Kerbal Diversity.

[Minmus Taster]

We have known for awhile that Kerbals will have individual hair styles in KSP 2

But I noticed some of the Kerbals in this model have a slightly lighter/darker skin and others have glasses, what do you think about this?

Edit: No Identity Politics in the comments, it's just a game about space toads not discrimination.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Minmus Taster

[intelliCom]

2 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said:

But I noticed some of the Kerbals in this model have a slightly lighter/darker  skin and others have glasses

Could we have some timestamps so we can understand what you mean?

[Minmus Taster]

3 minutes ago, intelliCom said:

Could we have some timestamps so we can understand what you mean?

Just click, it's preset. 

Edited June 11, 2021 by Minmus Taster

[MechBFP]

Makes sense, and easy to implement.

[Zaffre]

It could be just an artifact of testing or an effect of the helmets, but I'd love to see kerbals have different varieties and have unique individuals outside of "NPC" kerbals. It makes them feel like an actual species instead of generic copypaste #134875. Different hues like the colors of some plants, which can include a bluish green, all the way to purple, just as an example. The lack of diversity and features unique to an individual kerbal is something that has bothered me. Like, you'd imagine Jebediah and Valentina freakin' Kerman to have something to set them apart from just spacesuits. Heck, I wouldn't mind seeing customizable kerbals with a cheat menu or something.

We'll have to see how it pans out. If it does take the clone approach, that will be thoroughly disappointing but hopefully mods will remedy that.

[snip]

Edited June 12, 2021 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Starhelperdude]

wait, those big monobrows are glasses? lol

[intelliCom]

16 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

Just click, it's preset.

Oh damn, good job. I didn't even bother to check, I just thought it was spread out across the video, but it's one clip. Touché.
I was initially disapproving of how the kerbals looked such a strong shade of lime than they should, but this seems to show paler kerbals as well as more saturated ones. To be honest, I really like this. Gives the Kerbals more flavour, and, obviously, a more memorable face than just (oh that one was male, and that one was female.)

Also, do you know of KSP 1's feature of being able to create kerbals in the 'secret area'? Hopefully KSP 2 has one like that where people would create Kerbals resembling real-world figures, akin to Werner Von Kerman or Gene Kerman. Although, with how simplistic Kerbals are, it wouldn't look particularly convincing without the right clothes or facial hair.  (Although, I don't remember Werner Von Kerman having a moustache.)

I'm also ÜBER looking forward to using the suit colours to define different categories of Kerbal. There seems to be 2 colours available, and I can imagine using them in just one particular system:

• The "main colour" of most of the suit would probably define different divisions of my space program, perhaps defining work on specific planets. (For simplicity, colours won't change by moons)
  I won't mention KSP 2's announced exoplanets because the list would be undoubtedly incomplete. I'd need to just figure those ones out when I find them.
  • █████ Tan (#D2B48C) would be Moho Kerbonauts.
  • █████ Lilac (#C8A2C8) would be Eve Kerbonauts.
  • █████ White Smoke (#F5F5F5) would be general Kerbonauts with no specific place in the Kerbol System and Kerbin workers.
  • █████ Light Red (#FF7F7F) would be Duna Kerbonauts.
  • █████ Beaver (#9F8170) would be Dres Kerbonauts. (That is, if I ever go to Dres often enough lmao)
  • █████ Mantis (#71BC78) would be Jool Kerbonauts.
  • █████ Colombia Blue (#B9D9EB) would be Eeloo Kerbonauts.
  • █████ Jet (#343434) would be Kerbonauts with no specific place within Interstellar space, outside the Kerbol System.
• The "accent colour" on the top of their head would define profession, probably something like Star Trek.
  • █████ Crayola Yellow (#FCE883) would be pilots (Chekov and Sulu).
  • █████ Savoy Blue (#4B61D1) would be scientists (Spock and McCoy).
  • █████ Bittersweet Shimmer (#BF4F51) would be enginners (Scotty and... well, Scotty).

There's a bunch of other systems you could use, such as one colour defining the Kerbonaut's experience, perhaps the type of facility/vehicle they're supposed to use (Some could be plane pilots, while others could be orbital station personnel.) or, hell, you could make up specific sets of Kerbals to do specific missions (Some are test subjects, some are rescuers, )

There's only one thing that hasn't shown up yet that I really want to see on this suit customisation:

MATERIAL SHADERS FOR KERBALS.

Allowing use of materials means you could define how metallic or polished a Kerbal is.
Not only could colours be defined, but the way the light reflects off of the suits can imply the material it is made out of.

Plastic, matte, and metal. Sharp reflections, blurry reflections, and all inbetween. 

In other words, think of recreating the Mercury program spacesuits in KSP:

[snip]

Edited June 12, 2021 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Dientus]

I understand what you are getting at @MechBFP and though I am not 100% sure that it's not lighting at this point, I wouldn't mind either way.

 

Diverse Kerbals would make them more identifiable and relatable to human terms. Even some with or without freckles could make a striking difference for example. I can take em either way but I think I may favor a bit of difference just to assist with immersion in the story in my mind.

 

[shdwlrd]

If they are liking the kerbals to the WH40K Orks, I can see some variations in skin tones. (I know, most games only show them as green. The source books claim their skin tones will range from a light green to a very dark green.) Another thing I would like to see is variations in the individual kerbals physical builds. (Like the skinny and buff kerbals used in the tutorials.)

[Hotel26]

6 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

But I noticed some of the Kerbals in this model have a slightly lighter/darker skin and others have glasses, what do you think about this?

My feeling is that it is so utterly irrelevant.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Hotel26

[zer0Kerbal]

[snip]

Kerbals are perfect the way they are, even if they all look basically the same. 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[ColdJ]

[snip] Being able to look at a group of Kerbals and go "oh there is Val over there and bill is standing at the back" is not a bad thing. [snip]  it doesn't matter that they come in variations, it just makes it easier to anthropomorphise them.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Guest]

[snip]

Adding variation to the Kerbals is [snip] a subtle mix between art stile and playability (It would help greatly if Valentina isn't the only Kerbal you can single out from a group of them).

Edited June 12, 2021 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[jimmymcgoochie]

In an attempt to bring this thread back from the brink of moderation and return it to the original topic...

I use Texture Replacer in pretty much every save I do to make my Kerbals look different from each other and more like individuals as a result. Generic male and female faces that look exactly the same are boring and make them look like nothing more than clones, and it's not like the game doesn't already include different looking Kerbals- look at Gene's blond hair, Walt's beard stubble or Wernher's moustache- so why shouldn't the Kerbals that go on missions look different from each other too?

I don't care if they're lime, chartreuse, olive or viridian or if their hair is brown, black, blond or retina-searing purple as long as I can look at them and they aren't copy-pasted duplicates of each other.

[Guest]

[snip]

I think this time around they have the budget and the scope to add at least some variables in the kerbal model/texture to give some needed diversity to the roster, at least to make their faces recognizable.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Caerfinon]

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

I don't care if they're lime, chartreuse, olive or viridian or if their hair is brown, black, blond or retina-searing purple as long as I can look at them and they aren't copy-pasted duplicates of each other.

Difference is good. I don't want to play a game where all kerbals are identical, anymore than I would want to play a game where all rocket parts were only white, or only silver.  Vive la différence!

[The Aziz]

It was said, in one of older videos, that some Kerbals will have asymmetrical eyes, like original model, some not.

So knowing that they will have different hair, I see nothing wrong with having different shades of green on their skin.

If this sounds wrong (trying to avoid the p word) to some folks... I mean, even goblins sphinx cats have different colored skin and nobody bats an eye.

Edited June 12, 2021 by The Aziz

[kerbiloid]

15 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

some of the Kerbals in this model have a slightly lighter/darker skin

50 shades of green.

It's normal. We can't even be sure that they have skin.

15 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

and others have glasses

Many of Kerbals have damaged their eyes by nightly playing  KSP, so now they have to hire blind pilots.

13 hours ago, intelliCom said:

In other words, think of recreating the Mercury program spacesuits in KSP:

Why not green? Just models with applied reflection shader?

13 hours ago, Starhelperdude said:

wait, those big monobrows are glasses?

The glasses become the monobrow after the 20 g aerobraking.

***

Where is the body positive??

The Kerbals should have individual mass and suit size.

Especially, since they arre basically cylindric,

So, you have to weight them before the flight, and properly distribute along the ship to keep CoM on the main axis.

(In Kethane mod: fatter Kerbal - more Kethane.)

[Snark]

A huge swath  of content has been removed, due to:

• politics
  • Protip:  complaining about other people being political is, itself, "politics"
• off-topic digressions
  • Protip:  saying "this is off-topic, but" doesn't make it any more on-topic, folks
• politics
• telling other people what to do, a.k.a. "backseat moderating"
• politics
• personal attacks
• politics

Just a friendly reminder of stuff that everyone already knows (right?):

• Politics is out of bounds here.  Forum rule 2.2.b.  The huge swath of bickering we've had to remove in this thread is ample evidence of why we have this rule in the first place.    Leave the political outrage at the door, please.  There are plenty of other places on the internet for you to be angry about politics if you so choose.  Thanks.
• Please stay on-topic.  Forum rule 2.2.o.  If someone else posts off-topic stuff, just report it if you like; don't respond to it, and particularly don't respond just to tell people that it's off-topic.  That's because,
• Please don't tell other people what to do or not to do.  This is called "backseat moderating", it's not your place, you're not a moderator.  Forum rule 3.2 addresses this.  If you think someone is behaving inappropriately, please just report the post and let the moderator team have a look at it.  It's what we're for.
• Please avoid personal remarks.  Forum rule 2.2.d.  We're all friends here, there's no need to get personal.  Address the post, not the poster.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Pthigrivi]

Ive always wanted to see this, different combinations of hair styles and colors and glasses and things. Having slightly randomized hue/value to their skin tones seems perfectly natural. Like everyone has said it just gives them more individual personality. Im happy to think they don’t have weird human hangups about this kind of thing. 

[intelliCom]

On 6/12/2021 at 10:10 PM, kerbiloid said:

Why not green? Just models with applied reflection shader?

I don't get what you mean, could you elaborate?

It sounds like you're saying "Why not use green instead of material shaders?" The question doesn't make any sense with the context.

[Lewie]

On 6/11/2021 at 3:46 PM, Minmus Taster said:

But I noticed some of the Kerbals in this model have a slightly lighter/darker skin 

50 shades of green

On 6/12/2021 at 11:16 AM, Pthigrivi said:

Ive always wanted to see this, different combinations of hair styles and colors and glasses and things. Having slightly randomized hue/value to their skin tones seems perfectly natural. Like everyone has said it just gives them more individual personality. Im happy to think they don’t have weird human hangups about this kind of thing. 

well said!

[theJesuit]

I think rather than skin shades and the possibility of this being a n issue, why not diversity in skin types - furry, scaly etc that was showcased earlier?  Keep the colour of BADA55.

Peace.

[MechBFP]

2 minutes ago, theJesuit said:

I think rather than skin shades and the possibility of this being a n issue, why not diversity in skin types - furry, scaly etc that was showcased earlier?  Keep the colour of BADA55.

Peace.

Nah, KSP2 isn't catering to the lowest common denominator anywhere else, why start here?

[mattinoz]

Would be interesting to see Kerbal height change with the gravity they grow up in. literally stretch or compress the model. Might take a few generations of colonists before they reach full distinction and low-G Kerbals might have movement issues on high-g planets.