[1.12.X] The Frozen Star (WIP)

[electricpants]

Hey, electricpants here. It's been a while.

This has been a personal project of mine for a little over 4 years now, as I first started making this star back in December of 2019. It's been a long journey, and I've changed a lot since I started. I've been working on this on and off, and the project has kinda been in development hell, having gone through many different iterations before I landed on the system layout I liked best, which is this current one.

The mod is still heavily in-development, and I don't know if I'll ever truly finish it, but I really just want to finally get this system out there, so that people can play (and hopefully enjoy) it for themselves.

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You start the game in a highly-compact system orbiting a very cold star. Do note that despite its unusually low temperature and mass, Cherra IS a star, and not a brown dwarf, which is thanks to its high metallicity, providing just enough insulation to keep the core hot enough for hydrogen fusion. Though the planets all look easily accessible, it's harder than you think to navigate Cherra's system, as it takes a LOT of delta-V to get anywhere with pure rocket power. Gravity assists will be your friend here, though you may have to chain many of them together, as they aren't as powerful in this system. Everything moves so fast, it's hard to get something to change your trajectory much! Additionally, spheres of influence are very small in this system, so lots of orbital adjustments may be needed to get everything just right.

Some basic descriptions + pictures of the main bodies (spoilers ahead!)

CHERRA (Parsec B):

Spoiler

Cherra is the third star in a trinary system, the Parsec system. As the name implies, the system is only about a single parsec away from the Sun. Cherra is an ultracool dwarf star, however unlike the likes of TRAPPIST-1, Cherra is only kept alight by its extraordinarily high metallicity, being below the mass that's normally required for fusion. Its surface temperature is a mere 1,350 Kelvin, and it is incredibly dim to boot, and as such is roughly on the border between an L9V and a T0V. It is known to have 4 major planets, as well as plenty of more minor bodies inbetween.

PEPSOL (Parsec Bd):

Spoiler

The first planet, Pepsol, is 1.18 times the mass of Kerbin, and is an incredibly hostile planet. Ingame, it is a gas giant, but canonically it does have a surface completely covered in a water ocean hot enough to melt lead, which is only kept liquid because it is wrapped under an atmosphere 1,000 times thicker than Kerbin's. It's also noticeably deformed, due to the intense tidal effects of being so close to Cherra while also being so low-density.

DESKEN (Parsec Be):

Spoiler

The second planet out is Desken, which is 2.39 times the mass of Kerbin. However, because it is also an ocean planet, with the only "land" being a massive ice sheet covering most of its surface, Desken has a relatively hospitable surface gravity. Canonically, it is inhabited by two intelligent colonial species, the Kerbals and the Avali, which is why I highly recommend Tholin's "Avali Space Program" mod for immersion, as it introduces the species into the game. Download it here!

THORBIN (Parsec Bc):

Spoiler

The third planet, Thorbin, is a whopping 10.57 times the mass of Kerbin. From a distance, it may look like an enticing destination, with visible lakes and oceans, and a thick atmosphere to keep the planet warm despite its distance from Cherra. However, on closer inspection, Thorbin reveals itself to be quite inhospitable, as those wonderful seas are actually made of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids, and the atmosphere is a soup of methane, hydrogen fluoride, and hydrogen chloride. Not to mention the high gravity!

ASOOL (Parsec Bb):

Spoiler

The fourth and final planet is Asool, which is 9.25 times the mass of Kerbin. However, it is actually larger than Thorbin, despite its lower mass, due to it having a thick envelope of hydrogen and helium--it is a mini-neptune. It is the only canonically gaseous planet in the Cherra system, and, like Desken, also hosts a small asteroid moon, orbiting closely to its home planet.

PARSEC (Parsec Aa) + ARCSEC (Parsec Ab):

Spoiler

Finally, there is the main Parsec system, which is actually a very close binary of Parsec, a B-type subdwarf, and Arcsec, a relatively middling red dwarf. It is visible as a bright white dot from Cherra. This part of the system is in a highly unfinished state, as all of its 4 planets are currently just placeholders. I do not know if I will ever finish this system, and there is a chance it may be scrapped in the future.

EXTRA PICTURES!:

Spoiler

The system really is highly compact! I think it's fun how you can see all the major bodies so clearly in the sky. It is at least relatively stable, I've had plenty of time to make sure of it.

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And there it is! Those little blurbs only covered the central stars and Cherra's 4 main planets, but there's plenty of other stuff to find too, I'm just leaving it up to the player to discover themselves. I know this isn't much, and in comparison to a lot of other planet mods out nowadays, it's not too great visually, but I still hope this is enjoyable to those who choose to play this mod!

Do note that, due to me having to use post spawn orbit for Desken, there are unavoidable glitches with the KSC screen in-game. Don't worry, these are purely visual bugs, and do not carry over to flight view or map view. Also, I'm putting this project out under a CC BY-NC-ND license. You can copy and distribute this wherever you want, but only in an unchanged form and for non-commercial purposes.

Also, I forgot to say, but Kopernicus Expansion is a dependency for this mod. Download it here.

I hope you all have a good day.

Download the WIP here!

Edited March 16 by electricpants

[AbsolutelyNotKirrim]

AND it's a system replacer? amazing!

[Sky Kerman]

Is there any dependencies for the mod, because Kopernicus appears to not be able to load the pack.

This is what my gamedata folder looks like, so maybe I have something installed that shouldnt be?

000_Harmony
Astrogator
Kopernicus
ModularFlightIntrigrator
Scatter
Squad
SquadExpansion
StockWaterFallEffects
TextureReplacer
TFS
Trajectories
Waterfall
ModularManiger4.2.3.

[electricpants]

12 hours ago, Sky Kerman said:

Is there any dependencies for the mod, because Kopernicus appears to not be able to load the pack.

This is what my gamedata folder looks like, so maybe I have something installed that shouldnt be?

000_Harmony
Astrogator
Kopernicus
ModularFlightIntrigrator
Scatter
Squad
SquadExpansion
StockWaterFallEffects
TextureReplacer
TFS
Trajectories
Waterfall
ModularManiger4.2.3.

there shouldn't be any dependencies, no. i'd suggest removing mods one by one until the system is able to load, so you can try and pinpoint what exactly is causing the problem.

[Sky Kerman]

6 hours ago, electricpants said:

there shouldn't be any dependencies, no. i'd suggest removing mods one by one until the system is able to load, so you can try and pinpoint what exactly is causing the problem.

I tried that yesterday. Even with my game date folder emptied out to: 

000_Harmony
Kopernicus
ModularFlightIntrigrator
Squad
SquadExpansion
TFS(The mod.)
ModularManiger4.2.3.

It still dosent work.

[electricpants]

i'm not really sure what the problem you're having is then, since i have the exact same mods and it's working

[Sky Kerman]

I got it to work!

[Alpha_star]

Planet hoppin'!

[Jcklemme]

Is there a config that allows this to be a non system replacer so it can be an interstellar destination?

[O_2]

On 3/16/2024 at 8:46 AM, Sky Kerman said:

I got it to work!

How?

[Sky Kerman]

7 hours ago, O_2 said:

How?

You need Kopernicus Expansion.

[Iapetus7342]

Pics broke, please upload to Imgur

[theonegalen]

Discord is a terrible way to host images. I'd like to see what you've been working on, but the images are broken.