Suggestion to Get to know your Kerbals (your ideas for Jebs, Bills, Bobs & Vals backstories)

[Rocket Farmer]

Lets start by saying awesome game. Can't wait for updates.

That said I think the game should add a couple of things to get to know your kerbals better.

1. When in flight a little icon in the corner of their picture should indicate their specialty. Ie. Scientist, pilot or engineer. It is time consuming when you have 3 kerbals in a ship and I have to go back to the astronaut complex to figure out who is an engineer to repack the parachutes.

2. Lets get to know our Kerbals a bit better. In the astronaut complex there is a impersonal listing of skills for each Kerbal and what they have done. This should be accessible in flight when you click on the kerbal's picture.

3. We should get some back stories for the kerbals and why they are there (which should be on the same information tab). For the oranges interesting back stories could be written quickly and for whites I see procedural back stories being potentially quite humorous.

My thoughts on Jeb's back story.

Jeb grew up pondering the stars. While everybody assumed it was a desire to travel to space in actuality Jeb knew that those stars represented huge explosions that he wanted to see up close and personal. His first career running a scrap yard was just the boost he needed to bring him to the attention of the Kerbal space program. His fearlessness was perfect for a program using scrap yard materials to fly to space in. His steely nerve got him through flight school at the top of his class (we was the only applicant brave (read crazy) enough to fly scrap into space. He now embodies the kerbal space programs motto: Putting little green men everywhere.

[CalculusWarrior]

I completely agree with the first two, kerbals should be easier to tell what specialization they are, as well as knowing what things they've done (the Final Frontier mod has an excellent example of this), but hesitant about the third. Part of the game's charm is the fact that it allows you to come up with your own backstory for the kerbals.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Good points.

For 1), there is a mod that shows the Kerbal's profession in the tiny crew displays on the bottom right of the screen. Alternatively one can use TextureReplacer to differentiate the suits by profession. I can't remember which mod t hat adds the profession display on the crew graphics though, I'd like to try it.

For 2) there is Final Frontier, available here, which provides a very detailed log of each astronaut's achievements and mission statistics including time of flight, number of missions, number of dockings, reaching X velocity and Y g-loading in atmosphere, etc etc.

[Hotaru]

Regarding point 1, you don't have to go back to the astronaut complex to figure out your Kerbals' professions: you can do it in map view. Click on the tab on the right with a little Kerbal on it while focused on your ship in map view (or tracking center) and it'll show all the Kerbals aboard, which module they're in, their rank and their profession.

I'm not sure if I'd like to see point 3 in the stock game or not--I tend to agree it's better to let the player fill in their own backstory if they so desire--but it'd be a great idea for a mod. Especially the part about procedural backstories for new Kerbals--just so long as they're a little more coherent than the procedural contract descriptions! Might even try to write it myself, I wrote a program a bit like that in Python once and it wasn't too hard.

[Joshwoo70]

thinling of jeb...

okay here is mine :

jeb started off when he say a shotting star at night... a white dot that was going across slowly...

"mommy! mommy! what is that in the sky?"

"oh that? um.. sorry to disappoint you but it is a satalite!"

"i see... can i get one mommy?"

"when you grow older jeb... you will understand... come let's go inside."

(fast forward.... like when he is a young adult)

he saw the same thing as what he saw when he is you... now older... he asked his mother once again.

"mother can ypu explain to me what does a satalite do?"

"you know your kerb G? yup it is basically relays your data via the antenna up there from a server somewhere... in kerbin."

from that, jeb started his carrer and wanted to make his own satalite. he started the junkyard (you guys should know) and hired and gather parts to make a rocket..

his experience in rocket equations during his college (we assume he took a similar subject) helped him to understand complex calculations (deltav etc)

[woah.. thats a mouthfull... i happed i did it well]

(if you like it. hit that rep button! the star)

Edited September 26, 2015 by Joshwoo69

[Farex]

Jeb and Val are brother/sister.

Bill is the crazy engineer that can repair (or explode) everything (thanks to KIS for that^^)

And Bob is the total believer in his best friend Jeb, even if Jeb is liyng to him to give him a bit of safety.

[Ogcorp Squirrel]

For Jeb's Backstory, Here is mine:

When Jeb was about 4, he looked up in the sky in awe as he saw the stars twinkling, and wondered what they were, and then asked his dad, who was the owner o a small car scrapyard, "Daddy, what are stars made of?" His father replied with, "I will tell you when your older."

Fast forward to Jeb's 10th day of school, he befriends a kid named Bill, who is a creative child, but not very social, Jeb and Bill helped each other afterwards for a while, until Bill left the state (well, the Kerbal Equivalent). Now fast forward to Jeb's graduation from the Kerbin Academy of Astrophysics, Boomology (the kerbal study of EXPLOSIONS), and Piloting. He walks up to the stage, getting his diploma, then walks up to his aging parents, giving them a hug. He finds a home in Kerbin City shortly after, and tries to find a job, but none are available in his field. eventually he meets a Kermanic man and gets a job at a newly constructed space Center, and he accepts. when he arrives he meets Bill once again and an intelligent but not so brave Kerbal, Bob.

SOOOOOOOOOOO long, but otherwise enjoy

Edited October 15, 2015 by Ogcorp CEO

[Rath]

In my main save fiction, Jeb, Bill, bob and Valentina are from The Republic of Unified Cermia(RUC, mostly works with Ussari. Cermia is pretty standoffish, but whenever it has to work with someone, they work with Ussari), Kelpogart(Which has the largest general store chain on Kerbin called Kelpomart, they also are very 'Sciencey' and work well with Dachland. Really want to commercialize space), Dachland(Hardy "German" Engineering) and Ussari (Not the safest rockets, but very fast building and cheap. Works a lot with Cermia. No gulags. Totally.) respectively. These four countries make up the core of the 'United Kerbin Space program, with other recruits coming from other, smaller countries.

[Kalidor]

Gee, i thought i was the only one to give my Kerbals backstorys...

In my mind Jeb and Val are veteran pilots who flew in Gene's squadron during the great war - flying black ops missions to secure Werner and his research at the conflicts end. After the war jeb became a Richard Branson / Steve Fossett type figure who flies experimental planes to break records and promote Jebs Junkyard. Bill/Bob are his long suffering chief engineer and lead scientist.

Gene and Val are contractors working for Rockomax and are recruited by the early KSP to develop rockets with Werner. To boost support for the project they bring Jeb and Co on board.

I actually thought about doing a fanfic of this, but i spend too much time on KSP to write it...plus im my own worst critic. I do have three books in print though