Does personality affect the kerbal?

[Kroslev Kerman]

i have been wondering for a couple days does personality affect the kerbal. like example you have a pilot with max stupidty and she/he will not fly as well as a max courages pilot

same thing for all other types of jobs for kerbals it will be worse

[Superfluous J]

They do not affect abilities in the stock game, but they do affect the little animations that I never pay attention to.

In some mods, they affect things, like in Extraplanetary Launchpads stupid Kerbals slow down production, or can even stop it.

[klgraham1013]

It's a relic from the past that never got utilized.  I honestly think they could be hidden and not take anything away from the stock game.  It would also eliminate unnecessary confusion for new players, which is probably the biggest problem in having them visible.

[THEdragon]

The more courageous kerbals will appear happy more often than frightened, while the stupid ones supposedly react happily to their vessel spinning. I haven't really tested it so I am not sure.

What I am very curious about it the specific circumstances that affect whether a kerbal is more likely to be happy or upset. I recall Bob frowning while seated in a rover that was going slightly too fast for his liking, but he seems very happy when in orbit or landed on other planets. I've noticed also in a lot of videos that kerbals seem to get really scared in fast-flying planes. In my own gameplay experience, less courageous kerbals will become frightened at the beginning of takeoff, but calm down soon after. All kerbals seem to really enjoy re-entry for some reason.

As for the legendary 'BadS' kerbals, they will be either neutral or happy (usually the latter) in any given situation, except when a part of the vessel explodes, or they fall unconscious due to excessive G-forces. I know that lesser known fact because in my early gameplay hours I sent Valentina Kerman on a very steep suborbital hop that knocked her unconscious when her vessel hit the lower atmosphere. The crew icon turned to static, but I had the interior overlay turned on and I saw her looking rather unhappy in her seat when she G-LOC'd.

Since the BadS trait is hidden, you can only check if a kerbal has it by opening the persistent.sfs file in a text viewer. The main 'symptom' of this trait is a kerbal who seems consistently gleeful in dangerous situations despite their low courage value.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Another interesting tidbit:

It's a reference to a joke an Astronaut made once about NASA only requiring one of two traits to send a man to space; Extreme courage and/or extreme stupidity.

Lol.

[RealKerbal3x]

3 hours ago, THEdragon said:

All kerbals seem to really enjoy re-entry for some reason.

I guess they like the shiny flames.

[Chel]

Are you telling me that all this time it didn't matter what the courage/stupidity level was? It didn't affect the kerbal's ability in any way? 

[Geonovast]

2 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Are you telling me that all this time it didn't matter what the courage/stupidity level was? It didn't affect the kerbal's ability in any way? 

[Gargamel]

11 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

It's a relic from the past that never got utilized.  I honestly think they could be hidden and not take anything away from the stock game.  It would also eliminate unnecessary confusion for new players, which is probably the biggest problem in having them visible.

Aside from the confusion angle... I kind want it in there... for no good reason other than I can imagine them to have traits.   Like I'm not hiring a scientist with High stupidity and very courageous, that's just a bad combination. 

But yeah, if it's gone, it'd keep a lot of newbies (and veterans) from getting confused. 

[Chel]

57 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

Ha! I also feel stupid for not picking every kerbal that came up!

[Teirdalin]

If playing with mods they matter as the variables make an easy hook to check against.  Otherwise~  not really I believe unless you like the faces they make.