Campaign with Story

[dresoccer4]

Sorry if this has been brought up but wasn't sure. I'm wondering if there are plans to include a story driven campaign at all? to give reasons to travel to distance planets?

Something like: the kerbals detected a strange signal on a distance planet so need to build spaceships to go discover what secrets it hold! And when discovering that secret, points to another, further away planet. And so on.
This, to me, would be an amazing addition that could run in parallel to the simple sandbox play-style of KSP 1.

And if campaigns were able to be created by users then all of the creative players out there could make amazing stories that could fill out the universe and bring it to life, and make multiple play throughs different and unique every time. Seems like a good way to keep players coming back for many years to come!

Does anyone else think this would be a cool addition to the game?

[Vanamonde]

We know very little about the specifics yet but there has been no mention of a system like this. It's more likely that the sequel will have a variation on KSP1's campaign system of offering but not requiring certain goals. 

[jimmymcgoochie]

I doubt we'll see a story-driven game mode. KSP has been very successful because there isn't a specific story to follow- you're free to do whatever you like, whether that's trying to replicate real-life missions, building obscene contraptions that create computer-killing collision cascades, making boats/planes/cars/tanks/whatever other non-space related vehicles or doing something stupid like trying to fly to the Mun and back with just monopropellant engines or to Eeloo and back with just solid rockets (both of which have been done, to my knowledge!). Yes, giving a story to follow might help some players know what to do next, but I reckon for many more players it would stifle their creativity to "have" to do certain things at certain times when really all they want to do is fire an Orion pulse engine at the VAB or melt Duna's ice caps with a metallic hydrogen torch drive.

[dresoccer4]

27 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

We know very little about the specifics yet but there has been no mention of a system like this. It's more likely that the sequel will have a variation on KSP1's campaign system of offering but not requiring certain goals. 

thanks for the reply, Lead Moderator. i think my idea would work very well within the confines of the new KSP campaign system! having different missions or campaigns, as there is now, but with reasons to complete them. KSP as it is now will say: go to X planet and do Y science mission and you will get Z reward. Cool...but why?

Here they could add one more level onto that: like this missions exists because of A, which could lead to mission B, C, D, etc. It doesn't seem like a stretch to have different campaigns that you can follow or not (that part already exists!) but then they'll lead you on a little story adventure. Could even have different storylines for different Kerbals because as it stands now you choose your little Kerbs anyway. And then you can choose to follow them, or not. I think it would add a lot of extra depth to the game and give people a deeper connection with the universe. And give you a reason to keep your Kerbals alive! If you kill them you'll never find out why Jeb really wants to get to Moho  

I'm hoping that if this doesn't exist with the base game, that the devs have added enough flexibility to the modding system that fans would be able to create something like this. That's my biggest wish! 

Edited September 3, 2021 by dresoccer4

[Maria Sirona]

12 hours ago, dresoccer4 said:

thanks for the reply, Lead Moderator. i think my idea would work very well within the confines of the new KSP campaign system! having different missions or campaigns, as there is now, but with reasons to complete them. KSP as it is now will say: go to X planet and do Y science mission and you will get Z reward. Cool...but why?

Here they could add one more level onto that: like this missions exists because of A, which could lead to mission B, C, D, etc. It doesn't seem like a stretch to have different campaigns that you can follow or not (that part already exists!) but then they'll lead you on a little story adventure. Could even have different storylines for different Kerbals because as it stands now you choose your little Kerbs anyway. And then you can choose to follow them, or not. I think it would add a lot of extra depth to the game and give people a deeper connection with the universe. And give you a reason to keep your Kerbals alive! If you kill them you'll never find out why Jeb really wants to get to Moho  

I'm hoping that if this doesn't exist with the base game, that the devs have added enough flexibility to the modding system that fans would be able to create something like this. That's my biggest wish! 

That can be achieved externally with people who can write stories. As @jimmymcgoochie said... Well you can just read their post again.

[PlutoISaPlanet]

I believe that easter eggs may expand the "story" of KSP, along with discovery and experimentation on each new celestial body. But a actual campaign is very unlikely.

[Kapitalizing Every Word]

I don'y agree with this being the main game mode but it would be cool to have something similar to the MH missions integrated with the campaign (custom contracts, events, economic downtuns etc...) that users make so you can have a lot of different story based campaigns

[jastrone]

i think it would be cool if this was in the game but not the main focus of any campaign.  

[Mr.dobsonian]

I would like to see at the very least more hints at lore with ksp2 to really get us thinking and make the theory train really go off

[Bartybum]

1 hour ago, Mr.dobsonian said:

I would like to see at the very least more hints at lore with ksp2 to really get us thinking and make the theory train really go off

Yeah same here. I don't need answers, but I want to get in on mystery and speculation.

I always thought it was a missed opportunity that anomalies didn't contribute towards science (could have been done via surface outposts and science labs), and that they didn't contribute towards any actual lore of the game by the time of release. There was NovaSilisko's Duna SSTV signal, but beyond that there wasn't really anything else.

This leads into what always bothered me about KSP, which was that there wasn't any point to the career mode beyond the tech tree. It was far too quick to complete (and the science labs basically broke the game), so once you had all the parts unlocked there wasn't really anything left to do. Anomaly science and lore would have made for some cool progression, and could have easily been done via contracts

[funnelton]

Why not do something like in the original ksp where you can find an sstv on duna and other stuff everywhere else?

  

I hate this image, its so creepy

Edited September 10, 2021 by funnelton

[Daniel Prates]

I have no problem with a story mode as long as it is "one more" play mode. 

[qwery123]

I have heard that career (or "mission mode") will be somewhat like this.

[TheOrbitalMechanic]

I could see a campaign mode working in the style of Subnautica or Outer Wilds, where you uncover the story as you play, but it never pushes you through anything. That said, the devs haven't really said anything regarding the existence of a story mode, so it's basically a complete unknown at this point.

[Vl3d]

I think we have all too often heard the complaint that KSP 1 is too empty. Sandbox mode will always be there - but I would really love more lore, more stories, more mysteries, not wanting to leave a planet because I want to discover beyond the next hill. Stories are a way to stimulate curiosity through hope and they are an argument to make useful things. We need motivation for discovery.