Discovery of New Planets

[jackal_loaf]

In KSP 1, you can look at the map and see every planet mapped out for you. 

What if there was a mechanic where you have to discover these Planets for yourself ie telescopes and observatories. Or by directly exploring a new system yourself. This would give a great feeling of discovery and challenge to the KSP 2.

I hope that this idea helps with the game. Thank you!

[jastrone]

i have heard this before on the forum and it seems like a pretty  popular idea but the main issue is that tou would have to do one boring mission where you just send an exploration sattelite to a new place.

 

[MarcAbaddon]

I think discovery can be an exciting element but for it to work optimally it needs to be a discovery for the player as well. If you know everything about Duna (rough orbit, atmosphere, temperature, etc) but still need to have the Kerbals discover it in-game than that is alot less fun than knowing nothing about Duna and learning those things when it gets discovered in game. It might even feel like a chore if you do it for the n-th time, unless the discovery gameplay is very compelling. Observatories probably wouldn't be, satellites might work since they tie in the core gameplay loop.  

If we ever get in a place where KSP X can generate interesting systems and planets procedurally then discovery could become a central part of the game.

And discussing this I wonder if it would be a good idea for me to stay away from info about the new systems as much as possible...

[机械主教71号]

infact, all the planets in solar system were discovered before the first rocket. so...no more planet to be discovered in kerbal system.

Edited November 28, 2022 by 机械主教71号

[zeekzeek22]

Might be as simple as having them as low-res 2D images in the tracking station/encyclopedia until you actually visit, then they show up mapped. So you get blurry/low-res map data until you visit, and it incentivizes a polar orbiter to un-blur the whole planet. But would also have to be pretty easy to un-blur the whole plant because frequently having partially-blurred planets would be maddening. Then I think we can safely expect a process of resource mapping.

 

As for when we first enter the debdeb system, I definitely think it would be fun to limit planet visibility to the range of your ship's comms/tracker (so if you don't bring a big enough dish, you might only find half the planets at the orbit you happened to drop into). It would incentivize setting up a first colony and building a special Radio Astronomy building, that would identify all DebDeb celestial bodies in one go, albeit at that low-res level, so you can start planning your visits.

[tstein]

On 11/27/2022 at 11:29 PM, 机械主教71号 said:

infact, all the planets in solar system were discovered before the first rocket. so...no more planet to be discovered in kerbal system.

but in the OTHER systems...  it is a different story.

[Nirgal]

I remember the devs/Nate saying this is a feature they will be included in KSP2 (using space telescopes to find new systems/planets)

I really want the exploration of new star systems to be an iterative process, first you develop telescope data, then ascertain there may be a celestial body with x mass and x atmospheric composition, but not much else, then send a probe etc.

Later in the game you'd of course have the tech to just launch a colony ship regardless.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Nirgal

[mattinoz]

On 11/24/2022 at 6:49 PM, jastrone said:

i have heard this before on the forum and it seems like a pretty  popular idea but the main issue is that tou would have to do one boring mission where you just send an exploration sattelite to a new place.

 

Why boring?

Those missions in real lift have been pretty inspiring voyages of discovery. If anything it would be great if progression made trips like that more valuable gameplay wise. More mapping a discovery parts in the early stages, tighter launch loads or less progression points on Kerbin so gravity slingshots to do flybys has good gameplay targeting. 

Those sorts of missions could be fun challenges with high rewards both in terms of skills and opening up the game world.