Suggestion - Giving life to the Kerbals

[EasyAce]

Background:
You've built your rocket, successfully launched it, the trip to the Mun went fine and you've just touched down.
You extend the solar panels, establish radio contact with KSC, gathers some science by hitting some keys and make Jeb climb out on the ladder.
With the keyboard, you move Jeb down and let go of the ladder, Congratulations, you've landed on the Mun.

You move Jeb around, plant the flag, scoops some dirt and return to the ship.
You are now done.

Case:
At this stage, there is nothing more to do but go back to Kerbin and make another rocket so you can go somewhere else.
For me it feels pointless to let the Kerbals just be on the Mun - they are after all standing still the whole time.
They don't move around, they don't look alive... I just feel sorry for leaving them standing in nowhere.

What I would like to see:
Kerbals walking around on the Mun.
Scooping dirt, leaving and enter the Pod.
Kerbals that look alive.

I wish there was an option "to leave the Kerbals doing their business". So you can zoom out and watch them walk around - maybe in the long run, even drive around on the Mun by themselves.

• Of course still with the option to actually take control of them like today.

With this change, it would actually be cool to leave them there for a while.

 

I'm not sure how others would like the following, but maybe there also would be a new mechanic where you point at a place you want the Kerbal to scoop dirt or plant the flag, and the Kerbal will go there and do it. Basically more of a point-and-click way to control them.

 

[Grumman]

It would be a nice way to add flavour to the game, though I don't know if it would be worth the work. If I was going to do it, I'd add a control - perhaps under the Abort button - that disabled staging and throttle, and enabled this behaviour.

[todofwar]

I really like this. Especially if they introduce more interesting IVA environments. I'm picturing you go to the viewpoint of one of the kerbals at the station and see the other kerbals floating around between stations. 

[John FX]

To stop any shenanigans I`d say they should move about in a 50m radius doing `stuff` no further (this could be set by the user in case of cliffs/craters). Scientists could do experiments, scooping soil samples, Engineers could tighten some bolts look at the craft, go "Hmmm" a bit. , pilots could jump up and down a bit maybe look at Kerbin or the nearest planet/moon.

The animations are already there it should just be a bit of scripting.

[tater]

Yeah, I've asked for this as well. For orbital craft, they could float around on tethers. Have it part of the contextual menu for the craft. Just add a button for auto EVA (on/off). It would add some life to bases, and stations to see guys out and about.

[EasyAce]

Nice to see i'm not the only one seeing this as a good ad.

 

also agree on the limited distance they move from the craft

[mattinoz]

On 21 April 2016 at 4:20 AM, EasyAce said:

Nice to see i'm not the only one seeing this as a good ad.

 

also agree on the limited distance they move from the craft

Definitely not the only one.  Some form of timer would be useful so kerbals who are wondering know when to be back. 

 

[blorgon]

On 4/21/2016 at 0:07 PM, John FX said:

To stop any shenanigans I`d say they should move about in a 50m radius doing `stuff` no further (this could be set by the user in case of cliffs/craters). Scientists could do experiments, scooping soil samples, Engineers could tighten some bolts look at the craft, go "Hmmm" a bit. , pilots could jump up and down a bit maybe look at Kerbin or the nearest planet/moon.

The animations are already there it should just be a bit of scripting.

Honestly, even just making them wander around aimlessly like they do in the VAB would be neat. Ideally, yes, you should be able to give them "tasks" like maintenance checks or soil sample taking. You would have to prepare them for their task, too. For example, if you send an Engineer on EVA at your space station and task them with maintenance, you'd have to pack extra propellant, a drill, spare parts, et cetera. It could be made meaningful, too. Say there was a joint-weakening mechanic that loosened joints a tiny amount every time your craft experienced large amounts of torque. This would make it necessary to run maintenance checks.

I have no idea how programming pathfinding in a zero-G environment would work though. NPC Kerbals on EVA sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[swjr-swis]

I like the premise of it, but they would need to first do a good bit of optimization on the code that runs/animates the Kerbals, to avoid flight scenes having the same kind of CPU usage hike that VAB/SPH scenes have when the space center crew is showing.

[Grumman]

2 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

I like the premise of it, but they would need to first do a good bit of optimization on the code that runs/animates the Kerbals, to avoid flight scenes having the same kind of CPU usage hike that VAB/SPH scenes have when the space center crew is showing.

Which is another reason why a toggle between "flight mode" and "station mode" is a good idea. Turn on "flight mode" to make the Kerbals return to their assigned pods and stay there, removing the AI footprint and keeping them safe if you plan on doing something like igniting your rocket engines, and turn on "station mode" to disable the controls that might leave the Kerbals behind, and enable the AI that allows the Kerbals to run about outside or within the craft.

[klgraham1013]

I agree with things in this thread.

[something]

Yeah, felt that way before...

3D path calculation shouldn't be that complicated. Homeworld did that back in '99.

 

[swjr-swis]

12 minutes ago, something said:

3D path calculation shouldn't be that complicated. Homeworld did that back in '99.

And GearBox screwed it up in 2015...

[something]

Didn't play the remastered version...just heard they didn't implement the fuel consumption which in itself would render the Repair Corvette useless.... oops offtopic?

Give me living Kerbals already if needed simply implement the Hyperspace Jump docking algorithms from aforementioned game...

 

[John FX]

46 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

I like the premise of it, but they would need to first do a good bit of optimization on the code that runs/animates the Kerbals, to avoid flight scenes having the same kind of CPU usage hike that VAB/SPH scenes have when the space center crew is showing.

If done right it should take no more CPU cycles than the current animations when you make your kerbal walk across the ground manually so the framerate you get then is the framerate you would get when auto animated.