Mountain Climbing

[BowlerHatGuy3]

Seeing all of the new terrain on the new planets in Kerbal 2 has got me thinking. As an avid hiker and professional masochist, I would love to climb/hike up them. Not only are they big but they also seem to be extremely detailed, down to every individual rock. It would be a shame if the devs didn’t add an intuitive way for a kerbal to climb up them in the future. So here’s my idea.

Gear

Assuming that there’s an inventory system like Kerbal 1 or various mods, you would be able to equip a pack that has all the necessary gear you would need to climb any mountain in the kerbal universe. This would include:

• Rope
• 2 ice axes
• Crampons
• Tent/Temporary shelter

Gameplay

The ice axes and crampons are self explanatory. Ropes main use would be to secure your  kerbal to said mountain, just in case you slip or accidentally press space. Every 10 meters or so you would place a hook to attach a rope to (this would also delete you previous hook just to make things less complicated). You would also be able to attach a rope to another kerbal for rescue missions & multiplayer. If kerbal 1 falls and kerbal 2 isn’t secured, this would cause kerbal 1 to pull kerbal 2 off the mountain and both of them would perish.

As a bonus, it would be cool if there was a winch part for rovers. A kerbal would pull the hook attached to the winch and place it on anything they desire. This would be good for pulling rovers up steep slopes and pulling broken vehicles to a different location.

The tent would be used for if you wanted to do something else or to resupply a Kerbal’s oxygen (if thats a thing).

Conclusion

Not only would a feature like this aid in exploration, but it would also open up new possibilities in science. Imagine if there was some special rock or land feature on a planet, but it’s on a mountain at a 70 degree slope. You could climb up there using a kerbal/rover.

 

[t_v]

Great feature, good for both stock and mods. KSP is a very vehicle-oriented game (even to get around the KSC, you almost need to design a vehicle) but on most spacewalks, people will just be exploring the surface on foot (or driving then exploring an interesting area by foot). Mobility technology for kerbals that allow them to climb inclines or go into other extreme landscapes could definitely be expanded upon. 

[Ahres]

Another avid hiker here, so I'm very biased. But I think this is an awesome idea.

[Caerfinon]

I made a climbing piton part in KSP1 which allows a patient Kerbal to scale vertical rock faces. Would love to see a similar feature as a stock feature in ksp2 . 

[awsumguy76801]

i think if theyre gonna be climbing cliff faces there should be some stamina system so you have to give them a break every once and a while but it will be easier for them on low gravity worlds because less energy is needed to move yourself around

Edited August 4, 2022 by awsumguy76801

[BowlerHatGuy3]

3 hours ago, awsumguy76801 said:

i think if theyre gonna be climbing cliff faces there should be some stamina system so you have to give them a break every once and a while but it will be easier for them on low gravity worlds because less energy is needed to move yourself around

I think due to the size of some of these mountains, a stamina system would only make things more tedious.

[darthgently]

I like the idea, but am not convinced KSP, a spacecraft oriented game, is the best place.  Given the tediousness of moving kerbals around I think I'd get bored quick unless it were somewhat automated. By this I mean that the kerb has a climbing kit and the piton planting and whatnot just happens automatically as the user presses "f" to climb and maybe some wasd keystrokes to alter the path taken. I wouldn't be interested in grinding through every motion.  The grindy version would make a better mod than game requirement.  Giving mods more refined access to EVA control would be great for many cool ideas

Edited August 4, 2022 by darthgently

[Tundra]

Here's my take on it:  

This system would probably be useful, fun and interesting to many players (including me) and would help to enhance their gameplay experience.  For those who disliked it and want to ignore it, they can just ignore it.  No one is forcing them to play with that feature.   If someone made this into a mod, I would instantly download it.

[BowlerHatGuy3]

2 minutes ago, Tundra said:

Here's my take on it:  

This system would probably be useful, fun and interesting to many players (including me) and would help to enhance their gameplay experience.  For those who disliked it and want to ignore it, they can just ignore it.  No one is forcing them to play with that feature.   If someone made this into a mod, I would instantly download it.

Exactly. It could also open up a lot of new exploration challenges. I for one would love to scale the tallest mountain on Kerbin with a friend on multiplayer.

[darthgently]

4 hours ago, BowlerHatGuy2 said:

Exactly. It could also open up a lot of new exploration challenges. I for one would love to scale the tallest mountain on Kerbin with a friend on multiplayer.

I'm all for more EVA refinement and control. Especially kOS EVA control, lol.  But unless the user interface mesures intuitively with rock climbing motions and actions I'd find it tedious. But yeah, I could just not do it. On the other hand, I still think a simplified interface flavor as I described would be much more popular for more players. If full VR suits were common, that would be another story.  I've never understood emulating athletics via keyboard or typical game controller. Better to go out and throw a real football or do some real bouldering in my opinion.  Some activities can't easily be virtualized properly.  That said, given the more automated version I described and actual caves with easter eggs and I'm all for it

[BowlerHatGuy3]

1 hour ago, darthgently said:

I'm all for more EVA refinement and control. Especially kOS EVA control, lol.  But unless the user interface mesures intuitively with rock climbing motions and actions I'd find it tedious. But yeah, I could just not do it. On the other hand, I still think a simplified interface flavor as I described would be much more popular for more players. If full VR suits were common, that would be another story.  I've never understood emulating athletics via keyboard or typical game controller. Better to go out and throw a real football or do some real bouldering in my opinion.  Some activities can't easily be virtualized properly.  That said, given the more automated version I described and actual caves with easter eggs and I'm all for it

While I do agree that sports turned into video games is kind of silly, I’ll make an exception for mountain climbing. While football is objectively dangerous, the worst you’ll get is a couple of broken bones and concussions. Meanwhile, climbing will have you be freezed to death, or impaled on a tree, or falling on a sharp rock and being ripped in two.

My point is that I’m not willing to chance me dying a horrible death just for some adrenaline rush. Plus, very few games are on a scale like Kerbal (or Kerbal 2 for that matter), and I feel that many of these great environments would go to waste if they didn’t add some way to traverse them without a vehicle.

[LHACK4142]

After remembering that KSP2 probably won't have the same unresponsive Kerbal controls, this seems like a pretty cool idea. Only thing is, it's a little oddly specific, and perhaps not the most useful. You have to land near a pretty steep cliff, which don't seem super common most of the time, and there needs to be some good reason not to just hop up with your lander.

[darthgently]

5 hours ago, BowlerHatGuy2 said:

While I do agree that sports turned into video games is kind of silly, I’ll make an exception for mountain climbing. While football is objectively dangerous, the worst you’ll get is a couple of broken bones and concussions. Meanwhile, climbing will have you be freezed to death, or impaled on a tree, or falling on a sharp rock and being ripped in two.

My point is that I’m not willing to chance me dying a horrible death just for some adrenaline rush. Plus, very few games are on a scale like Kerbal (or Kerbal 2 for that matter), and I feel that many of these great environments would go to waste if they didn’t add some way to traverse them without a vehicle.

It makes your decisions actually matter.  This is important.  If you learn proper technique, stay focused, and it is far safer than driving in traffic where other's inattention is a far greater risk. 

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by darthgently