Naming geological formations in the kerbol system

[Josson K.]

Obligatory - I don't know if this has been suggested before (At least I haven't found anything directly related to my idea).

• Mare Tranquilitatis
  
• Oceanus Procellarum
  
• Fra Mauro
  
• Hadley Rille
  
• Descartes Highlands
  
• Taurus Littrow
  

.... most space enthusiasts know what those names represent and probably have some emotional response to them. At the very least they're much more recognizable than, say the coordinates of the manned moon landings or vague descriptions of the landing locations.

I'd like to suggest that we also start naming certain geological formations on celestial bodies in the Kerbol System. Not only because it would make identifying and relating landing locations much easier, but also to help flesh out the landscapes with some life and backstory.

I'm not sure if the current state of planetary/munar topography in KSP would allow to identify distinct gelogical formations like Craters, Highlands, Marinas, Mountains, Rilles, Valleys and so on, so it would be nice if someone with a background in geology/geography/cartography could weigh in on that.

Squad could act as the head of the Commission for Planetary Cartography and use the forum as tool to collect naming proposals for a geological formation of the week and put it up for a vote. The naming could be used to honor distinguished KSP community members (think Manley Crater, Ferram Rille etc...), but also more Kerbal like vocabulary like Snackus Mons could be used.

The idea is that finally we would have some sort of map that could be used ingame which would allow for mission/contract description like this: "Fly to the Mun, land at northeastern quadrant of Manley Crater and conduct impact seismology experiments"

What do you think ? I know there have already been countless suggestions to name things in KSP and they all ended with a lot of proposals starting with the letter K, but I really believe having relateable locations that have real names might help with immersion.

http://www.infohow.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Moon-World-Map.jpg

TL;DR - I think we should start naming mountains and valleys on planets and moons.

EDIT for real moon map

Edited July 1, 2014 by Josson K.

[Dkmdlb]

I'm all for the naming of the geological features. I'd prefer to make it an unofficial type of thing (kind of like Kerbol), but people have been going on about naming things for what - 2 years now? - and we have pretty much no traction.

Given that, let's just start assigning and using names, and if people don't use them, we can insist that they are bad people.

I suggest that the canyon on Dres be named Valles Solitarius - the Valley of Loneliness (by the way, I can't promise that my latin is coherent).

I'm not sure if the current state of planetary/munar topography in KSP would allow to identify distinct gelogical formations like Craters, Highlands, Marinas, Mountains, Rilles, Valleys and so on, so it would be nice if someone with a background in geology/geography/cartography could weigh in on that.

Definitely.

[sumghai]

I too would definitely like to see the naming of off-world* geological features.

*Kerbin should be the exception, since some folks have their own head-canon on what certain regions on the homeworld should be called.

[Vallius]

Every time I land in a biome (on the Mun or Minmus), I name it on the flag I plant. Usually, I'll name sites based on some aspect of the mission. For example, when I crash-landed Bill on the Mun in my second landing, I called the twin craters the "Sea of Duplicity". In my mind, Bill was saying, "Yay! I'm on the Mun, but wait... How am I getting home? Help!"

[MR4Y]

Not up for it. Let the player reach those places and name those themselves. Plus, this is immersion breaking. Imagine coming to, say, Eelo, only to find that other people have been in there before and named all the geological formations?

[cpast]

Not up for it. Let the player reach those places and name those themselves. Plus, this is immersion breaking. Imagine coming to, say, Eelo, only to find that other people have been in there before and named all the geological formations?

Not unrealistic - astronomers on Kerbin have telescopes, and we know that they know a fair amount about other planets already. Astronauts don't generally set the lasting name for features; that's set by astronomers.

Now, the player should certainly be able to rename any feature, but it's not like no one could name a formation till they've been there.

[Josson K.]

Wanting to name your landing site is definitely a valid point, no question.

My point is that the planets/moons themselves already have names, which would imply that there IS some authority on Kerbin naming things.

And as cpast mentioned, we already had names for a lot of things on moon before someone went there.

Maybe this could be solved by community-naming larger features that could be resolved by a telescope and leaving local sites for naming by the player? I believe astronauts gave locations where they landed and did EVA on all kinds of names that dont show up on maps.

I also agree that any possible naming should be done by the community. I already like 'Sea of duplicity' and 'Valles solitarius'

Regarding naming only off-world sites i also agree. It would feel unnatural to name those by commitee, since locations on the homeworld are usually named by the people living there.

[Josson K.]

Maybe an acceptable first step would be the possibility to provide a map projection of the moon or planet in the science center which would allow the player to give locales their own names. If a consensus about names should ever develop you could have the option to apply a configuration file (much like the crowdsourced science messages)