.24 Lets give the Kerbals some love.

[Motokid600]

I was going to mention this in the other .24 thread, but theres just a bunch of struts in there. So this is what im thinking ID like to see in .24. Some Kerbal love. What was the last update that added to the Kerbals themselves? What I want is reason to keep the little guys alive. Features that attach me to the individual Kerbal. Id like to see customization. But that's the least of it. I want medals and experience for my Kerbals. For instance Jeb gets a badge next to his name after returning from the Mun. Which would be added to his rep in the R&D building. Each kerbal should be able to build up a reputation and portfolio of past adventures. This way when we send these guys up on rockets we can actually worry about their well being. Making LES and testing all the more important.

And just throwing this out there.. A Kerbal Sim game would be nice to see at some point. Something that tied into KSP.

[nine_iron]

Nice idea, I like the idea of knowing how long a kerbal has lasted... Is 2 missions a good life span?

[DisarmingBaton5]

A list in the Astronaut Complex would be nice, list of missions and such. Perhaps editable (is that a word?) so we can write things like "Planted Flag on [mission]." Perhaps a badge system is a bit much, though.

[PDCWolf]

More stats, use for those stats and a flight/training/space hours indicator would be good.

[Markus Reese]

I wouldn't mind just being able to add some other space suits for our hero. Orange reserved for big 3, but I guess if there is the reputation being added, maybe individual kerbals could get mission uniforms? Say I want blue in place of the white for my hero Lars.

[deadshot462]

EVA tech research for career mode. Start with suits without jetpacks, must use ladders first. Jetpack should be unlocked in the research tree. If possible, add KAS-like tethers to start with.

[Skyler4856]

Perhaps the first space suit would be a fish bowl and a fire extinguisher

[Halsfury]

Wouldn't it be great if they got badges for certain individual achievements, for instance achieving a high velocity or EVA badges

Also Kerbals could sew these to their jump suits and flight jackets, and you could perhaps see your selected crew members walking around the VAB inspecting their ride and talking with engineers etc. and at this time their on the ground uniforms with all their badges would be visible.

Also suit colour changes depending on veterancy would be neat both on their icons, as they walk about the VAB and special space suit alterations for veterans (like helmet stripes and mission badges on their chest) both for EVA and IVA modes

[Xacktar]

I love all these ideas! Especially the customization and Kerbal Medals.

Course, that would make losing a kerbal even more painful.

[StrandedonEarth]

If we're going to give the Kerbals some love (and I agree with everything in this thread) and we'll get more attached to them, perhaps there should be a penalty for keeping them alive by way of quicksave. Say, 1000 kredits to quickload.... Or 1000 kredits to make the quicksave in the first place.

[Dave Kerbin]

Even if the medals and even display where not immediately implimented I'd love to see the stats start to be tracked in the same way as the overall program is. If you examine your save file you'll find information about things like highest flight, first landing on Mun, name of ship, etc. I think that a copy of these stats should also be attached to whatever kerbal was in the ship when they where recorded. Later on the features like medals could be implimented (a ribbin for orbiting, a medal for landing?)

[Luckless]

A step further: Mission badge generator, along with mission planner.

Could be something as simple as a really basic editor that uses stock clipart, or make it even more complex with something like before you build and launch a ship you 'plan' your mission. Set your target locations and goals, include some calculators to help you figure out burns and such ahead of time, and then the system generates a flight badge based on where you are going and what you are taking with you.

[Sof]

I think medals and ribbons are going a bit far.

Give them recognition in the right places, but Kerbals should be treated like our astronauts. Everyone remembers the first man on the moon, and we all remember our first Kerbal on the Mun. People don't get medals for orbiting Earth.

[deadshot462]

Different EVA suit textures or stripes depending on rank/job. As in the Apollo missions, where the Commander had red stripes on his suit to distinguish him in the pictures.

[StrandedonEarth]

People don't get medals for orbiting Earth.

No, but they get their astronaut wings for getting over 100km high, even without making orbit. That may change when Virgin Galactic enters commercial service, or everyone with a quarter million bucks to burn will get their wings.

[LameLefty]

I think medals and ribbons are going a bit far.

Give them recognition in the right places, but Kerbals should be treated like our astronauts. Everyone remembers the first man on the moon, and we all remember our first Kerbal on the Mun. People don't get medals for orbiting Earth.

No, but U.S. astronauts at least trade in their silver rookie astronaut pin for a gold veteran pin.

Some kind of list of missions and statistics for each Kerbal HAS to be on the game roadmap for the devs, or else why bother have stats at all (even for such silly things as courage and stupidity)? Why have a list of recruits? Why even have an"Astronaut Complex" at all?

[Sof]

No, but U.S. astronauts at least trade in their silver rookie astronaut pin for a gold veteran pin.

Some kind of list of missions and statistics for each Kerbal HAS to be on the game roadmap for the devs, or else why bother have stats at all (even for such silly things as courage and stupidity)? Why have a list of recruits? Why even have an"Astronaut Complex" at all?

Yes, that would all be really good to implement.

What I meant was having medals and ribbons pinned on each kerbal, that you could see on EVA or watch them in buildings, is too far. A list of accomplishments in the astronaut complex would suffice imo.

[RazorWolf19]

You DO realize that exactly this (to some extent at least) is what is planned for career mode?

Thanks for Reading,

Happy Flying!

[Skyler4856]

If we're going to give the Kerbals some love (and I agree with everything in this thread) and we'll get more attached to them, perhaps there should be a penalty for keeping them alive by way of quicksave. Say, 1000 kredits to quickload.... Or 1000 kredits to make the quicksave in the first place.

Yeah or you could pay 1 dollar and get 100 quicksaves free!

[Duke23]

I definitely like the idea of Kerbal acheivements / medals. Things I'm thinking would be like longest EVA distance on land or in zero-grav, count of times he has been to ______ planet or moon, distance traveled, highest speed, etc. Maybe even an achievement for coming back in a damaged ship or cutting it close on fuel. Just brainstorming.

Also it would be cool (and I assume coming at some point) to have either customizable faces or even randomly generated faces so they don't all look the same.

I for one have no idea what's planned for the future and I need to do research on that. Maybe a lot of what I'd like to see is already in the works... But I will say I could probably just do without multiplayer. I'm not sure how they plan to implement that but it sounds like a big server killing trainwreck to me.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Duke23

[Key of door]

Perhaps as the Kerbal does more missions and can boast about more achievements their skills and experience start to rise and their ability to do certain tasks gets better? Some way for our kerbals to grow would add to the career mode, and give us a reason to keep them alive.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

I like the idea of badges and accomplishments like literally everyone else. It wouldn't even have to be automatic, it could be manually assigned as the player saw fit. A quick funny "ceremony" cutscene would be kind of nice

[CalculusWarrior]

It would be interesting to have a ranking system for kerbals, so you can tell the most experienced ones at a glance. For example, you might have Commander Jebediah, or Rookie Bob, or Co-pilot Bill, and so on.

[Mitchz95]

I think this is a great idea. Another thing to add might be the option to "retire" Kerbalnauts when we're through with them.

[Deathsoul097]

Almost everything in this thread is planned to be implemented for career mode, even to the point where debending on courage and stupidity of a kerbal, they will be able to do certain tasks on their own.