Am I alone in thinking that the Kerbals themselves can be a bit overrated?

[Minmus Taster]

Yes you are...

[Mikenike]

On 12/28/2020 at 9:18 AM, Lewie said:

To me, the game wouldn't feel right. There's just something about the terror in their cute 'lil eyes as they hurdle to their death on an unholy abomination....the game just wouldn't be the same without the little guys.  

I agree, and the big 4 Kerbals are to this game like the big 3 were to the Greeks and Romans, a staple of culture, or the games culture. I would hate to see them go and would probably move to simple rockets or another sim.... But I see how they could be over hyped, and we just need more kerbals overall, or more of a backstory overall.

18 hours ago, probe137 said:

The game is literally named after them. Removing Kerbals from KSP would just like removing crafting from Minecraft. It would remove something necessary for progression, and remove part of the title. Also, imagine how many players would stop playing.

About 75 percent would leave. Most would go elsewhere, some would have to resort to SR2 or the likes of other games. It would be like removing guns from COD, or long, drawn out battles in Battlefield. Or removing Kombat from Mortal Kombat. It would destroy the game and it's name.

On 1/8/2021 at 2:53 PM, hypervelocity said:

I voted 1 as I would remove them from the game instantly & replace them with human models if I could/knew how to. It also estranges me how come there is no mod changing that (I think I read somewhere that's virtually inapplicable given how the game is constructed/coded).

For context, I am interested in realism and have converted KSP into the most realistic simulator I could via mods (RSS, RO, RP-1, Principia, etc.)

I would make a separate game type for that, like Minecraft Java and Bedrock. I would do it to where there would be continued support for both as well, similar to the Minecraft way of doing it.

[Vinhero100]

Yes.

[Mikenike]

On 12/30/2020 at 7:02 PM, Kerbart said:

They don't have to be morons but it's not unreasonable for them not to be geniuses either; those are the ones that design and build the ships and stay home.

I expect Kerbal crew to be over enthusiastic and perhaps a bit over confident in their abilities, pushing buttons they shouldn't be pushing and getting into situations they should not have gotten into.

More like Doc Emmet Brown from "Back to the Future" than Albert Einstein, so to say.

I like how they have a meter for how stupid a Kerbal can be..... It shows their confidence. I mean look at Forrest Gump, man was dumber than a brick but he was confident, it was a dumb confidence, but confidence nonetheless.  The Kerbals should know that they aren't getting selected for the job, but they try because they, in their dumb brain, think that they can make it based upon pure effort alone. DISCLAIMER: I am talking about the ones with stupidity levels at or near max.

On 1/1/2021 at 10:31 AM, Spaceman.Spiff said:

However, if I launch Jeb and mechanical failures  my noobiness results in his untimely demise (RIP), I feel reeeeeally bad. He probably had people on the ground who were awaiting his safe return when they learned that he had crashed. It's not possible for me to empathize with a probe in the same way.

Original Soviet Space crews........... I read this and immediately thought about the crews that died because of their rush to beat the US. They all had families that were awaiting their safe return....

[Xd the great]

Kerbals are a feature of this game.

Some use them for science, some for fun, some for simulating the need for life support (with mods)...

And some strafe, bomb, crush, smack and burn kerbals. Or feed them to the kraken.

I get it that not everyone use them, but they are an integral part of the game and allow us to abuse them showcase the spirit of "fail until you succeed" as well as some extra fun.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Xd the great

[Dr. Kerbal]

The name Kerbal Space Program and their faces made me want to play. As well as @Matt Lowne‘a joke in how scared Bob was.

[mcwaffles2003]

On 1/16/2021 at 3:06 PM, Dr. Kerbal said:

The name Kerbal Space Program and their faces made me want to play. As well as @Matt Lowne‘a joke in how scared Bob was.

So it had nothing to do with... Idk... The rockets? 

The title of the game and the mascot is all that mattered? Isn't this judging a book by the cover? 

On 1/13/2021 at 5:54 PM, probe137 said:

The game is literally named after them. Removing Kerbals from KSP would just like removing crafting from Minecraft. It would remove something necessary for progression, and remove part of the title. Also, imagine how many players would stop playing.

Not really...the kerbals are mascots, crafting in minecraft is the core mechanic of the game. Kerbals aren't a game mechanic, they are characters.

On 1/14/2021 at 12:38 PM, Mikenike said:

About 75 percent would leave. Most would go elsewhere, some would have to resort to SR2 or the likes of other games. It would be like removing guns from COD, or long, drawn out battles in Battlefield. Or removing Kombat from Mortal Kombat. It would destroy the game and it's name.

Similar to the above statement.  It's like taking Scorpion out of mortal kombat, if you took out the combat you literally wouldn't have a game left, same with taking the guns out of COD and etc...

<snip>

Edited January 20, 2021 by adsii1970
Post edited to remove content that violated forum guidelines.

[kerbiloid]

Imho, the Kerbals were matching the game atmosphere when the game was consisting of twenty parts which could be found by the side of the road.

(Though, even then the parts design was not matching such setting. Something of V-2-style, Bargain Rockets, and the glorious Kerbal Vertical Propulsion Emporium would be much closer).

Since KSP is full of real-lifish hi-techish stuff, the funny toys with Courage&Stupidity on faces do not match it, while the jokes about them have mostly been joked.

The ony reason to keep them toyish rather than humanish is to make the rocketship catastrophes non-serious and PG13+ish.

[Guest]

While I think that Kerbals are crucial for the game and to put the player in the right mindset while playing I think that @mcwaffles2003 is right on one point, Kerbal has no direct competitor in the same genre, if you like to build and fly your own rockets you have no choice.

Remove Kerbals, replace them with super-serious human astronauts (because the argument is about the goofy design of Kerbals, not their gameplay features) and you still wouldn't have a choice if you don't want to downgrade your experience with one of the sub-par early-access games like SR2. No competitor is even close to KSP1 and we're already talking about KSP2, a game made by a professional studio under a big publisher, unless some other studio is secretly working on another "AA" game in the same genre KSP2 will be the only choice for years after its release.

I love Kerbals, I love the way they bring rocket science and space exploration back to human levels, but It's not like we have an alternative to look forward to if we happen not to like Kerbals.

And no, they're definitively not like guns in COD, they're more like the cartoon style in Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch opposed to the more serious and realistic one of other FPSs, it's not the gun, or the main FPS mechanic, it's the character of the game, a crucial factor nonetheless but not the genre-defining one.

 

EDIT: To make you understand how important is having a competitor that offer choice, I voted 3 to this poll (or 3.5, I don't remember) I would have voted 5 if there was even a single other game in the same genre to offer some choice.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Master39

[Dr. Kerbal]

On 1/16/2021 at 5:57 PM, mcwaffles2003 said:

So it had nothing to do with... Idk... The rockets?

It also had to do with rocket cause I like space.

crazy ,title green characters.

and the jokes I could make of it

[Frozen_Heart]

I like kerbals. I just wish their heads weren't so oversized.

[DualDesertEagle]

I'm going with 4 on this 1.

There's a ton of stuff u don't really need them for but there are also things u DO need them for. Packing parachutes, repairing broken parts, taking surface samples, restoring experiments, planting flags (which I've also used alot to mark future landing spots, like probably a bunch of people have) and of course piloting stuff that doesn't have a probe core in it.

 

But sometimes I also like to take out my anger on them, like crowding a bunch of them somewhere near KSC, putting the BDA equivalent of a GAU-8 Avenger on 1 of my planes and playin' a good old game of BRRRRRRRRRT with them. Or I just drop some bombs on 'em or drop an entire Mk3 passenger module full of kerbals from a plane, or just straight up lawn-dart a full airliner, tho it's much more fun to have some kind of target to shoot at.

I know some people are gonna hate me for what I said in the previous paragraph but it's definitely better to take out ur anger on virtual creatures than actual ones.

 

Except it's rodents, whenever I spot any of them they better hide somewhere safe ASAP to avoid feeling my wrath.

[Mr.Evil]

I'm a big fan of realism in games. Also love mods, which bring more realism to ksp, like life support etc... But if there would be humans instead of Kerbals, the game would be to serious for me. Humans are just boring. (With humans there would be also a discussion about political correctness - so one problem less with Kerbals.) 

Kerbals are a perfect mix - funny but not rediculous. 

[Dr. Kerbal]

3 hours ago, Mr.Evil said:

I'm a big fan of realism in games. Also love mods, which bring more realism to ksp, like life support etc... But if there would be humans instead of Kerbals, the game would be to serious for me. Humans are just boring. (With humans there would be also a discussion about political correctness - so one problem less with Kerbals.) 

Kerbals are a perfect mix - funny but not rediculous. 

Me too. And I love space. When I first played I literally thought: “How hard can rocket science be?” Really hard!

[Tw1]

They bring a lot of life to the game. One aspect I think that has been underutilized is the fact that you're playing as an alien race, not humans. Not that I think they should have fully developed history and Lore, just that the game should focus on engineering and science, and have it's aesthetic reflect that, rather than copying humanity's spaceship parts. I like that they are a blank slate to imagine on - and that's a big part of the fun. You're not just exploring planets, you're helping these guys get to the planets, and set up space stuff for them.

There's something great about just arriving somewhere, and taking your little green peoples out and hopping around. 

[Mikenike]

8 hours ago, Tw1 said:

Not that I think they should have fully developed history and Lore,

I hope they expand this for KSP2

[Mikenike]

On 1/16/2021 at 7:57 PM, mcwaffles2003 said:

Not really...the kerbals are mascots, crafting in minecraft is the core mechanic of the game. Kerbals aren't a game mechanic, they are characters.

On 1/14/2021 at 12:38 PM, Mikenike said:

About 75 percent would leave. Most would go elsewhere, some would have to resort to SR2 or the likes of other games. It would be like removing guns from COD, or long, drawn out battles in Battlefield. Or removing Kombat from Mortal Kombat. It would destroy the game and it's name.

Similar to the above statement.  It's like taking Scorpion out of mortal kombat, if you took out the combat you literally wouldn't have a game left, same with taking the guns out of COD and etc...

<snip>

Fine, then it would be like taking iconic characters from Mortal Kombat, and COD. It would be like taking Soap, Price, Ghost, Roach, Alex (MW2019), Alex/David Mason, Frank Woods, or any other iconic character from COD out. It would be weird to be chasing down a bad guy in the old MW series who wasn't Zahkev, Makarov, or Shepard. It would be like taking the Steve skin out from Minecraft. It wouldn't feel right.

<snip>

Edited January 20, 2021 by adsii1970
Post edited to remove content that violated forum guidelines.

[adsii1970]

I love the Kerbals. It's what first drew me to the game. It is really fun the way Jebediah can be smiling like crazy just to see Bob's face frozen in terror!

I don't want to have a backstory made for them. Leave it as it is - no Kerbal or Kerbin history. The reason why is I love writing fan fiction for the game. Having a universal backstory would actually prevent many of us from doing this since each one of the fan fic authors have made up their own.

[Starhelperdude]

15 hours ago, Mr.Evil said:

I'm a big fan of realism in games. Also love mods, which bring more realism to ksp, like life support etc... But if there would be humans instead of Kerbals, the game would be to serious for me. Humans are just boring. (With humans there would be also a discussion about political correctness - so one problem less with Kerbals.) 

Kerbals are a perfect mix - funny but not rediculous. 

you share my opinion

[Mikenike]

21 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

I don't want to have a backstory made for them. Leave it as it is - no Kerbal or Kerbin history. The reason why is I love writing fan fiction for the game. Having a universal backstory would actually prevent many of us from doing this since each one of the fan fic authors have made up their own.

I would like for there not to be, but if there will be, and I hope that there will be, then make it smaller, and leave room for us to make up backstory. When I saw you like my comment, I thought that something was gonna go down. <snip>

21 hours ago, Starhelperdude said:

you share my opinion

Most of ours, its fun to see them be innocent as to what we are doing, but also useful in the game.

<snip>

On 1/18/2021 at 5:19 PM, DualDesertEagle said:

But sometimes I also like to take out my anger on them, like crowding a bunch of them somewhere near KSC, putting the BDA equivalent of a GAU-8 Avenger on 1 of my planes and playin' a good old game of BRRRRRRRRRT with them. Or I just drop some bombs on 'em or drop an entire Mk3 passenger module full of kerbals from a plane, or just straight up lawn-dart a full airliner, tho it's much more fun to have some kind of target to shoot at.

I know some people are gonna hate me for what I said in the previous paragraph but it's definitely better to take out ur anger on virtual creatures than actual ones.

All of us have a save where we have used it for our anger at one point or another. I have 2 saves..........

<snip>

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by adsii1970
Post edited to remove content that violated forum guidelines.

[adsii1970]

1 minute ago, Mikenike said:

I would like for there not to be, but if there will be, and I hope that there will be, then make it smaller, and leave room for us to make up backstory. When I saw you like my comment, I thought that something was gonna go down. I thought you were here to shut down the arguement about this topic, that @mcwaffles2003 unfortunately started,and I hopefully ended.

From time to time, forum members will disagree with one another. After all, we are imperfect beings communicating with other imperfect beings. One thing about teaching college, being married, being a father, and being a grandfather, you learn that arguments and disagreements happen. And each member of the moderation team are quite familiar with this simple truth.

No, we normally do not shut down arguments as a general rule. As long as it remains at the "healthy discussion" or even the "healthy but heated discussion" levels, we normally let the argument burn itself out. However, when we encounter the arguments and comments are starting to get personal (Forum Guidelines 2.2d or 2.2n), we do step in. We want to encourage healthy conversation about the game and related topics, not discourage conversation and the exchange of ideas.

I consider it a "win" for everyone in the thread who are able to post their opinion without any sort of personal attacks. @mcwaffles2003 is totally within his right to express his/her opinion and defend the opinion when others question it. Just as you are free to express and defend your opinion. As long as comments are kept within the forum guidelines, I am a free speech kind of fellow  - let those great walls of text flow! If a forum member feels as if they have been harassed, threatened, or any other thing because of another forum member's post on any thread then by all means, please report it and the moderation team will take a look at it.

[kerbiloid]

Kerbals are too cute to put them into rockets which can explode. 

Anyway, a character would be big-headed to see their faces and emotions, so such mix of frog and crab is hardly avoidable..

Though, it would be nice if standing Kerbals were higher than sitting ones, because it would make the parts more human-proportional.

 

[VoidCosmos]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

I love the Kerbals. It's what first drew me to the game. It is really fun the way Jebediah can be smiling like crazy just to see Bob's face frozen in terror!

I don't want to have a backstory made for them. Leave it as it is - no Kerbal or Kerbin history. The reason why is I love writing fan fiction for the game. Having a universal backstory would actually prevent many of us from doing this since each one of the fan fic authors have made up their own.

Same.  I just wouldn't play a boring game without kerbals

[adsii1970]

2 minutes ago, VoidCosmos said:

Same.  I just wouldn't play a boring game without kerbals

I agree. I discovered this game back when it was 0.18 and immediately fell in love with them. It's one of the reasons I stick with the game so much.

Oh, and you know you've created a Kerbal Contraption of Death when even Jebediah begins to look terrified!

[Mikenike]

3 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

I am a free speech kind of fellow  - let those great walls of text flow!

I am as well. I have always cherished my rights, especially the first 10. (I like the first 4 the most). I am just so used to you guys showing up with most stuff to do your job, which has been as a moderator. I am used to seeing you and the other great mods fix stuff that messes up, i.e moving threads, removing/editing posts, and other moderation tasks. 

2 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Oh, and you know you've created a Kerbal Contraption of Death when even Jebediah begins to look terrified!

He hates landings with me. He goes nuts!!!! I don't know why, I've attached enough chutes to stop me midair........ and yes, for my planes I use drogues/ full size radials for both emergencies and for STOL use. I have also fashioned a Juno reverse thrust, by way of hiding 3 in the fuel tanks facing forward with their own fuel/ air intakes and I must say, it works well early game, especially when brakes are occassionally wonkier than the F/A-18 add-on in Flight Sim X Steam Edition...... I landed perfectly, and I used the brakes, and slowed down, and then it jumped backwards at like 70* pitch, slamming the turbofans into the ground, causing me to fail............... Every time I tried, same result.