Paraterraforming

[szputnyik]

Paraterraforming means deploying large dome-like structures (either inflated or assembled) on the surface of a celestial body in which Earth-like conditions can be established. A base inside a paraterraformed environment can consist of ordinary brick and mortar structures and normal Earth-like agriculture can be used.

In KSP, a paraterraforming module can be a big inflating dome, or a greenhouse-like structure that could automatically assemble by itself. After it is assembled, some years have to pass in game time and the inside of the dome will resemble the conditions on Kerbin (grass, trees, breathable air). After this happens, ordinary KSC-like base buildings could be built in the dome, rather than pressure vessels.

[spinomonkey]

While I'm down for long term structures. I can pretty much assume this won't be done unless it's a mod- and unfortunately for me, I'm not huge on mods.

[Nemrav]

I'm all for colonies which so far aren't the easiest thing to set up, but there's no plan for terraforming. Not sure if its meant to be generic, or just "change the height of the ground"....

[RSwordsman]

Colonies are cool, but huge domes? That's stretching it quite a bit. Not to mention getting in and out would be a fair pain.

[Nuke]

id do it like this

1. find a suitable site and land a construction beacon there. construction survey beacons are a part that you need to unlock with science.

2. the construction survey beacon will let you select what you want to build and tell you what you need (in terms of materials, vehicles, fuels, electricity and kerbalpower) to bring to the site to construct it.

3a. you land the required building materials near the beacon.

3b. you bring in whatever equipment is needed (such as a rover) near the beacon.

3c. you land the construction crew near the beacon.

4. when the requirements are met, construction begins automatically.

5. during construction resupply missions would need to be flown at a regular interval, construction will halt if you are overdue. the beacon then turns into a partially constructed building which could be animated to show the progress.

6. your building is unlocked. this also gives you access to any facilities that the building provides, such as launch facilities, vab, mining base, fuel refinery, launch pad, runway, mass driver, whatever.

7. building may need occasional resupply missions after construction to keep it operational (although other near by buildings can cover the supply requirements).

yes, extraplanetary launchpads, kethane, and perhaps eventually kerb town could do all this for you. but the advantages of having static buildings that work sort of like the ones at ksc and dont slow down the game or cause your ship to explode when spawned, or have your extraplanetary launchpad fall through the planet's crust, would make the concept 10x better. furthermore this would require a large number of launches to pull off, so you spend less time doing ground operations and more time flying missions.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Nuke

[allmappedout]

^ It's as good a suggestion as any I've heard for having permanent residence built into the game. Still not sure I'm totally down with off-world launch sites (it doesn't quite seem in the spirit of the game that you can build a 500 ton ship on a Minmus just to skip Kerbin's gravity well/atmosphere), but if it was implemented, this way could work.

[JimmyAgent007]

Maybe an offworld launch site would have a tonnage limiter to smaller craft, so it can build rovers and jet pods or satellites. But i do like the general idea of what Nuke is getting at.

[Ravenchant]

Maybe an offworld launch site would have a tonnage limiter to smaller craft, so it can build rovers and jet pods or satellites. But i do like the general idea of what Nuke is getting at.

Seconded! I'd propose an additional caveat: advanced electronics and the like almost certainly couldn't be manufactured offworld in a small colony, so stuff like probe cores, capsules, science parts and SAS modules, maybe some of the more advanced engines as well, would need to be shipped from Kerbin for integration into the craft.

[JimmyAgent007]

Seconded! I'd propose an additional caveat: advanced electronics and the like almost certainly couldn't be manufactured offworld in a small colony, so stuff like probe cores, capsules, science parts and SAS modules, maybe some of the more advanced engines as well, would need to be shipped from Kerbin for integration into the craft.

I agree, almost everything should need to be brought from Kerbin, except maybe fuel tanks, struts, and other no complex metal parts that you could refine from local ore. Though until resources gets put in, everything would need to be shipped.

[Nuke]

^ It's as good a suggestion as any I've heard for having permanent residence built into the game. Still not sure I'm totally down with off-world launch sites (it doesn't quite seem in the spirit of the game that you can build a 500 ton ship on a Minmus just to skip Kerbin's gravity well/atmosphere), but if it was implemented, this way could work.

like i said it would be unlocked with science. it could be so expensive that you cant use it until near the end of the game (or rather the tech tree). also these facilities would be much more limited in the amount of tonnage you can deploy. you might be limited to < 25 ton payloads. and i can agree limiting the use of advanced parts. kerbals especially would need to be flown in. buildings would need to have a certain amount of crew and other supplies to function, so it gives you reason to constantly send support missions. im not totally against building them up to the point where they are totally self sufficient, but this should take a real long time and lots of missions.

im thinking more along the lines of ksc eve or ksc tylo, than ksc minmus or ksc mun. obviously different planets would have different available resources. i dont see minmus as consisting of very much metal, so it may be impossible to build launch or construction facilities there, but perhaps a small refueling base (that can only produce monoprop and xenon fuels). mun might be metal rich but lacking fuel precursors so you might need to bring fuel over from minmus to fuel anything you build there. i wouldn't be much against having a vab and launchpad on tylo, or a runway and sph on eve, since thats actually harder than launching from kerbin. so obviously you would have limits on what facilities you can build where. the harder it is to get to or launch from a destination, the more stuff you can build there.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Nuke

[Kruleworld]

so you thinking this

or this?

[coolitic]

Does this count as terraforming? Because that would be in do not suggest list. (i guess mods should decide)

The big problem I see is hauling this into space. Maybe multiple smaller domes?

Also, how would this be any different than the area outside?

[JimmyAgent007]

Terraforming would be changing the whole planet, this is like having a space station only on the surface. The pictures are of rather large structures and are just there for concept rather than scale. Domes the size of the research lab and hitchhiker would be what im thinking of, maybe one that is bigger.