Kerbal downtime

[Kebra]

I love the new experience and level system for Kerbals. But it still seems to favour sending the same Kerbonauts away on missions repeatedly.

Wouldn't it be more fun and challenging if you had to keep a B team ready and leveled up aswell? Unless anything goes wrong and you can't/won't revert the orange suits are probably gonna be the only crew you ever need in the game.

I think even Jebediah would need to sped a little time with his wife, go for a movie or train for the next mission.

"Welcome back from Duna, now get in this rocket and go for a trip around Jool!"

The time spent on missions should be related to forced downtime with a minimum of XX days.

Valeri Polyakov probably wasn't sent back up after his 400 days on Mir

Edited March 24, 2015 by Kebra

[micr0wave]

there is a plugin which does pretty much what you described (link)

[matts73]

Would be nice to have, but I think devs said that there will no downtimes in game because we have timewarp and so this would make no sense (I don´t think so but who cares). If you want it more realistic or hardcore you´ll have to rely on mods - for me it seems the devs want to keep the game simple to achieve max sales - thats ok but it would be also nice if there were difficulty settings that affect realism...

Edited March 24, 2015 by matts73

[superm18]

Or you could just force yourself to change up the crew, or start running more than 1 manned mission at a time.

[Dazpoet]

Start sending out multiple missions at the same time and you'll be forced to level more kerbals. Within some 120 ingame days or so I just retrived kerbals from 3 different missions from Gilly, Duna+Ike and Low Solar orbit.

I recommend Kerbal Alarm Clock to keep track of everyone

[Deutherius]

Well, if you want to run an efficient space program, you're gonna have to send parallel missions (unless waiting 6 years for the Jool mission to come home is your jazz), which enforces hiring new crew. If you want manned missions, that is.

Enforcing downtime after a mission would add realism, sure (and it's a neat idea), but the question is if that'd be a good thing right now. I don't think it would, especially with no enforced life support.

If my kerbals can survive 100 years in a tight capsule on a close heliocentric orbit without any external help, they can sure as hell get in the new rocket right after returning home.

[Captain H@dock]

Start sending out multiple missions at the same time and you'll be forced to level more kerbals. Within some 120 ingame days or so I just retrived kerbals from 3 different missions from Gilly, Duna+Ike and Low Solar orbit.

I recommend Kerbal Alarm Clock to keep track of everyone

Exactly. Concurrent missions (especially once you go inter-planetary, where missions last months....) will force you to have more than one crew. But even Minmus / Mun can do this (your minmus mission will last enough to complete 4 or 5 mun missions in a row)

[Frank_G]

Or you could just force yourself to change up the crew, or start running more than 1 manned mission at a time.

Thats what i do. Quite expensive to change your Duna ground base crew on a regular basis in career mode. It makes the game more fun and challenging, but it doesnt need a game mechanic in my opinion. Being forced to do things isnt the way KSP works.

And i have always two complete lightly experienced crews standing by.

[Rolanvorxariat]

That, my friend, is why i have space stations. i pick crew out of name favoritism, lice Corbrett and Desbrett (Female kerbal versions of Scott and Mark Kelley), who i made the same using tecturereplacer, and Shepke Kerman, who was a good engineer for the KKKP spacce agency. I roleplay, so i have self-imposed rules on the limits on how much time a kerbal spends in space, and the minimum time they spend on the ground (Press conferences, training, family time, etc.). Roleplay.

[Mr. Scruffy]

Exactly. Concurrent missions (especially once you go inter-planetary, where missions last months....) will force you to have more than one crew. But even Minmus / Mun can do this (your minmus mission will last enough to complete 4 or 5 mun missions in a row)

But then again, there is nothing forcing you to do concurrent missions - unless they are in fact part of the same. This has nothing to do with effeciency but all with ´your jazz´, as someone here has put it. You can send out Jeb, Bill and Bob -back-to-back- and noone else for everything you do in the game. When they are currently going to Duna, and you want to visit say Eve next, there is no reason not to wait for their return and send them right off again, afterwards, for the next long-term mission (launching windows provided - and there will be one coming up after their arrival - guranteed. It´s just a matter of how much extra warping you do). How much time you warp through for doing this has no consequence in any way.

EDIT: And yes: Offtime is irrelevant, if time passes for nothing else, either, except orbits, which repeat, by defintion. That changes a great deal though, if other stuff would be affecrted by time, too. Go figure: Time (as space) only matters as a relation - and that takes two. If you only have one object, there is no point in assigning any location to it. As is with time - if you only have one thing fall through it, it is meaningless. Add another, and bam.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Mr. Scruffy