Engineer skill level - not allowed to do anything

[lextacy]

I need my engineers to actually be able to perform their duties on Duna. The game complains that no engineer is at level 3. I've not had the opportunities for them to fix things to level up because we have had a very high reliability index. I need to know how can I hack the levels up so they can do the work they were hired to do.

[Reactordrone]

They need to get to level three to be able to all repairs and that usually means sending them outside Kerbin's sphere of influence since there aren't enough points available in Mun and Minmus landings. A quick trip into solar orbit and back should let you level up your engineers.

[lextacy]

They need to get to level three to be able to all repairs and that usually means sending them outside Kerbin's sphere of influence since there aren't enough points available in Mun and Minmus landings. A quick trip into solar orbit and back should let you level up your engineers.

too late for that though, we are on Duna and a rover needs its wheel repaired :/

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, you could go spelunking through the persistence file. I've no idea where it would be stored, but if you open it in something like Notepad++ and search for the name of the crewmember in question, you should probably find a line that defines their skill level.

[MircoMars]

you can "hack" your persistence (or quickload or any other savefile) with the notepad. Save that file before you change anything or you'll regret it!

use ctrl+f to open find and look for your kerbal under "ROSTER":

ROSTER
{
KERBAL
{
name = Bill Kerman
type = Crew
brave = 0.5
dumb = 0.8
badS = False
state = Available
ToD = 0
idx = 0
CAREER_LOG
{
flight = 1
0 = Flight,Kerbin
0 = Suborbit,Kerbin
0 = Land,Kerbin
0 = Recover
}
FLIGHT_LOG
{
flight = 1
}
}

now it should work if you just copy the "CAREER_LOG" and "FLIGHT_LOG" of your best kerbal to your engineer. save and load into game.

all of the above can be done while KSP is running, just Alt-Tab out. load from KSC overview for good measure.

hope this works for you.

if you want to level your kerbals without hacking, go in small steps as only the "best" achievement of the flight is awarded. i.e. if you go straight for a minmus landing, flight/orbit at kerbin, mun-flyby, orbiting minmus etc are not counted.

[AlexinTokyo]

if you want to level your kerbals without hacking, go in small steps as only the "best" achievement of the flight is awarded. i.e. if you go straight for a minmus landing, flight/orbit at kerbin, mun-flyby, orbiting minmus etc are not counted.

This is not quite accurate, unfortunately.

Only the highest-value activity is counted, that's true, but it's the highest-value activity per body, not per mission.

As a simple example, if I launch Jeb on a sub-orbital flight, he will gain 1 XP for 'flight at Kerbin'. If I then send him on an orbital flight, he will go to a total of 2 XP for 'orbit at Kerbin'; an addition of 1 XP for the orbital flight.

If I then take Bob and send him on an orbital flight as his first expedition, he will gain 2 XP, and move to a total of 2, the same as Jeb after two flights.

It is impossible to gain any other XP from Kerbin, so no matter how many missions flown or contracts completed, a Kerbal can only ever get 2 XP (=level 1) from Kerbin flights.

To immediately level an unskilled Kerbal up to 3 (the highest level with any in-game effect right now), you need to have him plant a flag on both the Mun and on Minmus, and also go into Kerbolar orbit. On returning to KSC, he will immediately level up to level 3.

[Superfluous J]

To immediately level an unskilled Kerbal up to 3 (the highest level with any in-game effect right now), you need to have him plant a flag on both the Mun and on Minmus, and also go into Kerbolar orbit. On returning to KSC, he will immediately level up to level 3.

Not quite. All they need to do is launch from Kerbin, pass through Mun's SOI, exit Kerbin's SOI (so you're in Sun's SOI) and come right back in, land on Minmus and plant a flag, and return to Kerbin (in any order, though I suggest doing it in that order or at least start with a launch and end with a landing on Kerbin ).

Source: My game. I've got 30 3-star guys from three 10-Kerbal training cruises.

Edited March 5, 2015 by 5thHorseman

[Tex]

I need my engineers to actually be able to perform their duties on Duna. The game complains that no engineer is at level 3. I've not had the opportunities for them to fix things to level up because we have had a very high reliability index. I need to know how can I hack the levels up so they can do the work they were hired to do.

Remember that Kerbals don't gain experience from doing their jobs, they gain experience from going places.

[AlexinTokyo]

Not quite. All they need to do is launch from Kerbin, pass through Mun's SOI, exit Kerbin's SOI (so you're in Sun's SOI) and come right back in, land on Minmus and plant a flag, and return to Kerbin (in any order, though I suggest doing it in that order or at least start with a launch and end with a landing on Kerbin ).

Source: My game. I've got 30 3-star guys from three 10-Kerbal training cruises.

I stand corrected. That will get you exactly the 16 XP that's needed for level 3.

[MircoMars]

This is -snipped-

hmm, didn't pay enough attention then... how did I miss that?

[Vorg]

Hmm that changes things for my plans. I put a ship 4 kerbal in Kerbin orbit and did a few other things to give them a chance to make a full orbit. Then was going to send them to Mun, land, plant flags, go back to Kerbin to meet a fuel ship, then to Minmus to plant 4 more flags before sending them home. Guess I don't need to do all that.

[Seaview123]

Does this seem like an excessive amount of work to allow an engineer to be able to repair a flat tire? I can do that to my car and I haven't been into space once (as far as I know). And while I can fix a flat tire, it would be another thing entirely to be able to repack a parachute.

What do you folks think?

[Pecan]

I can pack a parachute and I've never been higher than an airliner.

I can also make coffee, even though I've never seen the film 'Titanic'.

As far as I know, watching Titanic has as much to do with making coffee, as Kerbal experience has with the specialisations; nothing at all.

[tsotha]

Yeah, the experience system doesn't make a lot of sense. On the other hand, you learn by doing, and if your engineer can pack chutes to train, than what does it mean for him to gain a level that allows him to pack 'chutes?

The easiest thing to do is make a ship chock full of hitchhiker pods and do 5th Horseman's level 3 experience tour. Last game I did 24 in one launch and never worried about experience again. Though I confess in my new game I'll probably only do four or five - from my perspective the only class that has any value is the engineer except for the first few launches when you need a pilot for SAS.

The thing I don't understand is the wiki says level 1 = pack chutes, level 2 = fix wheels, and level 3 = fix legs. But my engineers don't seem to be able to fix wheels until level 3.

[AlexinTokyo]

The release thread definitely says level 2 for legs and level 3 for wheels. Looks like the wiki needs to be corrected.

Edit: The wiki page on Experience agrees with the release thread. Can you point me to where you found the error, so I can fix it?

Edited March 6, 2015 by AlexinTokyo

[lextacy]

okay good responses guys......I repacked about 12 chutes , lucky I had a Hab , lander and stuff that had many chutes. Will my experience update and level me up without having to get home ?

[AlexinTokyo]

Your Kerbalnauts will not be credited with their experience until they return to KSC.

You have to get out and back to gain XP.

[Superfluous J]

Yeah I think they have to take a closed-book test or something to be officially certified.

[tater]

Remember that Kerbals don't gain experience from doing their jobs, they gain experience from going places.

What a profoundly bad mechanic.

[tsotha]

Edit: The wiki page on Experience agrees with the release thread. Can you point me to where you found the error, so I can fix it?.

I just checked again. It's right now.

[lextacy]

What a profoundly bad mechanic.

agreed

[eddiew]

What a profoundly bad mechanic.

It stops you rolling out a rover onto the runway and having engineers level up by practising on it I guess. Easy enough to make dummy vehicles that can break their own solar panels/wheels/legs without leaving Kerbin.

I do however find low level engineers frustrating. Wheel repair should be their first skill, on the basis that everyone's had to change a tyre at some point!

[tsotha]

It stops you rolling out a rover onto the runway and having engineers level up by practising on it I guess. Easy enough to make dummy vehicles that can break their own solar panels/wheels/legs without leaving Kerbin.

I do however find low level engineers frustrating. Wheel repair should be their first skill, on the basis that everyone's had to change a tyre at some point!

They could certainly implement it such that experience was scaled based on where you are, just like science. Fix a solar panel on Kerbin? Great! Another 500 and you level up. Or you could fix just one on Moho.

Personally I'd like to see them get rid of classes and go strictly with skills. If all you've ever done is fly ships your pilot skill might be high, but you'd have to do engineering things to raise your engineering skill.

[Superfluous J]

They could certainly implement it such that experience was scaled based on where you are, just like science. Fix a solar panel on Kerbin? Great! Another 500 and you level up. Or you could fix just one on Moho.

Then everybody would complain that leveling up was grindy.

I would like a system where you buy the skills with XP. Want to change a tire but don't care about landing gear? Spend 4xp to unlock that for your engineer. Or 12xp (or some other multiplier) for your pilot to learn the same skill.

[lextacy]

Then everybody would complain that leveling up was grindy.

I would like a system where you buy the skills with XP. Want to change a tire but don't care about landing gear? Spend 4xp to unlock that for your engineer. Or 12xp (or some other multiplier) for your pilot to learn the same skill.

that would be cool!