Rearranging the KSC building layout

[Cronicler]

With the new KSC upgrade system going live, the way KSC buildings are placed has spawned a bit of an issue for the early game. As you are all aware, while the final / fully upgraded layout is extremely pleasing to the eye;

The starting layout is a bit problematic:

now, the root of the problem stems from an actually right decision of not moving the clickable locations around with each upgrade and needlessly forcing the player to hunt for the moving building locations. Unfortunately, in the current layout, this creates a lot of empty spaces.

I think the the solution to this might lie in the placements of the the tracking station, admin building and the launch pad.

If we crop these buildings from their current locations;

And move them like so;

https://scontent-b-fra.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1503851_10153544780862814_6454937567043523733_n.jpg?oh=cc3a0eda243d410bab6d7931a97b4c55&oe=552C0575

the zones can be kept consistent with some creative usage of landscaping while the low level buildings can be moved closer to the S1&S4 building (as Flagpole is the focal point of KSC) in their respective areas, giving a tighter layout that would feel organically expanding as time goes on.

what are your thoughts on this and apologies for the paintshop job, I'm not at home and don't have anything available on the old laptop I'm using right now.

[mattinoz]

Wouldn't moving the admin building so that it's forward of the science complex in the gap to the tracking station solve the problem just as well?

Better still allow us to not ever build the admin building and move contracts that gap.

Oh and remove any surplus roads while they are overhauling the models it's odd how some have strange ring roads from day one, while others develop sensible ring roads during the upgrade path.

[Cronicler]

mattinoz;

Not really. The center of the yellow hexagon (the area between the flagpole and the kerbalnaut complex) is the focal point of the KSC. All of the buildings* need to be dragged as close as possible to that location so that as they grow in size and start sprawling, it feels more organic and plausible.

*the only exception is the tracking station which needs clear LOS for it's tracking domes, when they are built. This can be achieved by moving it like this;

The blue triangle area is the tier 0 / 1 tracking station (basically a combination of the island runway tower at the triangle,a cluster of a quonset hut or three southwest of the tower and a radio tower (similar to b9's suggestion) south of the blue triangle, at the location of t3 building.)

[Amahula]

I would support this. The current KSC looks kinda weird with the small buildings so far apart. This would look a lot better with the buildings initially closer together.

BUT: I do want the barn. Not just the same buildings rearranged (but that's just my opinion)

[Red Iron Crown]

Moving buildings closer to the runway and moving the launchpad closer to the buildings strike me as Bad Ideas. It's not clear to me what problem the proposed layout solves.

[Cronicler]

Red Iron Crown;

I think we might have a slight miscommunication, I don't want to move the buildings closer to the runway or the launch pad. As you said, that is a patently bad idea.

What ı would like to see is eliminating the empty "will be filled later on" spaces that can be observed in the initial building layout (the second picture) and the why is by keeping the kerbalnaut complex as the focal point and arranging the initial buildings (inside their own zones) closer to the kerbalnaut building and eliminating a very large chunk of the roads.

When rearranged in such a manner, tracking station and the admin/contracts building are the only 2 buildings whose initial placement still feel a bit off. To solve this, I propose moving the admin building's zone to the west side of the ksc, to the north of the boundary between strategy office and kerbalnaut center.

For the tracking station, I thought, "why would the kerbals put the initial station to such a far away location?" because there isn't any real LOS blockers (other than the Barn) that would prompt such a decision. So, going by the inevitable decision chain of startups, if taskmistress El Necessity wasn't the culprit, then her nieces, El laziness and El cheapness must be the cause: There must have been an existing building there !

now, if Squad had been going for a Peenemünde style industrial look for the tier 0 stuff, I could have easily gone with: "Oh, there were some tanks that used to hold the liquid waste products from the factory but they are all gone now." and not have any problems with having the tracking station in it's original position but from what I've been able to understand (an admittedly limited capability of mine, I'll freely admit, ) Jeb and Co will be descending onto an abandoned farm so such an outbuilding cluster would be out of place.

That's why I turned my attention to the (south of) runway (,northeast of VAB) area. There, I could easily explain the existence of a pair or trio of existing buildings, which could have been augmented by a few quonset huts and turned into a makeshift tracking station.

The problem with that approach is, as you mentioned, putting it too close to the launch pad so I just moved the launch pad a south (and slightly west) near to the original location of the tracking center (and that part of the mspaint masterpiece is not really up to scale. Wrote that post and created the visuals on a coal powered laptop. Sorry ).

[Amahula]

Moving buildings closer to the runway and moving the launchpad closer to the buildings strike me as Bad Ideas. It's not clear to me what problem the proposed layout solves.

The problem is that the buildings are too small and too far apart. It makes it look awkward in my opinion. By putting the buildings closer together and expanding outwards it doesn't look that weird in the beginning, while the buildings do not get closer together when you upgrade them.

[Red Iron Crown]

Ah, it's an aesthetic thing. I don't really see the buildings getting much closer together in the proposed layout, only the admin building would be significantly affected.

I agree that it's the roads that make it look odd moreso than the building spacing.

[Cronicler]

Red, my replies seem to be lost in the ether. I'll repost them again