Do you still have to turn off specular effects to find Mun Stones?

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Common theme here: I'm new (again) - and while I'm really enjoying the new specular effects (Trees! Rocks! Oh My!)… I've read many posts from the past saying you have to turn off the visual goodies to find a Mun stone.

...

Question is... are those old posts and no longer true?

 

 I ask, b/c I've landed on the Mun and Minimus, but haven't seen anything I can't walk through -- well except for the Arch.  I managed to land near enough to see it... but still unbelievably far away! (So, I don't know if I can walk through it or not - but when my durn Kerbal finally gets there... I WILL know.)

[Superfluous J]

Turning off stuff isn't enough IMO. I turn ON the big red arrows that point at surface features that matter.

[bewing]

It depends on how much time you're willing to spend. If this is a game that you can only play for a half-hour per day, then you absolutely need to make it easier on yourself. OTOH, if you think it might be fun to drive a rover for 5 hours across the Mun, then keep everything turned on. You'll find something worthwhile within 4 hours if you keep moving and looking around.

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by bewing

[archiebald]

42 minutes ago, bewing said:

It depends on how much time you're willing to spend. If this is a game that you can only play for a half-hour per day, then you absolutely need to make it easier on yourself. OTOH, if you think it might be fun to drive a rover for 5 hours across the Mun, then keep everything turned on. You'll find something worthwhile within 4 hours if you keep moving and looking around.

 

Not my experience at all.  I've been tootling around Mun, Minmus, Duna and Eve and had absolutely no problem literally tripping over all of the the Breaking Ground features.  Especially on the Mun, jump in a rover and you need to keep an eye out to avoid hitting them every couple of minutes.

If I had a complaint it would be that there are far too many of them and far too easy to find.  Makes them rather pointless actually.

[AHHans]

6 hours ago, bewing said:

It depends on how much time you're willing to spend. If this is a game that you can only play for a half-hour per day, then you absolutely need to make it easier on yourself. OTOH, if you think it might be fun to drive a rover for 5 hours across the Mun, then keep everything turned on. You'll find something worthwhile within 4 hours if you keep moving and looking around.

That!

Except that it doesn't take me hours to find them. Up to one hour? Sure! Especially at the start when I didn't knew what the green sandstones on Minmus looked like. (Those are IMHO the ones that are/were the hardest to find.)

Some tips for finding surface features: if you can drive/walk/fly through it then it's a surface scatter, if you crash into it then it's a surface feature. Looking out for shadows can help a lot. (So searching at noon may not be the best idea.) Zooming out (not too far) and panning the camera around can widen your search area.

P.S. The surface feature were made quite a bit more common in a patch some time ago after people complained about them being hard to find.

Edited May 7, 2020 by AHHans

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, AHHans said:

The surface feature were made quite a bit more common in a patch some time ago after people complained about them being hard to find.

Ew I remember that. The Great Flats on Minmus had 3 stones on it. I counted them.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Sigh and lol at this game: 

... So I took my scientist for a walk on the Mun, looking for rocks.  Discovered that I can no longer zoom time as he walks (which is maddening, given his pace).  Thus RCS to the rescue! 

(anyone see where this is going?) 

I found a rock! 

Played around with it for a while, figuring out how to get a sample (stand on it) and was all excited to get it back to the lander. 

RCS at 45m/s into the side of a crater created a kerbal sized poof. 

Wop waaaah

[AHHans]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

(anyone see where this is going?) 

LOL. Yes, the loading officer at the launchpad calling: "Next!"
(Well, or a firm press of <F9>.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

9 minutes ago, AHHans said:

LOL. Yes, the loading officer at the launchpad calling: "Next!"
(Well, or a firm press of <F9>.)

Grin. 

It was actually Alt+F4 and go for a beer 

Thankfully I saved it back when I landed - and I know where the rock is (for when I have the patience to try again)