How to look for easter eggs?

[Laie]

Right now, this is about the temple in the desert that I've seen on screenshots. I built a plane and went over the desert. It's obvious that some textures are being loaded while I'm getting closer. I have no idea of far I can see with the necessary level of detail -- after about an hour, I had a suspicion that I'm doing it wrong. When returning, KSC popped out of nowhere when the flag on the runway was ~50km away, but looking down from above, how far is 50km?

I'm not willing to install landsat and the likes -- if I become that desperate, I may just look up the coordinates on the web.

Is it possible to spot special sites from low orbit? I'm about to visit Vall "any day now" and hear that it is ripe with tourist attractions.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Laie

[blizzy78]

Sometimes, you don't need to go further than the main menu: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88286

[Red Iron Crown]

Some are just barely visible from low orbit, others are not visible at all. Kerbin has a bunch and is easier to explore at lower altitude with jet planes.

If you decide to look up the coordinates, kerbalmaps.com gives coordinates for most of the known Easter eggs without describing what they are. Just turn on the "anomalies" layer on a given map.

You might be doing yourself a disservice by dismissing ScanSAT for discovering them; at the very least it involves you searching for them with a spacecraft as opposed to just looking up coordinates.

Even with the coordinates in hand, it's still a bit of a challenge building the ships to go there and attempting to land near them. Easter egg hunting is fun.

[Jean Deaux]

How can you navigate with coordinates without an add-on? I've only ever seen coordinates when I was actually landed and then only from the map view, only helpful there for bug reporting errors in biome locations.

I've used MapSat to map planets to locate anomalies and aid in land navigation and has worked very well. It's not a pin-point accurate tool but it puts you in the vicinity for your rover searches so you don't spend years wandering around hoping to stumble across one.

[Padishar]

Is it possible to spot special sites from low orbit? I'm about to visit Vall "any day now" and hear that it is ripe with tourist attractions.

Well, you can see Mun arches from around 10km altitude if you pass over reasonably close to it. They are just a small speck from that height but they do stand out a bit (especially if you have AA turned off)...

[cantab]

I conceded and resorted to the Kerbal Maps website. It'll tell you where the anomalies are, though not WHAT they are. And be aware there's a chance the anomaly is either buried underground or floating high in the sky.

[biohazard15]

Actually, Vall have just one easter egg IIRC (but it's cool!)

The best method for easter egg hunt is SCANSat. It will just mark them on map (on its own map, not ingame map - you still has to find that coordinates and land at them) as "Anomaly". There is a part from DMagic Sciences mod which will analyze anomaly (if you're sufficiently close to it) and yield some science. You may also use cameras from LTech mod to photograph it for science.

[RuBisCO]

Question: are there any new eastereggs in 0.24?

[biohazard15]

Question: are there any new eastereggs in 0.24?

None known so far. Looks like Squad abandoned the whole idea

[Pecan]

Looks like Squad abandoned the whole idea

Maybe. The first rule of Easter Eggs is you don't talk about Easter Eggs.

Red Iron Crown said everything else I would (again). SCANSat is fun in itself.

[Blind Dead McJones]

There's a mod called Scansat which can find easter eggs with the Multispectral sensor (also used to find biomes). It puts a marker on every anomaly, but it won't tell you what the anomaly actually is. So you still need to send a ship to place a flag or whatever at that spot (and I've found every anomaly on Kerbin, Mun and Minmus this way, as well as one on Duna).

As far as the desert temple is concerned, that one's easy to find because of how big it is. If you have a general idea where it is, then you can fly there in a jet plane (in sandbox, the Albatross design is able to get there but it will take a while) and fly around a few km up and you should be able to find it easy enough.

[cantab]

The Aeris 3A will do a run to the desert temple too, so long as you throttle well back for cruising, 15-20% is quite enough.

[Laie]

Some are just barely visible from low orbit, others are not visible at all.

[...]

You might be doing yourself a disservice by dismissing ScanSAT for discovering them; at the very least it involves you searching for them with a spacecraft as opposed to just looking up coordinates.

Red Iron Crown said everything else I would (again). SCANSat is fun in itself.

Alright, I give in.

[Pecan]

Hooray!

The thing is, it doesn't add anything you have to do, but it doesn't give information away 'for free' either. Ignore it, map slopes with it, find 'anomalies' with it, identify them (within 2km), stop for a photo-opportunity - each step is up to you. The mapping sensor parts are only 0.03t each so they're not a chore to put into orbit and they add a reason for using satellites. What's not to like? :-)

[Laie]

It also comes with ModStatistics.

At least they have the decency to mention this in the readme file -- but they don't tell you what it is or does, I had to find out myself. On another day, they might have slipped it past me.

The readme is not quite as bad as a lower left drawer on alpha centauri, I guess. But still. That's not even wrong, that's rotten.

[Red Iron Crown]

It also comes with ModStatistics.

At least they have the decency to mention this in the readme file -- but they don't tell you what it is or does, I had to find out myself. On another day, they might have slipped it past me.

The readme is not quite as bad as a lower left drawer on alpha centauri, I guess. But still. That's not even wrong, that's rotten.

Such things will have to be opt-in near the end of August due to the new mod guidelines, in the meantime you can disable or uninstall ModStatistics if you don't like it.

[Pecan]

It also comes with ModStatistics.

At least they have the decency to mention this in the readme file -- but they don't tell you what it is or does, I had to find out myself. On another day, they might have slipped it past me.

The readme is not quite as bad as a lower left drawer on alpha centauri, I guess. But still. That's not even wrong, that's rotten.

You are absolutely right. That's what's not to like. (HHGTTG reference noted).

[Laie]

Such things will have to be opt-in near the end of August due to the new mod guidelines, in the meantime you can disable or uninstall ModStatistics if you don't like it.

Well, I don't know where this end-of-August date comes from, but we're there and Scansat still ships modstatistics. From the looks of it, modstatistics hasn't been updated since your last post either, so I presume it's still opt-out. Now what?

[Red Iron Crown]

Well, I don't know where this end-of-August date comes from, but we're there and Scansat still ships modstatistics. From the looks of it, modstatistics hasn't been updated since your last post either, so I presume it's still opt-out. Now what?

Report it to a moderator. The new rules went into effect on Aug 21, I got that date from here. The relevant section for information gathering:

6. Gathering of personally identifiable information

Add-ons that gather personally identifiable information and send this information to another network or computer system must:

• Provide the user with an opt-in system within the game that requires the user to agree unambiguously with the information gathering and sending before any such information is sent; this opt-in system must inform the user of the goal and extent of the information gathering;
  
• Provide the user with an option in the AppLauncher to disable the data gathering that is visible in at least the Space Center scene; and
  
• Grant a user the option to review and remove all personally identifiable information that is within control of the person who maintains the add-on.