Animal testing!

[KerbalKore]

Just a thought: what if there was dogs that you could, for the early space program part, send into space for science! ( more science if you recover them, like all experiments) also for the lolz, dog EVAs or animals in space in general.

[Gaarst]

We have Kerbals.

[Darnok]

21 minutes ago, Gaarst said:

We have Kerbals.

What do they eat?

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Good idea, actually!

[Gaarst]

8 minutes ago, Darnok said:

What do they eat?

They don't. They are powered by thermonuclear fusion.

[KerbalKore]

1 hour ago, Gaarst said:

We have Kerbals.

In career they are expensive and if they die you lose rep and the next hire costs more.

1 hour ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Good idea, actually!

Thanks!

 

[Wjolcz]

Oh, it's this topic again!

No.

[KerbalKore]

Also, modders, maybe someone could create a pod that has like an animal review, or check animal, experiment. Im no modder but this might be possible?

Edited October 17, 2016 by Bill the Kerbal
Spelling and grammar

[pandaman]

I always assumed that the mystery goo serves as kind of a 'stunt double' for animals.

[Vanamonde]

Yes, Squad figured animals getting hurt would be depressing, so the mystery goo was introduced instead. It substitutes for animal testing. 

[Klassy KSP]

8 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Yes, Squad figured animals getting hurt would be depressing, so the mystery goo was introduced instead. It substitutes for animal testing. 

Yeah that was probably a good idea.

[Blasty McBlastblast]

16 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Yes, Squad figured animals getting hurt would be depressing, so the mystery goo was introduced instead. It substitutes for animal testing. 

oh glob that's horrible! I always thought that mystery goo was a combination of kerbal ear wax, left over snacks, and rocket fuel, I had no idea that it was made of puppers.. 

knowing this I will never send another goo into space transmit for half science again! 

I guess now we know why the goo is so excited to go to the beach! 

[razark]

1 hour ago, Vanamonde said:

Yes, Squad figured animals getting hurt would be depressing, so the mystery goo was introduced instead. It substitutes for animal testing. 

With everything people do to the Kerbals for a laugh?  

[Red Iron Crown]

6 hours ago, razark said:

With everything people do to the Kerbals for a laugh?  

The kerbal knows the risks and chooses to go anyway, they're all volunteers. Animals are none of that.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Yes, Squad figured animals getting hurt would be depressing, so the mystery goo was introduced instead. It substitutes for animal testing. 

Oh I see. That's why the goo appears to be sentient. Somehow I now imagine goo to be a little visceroid-like creature (like the blobby ones from Tiberian Sun that look like a moving puddle of mercury) related to Kerbals in a similar way that Squigs are to Orcs/Orks in Warhammer.

 

On the topic of experimenting on living beings though, we should have Kerbal-centric science on stations. Kinda like the materials bay but with Kerbals bouncing around a Hitchiker or a special centrifugal habitat or something. As it is Kerbals just kinda go into space with dubious training and no life support and nobody knows how they manage it. It's be cool to get some (official) science defs about Kerbal biology.

Edited October 18, 2016 by Guest

[Streetwind]

12 minutes ago, String Witch said:

Oh I see. That's why the goo appears to be sentient. Somehow I now imagine goo to be a little green visceroid-like creature (like the blobby ones from Tiberian Sun that look like a moving puddle of mercury) related to Kerbals in a similar way that Squigs are to Orcs/Orks in Warhammer.

Early trailers actually show it as a kind of goo octopus thingy soaked in toxic waste, or something.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu9eoD1ot0A

 

Edited October 18, 2016 by Streetwind

[razark]

2 hours ago, Red Iron Crown said:

The kerbal knows the risks and chooses to go anyway, they're all volunteers.

Kerbals have no free will.

They are randomly placed on a list, arbitrarily selected to a second list, and after that, they do only what they are explicitly told to do, no more or less.

 

I just don't see why people who have no qualms about doing all sorts of wild, crazy, immoral acts with one artificial construct for amusement have some sort of problem with doing the same to a different kind of artificial construct.

[Red Iron Crown]

2 minutes ago, razark said:

I just don't see why people who have no qualms about doing all sorts of wild, crazy, immoral acts with one artificial construct for amusement have some sort of problem with doing the same to a different kind of artificial construct.

It's almost like they invest those artificial constructs with properties of their real life equivalents. The entire point of a computer game is to imagine that those artificial constructs are not artificial, and this idea is backed up by standards regulations and laws. Certain arrangements of pixels are amusing and harmless, others will get you sent to jail. 

Like it or not, a lot of people invest their kerbals with an utter disregard for danger and self preservation. I doubt they would do so for animals.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

46 minutes ago, razark said:

I just don't see why people who have no qualms about doing all sorts of wild, crazy, immoral acts with one artificial construct for amusement have some sort of problem with doing the same to a different kind of artificial construct.

Well, Kerbals aren't real in any fashion. We know they aren't real. But having a dog in the game, those are real. Many players own dogs. So they'd be a lot less comfortable incinerating or exploding or mangling or Kraken-ing them.

[razark]

Just now, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

Well, Kerbals aren't real in any fashion. We know they aren't real. But having a dog in the game, those are real. Many players own dogs. So they'd be a lot less comfortable incinerating or exploding or mangling or Kraken-ing them.

So don't put in a dog, but instead put in a fictional animal.

Space programs have a long history of using animal testing.  It fits the game.

[pandaman]

Now,  if I could stick those pesky cats that poop on my lawn into orbit....

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

23 minutes ago, pandaman said:

Now,  if I could stick those pesky cats that poop on my lawn into orbit....

You are evil...

[pandaman]

1 hour ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

You are evil...

For science? 

[Arugela]

Why not have the animal be weird space ocean lifeforms like that squid. People eat sea lifeforms and would look at it more like dinner and cute. Calamari?! And it would fit the kraken and alien ocean theme as it is the only place we can't explore as easily(or used to not at all) and don't know there are not lifeforms formally like the green vegetable and rock littered terrain of Kerbin. That and maybe worms and underground things that don't look fuzzy. It's only the fuzzy creatures they care about(AKA Mammals). This is why whales and porpoises are protected and not squid! 8D

You could even say that every life form that is burned up in the atmosphere is caught on the ground and eaten. Then the lifeforms could be interesting international foods like squid or insects or spiders etc. Things people aren't bothered by as much but could learn about interesting foods from. You could also make all such items always have the cockpit with them in it survive explosions and have graphics showing them alive or being cooked like an oven during reentry(depending on what is appropriate to the circumstance) and turned magically into foods(unless not heated maybe... Although not all foods are fried. some are boiled etc.Think boiling lakes. then fired and boiled for special dishes.). Then have a hover over thing that gives info about or alluding to the food. They could always be collectible for science or other points. Albiet it really small amounts. There could even be a few mission based on it to be silly. And if a kerbal manually collects it he is shown eating the food and looking around like he shouldn't(Like he's sneaking a snack). Just to be humerous! 8)

Fried spider anyone?! 8d

Edited October 19, 2016 by Arugela

[Wjolcz]

I remember watching a movie once (it was with Robert De Niro, I think). It was about a film maker directing a movie and there was that one scene where a guy and a dog died. When they shot the guy, nobody was bothered. When it came to the dog everyone was shocked and the movie was a flop (I think; not many were happy about it that's all I know).

Anyway, adding any kind of animals to the game will result in the same situation. The reception for KSP will probably go down. Most people will simply won't want risking their animals' lives even though they are not real. We have probes and kerbals. That's all we need, really.

E: putting animals in capsules would also make almost no sense since they wouldn't be able to pilot the craft. You would need a probe to control it. You can easily simulate that by emtying the command pod and sending it into space. That's how it's done nowadays. The capsules fly empty before there are any humans put into it. KSP is meant to be this modern/near future space sim. We don't send animals into space anymore (not the big ones at least).

Edited October 19, 2016 by Veeltch