Animals in KSP

[peadar1987]

Hi all,

This is just something I realised the other day, and was wondering if other people thought the same.

Even though Kerbals are clearly an alien species, I imagine all of the animals on Kerbin being the same as ours. When my capsule lands in the desert, I imagine camels, the birds chirping round KSC are familiar to me, there are fish and whales in Kerbin's oceans just like ours, Billy-Bobcan has a pet dog that he loves very much. The only thing different is the Kerbals themselves.

Does anyone else do this? Do you imagine Kerbin to have its own wildlife? Or is this something that has never crossed anyone's mind apart from mine?!

[NWDogg]

I've always thought of life on Kerbin as evolving differently than here on Earth. My thought is that the original single-celled organisms all developed similarly to plant-life on Earth, and so every single organism living on Kerbin is a plant. The Kerbals are plants as well, except they evolved to live not only on photosynthesis but also to get nutrition from other plants...basically, Kerbals are the top of food chain on Kerbin. They would be equivalent to carnivores on Earth, except they aren't carnivores because they eat plants...so they are herbivorous plants. If that makes any sense. Just my thoughts, anyway.

[EdFred]

I think all the other life on Kerbin evolved as snacks - which is why we don't see any.

[Nahim]

since a kerbal is nothing but a caricacture of us, i think would be funny if the kerbin wildlife were carucatures of our earth creatures as well. (Green cows that produce milk for the greecheese!). Esxept, of course, for the birds and dolphins, everyone knows that they are umniversal species!

I imagine a mod when you cold walk/fly/rover around Kerbin trying to take snapshots of every creature, in the best "Pokemon Snipe" style!

[Levelord]

I hope this wasn't what Harvester meant by "experienced players may not hit this, but may want to try" XD

[SphinX]

If you pay close attention to the KSC screen, there's birds chirping, at least, that's what it sounds like.

[Tw1]

I've never really thought about it in great depth, but it makes sense that Kerbin would have animals not too unlike ours, but a little different.

Though, we are aware of at least one species that comes from Kerbin:

[Xacktar]

I always assumed a worldwide disaster destroyed all life on Kerbin and the only reason Kerbals survived was because they had spacesuits to protect them.

[r4pt0r]

I like to think that there are animals on kerbin, just not shown in game. Octopie(sp?) are

Kerbin just couldn't be empty of all other life, that would be so boring and somewhat depressing. Nature is grand.

Imagine going outside and never seeing another creature here on earth. that would be terrible

[worir4]

All other life on Kerbin has taken shelter underground in fear of being hit by fast burning rods that originate from the KSC.

[EnderSpace]

We have one animal remember

The Kraken

But thanks god it's now Extinct

[worir4]

We have one animal remember

The Kraken

But thanks god it's now Extinct

Or so they say...

[EnderSpace]

Or so they say...

Lol but I really like the idea , maybe they will add planet with secret atmosphere or gravity

so you should send a dog , sheep or kerpig

But He will be crushed

[Wallace]

The only animals we know of for sure are the octopus and the birds, and we have only heard the birds. I imagine all animals to be like Earth animals in the same way Kerbals are like humans. Basisally the same shape, but with big heads, googly eyes, and lil stumpy limbs. and not the right colours.

With the octopus we can see it has very tiny tentacles, a big head and huge popping-out googly eyes, and it is bright pink, so fits the pattern.

I'm thinking blue Kows grazing on the plains, orange Goatbals in the mountains, red Kamels in the desert.

[Voyager55]

Omg omg I have the most brilliant idea that nobody seems to have thought of ermagerd ermagerd! What if there are no animals, because the graphical and CPU requirements of constantly loading creatures with AI would be to taxing on the already heavily taxed engine? Honestly not to be rude, but why is everyone coming up with frankly dumb theories? There's no animals for the same reason they'res no cities.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Voyager55

[tntristan12]

Omg omg I have the most brilliant idea that nobody seems to have thought of ermagerd ermagerd! What if there are no animals, because the graphical and CPU requirements of constantly loading creatures with AI would be to taxing on the already heavily taxed engine? Honestly not to be rude, but why is everyone coming up with frankly dumb theories? There's no animals for the same reason theirs no cities.

Aye aye, captain buzzkill!

I personally would have nothing against animals appearing in the game, on Kerbin or even on other planets. I imagine that if they did somehow make it in they'd be more similar to ground scatter than anything and not interact directly with the kerbals. In this respect they could be turned on and off, have their numbers played with, and generally would not make the game any harder to run. That said, I think it goes without saying that this would be a very low priority feature we are not likely to see mentioned until the polishing updates come out towards version 1.0+.

[dryer_lint]

There also has to be SOMETHING making the ground green...

[r4pt0r]

Omg omg I have the most brilliant idea that nobody seems to have thought of ermagerd ermagerd! What if there are no animals, because the graphical and CPU requirements of constantly loading creatures with AI would be to taxing on the already heavily taxed engine? Honestly not to be rude, but why is everyone coming up with frankly dumb theories? There's no animals for the same reason theirs no cities.

ok this thread is about the ksp universe, not the game itself. obviously KSP isnt simsafari. there will never be packs of animals walking across KSC. This thread (as i understand the OP) is about if you like to Imagine that kerbin is populated with various creatures. Headcanon, if you will. No its not in game, but I like to imagine that kerbin is overflowing with life like earth is. There are some cities as well, and roads. on the sides of these roads you can pick up rocket parts like jeb does. They remain uncoded, and unrendered, but they are there.

[KSK]

Omg omg I have the most brilliant idea that nobody seems to have thought of ermagerd ermagerd! What if there are no animals, because the graphical and CPU requirements of constantly loading creatures with AI would be to taxing on the already heavily taxed engine? Honestly not to be rude, but why is everyone coming up with frankly dumb theories? There's no animals for the same reason theirs no cities.

My poor joy - it is slain...

But to answer your question - because it's fun to come up with background to the game.

I figure some of the wildlife on Kerbin will resemble kerbals, in much the same way that primates on earth sort of resemble humans. Some critters that I've come up with:

Spierkan treebeasts (OK, kerbal naturalists aren't the most imaginative.) Basically a large, darker green, furry kerbal with longer arms and a smaller head. These shy creatures live in the deeper jungles of Spierka and tend to avoid contact with kerbals. Terran equivalent - the orang-utan.

Luffas. Distant evolutionary cousin to the kerbals. Somewhere in their history, a homeobox mutation gave them a doubled pelvis (two normal pelvises fused together) complete with two pairs of legs. They're rather ungainly creatures but their extra legs make them well suited to wading around the rougher coastal waters of Kerbin. They have basically kerbal shaped heads, only smaller and with much longer necks. Terran equivalent - none.

Kaya. Native to the colder regions of Kerbin and much prized by the kerbals for their luxuriant belly fur, which provides warmth and shelter for their calves. Terran equivalent - the yak.

Gronnek. Small, swift and vicious burrow dwelling predators of northern Kerbin. When trained, they make excellent hunting animals, but even in this day and age it takes a brave kerbal to do the training. Traditionally captured by placing a large canvas bag over one entrance to their burrow, and setting off some sort of commotion at the other entrance. This does tend to make the gronnek even less amiable than usual, hence the kerbal expression 'letting the gronnek out of the bag' has a (rough) Terran analogue involving fans and faecal matter. Terran equivalent - the wolverine.

[Guest]

Omg omg I have the most brilliant idea that nobody seems to have thought of ermagerd ermagerd! What if there are no animals, because the graphical and CPU requirements of constantly loading creatures with AI would be to taxing on the already heavily taxed engine? Honestly not to be rude, but why is everyone coming up with frankly dumb theories? There's no animals for the same reason theirs no cities.

The engine is in no way taxed, at all. Trust me, clouds from mods are for more intensive than a few simple animals would be.

I wish people would stop making up silly theories.

[LABHOUSE]

Giant squids are in it.

[Scotius]

Cactire - a predator undistiguishable from common cacti growing on Kerbin's deserts. They wait patiently for days, until a hapless animal (or Kerbal ) comes in the range of its arms. Then cactire grabs its prey, pierces its skin with hundreds of thorn-like fangs and sucks moisture out. Withered remains are then buried under the cactire, as to not scare potential victims away. Kerbal scientists to this day did not found an answer to the question: are cactiri animals, or carnivorous plants? For some reason there is a distinct lack of volunteers eager to wander around the desert poking every encountered cactus-like obiect with a sharp stick. "Go water the cactire" is a common expletive/curse on Western continent of Kerbin.

[Voyager55]

No no, i'm not against theories and ideas about other life on Kerbin. I'm against theories on why there isn't. It makes perfect sense to me that Kerbin is teeming with life and i'd like to chat about that, but not talk about why there isn't life...because there is!

[Thomas988]

I often hear that if there is advanced, intelligent life out there it must be completely different from ours and nearly impossible for us to comprehend. So, the fact that Kerbals and Humans look decent-ish alike (and that Kerbin and Earth look very identical) draws me to the conclusion that life on both worlds is and evolved extremely similar. So, I see other animals on Kerbin similar, but not identical, to our animals.

[Voyager55]

Everyone likes to imagine all the animals as green, like the Kerbals. That's boring, just because Kerbals are green doesn't mean all life on Kerbin is green. Hell what if there are even other colored Kerbals, like races? red Kerbals, blue Kerbals, orange Kerbals......