MORE Kerbal Last Names!

[Sampa]

Ok, this was an idea that was somehow stumbled upon on another thread and I decided to make a new thread for it, pertinant quotes are as follows:


[quote name='Sampa']must be a huge family! Would hate to be the host of a Thanksgiving Day get together for that family! :P[/QUOTE]

[quote name='ZooNamedGames']
That's the only issue with Kerbals... For a long time we assumed Kerbals were asexual and that's why they all had the same last name (would make more sense since there was only one gender which we just assumed was male). But now that Kerbals are a bisexual race (meaning there are two sexes or genders), it more confusing!

Game suggestion! MORE LAST NAMES!![/QUOTE]


So, as Zoo, suggested, now that the Kerbal race is a bisexual species, PLEASE...make more kerbal last names! We have 9 billion Kermans running around! NO MORE!

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

Why is it any more confusing with Kerbals than anywhere else?

If Kadam Kerman and Keve Kerman produce offspring, surely their offspring (Kabel Kerman and Kain Kerman) also receive the Kerman surname? (Of course, the purpose of surnames in such a society is still worthy of investigation)

Why does the introduction of *genders* means that surnames are more of an issue?

[ZooNamedGames]

[quote name='Damien_The_Unbeliever']Why is it any more confusing with Kerbals than anywhere else?

If Kadam Kerman and Keve Kerman produce offspring, surely their offspring (Kabel Kerman and Kain Kerman) also receive the Kerman surname? (Of course, the purpose of surnames in such a society is still worthy of investigation)

Why does the introduction of *genders* means that surnames are more of an issue?[/QUOTE]

Ofc they would carry their family name, however if the game starts by randomly generating other names, then we have to assume there are families.

The issue with the last name is that there's no varity. It's one giant family, which is nice and all, but it makes it all the more curious, who is whose parents? Who is the offspring? Who are the cousins? You have nothing to distinguish with!

[Torgo]

For purposes of game play, it really makes no difference.

If one chooses to try to tell a story, though, the lack of canon allows them to define the characters to suit their needs.

For the story I'm working on, Jeb & Val are brother and sister, Bill and Bob aren't related to them or each other, but subsequently acquired Kerbals may or may not have family ties as the needs of the story require.

I use Ship Manifest to update the last names of my Kerbals, with only Jeb & Val the only playable toons retaining the surname Kerman. The KSC is their family business.

I would fully support the ability to rename Kerbals as an addition to stock. People could use it or ignore it at their pleasure.

[adsii1970]

[quote name='Damien_The_Unbeliever']Why is it any more confusing with Kerbals than anywhere else?

If Kadam Kerman and Keve Kerman produce offspring, surely their offspring (Kabel Kerman and Kain Kerman) also receive the Kerman surname? (Of course, the purpose of surnames in such a society is still worthy of investigation)

Why does the introduction of *genders* means that surnames are more of an issue?[/QUOTE]

We like to anthropomorphize societies and cultures we do not understand. If you watch sci-fi movies and television shows, very few deviate from the Earth model. Star Trek was unique in the 1960s and 1970s because it did that in many episodes - Spock was Spock. While it is never mentioned in official Star Trek cannon, each Vulcan is given their own name and it is never repeated, which is why every Vulcan of every era knew who Surak was.

In human society, the surname, both in Asia and in Europe evolved from three main sources. It was to identify your family by ancestry (Bob is a son of Swen, so he will be Swen's son - Swenson), or by occupation (Bill is a coopersmith, so his last name is Cooper, Copper, or Smith; or by township (Bob is from the town of Oberstein, so he will be known as Bob von Oberstein). As families became larger and lifespans increased, we added suffixes for names...

[quote name='ZooNamedGames']Ofc they would carry their family name, however if the game starts by randomly generating other names, then we have to assume there are families.

The issue with the last name is that there's no varity. It's one giant family, which is nice and all, but it makes it all the more curious, who is whose parents? Who is the offspring? Who are the cousins? You have nothing to distinguish with![/QUOTE]

Who says they have just two parents? Maybe they are like Andorans and require a third ... in order to reproduce (now let's hear the moans about this)! :cool: After all, as one politician told us, "it takes a village" and maybe that is the case with the Kerman family... :confused:

[quote name='Torgo']For purposes of game play, it really makes no difference.

If one chooses to try to tell a story, though, the lack of canon allows them to define the characters to suit their needs.

For the story I'm working on, Jeb & Val are brother and sister, Bill and Bob aren't related to them or each other, but subsequently acquired Kerbals may or may not have family ties as the needs of the story require.

I use Ship Manifest to update the last names of my Kerbals, with only Jeb & Val the only playable toons retaining the surname Kerman. The KSC is their family business.

I would fully support the ability to rename Kerbals as an addition to stock. People could use it or ignore it at their pleasure.[/QUOTE]

Again, it is our attempt to understand what we do not know by what we do know. It's natural for us to do this... I actually edit the persistent file and change names that way. I've left some Kerman, then there are the Kermyn, Kermin, Kirman, and Kyrmen families in my games.

[passinglurker]

nah if there were more last names the shipping would run rampant. :P

[Rath]

It already does

[BudgetHedgehog]

Is everyone forgetting that Kerman is, I believe, a title, not a name? It's like Mr. or Sir or Commander.. That's what the original astronauts were called by Harvester, with the adjective form 'Kerbal'. Same as something like 'Commander John' and 'Commander Anna' - you wouldn't ask for more first names, because it's not a first name, it's what that thing is - a Commander. Or rather, a Kerman.

[Superfluous J]

What I don't like is that it's redundant. It serves no in-game purpose and takes up space.

They're not royalty. You don't have to list all their titles every time you say their name. Either make it matter or take it out.

[Hotaru]

This has always felt like the sort of thing that was cute back in 2011 when KSP was a fun little game where you could throw rockets together, blow stuff up, and maybe achieve orbit if you were very good, but has become kind of awkward now that KSP is a bigger game that can be, and is, taken more seriously.

I see three possibilities: Leave it as is (everyone called Kerman, basically identified by a single given name), make all last names variations on the theme (Kerman, Kermann, Kermanov, Kermanin, Kermansky, Kermani, Kermyn, etc.), or just give everybody a variety of names as with humans.

Personally I'm partial to the second option for regular gameplay in the Kerbal system (which adds variety while still keeping things "Kerbal") and the third for anything RSS or military-related where I'd really rather just have actual humans instead of little green Kerbals.

It's worth pointing out that there is a mod for this, which I'll probably use for future saves.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Hotaru

[juanml82]

Doesn't South Korea have only a few last names? It may just be a cultural thing of Kerbal civilization. Or "Kerman" is their tribe/country/something, and only Kerbals of the Kerman group are brave (or stupid :P) enough to go into space

[KSK]

[quote name='juanml82']Doesn't South Korea have only a few last names? It may just be a cultural thing of Kerbal civilization. Or "Kerman" is their tribe/country/something, and only Kerbals of the Kerman group are brave (or stupid :P) enough to go into space[/QUOTE]

That's my headcanon at any rate. Kerman is more like a caste name (not quite but close enough) than a surname.

[Arugela]

[quote name='juanml82']Doesn't South Korea have only a few last names? It may just be a cultural thing of Kerbal civilization. Or "Kerman" is their tribe/country/something, and only Kerbals of the Kerman group are brave (or stupid :P) enough to go into space[/QUOTE]

Maybe they orignally discovered something about and ancient species called "man" and the space operations is an attempt to copy what they learned about "man". Hence they are called Kerman! The Kerbal Astronauts! Maybe the first names are taken from it too. And Kerbals normally don't even have names...

[Sampa]

[quote name='Arugela']Maybe they orignally discovered something about and ancient species called "man" and the space operations is an attempt to copy what they learned about "man". Hence they are called Kerman! The Kerbal Astronauts! Maybe the first names are taken from it too. And Kerbals normally don't even have names...[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://media.giphy.com/media/TlK63EWmJDBa5MjIr6g/giphy.gif[/IMG]

[Andem]

On 11/19/2015 at 2:08 PM, Torgo said:

For purposes of game play, it really makes no difference.

If one chooses to try to tell a story, though, the lack of canon allows them to define the characters to suit their needs.

For the story I'm working on, Jeb & Val are brother and sister, Bill and Bob aren't related to them or each other, but subsequently acquired Kerbals may or may not have family ties as the needs of the story require.

I use Ship Manifest to update the last names of my Kerbals, with only Jeb & Val the only playable toons retaining the surname Kerman. The KSC is their family business.

I would fully support the ability to rename Kerbals as an addition to stock. People could use it or ignore it at their pleasure.

In my personal lore, Jeb and Val Are Married, And Bill and Bob were Jebs best friends he met in college... 

[egoego]

Mabye Kerman is not a last name as we use it on earth. Maybe they use it as a distinction of other kind. Maybe they hope to find live on Mun and Minmus and meet a Valentina Munman or a Jeb Minman. 

[Mister Dilsby]

I just ignore the Kerman last name, just like I ignore possibilities of Kerbal reproduction, n-body physics, and all the other inconveniently-unrealistic-aka-Kerbal omissions from the stock game 'storyline'. Working within the boundaries of those omissions in my storytelling is sort of like working around the limitations of stock parts--I know i can mod it to make it more realistic, but I prefer the challenge of playing within those limits  

Operationally, I treat the first name as the last name when I need to do so, which I suppose works in Kerbal society since every first name is unique. Thus it's "Captin Valentina", "Mister Dilsby", etc. The one Kerbfleet officer who will never be addressed as 'mister' is Bill (who, speaking of which, seems to be missing at the moment...) because I'm old enough to have seen Saturday Night Live in the 70s and 80s.  

Edited January 14, 2016 by Kuzzter

[Chakat Firepaw]

3 hours ago, egoego said:

Mabye Kerman is not a last name as we use it on earth. Maybe they use it as a distinction of other kind. Maybe they hope to find live on Mun and Minmus and meet a Valentina Munman or a Jeb Minman. 

Sort of like how "Chakat" is used in chakat names:  Firepaw is the name of my fursona and shi is a chakat.  Likewise, Val's name means "Valentina the Kerman."

[Kaos]

I would like to skip the last name at all or to have different last names.

A compromise might be to have last names, that are similar to Kerman, e.g. Keman, Ker, Cernan, ...

But it is not that important in my opinion.

[KSK]

Given that the random name generator builds names out of two lists of syllables anyway, why couldn't the kerbals use a similar system? Each parent picks a syllable (there may be an official government list or they might just pick sounds they like) for their kerblet, who's name then becomes that combination of syllables.

Jebediah, Bill, Bob, Valentina etc. are the outliers, kind of the kerbal equivalent of Moon-unit or Dweezil Zappa.

Kerman then becomes a title, honorific, caste name or whatever.