Mod Concept: Kerbin Historical Society (Random events, Historical Timeline, Historical Immersion)

[autumnalequinox]

Quick, tl/dr Summary: Creates a timeline from in-game events, Kerbalizes it, and creates a file! Also, a second module works like "Dang it!" but for time spent in the KCT (random events). Designed primarily to work with KCT, but options open!

Intro Note (hear this in a suitably awkward, stuttering voice)

Okay so I wanted to get a feel for this mod concept, and to check for interest. I will likely not start development for a month or so. I haven't coded in a *long* time and plan to work with some modders and reverse engineer some code as well as learn the basics of C# (my background is mostly in basic and C+) I am going to time mod development with an upcoming class on C# I am taking online so I have something fun to apply my new-found skills to.

First Points: It will likely be intended to work with Kerbal Construction Time. This is mostly due to the fact that this mod will take advantage of the longer timeframe KCT creates for the game, unlike a normal KSP game. In your standard game, you can complete your career mode easily within the 1st year, which would create a very compact timeline and limit events. However, it is possible I will create a slider that increases event frequency if desired. For the most part, the random events will make perfect filler for the "down time" in KCT between builds and during pad refurb/rollout/etc.

What I want this mod to do:

- Creates a timeline of activities using game logs and arranges them in a way to be pleasing and encyclopedic

- Adds decision points in-game on occasion with choices and consequences (minor and mostly relating to crew, cash, rep, and research) Nothing effecting active flight scenes. Adds some extra pressure during long waits for ship builds/pad reconditioning/etc

- Adds comedic news stories to timeline with no game impact. May crowd-source this out ala community research results to give it a "kerbalized" feel.

- Have an in-game summary and a file created outside of the game for easy posting/reading in save folder. Fun for the whole family!

How this mod will interact with the game (if possible)

- Kerbals that are not on mission can have decision based events affect them. Their stats will determine the results/options available. High stupidity and courage will create brash, unpredictable Kerbals (these guys don't do well with down time!!). Low stupidity, low courage types will be the safest ones, likely spending most time working experiments and staying in their offices.

- General events and decision points will also affect the Space Agency. These will call upon and influence the Space Agency stats (Rep, Funds, and Research). Essentially, this mod will treat these values like RPG stats.

In a nutshell, this mod will add immersion and depth to the game outside of flight and missions. Think of it like Dang it! but for the time spent at KSC. The timeline creation may be a separate module, and be useful for those that like to review their career/science games or post them.

Timeline Example:

Instead of simply "X ship built" the mod may occassionally add little snippets such as "X ship built at X time, pad crew discovers a rat stowed away in the engine bell." Just for fun.

That's it so far. Open to comments, criticism, or interest. I will leave this post here until I start development.

Thanks for your time, love u all!!

*autumn*

[Joshwoo70]

God.. dont turn the game into another buzz aldrin space program game!

[theonegalen]

In contrast to the prior response, I think this sounds like a great idea. I'd love to see those sort of messages in my game.

[autumnalequinox]

@ joshwoo69

God.. dont turn the game into another buzz aldrin space program game!

Never played it. Is it loaded with random events?

Really I just wanted very few events, nothing game breaking, nothing extremely annoying. I'm thinking maybe between 2 and 3 a game/year, with increasing frequency as your budget inflates and crew roster increases. But no "congressional wrestling" or politics.. because, gawd, I hate politics in space flight and I know the reason we play KSP is to run a space program without idiots messing with our ideas. But.. lately I have become more fascinated with the human side (astronauts, pad crew, mission control, admin) and think their actions need to be represented somewhat. Besides, Kerbals are funny little creatures: Great engineers and field scientists but obviously lacking some common sense. Besides just blowing rockets up and sending manned missions before probes, we should experience some of their silliness outside of flight scenes.

@theonegalen Thanks!

[Svm420]

This looks pretty interesting look forward to seeing more!

[Hotaru]

I also think this sounds like a fun idea! My reaction to any non-RPG game is invariably "should be more like an RPG" so I'm all for anything that adds RPG elements to KSP. Tried using the "Kerbal Feels" mod that adds inter-kerbal relationships, but it doesn't seem to work well in 1.0.

Personally I would be in favor of a "hardcore mode" that DOES have game-changing effects; if you send a ship full of stupid Kerbals there's a very small chance one of them will flip the wrong switch and the whole thing could explode; on the other hand, maybe stupider Kerbals are easier to get along with, and if you send along a ship full of smart ones they might start getting in fights and make science labs and command pods quit working. But maybe badS ones are better leaders, so sending one of those could help mitigate the effects of stupidity.

[FreeThinker]

Potentially this might be an intresting mod and create a more RPG experience. It would potentiality allow the introduction of fun side quest, which if completed give small bonuses, like increased credits, reputation or experience for your Kerbals.

Edited June 6, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Spacepetscompany]

This looks like an amazing idea. Definitely keeping an eye on this.

[autumnalequinox]

Thanks for the support @ spacepetscompany, FreeThinker, Hotaru, and Svm420! I'm glad to see there's a good sample of peeps that could use this.

Currently I am running an "external" mod on top of my career game and editing values manually. I'm going old school, using RND generators and RPG-style charts to get results. I'm also flirting with the idea of crew downtime between missions (currently 10 days for every 1 day on mission, up to max of 90) as well as a TMT (Total Mission Time) value to allow retirement. Optional! And also modified by experience and stats. I'm even thinking retired Kerbals will still have roles in the roleplay system, maybe more then before.

I'm also reading up on individual astronauts in RL and seeing what they did throughout their careers and afterwards to get ideas for events and modifiers. Honestly I want a solid and semi-balanced system before I start coding so I can release something functional initially.

FInal Frontier has been very useful to me, as well, and I may take a few cues from it for development alongside KCT.

The thought of an actual "stat sheet" for individual crew has also crossed my mind. It's just so many mods add their own stats it would be more of something to bridge them all together, as I would hate to step on the wonderful jobs they have done. Buuuuuuut this is getting far ahead of myself.

As I progress through my test game I'll report how things work. I'm still writing out my event list and anything I get I'll drop here for people to check out. Once I get a decent # of events anyone that wants to contribute will be welcome to.

Thanks again everyone and hopefully I can make something work. First public mod and all, haha, we shallllll see.

[Svm420]

Wow so far you've named everything I have wanted from my career mode. Keep up the awesome work!

[autumnalequinox]

I also think this sounds like a fun idea! My reaction to any non-RPG game is invariably "should be more like an RPG" so I'm all for anything that adds RPG elements to KSP. Tried using the "Kerbal Feels" mod that adds inter-kerbal relationships, but it doesn't seem to work well in 1.0.

Personally I would be in favor of a "hardcore mode" that DOES have game-changing effects; if you send a ship full of stupid Kerbals there's a very small chance one of them will flip the wrong switch and the whole thing could explode; on the other hand, maybe stupider Kerbals are easier to get along with, and if you send along a ship full of smart ones they might start getting in fights and make science labs and command pods quit working. But maybe badS ones are better leaders, so sending one of those could help mitigate the effects of stupidity.

This is a possibility. I know there are some mods such as Kabin Kraziness that work this out to some degree, although at a fixed rate and not taking into account personality dynamics like you stated. But if I can figure out a way to interact with the flight scene without bogging down the game it's totally an option.

One more thing: The historical log will be seperate from the Roleplay/event system, which I will work on first. Chicken and the egg. The log will initially just be an event log for the mod itself which I will integrate other stuff into as I go.

I want the original four to have their own events, as they will be consistent throughout everyone's game. I'm developing personalities with a matrix, using Courage and Stupidity values at 3 points (low, balanced, high). This should create about 27 distinct personality types for event calling and interaction. BadAss will be a one of them Others such as "bookworm" (low stupidity, low courage), "adventurer scientist" (low stupidity, balanced courage), "flyboy/girl" (balanced stupidity, high courage), etc etc. Still working it out.

Skill level combined with personality type and in-game stats should give me plenty of numbers to work with. Additional stats will be derived from these, such as TMT (60 days x level + % courage, modified by personality type and number of missions). I'm thinking even a good, ultra-skilled Kerbal will likely retire after a 2-3 year single mission. BadAss will allow a Kerbal to ignore retirement indefinitely, or become the most awesome retired trainer/administrator imaginable (think Alan Shepard).

An event: "Jeb has experimental surgery to further rejuvenate his BadAssery and returns to flight rotation" could be something that could keep BadAss types in the game.

One more thing: The legendary hatred of Flight Surgeons by astronauts. Should I bring in a Health stat? Should Kerbals risk being grounded if they either lose health (via rads, Gs, or events)?

[theonegalen]

The essential thing to consider is that no matter what difficulties/problems you throw at the player, there need to be ways around the difficulties or to solve the problems. Dang It!'s part failures would completely suck if there were no way to repair them; similarly, if flying things more often didn't reduce the failure rate in TestFlight, I would quickly uninstall it. Some mods, like KCT and FAR, just require more or different planning or construction to mitigate the additional difficulty.

So, for example, If you're going to retire my best pilot soon after he hits level five, I need a way to efficiently train another one.

I figure you've probably already considered all of this, but just in case, I thought I'd bring it up. I really like your plans.