Will the stock textures be redone in the future?

[Omicron314]

Now let me preface this by saying that I in no way expect this to happen anytime soon: the current textures are quite good and Squad has more important things to do. In fact, I'm not even suggesting anything. I'm just asking a question.

But today I was looking at my Mun rocket and thought it looked as if it were just cobbled together. All of my rockets made with the stock game look as if someone built spaceships out of random bits of metal they found lying around (which is probably the case). This is not a particularly bad thing: it sort of goes with the theme of the game. But I think we all like the nice, streamlined tanks of NovaPunch and KW Rocketry. Those make your rockets look more legitimate and realistic.

So, as the title asks, will the stock parts ever be redone to resemble a more professional demeanor? Or is the scrap-metal look what Squad is going for? It has been done once before, and I know the spaceplane parts are in store for a redo, so are the rocket parts as well?

[Captain Sierra]

I would absolutely love to see someone make a stock retexture pack using modulemanager.

I do also think that the stock parts look a bit too worn and pre-used.

Now, they are kerbals, but they are smart enough to have ion engines and nuclear rockets (which even NASA doesn't have NERVAs) so I think it is reasonable to assume that the parts should look a little more polished (in the literal sense, not game design sense, they feel very balanced ).

I personally love the visual appearance of KW. Even though it is kind of dated and not being worked on right now, it is still a great pack and anyone who dislikes it on the basis of being unsupported can . . . well, I probably would be best not to finish that thought.

[Beeman]

They seem to consider most of the stuff we've got in-game right now to be placeholder. Like, they said KSP is going to be a massively iterative process. Everything's they add is going to be reworked at least once. Granted, they've already reworked all of the rocket parts once or twice, but there's no saying they'll never do it again, especially now that they've got some more artists on-board. I wouldn't be surprised if they overhaul the models AND textures at some point, though it'd probably be long after career mode.

I mean, they've never updated any of the spaceplane bits, so I think those are the next already existing parts we're going to see get a visual(and probably functional) upgrade. Someday, anyways

[DaRocketCat]

It's already much better than what we had before .18, but I do support this.

I also think spaceplane parts should go with the awesome B9 aerospace pack theme.

[Awaras]

I guess that we will eventually have several 'tiers' of parts to be unlocked by research.

The first ones will probably look cobbled together from stuff found on the side of the road, while latter ones will look more modern and streamlined.

[Sun]

If you want different textures, use Universe Replacer.

[Thiel]

I don't know if this is still the case, but it has been mentioned that there's going to be several tiers or tech levels. Supposedly the 3 man capsule represents the higher end and the 1 man the lower end.

[Beeman]

I'd really enjoy it if there were more like five tiers of parts, rather than three. Then we could have rust bucket lookin' stuff in the beginning, stuff lookin' like what russia was building in the sixties, stuff lookin' like what NASA was building in the seventies, stuff lookin' like what national space programs put out nowadays and finally stuff that looks like a lot of the concept art we've seen from national or even private space agencies.

I tend to like gradual but really noticeable shifts in appearance in a game like this when you're progressing forward through tech. Makes me think of like Empire Earth or Rise of Nations. Just feels really good going all the way from spear-wielding lunatics to tanks over a long match(or career in this case). Especially when you look back on screenshots, videos or whatever might wind up being stored in the museum thing they'd talked about.

[Omicron314]

Yeah, it would be great to have tier-based textures. Needless to say, it would be fun to try to land on the Mun with the first or second tiers of parts.

[Paul Kingtiger]

I'd love to see this happen. The new KSC buildings look simply amazing, not just the style but the way they come from a unified design aesthetic. If the same thing could be applied to the parts, so they looked like they were designed to be placed together, it would really improve the look of the game. If you look at the Saturn V, each stage was built by a different company but they all look slimier.

B9 summed it up perfectly in his KSC design blog, Kerbals are great engineers, they just don't care about safety. IMO the rockets should reflect that.

[Whirligig Girl]

They already re-did almost everything. I think a few things could use a re-do, like the large ASAS, the Mainsail, and the Poodle, but a lot of things are great as they are.

[peadar1987]

... If you look at the Saturn V, each stage was built by a different company but they all look slimier...

One of my favourite autocorrects ever. Now all I can think about is a horrible, slimy Saturn V dripping gloop onto the launch pad!

[vexx32]

As we move towards Career mode, I expect we'll start to see a bunch of crappy looking parts as well as a bunch of super-sleek parts. The ones we have now will likely be arrayed somewhere around the middle of the spectrum, I think.