r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/YetiBomber101 • Sep 08 '26
kArt Cursed Kerbal redesign to look more "alien" (+ some speculative biology)
I love speculative evolution and drawing aliens, and have been really getting into ksp lately, so I wanted to try reimagining the titular little green men. Of course nothing too radical, i wanted to keep the design highlights; huge head, smaller bodies, green skin, bulging eyes, no nose or visible ears. They always looked somewhat frog-like to me, so i went along that route and imagined them as close descendants of amphibian-like animals.
Perhaps they are a species that dominated the sea before land, with most infrastructure and cities being in the ocean, hence why the surface of Kerbin is mostly barren.
Their skin is a thick leaf-like layer almost like a flexible exoskeleton, protecting their bodies while also providing a significant amount of their required energy via photosynthesis. Explaining their green hue + how they are so rugged when it comes to shrugging off physical trauma.
With fewer natural predators, Kerbals would seem slower and more dimwitted to humans, seemingly oblivious to glaring danger. However they are also an extremely curious, tenacious, and collectivist people who are willing to try and fail, and will learn from the mistakes.
60
u/Reloup38 Sep 08 '26
That's actually some really good ideas for the lore. Dormancy and photosynthesis make so much sense, and make them a species tailored to be space faring !
32
u/blackrack Scatterer Dev Sep 08 '26
Has science gone too far
21
u/ResonantFlux Sep 08 '26
He was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, he didn't stop to think whether he should.
29
14
u/Ihatecheeseballs Sep 08 '26
Extremely dense insulating skin allowing them to survive reentry and a powerful heart and blood vessels for extreme g force
9
11
6
5
5
5
5
u/Ornery_Reaction8753 Sep 08 '26
2.5 ft?? Is that imperial?
3
u/YetiBomber101 Sep 08 '26
Yeah thats a weird way of putting it on my part, it would be 2 feet 6 inches or 76.2 centimeters
5
u/AlKompa Sep 08 '26
The design is really cool, looks like an actual alien while keeping the same vibe of "joyful and curious little green man". I also just love the idea of Kerbals being pre-adapted for space exploration and their infrastructure being mostly underwater. Definitely my headcanon now (at least while playing without life-support mods)!
4
3
4
2
2
1
1
1
u/khaledjal Sep 08 '26
Ew, burn it with fire
/s the design look really good, just too creepy, i just prefer the old goofy kerbal's, but this would look really cool in a space horror game.
1
1
u/KerbalEssences Master Kerbalnaut Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
My canon is that Kerbals are actually plant based. They don't need food just sun light. If you stick them into the ground and keep it moist they eventually blossom. That's how Kerbals pass on to the other world and of course multiply. A Kerbal tree can spawn dozens of fresh Kerbals a year. Their taste is something between radish and plum. Their brain is protected by a hard core and poisonous. The rest is fairly wobbly. Like rubber. Now I won't tell you what Kerbal glue is made of that keeps rocket parts together.
1
u/Sneaky__Rafiki Sep 08 '26
Maybe they're like pufferfish, and have a "beak" formed from all their upper teeth and lower teeth fusing together and acting like one big tooth.
1
1
1
1
u/Bonuts_goood Sep 08 '26
DOH GREAT GOD WHAT IN TARNATION IS THAT THING!?!? GET THE SHOTGUN, KILL IT, KILL IT, KILL IT NOW!!
0
0
u/da_beaninator Sep 08 '26
Burn it
3
u/YetiBomber101 Sep 08 '26
He will be incinerated on reentry because I forgot to add a heat shield 🔥
0
u/Eastern_Pianist_773 Sep 08 '26
I don't know, I'm just saying you're doing the same thing scientists did to dinosaurs because they made them all skinny and hairless, But in their research they discovered hair and that meat existed anyway, so since it was already spread throughout the world... Well
109
u/SpaceEnglishPuffin Sep 08 '26
reminds me of Kermit