The 10 features that would make the game much more in-depth (My opinion)

[MrNeon]

Hello again. You might recognize me from a post about resource extraction and how it would work, and i'm back at suggesting again.
Some of these features might not be easy to implement, so i don't expect all of them to be in KSA in the future.

Let's start.

1. Resource extraction that matters
I've already covered the same thing in my previous suggestion: Let's make every celestial have a designated ore quantity and some of the ores in the game, with some having a unique ore. If you want to save a lot of your budget, you could go harvest them on other celestial bodies. Examples - antimatter farming inside a gas giant's orbit or mining radioactive ores on a dangerous moon.

2. (Smart) Part failures
This can be difficult to balance between RNG hell where you're constantly anxious of a crucial part to fail or between just total carelessness. Part failures themselves should teach you that space isn't going to hold your hand - if you're careless, it can punish you. So i propose a system where a vital part failure (like an engine failing to ignite) has a very low chance of happening, but the less-vital parts like one of two solar panels can fail to track/deploy, or more. About the carelessness part - if you will put your parts under constant stress, they have a significantly higher chance of failing. Obviously, we should make part failures not completely ruin the mission, but also make them matter enough. It's a difficult system to balance, but it can make space missions a lot more interesting.

3. Planetary biomes
A biome that would have a unique resource, hazard, science, or just landscape on some of the planets would be an amazing feature. Another reason to visit a planet!

4. Colonies that matter
I really hope that colonies get implemented in KSA. If they do, i want them to matter. You're going to place a begineer module first (like robotic construction drones or even actual, trained workers), then you can choose what to build like a science module, storage module, mining module, habitation module, etc. (with your style of course!) Colonies shouldn't be a cool accomplishment either - they need to yield you science, money, resources, bonuses/multipliers or more automatically (if they're taken care of properly)

5. Atleast slightly functional weather
The clouds are already a huge part of KSA in this stage of development, and we have already seen Martian dust storms in KSA! So why not make them functional? A dust storm that could dust solar panels, a storm that could obstruct solar power, or a hurricane that makes fragile parts have a higher chance of failing. The weather would also apply to colonies - it can either give you science, or damage a colony. This and some simple weather protection would make colonies and planetary exploration much better.

6. Proper interplanetary/advanced propulsion
One of the core flaws i hated in KSP was the lack of interplanetary engines. We only had the NERV, and the ion engine, which were both very annoying to use because of their TWR. It would be fantastic to have more options than just two, and the best example is none other than Nertea's mods! Kerbal Atomics, FFT, Near Future Suite... all amazing, and they showcase the many ways of travelling between planets.

7. An interesting home star system
Very, VERY crucial. As a person highly interested in planets, i would hate to see the custom system to be a bunch of "analogs" that are just slightly different in color/texture planets. Why won't we add a touch of originality? Put a gas giant between terrestrial planets? Make a huge terrestrial planet? Give our homeworld two moons just like Kerbin? Have binary planets? Have a semi-habitable world to colonize? This would make the star system feel much more alien, but still keep that touch of similarity by adding a slightly darker Mars analog, a ringed, recolored and smaller Venus analog or a sideways spinning Jupiter analog.

8. Long research
KSP's game loop was land->get science->take off. Which basically ruined the game loop. Let's make science experiments (especially the complex ones) take time to get! And if you want even more science, research on the celestial you're on instead on your homeworld! Absolutely needed to be honest.

9. Space infrastructure that matters over time.
Telescopes, relays, satellites, space stations, colonies... you name it. They should all give you a bonus or a multiplier for something like science or money that highly matters in the endgame as parts get costlier and costlier. This would force you to populate your system with space infrastructure for an easier future.

10. Optional, simple life support
For the less-casual players, oxygen and food supplies, and a basic recycling system. Not particularly interested in life support as i am a casual player myself but that would definitely make some people happy.

Honorable mention: Recolourable parts
Just like in KSP2. It would allow us to add some colorfulness and theme to our spacecraft, bases, or rovers. Not very important but still good to have.

This was written pretty hastily and might contain some mistakes. It also wasn't very thought-out and just a dump of my suggestions.
Anyways, dear RocketWerkz, this was a huge suggestion post and i'm honored to be in this community. I hope y'all can use it someday.
- MrNeon : )

 

[croxis]

The problem with part failure is that it is easy to bypass -- I'd just add 10 of everything. KSP is very forgiving with how much fuel one needs. You are right, random failures are not fun, but failure from part overload is something that the player still has agency over.

 

[LongLiveKSA!]

Hello again. You might recognize me from a post about resource extraction and how it would work, and i'm back at suggesting again.
Some of these features might not be easy to implement, so i don't expect all of them to be in KSA in the future.

Let's start.

1. Resource extraction that matters
I've already covered the same thing in my previous suggestion: Let's make every celestial have a designated ore quantity and some of the ores in the game, with some having a unique ore. If you want to save a lot of your budget, you could go harvest them on other celestial bodies. Examples - antimatter farming inside a gas giant's orbit or mining radioactive ores on a dangerous moon.

2. (Smart) Part failures
This can be difficult to balance between RNG hell where you're constantly anxious of a crucial part to fail or between just total carelessness. Part failures themselves should teach you that space isn't going to hold your hand - if you're careless, it can punish you. So i propose a system where a vital part failure (like an engine failing to ignite) has a very low chance of happening, but the less-vital parts like one of two solar panels can fail to track/deploy, or more. About the carelessness part - if you will put your parts under constant stress, they have a significantly higher chance of failing. Obviously, we should make part failures not completely ruin the mission, but also make them matter enough. It's a difficult system to balance, but it can make space missions a lot more interesting.

3. Planetary biomes
A biome that would have a unique resource, hazard, science, or just landscape on some of the planets would be an amazing feature. Another reason to visit a planet!

4. Colonies that matter
I really hope that colonies get implemented in KSA. If they do, i want them to matter. You're going to place a begineer module first (like robotic construction drones or even actual, trained workers), then you can choose what to build like a science module, storage module, mining module, habitation module, etc. (with your style of course!) Colonies shouldn't be a cool accomplishment either - they need to yield you science, money, resources, bonuses/multipliers or more automatically (if they're taken care of properly)

5. Atleast slightly functional weather
The clouds are already a huge part of KSA in this stage of development, and we have already seen Martian dust storms in KSA! So why not make them functional? A dust storm that could dust solar panels, a storm that could obstruct solar power, or a hurricane that makes fragile parts have a higher chance of failing. The weather would also apply to colonies - it can either give you science, or damage a colony. This and some simple weather protection would make colonies and planetary exploration much better.

6. Proper interplanetary/advanced propulsion
One of the core flaws i hated in KSP was the lack of interplanetary engines. We only had the NERV, and the ion engine, which were both very annoying to use because of their TWR. It would be fantastic to have more options than just two, and the best example is none other than Nertea's mods! Kerbal Atomics, FFT, Near Future Suite... all amazing, and they showcase the many ways of travelling between planets.

7. An interesting home star system
Very, VERY crucial. As a person highly interested in planets, i would hate to see the custom system to be a bunch of "analogs" that are just slightly different in color/texture planets. Why won't we add a touch of originality? Put a gas giant between terrestrial planets? Make a huge terrestrial planet? Give our homeworld two moons just like Kerbin? Have binary planets? Have a semi-habitable world to colonize? This would make the star system feel much more alien, but still keep that touch of similarity by adding a slightly darker Mars analog, a ringed, recolored and smaller Venus analog or a sideways spinning Jupiter analog.

8. Long research
KSP's game loop was land->get science->take off. Which basically ruined the game loop. Let's make science experiments (especially the complex ones) take time to get! And if you want even more science, research on the celestial you're on instead on your homeworld! Absolutely needed to be honest.

9. Space infrastructure that matters over time.
Telescopes, relays, satellites, space stations, colonies... you name it. They should all give you a bonus or a multiplier for something like science or money that highly matters in the endgame as parts get costlier and costlier. This would force you to populate your system with space infrastructure for an easier future.

10. Optional, simple life support
For the less-casual players, oxygen and food supplies, and a basic recycling system. Not particularly interested in life support as i am a casual player myself but that would definitely make some people happy.

Honorable mention: Recolourable parts
Just like in KSP2. It would allow us to add some colorfulness and theme to our spacecraft, bases, or rovers. Not very important but still good to have.

This was written pretty hastily and might contain some mistakes. It also wasn't very thought-out and just a dump of my suggestions.
Anyways, dear RocketWerkz, this was a huge suggestion post and i'm honored to be in this community. I hope y'all can use it someday.
- MrNeon : )

Yes. I agree. Functional weather is a must, and part failures and maintenance would be incredible. Long research is a good concept also. Recolourable parts is also a must for me. And no more only analog solar systems.

 

[dagasi]

Hello again. You might recognize me from a post about resource extraction and how it would work, and i'm back at suggesting again.
Some of these features might not be easy to implement, so i don't expect all of them to be in KSA in the future.

Let's start.

1. Resource extraction that matters
I've already covered the same thing in my previous suggestion: Let's make every celestial have a designated ore quantity and some of the ores in the game, with some having a unique ore. If you want to save a lot of your budget, you could go harvest them on other celestial bodies. Examples - antimatter farming inside a gas giant's orbit or mining radioactive ores on a dangerous moon.

2. (Smart) Part failures
This can be difficult to balance between RNG hell where you're constantly anxious of a crucial part to fail or between just total carelessness. Part failures themselves should teach you that space isn't going to hold your hand - if you're careless, it can punish you. So i propose a system where a vital part failure (like an engine failing to ignite) has a very low chance of happening, but the less-vital parts like one of two solar panels can fail to track/deploy, or more. About the carelessness part - if you will put your parts under constant stress, they have a significantly higher chance of failing. Obviously, we should make part failures not completely ruin the mission, but also make them matter enough. It's a difficult system to balance, but it can make space missions a lot more interesting.

3. Planetary biomes
A biome that would have a unique resource, hazard, science, or just landscape on some of the planets would be an amazing feature. Another reason to visit a planet!

4. Colonies that matter
I really hope that colonies get implemented in KSA. If they do, i want them to matter. You're going to place a begineer module first (like robotic construction drones or even actual, trained workers), then you can choose what to build like a science module, storage module, mining module, habitation module, etc. (with your style of course!) Colonies shouldn't be a cool accomplishment either - they need to yield you science, money, resources, bonuses/multipliers or more automatically (if they're taken care of properly)

5. Atleast slightly functional weather
The clouds are already a huge part of KSA in this stage of development, and we have already seen Martian dust storms in KSA! So why not make them functional? A dust storm that could dust solar panels, a storm that could obstruct solar power, or a hurricane that makes fragile parts have a higher chance of failing. The weather would also apply to colonies - it can either give you science, or damage a colony. This and some simple weather protection would make colonies and planetary exploration much better.

6. Proper interplanetary/advanced propulsion
One of the core flaws i hated in KSP was the lack of interplanetary engines. We only had the NERV, and the ion engine, which were both very annoying to use because of their TWR. It would be fantastic to have more options than just two, and the best example is none other than Nertea's mods! Kerbal Atomics, FFT, Near Future Suite... all amazing, and they showcase the many ways of travelling between planets.

7. An interesting home star system
Very, VERY crucial. As a person highly interested in planets, i would hate to see the custom system to be a bunch of "analogs" that are just slightly different in color/texture planets. Why won't we add a touch of originality? Put a gas giant between terrestrial planets? Make a huge terrestrial planet? Give our homeworld two moons just like Kerbin? Have binary planets? Have a semi-habitable world to colonize? This would make the star system feel much more alien, but still keep that touch of similarity by adding a slightly darker Mars analog, a ringed, recolored and smaller Venus analog or a sideways spinning Jupiter analog.

8. Long research
KSP's game loop was land->get science->take off. Which basically ruined the game loop. Let's make science experiments (especially the complex ones) take time to get! And if you want even more science, research on the celestial you're on instead on your homeworld! Absolutely needed to be honest.

9. Space infrastructure that matters over time.
Telescopes, relays, satellites, space stations, colonies... you name it. They should all give you a bonus or a multiplier for something like science or money that highly matters in the endgame as parts get costlier and costlier. This would force you to populate your system with space infrastructure for an easier future.

10. Optional, simple life support
For the less-casual players, oxygen and food supplies, and a basic recycling system. Not particularly interested in life support as i am a casual player myself but that would definitely make some people happy.

Honorable mention: Recolourable parts
Just like in KSP2. It would allow us to add some colorfulness and theme to our spacecraft, bases, or rovers. Not very important but still good to have.

This was written pretty hastily and might contain some mistakes. It also wasn't very thought-out and just a dump of my suggestions.
Anyways, dear RocketWerkz, this was a huge suggestion post and i'm honored to be in this community. I hope y'all can use it someday.
- MrNeon : )

interstellar?

 

[SquarishRktangle]

I had a thread on the KSP forums about this, and I definitely think there's a way for the game to incorporate mods from the first game, but in a stock-like manner. Perfectionism about compatibility and art styles has kept me from using good-looking mods in the past.

 

[Sumessefui]

Atleast slightly functional weather

Something that would be nice, though it might be really hard to do in practice, would be winds. They would add some ... complications to landing and taking off in planes.

 

[Sumessefui]

On solar systems - a hot Jupiter type planet might be fun, especially since they are one of the commoner types of planet.

 

[Isgrin]

9. Space infrastructure that matters over time.
Telescopes, relays, satellites, space stations, colonies... you name it. They should all give you a bonus or a multiplier for something like science or money that highly matters in the endgame as parts get costlier and costlier. This would force you to populate your system with space infrastructure for an easier future.

Yes, this is very important for me too. But i dont think it should be based on plane buffs or numbers, that would get dull. I think more important than buff numbers, are that they provide unique tangible perks that you can make practical use of, making your life easier in some respects, automatizing some processes, and expanding the things that you can do.

Like idk maybe at the start you can only see the orbits of nearby planets, and to make more potent telescopes you need a mineral that you can only get in one of the furthest planets you can reach to at the moment, but you also need telecomunication to maintain them properly updated so you need a net of satellites. And when you finally broaden the radius of your telescopes you can study the orbits of further planets.
And maybe one of them has a mineral that you can use to make conveyor belts to automatize mining at home, or a mineral to make propellers specialized for transporting materials between planets. Or maybe a technology that you have to study from a specific planet because of its position or the atmosphere or whatever, so you have to send a mission there, but if you already had a launcher in a nearby moon (that would have needed its telecoms set beforehand, so having a mining station at some other planet could really help) it would be much easier to send a mission there and other places.

I think a lot of that should be kinda optional, in that a pro, that knows the stuff already, could skip some of it and get to a certain goal really quickly but with higher risks, but in a normal playthrough you have to explore the possibilities and rely on setting bases, building infrastructure, and transportation and comunication nets, etc, and an emphasis on you deciding what path would you like to take.
With each planet/moon having its own unique perks to exploit. Like would you go base first in this planet where you can extract all this rare to find at home gases for fancy propellers, and where the telecoms net would be in a perfect position, or would you go first to this moon where the absence of atmosphere would make it perfect for a launching hub for missions and/or transport of materials, or this other moon where there is a lot of gold to fund the heavy rockets you like to do made out of the most basic propellers with 20 tanks attached to them because "this time it will work" lmao, or will you go next to this other planet which has a special glass that makes telescopes 10x more potent and there are bacteria that feed off ammonia producing plant potent nutrients that you can use in your colonies so that you need to send supplies less often to them, etc.
I realize I got carried off a lot haha mb, this is the stuff that makes my brain tickle the most in games like this, but you get the idea

 

[Hermano]

2. (Smart) Part failures
This can be difficult to balance between RNG hell where you're constantly anxious of a crucial part to fail or between just total carelessness. Part failures themselves should teach you that space isn't going to hold your hand - if you're careless, it can punish you. So i propose a system where a vital part failure (like an engine failing to ignite) has a very low chance of happening, but the less-vital parts like one of two solar panels can fail to track/deploy, or more. About the carelessness part - if you will put your parts under constant stress, they have a significantly higher chance of failing. Obviously, we should make part failures not completely ruin the mission, but also make them matter enough. It's a difficult system to balance, but it can make space missions a lot more interesting.

Getting this right will be quite hard. I liked how testflight worked in ksp, with lots of failures for untested parts that would be expected and high reliability later.
Other ways are exciting in theory. But in reality you would just add duplicate parts on your craft which really isn't that interesting an design challenge.
The first failures might be interesting, but repairing parts of your space station the nth time just gets annoying.
The other option, which I already mentioned in another thread, is to have contracts available that would spawn a failure as soon as you accept and would reward you for fixing them.
In the end playing the game should be fun.

5. Atleast slightly functional weather
The clouds are already a huge part of KSA in this stage of development, and we have already seen Martian dust storms in KSA! So why not make them functional? A dust storm that could dust solar panels, a storm that could obstruct solar power, or a hurricane that makes fragile parts have a higher chance of failing. The weather would also apply to colonies - it can either give you science, or damage a colony. This and some simple weather protection would make colonies and planetary exploration much better.

Adding wind could actually be fun. Having storms that get in the way of starts or returns could be interesting. Landing a plane in different winds would also be a challenge. There was a mod for this in ksp, but it was somewhat limited and I removed it after some time.

8. Long research
KSP's game loop was land->get science->take off. Which basically ruined the game loop. Let's make science experiments (especially the complex ones) take time to get! And if you want even more science, research on the celestial you're on instead on your homeworld! Absolutely needed to be honest.

In ksp qfter playing with kerbalism the stock science system is pretty much unacceptable for me. But the science time for experiments in flight should not be to long (unless balloons are available).

 

[Sumessefui]

Adding wind could actually be fun. Having storms that get in the way of starts or returns could be interesting. Landing a plane in different winds would also be a challenge.

Yes! Couldn't agree more! (see my post above)

 

[NeunMonde]

Weather could also play into the satellite mechanics mentioned in this Thread about satellite mechanics.
Satellites could be placed into orbit in order to gather data about wind speed and direction, precipitation and air pressure.
This could then be used by the player to plan launch dates as well as spacecraft return dates and locations that minimize risk to the mission as well as picking out suitable spots for a colony for example, where storms or other extreme weather events are less likely.

I also think that research via telescopes might be a cool part, as a big part of space science focuses on this. It might be interesting to have KSA include several different jobs/fields from space related industries in order to present them to the audience like some sort of interactive presentation.
A bit like MSFS2024 aims to present different aeronautical careers like freight pilot, agricultural pilot, SAR, etc. I would be thrilled to see multiple fields ranging from high altitude balloons trough debris tracking, deep space communication and cosmology up to the "classic" spaceflight content launching payloads.
This could also be done in collaboration with institutes, companies or experts and could be accompanied by a showcase video/mini documentary. In my opinion this could be a way for KSA to further strengthen its ability to bring people into aerospace jobs, a quality that KSP already had but mostly did not directly address.

 

[Sumessefui]

I also think that research via telescopes might be a cool part, as a big part of space science focuses on this. It might be interesting to have KSA include several different jobs/fields from space related industries in order to present them to the audience like some sort of interactive presentation.
A bit like MSFS2024 aims to present different aeronautical careers like freight pilot, agricultural pilot, SAR, etc. I would be thrilled to see multiple fields ranging from high altitude balloons trough debris tracking, deep space communication and cosmology up to the "classic" spaceflight content launching payloads.
This could also be done in collaboration with institutes, companies or experts and could be accompanied by a showcase video/mini documentary. In my opinion this could be a way for KSA to further strengthen its ability to bring people into aerospace jobs, a quality that KSP already had but mostly did not directly address.

Yes, but you have to be careful about adding too much complication.
Another feature that would be great fun for interstellar, though probably very complicated to implement, would be time dilation/length contraction. Exceedingly useful with life support, as irl.

 

[Pokemonfan102]

I think part failures will be a difficult thing to balance. Too far one way and it's inconsequential, too far the other and it's frustrating and doesn't respect the player's time (which is generally how I feel about mods like OhScrap!, and TestFlight). Would be cool though if they can strike a good balance. I've played with some life support mods, and I think a simple system like USI life support would be a great feature for stock KSA.

 

[Bumblecheese]

For most of these things, I would say they are better left open as mods.
In KSP, there are mods for all of these things, some working better thanothers, so I think as long as there is a framework there for these types of things and enough headroom so that people can run more than the basegame this should be fine.
But I do not think it is a good idea for the base game to go the full route and add lots off complicating factors like part failures which it is really too early now when there is not even a way to build ships.
I think that was one of the big issues with KSP 2 where they really wanted to add colonies and intrastellar transportation, but forgot the basics.

 

[Sumessefui]

For most of these things, I would say they are better left open as mods.
In KSP, there are mods for all of these things, some working better thanothers, so I think as long as there is a framework there for these types of things and enough headroom so that people can run more than the basegame this should be fine.
But I do not think it is a good idea for the base game to go the full route and add lots off complicating factors like part failures which it is really too early now when there is not even a way to build ships.
I think that was one of the big issues with KSP 2 where they really wanted to add colonies and intrastellar transportation, but forgot the basics.

Sort of? Clearly most of these features shouldn't be added yet; I was thinking that these would be best added after the devs had already got a KSP-like game, but there is a good argument for having most of these in stock. You are certainly right that some (including part failures) would probably be best left to modders.