Ideas and improvements for laythe:

[Fixr]

First and foremost:

Ill leave this one up to the mods if this counts as "Better/More interesting planetary surfaces"

I just thought I would throw my two cents in as to how they could be better, because I think Laythe in particular needs huge improvements, and I'm not trying troll the forums moaning about how things just need to be "better"

Now, formalities aside, lets talk about how I think Laythe could be improved!

1: Coral reefs along the shorelines:

Laythe is an ocean world, so lets use that to our advantage and include lovely coral reefs. who knows? you might find a curious fish among the colorful coral!

The coral could be of various different types and colors, and perhaps be different types on different islands.

Perhaps samples of rarer coral could yield a higher scientific value?

(P.S, About the fish, I know "aliens" aren't happening in this game, but this ain't exactly E.T. we're talking about here)

2: cliffs and crags:

I saw this trailer for a game called "space engine" I don't know if anyone here has heard of it, but at the 5 minute mark it showed a world surprisingly similar to Laythe.

This shows exactly the problem with current terrain in ksp. its too smooth!

I have not really seen any truly epic mountains or cliffs or ridges. I mean, current terrain gets the job done, but its not quite as pretty as this.

Perhaps if Laythe happened to suffer a few eruptions, the lava could make a few interesting formations...

3: Good god, Laythe is dull.

I hate to break it to you, but your moon looks dead.

Even the oceans manage to be dead and grey, and this is a problem for such a pretty moon. why not brighten things up a bit?

I don't know quite how to explain it, and it certainly doesn't need a completely different color scheme, but something is missing. it looks bare bones at the moment.

Tying in with number 4, continents with volcanoes could be rocky and solid. A welcome retreat from the dull grey sand.

The oceans need brightening up as well. Perhaps the addition of waves and tides could help with this a little? Should a storm come, coastal bases had better watch out!

4: Volcanoes and hot lava!

Given the nature of this planet, and how it obviously has volcanic activity within it (or a result perhaps caused by tidal forces from Jool?), I think it could use a few volcanoes on its surface, to help heat up the moon so far from the sun.

alongside a couple minor ones... somewhere on the surface, lies a continent dominated by an extremely powerful and gigantic volcano of epic proportions!!!

Kerbals trying to land had best beware, as the huge clouds of smoke and ash can damage solar panels and scientific equipment, and the pit of lava in its center is extremely dangerous, and instantly fatal.

Despite its dangerous nature, the volcano is quite a site to see from a safe distance, as its massive plumes of smoke can be seen for miles, and reach all the way up to the edge of the atmosphere!

Perhaps when weather and clouds are added, huge storms could come from this plume and travel for miles?

5: Glowing green....er. Radiation!

Many people have wondered about the implementation of radiation, given Laythes proximity to Jool.

I don't know quite how this would work. Kerbals with cancer? no thanks.

If anyone has any ideas for how our little moon could turn fallout-style, ill be sure to add them up here

That's about it for now, I hope folks reading this like my ideas, and even have a few of their own. Laythe has a lot of potential for exploration and science, and I look forward to all the devs have planned for it.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Fixr
More ideas, taken from feedback below

[Raven.]

I just read out there that a planned feature addition for Eeloo was to add working geysers. I wonder if this feature can't be adapted to implement a volcano system for Laythe as per your suggestion? Implementing a super volcano is something that I honestly do not see them adding, but adding a seismically active area (with the geysers, lava fields, etc) is very feasible if they ever choose to implement such a feature. Would also make a good, high risk biome to explore.

[Captain Sierra]

I would like to add in that Lathe having water is a huge appeal for long term missions. Part of the problem now is though the terrain is fairly smooth, it isn't flat. It's hard to land bases sideways. Some highland and coastal areas should be kept nice, flat, and smooth, so us base builders have some place to land our bases and jets.

[mdatspace]

4: Volcanoes and hot lava!

Given the nature of this planet, and how it obviously has volcanic activity within it, I think it could use a few volcanoes on its surface, to help heat up the moon so far from the sun.

alongside a couple minor ones, somewhere on the surface, lies a continent dominated by an extremely powerful and gigantic super-volcano! Kerbals trying to land had best beware, as the huge clouds of smoke and ash can damage solar panels and scientific equipment, and the pit of lava in its crater is extremely dangerous, and instantly fatal.

Despite its dangerous nature, the volcano is quite a site to see from a safe distance, as its massive plumes of smoke can be seen for miles, and reach all the way up to the edge of the atmosphere!

Perhaps when weather and clouds are added, huge storms could come from this plume and travel for miles?

Thats about it for now, I hope folks reading this like my ideas, and even have a few of their own. Laythe has a lot of potential for exploration and science, and I look forward to all the devs have planned for it.

Supervolcanoes are just large calderas, and volcanoes erupt ash, not smoke. "Supervolcanoes" usually erupt explosively, and thus and magma on the surface is either surfacing as ash or pyroclastic flows due to the gas content and viscosity of the magma. I would have cinder cones and shields on Laythe. It probably does not have tectonics, so it does not easily generate silicic, gas rich magma.

[mdatspace]

Laythe is sandy. It has no sharp, un-eroded features. It needs some recent geologic activity, or at least some signs of it.

[TimMartland]

2. a 3. yes please! However, 1. is probably out of the question. Squad has said that there will be no aliens FULL STOP. 4. is ok but personally I would like to see it become irradiated and stormy due to its proximity to Jool.

[Raven.]

1. is probably out of the question. Squad has said that there will be no aliens FULL STOP.

This comment brings up another idea. Now, I am not suggesting anything to do with aliens, so hear (read) me out.

One of the purposes of the Curiosity rover is to search for evidences of previous life on Mars. It makes perfect, real life sense to mimic this kind of mission in KSP. One thing to do with the biomes and the science system with Laythe is to leave inconclusive evidence that life may have been there, and then leave it up to the individual players to use their own, deductive reasoning to hypothesize whether or not there is life, or has ever been life on Laythe.

[kaphraxus]

Supervolcanoes are just large calderas, and volcanoes erupt ash, not smoke. "Supervolcanoes" usually erupt explosively, and thus and magma on the surface is either surfacing as ash or pyroclastic flows due to the gas content and viscosity of the magma. I would have cinder cones and shields on Laythe. It probably does not have tectonics, so it does not easily generate silicic, gas rich magma.

Due to Laythe's proximity to Jool I would expect tidal forces to have an effect similar to low scale tectonics around the equator. No plates sure but I could definitely see some felsic flows drawn up from the interior.

[Fixr]

Supervolcanoes are just large calderas, and volcanoes erupt ash, not smoke. "Supervolcanoes" usually erupt explosively, and thus and magma on the surface is either surfacing as ash or pyroclastic flows due to the gas content and viscosity of the magma. I would have cinder cones and shields on Laythe. It probably does not have tectonics, so it does not easily generate silicic, gas rich magma.

Haha, I took geography, I should get my terms straight

By super-volcano, I meant just a really, really big volcano. Sorry for any confusion.

I would like ash clouds to be a problem in the immediate vicinity of the volcano, as well as wandering storms that block out the sun, and can shut down solar panels for days.

For example, if a space plane was brought down to laythe, it would quickly bust the engines were it to fly into the ash plumes, or any storms.

Laythe is sandy. It has no sharp, un-eroded features. It needs some recent geologic activity, or at least some signs of it.

Perhaps in many places, but to tie in with point 3, why not rocky islands?

Maybe these islands have large rocky sections where lava solidified?

I would like to add in that Lathe having water is a huge appeal for long term missions. Part of the problem now is though the terrain is fairly smooth, it isn't flat. It's hard to land bases sideways. Some highland and coastal areas should be kept nice, flat, and smooth, so us base builders have some place to land our bases and jets.

I agree completely. I feel that sandy islands could be hard to land in, but rockier planes near volcanic regions could have reasonably hard, solid and flat terrain, perfect for long term bases. I'm sure if the devs do add in volcanic regions with impressive cliffs, they will leave plenty of flat surfaces with a lovely view!

Edited January 4, 2014 by Fixr