How difficult is it to find surface features? :: Kerbal Space Program General Discussions

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Heropants

Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:15am

How difficult is it to find surface features?

I started a new game with breaking ground. I’ve search for about an hour on Minmus at the greater flats for some green rock but can’t find anything.

I’ve been unable to find any surface features at all. How uncommon are there? I’m worried for some reason my game isn’t loading then in but I definitely don’t want to restart again.

Does anyone know of a surface feature close to one of the launch sites so I can check? Or how difficult has it been for you to find anything?

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Showing 1-9 of 9 comments

Joshua21b

Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:25am

I do know surface features are more common in certain biomes, Whenever I get a contract to bring one back it usually list the best areas to find it. Though I don't know of an in game way to see where each biome is at.

SolarFlare1234 Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:35am

Just keep searching, they can be pretty hard to spot. You'll find them eventually on your own, but you can turn on cheats to find them if you can't be bothered, but i found mine by spending a long long time just searching around, worth it for that sweet sweet science bonus.

Enorats

Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:37am

I landed at one of the flats on Minmus and flew my Kerbal around in a roughly 20km diameter circle using the EVA pack. I found no surface features at all on the flats, and a single large green rock several times the size of my lander up in the Midlands. When I took off I kept my lander a couple hundred meters off the surface and just skimmed for a good 50km until I burned off excess fuel. In that time I found another 2 such rocks, and those two were right next to each other.

The surface feature items look "newer" than other stuff. Minmus rocks are textureless lumps, while the new surface features have pretty textures.

There is a single boabob tree not far from KSC. Head towards the mountains until you're in the grasslands - you go up the hill, pass through the old "forest" and once you leave all the old trees behind you'll find a very different looking tree just sitting out in the middle of nowhere on its own. You can see it from a long way off with a plane.

Note: Without a scanning arm the surface features didn't seem to have any interactions at all. I couldn't take a sample from them or anything.

Last edited by Enorats; Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:37am

Heropants

Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:40am

Originally posted by Enorats:
I landed at one of the flats on Minmus and flew my Kerbal around in a roughly 20km diameter circle using the EVA pack. I found no surface features at all on the flats, and a single large green rock several times the size of my lander up in the Midlands. When I took off I kept my lander a couple hundred meters off the surface and just skimmed for a good 50km until I burned off excess fuel. In that time I found another 2 such rocks, and those two were right next to each other.

The surface feature items look "newer" than other stuff. Minmus rocks are textureless lumps, while the new surface features have pretty textures.

There is a single boabob tree not far from KSC. Head towards the mountains until you're in the grasslands - you go up the hill, pass through the old "forest" and once you leave all the old trees behind you'll find a very different looking tree just sitting out in the middle of nowhere on its own. You can see it from a long way off with a plane.

Thank you! I did the same thing with searching on the flats and found nothing. I’ll see if I can find that tree!

SolarFlare1234 Jun 2, 2019 @ 10:40am

Remember that small samples can be picked up and returned, big features need rover arms.

Heropants

Jun 2, 2019 @ 11:10am

Originally posted by Enorats:
I landed at one of the flats on Minmus and flew my Kerbal around in a roughly 20km diameter circle using the EVA pack. I found no surface features at all on the flats, and a single large green rock several times the size of my lander up in the Midlands. When I took off I kept my lander a couple hundred meters off the surface and just skimmed for a good 50km until I burned off excess fuel. In that time I found another 2 such rocks, and those two were right next to each other.

The surface feature items look "newer" than other stuff. Minmus rocks are textureless lumps, while the new surface features have pretty textures.

There is a single boabob tree not far from KSC. Head towards the mountains until you're in the grasslands - you go up the hill, pass through the old "forest" and once you leave all the old trees behind you'll find a very different looking tree just sitting out in the middle of nowhere on its own. You can see it from a long way off with a plane.

Note: Without a scanning arm the surface features didn't seem to have any interactions at all. I couldn't take a sample from them or anything.

I found the tree, thank you!