Rebuild the Kerbol system?

[KerbMav]

Should the Kerbol system be rebuild, changing inclinations of orbital and rotational axis of moons and planets and new planets set between existing ones (to keep with the similarity of Kerbol and Sol system, like the predicted "Keptun" and "Katurn" being closer to Kerbol then "Kluto"/Eeloo) pushing outer orbits farer from the star?

Would some changes put in more variations, but keeping the Kerbin-Mun system as it is make it easier for new players at the beginning?

Or should everything stay as it is, upcoming planets set outside the established orbits?

Edited September 3, 2013 by KerbMav

[swiftgates24]

New planets will be past Jool. And Eeloo isn't Pluto, it is a moon of the second gas giant.

[Ittiz]

I've mentioned what we need is different systems that you can play depending on difficulty level. The Kerbol system would be the "Easy" setting. The way the game is set up right now is really for pure beginners in rocket science. There should be more advancement. With the current system there is tons of room to make fudges and correct them.

[Richy teh space man]

The only planet I think is worth changing is Minmus, it should be in orbit of Katurn or Keptune.

All the other planets and moons are ok imo.

[Tw1]

The only planet I think is worth changing is Minmus, it should be in orbit of Katurn or Keptune.

Nah, Minmus is great for gameplay reasons- harder to reach than the Mun, but easier to land on. I'd miss it a lot if it was sent to the far regions of the solar system, even though it looks like it'd be more likely to form there.

I don't see any solid reason for redoing what they've already got so far.

They would've put a lot of thought into it.

[Temstar]

I would like to see

• second gas planet with some kind of ring
  
• 2 -3 more dwarf planets in the same orbital neighbourhood as Dres, smaller than Dres and maybe one that's a bit irregular in shape
  
• at least one long period comet
  
• one vulcanoid asteroid, well inside Moho's orbit for crazy challenge
  
• one trans-Neptunian style object that's in similiar orbital situation with 2nd gas giant as Pluto and Neptune, maybe in a binary relationship with a large moon
  

[Scarecrow88]

Minmus serves a useful purpose where it is. Smaller and slightly further out than the Mun makes getting an intercept a notch up from what the Mun requires, and is also useful for noobs learning about inclination changes. The low gravity is also a useful training tool for when striking out to visit some of the smaller moons in the system.

[CosmicScientist]

The only planet I think is worth changing is Minmus, it should be in orbit of Katurn or Keptune.

All the other planets and moons are ok imo.

Minmus serves a useful purpose where it is. Smaller and slightly further out than the Mun makes getting an intercept a notch up from what the Mun requires, and is also useful for noobs learning about inclination changes. The low gravity is also a useful training tool for when striking out to visit some of the smaller moons in the system.

This is why Minmus is there, it should not be gotten rid of and it reminds us that the game isn't entirely in favour of duplicating our solar system and having a second moon on the starting planet gives more to do closer to home for those who aren't quite interplanetary adept.

Also I don't understand why the system needs to be changed, it seems fine as it is, I'm looking forward to the asteroid belt and other gas giants they're looking to include.

If anything if the system was rerolled, I'd be sad to find what I've built and sent elsewhere... not on what they were before or perhaps wind up with a save broken and unusable.

[GDJ]

I would say just add one more planet past Eeloo, but I would love a second star system around 1 ly away, even a small one.

[Hannu]

I would like if they change current system a little. Most planets have axial tilt and major moons orbits few degrees tilted to planet's equator in our solar system. That should be added in KSP too. It may be good idea to keep Kerbin's system as it is because otherwise it would maybe be too hard to learn but Eve, Duna and Jool could have some tens of degrees of axial tilt. Of course game should have suitable controls for more difficult orbital calculations and maneuvering tasks. Orbital parameters of planets are good now, I do not see any reason to change them.

Maybe then developers could add Uranus-like planet and couple of moons in outer system (about 100-150 Gm orbit). Uranus have axial tilt of about 90 degrees and major moons orbit neat equator level. In my opinion there is not any good reason to add many more celestial bodies in game before they can give something really new things. Just adding spheres with different colors and sizes is quite pointless in this phase of game development. Axial tilts and inclinations would be one easy way to add some new properties to game.

[wminsing]

I agree I'd prefer to have more stuff to see/do on the exisiting planets before we go and add many more. I'd also keep the current system setup as is, except Eeloo which is apparently going to be a moon of the next gas giant. What I'd like to see in terms of new stuff:

New Gas Giant: Either a Saturn analog or an 'Ice Giant' would be fine, with Eeloo as one of the moons. This could be the 'hard mode' area with moons on crazy orbits, 90 deg axial tilt for the planet, etc. A ring would also be excellent. This could of course be 2 or 3 different planets, but I'd be content to just add this one and pull some of the 'most interesting' features from the rest of the known gas giants.

The Belt: Or at last a few more objects in a Dres-like orbit. If an asteroid belt is not feasible then we could 'fake' one with a few more planetoids to visit out there.

Comet: highly eccentric and highly inclined orbit.

For the theoretical and far-future addition of another solar system: a 'Hot Jool' and a 'Super Kerbin' would be a must.

-Will

[Juanfro]

I would prefer to have Other systems instead of rebuilding the one we have. Meanwhile, more stuff to do on current planets would be cool.

[jamieadd]

I think a thick atmosphered but low gravity planet closer to the sun. I don't like eve much so and Moho isn't that interesting so I need more reason to go closer to the sun instead of always going to Duna, Jool and Eeloo.

[Jacob01]

I think another Gas Giant would be good, even better if it had rings to fly through! A few objects with volcanoes would be cool, I heared that they were planning on adding volcanoes to one of Jool's moons.

Otherwise, keep everything else where it is now. Eeloo is going to be moved to orbit another planet but that was confirmed from when it was implanted I think so it won't be much different. The system is good as it is now. All other planets should be further out than Jool or further in than Moho.

[kodemunkey]

Well, since there's the warp drive mod which adds science to the mix, why not add another star system?

[Rosarium]

sure there'll be changes, i hope in a saturn like planet with 15- 16 small moons around it. It's silly to say but the solar system has become really little for me.

[lajoswinkler]

0) Currently, all planets have 0° axial rotation tilt. That's unnatural and should be changed for all planets and satellites.

1) It would be nice to have an object with high volcanic activity. I know it's hard to simulate that, but it can be made by rendering some parts of a planet as glowing liquids that destroy ships on landing. Moho is too small for volcanism, and being close to the Kerbol doesn't mean anything. I wouldn't change Moho a lot.

A very small planet might be added very close to Kerbol. Landing on it would give spectacular sights. Imagine Kerbol overhead, spanning across half the sky.

2) Eve should get a cloud cover and thick haze. It would be cool to have an imitation of Venus. You can't see the Sun from Venus and there are no shadows. Ground visual distortion is rather apparent because of the atmosphere density. I'd really make Eve a true hell. Haze visibility <500m. Imagine what would that do for landing. Horror. You'd have to rely on radar data. I'm all for that.

Gilly is fine.

3) Duna looks too symmetrical. Polar caps are way too large and of regular shape. The whole planet looks artificial, like a CGI icecream and I don't like it. Irregularities should be added.

Ike is fine.

4) Dres is fine.

5) Jool is fine. Maybe auroras? That would be lovely.

Notion of oxygen on Laythe bothers me. You can't have lots of oxygen in the atmosphere unless something continuously creates it. I'm OK with nitrogen atmosphere, but if there has to be oxygen, let's add green-brown color on the shore edges, something like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Tide_pools_in_Santa_Cruz_from_Spray-splash_zone_to_low_tide_zone.jpg/600px-Tide_pools_in_Santa_Cruz_from_Spray-splash_zone_to_low_tide_zone.jpg

It would be cool to see very rare and very small ponds on Vall. Couple of tens of metres across, shallow ponds. Few ponds scattered around the surface. Obviously supersaline ponds, heated by tidal forces to be just above -50°C in the <-200°C environment. Antarctica has them. In future updates maybe even geysers?

Tylo, Bop and Pol are fine, though I'd add more interesting surface features on at least one of them. I'd make Pol a hybrid of slightly crumpled aluminium foil and irregular pollen grain. Very sharp, scary mountains and scary deep canyons and pits, to make landings tough.

6) Eeloo looks like Enceladus and would be great as a gas giant's satellite with canyons that give off gas and envelop the satellite with a very low and very weak fog. Less than 100m of fog, with low enough density to allow high visibility (more than 5 km). There are surface features taller than 100m, so imagine standing on top of one, looking at the thin sea of fog all around its base, in the valleys. A very nice sight I expect to see on Pluto.

7) Kerbol system shouldn't be a complete replica of the Solar system, so there's no need for 4 gas giants, though I wouldn't mind to see a ringed giant and a small giant. Perhaps all in one. Something like a small Saturn, rolling around on its belly around Kerbol, just like Uranus does. That would be Saturn, Uranus and Neptune all in one. It would be cool if one of the satellites was like Io, so we could have a volcanic surface described in 0)

http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/001/5/1/Lava_planet_by_shurikhein.jpg

8) A Gilly-sized object with highly elliptical orbit. Apoapsis beyond the last planet ever planned, periapsis around Eve. It could become a comet one day. Extremely low albedo (way worse than Ike!) with deep canyons and pits and outgassing.

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~cqi/images/comet_surface.jpg

Edited September 3, 2013 by lajoswinkler

[Beeman]

A LOT of these planetary suggestions have already been mentioned by the development team, especially things like more distant planets, at least one more gas giant, a volcanic planet and so on. They even showed off a screenshot of the volcanic planet once and it looked hardcore.

In addition to that, they'd mentioned having a few other solar systems just beyond the kerbol system that you'd use FTL warp technologies to reach. That was the endgame, exploring those other solar systems. Beyond those, there were supposed to be procedurally generated solar systems, probably using premade planet types with some kind of resize, tilt change and/or change to the overall properties of them. Maybe they'd actually planned on fully procedurally generated planets, I don't know. But that's a long, long ways away, if they haven't dropped it, even. So who knows what we've got in store for us in the future? Lots of good stuff, that's for sure.