[Suggestion] into v1.1 Kerbals professions improvement

[Vitali]

Hello everybody. Here is my suggestion for keep progression in game.

Having pilot on mission - increase reputation

Having engeener on mission - increase recovery costs on parts and/or reduce vessel cost at launch, can assemble/disasemble more complex parts

Tourists should have levels also and this lebvel should probably increase reputation and proffit

 

Maybe need add perks/specializations as well. For example:

Scientist

  Lab rat - increase rate on lab, decrease rate on missions?

  Explorer - increase reate on missions, decrease rate on lab

  Observer - more output on cre/eva etc reports 

  Digger - more output on surface samples

  Biologist - not sure   if it any here

 

Pilot

    Crazy driver - more speed on ground vessels?

    Sky driller - less fluctuations on fly/presumction on fuel (for example is it enouph fuel for maneour?)

    Survalist - allow survive on more hard impact with surface?

 

Engeener

    ***** - can assemple something in fly with discard N parts

    Listener  - more rate on science transfer

  

 

and so on So what did you think?

 

[Hobbes Novakoff]

1 hour ago, Vitali said:

Pilot

    Crazy driver - more speed on ground vessels?

    Sky driller - less fluctuations on fly/presumction on fuel (for example is it enouph fuel for maneour?)

    Survalist - allow survive on more hard impact with surface?

The idea of kerbals providing buffs to vessel statistics was hotly debated prior to 1.0 (or maybe it was 0.90, it's been such a long time). It was decided that pilots and engineers buffing things like engine thrust would make no sense, and pilots buffing crash tolerance is just stupid. While theoretically pilot skill could help with some things (for example, less monoprop usage from more efficient RCS usage) since all these things are dependent more on player skill than pilot skill, and sharing ships would become more difficult, it was decided that pilots would simply gain the ability to point the craft places.

1 hour ago, Vitali said:

Engeener

    ***** - can assemple something in fly with discard N parts

    Listener  - more rate on science transfer

Engineers already have the ability to repair parts, and scientists provide a science boost. Engineers also provide a progression system for some mods (most notably KER and KAS.) In KAS especially engineers have the ability to build things.

1 hour ago, Vitali said:

So what did you think?

I think that the KSP progression system isn't really based around kerbals as much as a) unlocking more parts with science and b) taking contracts and eventually getting more and more money. The kerbal progression system is sort of a side thing, though it does become more important with the advent of the science lab.

[passinglurker]

5 hours ago, Hobbes Novakoff said:

The idea of kerbals providing buffs to vessel statistics was hotly debated prior to 1.0 (or maybe it was 0.90, it's been such a long time). It was decided that pilots and engineers buffing things like engine thrust would make no sense, and pilots buffing crash tolerance is just stupid. While theoretically pilot skill could help with some things (for example, less monoprop usage from more efficient RCS usage) since all these things are dependent more on player skill than pilot skill, and sharing ships would become more difficult, it was decided that pilots would simply gain the ability to point the craft places.

 

And by debate he means the realism mod users threw a fit and ramrodded it through leaving the kerbal experience mechanic as half baked as the incentive of real life manned space flight. 

It's a game and I have seen precious few ways to make better use of the experience system since. Especially for pilots which are easily rendered obsolete by the first probe core with sas

[Hobbes Novakoff]

57 minutes ago, passinglurker said:

And by debate he means the realism mod users threw a fit and ramrodded it through leaving the kerbal experience mechanic as half baked as the incentive of real life manned space flight. 

It's a game and I have seen precious few ways to make better use of the experience system since. Especially for pilots which are easily rendered obsolete by the first probe core with sas

That may have been one of the reasons. I'm opposed to it because it would make sharing harder. "This craft can go to the Mun, but only if you have a level 5 pilot and a level 3 engineer." It makes KSP more like an RPG. Why do we need character skills? This is a game where you build rockets, not level up a character.

[passinglurker]

5 minutes ago, Hobbes Novakoff said:

That may have been one of the reasons. I'm opposed to it because it would make sharing harder. "This craft can go to the Mun, but only if you have a level 5 pilot and a level 3 engineer." It makes KSP more like an RPG. Why do we need character skills? This is a game where you build rockets, not level up a character.

It isn't wise to try to define ksp this used to be a physics based tech demo with no objective other than finding Easter eggs on other planets. The fact is the game is under active development and will change. Maybe they should make performance buffs a toggleable difficulty setting?

 

The only solution I've ever seen that was widely accepted was giving kerbals the same abilities as a facility upgrade (example at lvl 1 Jeb gets maneuver nodes at lvl 2 he gets patched conics all without needing to upgrade the mission control and tracking station) so if a player wants a manned program they invest in kerbonauts if they want probes they invest in facilities. 

 

[Hobbes Novakoff]

8 minutes ago, passinglurker said:

It isn't wise to try to define ksp

No, it's an excellent idea to define KSP, as it helps planning the direction of the game to no end. SQUAD appears to have defined KSP as a space program management game with a heavy emphasis on building craft and flying them under realistic physics. RPG-style character progression doesn't have a place in the game.

One of the best things about KSP is the no-bull difficulty. Your rocket failed because you didn't add enough fuel and you piloted it wrong. It didn't fail because since your Kerbal doesn't have Level 4 Engineer, 2 Charisma, and 2 points in the Cosmic Fart skill, gravity became 10x stronger.

[Vitali]

Guys, don't be so serious. Ok Forget about perks:

but give more reputation based on pilot level can be profitable.

engeenrers level = more money on vessel back

Also it can be limited to level 1-5 but should e little more smoothly. I mean Kerbal got 1000Xp = increase something on 0.1% but not based on level. Level is something significant.

[passinglurker]

2 hours ago, Vitali said:

Guys, don't be so serious. Ok Forget about perks:

but give more reputation based on pilot level can be profitable.

engeenrers level = more money on vessel back

.

Now this guy makes sense

[jwenting]

why should it be more expensive to recover things if you have an engineer on board? If anything it should be cheaper/get more money back...

Such a system as you propose might work, but would require the option to cross-train Kerbals so they can have secondary, maybe even tertiary professions. So you could have a pilot who's also got some engineering and/or scientific skills.