CAREER MODE!! Will we eventually need to discover the planets? Telescopes?

[Robbii6]

hi people

Wondering what your thoughts are on the career mode really, I like the idea of discovering the celestial bodies and perhaps with telescopes:D.

thoughts?

[Scotius]

I don't think it will be anytime soon. For now we're getting only beginnings of career mode. Under-the-hood stuff like player progress tracker, Astronaut complex in KSC etc. I think planet finding will be implemented in advanced stage of caree mode updating.

[Eric S]

As I understand it, we'll have the current level of info available on the currently released planets without discovery, the discovery is for new planets.

[AceMgy]

As I understand it, we'll have the current level of info available on the currently released planets without discovery, the discovery is for new planets.

I've been a voracious reader of the blogs, but this is new to me. Where did you hear this?

[stupid_chris]

From what I heard, you'll have to discover everything from each planet by visiting them. New planets are most likely to be only two gas giants, that's all. So that would be quite ridiculous.

[sierra_seven_]

Finally a use for landing scientific instruments on a planet then? I like it!

[Mefi282]

I would like to have something to explore like knowing things about a planet only because you where there...

[Robbii6]

Yeah good point

[Cydonian Monk]

I would like to have something to explore like knowing things about a planet only because you where there...

Agreed. So many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are only known to us because we sent probes there. It should almost be the same for KSP. (Honestly, I'd like to see semi-randomly generated systems and planets.)

[AceMgy]

Makes sense that the planets (or at least most of them) would be known since antiquity and their orbits mapped long before Kerbal Space Center starts building rockets, so that data should be available to you at the start of every new campaign.

I do want telescopes in the game badly, though. Not just as a new building at KSC, but an actual mountable part so you can build your own hubble or even a huge observatory located on the far side of the Mun (I'm imagining big benefits if you can get them out of the atmosphere). Perhaps these could discover rich asteroids with random orbits that one could mine (pretty please)?

[msyblade]

Agreed. So many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are only known to us because we sent probes there. It should almost be the same for KSP. (Honestly, I'd like to see semi-randomly generated systems and planets.)

I like this!

[Vohjiin]

The major planets would probably be known by the start of Kerbal space program but small moons or far out planets such as plutoids could be found. I know there is mods but stock telescopes would be awesome but I can wait for all the goodies squad has in-store

[soranno]

as a lead in to this upcoming feature, I have been playing a bit with the mission controller mod.. and it was a bit shocking the difference in how I had to operate

specifically, probably because I had set it to hard, there was no room for error or experimentation. One failed launch, or even one test launch was too expensive a prospect in the initial stages.

I hope that the real career mode when it comes will have facility for testing and / or simulation of some kind, as the mission controller mod revealed to me to be so crucial

[Mr_Duke]

It would be good to have an empty solar system until you launch probes, it's a shame some of us know where all the planets and moons are, and what there like. Hopefully there will be more planets added to add more surprise.

[Klingon Admiral]

It would be good to have an empty solar system until you launch probes, it's a shame some of us know where all the planets and moons are, and what there like. Hopefully there will be more planets added to add more surprise.

Well, the planets should be known long before the Kerbals even dreamt of going into space. Neptune, the last solar planet to be discovered (Pluto should never have been a planet), was found in 1846, more than a century before the dawn of spaceflight (or slightly below a century if you consider the A-4). Also, most of the Joolian Moons more or less mirror the Gallilean moons, so they should be known as well. And Eelo has a pretty high albedo, so even it may have been discoveres before spaceflight. However, things like Gilly or Pol would probably need a probe (or a quite powerful telescope) to be discovered.

But we should totally need probes to determine things like atmospherical properties and the like. And when we are at it, some randomization in this department would be awesome, like Laythe's atmosphere not posessing oxygen in some saves (or Eve's atmosphere posessing it).

[Olvirm]

It would be good to have an empty solar system until you launch probes, it's a shame some of us know where all the planets and moons are, and what there like. Hopefully there will be more planets added to add more surprise.

If we don't know where they are how are we expected to launch a probe at them

[Excellent]

Im excited for the tech tree aspect of the game, being able to slowly upgrade my space program sound fun

[FITorion]

I've been a voracious reader of the blogs, but this is new to me. Where did you hear this?

they've discussed it a few times... but I don't think it was in any official blog or anything like that and probably was wiped out when the whole forum got reset.

[FlamedSteak]

There would have to be some kind of observatory/hubble addition to discover them before setting foot on a launch pad.

If not, how do you get to them without having discovered them first? Do you just burn out of kerbin and hope like god you're going to bump into something?

You need mainsails with 1000 times the power and a hundreth of the fuel consumption if you were ever going to have a chance of finding a planet. Even then it would still be a crapshoot.

[CCKinnison]

Please... PLANETS, you can find with a telescope from inside the atmosphere. Their atmospheres, adn moos, you MIGHT need to go outside the atmosphere for, but still nothing like the Hubble. the Hubble looks at things a HECK of a lot further out than anything in our system.

Gravity defines where planets have to be, based on the effects on other orbits. That's how the outer planets and Pluto were discovered... math told us (or the kerbals) where to point the telescope.

Blind wandering isn't necessary. Once you know where, say, Jool is, send a probe. Find out it has moons, send more probes for more details. (depending how capable the first was) ... repeat for other planets.

[Brotoro]

...the Hubble looks at things a HECK of a lot further out than anything in our system.

Gravity defines where planets have to be, based on the effects on other orbits. That's how the outer planets and Pluto were discovered... math told us (or the kerbals) where to point the telescope...

Just for astronomical correctness, I will note that the Hubble telescope has indeed been used to observe objects in our solar system.

And only Neptune was discovered because of its gravitational perturbations of another planet (Uranus). Pluto is far to small to have been the cause of the perturbations of Neptune's orbit that some thought were due to another planet (and were most likely observational errors). Pluto was actually found because of a painstaking photographic search.

[Autochton]

There's still a lot to be discovered about planets that we know exist. Sure, you might know Laythe is there from before-KSP times - but that it has liquid water, an oxygen-rich atmosphere? Probably not. The existence of smaller bodies (Gilly comes to mind) would likely also be hidden until a closer look became possible. And even then, adding the research game mechanic will give reasons to send probes and rovers out - research might well be predicated on fulfilling certain goals, so that you might not be able to research, let's say, the NERVA and ion engines before you've sent a probe out to Eeloo. Atmospheric research might also see use - unlocking various advanced plane parts research as you fly planes and rockets in more and more dangerous and advanced ways, bigger, better, faster, more, etc.

To me, a successful career mode is all about the intermeshing of astronaut training, research, and completing goals.