Ideas for the New Secret Feature in 0.25!

[Franklin]

yeah but none of those clues help you figure out where carmen sandiego is, so they should be ignored

[Commissioner Tadpole]

You forgot to mention that it is a cool yet rather small thing, and that it's only possible because of all the groundwork that we put in so a big 0.26 big feature would be possible. This being the reason why our art team is chained to their desks undertaking that massive project.

Y-yes, sir. I-I'll update the post right now.

A KSP dev just replied to my post!

I have another theory for the secret feature: Asteroids that aren't redirected don't just plop onto Kerbin's (or whatever celestial body's) surface (or-if left alone-disappear in that body's atmosphere). Instead, they would impact and create a massive explosion along with other problems. This fits all the criteria (including what Maxmaps has just said): 1: It wouldn't exactly be common as not all asteroids are on an impact trajectory with Kerbin. 2: Skilled players won't encounter it as much because they would simply redirect the asteroid. 3: If the asteroid does hit Kerbin, you'll have to deal with its consequences. And 4: No mod has ever done it before.

Amazing theory! I wonder if it's really that.

0.26: The Armageddon Update!

*Ahem*

Just to remind everyone, those are our current clues to the secret feature:

-Won't be exactly a common occurence,

-Skilled players more often than not won't encounter it unless they deliberately do so,

-If you do encounter it, you'll have to deal with its' consequences,

-No mod has ever done it before,

-It's a cool, but really small thing,

-It's only possible because of all the groundwork that they put in so a big 0.26 big feature could be possible.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Commissioner Tadpole

[Skyrunner27]

I think it would be a pop up tutorial or something because somewhere one of the clues was clippy. If you don't understand what clippy is. It was a Microsoft help icon on Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office products. It also adds up to all the other hints.

[Robotengineer]

What if it's a planet creation API?

Edit: Although PF:CE did address this, one couldn't really call it an API. Plus an official Squad thing is something no mod can do.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Robotengineer

[WillHop]

Just to remind everyone, those are our current clues to the secret feature:

-Won't be exactly a common occurence,

-Skilled players more often than not won't encounter it unless they deliberately do so,

-If you do encounter it, you'll have to deal with its' consequences,

-No mod has ever done it before,

-It's a cool, but really small thing,

-It's only possible because of all the groundwork that they put in so a big 0.26 big feature could be possible.

Plus its fun to do over and over again..

[Minarkhaios]

small guess : it's something related to the escape tower.

and that's it for the thinking part ...

yeah ... nothing much ... just a hunch.

[DRN]

maybe it's fires?

p.s. sorry for my english - not my first language.

Edited September 23, 2014 by DRN

[Lhathron the Elf]

small guess : it's something related to the escape tower.

and that's it for the thinking part ...

yeah ... nothing much ... just a hunch.

Yeah, it doesn't meet many of the parameters.

[xtoro]

The new explosion animations didn't give it away? It's a blast radius for explosions. The bigger the tank, the bigger the boom, causing more damage to other parts, potentially setting off a chain reaction if you have many large tanks. A precursor to damageable parts and atmospheric reentry damage (although I hate using the term "reentry" for any atmospheric entry, you know what I mean). Skilled players will likely not encounter this. When was the last time a "skilled" player blew up on the launch pad? It's been a long long time for me...

[mythbusters844]

The new explosion animations didn't give it away? It's a blast radius for explosions. The bigger the tank, the bigger the boom, causing more damage to other parts, potentially setting off a chain reaction if you have many large tanks. A precursor to damageable parts and atmospheric reentry damage (although I hate using the term "reentry" for any atmospheric entry, you know what I mean). Skilled players will likely not encounter this. When was the last time a "skilled" player blew up on the launch pad? It's been a long long time for me...

That's also a very viable theory! I've always found it odd how an engine on a rocket can explode but leave the rest of the rocket intact.

[SkyRex94]

The new explosion animations didn't give it away? It's a blast radius for explosions. The bigger the tank, the bigger the boom, causing more damage to other parts, potentially setting off a chain reaction if you have many large tanks. A precursor to damageable parts and atmospheric reentry damage (although I hate using the term "reentry" for any atmospheric entry, you know what I mean). Skilled players will likely not encounter this. When was the last time a "skilled" player blew up on the launch pad? It's been a long long time for me...

Hmm watching the crash sometimes i may have actually found evidence for that too. After the Crash there is a shaddow of a wing part moving in retrograde direction , meaning a wing debri also. I may be wrong but with current physics the part wouldn't be affected by the explosion and even if bounced off remain a generally prograde direction.

So there might actually be 'physical' explosion blast!

But i don't know if thats actually the feature or just a part of the redone explosions...

Yes it would meet all the criterias, but i'm thinking of what could be the groundwork done for, since a blast radius is not the hardest thing to program. Just take the position of the part relative to time and distance from epicenter of explosion to decide if its affected. Although it could also calculate shielding by other parts, which would lay groundwork for reworked aerodynamic and heat damaging (aka reentry)

Hmm while thinking about it it actually seems to make sense...

So right now the best candidates are probably

-this 'explosive physics groundwork' just mentioned

-or something related to Rep loss while killing kerbals , getting punished, laying groundwork for better integration of Reputation

-or the destroyable buildings, but where i don't really see the 'groundwork' criteria, maybe a system for building or upgrading the buildings in the first place, but i don't know if that makes sense

I'd probably bet my money on one of generally these three things, since they seem to be the only ones meeting all criterias.

Bad players encounter it more often, a building near the runway would actually make it happen more often (which by the way sorts out the asteroid armageddon idea) , small feature in itself, consequences out of it , no mod done before, fun doing on purpose, and you can think of which groundwork could lay behind it to feature what bigger feature in next update.

If i could choose ,although i really would like to see beautiful destruction on buildings, i would choose the Explosion Blast theory just because it probably paves a road for proper Aero and Stock Atmo-Heating-Damage !!!

Edited September 22, 2014 by SkyRex94

[Random Tank]

It could be (as someone suggested earlier in this thread) craters caused when rockets/planes crash into the surface; it wouldn't be damaging the KSC as this would need destructible building models, which takes a lot of time and effort to create, but could be what the art team is doing for 0.26. A crater system would be a lot simpler than building damage; fits all of the hints that max has given out; would make sense with the fact that the explosion effects are getting updated, and also that (which I don't think anyone has mentioned yet) ships and debris will now appear on the Space Centre screen, which (assuming craters are the feature being added) would suggest that the craters would appear on this screen too (How cool would that look!?!). AFAIK, the plan for the game is still to turn it into a Kerbal Space Tycoon style game, and as money (and other things such as Rep/Funds/Science trading and Strategies being on the way) has now been added into the game, and that the Kerbal's have an Administration building suggest they could have their budget to look after their Space Centre too, like repairing any damage caused by stray rockets...

But I could be totally wrong, I'm not even convinced of the idea myself, so we'll just have to see what it is on Friday... I love a good surprise!

[Lhathron the Elf]

It could be (as someone suggested earlier in this thread) craters caused when rockets/planes crash into the surface; it wouldn't be damaging the KSC as this would need destructible building models, which takes a lot of time and effort to create, but could be what the art team is doing for 0.26. A crater system would be a lot simpler than building damage; fits all of the hints that max has given out; would make sense with the fact that the explosion effects are getting updated, and also that (which I don't think anyone has mentioned yet) ships and debris will now appear on the Space Centre screen, which (assuming craters are the feature being added) would suggest that the craters would appear on this screen too (How cool would that look!?!). AFAIK, the plan for the game is still to turn it into a Kerbal Space Tycoon style game, and as money (and other things such as Rep/Funds/Science trading and Strategies being on the way) has now been added into the game, and that the Kerbal's have an Administration building suggest they could have their budget to look after their Space Centre too, like repairing any damage caused by stray rockets...

But I could be totally wrong, I'm not even convinced of the idea myself, so we'll just have to see what it is on Friday... I love a good surprise!

No, that can't be it, because Maxmaps said that nothing was disabled or enabled in that explosion video, and no explosion craters were produced.

[Rithsom]

The new explosion animations didn't give it away? It's a blast radius for explosions. The bigger the tank, the bigger the boom, causing more damage to other parts, potentially setting off a chain reaction if you have many large tanks. A precursor to damageable parts and atmospheric reentry damage (although I hate using the term "reentry" for any atmospheric entry, you know what I mean). Skilled players will likely not encounter this. When was the last time a "skilled" player blew up on the launch pad? It's been a long long time for me...

There are some weapon mods that add bombs with a blast radius though, but maybe Squad never considered that when they said the feature is not in a mod...

[SkyRex94]

i think the general crater idea was of the table when Maxmaps said 'no features where toggeled on/off here' relating the crash video. And there wasn't any crater. And i can't imagine a groundwork needed for Craters also needed for a bigger feature, since a damage model for buildings would be a different system than a crater showing system.

[cantab]

No, that can't be it, because Maxmaps said that nothing was disabled or enabled in that explosion video, and no explosion craters were produced.

Perhaps not so fast. The ground the plane hits looks like that immediately around the KSC complex, even though the runway looks a bit far away for that. So it could be that that area, along with all the buildings, is blastproof, but terrain further afield would crater.

Of note on the explosion though is that there are clearly fragments. They seem to have vanished at the end, but maybe we're getting debris shattering that could allow real Kessler syndrome.

[Renegrade]

It's still quite clearly even more randomized mission description text...

-Won't be exactly a common occurence,

More randomized text isn't exactly everywhere...

-Skilled players more often than not won't encounter it unless they deliberately do so,

Skilled players know the mission descriptions are random gobbledygook so don't read it.

-If you do encounter it, you'll have to deal with its' consequences,

Reading the mission description results in a headache...

-No mod has ever done it before,

Except for Renegrade's Even More Random Mission Description Text Mod, but Squad staff haven't ever seen it.

-It's a cool, but really small thing,

It's certainly small.

-It's only possible because of all the groundwork that they put in so a big 0.26 big feature could be possible.

The new more randomized kerbals in 0.26 rely on the same randomization routine~

...aha!

[Xacktar]

Except for Renegrade's Even More Random Mission Description Text Mod, but Squad staff haven't ever seen it.

You made it worse? I have now seen the true face of evil.

[Lhathron the Elf]

It's still quite clearly even more randomized mission description text...

More randomized text isn't exactly everywhere...

Skilled players know the mission descriptions are random gobbledygook so don't read it.

Reading the mission description results in a headache...

Except for Renegrade's Even More Random Mission Description Text Mod, but Squad staff haven't ever seen it.

It's certainly small.

The new more randomized kerbals in 0.26 rely on the same randomization routine~

...aha!

Perhaps, but Maxmaps mentioned in the HypeTrain discussion that he was sort of afraid because we were getting surprisingly close to the answer in the last few pages he had read of that thread. I read through the same ones and there's nothing there talking about randomized text. Plus, I'm pretty sure that randomized text was one of the things that was suggested pretty early on, and he said that the feature wasn't mentioned until very recently.

[Renegrade]

You made it worse? I have now seen the true face of evil.

No! The true face of evil is drafty roomiest hearts sweetest tent flyover forgiven sleetier derogates hush silica bedrocks ineffably burped waterpower.

[peachoftree]

its probably not crashing into ksc because it is very hard to do unintentionally, so new players probably wouldn't do it.

[bobcook]

The new explosion animations didn't give it away? It's a blast radius for explosions. The bigger the tank, the bigger the boom, causing more damage to other parts, potentially setting off a chain reaction if you have many large tanks. A precursor to damageable parts and atmospheric reentry damage (although I hate using the term "reentry" for any atmospheric entry, you know what I mean). Skilled players will likely not encounter this. When was the last time a "skilled" player blew up on the launch pad? It's been a long long time for me...

This seems very likely to me, its certainly something I could imagine being very entertaining. And if its not the "secret feature" then some mod really needs to add this.

[NecroBones]

maybe it's fires?

I think setting stuff on fire at KSC falls into the "destructible stuff" category. But it's certainly possible!

[Robotengineer]

What I'm wondering now is will the secret feature live up to the Hype/speculation? Do you think it will?

[Empiro]

I'm thinking that it could part damage. Other than landing legs, tires, and solar panels getting damaged, everything in the game is either "perfectly fine" or "blowed up". Maybe in .25 a hard collision won't blow up your engine anymore, but damage it, or cause your fuel tank to start leaking. It fits all of the categories, and good players usually don't hit things hard.