Flag Planting XP

[r4pt0r]

Suggestion: Kerbals(or command pods with kerbals inside) gain Flag planting  XP if within 100m of a flag planting.

I've been out of ksp for a while and just got back in. I forgot how tedious it is to plant and remove flags for each crew member. It adds unnecessary grind in my opinion.

[pandaman]

Well it takes a huge amount of skill to plant a flag correctly.  You need to find just the right spot (so you're not trying to push it through a rock), you have to make sure it's perfectly vertical, and then apply just the right a amount of force to get it in the ground to exactly the right depth - all on alien soil which can have different consistency to that at home.  And then you have to press the magic button that makes it open - with big clumsy mittens on.

Yeah, you have a point. Compared to flying a spaceship and landing it 'gently' on an another planet shoving a stick in the ground is a bit of a doddle, not to mention pointlessly repetitive when you have multiple crew members..

I agree with your suggestion that all kerbals witnessing the flag planting should get the xp too. Or maybe a better solution is to get the xp for going on EVA on the surface, not for planting the flag itself which is purely symbolic.

[r4pt0r]

Thanks. my thinking is if they are going to have duplicate xp for landing and for planting, then yeah, witnesses should gain that too

Edited August 6, 2016 by r4pt0r

[Wjolcz]

Eh. The whole kerbal experience thing was a bad idea.

[pandaman]

3 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Eh. The whole kerbal experience thing was a bad idea.

I like the 'idea', and I think for career mode it could add a lot to the game.  I just think the current implementation is poor.

[Hodari]

On 8/6/2016 at 10:23 AM, pandaman said:

I like the 'idea', and I think for career mode it could add a lot to the game.  I just think the current implementation is poor.

Yeah, the idea of having xp is probably good, but both the current method of earning it and the rewards for doing so are bad.  I'm not sure what would be a good system for earning xp, but it should be something different for each type of crew and somehow tied in to them actually doing their job rather than merely sitting in a rocket while it goes to different places,  And the bonus for leveling up needs to make more sense as well.  Why should a trained pilot be able to point the ship at one navball marker just fine but need to fly to a different planet before he figures out how to keep it pointing at a different marker instead?  Engineers need to go to Mars before they can figure out how to fix a broken landing gear?  Having scientists be able to research faster and engineers better at running ISRU's does at least make some sense.  The amount by which it speeds up is completely unrealistic, but that could at least be excused as being necessary for gameplay in order to make it meaningful...except that it really isn't important since you can just timewarp through it anyway.  Until in-game time as some actual meaning, it's completely irrelevant how long it takes, so even that part of the current system becomes pointless.

[OHara]

I (like everyone else, it seems) like the top-post's suggestion to have being present on the ground count as much as flag planting.

According to the community wiki, http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Experience, the difference between landing on a body and planting a flag is very small: 0.2 times some multiplier on the order of 5, compared with 16 needed to get to level 3.  So I would be tempted to skip it, but worry I would end up one XP short.

I don't see any way to make landing the same value as flag-planting, or otherwise remove the bonus from planting a flag, in any configuration files.  The best I can think of is to edit the save file occasionally and substitute s/ExitVessel,/PlantFlag,/

[Gamax19]

Well I can not say though it may take time to get used to if the change "IS" to be added to the stock game.

[Pthigrivi]

I tend to think the simplest solution is to remove flag planting from the list of things that gain kerbals experience and just reward them more for landing.

[pandaman]

6 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

I tend to think the simplest solution is to remove flag planting from the list of things that gain kerbals experience and just reward them more for landing.

Agreed.

Yes,  planting a flag on the Mun would be a great personal 'experience', not to mention pretty cool to bore the grandkids with ('I remember when I was on the Mun, that darned flag.....'  For the 857th time...), but not one from which you learn much in itself. 

Edited August 8, 2016 by pandaman

[The_Rocketeer]

Jeb: 'Now, everyone got their flags ready? And... one ... two... three... NOW!'

Bill: 'Mine fell over!'

Bob: 'Ah crap, I brought my selfie-stick!'

Val: 'Geez, guys, do we have to do this every time!?'

[Wjolcz]

Maybe planting a flag could grant reputation instead.

[magnemoe]

On 6.8.2016 at 0:33 PM, pandaman said:

Well it takes a huge amount of skill to plant a flag correctly.  You need to find just the right spot (so you're not trying to push it through a rock), you have to make sure it's perfectly vertical, and then apply just the right a amount of force to get it in the ground to exactly the right depth - all on alien soil which can have different consistency to that at home.  And then you have to press the magic button that makes it open - with big clumsy mittens on.

Yeah, you have a point. Compared to flying a spaceship and landing it 'gently' on an another planet shoving a stick in the ground is a bit of a doddle, not to mention pointlessly repetitive when you have multiple crew members..

I agree with your suggestion that all kerbals witnessing the flag planting should get the xp too. Or maybe a better solution is to get the xp for going on EVA on the surface, not for planting the flag itself which is purely symbolic.

its hard, just why can they not plant it in the same direction?

All kerbals here is minimum 3 star, most are 4 or 5. 

Don't bother planting on Mun or Minmus, do it on other bodies, orbit around Mun, land on minmus and refill tanks, then out to solar orbit and back to land give you level 3.
if you only fly by the Mun you need Minmus flag planting to get to level 3 so if you rescue kerbals on Minmus its smart to have them plant a flag so they get level 3 if you get an Mun flyby on the way back. 

Edited August 10, 2016 by magnemoe