Floating boulder of Mün

[lajoswinkler]

Last night I went to my first v0.22 landing outside Kerbin. Just one Kerbal. Long story short, I've totally eyeballed everything so I kind of crashed, but the ascent stage of the lander was working fine. The only thing wrong was that I forgot to connect the tanks to the engines using pipes, so I've sent an automated rescue mission.

Anyhow, while the poor guy was jumping around, I've noticed a strange looking dot floating above ground in the distance. It was too tiny. My scatter density is 10% just to allow scatters and not to choke my CPU on maximum terrain detail I've set earlier.

I went to investigate. As I moved closer, it was apparent that the thing was floating above ground.

I quicksaved the game in case the Kerbal ends up in dust and proceeded towards, to touch it. Nothing happened.

Are there more floating boulders in KSP universe? This one obviously doesn't orbit Mün. It's a part of the scatter, but it's way too small. Scatter is huge and is always tied to the ground, no matter how good or bad terrain detail you use.

If you want to visit it, here's the map, unless these things are procedural...

(lower right lander in the middle)

I forgot to check the coordinates of the nearby flag and will post them here in a few hours.

[Johnno]

Are there more floating boulders in KSP universe? This one obviously doesn't orbit Mün. It's a part of the scatter, but it's way too small. Scatter is huge and is always tied to the ground, no matter how good or bad terrain detail you use.

Scatter isn't always huge and there's plenty of terrain errors which results in floating boulders. I've seen several on Mün. If you want to confirm if it's scatter or not just disable your scatter, load up the game, see if it's still there or not.

During one mission I happened to land in a particularly buggy area, found several of these:

[SuperWeegee4000]

The Mun, like all bodies, has some terrain bugs regarding ground scatter. This has been spotted on Eve as well. Perhaps it is not a glitch at all, but an Easter egg....

[lajoswinkler]

OK, I'll try loading two times - with lowest and with highest settings.

It was kind of uncanny because of its very small size. That's the first thing that got my attention, given the large distance. As I've approached it, I first thought I've discovered a new anomaly.

I've never seen such small scatters there, only large ones. In fact I think I saw a small one only once, on Duna, but it was half burried.

[Dean Harper]

I spotted a similar phenomenon on Ike.

Coordinates in case anyone wanted to see it:

12° 31' 31" S

276° 54' 46" W

[hobbsyoyo]

For those who don't know, Ike has a legitimate floating boulder called the 'Magic Boulder'; it is an easter egg and I believe it orbits Ike and is not stationary.

[vexx32]

Aye, it's in a near-polar orbit, IIRC. Caused an awful fuss when people first found clues.

[Richy teh space man]

The magic boulders been missing for the last few versions of KSP. Anyone confirmed if it's been re added to the game?

[Lazro]

I've heard that it's around Eeloo now.

[RocketPilot573]

There's probably hundreds of these glitched "floating boulders." There is only one that actually flies... The Magic Boulder! I have seen it myself back in .17. Unfortunately, it seems to have been accidentally removed in .20.

[Moar Boosters]

Here's one on Pol.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Not only on the Mun

[lajoswinkler]

One would expect a pointy, spiky boulder on Pol, yet it's round.

One way or another, I've found the smallest one so far.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

With the magic boulder, a friend found out that if you do a EVA report, it hints the Magic Boulder. Again, on Ike

[RogueMason]

I've mostly come across these on Duna, one being a very tiny boulder indeed. Just a scatter glitch, really.

[RocketPilot573]

Hmm, the output_log used to say pretty much everything. So we used to see a "Magic Boulder- Orbit Started" line. But in .22, it doesn't seem to say ANYTHING about any of the planets... So I guess it's possible that it was secretly re-added... Easter Egg hunt, anyone?

Edited October 26, 2013 by RocketPilot573

[Brotoro]

Here' one on Laythe:

[spikeyhat09]

lights, smoke, mirrors, and giant subterrarean electromagnets. its all a clever ploy by the koviets to spawn more general discussion threads. well played kladimir, well played.

[Guest]

I wonder if they're distant relatives of the mysterious sailing stones in America's Death Valley?

[lajoswinkler]

Brotoro, one day those boulders will decide to start respecting gravity. I wouldn't park my Kerbal below them...

[katateochi]

here's one I found on Duna a while back;

I guess they are everywhere!

[Brofessional]

I'd be more concerned that the boulders aren't made of solid matter.

[magnemoe]

They are in other games to, remember finding one in Oblivion, 40 cm rock floating an meter up, unlike the ones in Ksp it blocked you and you could jump up on it.

[Specialist290]

I'd be more concerned that the boulders aren't made of solid matter.

Likewise. The fact that solid objects pass through them seems to hint at some sort of strange dimensional overlap going on...

Perhaps harbingers of the krakens' efforts to break out of their interdimensional prison and wreak havoc once more?

[The Destroyer]

With the magic boulder, a friend found out that if you do a EVA report, it hints the Magic Boulder. Again, on Ike

That's me, it reports that "it sees something small flying over". One of the science samples also reacted strangley...