I want to create a planet pack. Any tips for planet design?

[Great Liao]

Exactly as the title.

I have been experimenting with an idea to revamp the inner system, like OPM does for the outer system, but add really crazy planets with eccentric orbits and unique ideas that are hard to get to, but rewarding when you get there. Some of my ideas are:

- A blue mars due to copper oxides (not cold, actually hot)

- A hycean Kepler 22 b with glass storms that can shred your craft

- A carbon world that blends in with space with tons of exposed diamonds in an eccentric orbit

- A yellow/green sulfur gas dwarf

- A torus world

- Vulcan analogue with lava

- Dwarf Planets i.e Sedna, Eris etc... Analogues

- Pure Iron Planet

-Radioactive Moon of Eve, Binary with Poison moon, with rocky moon orbiting them

- MonMonMon, the third moon of Kerbin

- Salt Flats planet with Helium Atmo

- Kerbal Rock?

So yeah, those are my ideas. Any tips or suggestions on how to go about this?

[RevanX_LSR]

I recommend that you look at cfg files from other mods.

 

Not advertising here, but lsr has plenty of configs for almost everything you need.

https://spacedock.info/mod/3434/Linbol System Rebirth#stats

109010, for example is a good gycean planet config as it is fairly basic but gets all the basic features done.

[Great Liao]

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Edited October 18, 2023 by Great Liao
[/deleted]

[Great Liao]

So, I fleshed out the idea of the salt flats planet in my mod.

I am going to be positing updates on the content and concepts of this mod regularly on this thread.

Expect frequent posts about descriptions and concept art to be posted here until christmas, when I can start making development updates.

Here's the first fully fleshed out planet (any suggestions are welcome and are actually encouraged):

1. A chthonian salt flats planet. This planet has salt terrain with smeary features superimposed on top, as if someone took a paintbrush and smeared sealant all over some of the salt. The rest of the salt has that stereotypical “salt flats” look, with that being the majority of the planets appearance. The planet has long, wide and deep cracks that give the appearance of a planet decaying in a sense, as it seems as if the planet has been stripped to its core. The planet also includes several very craggy and rocky gray mountains that appear as if they havent been eroded, but rather crushed and smashed with a giant first. The cracks run deep and contain grey and brown rocks within. The planet has a decently thin helium atmosphere with a pressure of 0.67 atm kerbin pressure. The palnet has a grey helium atmosphere that is constantly windswept, dry, dusty and full of minor helium grey “wisps” like cirrus clouds that are extremely rare. The entire planet is covered with salt, dust and rocks and the planet is about 1.1 Kerbins in mass and about 1.01 kerbins in radius. The planets orbit is extremely eccentric as if something took away its gas giant layers (hint, a yellow green gas dwarf from my mod) and there are strange salt crystals growing all over its surface which give the impression fo the planet being covered in salt grains. The planet also has several rocks scattered and a generally “pounded’ and “dead but once alive” feel to it. It really contains a lot of dust within the cracks and It seems as if the hydrogen, and then the helium, and then the water was stolen from this dead skeleton of a planet.

2.  A carbon planet. This planet has terrain that would remind one of wrinkly, mount-everest-esque mountains, with crinkly "leaf-like terrain", as if the planet is covered in leaves and wrinkly mountain spikes. The entire planet is largely composed of a coal-like substance made of pure carbon, that forms all of these mountains and gives the planet a giant coal lump feel to it. The entire planet has rare craters that are full of dust and soot that covers most of the inside of these craters. Most of the planet has some amount of this dust and soot, making the planet appear "dusty" and "dirty". The planet is black to a point where it almost blends into space, making it extremely hard to see from a distance as the only way you can tell that you have reached the planet is by looking at a lack of stars. The planet is covered in vast swaths of pure diamond crystals, cut and smooth. These diamonds cover wide ranges of the planet and are almost perfectly smooth and clear, save for massive diamond crystals with crystalline looks covering massive portions of these diamond plains. All in all, these plains cover 40% of the planet's surface and are visible during the night as they reflect light very well. There are many, many anomalies on the surface of the planet, mostly consisting of giant graphite shards that stick out of the planets surface and look almost as if they were literally taken from giant pencils. These graphite shards range from tiny to the size of the smaller diamond plains, and are pretty widespread in some areas and rare in others. The craters tend to concentrate in the poles, although they are very rare altogether and this is not noticeable. It is also possible to see white craters that look as if they are covered in chalk, which come from other planets which have contaminated this planet with their foreign materials. The planet is about 2.2 kerbins in mass and 1.24 kerbins in radius. The planet has a surface gravity of 3.5 Gs owing to its extremely high density. The planet has a thin atmosphere of Co2 that is colored black, with frequent soot gusts covering parts of the planet. The planet's clouds are few and far between, and seem to consist of shards of graphite that have been released into the atmosphere and are colored dark grey. The planet has an eccentric and inclined orbit with a periapsis between moho and eve and an apoapsis between kerbin and duna. The planet's atmosphere seems to have been stolen by the hycean world and the super venus, which are also in my mod, as it has a very small atmosphere for its size. The orbits inclination lies at about 15.5 degrees, far above the other planets save for the other planets in the mod, and it has played a significant role in the history of the Kerbolar system, being responsible for the super venus, the vulcan analogue, Moho, the gas dwarf and the hycean planets' atmosphere. 

3.  A hycean world with planetary rings. This world's terrain is all oceans; with these oceans having an aquamarine tint, almost as if it was a tropical planet. However, this planet is far from tropical. It has massive ice caps over the poles that a very reflective and extend down much farther than Kerbin's. The terrain under the oceans is extremely deep and hard to reach, and consists of abyssal plateaus with random ridges filled with hot magma underneath. The abyssal plain also occaisonally has mountains made of craggy rock reaching out of the depths; however, these mountains are far to deep to reach the surface. There are also many horrific terrain features that remind one of skulls at the bottom of the ocean; and strange sounds are reported to be heard down there. The planet is covered in an extremely thick cyan atmosphere at about 4 atm surface pressure and decently large; said atmosphere has hundreds of silica clouds covering every inch of it, from top to bottom. They look like cirrus clouds and are slightly grey, and spin extremely fast at speeds of ~5000 mph, about five times the speed of winds on Neptune. These clouds are like saws in the sense that they can cut through craft with ease due to them being composed of silicate shards. The planet also has a radius of 2.3 Kerbins and a mass of 1.88 Kerbins, giving it a slightly less density than Kerbin. The planet has four moons; all of which have their own section. The planet's gravity is about 1.56 Gs, which is disproportionatley small for its size due to low density. The planet's rings' compostition is mainly made of rocks and dust, although traces of metal have been found, namely iron, copper, and strangely, neodymium. Current theories suggest the neodymium came from another planet or even another solar system, although these theories are generally regarded as foolish. The hycean world has significantly influence the orbits of Kerbin and Duna, as well as the orbit of the Carbon Planet and the Clthonian Planet. The hycean world also seems to have a deep crater hidden within its ocean depths; which formed due to a planetary collision millions of years ago. JWFOEFIJIEJFIJEFIJIEF**!*@)))@#*@(@...293_____INCOMING TRANSMISSION!*(&@*($ERROR$$$$$INVALID::HY235928395^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ERRRRROOOOORRR

4. Spoiler

   THE HORRORS OF THE OCEAN WILL NOT BE CONTAINED. 

    

5.  

Edited October 27, 2023 by Great Liao

[RevanX_LSR]

9 hours ago, Great Liao said:

So, I fleshed out the idea of the salt flats planet in my mod.

I am going to be positing updates on the content and concepts of this mod regularly on this thread.

Expect frequent posts about descriptions and concept art to be posted here until christmas, when I can start making development updates.

Here's the first fully fleshed out planet (any suggestions are welcome and are actually encouraged):

1. A chthonian salt flats planet. This planet has salt terrain with smeary features superimposed on top, as if someone took a paintbrush and smeared sealant all over some of the salt. The rest of the salt has that stereotypical “salt flats” look, with that being the majority of the planets appearance. The planet has long, wide and deep cracks that give the appearance of a planet decaying in a sense, as it seems as if the planet has been stripped to its core. The planet also includes several very craggy and rocky gray mountains that appear as if they havent been eroded, but rather crushed and smashed with a giant first. The cracks run deep and contain grey and brown rocks within. The planet has a decently thin helium atmosphere with a pressure of 0.67 atm kerbin pressure. The palnet has a grey helium atmosphere that is constantly windswept, dry, dusty and full of minor helium grey “wisps” like cirrus clouds that are extremely rare. The entire planet is covered with salt, dust and rocks and the planet is about 1.1 Kerbins in mass and about 1.01 kerbins in radius. The planets orbit is extremely eccentric as if something took away its gas giant layers (hint, a yellow green gas dwarf from my mod) and there are strange salt crystals growing all over its surface which give the impression fo the planet being covered in salt grains. The planet also has several rocks scattered and a generally “pounded’ and “dead but once alive” feel to it. It really contains a lot of dust within the cracks and It seems as if the hydrogen, and then the helium, and then the water was stolen from this dead skeleton of a planet.

very original!

[Great Liao]

My god, Kopernicus is confusing.

Configs?

Deleting Nodes?

Having to ALWAYS REPLACE THE STOCK SYSTEM AND COPY IT DOWN IF YOU WANT TO ENHANCE IT?

Not being able to change the infinite soi?

heightmaps?

Im so confused 

[Watermel00n]

2 hours ago, Great Liao said:

Having to ALWAYS REPLACE THE STOCK SYSTEM AND COPY IT DOWN IF YOU WANT TO ENHANCE IT?

That's not true, where'd you read it from? Planets can be added to the stock system even without system replace.

[Great Liao]

15 minutes ago, Watermel00n said:

That's not true, where'd you read it from? Planets can be added to the stock system even without system replace.

There's the Kopernicus github wiki, and that showed that you had to add it into a fresh config, and I thought that meant that you can't change the existing config. 

https://kopernicus.github.io/wiki/content/ConfigNodes.html

Edited October 22, 2023 by Great Liao
Removing extra information

[Great Liao]

updated the ideas megapost with new planets/

[Cytauri]

I wonder if you could add Parallax 2.0 and EVE Volumetric cloud compatibility. That would be very cool since most planet packs that add to the Kerbolar system (like OPM and the Quack Pack) do not have these mods integrated. Otherwise, I love the idea of adding all these unique planets to the game. I do think that maybe some planets should have rings. (HELP I HAVE A CRIPPLING PLANETARY RING ADDICTION) Great job so far, I think you'll go far.

[Great Liao]

Quote

8 minutes ago, Cytauri said:

I wonder if you could add Parallax 2.0 and EVE Volumetric cloud compatibility. That would be very cool since most planet packs that add to the Kerbolar system (like OPM and the Quack Pack) do not have these mods integrated. Otherwise, I love the idea of adding all these unique planets to the game. I do think that maybe some planets should have rings. (HELP I HAVE A CRIPPLING PLANETARY RING ADDICTION) Great job so far, I think you'll go far.

 

Thank you so much! I've been thinking about parallax 2.0 and EVE compatibility. I would really like to implement it but I can't figure out a way to make good textures. I'll probably end up getting some GIMP stuff to help out.

[Cytauri]

1 minute ago, Great Liao said:

Thank you so much! I've been thinking about parallax 2.0 and EVE compatibility. I would really like to implement it but I can't figure out a way to make good textures. I'll probably end up getting some GIMP stuff to help out.

Cool, take your time and enjoy making the mod. I've seen mod makers burn out because they were pumping out updates every week so please take your time. Thanks for responding! 

[bimbochungo]

Some of your ideas were already in Kcalbeloh.

[Watermel00n]

On 12/14/2023 at 11:37 PM, bimbochungo said:

Some of your ideas were already in Kcalbeloh.

Doesn't matter, it's good when people make their own spin on things