Photos of Kerbonautes in command chairs

[Martian Emigrant]

Hi all.

Sorry if this as been suggested before. Most things are I believe.

 

When I build some craft and use command chairs I am always annoyed that I (we) can't see who is on board.

They are not always on the outside. Often they are in a fairing or can.

 

I understand that being in a lawn chair they don't have a camera pointing at them.

 

What I suggest is having a "File photo" of the Kerbonauts.

Just a still photo (From a variety) of a Kerbal with it's  name and function.

 

I imagine them as being in an office with or without spacesuits, picture of the Mun behind them and they are holding a model rocket, Duna globe, capsules, landers, helmets, etc...

 

Of course when it's Jeb it's a black and white of him in college.

Maybe a class picture with a circle around his head.

 

Thanks, keep up the good work,

 

 

ME

 

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by Martian Emigrant

[Ultimate Steve]

I could get behind this! You can right click on the Kerbals or check via the info menu to find their names, but this would also be useful!

[Martian Emigrant]

3 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I could get behind this! You can right click on the Kerbals or check via the info menu to find their names, but this would also be useful!

I had not thought of clicking the picture. But now that I think of it. Having "Leave Seat" would be nice when the Kerbal is in a fairing.

 

ME

[Just Jim]

Yes! I use command chairs a lot, and I would definitely love to see this as well!

The Kraken Lord demands it!!!  hehehe

[IncongruousGoat]

As a serial command chair abuser, I support this suggestion.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Sounds good on paper, but I think you are attempting to under-mine the game play focus of the command chair without realizing it.

The idea is that you are giving up all the regular perks of normal command pods in favor of something minimal. This includes game play/quality of life elements like not being able to launch with someone pre-loaded into it. As well as a lack of portraits or any easy way to interact with the Kerbal, or keep track of him.

If you add to many of the quality of life features back in to the command chair, like the ability to launch in it, or the crew portraits; we'll quickly see nothing but command chairs on every craft, and the normal command pods will be all but useless in comparison.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Martian Emigrant]

2 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Sounds good on paper, but I think you are attempting to under-mine the game play focus of the command chair without realizing it.

The idea is that you are giving up all the regular perks of normal command pods in favor of something minimal. This includes game play/quality of life elements like not being able to launch with someone pre-loaded into it. As well as a lack of portraits or any easy way to interact with the Kerbal, or keep track of him.

If you add to many of the quality of life features back in to the command chair, like the ability to launch in it, or the crew portraits; we'll quickly see nothing but command chairs on every craft, and the normal command pods will be all but useless in comparison.

Hi.

 

Yes, I guess.

I understand that you can't please everyone all of the time. And I do use the pods.

But if I want to put command chair in cans or fairings it's because the pods won't do it for me.

For instance I want a two man pod capsule. There are none. So I put 2 kerbals in a fairing and shape the fairing to approximate a Gemini capsule. Or Soyuz, Vostok, etc...

One could also say that fixed-ready made pods stifles creativity. They are Kerbals after all. They tend to do things in a very Kerbal manner. That include not using pods sometimes.

So give us more pods or allow us to modify them....

 

If the issue is too contentious then the ability could be toggled in the Settings menu. I will toggle it on. Some would rather not.

 

ME

 

PS

I am sure someone will say "There is a mod.....".

Yes, no doubt. But this is make a suggestion to the stock game. Not give ME a suggestion.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Martian Emigrant

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Not using command pods is a totally reasonable way to do things if that's what you want,.(Although you could just slap 2 Mk1's together?)

However every choice in a video game has to have trade offs, the chair has very low weight; so there has to be something you are giving up for that advantage . In this case it's ease of use.

If you give the command chair all the ease of use of a command pod, why even have command pods in the game? Also, if it's gonna be a setting, it might as well just be a mod right? Same thing, those that want it will use it, those that don't won't.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[ZooNamedGames]

On 12/29/2017 at 1:40 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Not using command pods is a totally reasonable way to do things if that's what you want,.(Although you could just slap 2 Mk1's together?)

However every choice in a video game has to have trade offs, the chair has very low weight; so there has to be something you are giving up for that advantage . In this case it's ease of use.

If you give the command chair all the ease of use of a command pod, why even have command pods in the game? Also, if it's gonna be a setting, it might as well just be a mod right? Same thing, those that want it will use it, those that don't won't.

In my opinion, even with Take Command installed, I still heavily rely on pods entirely. They are easier to engineer with and come with significantly greater functionality than command chairs. Kerbals have no protection from aerodynamic forces in chairs nor re-entry whereas in a pod they are fully protected. Not to mention by having them inside a pod you can get electric charge, monopropellant and SAS torque (though I believe the latter should be added to command chairs as Kerbals can move their CoM to adjust their vehicle (ie, lean)). Yes players can add batteries, fuel tanks and SAS modules to counter act that but that ultimately weighs more and becomes less useful to make a custom made pod than to use an existing one. They're far more useful when mass is concerned but when you start to abuse them the issues start to surmount very quickly.

So adding name tags, first person views, and or leaning torque isn't much when you remember that a command pod can do it for less part count, less weight, and less cost.

But that's just my opinion.

[[insert_name_here]]

I don't really like the idea of adding torque to command chairs, but adding a still black-and-white photo of each kerbal in a command chair (I like the idea of a college photo for Jeb) will just simply help people keep track of how many and which kerbals are on board.