New planets for the Kerbolar system

[peadar1987]

Hey everyone,

I know this is something that gets suggested every few days, but I just wanted to give my opinion on it.

Basically, Squad is a business. Sure, Harv and his teams are passionate about what they do, and want to create the best game they can, but at the end of the day, the purpose of KSP is to make money, and it does that by selling copies of the game.

Most players probably spend the first few weeks of the game inside Kerbin's SOI. I've had the game months, played it more or less constantly, and still haven't been to Moho or Eeloo.

It will make pretty much no difference to a new player (read:prospective customer) if there are a few more inaccessible dots towards the edge of the map view when they're getting hooked on the demo and scrambling to reach their credit card in order to purchase more explodey goodness.

New planets are a feature that cater pretty much solely to advanced players, i.e. people who already own the game. And probably people comfortable enough with using it that they have no problems installing mods like Krag's Planet Factory.

New planets would be a fantastic addition to the game, but I can see exactly why they're nowhere near the top of Squad's list of priorities.

[Richy teh space man]

iirc they want to add things to do on planets before actually adding more of them.

[Dodgey]

IIRC? What does that mean? Also new planets are on the what not to suggest list in the suggestions subfourm which I reccomended you read.

[Richy teh space man]

IIRC? What does that mean? Also new planets are on the what not to suggest list in the suggestions subfourm which I reccomended you read.

IIRC means "if I recall correctly."

[peadar1987]

IIRC? What does that mean? Also new planets are on the what not to suggest list in the suggestions subfourm which I reccomended you read.

I didn't suggest new planets.

[Simon Ross]

I believe there is a Planet Factory mod that provides exactly this extra feature

[Dodgey]

I didn't suggest new planets.

Right my bad. Sorry I mis-read.

[Retread]

TBH, I would much prefer Squad spend their time crafting more reasons to go the planets we already have, and more things to do when we get there, than creating additional planets that at the current stage of the game would simply be more of the same. Once the science tree is exhausted, I find myself looking for other reasons to go to Duna/Jool/Eeloo, and there are none. I would love to have an in-game incentive to send multiple different missions to the same planet, something that forces more creative thinking than the lather/rinse/repeat mentality that biomes currently require.

Please don't misunderstand the purpose of this post: it's meant to state reasons why I don't think adding additional planets is a good use of resources at this point, not to complain about the current state of the game. Squad has done an amazing job so far, and I think they will continue to do so.

[LostElement]

Squad is going to add more planets, I am pretty sure we are getting a ring planet, and possibly and asteroid belt?

[peadar1987]

Squad is going to add more planets, I am pretty sure we are getting a ring planet, and possibly and asteroid belt?

It's up in the air, but it's well below polishing career mode in their schedule. I was just pointing out the very good reason why that is.

[cmoody]

They need to move over to a proper game engine before they should work on that.

[r4pt0r]

there isnt a need to change the current solar(Kerbolar?) system, untill at least version .95. we have a working system good enough for alpha/beta testing. spend the rest of the time working on gameplay, audio, whatever, and then once the game is nearly finished, tweak the planets a few versions before full release.

[Mmmmyum]

Honestly they need to give more reason to go to other planetary bodies. In 500 hours played I've landed on Duna thrice, Eeloo once, and done a few probes/flybys of the other planets.

I don't play career mode either, I find it's a grind fest to unlock parts so you can go back to playing sandbox mode. Until they add budgets and reputation and that sort of stuff I won't really touch it

[Rastaman]

The more people want new planets, the more likely Squad is going to add it. The more threads start with "Squad is a business, that's why we don't deserve new planets", the less likely it is that they add new planets.

[Jacob01]

I don't really feel we need new planets and moons at the moment. Yes, it would be cool, but really, the Kerbol system is fine as it is. As I think someone pointed out already, we just need more reason to visit planets, but SQUAD are adding that now. (Science) So, until SQUAD have finished with the Biomes and stuff, I don't think there is any need to add any more planets and/or moons.

[Skyler4856]

Multi-threading

[Seret]

KSP is multi-threaded. It's just that some threads are chunkier than others.

[Seshins]

I agree - Krags adds enough new planetary bodies, but having more to do on these current worlds is what im really after. Id love to find a cave entrance on one of the planets (or some) and have to build a suitable rover that would be carried and landed on the surface to get some Kerbals into the cave network to explore and find...who knows what.

[KN_Namida]

I just hope we get to see some new planets by December 2014... By that time we should already have a properly-working science system, almost bug-free game and everything polished.

[Merinsan]

If a new planet were added to tomorrow, I might go visit it, but after that, it'd just be sitting in the sky looking pretty. I've visited all planets, but I seldom return to them because there is no reason to. Once reasons for going places are added, then I want new planets. Until then, it's kind of a waste of time.

[Hotblack Desiato]

I'm currently playing with the alternis mod, where the kerbol-system got rearranged.

honestly, in my opinion, this would be a system for beginners (and pros). basically because it's really simple to send spacecrafts to other jool-moons (for those, who don't know alternis: basically jool sits where kerbin is supposed to be, and kerbin is a moon of jool, together with minmus, laythe, mün as inner moons and bop and pol as outer moons - a config could set one of these 2 outer moons as a moon of kerbin). after the player knows how to send spacecrafts out to other joolmoons, he can try to send a spacecraft out to other planets like eve or the tylo-system.

the largest advantage is: it's easier for the player to reach something, to learn how to set maneuver nodes and even more important, how to take advantage of swing-bys (they can save so much fuel).

it would be nice to have more objects to go to. apparently it's quite difficult to add planets through mods.

[Fox967]

I would prefer it if Squad spent their time fleshing out what activities you can do on the various planets before creating new ones - as it stands, they would just be shiny new balls (ahem) in the sky to visit, and not much else. Im sure they have got a lot of ideas for various planets though!

Also, i remember Squad saying they wouldn't add new planets in until they had completed a 'search/discover' type mechanism into the game - where players would have to use telescopes/probes/etc and such to find new planets/moons to visit before they would appear on the map. It would make sense to wait till this feature is implemented before adding new planets, as it means the player has more to explore - otherwise Squad would just be hiding planets we already know about.

[Tank Buddy]

I've played the game for years and I have only been to Eve and Duna. I can say I am an expert player, but it would interest me more if there were cooler things to do on existing planets, like geographical features, instead of just going to new planets and landing there.

[TheDarkStar]

I've played the game for years and I have only been to Eve and Duna. I can say I am an expert player, but it would interest me more if there were cooler things to do on existing planets, like geographical features, instead of just going to new planets and landing there.

There are. For example, Dres has a massive canyon (several km deep), Moho has a giant hole at each pole, some moons have huge mountains, etc. There are also Easter eggs on more than have of the planets and moons (some have more than one, so there are about 25 total).

[Comrade Jenkens]

They need to move over to a proper game engine before they should work on that.

You can't just move game engine