No exp gain from Flight on Kerbin

[emfleck]

Made a nifty plane for my scientists to fly around. When I landed and recovered the vehicle they didn't get any EXP gain at all. Tried it again with just a quick flight and landed on the runway at KSC and still no exp gains... Not sure why I'm not getting that 1 point I should be.

Edited June 15, 2015 by emfleck

[capi3101]

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Experience

Did your scientists already have one XP gained from a flight over Kerbin? If so, they won't be able to gain that same point over and over again. Try sending them to LKO if you haven't done so.

If you have, on the other hand, sent them to orbit and they still haven't reached Level 1 (one-star), then there's an issue.

[emfleck]

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Experience

Did your scientists already have one XP gained from a flight over Kerbin? If so, they won't be able to gain that same point over and over again. Try sending them to LKO if you haven't done so.

If you have, on the other hand, sent them to orbit and they still haven't reached Level 1 (one-star), then there's an issue.

They don't (nor do any of my Kerbonauts) have Flight exp from Kerbin.

And given the values under the Flight column I'm assuming it just means flying around in a body with an atmosphere.

[Jason Patterson]

None of your kerbals have been on an atmospheric flight in a rocket? The game doesn't distinguish between winged craft and not.

[emfleck]

None of your kerbals have been on an atmospheric flight in a rocket? The game doesn't distinguish between winged craft and not.

None of my kerbonauts have the experience gains from flying in an atmosphere, rocket, winged or booted across a field.

[capi3101]

Hmm. Sounds like a bug then. Either that or the wiki is in need of updating. Tell you what: I've got some new folks lazing around KSC at the moment - when I get an opportunity later tonight, I'll take them on up for a joy ride and see if I get the same result or not. If I do, then it's likely the wiki's data just needs to be updated.

Just a random thought - it's possible the "flight" requirement might have some level of minimum altitude. How high up have you gotten your plane going?

[emfleck]

10 kilometers I think was the max. It might be no exp gains. I've yet to fly through another body that has an atmosphere. But from my early rocket flights with sub orbital trajectories and less than escaping the atmosphere, I'd figure those would have been sufficient. Just never paid any attention to exp gains on them .

[Psycix]

Have they been to orbit yet? The most valuable achievement per body is what counts.

[emfleck]

Have they been to orbit yet? The most valuable achievement per body is what counts.

Are you saying that once you plant a flag on minmus that you can't get the other exp gains? Confused about whether or not they are cumulative....

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

Correct, only the most valuable achievement applies, that means orbit for Kerbin and Sun, flight for Jool and planted flag for all others is the maximum you can get.

[emfleck]

Correct, only the most valuable achievement applies, that means orbit for Kerbin and Sun, flight for Jool and planted flag for all others is the maximum you can get.

Ahhhhhh, well that makes more sense for the numbers I am seeing then...

Seems kinda silly they would have Land and Plant Flag as different categories then. Why land if you aren't going to (or unable to) plant a flag down?

[Francesco]

Just going on EVA from the runway or the launchpad counts as one flight on Kerbin.

(Maybe even just placing the capsule there, I'm not sure.)

Are you sure they haven't done that before?

[Snark]

Are you saying that once you plant a flag on minmus that you can't get the other exp gains? Confused about whether or not they are cumulative....

Yeah, the way they've modeled it can be a bit confusing.

The natural assumption that you're making (I made it myself, and was deeply confused for a while) is that there are all these different "achievements", and each one gives you points, and to milk all the experience from a particular body, you have to do all the different things.

That's not how it works. To expand a bit on RocketPropelledGiraffe's comment:

Each celestial body is worth a certain total bucket of points. For example, the Mun is worth 5 total points. Any given Kerbal will start with a "Mun score" of 0, and can get (at most) a maximum "Mun score" of 5.

There are a series of different achievements worth different amounts, and your "Mun score" is the maximum of your Mun achievements, not the sum.

So for example, a flyby of the Mun is worth 2; orbit, 3; landing, 4; plant flag, 5.

Say you do a flyby and come home. You now have a "Mun score" of 2, where it was previously zero. So your experience has gone up by 2 points.

Now you go again, but you orbit. That raises your "Mun score" to 3. It was previously 2, so you get only one extra point.

Now you go again, but you land. This raises your "Mun score" to 4. It was previously 3, so you get only one extra point.

So, what does this mean in practical terms for you?

A Kerbal needs 2 experience points to get to level 1. On Kerbin, flying is worth 1 point, orbiting is worth 2.

So if you orbit, you have 2 points and will be level 1.

If you fly (but do not go to orbit), you have 1 point and are therefore still only level 0. If you fly multiple times, doesn't help, no extra experience. If you launch out of atmosphere on a suborbital trajectory, still no extra points. The only way to reach level 1 is to get to orbit, and if you do that, you don't need anything else (like flying).

(Well, in principle you could get it by launching straight on a suborbital trajectory that intercepts the Mun's SoI or something, without ever actually orbiting Kerbin, but that's a kind of odd edge case and I doubt it comes up in practice.)

Edited June 15, 2015 by Snark

[Kryxal]

I wonder if it's not really "flight", but suborbital ... should be easy to test, get to 30-50k up, then clear 70k, see if there's XP gain.