How to make Dres more interesting?

[Whirligig Girl]

Dres is by far the least interesting celestial body. It's orbit is kinda eh, and it's surface is just a generic selena. What would possibly make it more interesting? Some have suggested giving it a moon, but I really don't think that'd be all that interesting.

The devs have mentioned several times that there's not likely to be a GP2, and one of NovaSilisko's proposed moons is much like the planet "Inaccessible" from PlanetFactory. I think that it'd be super-awesome if Dres was given a spin that equates almost orbital velocity on the surface (Not faster than orbital velocity, like Inaccessible), and then suddenly inaccessible would be much more interesting. THis simple change would totally redefine Dres to be one of the most interesting bodies in the system! Basically, Dres's geosycronous orbit would be about 1 meter above the maximum surface. HarvesteR said he wanted the Klaw to be able to grab the ground, but he couldn't get it to work in time. Obviously you'd need the Klaw to work on the ground for this to work.

You may be thinking to yourself "But that's not realistic! Planets can't spin as fast as orbital velocity!" And you're (sorta) right! That's why it's not spinning quite as fast as orbital velocity. Also, gravity is not the only thing that could hold a planet together. Normal molecular forces are at play here as well, like how rocks stay together. There's even an asteroid that is spinning almost 1.2 times orbital velocity. It's held together in sorta the same way as a chinese finger trap. Furthermore, if Dres was spinning too fast to be held together, it would have thrown off all the material until only it was left... perhaps making the Transkerbin Asteroid Belt.

So what are your ideas to improve Dres?

Edited November 17, 2014 by GregroxMun

[bv1]

Easter eggs.

Everywhere.

[Whirligig Girl]

I just tested out this on my 3.2x config for RSS, and I think I'll include it in the next release.

[Whirligig Girl]

Easter eggs.

Everywhere.

[FunnyBunny14]

Wait... Why is there probably not going to be a gas planet 2? Could you please post a link?

Anyway, I haven't personally visited dres, but I feel that the stock version of fine print would more than make up for it not being that interesting. The mod included base building, station building, etc. So if someone has a mission to go to Dres, that person is going to Dres.

[Whirligig Girl]

I don't have a link, I just remember seeing it in some dev interviews and the reddit AMA. I think one of the major reasons whas stated to be that more planets puts a memory strain, and that they need to make sure all the other planets were interesting enough to visit. Hence... Dres.

[CaptRobau]

The main thing to take away was not the memory strain, but rather that they found it useless to add new planets if they weren't interesting to go to. Which the existing planets still suffer from.

[Whirligig Girl]

The main thing to take away was not the memory strain, but rather that they found it useless to add new planets if they weren't interesting to go to. Which the existing planets still suffer from.

Read ALL of my post above.

[check]

Dres ought to be an analogue to Ceres. In late winter/early spring 2015, the Dawn spacecraft will visit Ceres and we'll have our first up-close glimpse of it. There's some evidence that Ceres may be covered in ice and might have active cryo-volcanoes.

[Vaporo]

Interesting? How about more of those 2 Km deep canyons. Perhaps, if you really want to get crazy, you could give Dres a significant atmosphere (.5-2 atm), but have it at such a low altitude that you can only encounter it if you descend into the canyons. That certainly would be classified as an "interesting" feature.

[worir4]

Dres rights!!!! Stop this planetism. Don't worry Dres you are just as good as all the others. *Pats Dres on screen*

[zekes]

I like it beacuse it's like the mun, but far out. Might be a good "sentry" base planet... but other than that, yes it is quite dull.

[LABHOUSE]

Make it spin so it everything would weigh nothing at 20 degrees from equator.

[prophet_01]

Interesting? How about more of those 2 Km deep canyons. Perhaps, if you really want to get crazy, you could give Dres a significant atmosphere (.5-2 atm), but have it at such a low altitude that you can only encounter it if you descend into the canyons. That certainly would be classified as an "interesting" feature.

That sounds pretty awesome I would like that kind of change. 2 atm sounds rather unrealistic, but a duna like atmosphere at the camyons would be rly cool. Flying a super lightweight plane through there would be what I consider interesting spice up that space potato!

[Vaporo]

That sounds pretty awesome I would like that kind of change. 2 atm sounds rather unrealistic, but a duna like atmosphere at the camyons would be rly cool. Flying a super lightweight plane through there would be what I consider interesting spice up that space potato!

Yeah, I suppose that kind of pressure is a bit unrealistic. Then again, is any kind of atmosphere on Dres realistic?

[Whirligig Girl]

Make it spin so it everything would weigh nothing at 20 degrees from equator.

That would be a bit too much spin.

[Rakaydos]

Duna-thin Oxygen atmo, only in the canyons. With more canyons.

Can you get up to orbit on turbojets if you can only accelerate in the canyon? lets find out!

Bonus points for "puddle jumping" from one canyon to another!

[Slam_Jones]

Only visited Dres for the first time last week... gotta say, I'm amazed at how tiny and uninteresting it is. Literally anything would spice it up.

The canyons with atmosphere in them would be pretty rad. Maybe some sort of liquid (not water) flowing below the canyon atmosphere? Or even just terrain scatter other than basic rocks?

[Rakaydos]

Right now, the only hard part of Drez is gettig the encouter (small SoI) and slowing to orbital velocity (very little oberth bonus)

Giving it a high spin means that you add getting a perfect inclination to the important tasks, and makes exploring higher inclinations best done by rover.

[Whirligig Girl]

Right now, the only hard part of Drez is gettig the encouter (small SoI) and slowing to orbital velocity (very little oberth bonus)

Giving it a high spin means that you add getting a perfect inclination to the important tasks, and makes exploring higher inclinations best done by rover.

It's not a very small SOI, TBH. It's just that your intercept velocity is almost invariably huge.