Making the procedural terrain generator to make some flat areas on Duna too

[Fifi]

It's kinda short suggestion, but really important. Mars do have a lot of flat areas (and so Duna had before 0.21), but Duna is currently totally covered with dunes. It would be nice if there will be some flat land too, because landing there with a higher speed plane is very difficult now (although still possible) - which makes taking planes with high maximum range to Duna hard.

Thanks in advance for taking it into consideration.

[pwlnw]

Same suggesting for Laythe ! Layhe ideal for spaceplanes, but haven't any flat place.

In fact, on any planet no flat place for the construction of the bases, etc.

[tater]

Unless you landed a bulldozer first, and possibly a plant to make concrete, you wouldn't be landing a plane on Mars.

[Tw1]

I wouldn't mind seeing duna get adjusted slighly, the terrain seems quite monotonous, the dune effect dulls the visual impact of mountains and craters. Though it might be a bit late to change it.

[Van Disaster]

Same suggesting for Laythe ! Layhe ideal for spaceplanes, but haven't any flat place.

In fact, on any planet no flat place for the construction of the bases, etc.

Laythe has masses of flat space! it's just quite soft.

There's some flat-enough areas of land to put a plane down too if it can handle a few bumps, and of course there's the poles.

[r4pt0r]

I would like some more flat areas too: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0401/mars_spiritcolor_p4.jpg

but if they are going redo duna, I really want it to be more interesting. Give Duna a huge mountain like Olympus Mons.

[tater]

I'd like to see SMALLER scale size obstacles/terrain on all bodies.

[GreenWolf]

I would like some more flat areas too: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0401/mars_spiritcolor_p4.jpg

but if they are going redo duna, I really want it to be more interesting. Give Duna a huge mountain like Olympus Mons.

Olympus Mons is actually pretty underwhelming from the surface. From the top, you can't actually see the bottom, so it just looks like a large hill. Same goes for the bottom. It's only really impressive from orbit.

[klgraham1013]

Olympus Mons is actually pretty underwhelming from the surface. From the top, you can't actually see the bottom, so it just looks like a large hill. Same goes for the bottom. It's only really impressive from orbit.

Well, it's a good thing we can see Duna from orbit than.

[tater]

I would like some more flat areas too:

but if they are going redo duna, I really want it to be more interesting. Give Duna a huge mountain like Olympus Mons.

A rough-field capable prop plane would have trouble landing on that. Any KSP space place "landing" anyplace that isn't a runway… would not be taking off again.

[boxman]

It's kinda short suggestion, but really important. Mars do have a lot of flat areas (and so Duna had before 0.21), but Duna is currently totally covered with dunes. It would be nice if there will be some flat land too, because landing there with a higher speed plane is very difficult now (although still possible) - which makes taking planes with high maximum range to Duna hard.

Thanks in advance for taking it into consideration.

I really miss the old Duna before they "improved" it. It even looked more like Mars back then and was a really good place to use rovers.

[pwlnw]

Laythe has masses of flat space! it's just quite soft.

There's some flat-enough areas of land to put a plane down too if it can handle a few bumps, and of course there's the poles.

Where is it ? This topic about these "few bumps" in the way.

It only seems. These small polygons surface is always too small for the base and to sit on their aircraft.

It would be nice to have a place for space racing

[Renegrade]

A rough-field capable prop plane would have trouble landing on that. Any KSP space place "landing" anyplace that isn't a runway… would not be taking off again.

...leaving aside entirely that Mars' ground level pressure averages around 600 pascals, or the same as Earth's atmosphere at around 36km/118kft or thereabouts. I imagine some form of non-falling flight is possible on Mars, but not with some rough-landing piston-powered airplane.

(Duna's atmosphere is about 20kPa if I recall correctly, which is like 11-12km)

[tater]

I was of course referring to such a prop plane built for Mars... Multi-hundred meter wingspan and props the size of a Ferris wheel, perhaps

It was a dig at landing a "space plane" anywhere except a runway assuming you could build one long enough for a plane capable of using lift to fly on Mars (erm, Duna).

Even with earth's atmosphere, in other words, nearly any plane would wreck on "flat" Martian terrain given the rocks, sand, etc.

Edited March 23, 2015 by tater

[Renegrade]

I was of course referring to such a prop plane built for Mars... Multi-hundred meter wingspan and props the size of a Ferris wheel, perhaps

My own visualization for such a plane would be like this: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MiniCeline_ultralight_aircraft.jpeg ..only with more/larger wings.

Even with earth's atmosphere, in other words, nearly any plane would wreck on "flat" Martian terrain given the rocks, sand, etc.

Oh definitely. I wouldn't even try to land a model plane in a field like that. Those are some evil looking rocks... sand I wouldn't mind though, my first flyer didn't have landing gear. Or ailerons. Or an elevator on the ah.. left side?

[tater]

Yeah, that was my real point. Instead of having the terrain set to make rediculous landings even easier, I'd prefer rocks, small craters (airless worlds, anyway), etc to make landing more tricky (even with a proper lander).

[Renegrade]

Yeah, that was my real point. Instead of having the terrain set to make rediculous landings even easier, I'd prefer rocks, small craters (airless worlds, anyway), etc to make landing more tricky (even with a proper lander).

I'd definitely be in support of having the ground scatter actually physically exist and have a higher density/variety. Would definitely make landings more interesting.

[tater]

It'd be a nightmare on fps I bet, rocks should make shadows as well so you can see them. Still, it would be cool to have to actually have landings not be trivial.

[Starwhip]

Procedural terrain generator? Since when was this implemented?

Well, it's bound to be flat in some places, right?

I'd agree, though. It's too uniform. Needs some randomization. Nice flat areas, some hills, some valleys. "Mountains", and how about some "riverbeds"?

[Tw1]

I really miss the old Duna before they "improved" it. It even looked more like Mars back then and was a really good place to use rovers.

I do a bit too. The old one had some quite dramatic features to it.

Compare these two images:

Both taken at the same spot, but from different versions. I think they went slighly overboard with the dune/erosion effect- the constant undulations hides dramatic features like those bason edges, which also lost much of their form because of that effect.

Perhaps the ideal would be somewhere between the two. If the dunes where toned down, and the old, darker colour brought back, duna would be much better.

A few more riverbed and crater like features wouldn't go amiss either.

[Random Tank]

Well, there was this plane was proposed to be able to fly on Mars.... but apparently it would have to be flying Mach 1-2 to be able to actually stay in the air, it wouldn't land (well, wouldn't survive it anyway), and it wouldn't be able to even turn, due to the lift loss...

Landing at Mach 1.5 on a runway would be interesting, let alone on something akin to a rock garden...

[Fel]

Unless you landed a bulldozer first, and possibly a plant to make concrete, you wouldn't be landing a plane on Mars.

[tater]

Landing anywhere but a prepared runway for a "spaceplane" is sort of silly unless it has VTOL capability. Generally speaking, I'd like landing ops to take more attention, not less attention. Doesn't matter to me, even if I ever decide to build a spaceplane, I couldn't bring myself to land anywhere but a runway.

[Wanderfound]

This has me wondering: how hard would it be to make the terrain interact with the physics engine in more detail? Boggy mud, soft sand, hard rocks etc.

At the moment, all land surfaces are identical except for inclination and appearance.

[John FX]

I'd be more interested in trying to take a plane to Duna if there were flatter areas.

Of course this depends on there being oxygen there also so I could use jets or alternatively some form of electric propulsion for atmospheric craft. Rocket planes are a bit limited (that may change with resources)

I'd quite enjoy making Duna bases if that were the case.