too love Scatterer and SVE, but you should also try replacing the stock skybox. Makes a world of difference 

[JadeOfMaar]

@Snark This fascinates me. Muchly. The Gilly pic, though, is nosebleed material.  

.....cue anime face.

[Dafni]

Very very cool, thank you!

[kerbiloid]

Enjoy the fear of a stone sky!

[Snark]

3 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

The Gilly pic, though, is nosebleed material.

Yeah, that's fun. 

I gotta say, though, that my favorite view in the solar system is from Pol.  I won't go into details, though, because a big part of my delight here was discovering, unexpectedly, what the view looked like-- which I didn't find out until I did an actual play-through.  (The screenshots in the OP here don't really do it justice.)  So I don't want to ruin that for anyone, and will simply leave it here as "try it and see." 

Suffice to say that for me, that was the view that made me go "eeep!"

(Amazing what a difference a bit of perspective can make-- look at a planet from an orbiting spacecraft and it's pretty but nothing particularly special, but take that same exact view against the backdrop of a horizon when you're standing on a moon, and suddenly it's jaw-dropping, somehow.  Clearly there's some psychological "I'm on the ground and that thing is looming" reflex going on, here.)

[Snark]

14 hours ago, Goody1981 said:

you should also try replacing the stock skybox

Yeah, I've looked at that before, but it always seemed too much hassle to set up.  What I really want is for it to be some simple Kopernicus config, e.g. for it to be as simple as

@Kopernicus:AFTER[Kopernicus]
{
    @Skybox = path/to/some/texture/file.png
}

...except as far as I can tell, replacing the skybox involves doing a whole sequence of steps including "install TextureReplacer" which is something I don't want to do, so I never do it.

[Goody1981]

3 hours ago, Snark said:

Yeah, I've looked at that before, but it always seemed too much hassle to set up.  What I really want is for it to be some simple Kopernicus config, e.g. for it to be as simple as

@Kopernicus:AFTER[Kopernicus]
{
    @Skybox = path/to/some/texture/file.png
}

...except as far as I can tell, replacing the skybox involves doing a whole sequence of steps including "install TextureReplacer" which is something I don't want to do, so I never do it.

Ha you’re def right... way more annoying than it should be. But the stock skybox just doesn’t cut it for me.

(Warning/apology - instructions below for doing exactly what you said you didn’t wanna do...sort of)

I used to go the “install texture replacer” route, but it does sooo much and I only wanted to change the skybox, it felt like mega-overkill. Then I found this mod...

...which is a stripped back version which only does a couple of things, one of which is the skybox.

Then you need a skybox texture, there are a heap in the OP of this page... 

...my favourite is Poodmund’s Deep Star Map skybox. No distracting nebulae, no exploding supernovae. Just black and stars.

[BigFatStupidHead]

This looks really good. New challenges with the comfort of all your old favourites.

[Snark]

Hi all,

I've just updated Snarkiverse to v1.1.

The only change is to the Outer Planets compatibility patch, so unless you're running OPM, this update doesn't affect you at all.

What I've done is, if OPM's installed, then Plock gets moved into Jool orbit (bringing Karen along for the ride).  Rationale:  Jool's kinda lonely with just three moons (since Eeloo stays in Sarnus orbit when OPM's installed) and needed some friends.  Also, as much as I adore OPM, seems like I hardly ever visit Plock/Karen; moving them to Jool gives me more excuse to visit there.

Plock's orbit around Jool is ... unusual ... in order to provide a bit of a different experience. 

[Barzon]

This looks great!

[Gabu]

Going to try it!! Thanks for the great work!!

[The Minmus Derp]

Noyce! Me want comp patches for Kerbol Origins by @amarius1 \/ see below \/

Harvest: nothing happens.

Rega: moved to be between Kerbin and Duna 

Sarvin: moved to sarnus’ L5 point

Daphy: nuffin.

Potatus: moved to a funky elliptical 50 degree inclination orbit

Fonso: moved to where Potatus was

Shayle: nuffin 

Keelon: moved to Urlum’s L5 point 

Manai: moved to where Moho was

Lok: moved to orbit Manai

Revus: nuffin

Corolet: moved to keelon orbit really close

[Galileo]

45 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Noyce! Me want comp patches for Kerbol Origins by @amarius1 \/ see below \/

Harvest: nothing happens.

Rega: moved to be between Kerbin and Duna 

Sarvin: moved to sarnus’ L5 point

Daphy: nuffin.

Potatus: moved to a funky elliptical 50 degree inclination orbit

Fonso: moved to where Potatus was

Shayle: nuffin 

Keelon: moved to Urlum’s L5 point 

Manai: moved to where Moho was

Lok: moved to orbit Manai

Revus: nuffin

Corolet: moved to keelon orbit really close

Then make a patch. 

Edited May 21, 2018 by Galileo

[The Minmus Derp]

I dunno how to code.

[Galileo]

Just now, The Minmus Derp said:

I dunno how to code.

You can easily learn to use Module Manager and Kopernicus. There are plenty of tutorials. 

Your requests are more likely to to happen if you make them happen and stop asking each modder to meet your needs. 

[The Minmus Derp]

OK