Indicate crew in VAB

[pandaman]

How about a little window, or set of icons, that shows in the VAB and SPH so you can see at a glance while building how many crew are currently 'selected' and that will be on board when you launch.

This can serve as a quick check to make sure none have sneaked on board, or as a reminder that you need to choose some.

[mattinoz]

Then they would need a whole set of extra animations of Jeb sneaking in to crew seats and trying to look like he's not there. Or just outright pleading to be included.

[Snark]

2 hours ago, pandaman said:

How about a little window, or set of icons, that shows in the VAB and SPH so you can see at a glance while building how many crew are currently 'selected' and that will be on board when you launch.

This can serve as a quick check to make sure none have sneaked on board, or as a reminder that you need to choose some.

How is that different from just looking at the crew tab?

[Wcmille]

17 minutes ago, Snark said:

How is that different from just looking at the crew tab?

I think OP is suggesting something that requires no clicking.

[Crocket]

All my yes to OP. Jeb sneaks into my only seat most of the time. Usually I just let him stay, but sometimes I want to do something with a specific Kerbal and he can sneak on while I'm modifying the craft.

[cubinator]

50 minutes ago, Snark said:

How is that different from just looking at the crew tab?

^seconded. What you're describing already exists, so I'd appreciate a little further description to distinguish your idea from the stock crew tab.  

[Crocket]

16 minutes ago, cubinator said:

What you're describing already exists, so I'd appreciate a little further description to distinguish your idea from the stock crew tab.  

I think Wcmille is right here, but OP does indeed need to specify.

49 minutes ago, Wcmille said:

I think OP is suggesting something that requires no clicking.

 

[Alshain]

3 hours ago, mattinoz said:

Then they would need a whole set of extra animations of Jeb sneaking in to crew seats and trying to look like he's not there. Or just outright pleading to be included.

I laughed.  I shouldn't have, but I did.

 

As for the idea, it's a good idea if it can show you at a glance without being intrusive.  However, I don't want my screen real estate taken up by this, so it would have to fit into the UI without blocking the way does in flight mode.

[ZooNamedGames]

I agree with this, it should be like the Missions tab, viewable from all scenes. That would be great!

[pandaman]

Ok.  Yes I wasn't especially clear about what I had in mind...

At its most basic a number next to, or integrated into, the crew tab that gives you an at a glance check how many crew are assigned.  Or perhaps a simple Kerbal face icon for each crew member. 

Or taking it to the extreme it could show a sort of mini, non animated, version of the crew portraits.

What ever method, it should be confined to the top bar where the tabs are so that it doesn't take up much screen work space.

[THX1138]

Basically to stop stowaways, right?

[pandaman]

33 minutes ago, THX1138 said:

Basically to stop stowaways, right?

That would be one of it's main uses for me, yes.

But also as a 'have I already picked a crew?' check, and a memory jogger to remind you to check and configure the crew to the mission.

[Snark]

8 hours ago, THX1138 said:

Basically to stop stowaways, right?

For me, I don't have a stowaway problem, or at least, this suggestion wouldn't be the ideal stowaway solution for me.

When I launch a rocket, there are two scenarios, which I handle very differently:

1. Designing a new rocket from scratch and then launching it for the first time.
2. Taking a pre-designed rocket (e.g. one of my standard work-horses, such as my "rescue a kerbal from LKO" ship) and launching it for the Nth time.

I have never, ever, even once had a problem with stowaways or "accidental mis-crewing" with a #1 type of launch.  That's because when I'm launching a new rocket, I'm slavishly focused on checking and double-checking every little thing.  Did I remember to include solar panels?  If it needs to dock, did I remember to include RCS thrusters and monopropellant?  If it's not going to dock, did I remember to delete the monopropellant?  Did I set the thrust limiters where I want them on my SRBs?  And so forth.  "What's the crew" is part of the obsessive mental checklist I go through on such occasions, so I never, ever accidentally launch a ship like that with the wrong crew.  It simply never comes up.

Where I do (or, rather did) have a problem with stowaways and such is in case #2.  I get lulled by routine.  It's the same-old, same-old; just launching a tried-and-true workhorse for the Nth time, so I get casual and sloppy about it and forget to tinker with the crew before launching.  I used to do this all the frickin' time.  I've lost track of how many times I've launched a rescue ship, and didn't realize that the crew pod was already full until my rescuee was hanging on the ladder and banging on the hatch wanting to get in.  ARGH.

So yes, that was a problem for me.  But for me, the answer to that problem is not a more-intrusive or more-visible crew display in the UI-- frankly, the solution that pandaman's proposing here wouldn't help me with that.  (Either it would be so intrusive that it would annoy me all the time, or else it wouldn't be intrusive enough and I'd make the same clueless mistake anyway.)  Rather, the solution to me to solve the unintended-crew problem for #2 launches is to make crew assignments persistent with ship design.  For example, if I've just built a rocket that's intended as a rescue vehicle-- designed to be launched unmanned, with a probe core controlling it-- then I want it to be saved that way, so that the next time I launch it, it'll be uncrewed by default unless I deliberately change it.

This bugged me so much that I wrote a mod to implement the behavior that I want:

...so now the vehicle editor does exactly what I want.  It solves case #2 perfectly for me.     Haven't had a single problem with unintended crewing ever since.