What would you like to see on kerbin?

[AlteranEmpire]

I would love to see cities, urban centers etc.. You know, just so I can just umm... miss them with my rockets.

[Ringer]

Birds. Especially if they are scared away by the roar of engines or landing craft. Some simple schools of fish perhaps.

Aurora. I am entirely unsure from what angles and places they are visible or what actually causes them to become visible, but they'd be cool.

More vegetation. A few different kinds of tree, maybe some smaller plants depending on how much you allow for terrain scatters. Bunch some of the trees into forests. Would be really interesting if trees could be collided with in one way or another, maybe destructible.

Rain, even snow.

Cities could be rendered differently based on distance: within 2.25km (as with other craft) the buildings could be individually rendered with some lights and features. Within say 250m, could show citizens (as in the VAB) and/or vehicles. Outside of 2.25km, just render buildings as simple rectangular prisms. Since from space you're able to see relatively small features like the launch site landing strip, a city would be pretty well visible, but just a texture feature that lights up at night should be a sufficiently cool effect.

[Dr. Muttonstache]

If anyone has played Il-2 Stuvmorvik i want the same type of graphics for ground objects...

Which one are we talking about here, Birds of Prey or 1946? Either or, anything big would cause some lag, a good idea would to keep it minimal, and farther away from the KSC to minimize takeoff lag.

I think the best route to go would be to have some small scattered villages/towns across Kerbin, with runways, to have an additional, fun use of the SPH!

Cities could be rendered differently based on distance: within 2.25km (as with other craft) the buildings could be individually rendered with some lights and features Outside of 2.25km, just render buildings as simple rectangular prisms. Since from space you're able to see relatively small features like the launch site landing strip, a city would be pretty well visible, but just a texture feature that lights up at night should be a sufficiently cool effect.

This is what i'm trying to get across, I like your style, ringer, minus the kerbal part. That could get iffy.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Dr. Muttonstache

[sarge1022]

I would like to see more mountain ranges, valleys, caves, and other land forms because at the moment I think Kerbin is a little flat.

[The Destroyer]

Northern lights on ALL OF KERBIN!

(Like what happened when a big solar flare happened in 1987 or something like that)

[Valdon]

Doing Aurora's brings up other possibilities, such as solar storms that could effect vehicles in space.

[M5000]

Many of these could apply to other planets, but I may reserve the full discussion for another thread later.

For Kerbin...

Natural features:

-Volcanoes

-Canyons

-At least one huge impact crater

-Archipelagos

-Islands in general

-Weather such as rain, snow at times, storms, things that may or may not affect communication

-Icebergs

-Aurora Borealis

-Rainforests

-Deciduous forests

-Cliffs

-Rivers/streams

-Valleys

Vehicular activity:

-Planes that fly through the sky. With lights, of course, for nighttime. Be careful not to hit any, though KSC should be a relative no-fly zone.

-Boats in the water every so often (maybe even in career mode have a recovery boat to get splashed-down modules).

-Cars on roads.

-Trains on tracks maybe.

-In career mode, have other space agencies doing their own things so that you have to be mindful of other activities and not destroy other projects, else you may lose "rep" or something.

Manmade things:

-Radio towers with gently droning red lights on them.

-Radio towers with quick flashing white lights on them. These will make near-storm weather look 400% worse than it is, for some reason. I've noticed this in real life..

-Make sure all the radio towers contain big microwave radomes and cones and all kinds of ominous-looking communication equipment. Also, in career mode, if communication is necessary, you could be able to rent space on a tower to put your own communication array, or possibly buy/erect your own, so that KSC isn't the only point on Kerbin you have to communicate from.

-Tornado/warning siren towers placed in strategic places.

-Observatories on tops of some hills.

-Solar/Wind farms.

-Nuclear power plants/Hydroelectric power plants.

-Cities, obviously.

-Big radio telescopes, some larger than others, some being so large they have to be built into a hillside or something. God that would be cool...

I would love all of that stuff in-game, but I understand it would be a lot of extra coding to do, but eh.

[Malachai]

You know, it's funny. Everyone wants to see cities on the surface of Kerbin, but I've already worked it out in my head that our dear kerbals live underground! But if there are cities topside, it'd be nice to have an easier means of landing at the space center. It'd be rather nasty (if awesome) to slam into a major population center at klick a second...

But what I'd really like to see is a bigger variety (read: ANY variety) of geological features, not only on Kerbin, but on all the rocky planets.

[musicpenguin]

Grand kerbal theft auto: KSP

The Kerbal runs to his plane and smashes it into a ton of people...

[Splode]

I'd love some farms around ksc to crash-land planes into

[Kerbface]

I guess anything big or in large number that was added would need to be really low poly so it could plausibly be run. Cities would be great, but just make them 5 faced rectangular prisms for each building, randomly generate them (I mean the developers should, but in game they should be the same every time you load). Also some highways between important locations like the two space centres and cities. It would be good to see some more dense forests, just with really low poly trees.

In terms of facilities, more airports, maybe some depots where you can refuel aircraft. Oh, and a ramp that leads into the water for those making water craft.

[The Space]

Cities with NPC Kerbals in them and some forests.

[ShachonianX]

Towns, cities, Kerbals going about their day to day business, like shopping, working, etc.

What would happen if you crash a rocket into them? On that happy thought, do you think the Kerbals would be walking their pets (think of a green dog with a big head)? Maybe in career mode if you crash into any building, planes, e.t.c, you will lose money to pay for the expenses to repair whatever it is you wrecked.

Edited May 2, 2013 by ShachonianX

[zarakon]

Towns, cities, Kerbals going about their day to day business, like shopping, working, etc.

and this must all be destructible

[nats]

I just want to see better graphics from orbit - different cloud formations/storm fronts, higher res terrain, better looking sea when you are approaching it, lights at night and cities during the day, different environments such as mountains, forests and deserts, smoother gravity and atmosphere instead of it just stopping, that kind of thing.

I am not overly bothered about what is at ground level but I can understand the need for some other launch pads and runways for those who do space planes.

I am more interested in getting more at ground level on the other planets and moons that I land on so there is stuff to go off and visit/examine.

[henryrasia]

I would like dynamic planets. So aurorae, weather, waves, storms, cities, etc would all make you feel like you are THERE, not in some stage. However I see no way of this happening without ridiculous lag, if not crashes.

So I guess once the Unity limitations / 32 bit issue / no multi-core / optimization isn't dealt with I want nothing.

[HGGundamReviews]

The only real feature I would love added to the game is Terraforming. Laythe, Duna, Tylo are all really good candidates for it.

[KD3]

The main thing I want to see is Kerbin lighting up with civilisation at night.

[grawl]

Definitely clouds at first. They'd add a new artistic dimension to the game ! Imagine the possibilities with a nice clouds system, dynamic gas giants ! Hurricanes watchable from space !

**Ok, I need to calm down now ** ...

Then maybe some patches of light around KSC, KSC2 and a few more small locations to discover.

Remember KSP is a game about launching things away from Kerbin, so I don't think too much effort should be put into ground details.

[Daze]

-City

-Civilian

-Clouds and Aurora Borealis/Australis

-A better aerodynamics model, which will force the player to use realistic design, with the help of fairings and nose cone.

[EternallySlaying]

So I guess once the Unity limitations / 32 bit issue / no multi-core / optimization isn't dealt with I want nothing.

The new version of unity supports 64 bit and multi-core; Squad has to implement it into their game, it just isn't a toggle (sadly)

I would like to see use of the new Unity features and asteroids. I know asteroids would be irritating, what with their gravity interference, and physical mass to get through if there was an asteroid belt. But building bases on large non-planetoids would be interesting.

[SecondGuessing]

I think cities and Kerbin civilians would just be an irritating lagfest. Clouds, lights on the night side and auroras would be very cool, though. Asteroids and the like would be very interesting. Trees and the like added to the terrain scatter would be nice, but could cause some issues.

[Excellent]

The main thing I would like to see is some kind of geographical landmarks. I mean as I fly around the planet with my plan all I see is hill after hill after hill and its kinda bland.

I know that making cliffs and waterfalls and all that cool stuff would be really hard but hey I can dream right?

Also I want civilian planes to fly around so I crash into them

[Superluminaut]

Lights that streak in timewarp.

[Luis]

The problem with city lights visible from orbit on the night side is that you can land wherever you want. While the orbital lights would be a fairly cheap graphical effect to add, making the cities and roads that produce those lights would be much more computationally expensive. The game already lags more near KSC than at altitude, any city that looked anywhere near realistic would bring the frame rates to their knees. Even if all the buildings were just procedurally generated cuboids with Kerbals wandering around randomly, it would be pretty slow. And frankly, I don't think a city like that would add very much. To feel like more than a blocky ghost town, we'd need buildings with textures, street layouts that made sense, cars with plausible routefinding, streetlights, road signs and on and on and on. This could end up being an enormous amount of work that would have a massive effect on frame rates and end up getting turned off on all but the very fastest PCs. And all this would be a distraction from the main business of KSP, which is travelling to OTHER planets and moons.

All things considered, I would rather resources be spent elsewhere.