A question about flags and kerbals

[Colonel_Panic]

When you select a mission flag in the VAB for a vessel, will other kerbals joining that vessel's crew later inherit that mission flag? or will they keep the flags from the ships they launched with?

[1001sd]

Why not just try it?

I can't do it right now, but if noone has answered when I can, and you can't now, I'll try doing it.

[Pulstar]

Yes, they will inherit the flags. Flags are assigned per craft part of the vessel in the persistance/quicksave files as they get replenished every time a kerbal boards the specific part (just like EVA jetpack RCS fuel), that way if you dock a lander with a cruiser having a seperate flag neither gets overwritten. By default everything made and launched as one ship in the VAB/SPH has the same flag.

So basically should you forget to change a flag in the VAB/SPH or want to set separate flags if it's a multilander mission (I know that's not what you asked about) you can just find the craft in the persistance file, find the crewed module where the dolts you want to have new flags are (or will be, you can do this even if it is uncrewed at the moment) and edit the flag filepath in it to the flag you want to use. However AFAIK flags are not stored in .craft (because it would create issues trying to share them when others don't have yours) and are assigned per launch, so it's best/fastest to either quicksave it while on the launchpad or in initial orbit, edit the save and reload if you want to do that.

I think being able to change mission flags from the tracking station or vessel info screen in the knowledge base could also be a good idea for a new feature, but it's a very minor thing.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Pulstar

[Colonel_Panic]

Yes, they will inherit the flags. Flags are assigned per craft part of the vessel in the persistance/quicksave files as they get replenished every time a kerbal boards the specific part (just like EVA jetpack RCS fuel), that way if you dock a lander with a cruiser having a seperate flag neither gets overwritten. By default everything made and launched as one ship in the VAB/SPH has the same flag.

So basically should you forget to change a flag in the VAB/SPH or want to set separate flags if it's a multilander mission (I know that's not what you asked about) you can just find the craft in the persistance file, find the crewed module where the dolts you want to have new flags are (or will be, you can do this even if it is uncrewed at the moment) and edit the flag filepath in it to the flag you want to use. However AFAIK flags are not stored in .craft (because it would create issues trying to share them when others don't have yours) and are assigned per launch, so it's best/fastest to either quicksave it while on the launchpad or in initial orbit, edit the save and reload if you want to do that.

I think being able to change mission flags from the tracking station or vessel info screen in the knowledge base could also be a good idea for a new feature, but it's a very minor thing.

Cool, good info, thanks!