Disable adding of rescued kerbals to crew list [Career Mode]

[Tommy59375]

Well, as the title implies, I'm looking for some mod/setting/hack to disable the game adding any kerbals that I rescue to the list of available crews for assignment in my astronaut the complex.  

For example, I receive a contract to rescue Billy-Bobfred Kerman, and I do so.  But then, Billy-Bobfred Kerman shows up on the list of available crews to be assigned to my next mission.  I don't want this to happen.

For those about to question my reasons, it's very simple.  Not only does the list become cluttered up, but also the mechanic makes the astronaut complex all a bit pointless which I think is a shame.  The idea of having to pay to get new crews appeals to me but if they're added for free from these contracts I'll never have a reason to buy any.  Please don't suggest "Well just ignore them" or "Don't do those contracts" because suggestions like that don't address the problem, instead they create other ones.

Thanks in advance and to the mods: sorry if I posted in the wrong section, I use these forums very rarely.

[Streetwind]

I'm fairly sure that there's no way to do this in stock KSP, you need a mod written for this. And even for a mod it would be difficult.

The reason is that the Kerbal you rescue is not a tourist that's tied to a tourist contract. A tourist gets removed from the game when the contract he or she is tied to completes. Now you might think: what if one makes the rescue Kerbal a tourist? Well, then you cannot rescue them anymore, because tourists cannot go EVA. You would need to research the claw before being able to perform rescue contracts, and that's a lategame item.

So you might want to request a moderator to move this thread to the modding section.

[FullMetalMachinist]

You could always go into your persistence file after the fact and delete Billy-Bobfred from your save. 

[Ultimate Steve]

What everyone's said before. You can also fire him, I think, by clicking the red "x" by his name in the astronaut complex. Be warned, though, late game the price per kerbal can be well over a million funds, and you'd have to go to another planet to "rescue" one into your space program. Most people find the rescue missions a bonus, though.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Ultimate Steve said:

What everyone's said before. You can also fire him, I think, by clicking the red "x" by his name in the astronaut complex. Be warned, though, late game the price per kerbal can be well over a million funds, and you'd have to go to another planet to "rescue" one into your space program. Most people find the rescue missions a bonus, though.

^ This.  You can dismiss 'em with one mouse click, so you can basically get what you want.  Yes, it's a bit of a wart that you have to actually click it that once, but it's a workaround.

I don't know of a mod that does this.  Doesn't mean there isn't one ... but you're the first person I've seen with this particular request, so it may not be in enough demand for there to be a mod.  You may want to consider posting in the Add-on Discussions forum.  That's a good spot for add-on questions ("is there a mod that does X?") or requests ("can someone please make a mod that does X?")

12 hours ago, Tommy59375 said:

For those about to question my reasons, it's very simple.  Not only does the list become cluttered up, but also the mechanic makes the astronaut complex all a bit pointless which I think is a shame.  The idea of having to pay to get new crews appeals to me but if they're added for free from these contracts I'll never have a reason to buy any.

Yah, I could see that.  For myself, I prefer the "rescue kerbals" option-- I staff my space program exclusively with rescued kerbals (aside from the initial four, of course); it's a house rule, I've decided to myself that hiring from the astronaut complex is cheating, for me.  (No arguments from anyone, please, there's nothing wrong with hiring from the complex, I'm not saying that it's "cheating" for anyone else-- it's just how I've chosen to play my own games, for my own amusement.)  So I basically just play by pretending that the astronaut complex doesn't exist, other than needing to upgrade it once so that I can go EVA and plant flags.

I have a couple of reasons for that.  First, it makes me feel more like I've "earned" the kerbals-- I like the idea that I have to do something (go on a rescue mission) to get one.  Just pushing a button in the astronaut complex and getting a kerbal feels like kind of a letdown for me.  (Even if I need to spend my hard-earned funds to do that.  It's a different form of "earning," but for some reason doesn't speak to me the same way that going out and rescuing the kerbal does.)

The other reason is that I don't like how the astronaut complex recruiting fees are balanced.  But that's my personal rant and has nothing to do with your question, so I've put it in a spoiler section below. 

Spoiler

The idea of costing money to hire them makes sense to me.  The idea of escalating the cost as my career progresses makes sense to me, too.  I just don't care for how it's balanced.  The costs get  really expensive, the curve is too steep.  It's as though the game is strongly and arbitrarily biased towards forcing me to have a tiny space program with only a dozen kerbals or so.  I don't like that.  I like having a big crew roster, and once you get past the first dozen or so kerbals, the recruiting cost just gets insane-- the cost of recruiting a single kerbal can be several times what it costs to launch a massive Jool mothership mission with multiple dedicated landers, probes, complete comsat network, the whole nine yards.  And I also don't like that it's based on my current crew roster, rather than how many kerbals total I've hired over time.

For astronaut-complex hiring to be a viable option for me, they'd need to make a few changes.  First, greatly reduce the per-kerbal-hired escalation rate, so that it doesn't skyrocket up to such ridiculous levels.  Second, make it per total kerbal hired, not just based on my current roster; if I hire, kill in an accident, hire, kill in an accident, etc., then I don't think I should get a free pass.

Really, what I'd like to see would be some sort of balance between different events that influence the kerbal cost.  Some factors would drive it up, some would drive it down.  Higher cash on hand = more expensive kerbals.  Hire lots of kerbals = more expensive kerbals.  Kill off a kerbal = more expensive kerbals.  On the other hand, there should also be some sort of mechanism that drives the cost down, e.g. if increasing reputation decreases your hiring costs, so that could be a viable player choice ("I'm going to do this impressive thing to boost my rep, so that I can hire more astronauts at a reasonable price.")

But honestly, at this point I've gotten so used to (and fond of) rescuing kerbals to staff my program that I don't know if there's actually anything Squad could do to the astronaut complex that would lure me back there.  It's an interesting design challenge. 

 

[Tommy59375]

2 hours ago, FullMetalMachinist said:

You could always go into your persistence file after the fact and delete Billy-Bobfred from your save. 

This is what I have been doing, but it is of course a bit of a hassle to keep quitting the game, editing the persistence file, and reloading the game every time I rescue a Kerbal as I'm sure you can see.

2 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

What everyone's said before. You can also fire him, I think, by clicking the red "x" by his name in the astronaut complex. Be warned, though, late game the price per kerbal can be well over a million funds, and you'd have to go to another planet to "rescue" one into your space program. Most people find the rescue missions a bonus, though.

Does firing them not carry a penalty?  I can't test it now, I just find it hard to believe I would have missed this obviously much easier option... to be honest I'm not that experienced in many of the aspects in Career Mode...

49 minutes ago, Snark said:

I don't know of a mod that does this.  Doesn't mean there isn't one ... but you're the first person I've seen with this particular request, so it may not be in enough demand for there to be a mod.  You may want to consider posting in the Add-on Discussions forum.  That's a good spot for add-on questions ("is there a mod that does X?") or requests ("can someone please make a mod that does X?")

A little complication, I suppose is that I still play in 1.0.5, for modding compatibility reasons.  I personally see no reason to update to 1.1.3, for the way I play (long term, slow paced save file without excessive time warping).  I shall post in the Add-on Discussions Forum, but I wonder if it may be too much to ask for someone to mod an older version of the game.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Tommy59375 said:

Does firing them not carry a penalty?  I can't test it now, I just find it hard to believe I would have missed this obviously much easier option... to be honest I'm not that experienced in many of the aspects in Career Mode...

Pretty sure it's completely painless and penalty free.  Just make sure you click the correct "X" button. 

1 hour ago, Tommy59375 said:

A little complication, I suppose is that I still play in 1.0.5, for modding compatibility reasons.  I personally see no reason to update to 1.1.3, for the way I play (long term, slow paced save file without excessive time warping).  I shall post in the Add-on Discussions Forum, but I wonder if it may be too much to ask for someone to mod an older version of the game.

Ah.  Yeah, I think it's a pretty safe bet that nobody is going to be even slightly interested in writing a new mod for 1.0.5.  I'd be astonished if you find any takers on that one.  Speaking as a modder, I know that I certainly would never be even slightly inclined.  Probably not even worth bothering to ask, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt. 

You could still ask if anyone knows of a 1.0.5 mod that does what you want, though.

[Tommy59375]

5 minutes ago, Snark said:

Pretty sure it's completely painless and penalty free.  Just make sure you click the correct "X" button. 

Ah.  Yeah, I think it's a pretty safe bet that nobody is going to be even slightly interested in writing a new mod for 1.0.5.  I'd be astonished if you find any takers on that one.

You could still ask if anyone knows of a 1.0.5 mod that does what you want, though.

Yes, well I posted a request anyway, maybe someone else created a mod for this behaviour themselves that they would be willing to share or else a mod coded for 1.1.3 may actually work, provided this area of the game hasn't changed too much.  Either way, it's not a huge deal because I can just fire them... can't believe I missed that button

Edited July 13, 2016 by Tommy59375

[Loren Pechtel]

On 7/13/2016 at 7:42 AM, Snark said:

Yah, I could see that.  For myself, I prefer the "rescue kerbals" option-- I staff my space program exclusively with rescued kerbals (aside from the initial four, of course); it's a house rule, I've decided to myself that hiring from the astronaut complex is cheating, for me.  (No arguments from anyone, please, there's nothing wrong with hiring from the complex, I'm not saying that it's "cheating" for anyone else-- it's just how I've chosen to play my own games, for my own amusement.)  So I basically just play by pretending that the astronaut complex doesn't exist, other than needing to upgrade it once so that I can go EVA and plant flags.

  Reveal hidden contents

The idea of costing money to hire them makes sense to me.  The idea of escalating the cost as my career progresses makes sense to me, too.  I just don't care for how it's balanced.  The costs get  really expensive, the curve is too steep.  It's as though the game is strongly and arbitrarily biased towards forcing me to have a tiny space program with only a dozen kerbals or so.  I don't like that.  I like having a big crew roster, and once you get past the first dozen or so kerbals, the recruiting cost just gets insane-- the cost of recruiting a single kerbal can be several times what it costs to launch a massive Jool mothership mission with multiple dedicated landers, probes, complete comsat network, the whole nine yards.  And I also don't like that it's based on my current crew roster, rather than how many kerbals total I've hired over time.

For astronaut-complex hiring to be a viable option for me, they'd need to make a few changes.  First, greatly reduce the per-kerbal-hired escalation rate, so that it doesn't skyrocket up to such ridiculous levels.  Second, make it per total kerbal hired, not just based on my current roster; if I hire, kill in an accident, hire, kill in an accident, etc., then I don't think I should get a free pass.

Really, what I'd like to see would be some sort of balance between different events that influence the kerbal cost.  Some factors would drive it up, some would drive it down.  Higher cash on hand = more expensive kerbals.  Hire lots of kerbals = more expensive kerbals.  Kill off a kerbal = more expensive kerbals.  On the other hand, there should also be some sort of mechanism that drives the cost down, e.g. if increasing reputation decreases your hiring costs, so that could be a viable player choice ("I'm going to do this impressive thing to boost my rep, so that I can hire more astronauts at a reasonable price.")

But honestly, at this point I've gotten so used to (and fond of) rescuing kerbals to staff my program that I don't know if there's actually anything Squad could do to the astronaut complex that would lure me back there.  It's an interesting design challenge. 

 

Second this.  That's always how I've played--rescue every Kerbal, never recruit.