Send a robot instead!

[Jorge_slc]

Picture poor Jebediah sitting inside a MK1 capsule atop an overly complex rocket (aren`t they always?) waiting on the launchpad. He is smiling despite knowing that he is being sent to Duna on a one way mission (or at least until the Space Program decides to send another vessel to collect him) all on his own, within a space suit, within a tiny capsule and with no other entertainment than a minute window that will show nothing but cold cold space for the whole 200+ days of journey. Once within Duna`s sphere of influence Jebediah can look forward to a couple of days of achieving orbit, landing and performing a couple of experiments on the surface. After that, nothingness...  nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to speak to... alone in the planet, the omega kerbal.

 

So, you guys get what is bugging me: we have great mods to deal with the lack of life support gameplay, great mods to give us more realistic aerodynamics and soon communications networks in 1.2  all fine and dandy... 

 

Kerbals however seem to have 0 mental health needs, they will happily be put into a capsule for months on end...  You might say it is an acceptable break from reality, but I for one make sure that any mission that is going to go longer than 1 month HAS to have at least two kerbals in it and a some kind of crew cabin (usually the hitchikers storage container). It is not neccesary for the game mechanics, but it makes me feel like I am at least giving my little kerbalnauts the chance of leaving the cockpit and taking a shower, sitting down, just plain go somewhere else. Still, even that might be "less than enough" for missions that count their duration in years instead of months...  what to do then?

 

Well, send a robot instead! And I am not talking about those crude drone core`s than can pilot a ship and even land it, I´m talking about humanoid robots that can do everything (well, almost) a Kerbal can do without the mental breakdown that should come from being in an enclosed capsule with no company or entertainment for years. Hell, you can even send them to distant planets to set up surface bases, get them going, and then send the actual kerbals. Robots would not consume life support (great advantage) but would have no specialisation or leveling in career (big disadvantage), they wouldn´t be able to send crew or EVA reports, but they would be able to take surface samples and take experiment results  from sensors just fine. They would be unlocked in career mode with one of the later drone techs. 

 

I would love to build a mod that offers precisely that as I think it would add an interesting role-playing edge to the game that, as of now, is lacking. I worked as a 3D designer for a few years so I offer myself to build the models (the idea is to use the current mesh, textures and animations from Kerbals and make some changes to make robots out of them, piece of cake!), I am however painfully ignorant when it comes to building mods and what it entails, I would need help (plenty of it) in that department.

 

Any takers?

[Wjolcz]

I feel you. I do the same exact thing with Hitchhikers.

About the robots though, I think that's the role probe cores should be given. Sending a robot in a command capsule feels like a waste of space, mass and resources. The problem is robots can't do as much as astronauts even in real life, but in KSP they can do even less. We still have no scoop part that collects soil samples.

So I think the best way to deal with this problem is to give the player option early on in the career. IMO the tree should split into manned and unmanned branches as soon as possible.

Would be fun to throw test dummies all over the place though.

Edited September 22, 2016 by Veeltch