Kerbal experience

[Tyko]

Tie Kerbal experience to tasks appropriate to each class instead of just visiting stellar bodies. They should all get experience for Orbiting Kerbin, Orbiting a moon, Orbiting another planet, Orbiting Sun, landing on a moon, landing on another planet, but beyond that it could be tied to their classes more.

Pilots:

• orbital rendezvous Kerbin
• orbital docking Kerbin
• orbital rendezvous / docking around moon
• orbital rendezvous / docking another planet
• staffed on each of a ship / space station / moon base / non-Kerbin planetary base (non-Kerbin planetary base is probably the 5th star)

Scientists:

• collect science from each biome / situation
• staffed on each of a ship / space station / moon base / non-Kerbin planetary base (non-Kerbin planetary base is probably the 5th star)

Engineers:

• repair/work on each of a ship / space station / moon base / non-Kerbin planetary base 
• staffed on each of a ship / space station / moon base / non-Kerbin planetary base (non-Kerbin planetary base is probably the 5th star)

I feel like a lot of the flags required are already built in for Contracts. So I don't think entire new systems would have to be created to make this possible.

[THX1138]

I think they shouldn't have to return to Kerbin for their experience to upgrade.

Engineers should also get experience for manning a ore mining vessel.

[Tyko]

2 hours ago, THX1138 said:

I think they shouldn't have to return to Kerbin for their experience to upgrade.

Engineers should also get experience for manning a ore mining vessel.

Agreed on both points!

[Daveroski]

Let us not forget experiece gained from EVA for all classes.

Something really should be done though.

Taking coach parties to mimnus and the mun just so that everyone can plant a flag and take it down again seems a bit silly.

 

[pandaman]

Yes, I think the kerbal experience system could do with 'a bit of work'.

[Daveroski]

Suppose Kerbals had Experience trees. A tree would start with a 'body' branch (each branch being a planet or moon and sun.

Each body branch had branches with local branches ie. high orbit, low orbit, sub orbital, surface.

Each of these branches had leaves ie. EVA, Rover, Science gathering, Different vessel count. etc. (the leaves could be class specific)

Now if you have managed to keep up and not fallen asleep, here's the bit where it gets interesting.

Each kerbal has two trees. One is practical and the other theoretical. Both trees make the actual XP score for the kerbal.

A kerbal can then 'Teach' any other kerbal all he knows but only from his practical tree. Things they have actually done.

The 'Learned' experience is stored in a kerbal's 'theoretical' tree and can not be passed on through 'teaching' but is just as valid for a kerbal's XP score as the experience from the practical tree.

A kerbal CAN ONLY pass on their experience of a 'body' while in the SOI of that body.

Here's an example.

A crew of four kerbals go to Duna.

Only one kerbal lands - drives the rover - does the science - plants the flag.

When he returns to the ship, a right click option of the ship is 'Share crew experiences.' where all of the other kerbals gain information in their 'theoretical' trees from the 'practical' trees and so have ALL the experience of the trip.

However only the kerbal with the 'practical' experience can return with another crew and share his experience with that crew without anyone having to land at all. This would prevent doing a tour with just one kerbal, going home and then teaching everyone up to top level without even leaving the surface.

It would make missions more fun because then you will not be thinking that you have to land everyone and do all the same stuff to gain experience.

Please keep in mind that the idea is to make experience gathering fairer and easier for crews of ships and stations.

No more coach parties of 20 kerbals each having to individually plant a flag before they will be any use on a base or science station.

I don't expect this idea to go down too well as my previous suggestion about a modular triangular structural panel didn't even get a reply. (I honestly believed that vets like myself would have loved the idea) So there it is. Do with it what you will or not as the case may be.

 

 

[John FX]

I`d like, for example, pilots with more experience to be able to find and hold prograde quicker and more accurately when controlling the vehicle.

This should be easy with a few .cfg files for the various experience levels to tweak the PID.

[pandaman]

As much as I feel the kerbal experience system would benefit from a rework, IMO it should not become so detailed as to become a kerbal RPG.  There is a risk there that it could just become over complex or a 'click fest' type function that adds little to the gameplay overall.

The idea of a kerbal gaining 'knowledge' from 'learning' and 'experience' from 'doing' that combine to create a 'skill level' is a good one and being able to pass that on to lower level kerbals to help raise their levels as part of pre-mission or en-route training could be a great feature if done well.