Kerbal's Getting Weird - Long space voyages take a toll

[born2croak]

The Pitch:  Kerbals get "a little weird" the longer they are in space.  Weirdness manifests as erratic behavior, untidy hair and surroundings, getting "creative" with supplies, and anything else a crazy kerbalnaut may get up to.

Objective:  Have a "life-support / food / supplies" mechanic that makes no extra demand on the player, and yet is also hilarious.

The rate at which "getting weird" sets in depends on loneliness, amount of cabin space, quality of communication home, etc.  The player won't acutally need to address "getting weird" to play the game normally, but it could lead to more Kerbal empathy in general.

 

[TheOrbitalMechanic]

Ooh, I like this idea. Things like hair growing out, tally marks appearing around the cabin, or just general grime building up...

[Fletch4]

It may be interesting if they went through various stages of disarray:

1.The kerbal unzips the flight suit to the waist, while you can see the undershirt underneath. fairly normal, just the top part of the flight suit is gone. Almost casual.

2. Kerbals develop messy hair, maybe a few grease stains. the females start having their hair float around them. maybe some baggy eyes.

3. Yeah. They're crazy.  Covered in dirt, the capsules are messy, tally marks on the walls, sticky notes every where. They have started making sculptures from their hair.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Fletch4

[Vl3d]

Puffy face, growing beard. Life is hard in space, it takes its toll. I would love more visual kerbalism in this regard.

[LezRowl]

I feel like this would be better as a mod, I vaguely remember a developer mentioning something about it.

[Bej Kerman]

3 hours ago, LezRowl said:

I feel like this would be better as a mod, I vaguely remember a developer mentioning something about it.

Why does it need to be a mod? Is a kerbal not spending a 5 year trip to Jool staring blankly supposed to be the pinnacle of mod-suited content?

[Catto]

37 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Why does it need to be a mod? Is a kerbal not spending a 5 year trip to Jool staring blankly supposed to be the pinnacle of mod-suited content?

Yeah! It should be stock!

[Nazalassa]

And in the settings

[LezRowl]

21 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Why does it need to be a mod? Is a kerbal not spending a 5 year trip to Jool staring blankly supposed to be the pinnacle of mod-suited content?

Because not everybody has the same preference for how a life support system functions, neither does everyone have the same preference for there to be life support at all. If the feature were to be limited to mods then there could be different mods with different systems depending on the preferences of players.  Not sure what you're trying to say at the end of your post. 

[Bej Kerman]

4 hours ago, LezRowl said:

On 5/5/2022 at 7:42 PM, Bej Kerman said:

Why does it need to be a mod? Is a kerbal not spending a 5 year trip to Jool staring blankly supposed to be the pinnacle of mod-suited content?

Because not everybody has the same preference for how a life support system functions, neither does everyone have the same preference for there to be life support at all. If the feature were to be limited to mods then there could be different mods with different systems depending on the preferences of players.  Not sure what you're trying to say at the end of your post. 

I'm not sure how people having opinions means KSP 2 should go the lazy route and make Kerbals do absolutely nothing just because explosions aren't occurring. I'm just having trouble understanding your reply - how are things like life support that massively impact the game comparable to a minor graphical feature that only serves to make the game feel a little more complete? People have preferences, does that mean you'd expect some people to get upset if Kerbals in KSP 2 did more than nothing between explosions?

[Minmus Taster]

I really like this idea, it makes a lot of sense for a Kerbal to get a little bored in-between stars  

[Klapaucius]

This reminded me of a classic Ren & Stimpy:

 

 

[Maria Sirona]

On 5/6/2022 at 11:26 PM, Bej Kerman said:

I'm not sure how people having opinions means KSP 2 should go the lazy route and make Kerbals do absolutely nothing just because explosions aren't occurring. I'm just having trouble understanding your reply - how are things like life support that massively impact the game comparable to a minor graphical feature that only serves to make the game feel a little more complete? People have preferences, does that mean you'd expect some people to get upset if Kerbals in KSP 2 did more than nothing between explosions?

I do want my kerbals to look professional when they are doing important stuff such as landing on something

[Fletch4]

On 5/15/2022 at 9:24 AM, Maria Sirona said:

I do want my kerbals to look professional when they are doing important stuff such as landing on something

So, like @Nazalassa said: turn it off in the settings. What would be nice, though, would be having a parameter where if the periapsis dips below a certain point, like below the surface, the Kerbals go into all-out cleaning mode, and the cabin starts to slowly look nicer.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Fletch4

[Rutabaga22]

Maybe a system that allows you to add "Recreation modules" to keep the from getting weird, if you don't want your kerbals to be weird, give em' a pool, bar, and a big ol' trampoline. Maybe cupolas could be moved into recreation modules too!

 

[Superluminal Gremlin]

i imagine a bar with alcohol wouldnt be good for crazy kerbonaughts.

 

and normal ones, now that i think about it 

 

[Rutabaga22]

13 hours ago, TKMK said:

i imagine a bar with alcohol wouldnt be good for crazy kerbonaughts.

 

and normal ones, now that i think about it 

 

It's a snack bar. But an alcoholic bar would be good for tourist stations, I would image recreation modules would increase reputation in career mode if you had them on a tourist mission.

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

Would be cool if they can get some supplies like DVDs to entertain themselves and be less crazier (but using the same DVD too much will make them crazy again).  Also wouldnt it be cool if they calm down when they go on EVA? (Totally NOT a For all mankind reference)

Edited June 9, 2022 by Aerodynamic Kerbal

[Maria Sirona]

46 minutes ago, Aerodynamic Kerbal said:

calm down when they go on EVA

By what logic? Also, such a system would not serve any purpose in the game, so it would just be wasteful to add

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

14 minutes ago, Maria Sirona said:

By what logic? Also, such a system would not serve any purpose in the game, so it would just be wasteful to add

I know, but it would be fun 

[Davi SDF]

I like this idea, not too punishing, and funny. The only difference that i would make is to make them behave like tourists and be unable to pilot, but that's just a preference.