Easy Planet Modding for KSP2 Suggestion (Planet Assembly Building)

[Lewie]

On 4/20/2021 at 8:33 PM, Dr. Kerbal said:

I like this. It isn't too complicated but it gets the players to make their own creations. Or maybe even there could be the PAB (Planet Assembly Building). A part of KSP2 where you can attach features to your planet like, oh, lets add some hills, or craters. And change the color and density of the atmosphere. And tweak the gravity. that would be awesome and neat to see and play around with. Also orbits and add moons! It would really make KSP2 truly endless. *snip*

While it’s not a bad idea....I just don’t see something like this being implemented into the game. As a mod, yeah I can see that. But as stock...nah.

And if planets created with this were to be downloaded via the Steam workshop, it’d be flooded with shoddy planets thrown together by 12 year olds. Dull rocks named stuff like ‘TImMIeS FOrtNiTE WrLD XD Xd LoLLL’

Yeah, not worth it.

[Single stage to ocean]

Have the option for this but no sharing. They could be accessed by diving into files and shared on KerbalX but we wont have 12 year old's messing things up, since they are quite unintelligent. In multiplayer the feature is disabled.

[Jack Mcslay]

50 minutes ago, Lewie said:

While it’s not a bad idea....I just don’t see something like this being implemented into the game. As a mod, yeah I can see that. But as stock...nah.

And if planets created with this were to be downloaded via the Steam workshop, it’d be flooded with shoddy planets thrown together by 12 year olds. Dull rocks named stuff like ‘TImMIeS FOrtNiTE WrLD XD Xd LoLLL’

Yeah, not worth it.

Worked just fine for the Halo series' forge mode, which is on a similar spirit.

[InfernoSD]

On 4/20/2021 at 8:33 PM, Dr. Kerbal said:

Or maybe even there could be the PAB (Planet Assembly Building). A part of KSP2 where you can attach features to your planet like, oh, lets add some

Rockets? Giant planet-sized solid fuel boosters? Let's fly this sucker around!

On 4/20/2021 at 8:33 PM, Dr. Kerbal said:

hills, or craters

Well that's okay too, I guess.

[ffx]

do you know kitopia

[Guest]

I know this is an old thread, but I am going to share my thoughts:

Making planets in KSP is hard (well good planets at least). Currently, Kopernicus is a great mod for creating planets, but it takes time and effort. This usually creates a barrier of making the only planets released in KSP the good ones. And even then, most planets made in Kopernicus do not match to the quality of KSP (there's a couple exceptions to this,) so even then... 

Kopernicus is probably the most refined planet making is really ever gonna be. There is really no other alternative to realistically making planets easier. Planets take time and effort to make. And it should stay that way. Plus, there is really no realistic way to implement this in KSP 2. In the current version of Kopernicus, the steps to making a planet is to write code for it, then insert a heightmap for terrain, and a biome map and a color map, along with this, you usually use Kittopia for a normal map.  Along with that, you might have to write more code/make models for other features.

Ok so how do you impliment that into KSP 2? So you need to make a photoshop inside KSP 2 for map making, and then you would need some kind of tool to make radius and such. And then 3D models mean you would also have to make a blender inside  KSP 2. And lets not forget all the other things it takes to make a planet.

Yeah, it's not happening, at least in stock KSP 2. I could see a Kopernicus available for KSP 2, but not an in-software mod (maybe Kittopia would also be necessary but we'll see).

[Dr. Kerbal]

Someone move this to KSP2 Suggestions and Development please. 

[Missingno200]

On 4/23/2021 at 10:40 AM, Single stage to ocean said:

 multiplayer the feature is disabled.

Why disable MP use? Why not just let those who share mod lists play?

[pandaman]

The problem I see is that, no matter how easy or intuitive the tools are to use, designing and/or modding planets and getting good, interesting and detailed results will never be 'easy'.  We could get a galaxy worth of planets quite easily, but the vast majority would be 'rocky balls' with craters, canyons, mountains, and seas, with no real 'character' to distinguish them.  That may well be very realistic, but from a gameplay aspect, a bit dull.

Don't under estimate the thought and time that goes in to creating something that complex and making it interesting.  

Yes you can randomise many aspects, but that can only ever be the 'foundations'.  If you want a decent end result, adding the details that make it unique, and cool, and fun to explore takes a lot of time, irrespective of how 'easy' the tools themselves are to use, and the skill of the user.

[MKI]

I can see a feature like this falling prey to the inner platform effect. 

IE imagine an editor that has 100% the power and capabilities of what KSP 2 uses to create planets. Whatever that tool is, is what you should use rather than trying to replicate that too in the game itself.

I'm not sure what it takes to create a KSP 2 planet, but such processes can be documented externally to support mod packs for such. No need for this feature to be shoved into the game itself tho.

[pandaman]

IMO, any planet editor/builder needs to be a standalone entity, and not actually integrated into the game itself.  All the game itself needs are the 'tools' to import (and export) the relevant files.

[Bej Kerman]

On 4/23/2021 at 6:18 PM, Lewie said:

And if planets created with this were to be downloaded via the Steam workshop, it’d be flooded with shoddy planets thrown together by 12 year olds. Dull rocks named stuff like ‘TImMIeS FOrtNiTE WrLD XD Xd LoLLL’

How many rockets that fit this category do you see on the workshop? Yeah, little to none. It's nothing to worry about.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

How many rockets that fit this category do you see on the workshop? Yeah, little to none. It's nothing to worry about.

Making a rocket out of modular parts is part of the game, making a planet is not a game and requires quite a different skillset.

 Skilled people making worthwhile planets aren't going to use anything less than the real tools, and as for planets made with the toy grade dumbed down tools let's just say that even having a sharing option and platform to share them on would be a waste of time for everybody involved.

[BuranAce]

Ehh, as a DLC, not so much. Maybe as a part of the colony creation you could terraform and change the features of a planet overtime (e.g. breathable atmosphere, plant life, water etc.). but we will see!

[Dr. Kerbal]

20 minutes ago, Lancasterace said:

Ehh, as a DLC, not so much. Maybe as a part of the colony creation you could terraform and change the features of a planet overtime (e.g. breathable atmosphere, plant life, water etc.). but we will see!

This would be interesting to see. As a game mechanic I think this would be a far fetch but i does sound lt lot of in-game time to make a planet habitable. 

[Francois424]

I wonder how aerophysics would work on a planet with 5x Kerbin's gravity but like 10x the atmosphere density.  I might play with numbers and try to see how exploring such an "Ice Giant" would work and how well planes would handle.

If it's easy enough to do, that would be a huge plus as I can just create an "Uranus" analogue with tweaked numbers (it IS ksp afterall) myself and plop it in the KSP solar system.
Please allow us to have rings and set rotation axis (which I believe the latter is already confirmed, not sure about the former tho).

I really want to have something like this, If I can mod it... Nice color and love those "ghostly" rings.

[BuranAce]

 

1 hour ago, Dr. Kerbal said:

This would be interesting to see. As a game mechanic I think this would be a far fetch but i does sound lt lot of in-game time to make a planet habitable. 

Yes it would take a lot of time, but keep in mind how it would take hundreds, possibly thousands of years to colonize a real planet. and for a game mechanic it wouldn't have to be too hard, just choose from a list a features and have the right parts and over time the models would spawn, textures would change etc. but we will see what the devs have in mind 

[Dr. Kerbal]

1 hour ago, Lancasterace said:

 

Yes it would take a lot of time, but keep in mind how it would take hundreds, possibly thousands of years to colonize a real planet. and for a game mechanic it wouldn't have to be too hard, just choose from a list a features and have the right parts and over time the models would spawn, textures would change etc. but we will see what the devs have in mind 

I think a scientist said it would take about like what. 500 years. Thats a very long time. And things would have to go very right. 

[Incarnation of Chaos]

5 hours ago, Lancasterace said:

Ehh, as a DLC, not so much. Maybe as a part of the colony creation you could terraform and change the features of a planet overtime (e.g. breathable atmosphere, plant life, water etc.). but we will see!

Not unless they have fundementally changed how terrain, atmospheres and physics in KSP 2 work.

Which considering they're still doing hand-sculpted systems and using the same physics just way better implemented I'd say this isn't going to happen.

As long as everything is on rails, changes on the fly like that are limited in their scope.

Now you could fake it, by applying a config on reload for every planet. But that's a lot of work for a largely cosmetic feature.

[coyotesfrontier]

The reason planet modding was so hard in KSP1 was that until recently Kopernicus had no documentation whatsoever, and the few tutorials that existed were often outdated and didn't cover much. Thankfully there's now a very good wiki at https://kopernicus.github.io/wiki/, and hopefully KSP2 has something similar.

[Incarnation of Chaos]

1 hour ago, coyotesfrontier said:

The reason planet modding was so hard in KSP1 was that until recently Kopernicus had no documentation whatsoever, and the few tutorials that existed were often outdated and didn't cover much. Thankfully there's now a very good wiki at https://kopernicus.github.io/wiki/, and hopefully KSP2 has something similar.

Yep, I'm honestly convinced most of the issue is documentation. 

[BuranAce]

13 hours ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

Not unless they have fundementally changed how terrain, atmospheres and physics in KSP 2 work.

Which considering they're still doing hand-sculpted systems and using the same physics just way better implemented I'd say this isn't going to happen.

As long as everything is on rails, changes on the fly like that are limited in their scope.

Now you could fake it, by applying a config on reload for every planet. But that's a lot of work for a largely cosmetic feature.

I guess so, but terraforming was never something i really wanted in ksp. I was just throwing out some ideas for those who want it but honestly im rooting for IVAs and colonies.

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

Which considering they're still doing hand-sculpted systems

I don't think this is what you wanted to convey, but since it can be very possibly read as that let's make one thing clear:

Hand sculpted maps are not old tech, they're not being supplanted by procedural generation and that's because procedural generation is far from being able to replicate what even the laziest mapmaker can put into a game.

In some game procedural generation is superior for gameplay  and customisation reasons (I'm thinking at Factorio / Dyson Sphere program VS Satisfactory) but that's it, the tech is improving but a mediocre artist can still easily beat the most advanced procedural generation systems.

[Superpluto126]

I think this, although hard, is possible, and there is a good reason why i think so

KSP2 not only can, but (in my opinion) Must have something like this, or we should consider it, because despite with Colony's and other stuff, Simplerockets 2 has good graphics,  but also has Planet Studio, which allows normal people to Modify, and create planets in game, it is hard to do so, but it is possible because i have done so in the Studio, so A Planet assembly building (I will refer to it as PAB) means it can  One up SR2, Planet studio is available also for mobile, so PAB Should be Avaliable  for console if it is made.

Another Possibility is that it has some kind of Mod Menu in game to go along with it, not really Mods, but a place to share creations, Like the Steam workshop, i can see it for Crafts, and in this case, also Planets, this should also be made for Console.

As for the Planet editor, it should work in my opinion, like this

-a option for it in the main menu

-When clicked on or selected, it takes you to another menu , like in SR2 and the Planet studio, you should be able to edit, or create celestial objects

-to make it easier, there should be Terrain types from all planets and moons,stars ECT for you to use, i have not been able to do this on blank planets in Planet studio

-a texture selector

-A Biome paintbrush and map

-Templates

-Atmosphere, Liquid Medium, and Temperature Menu

- Ring menu

-Load and save

-  Planet Size and Material editor 

-Biome selector 

Ect.

As for planetary systems

-Being able to edit planetary systems

-Loading in Planets created for this

-having a Pop-up preview 

-Loading and saving systems

As for loading these in

-For each Save Game, when you start, you can load and and delete different systems  when creating the save game

These are some ideas i have for if a PAB or something like that is added

(no i am not advertising Simplerockets 2)

[Incarnation of Chaos]

11 hours ago, Master39 said:

I don't think this is what you wanted to convey, but since it can be very possibly read as that let's make one thing clear:

Hand sculpted maps are not old tech, they're not being supplanted by procedural generation and that's because procedural generation is far from being able to replicate what even the laziest mapmaker can put into a game.

In some game procedural generation is superior for gameplay  and customisation reasons (I'm thinking at Factorio / Dyson Sphere program VS Satisfactory) but that's it, the tech is improving but a mediocre artist can still easily beat the most advanced procedural generation systems.

Nah I wasn't saying that procedural > handcrafted. 

Mostly saying that the lack of any major procedural generation elements puts a hard limit on the scope and scale of terraforming could accomplish or be implemented in the first place.

Procedural elements are a supplement to handcrafted planets, not a replacement. But their lack does make this feature in particular much harder to achieve.