Why I don't think KSP2 is presently an exploration game, but should be

[EngineeringWaffle]

So I saw this post and I think OP there has a point, but I have my own take on it and at this point, I think it's worth making a new topic.

So KSP1 and 2 both have exploration in the sense that they have a great big sandbox for you to travel around in, but I think an "exploration game" is a game where exploration is 1) interesting and 2) challenging. And neither KSP1 nor KSP2 had interesting or challenging exploration. Now, don't get me wrong, both games are challenging. That's a fact. But exploration isn't. Go to Map view and you can see everything in as much detail as you realistically ever will. Yeah, you can't see every rock on the Mun, but it's not like you can do anything with those rocks. And yes you can't see every hill and valley, but none of those hills or valleys are dramatic enough to matter to picking a landing site and you don't get science for exploring deeper-than-average valleys or higher-than-average hills.

If you've ever played Minecraft and finally found an ice spikes biome after searching for days and mapping every ocean in a 1K block radius, you know what the joy of exploration is. It's the joy of searching, scanning the horizon, hoping to see what your looking for. Rationing food, creating outposts, running out of resources and having to return home only to go out again to search more. That's exploration. I've never felt that playing KSP, not even close. Because I've always known exactly where I was going, and pretty much exactly what I was gonna find.

Now, there is no actual need to have exploration be a major feature in KSP. But I do think it's something that could raise KSP2 to the next level and create a kind of joy and challenge that we have so far not been able to experience. Below I've listed some general ways that I think it would be possible for KSP to incorporate exploration in a more meaningful way. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about it.

1) Reward variety

Minecraft actually provides a reason to go to a desert or a jungle. Different resources, different structures, different locales to build bases. It's not just that deserts have more loot than jungles, it's that they provide different value. You can't get pandas from deserts and you can't get cactus from jungles. KSP1 and 2 both suffer from all biomes being essentially the same. At best you might get slightly more science from the poles or from a monument, but that's not an exciting difference. If, instead, you could make a munar discovery that allowed you to build a special new type of engine by gathering a sample in a specific region, that could be an actual reason to explore. It's a reason to be excited that you finally found a munar valley so you can finally build that probe exactly the way you want to. Even something as simple as unlocking certain paint styles by visiting certain celestial bodies would give you some reason to go to some of the less visited bodies. Rewards that are just science or money become stale when you have lots of both. Rewards that are non-fungible, that are actually unique, those can be really inspiring.

ideas for adding this:

• Samples from certain biomes give you non-tech tree discoveries, e.g. a new compound found on the mun unlocks a special side-mounted engine or a smaller more powerful satellite dish.
• Samples from Certain biomes unlock special paint jobs for rocket parts
• Samples from Certain biomes allow you to upgrade certain parts. e.g. the Reliant engine gets an ISP boost because of asteroid debris found in a munar crater.
• Samples from Certain biomes advance the kerbals understanding of the universe, allowing you unique abilities. e.g. you can now use all maneuver capabilities without a pilot (I know it isn't in KSP2 yet, whatever).

Please keep in mind that while it may sound dull to have to go to a specific munar biome to unlock a particular paint job, some of my subsequent ideas might help with that.

2) Variety in Challenges

Right now there is an element of tedium to going to each biome on the mun. You can see  them all from orbit so you just have to do 5 identical missions landing in different spots. They are all essentially the exact same mission, and that is pretty tedious. Something that could spice things up is providing different challenges for different biomes.

Ideas:

• Certain parts of Duna have major windstorms that blow you to and fro
• Other parts are very  rocky and therefore difficult to land flat in.
• On the mun you could have basins in the bottom of caves that can't be flown to but require a speedy rover.
• You could have munar sand beds that are spongy and therefore easier to land on.
• Certain areas on the Mun could have a ground covering that  messes with the ranging meaning you can only use sea-level altitude and not height from ground, making landing more challenging.
• Even features as simple as steep mountains mean you need to either execute a high-precision landing right on the peak, or make a craft that won't slide down the steep face.

These kinds of unique challenges are a nice compliment to unique rewards. If you want  a special engine, you have to design a special craft to overcome a unique challenge. It also means that landers cannot be as frequently re-used. You actually need to re-tool your ship for each new destination.

3) "Randomness" in environment

Something else that is difficult is that you can see the whole mun in stunning quality immediately. You always know exactly where you are going to land from the start. Having some kind of fog-of-war where you can't see the landing site in detail (perhaps it's all pixelated) until you either scan it with a satellite or get close enough would mean you would need to be prepared for the unexpected. Combined with the variety above, it could mean that you need to build really adaptable ships, or do preliminary scouting, both of which would be exciting and rewarding missions.

Another thing that could be done is adding features that simply do not appear on the map view until they are discovered. So perhaps you can see a crater, but you can't see if there is a meteor remnant in the middle, so you need to do an expedition to find out. And then if there is one, you can unlock a unique part or a science reward or whatever. This would encourage people to build a lander with a rover that  can go explore. More detail on this kind of stuff below.

I should note here I don't think a random or procedurally generated map would be a good idea. Rather everyone should have the same Mun, but you just can't see details of it in the map view until you actually map it.

4) Rules and science connecting environments and informing randomness

Something that takes exploration to the next level for me is when you know that there are rules governing your exploration. For example, a Minecraft Savanna will always border a desert. And Ice spikes are often found near cold oceans. So when you are looking for a desert and you find a savanna, you can go around the perimeter, and when you are looking for ice spikes, you can get excited when you see a cold ocean because you know you might be close to  your quarry. Being much more science based, KSP2 has an even greater opportunity to do this. On the Mun, give some mares asteroid debris fields on their borders that can be scanned for a chance to recover pieces of a meteor. On Duna have mountains form ranges where some mountains will, on close inspection, turn out to be volcanoes that can be used as a source of geothermal energy. This is the reason you might build a serious all-terrain rover, one that can challenge Duna's mountains to efficiently scavenge them for Volcanoes. Or perhaps it may justify you building a Duna plane with high-res cameras and sensors so you can fly over the mountain ranges hoping to pick up heat signatures.

These kinds of connections mean players can get excited at finding a large thing that they can explore, searching for a small thing. And that is the sort of exploration people can really get invested in. It's a problem that is possible to solve with brute force, spending 1000 hours in EVA, but encourages creative problem solving. Creating mega-rovers and spy planes that can automate the tedius tasks.

 

I think that these sort of additions could make KSP2 a true exploration game that rewards and encourages the development of a huge variety of vehicles to overcome equally varied challenges across the galaxy. I don't purport to know exactly how such features would specifically fit, but I hope this is a direction the devs give consideration to.