Finding surface features (BG)

[valenti_scott]

Hello-
I'm new to BG. I restarted a game in science mode and built up my tech quite a bit.

I haven't really used any "BG" parts yet. I thought I'd start with trying to find a surface feature on Kerbin.

I used the "cheat" menu as recommended. I thought any nearby features would be indicated with a big red arrow or something like that.

I launched a small sub-orbital rocket just to see if there were any features in the area around KSC. I didn't see any. At this point I could use some help!...
-Scott

[GunsForBucks]

What did you do in the cheat menu? Only thing I use that for normally is infinite fuel and electric or completing contracts that are glitched?

The surface features will not show up on Kerbnet or anything like that. You just have to find them.

There are certain trees in the grasslands on kerbin. They tend to stand out from the others. Other than that the only other one on Kerbin is a large pink crystal deposits in the mountain biome.

Pretty sure Minimus only has two features as well. The Mun has a few more but different ones are mixed around in different biomes. Contracts for them will specify a correct boime though.

[Jupiter3927]

You really just have to find them.
Build a reasonably quick rover and you should be able to drive around and find something.
You should get one specific type of formation per biome with some biomes not getting anything.
The cheat menu can bring up a biome map, or you can use KerbNet to find different biomes.

If you have ground scatter turned on, turn it off.
This will make surface features stand out much better.

[valenti_scott]

I was referring to how you can enable "ROC Finder" and "ROC Scanpoints." Sorry, I just assumed that it's a thing players do. Here's the link:

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/185134-how-to-find-bg-surface-features-easily-spoiler-alert/

Yeah, I guess I'll try driving around looking for stuff.

[GunsForBucks]

Food luck!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2167256051

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2276230622

[Quizzical]

Turn off scatters, as that gets rid of junk that makes it much harder to spot surface features.

The surface features on Kerbin are actually among the harder ones to get. You could credibly argue that the quartz crystal one is the hardest one in the game outside of Eve. I'd try Minmus or Mun first.

[ulzgoroth]

I'd suggest that finding the Kerbin ROCs is quite simple. Actually doing science to them is a little less so though.

Kerbin's ROCs are giant trees in the grasslands and purple crystals in the mountains. Both can be seen from a low-flying airplane without much difficulty.

To get science from them you need to scan them with rover arms, though. Which have very short range, are fragile, and may require a bunch of electricity to operate too. (That last might have been a mod thing.) Obviously the easy way to get the arm close enough to the ROC is with a rover that can drive to precisely where you need it - but that takes a bunch of time to cover any distance and can have serious problems with steep terrain.

I got one Kerbin ROC with a rover driven from the KSC runway, and the other with a fairly painful helicopter flight. An airplane that drops or transforms into a parachute-landed rover might be the ideal approach...

Originally posted by Quizzical:

The surface features on Kerbin are actually among the harder ones to get. You could credibly argue that the quartz crystal one is the hardest one in the game outside of Eve. I'd try Minmus or Mun first.

It may vary, but it's possible to find quartz crystals on comfortably flat surfaces. Not all of the mountains areas are made up of steep slopes.

(Also I'm apparently terrible at landing rovers on the Mun without flipping or otherwise wrecking them.)

[valenti_scott]

Thanks for the replies, yeah, it sounds like driving a rover around on the Mun sounds like a good idea. Sounds tedious though.

In the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey," there were these rocket-powered Moon buses. Some rocket engines on the underside of the bus would get it to hover, and then additional thrust would get the bus to move forward. A neat concept, kind of like a helicopter. I wonder if any players have build these kinds of craft.

[Jupiter3927]

I sort of did but the fuel required to hover is kind of a waste of mass.
Wheels are much better at keeping you just above the ground and moving.
It's much easier to use a single engine and do a sub-orbital hop to wherever it is you want to go.

[GunsForBucks]

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

Thanks for the replies, yeah, it sounds like driving a rover around on the Mun sounds like a good idea. Sounds tedious though.

In the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey," there were these rocket-powered Moon buses. Some rocket engines on the underside of the bus would get it to hover, and then additional thrust would get the bus to move forward. A neat concept, kind of like a helicopter. I wonder if any players have build these kinds of craft.

you can cover a decent amount of ground just using the backpack. Faster than driving for scouting around an area. At least on low gravity places like moons.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2093439582

[valenti_scott]

I suppose with short sub-orbital hops, or scooting around in a jet-pack, you should be low enough, and slow enough, to spot those features.

[ulzgoroth]

IME on the Mun you won't have to make much effort to find the ROCs. They're relatively densely placed and, unlike Kerbin, they're not biome-specific. I've typically had more than one Mun rock and more than one crater (though it's hard to assess which size from a distance) in easy view of my landers. (I haven't yet actually gotten a rover with an arm operating on the surface to scan the craters, though.)

If you've got Kerbals along, yes, a jetpack scouting trip is a good way to find ROCs on low-gravity bodies. You could do the same with a flying rover, but flying Kerbals are much cheaper and safer.

[GunsForBucks]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

IME on the Mun you won't have to make much effort to find the ROCs. They're relatively densely placed and, unlike Kerbin, they're not biome-specific. I've typically had more than one Mun rock and more than one crater (though it's hard to assess which size from a distance) in easy view of my landers. (I haven't yet actually gotten a rover with an arm operating on the surface to scan the craters, though.)

If you've got Kerbals along, yes, a jetpack scouting trip is a good way to find ROCs on low-gravity bodies. You could do the same with a flying rover, but flying Kerbals are much cheaper and safer.

They are supposed to be biome specific.. but some are in many biomes and I think one biome has them all.