Best way to make Kerbin even more alive in the future?

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

I was thinking i'd love to see Kerbin come ever more alive, i know we spend most our time trying to leave it but it is home after all, the problem is knowing next to nothing about programming i have no idea what is viable and what isn't, here's my list of hopes:

Cities, not sure how many except that i hope to see their lights twinkling below when in orbit, Kerbals waddling around much like they do at the space center?

Small towns and farming communities scattered around, perhaps their lights could be seen from a spaceplane if not from orbit. (You know you want to buzz a farmer in a tractor with your supersonic jet)

Birds. (or Kerbin equivalent)

Certain types of herd animals. (or Kerbin equivalent)

Whales. (or Kerbin equi...ah you get the idea)

Clouds, rain, snow, storms, sand gusts, weather patterns.

Air-balloons and other air traffic.

Long, solitary motorways linking cities and places together, with cars tootling along.

And that's all i can think of for now, do you have any further additions? Are any of these even remotely viable at some point in the distant future?

Edited May 12, 2013 by Custard Donut (In Space)

[Canopus]

I can tell you that clouds will come eventually.

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

I can tell you that clouds will come eventually.

Pretty awesome

[Scotius]

I will be pretty happy with clouds, city lights and maybe thunderstorms visible from LKO.

[sal_vager]

Oh man, imagine re-entering in a thunderstorm, with your pod on fire from the heat and lightening all around

[LeonG17]

Likely less detailed things like low render buildings in city which have lights on and motorways connecting them but nothing so complex, otherwise there would be too much lag and take focus away from the entire point of KSP-space exploration.

Thunderstorms would be very cool though

[Shrike42]

Imagine flying over a town or city, and seeing all the little kerbals run away in terror. "FLEE! THE KSP IS COMING!"

[Feldynn]

Perhaps one option to help limit the potential lag issues would be to use domed city units placed around the landscape in various groupings that are linked via enclosed road systems (i.e. domes joined together by tubes with lights) instead of cities constructed of actual buildings . Something like this random image I found with Google..

Granted it's a bit of a science fiction concept and more the sort of thing you'd expect to see on planets with hostile atmospheres, but from a Kerbal perspective rather than being cities in artificial atmosphere bubbles they could be protective domes to prevent accidental damage from the plethora of rocket parts falling out of the sky .

[Echostatic]

I'm sure things like birds and animals would be easy to put in as 2 dimensional critters with minimal animation. They wouldn't look good up close, but seeing herds from a distance would still look nice.

[llamatoes]

Two things, when you reach a certain point, sattilietes start popping up, and as you progress further in advancing the kerbal's space flight skills, it becomes more common place, until Lko is a mass of spacestations, sattilietes and other thigs.

Other than that...

Explosions

I would also like rainbows, but not real rainbows, I would like to be able to fly under rainbows, or even better, reentry routing a rainstorm, and as the flares die down, the clouds part and a double rainbow appears.

[ziogatto]

I'd love to see auroras, I hope they add them to some planets. I'm no software engineer but a few glowy lights on a planet shouldn't be too hard to put in or impact performance in a sensible way, if they are done well they could make for some really beautiful screenshots!

[CalculusWarrior]

Night side lights would be fantastic, as well as cities you could buzz; though if they make them too detailed, I'll explore them and never go to space! Of course, there's also that pesky lag problem...

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

Perhaps one option to help limit the potential lag issues would be to use domed city units placed around the landscape in various groupings that are linked via enclosed road systems (i.e. domes joined together by tubes with lights) instead of cities constructed of actual buildings . Something like this random image I found with Google..

Granted it's a bit of a science fiction concept and more the sort of thing you'd expect to see on planets with hostile atmospheres, but from a Kerbal perspective rather than being cities in artificial atmosphere bubbles they could be protective domes to prevent accidental damage from the plethora of rocket parts falling out of the sky .

I think that is a great idea, could solve the lag problem and have loads of lights to see at night from orbit.

[cesarcurado]

Clouds and weather (rain, etc), as long as both are configurable and optionally fully disabled

OPTIONAL name labels for continents, oceans, etc, toggling is done by clicking in a small button, also present in tracking station

EDIT: There should be some lightning in KSC at night, it is just too dark.

Also make it so you could use both KSC and KSC2.

Not only land on them but also launch from both and add refueling for both.

Edited May 12, 2013 by cesarcurado
adding more info

[CalculusWarrior]

Clouds and weather (rain, etc), as long as both are configurable and optionally fully disabled

OPTIONAL name labels for continents, oceans, etc, toggling is done by clicking in a small button, also present in tracking station

Maybe we could (re)name continents, etc as we see fit, and on other planets as well...

[Dictator Dan]

Clouds and weather would be very nice, as would auroras, and city lights. I say city lights, and not cities, due to the fact that no buildings would realistically be visible from orbit, so it would just create lag.

It would also be cool to see stations and such from the ground. Not actually rendered, but just a moving dot of light.

[Holo]

Railways between cities. Depending on the population of the cities, these are either normal, hovertrains or maglev.

Two things, when you reach a certain point, satellites start popping up, and as you progress further in advancing the kerbal's space flight skills, it becomes more commonplace, until Lko is a mass of space stations, satellites and other things.

Yes, this. It would be great to see some NPCs in game launching spacecraft.

[CalculusWarrior]

Railways between cities. Depending on the population of the cities, these are either normal, hovertrains or maglev.

Yes, this. It would be great to see some NPCs in game launching spacecraft.

I feel like this would be a great addition to Career Mode, and it would make a Space Race possible!

[brooksy125]

I always imagined the kerbals would live in small enclosed cities spore style,

Just a few of these dotted around the continents all connected with roads would still look impressive from orbit assuming the roads were lit up.

[Tw1]

I hope we get a few unique cities. Just to keep things interesting.

Imagine if they did have roads or rail, and you landed on them. Cars and trains would go right through your spaceship.

[Procyon]

Kerbals live underground... who knew?

[TheDarkStar]

Kerbin needs "gas stations" that supply rocket fuel. What else would Kerbal cars run on?

[Dictator Dan]

Kerbin needs "gas stations" that supply rocket fuel. What else would Kerbal cars run on?

Makes me think that the entire Kerbal industry is based around rocket parts. And that third world countries have to make do with what survives reentry. Also, stock car racers with mainsail engines on the back.