Kerbal astronaut wage

[Tfin]

18 hours ago, Wallygator said:

Ah... but wait!

If like most countries it is an 8 hour work day for a 24 hour day...  then the Kerbals would be working 2 hours out of 6.  So the hourly rate would be half of the daily wage.

;-)

I doubt they earn an hourly wage at all. These guys are kerbonauts 6 hours a day, 6.5 days a month as long as they're living at the KSC. Oh yeah, no weeks, the months are too short.

[Butterbar]

18 hours ago, Wallygator said:

Ah... but wait!

If like most countries it is an 8 hour work day for a 24 hour day...  then the Kerbals would be working 2 hours out of 6.  So the hourly rate would be half of the daily wage.

;-)

Ah, but 625 an hour is what Wernher makes for his workday.  We can't let the astronauts earn the same as the Administrator.  

Workday has now been increased to 6 hours.  

Edited March 18, 2016 by Butterbar

[linuxgurugamer]

I would suggest that you should create a config page, where the pay values can be configured according to the player's desires.  Take a look at KRASH, which I released a few weeks ago and just released the 0.4.0 update which added a config page.  You can see that there are configs for each mode of play (Easy, Normal, Moderate, Hard, Custom) as well as the ability to create your own custom config.

LGG

[pandaman]

I've got mixed feelings on this ..

I like the idea of paying regular wages. The numbers that spring to mind are something like 3 funds per day plus 1 extra per star gained.  Not a lot, but enough to mean you can't ignore it.

But I can also see it not really working within the current career system. 

[Buster Charlie]

On 3/17/2016 at 10:22 AM, tomf said:

Ok, some context: I'm working on a mod that will, among other things make the kerbal hiring cost 0 and will instead give you a periodic wage bill and I'm looking for opinions on what a reasonable sum would be.

It will leave a lot of kerbals stranded in orbit as you decide your space program can't really afford another astronaut right now.

It seems IRL NASA probably turns people  away vs bribing them to join, so a wage vs initial cost makes  sense. There is a mod that let's you recruit cheaper and easier,  and even let's you pick your star level up to level 3. So maybe you could charge extra up front for higher levels to simulate training cost.

 

But to be honest all of this made me think of kerbal life insurance cost. So maybe the cost per month is also related to your safety record.

 

 

Edit: in line with the life insurance.  How about this, kerbals at ksc get essentially no significant pay, essentially  so low it's not. Noticeable. 

When they're on a mission they get hazard pay, the distance from home sets the rate. However like the life insurance idea, it's based  on risk. So their hazard pay is actually reduced for repeat missions within a SOI.

 

So the first orbit low I'm space is real risky, but after a few launches everyone calms down. So essentially  it cost a lot to send a one off mission deep into space, but a minmus space station would quickly settle down since you'd be sending kerbals there so frequently  that the risk is lower.

 

Unless you kill someone. Each death would set back or reset the risk factor / hazard pay.

 

Even better, sending experienced astronauts will reduce the cost because  they're proven under fire And more competent .

While we're talking about experience  and cost...maybe you can have a strategy in which you pay your kerbals at KSC  more, but this increases  the prestige of KSC and increases  the chance of kerbal recruits with some starting  stars.

 

I'm other words , paying them the bare minimum will keep the lights on, but throwing around some extra money might get you better recruita.

 

And final thought...  why is this a good idea? Because it gives balance to probes vs kerbals  without life support  being added.

Right now, there is no reason to send a probe, but if you knew sending a kerbal would incur 5 years hazard pay, maybe voyager  could be an unmanned probe instead?  Conversely  there should be a prestige  bonus to offset the personnel cost.

 

Edited March 18, 2016 by Buster Charlie
Typo

[Nich]

Heck I play with life support and I still never send probes

[linuxgurugamer]

Just so you know, there is already a mod which drastically modifies the way the Astronaut Complex works, it's called KSI