Should there be alien civilizations in future versions of KSP?

[RocketScientist00]

Hi guys, I was wondering do you want alien civilizations to appear on other planets in future versions of KSP?

Please answer!

[Richy teh space man]

Live aliens or the ruins of?

Live ones are on the what not to suggest list. As for dead ones, have a look around the star system and see what you can find

[vexx32]

Moved to Development Discussion.

Live ones would be a bad idea in my opinion, and the devs have stated several times that it's almost certainly not going to happen. The remains of an advanced civilisation? Possibly interesting...

[lajoswinkler]

I think live ones would be a disaster. KSP is not a typical game. The sense of being alone and trapped by the constraints of the realms of physics is what gives this game its unique flavor and makes it stand out.

I'd hate to see it turn into a cartoony version of Eve and other space games. Aliens would cause interplanetary economy to develop, and then it would all be very Ferengi-style. Bad, bad.

As for the ruins... There already are some ruins on Vall, as well as other tiny bits of weird things that makes you wonder.

[Streetwind]

Define "alien life". The "do not suggest" list merely states that there won't be "aliens" in the first final release of the game. Aliens defined how? Probably as the kind of large-eyed small-eyed green pink men from Mars Duna that abduct cows kows in their flying saucers.

But that's a very unlikely kind of alien life anyway. What about the more likely kind of alien life? What about simple, non-sentient microorganisms? What about strange, slow-growing lithovore "plants" on Tylo? What about plankton-like swarms of tiny proto-crustaceans on Laythe? What about tentacled sacs of gas living permanently airborne lives in Jool's lower atmosphere? What about the fossils of things long dead buried under the sands of Duna? There's so much potential that doesn't center around classic sci-fi pew pew aliens, and it could be used to give content to planets and moons outside the Kerbin SoI that currently don't have more than a name and a single biome.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

I have to agree, exploring the ruins of an alien civilization would be cool, maybe better than live aliens.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Commissioner Tadpole

[lajoswinkler]

Define "alien life". The "do not suggest" list merely states that there won't be "aliens" in the first final release of the game. Aliens defined how? Probably as the kind of large-eyed small-eyed green pink men from Mars Duna that abduct cows kows in their flying saucers.

But that's a very unlikely kind of alien life anyway. What about the more likely kind of alien life? What about simple, non-sentient microorganisms? What about strange, slow-growing lithovore "plants" on Tylo? What about plankton-like swarms of tiny proto-crustaceans on Laythe? What about tentacled sacs of gas living permanently airborne lives in Jool's lower atmosphere? What about the fossils of things long dead buried under the sands of Duna? There's so much potential that doesn't center around classic sci-fi pew pew aliens, and it could be used to give content to planets and moons outside the Kerbin SoI that currently don't have more than a name and a single biome.

I'm all for simple organisms like that squid-like thing in one of the Squad KSP videos, but "pew pew aliens", that's a big no from me.

(Tylo could not support anything on its surface because there's no atmosphere.)

[Streetwind]

I'm well aware Tylo has no atmosphere. Look up "anaerobic organism" sometime.

[Wahgineer]

Like other people have said; if there is going to be any form of alien life, it should be simple, basic organisms. It WOULD be cool, though, to find an old rusted out Tri-pod somewhere on Duna, or maybe go to a 'XenoKerbin' planet with an ocean, and along the coasts of one of these oceans, you can see the shape of one of the oldest Star ships in sci-fi history poking up through the water (hint: it had a space shuttle named after it, as well as sharing its name with a us aircraft carrier)

[Raven.]

I have to agree, exploring the ruins of an alien civilization would be cool, maybe better than live aliens.

I would much rather go for this rather than live aliens as is typically shown in science fiction.

One idea I would love to have is to investigate life on Laythe (such as microbiological or small animal, and not unlike the current search on Mars), but to leave inconclusive evidence in such a way as to make the player use their own deductive reasoning skills to decide for themselves whether or not there is some kind of basic life.

[leax256]

Ruins of an ancient civiliation, sure, living intellignet beings...no. That is best left for mods/DLC. I would however like to see extra terrestrial life like plants, bugs, small animals, bacterial, ect.

[crazyewok]

would be fun for a late game.

Maybe make it so it can be turned off so it dont upset those wanting a more simple game.

[peadar1987]

Not in the Kerbol system, but maybe... maybe in a future, other star system.

[TimMartland]

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

[Guest]

No. Not at all.

[Bekiekutmoar]

I think of this implementation; after a long trip a Kerbal vessel has achieved a polar orbit around Tylo. Something unknown is seen from orbit in one of the polar regions of Tylo, and the Kerbals investigate. It turns out to be a crashed alien ship; its been there for ages and without any signs of alien activity ... But ... the engine seems to be largely intact and very useful for the Kerbal Space Program. Approaching the wreck with a Kerbonaut and right-clicking it yields tons and tons of Science and expands the tech-tree significantly ... ! After researching, the Kerbals have now 'assimilated' some kind of Warp capability for their ships, and are able to travel to a nearby star system. The warp-capable vessel eventually reaches a planet with a permanent cover of clouds and dust. Some crewmembers decide to investigate the planet, and harrowing music plays in the background while descending in the dark and murky atmosphere. On the surface, they find ruins of a once thriving alien civilization, destroyed long ago by a devestating nuclear war. The unfortunate aliens decided to send out a ship to colonize another planet, but somehow crashed onto a barren moon around a green gas giant in a star system far far away ... !

[dacamp66]

What about possibly not the remains of an "alien" civilization but the remains of a previous Kerbol civilization? something along the lines of a great interplanetary civilization that experienced a "great catastrophe" that destroyed almost everything and sent them (kerbols) all the way back to the stone and/or bronze age? before they lost all of their tech, the survivors left markers/monuments all over the system that would gradually tell their story to future generations of kerbols and possibly unlock research into some cool tech as well? the markers would be written in the kerbol equivalent of ancient babylonian or sanskrit or such and would require research just to decypher and read them? however, once decyphered, would provide a MASSIVE boost in science points? the first marker might be somewhere on kerbin and, besides the start of the story, could contain clues for the location of the next marker as well as clues for the tech needed to get there? the clues might be a riddle, or mathematical formulae written in an ancient, long dead, little used kerbol language? the player or kerbols would have to figure out the clues to know where to go next.

Edited January 16, 2014 by dacamp66

[lajoswinkler]

I'm well aware Tylo has no atmosphere. Look up "anaerobic organism" sometime.

Anaerobic organisms aren't organisms that thrive in vacuum (there aren't any), but organisms that don't require (facultative anaerobes) or can't stand (obligatory anaerobes) the presence of free oxygen.

[Streetwind]

There aren't any Kerbals either, yet we still see them ingame. Arguing based on what evolved within earth's atmosphere (and thus is very obviously not vacuum adapted) is splitting hairs with blunt axes and a non-sequitur to boot.

Point is, this is a science fiction setting. There's absolutely no reason you cannot have strange vacuum-dwelling lithotrophs with silicate bodies that subsist entirely on temperature differences between sunlit and shadowed areas (a phenomenon which is very pronounced in the absense of an atmosphere). Think "space corals". Don't you have any imagination? Dream a little! We're here to explore a fictional solar system full of inexplicable wonders in every nook and cranny, after all.

[lajoswinkler]

Squad said on several occasions that they want to keep everything realistic as possible.

I've just corrected you on the definition of anaerobic organism.

Natural organisms in vacuum... not realistic. I'm all for imagination, but this would be no better than infinite fuel etc.

[RocketScientist00]

I think you all are correct. I was wrong. Live aliens BAD!, Ruins of aliens, AWESOME! Thanks for answering.

[Comrade Jenkens]

Sentient alien life: definitely not!

Discovering primitive life forms like fish on certain planets e.g. Laythe maybe. Though its not high on the list of things that I want to see.

[tychochallenge]

yea, there should probably be types of primordial life in the oceans of Laythe, underneath Vall's icy surface and perhaps even Duna. But more plants and animals on Kerbin might be interesting as well...

Also, there could be some theoretical exotic forms of life living in Jool's atmosphere that could be scooped up from a glider and brought back into orbit for science!

[Nemrav]

check the south pole of duna..

Spoiler : The squid thing is already implemented, it lives on bob and is known as the dead Kraken

As for micro-organisms, well so far although it is a possibility, if you were to have jackpot conditions on a planet/moon (its more than just add water) sure.. but so far to our current knowledge any form of extra-terrestial life is sci-fi period.. there are no findings, even possible candidates that have been found anywhere in the universe as of yet...

not that i'm against a new science experiment, but i'm saying that as far as these things may be exciting.., well the science over science fiction will probably kick in.

[Woopert]

check the south pole of duna..

Spoiler : The squid thing is already implemented, it lives on bob and is known as the dead Kraken

As for micro-organisms, well so far although it is a possibility, if you were to have jackpot conditions on a planet/moon (its more than just add water) sure.. but so far to our current knowledge any form of extra-terrestial life is sci-fi period.. there are no findings, even possible candidates that have been found anywhere in the universe as of yet...

not that i'm against a new science experiment, but i'm saying that as far as these things may be exciting.., well the science over science fiction will probably kick in.

Extraterrestrial life is not sci-fi, if it were sci-fi we probably wouldn't be searching for it so much. Most scientists agree that life has to exist somewhere out there in the universe. There are billions of stars and billions of galaxies, any of which could be host to planets (or moons) with life.

My thoughts, I don't really want to see live, intelligent aliens. I would like to see "extrakerrestrial" life on Laythe, Vall (since it's the Europa analog), and maybe Duna. Europa and Mars (along with Enceladus and Titan) are both real candidates for extraterrestrial life in our solar system so it would be nice to earn science, with a hunting for life instrument that searches for organic compounds.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Woopert