What will be your ideal craft or colony?

[GoldForest]

Like the title says. I want to hear what you guys and gals have in mind for your crafts and colonies? Are you a minimalist? Will your interstellar ship look something more like the real Project Daedalus? Compact and small. Or are you a bring everything I need in one go person? Making a super long stick boy that has 2 of everything and requires an extra engine or two to get moving? Will your colonies be small and tidy, or will it look like New York City, a hodgepodge of towers of all different shapes and sizes? Or perhaps you're an industrialist and will make your colony look like it is an endless factory of pipes and tanks? 

I want to hear your plans, your realistic designs, your dream designs! Or, are they nightmare designs? Something that will make someone double take and be speechless, not in awe, but in shock at the horror you've built!  Let them be known! 

Don't have a design in mind? That's fine! Comment on someone else's design, give feedback, or suggestions on how to improve them!

My ideal setup:

Interplanetary craft: Don't really have a design in mind. I'm a bring everything I can in one trip kind of guy though, so I expect my designs to be a cluttered mess.

Interstellar craft: Again, bring everything in one trip, so I expect my designs to be long slender spires with several different craft attached designed for different focused purposes. Refining, resource collection, etc.

Colonies: Now this one I'm a bit of a neat freak about. When I play city buildings, I like to separate the zones out and try to keep them somewhat tidy. So habitation will be on one side while refineries will be on another. Power generation I tend to put away from my cities, so I imagine I'll put those far from the colony as I can. 

[The Aziz]

I have no idea what the game will have to offer, gotta have to see it first. Or make it up as I go, like it always is with planning games.

But, if I can, I want my interstellar ship to look like the Odyssey

[GoldForest]

23 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

I have no idea what the game will have to offer, gotta have to see it first. Or make it up as I go, like it always is with planning games.

But, if I can, I want my interstellar ship to look like the Odyssey

[image snip]

So, spindly with pretty much everything you need?

Also, that thing is huge. 

[Guest]

If it's possible I'd like to keep my spaceports away from my colonies.

Big rockets going boom don't agree well with fragile pressurized living space.

On my first run after the colonies are introduced I'm still planning to do a double colony on Mun, maybe at opposing sides of a big crater, Horizon Munar Colony* (from a Horizons Program going from a manned space station to a ground lab that grows into a colony) on one side and an "Artemis Launch Facility" on the other side, serving as the first KSC away from Kerbin and replacing it as much as possible. The idea of launching the first interplanetary missions from the Mun is interesting. 

 

Other than that I think I'll avoid towers in my colonies, the engineering challenge of building a huge tower is worth only where space to build comes at a premium, the exact opposite of what we have on deserted planets (or even deserts here on Earth, looking at you Dubai).

 

As for spaceships and mothership I hope the game will have some sort of habitation system or interesting gameplay mechanic around that. Even if that isn't the case I'm still going to give every Kerbal in my missions plenty of space, my personal self-imposed rule is that a single capsule/seat for a Kerbal to travel for months or years is worse than cheating. 

 

*Yes this is inspired by the Horizon Lunar Colony Overwatch map:

Spoiler

Which is likely inspired by IRL Project Horizon.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Master39

[GoldForest]

5 minutes ago, Master39 said:

If it's possible I'd like to keep my spaceports away from my colonies.

Big rockets going boom don't agree well with fragile pressurized living space.

On my first run after the colonies are introduced I'm still planning to do a double colony on Mun, maybe at opposing sides of a big crater, Horizon Munar Colony* (from a Horizons Program going from a manned space station to a ground lab that grows into a colony) on one side and an "Artemis Launch Facility" on the other side, serving as the first KSC away from Kerbin and replacing it as much as possible. The idea of launching the first interplanetary missions from the Mun is interesting. 

 

Other than that I think I'll avoid towers in my colonies, the engineering challenge of building a huge tower is worth only where space to build comes at a premium, the exact opposite of what we have on deserted planets (or even deserts here on Earth, looking at you Dubai).

 

As for spaceships and mothership I hope the game will have some sort of habitation system or interesting gameplay mechanic around that. Even if that isn't the case I'm still going to give every Kerbal in my missions plenty of space, my personal self-imposed rule is that a single capsule/seat for a Kerbal to travel for months or years is worse than cheating. 

 

*Yes this is inspired by the Horizon Lunar Colony Overwatch map:

 

Which is likely inspired by IRL Project Horizon.

I've been wondering if explosions on the Colonial VAB pad will damage nearby structures for a few days now. It makes sense that they would. Even if it isn't a mechanic in game, I do plan on creatine a separate, or at least a distanced, launch facility from my colonies.

As for your first interplanetary mission, it only makes sense to launch a mission from the Mun. Or better, Minmus. Get well outside the gravity well of Kerbin.

Heh, not going to do the Mk1 pod to Deb Deb challenge? 

[regex]

I don't care about the colonies. Hopefully they'll have some entirely pre-fab colony sites I can just slap somewhere and forget they exist, and move on with the game. Would be pretty neat if you could create a whole mess of O'Neill cylinders out of an asteroid belt though, but even then I wouldn't want to manage that.

As far as starships, I'm going to be somewhat disappointed if I can't create a reasonable facsimile of Firefly because it's probably one of the coolest realistic designs I've seen.

[GoldForest]

20 minutes ago, regex said:

I don't care about the colonies. Hopefully they'll have some entirely pre-fab colony sites I can just slap somewhere and forget they exist, and move on with the game. Would be pretty neat if you could create a whole mess of O'Neill cylinders out of an asteroid belt though, but even then I wouldn't want to manage that.

As far as starships, I'm going to be somewhat disappointed if I can't create a reasonable facsimile of Firefly because it's probably one of the coolest realistic designs I've seen.

You'll need colonies for interstellar flight.

As for Firefly, I don't doubt they have a z-pinch engine, or at the very least hopefully Nertea will port over his Far Future Techs mod and you'll get it then. As for those radiators, hoo boy. That's a lot of complex geometry. Don't think we'll be able to make the tail end, not unless we can place rads on rads. 

[regex]

Just now, GoldForest said:

You'll need colonies for interstellar flight.

We don't know that yet, and if we do require them hopefully I can just place some utterly braindead prefab and completely forget it exists. I'm here for the spaceships.

Just now, GoldForest said:

As for Firefly, I don't doubt they have a z-pinch engine, or at the very least hopefully Nertea will port over his Far Future Techs mod and you'll get it then. As for those radiators, hoo boy. That's a lot of complex geometry. Don't think we'll be able to make the tail end, not unless we can place rads on rads. 

With procedural radiators it should be pretty easy to get something close, which is really all that matters.

[GoldForest]

1 minute ago, regex said:

We don't know that yet, and if we do require them hopefully I can just place some utterly braindead prefab and completely forget it exists. I'm here for the spaceships.

With procedural radiators it should be pretty easy to get something close, which is really all that matters.

Interstellar ships don't fit in the VAB. You need and orbital colony with a space dock. 

Of course, but you can only do so much if they're limited to being placed on the ship itself. If we can place rads on on rads, then it becomes much more possible to get roughly the same shape. 

[intelliCom]

Ultimately, any vehicle I make is almost always specialised. I don't think I'll have any idea what the "ideal" ship looks like until the game comes out and I can do some experimentation.

I suppose the 'ideal' one uses the latest technological advancements.

[Rutabaga22]

My main spaceport will be orbiting gilly, right over my gilly colony. I will make a gilly coruscant.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Rutabaga22

[Domonian]

Definitely want big cargo/carrier style spaceplanes for my fleet. Stuff like the Valkyrie shuttle from Avatar: a massive brick that's VTOL for no reason other than it can be. 

 

Typically, large spaceplanes with high surface area. This ship from twitter user @Z700k is a prime example of what I want to build, although I'll likely end up with something looking much, much worse. I like to imagine that ship is also a swing-wing aircraft, which would be fun.

Conventional rockets are cool and all, but who needs efficiency when you have... um... wings? Giant flying doritos are really, really cool looking, and these types of designs will definitely be more viable (with the new procedural wings and planets with thicker atmospheres), rather than the "standard" SSTO you typically see in KSP1. I just hope we get some more powerful jet or closed cycle engines, or at least engines that fit well on a plane. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Domonian

[shdwlrd]

It will be really dependent on parts availability. But I would love to build a modern Battlestar styled colony ship. I would also attempt a StarTrek styled space dock for orbital construction.

[Streetwind]

I'm a minimalist to a fault, and few games have aided and abetted that as much as KSP. Because here, downsizing and keeping things simple actually makes your rockets go faster and further! So I have a sneaking suspicion that any craft I'll build, for any purpose, will be no larger than absolutely necessary and carry no more stuff than absolutely necessary.

That doesn't mean that those crafts will necessarily be low-part and single-function, oh no sir. Here's an example of something I launched once in a modded playthrough. It contained an entire 4-piece commsat constellation plus an entire 4-piece ScanSat terrain and resource mapping constellation plus a science lander capable of landing on Ike, sending science, taking off, and then landing on Duna and sending science from there as well. All in a single fairing, on a single rocket, in just 46 tons and 150 parts including the launch clamps.

So no, not simple. But the scale and mass budget should give you an idea of how I like to build. If you strip everything out that is not absolutely needed, you can fit way more on a single launcher - and thus, why launch more than once when you don't need to? Incidentally, that was also the first mission I sent towards Duna in that playthrough. Why bother launching for anything less?

With surface colonies, though, I can see myself greebling and cluttering some. To make the place actually feel organic and lived-in, you know?

Edited December 15, 2022 by Streetwind

[whatsEJstandfor]

I want big, complex colonies. Contrast that with vehicles, which I like to keep as simple as possible. But I'm a sucker for any kind of resource management game with hundreds or thousands of individual machines or parts or characters or whatever all doing their own thing on their own small scale, but all being part of a much bigger supermachine. From Roller Coaster Tycoon to Cities Skylines to Oxygen Not Included, I love any game where you can zoom in and see a tiny microcosm of discrete things making up some bigger system, and then zoom out and see the entire macrocosm of systems all working together. Really tickles my pickle if u get my drift

[obney kerman]

For a ship, something that's long but not just a spindly truss; with enough of a "body" of fuel tanks and the like to fill out the shape, and a set of long radiator "wings". Probably nuclear powered for interplanetary stuff, with NTRs or magnetoplasma engines for propulsion. Once we reach interstellar levels, fusion all the way, for power and propulsion. Also, centrifuges. I don't think anything I send farther than Minmus is going to fly without a centrifuge.

[TheOrios]

merbel is so god damn pretty how could i not colonise it

 

For the ship, probably a combination of the clarke (from beyond kerbol) and the isv venture star

[GoldForest]

9 minutes ago, TheOrios said:

the clarke (from beyond kerbol)

Stealing designs from Youtubers are we? 

[TheOrios]

12 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

Stealing designs from Youtubers are we? 

the clarke is really wel designed ok

[Nirgal]

The Avatar films get a lot of hate, but as a sci-fi nerd I love them. The craft are so well designed I can't help but want to imitate them.. So I will aim for a ISV Venture Star inspired design for sure, along with 2 large space planes docked for the ride.

Depending on how big we can go, I'd love a Stanford Torus habitat

[Luriss]

11 hours ago, TheOrios said:

the clarke is really wel designed ok

Can confirm, I even 3D printed it

[GaussFlux]

I really want to make a network of colonies and stations similar to what is outlined in Gerard K. O’Neill’s book the high frontier. Mining the mun to supply orbital shipyards and stations.  That along with asteroid mining stations and a station in one of glumo’s shepherd moons(skute I think?), I honestly just love the idea of sticking with asteroids and low gravity worlds as a colonization strategy.
 

As for ships I’d love to make a replica of Michael from the book Footfall, the X-30/X-33 SSTO, The ROMBUS SSTO(or any of Philip Bono’s designs) and the Valkyrie interstellar ship concept which was the inspiration for the ISV from Avatar but I’ll probably just wind up making a replica of the movie version lol. 

Edited December 25, 2022 by GaussFlux
Grammar

[TheKrakenHerder]

Probably going to make a near-future-style colony on one side of a big crater on the Mun, with a launch center on the other side and, if possible, a cable car between the two, over the crater. I'm probably going to launch the first missions to Duna from there. For those, the ship will probably be similar to the Atlas from the TV series "Away".

[Drakenred65]

My ideal colony? Will have a Panda Express, a Firehouse Subs, a Whataburger  a White Castle, A Raisin Canes, a Popeyes, Zaby’s,  and a Slim chickens.

 

oh and a decent Pizza and Italian place. . . . What I’m hungry lol.

[Scarecrow71]

What I'd really like is to have dedicated shuttle craft that can be used to go from an Interstellar ship to the surface and back again.  I'm not talking about lander cans, but actual shuttles.  Like the Jupiter models from Lost In Space.

USS Resolute

Jupiter 2