Kerbal Space Program 2: Episode 2 - The Kerbals

[Rusted Iron]

So will kerbals have traits that influence the game?

For expample:

If these two kerbals are gregarious and claustrophilic(opposite of claustrophobic... I guess.....) then I could send them on a cramped mission with no personal space without consequence, but if I add an antisocial, claustrophobic kerbal into the mix, then he or she might have a mental break?

Or maybe I can only supply my crew with so much food and water because I'm trying to be efficient, so I'd want to send kerbals who don't eat much, but if I send a kerbal who has the glutinous trait, then he or she might drain the supply faster.

Maybe this kerbal is Agoraphobic and will fall apart if anything at all could go wrong.

Or a kerbal might be a thrill seeker (more so than all the rest, that is.) and will get bored, and possibly have a mental break if things can't go wrong.

Maybe another kerbal is inspiring, and all other kerbals around him or her get a bravery boost. or a kerbal is demoralizing and makes everyone else scared.

Point is, some kerbals would be fit for control over the vessel, some not, some kerbals would only function if they have a friend, others, only if they're alone. Some kerbals would only be sent along to keep the others company, others to keep the rest inspired. Some kerbals would be fit for long, cramped, lonely missions, others could only go a short time without a friend. Maybe they could gain or lose traits through missions.

Idk, I think it'd be really cool to choose kerbals based on more than bravery and stupidity, which only affects how they visually react to the situation.

(traits would be toggleable in difficulty settings)

[PDCWolf]

On 12/21/2020 at 6:08 PM, Kerbart said:

The only reference I saw to WH40K orks was when developers were thrown the curve ball of having to give the answer on what kind of tissue Kerbals were made off. Nothing, nothing that has been shown in the preview so far points to a return of “barn culture” (duct tape, fuel tanks made out of rusted oil barrels, etc) — quite the contrary; I've only seen parts and ships that are far more polished and slick looking than anything we have in KSP 1.

Looking at the Kerbals we interact with in the game — small, green, not exactly fearless but lacking a certain amount of foresight resulting in the willingness to strap themselves into your contraptions — I can see where the comparison is coming from and I'm fine with that. It reflects badly on the Kerbals. Obviously they're capable of building highly refined technology. Just look at the LV-N engine, the 3-Kerbal capsule, the ion engine... Yes. Of course. The average car is a marvel of engineering. Now look at the American highway and the average operator of those vehicles. If you're trying to convince me they are geniuses, then I know you haven't spent any time commuting on American highways. Just because Kerbal society is advanced and refined doesn't mean their most advanced and refined are willing to fly those rockets. In fact, because they're highly intelligent they probably pass on for that job.

Bring on the arm-flailing and screaming. I think it's just what the game needs.

99.9999999999999% of people operating cars didn't invent them, and 99.999999999999% of them won't ever go near a rocket. Kerbals, on the other hand (and with our current knowledge), are all trained astronauts, with varying degrees of capabilities, something almost every single human in history could only dream of.

[Kerbart]

1 minute ago, PDCWolf said:

99.9999999999999% of people operating cars didn't invent them, and 99.999999999999% of them won't ever go near a rocket. Kerbals, on the other hand (and with our current knowledge), are all trained astronauts, with varying degrees of capabilities, something almost every single human in history could only dream of.

There are many engineers developing cars. But let's, for the sake of simplicity, peg that number ridiculously low, so we cannot claim it's overestimated. Let's call it 10,000. Wit a world population of 7.6 billion (2018, Worldbank); that puts the number closer to 99.99987%, putting the accuracy of your claim into question - out of the 16 digits quoted, 10 are wrong or about 62.500000% (since you like those digits so much). In addition, the claim that, and I quote, "99.999999999999% of them won't ever go near a rocket" (pegging the number of people that would go near a rocket to 0 with a very small rounding error also seems based on numbers I'd love to see - there are a few hundred astronauts by now and the number of people involved in launches ("near a rocket") is easily a couple of magnitudes larger than that.

Second, where does the claim that all are trained astronauts come from? We know Wernher von Kernam is not a trained astronaut. There's no reason to assume that Mortimer, Linus, Gus , Gene or Walt are one (if anything the hazmat suit suggests Walt wants to be one but amazingly didn't pass training). And that covers just the ones we see in the game; it's obvious in the VAB that there are many Kerbals involved in building the actual rocket. The ones we interact with are surely astronauts. But that makes sense for the game. Why would you interact with the ones in engineering, operations, finance and/or marketing?

In all, I think it's safe to say that the claim There are no astronauts on Earth but all Kerbals are is wildly inaccurate.

[PDCWolf]

5 hours ago, Kerbart said:

There are many engineers developing cars. But let's, for the sake of simplicity, peg that number ridiculously low, so we cannot claim it's overestimated. Let's call it 10,000. Wit a world population of 7.6 billion (2018, Worldbank); that puts the number closer to 99.99987%, putting the accuracy of your claim into question - out of the 16 digits quoted, 10 are wrong or about 62.500000% (since you like those digits so much). In addition, the claim that, and I quote, "99.999999999999% of them won't ever go near a rocket" (pegging the number of people that would go near a rocket to 0 with a very small rounding error also seems based on numbers I'd love to see - there are a few hundred astronauts by now and the number of people involved in launches ("near a rocket") is easily a couple of magnitudes larger than that.

Second, where does the claim that all are trained astronauts come from? We know Wernher von Kernam is not a trained astronaut. There's no reason to assume that Mortimer, Linus, Gus , Gene or Walt are one (if anything the hazmat suit suggests Walt wants to be one but amazingly didn't pass training). And that covers just the ones we see in the game; it's obvious in the VAB that there are many Kerbals involved in building the actual rocket. The ones we interact with are surely astronauts. But that makes sense for the game. Why would you interact with the ones in engineering, operations, finance and/or marketing?

In all, I think it's safe to say that the claim There are no astronauts on Earth but all Kerbals are is wildly inaccurate.

I mean if you've reduced yourself to nitpick 99.99987% from 99.999999999% in my dumb example just to have any point at all, might as well call it over. Lastly, all those kerbals you named clearly have some intelligence to them, even if they're not astronauts, something that still can't be said about every motorist on Earth.

Canonically, with the evidence present in the game, Kerbals are smarter, and more capable than us. They only have a high disregard for safety rules, which is understandable for beings that can resist upwards of a 100m/s impact on their heads.

[ndiver]

this new video is pure gold
I love the new animations, the new expressions, their small screams. I feel that I will be even more attached to each of my kerbals, will be trying even more to save each of them after a catastrophic failure.
And I loved the involvement and explanations of the dev team:

Spoiler

T

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by ndiver

[fragtzack]

Great Video.

[Vanamonde]

Some posts removed. Keep it on-topic, please. 

[majNUN]

I'm pretty sure Kerbals are descendants of avocados.

[eKyNoX]

Hello everyones!

Thanks for this Kerbal video presentation. Looks very promising imo.

I have a question,  does another video will come more speaking about the planetary / universe technology side? Like the procedural generation / level of details part, which can allow to run more complex things on our machines and expand the game beyond one solar system.

 

Thanks anyway!