Kerbin Ground Bases?

[mrmoo]

Does anyone else build Kerbin Ground Bases. I personally do, even though it serves no functional purpose (I play in sandbox but limit myself to realistic-ish missions and artificial progression). For example, I recently launched a program to construct an Antarktic (yes, that is what I call the south pole of Kerbin) research and relay station.

This time round I've landed my supersonic passenger plane, the Koncord-X, at the South Antarktic coast. This plane has a tail that lifts up to reveal a docking port so I plan to build onto that. I need a hab, relay station, solar field and some more stuff.

Just wondering if anyone wanted to show some cool Kerbin ground bases they'd made?

[Vanamonde]

Let's see your base.  

[KerikBalm]

On 12/16/2024 at 8:48 PM, mrmoo said:

 it serves no functional purpose (I play in sandbox but limit myself to realistic-ish missions and artificial progression). 

Refueling station for airplanes

Massive antenna array that outshines the KSC's DSN, etc.

I build them but they serve purposes 

[mrmoo]

44 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:

Refueling station for airplanes

Massive antenna array that outshines the KSC's DSN, etc.

I build them but they serve purposes 

thanks. like genuinely i found this really helpful. before they were just a bunch of hab modules

[KerikBalm]

Well, I play on a scaled up system, and use 2 stage reusable spaceplanes. The first stage goes suborbital, the 2nd stage achieve LS orbit in time for me to switch back to the first stage before it gets deleted.

Sometimes, I am quite far downrange, and used too much liquid fuel on the way up: so I have a mining and refueling base on the tip of that peninsula to the west of KSC. I land the first stage there, fuel it up, and head back to KSC.

Putting in some oxidizer let's it go faster and get higher, out of the atmo even. It can actually save play time, rather than cruising back at ~30km altitude using 4x timewarp and a hard limit of ~1700 m/s or thereabouts... Across a 4x larger Kerbin.

I've had limited but non-zero success with offshore mining rigs that extend a drill all the way to the seafloor (need to mod it so ore can be found there, normally it's not in ocean biomes), but haven't tried a floating base for servicing spaceplanes- on Kerbin.

There are some shallow areas of laythe where I set up floating mining bases, but that's another topic.

Also, on science/career mode, if you have excess scientists, you may as well stick them in a lab on Kerbin to generate a little extra science, but these don't need to go far from KSC.

 

Also, mountain top relays can be helpful if you have stricter signal occlusion settings.

You can also play with additional ground stations disabled, then you can build your own ground network (but honestly, a good space-based relay network is better and less time consuming)