A way to make pilots useful! (Facility features for kerbals)

[passinglurker]

Ok the idea is simple as an alternative to grinding money to upgrade buildings pilots with an adequate level of xp(but not probes) could instead grant the ships they are on use of maneuver nodes and patched conics before you upgrade your mission control or tracking stations to gain such features as you would in stock.

The idea would have to be refined through the practical experience of play, but the initial thought on balance is that maneuver node plotting is granted to lvl1 right after a kerbal would pull off a blind orbital circulation, and patched conics would be granted at lvl2 after they pull off orbiting the mun(which is the furthest you can expect an average user to go without patched conics)

^^^that's the bare minimum proof of concept right there if you know how to code and fear feature creep best draw the line right here.

The thinking behind this that it makes pilots more useful than probes for people who want them to be more useful than probes if you like probes you upgrade certain facilities if you like kerbals you focus on leveling up your crews instead there by giving the player a genuine choice in how they can progress. In other words it buffs pilots and injects choice into career mode in a way that easily slides into the existing balance without massive overhauls of fundamentals, making pilots generate magic isp boosts, or become arbitrary requirements/roadblocks like other pilot buffing proposals.

From there it can be expanded to pairing up other facility features to the kerbal skill system for example granting pilots fuel pumping to insure they can balance their COM in flight, or having Engineers of certain levels grant action groups or raise the mass part count and volume limits of the flights they launch on in the VAB or even letting a high enough level scientists grab surface samples or go on EVA before you upgrade facilities.

It essentially turns skilled kerbals into useful shortcuts and substitutes for advanced infrastructure and technology just like in real life (see apollo program dockings and space shuttle landings which were all done with a pilot's hand on the stick whereas the automated soviet equivalents came later) and gives you more incentive to keep the little green guys alive than just the hit to your rep and wallet.

[RA3236]

I'll just state that patchedconics and manuvere nodes are EXACTLY THIS SAME THING!!!

[Streetwind]

No, they're not.

And they're not even unlocked by the same building.

[hab136]

Pilots are already useful at the beginning of the game. The problem with Pilots is later in the game.

Once you unlock probes, then sending a Scientist, Engineer, and probe core makes more sense than sending a Scientist, Engineer, and Pilot.

[passinglurker]

Pilots are already useful at the beginning of the game. The problem with Pilots is later in the game.

Once you unlock probes, then sending a Scientist, Engineer, and probe core makes more sense than sending a Scientist, Engineer, and Pilot.

And this is what this solves to an extent. Following the path where you level up your kerbals instead of upgrading your facilities the probes would be without maneuver nodes and patched conics on their own making pilots and manned flight in general more appealing. It becomes a choice do you sink your money into your facilities or your crew and the vehicles to support them? one takes less start up capital the other has long term savings, and the beauty of this is the extent you stick to it is super flexible don't want to carry an engineer to use your action groups or launch more complex vehicles? then upgrade your vab. want to eva with people who are not scientists? then upgrade your astronaut complex. etc...

Like I said this makes manned flight more viable by making it a shortcut to higher tier facility type abilities similar to how manned flights shortcuted around some otherwise needed automation technology in the space race (see apollo docking maneuvers).