Monolith Expansion for KSP 2

[KSPACE]

I want to be very clear about this idea if some things were not obvious.
The point is that this is OPTIONAL and otherwise would only be an easter egg (like KSP1).

However, this is still just an idea. It can be improved undoubtably. Instead of locking out technology until a monolith is discovered, there could be an instant access to technology or signifgantly lower research time/points (idk if they'll change that system).  

[pandaman]

33 minutes ago, KSPACE said:

I want to be very clear about this idea if some things were not obvious.
The point is that this is OPTIONAL and otherwise would only be an easter egg (like KSP1).

However, this is still just an idea. It can be improved undoubtably. Instead of locking out technology until a monolith is discovered, there could be an instant access to technology or signifgantly lower research time/points (idk if they'll change that system).  

For me, optional or not, any 'bonus' should not be too big.  In KSP1 terms (as we don't know how KSP2 will do it yet), something like a few extra science points instantly, or increase science gained by a small percentage for the couple of game hours would be perfectly adequate.

What they could do, 'bonus' or not, is give the location of another Monolith elsewhere in the current, or a different, solar system.  This would give you another 'objective' without any 'free science'.

[Mikenike]

On 11/20/2020 at 8:53 AM, KSPACE said:

In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey,

What about in the real world, three stainless steal monoliths have appeared and have dissapeared/be stolen. We may see more soon.

On 11/20/2020 at 8:56 AM, Gargamel said:

Just find the Green Monolith on each body and reaching it during EVA will unlock one more node in the tech tree. 

 

What is this node about? More specifically, what does it contain?

[KSPACE]

2 hours ago, pandaman said:

What they could do, 'bonus' or not, is give the location of another Monolith elsewhere in the current, or a different, solar system.  This would give you another 'objective' without any 'free science'.

That is an interesting concept. I love the idea that there's an adventure that one can choose to undertake. However, without motivation to go to these monoliths, players may be unwilling to go there until everything else is completed (except for a Dres mission). 

[pandaman]

45 minutes ago, KSPACE said:

That is an interesting concept. I love the idea that there's an adventure that one can choose to undertake. However, without motivation to go to these monoliths, players may be unwilling to go there until everything else is completed (except for a Dres mission). 

Well, for me the motivation is finding the darn things.   It gives me a basic mission objective, and defines where my target landing area will be.

I play sandbox, so science points are of no use anyway.  But a  message saying 'Hey, there's more things like this, here's where you can find another' could give some inspiration for another mission.

[kerbiloid]

A mysterious monolith will gift the ability to create mysterious monoliths.

Spoiler

That's simple. The monoliths are a species of space parasites parasiting on curiosity.

They use themselves as a trap for stupid but curious spacemen.
After getting the ability to spread the monoliths, the spaceman starts putting them everywhere, and others try to do this themselves.

That's how this race of parasites occupies other celestial bodies.

Their Italic Latin Roman medieval cleric scientific name is Idiocrator Panspermicus.

 

[harrisjosh2711]

I like the idea and am a bit sad to see how dismissive alot. I do find it funny.... alot of the people i see talking "magic" are the same who argue kerbals dont need food and water to survive..... sounds like magic to me..

On a real note, there is actual historical implication supporting this. For 800 years after the fall of rome the art of making concrete was lost. Concrete is technology.  Its discovery and re-engineering was a pinnecal achievment that assisted in propelling humanity foward into the modern age. I could literally go on an on. For hundreds of years, still even to this day, famous architects will travel to ancient buildings to study and learn from their designs. These are all buildings that in there time would have been considered impossible to build.... thanks to thier work..... we now how software that can structuraly design our buildings. However, this software only exist because the grand amount of historical information we have access too. How do you know this design will work????? Well.... the hagia sophia has stood for 1500 years.... so the computer says this is a good design.

[Jorge Aerospace]

On 11/20/2020 at 3:27 PM, Master39 said:

Your idea is a choke point on the game that anyone has to go through in the same way at every run to advance, that's is just not good design for a game like KSP.

I 100% agree, in this idea most players would be stuck in a roadblock. They can't progress in the game until they perfect landing and returning in all planets. This won't work at all, why? Because it took me 160 hours for a Mun landing.
Now imagine for a harder planet, i.e Duna, you have to get to to advance in the game. Players would be stuck, not able to advance any of their tech until they can land on another planet, and that could take..what? 200 hours? 500? its extreme and would ruin the whole game of KSP.

[pandaman]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the idea that Monoliths could impart some kind of 'boost' to your knowledge.   But what that boost should never be IMO is a massive jump, or be the only way to achieve or unlock certain tech.

As @harrisjosh2711 said, we do learn, or relearn,  from old or ancient things by analysing them.  But just visiting the thing doesn't instantly grant us the knowledge.   I may touch, a recipe book, but that doesn't just turn me into a chef, let alone impart any knowledge about anything else.

[kerbiloid]

After many/all monoliths have been discovered, they can run an alien teleport network or so, saving fuel.

[Rejected Spawn]

First off: I'm against monoliths entirely. Yes, I'm so against them that I'm bothering to enlarge the text to annoyingly big.

Having said that, I'm not at all against remnants of alien shenanigans. But in NO WAY as proposed in the OP, there should be absolutely zero impact on everything that has any effect on gameplay, however there are things other than gameplay I'd think could be seriously nice if done right. Let me give some examples, though not only based on aliens because that's a silly limitation to impose.

Crashed alien satellites: Really just piles of twisted metal and mangled electronics of a peculiar design, origin unknown but probably millions of years old. Finding them would unlock alien themed reskins for some drone cores - purely cosmetic of course since nobody can tell how the internals of the alien satellite actually were supposed to operate originally. These relics can only be found on extremely low gravity worlds or very large asteroids, otherwise there'd be nothing to find after the impact. You know, for the +1 realism.

Alien cargo crates: Too intact to have ended up in its location via any kind of crash, either forgotten or deliberately left behind since the crate turns out to be empty on closer inspection. Neat looking sides on it however, this inspired your Kerbals to come up with another skin for structural panels! Crates can be found on any world with 0,7 to 1,3x Kerbin gravity.

Buried alien rover: Lots of dirt has buried it and it's deteriorated almost beyond recognition but it looks enough like a rover that your Kerbals are pretty sure it was one at some point. One of the wheels did remain sufficienly intact that your Kerbals have now been inspired to come up with pretty cool hubcaps for some of your rover wheels, time to customize your ride and drift in style! Buried rovers only appear on worlds with atmospheres.

Out-of-place crystal chunk: There is nothing in the environment that could have caused this crystal to emerge, it's also much too fragile to have survived an impact so it must have been placed here... This crystal is a big mystery but your Kerbals are much too enamored with its gleaming appearance to care about its origin for more than 2 seconds. Congratulations, you can now place shiny dashboard decorations in some cockpits. Crystals like this can only be found on worlds without atmospheres.

Mutated specimen of a local plant: This wasn't left by aliens but occured naturally on a world similar to Kerbin, it stands out from other plants as being much bigger and older. Unlocks an additional theme for greenhouses.

Shiny impact site: There's a strange long groove in the surface of a moon, at its deepest there's some kind of metal shining. While it's unclear what kind of impact caused this long streak to appear your Kerbals have now started associating long shiny strips with high speeds, you can now add go-faster-stripes in metallic colors to your crafts.

 

Anyway I could go on but it's more fun if we let the devs do the rest as a surprise (though I'll cooperate if they message me asking for more ideas) and now I'd like to explain the spawning I'd most strongly recommend. First off all the sites should be random of course, but each specific thing spawns in 5-10 places in the "universe" when the game starts and once the player locates one of them it gets marked so the player can't lose sight of it again until it's investigated. When this mark appears all other instances of the object are deleted to ensure that you don't come across two identical rovers that got buried in an identical fashion in two separate solar systems, because that's pretty immersion breaking. This isn't exactly a novel approach, a lot of games have this built in but I wanted to lay it out to reassure everyone that you won't have to search every single rock in the game just to find that one piece you're missing to style your stuff. Also to address the craft sharing, via Steam workshop or other channels: Unlocked skins and decals are saved in a way that they only appear on a craft someone downloads if that player has already found the required things in their game.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Rejected Spawn
Dun goofd the spelling.