Mission Control Kerbal "IVA" portrait during unmanned missions

[Codraroll]

This dropped into my head the other day... might be doable with a mod, but can't hurt to throw it out here to gauge the reactions on the idea before approaching any developers with it.

 

Anyway: Practically half the fun of Kerbal Space Program is the Kerbals themselves. Or at least, their presence magnifies the fun spirit of the game. Over-eager, fun-loving, reckless little creatures, with big smiles and expressive faces. Seeing them react to being launched towards space and all the calamities that might ensue is a great little touch, and adds a touch of personality to an otherwise sterile engineering game.

But you're not always doing manned launches. Sometimes, or actually quite often, you're launcing a largely autonomous probe, and no hilarious Kerbal portrait can be found in the bottom-right corner. Without any astronauts on board, you miss out on the quirky little reactions to your launches.

But who says the Kerbals in the portraits have to be on board the vehicle? A space mission usually involves a lot more ground crew than astronauts, after all.

I propose that, whenever your current craft has no crew, a portrait video of a Kerbal in Mission Control is seen instead. This could be achieved with a series of pre-made clips, played to suit the situation at hand (just like Kerbals currently react to situations, only this time there is no IVA). Since the Mission Control Kerbals aren't strapped to their seats like astronauts are, and the clips would be pre-rendered rather than based on a Kerbal model in the craft, they can be a lot more flexible than IVA portraits. You could show a wide range of situations, from the operator watching intently, gaping in awe or falling asleep, to facepalming or toppling his chair and running away in panic. Managers could sometimes be passing by in the background, or the occasional rare gag could unfold, but mostly it would be rather mundane clips so as not to take focus away from the mission. Every clip would have to start and end with the operator in the same position, to ensure smooth transitions. I believe this is done with Kerbals in IVA already.

This feature would ensure some level of Kerbal presence in every mission, particularly handy for those mods that start out with unmanned launches, or playthroughs where very few missions are manned at all.

The clips could feature the same Kerbal all the time, or a roster of operators that do some missions each, or maybe even switch mid-mission. With pre-rendered clips, a variety of different Kerbals could be featured, and an animation quality previously restricted to the cinematic trailers could be featured in the game. Although, animating them would be a hassle, so it would be a very work-demanding feature if more Kerbals than one were involved.

 

What do you think? Useless suggestion or fun idea? Would it add anything worthwhile to the game, measured against the work required to make it a reality? Could it feasibly be done by modding the game? Please discuss!

[pandaman]

Fun idea.  It could add a little humour and extra immersion too.  It would be a nice neat addition though obviously not a high priority.

Perhaps also if a pilot is using the 'remote control' feature to control a probe or rover then the pilot in question could have their portrait used. 

[ZooNamedGames]

Well this used to exist in a somewhat different fashion. When your craft was unmanned you could click the probe core and view a Mission Control like setting instead. Granted, still, no kerbal.

I believe it was called the "Probe Control Room" mod, and I think I usually saw it on Curse. Idk if it's still being managed or not.