Orbital construction

[Datau03]

Hi there and happy new year!

I have long been wanting something like Orbital and in general offworld construction in KSP and think it is an amazing feature for KSP. Now my question is, do we know anything about an orbital VAB editor (screenshots?) and the building process in general? Like what parts and resources we will need and if there is a building animation or something like that?

KSP2 Early Access is less than two months away yay!

 

[shdwlrd]

There's a lot of unknowns for the colonies in general. But from what was said early on in the development, you'll have to bootstrap a colony with small items before you can start building a colony up. For surface colonies, it will start as a surface base and grow from there. For orbital colonies, they would have to start as a user placed station, and follow the same mechanics. 

For editing and adding to your colonies, there will be a Building Assembly editor. As of now, that's all we really know. Everything else is just speculation.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Most likely coming in the 3d iteration of EA.  Might have some parts in Science... but I kind of doubt it.

[Drakenred65]

It’s I suspect that  a small one will turn up. Basicaly an orbital to build out a explorer to reach the outer planet and object of Kerbal. Including what may be the biggest literal snowball in the solar system.

 

Yes I've seen the not yet published paper on a model that indicates that the Planet X may be a mega commet.

 

do I need to say it’s a cool idea?

 

btw the orbital will show up in the second update, which yes is the third iteration.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Drakenred65

[Pthigrivi]

4 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

For editing and adding to your colonies, there will be a Building Assembly editor. As of now, that's all we really know. Everything else is just speculation. 
 

I think we’ve been told it will function basically like the VAB does, with a parts pallet that you can move things around and reassemble at will. Obviously we don’t yet know what resource costs will be or what parts are colony or orbital only.

[Scarecrow71]

On 1/1/2023 at 9:48 PM, Pthigrivi said:

I think we’ve been told it will function basically like the VAB does, with a parts pallet that you can move things around and reassemble at will. Obviously we don’t yet know what resource costs will be or what parts are colony or orbital only.

In addition to resource needs, we also do not know what we have to do to establish an orbital VAB before it can be used.

[Drakenred65]

Seriously it could be as simple as popping an orbital science lab, command pod, habitat can,  an extra docking port, storage can,  maybe a workshop can, and enough solar panels. Maybe do a few contracts or missions,  get an achievement or 2, and you will just  start click upgrading like you do in At KSC.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Drakenred65

[Datau03]

I remember Snutt talking about having interesting new possibilities in zero-g enviroment for constructing vehicles in orbit. This could just mean being able to build bigger and not needing to lift off from a launchpad, but it could also be something more. Any ideas?

I alsovwonder how the orbital vehicle construction editor will look like, because it has to be different from the Kerbin VAB, because they said some parts(like interstellar engines) won't fit in there and we'll have to construct them in orbit.

Spoiler

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Sorry for the spoilers, haven't figured out yet how I can remove them on mobile 

[Pthigrivi]

18 hours ago, Drakenred65 said:

Seriously it could be as simple as popping an orbital science lab, command pod, habitat can,  an extra docking port, storage can,  maybe a workshop can, and enough solar panels. Maybe do a few contracts or missions,  get an achievement or 2, and you will just  start click upgrading like you do in At KSC.

I think we can surmise from some of the description that likely both surface colonies and orbital stations have two phases: manual construction and self-sustained growth. In the first you'll probably need to manually deliver some basic starter-colony modules. Once you've established this hub though and start regular resource deliveries and processing you can add modules and reassemble the colony or station exactly the way we build vessels in the VAB--in a free-form lego-ish way. So you don't click the "upgrade" button, pick parts for say nuclear processing and reactors and attach them to the colony to increase its power output, which then allows you add more processing for fuels or metals or whatever it is you need. Presumably orbital platforms would be the same, adding more resource storage and manufacturing capacity so you could build bigger and badder vessels on the gantry.