Kerbal Names and Roster

[jbdenney]

Can we rename the Kerbals on the roster without breaking the system. My thought was to rename "Valentina Kerman" to something like "Valentina Harper". I figure I can go through the Persistent file and replace every place the  old name appears with the new name. Has any one tried this?

Also how many Kerbals can you get? I can see that if I have manned stations all over the system I may need a lot more than I have now. I notice that the sandbox has 14 on the roster to begin with while I currently have 25 in my career game, Is there pool of Kerbals not on the roster that get added after time?  What is the maximum number of Kerbals the game will generate?  Is it possible to add new Kerbals to the roster by copying another that is not yet recruited and changing the name, courage, Stupidity, badS ratings?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Mythos]

3 hours ago, jbdenney said:

I figure I can go through the Persistent file and replace every place the  old name appears with the new name. Has any one tried this?

Yes this is how it's done. If they are not assigned to any ship, there is only the KERBAL node below ROSTER, where you need to change "name = Valentina Kerman". If they are assigned though, you also need to change data within the capsule part, where it says "crew = Valentina Kerman". As far as I remember, the game really doesn't like it, when the crew uses a non existing name.

There is also a history of completed contracts and achievements, where names are mentioned. But I think, this can be treated as history books and that same kerbal does not need to exist any further.

Some advertisement: I made the KML save editor, where it is quite easy to do those changes. And it even let's you change the KERBAL name and does the crew thing automatically.

 

3 hours ago, jbdenney said:

Also how many Kerbals can you get?

I don't know of any limit. Usually I only hire one or two and then get lots of them from rescue contracts (if you play career mode). But in career you also need to know that the price to hire the next one gets raised after each hire.

3 hours ago, jbdenney said:

Is there pool of Kerbals not on the roster that get added after time?

Yes, the applicants will look for other jobs, if you don't like 'em. So they leave the list after some time, and also new applicants are generated. In the save file you'll see some more, where some have a date assigned when they get visible. But even beyond those, they will always be more of them generated, when the list gets too short (I think).