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The native ability for modders to place moons and rings on orbits round the relevant planets, rather than on tiny arms-to-other-planets

This would place moons on the way to their planets, rather than off to the side

And it would also allow lower sun orbits, and multiple planet orbits for whichever reason (sattellite mods...?)

Mostly this would be a way to make the system map look better XD

Would this just be a visual thing or would it impact platform motion?

Alfonse215 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 4:08 pm Would this just be a visual thing or would it impact platform motion?

The non-aesthetic part I envisage would be that moons etc would be able to be along the way to a planet instead of a weird short offshoot, so platforms could pass them instead of needing a detour: this would allow modders a great deal of staging-ground-themed possibilities, and different moons might allow certain production chains to be more easily moved off-planet; there could also be a larger type of rocket (probably also a mod) to transport stuff directly between a planet and its moons without needing a platform, further boosting a moon's usefulness as a sort of offshore port

Almalexia wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 6:40 pmThe non-aesthetic part I envisage would be that moons etc would be able to be along the way to a planet instead of a weird short offshoot

Can't mods do that as is? If a mod wants all traffic to a planet to go through a moon of that planet, can't they just change the various routes so that they all go through the moon, with only the moon having a direct route to the planet?

Almalexia wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 6:40 pm there could also be a larger type of rocket (probably also a mod) to transport stuff directly between a planet and its moons without needing a platform, further boosting a moon's usefulness as a sort of offshore port

Would that require a change to the engine? As I understand it, there are mods that remove space platforms entirely but keep the different planets. And they allow planets to directly request rocket loads from each other, or something similar.

So I'm fairly sure that's already a thing that can happen.

121788 is a Modding request to implement this, with details of the underlying APIs and links to previous discussions.

It is indeed already possible to create Routes only between certain Planets/Moon orbits. Space Age has no direct route between Vulcanus and Aquilo, for example. PlanetsLib is a community project for modded planets.

Alfonse215 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 7:03 pm Can't mods do that as is? If a mod wants all traffic to a planet to go through a moon of that planet, can't they just change the various routes so that they all go through the moon, with only the moon having a direct route to the planet?

That maintains the problem but switches the two bodies
And I don't want the traffic to HAVE to go through the moon, just to be able to

Alfonse215 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 7:03 pm Would that require a change to the engine? As I understand it, there are mods that remove space platforms entirely but keep the different planets. And they allow planets to directly request rocket loads from each other, or something similar.

So I'm fairly sure that's already a thing that can happen.

I'm not saying to remove platforms, just (as a side note) to maybe make them optional between a body and one of its orbits

I basically want platforms to not be the only thing capable of existing in orbit round a planet
But obviously a different orbit is required, just as sattellites round the Earth don't share the Moon's orbit

eugenekay wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 7:19 pm 121788 is a Modding request to implement this, with details of the underlying APIs and links to previous discussions.

It is indeed already possible to create Routes only between certain Planets/Moon orbits. Space Age has no direct route between Vulcanus and Aquilo, for example. PlanetsLib is a community project for modded planets.

Thank you! But I... can't make out quite what is in the tiny images, or parse the text, so I don't really know if that is what I want...