Who Plants Your Flags?

[Guest]

Let’s say you have a mission somewhere like the Mun and you decide to plant a flag to commemorate the occasion. Do you have a system for deciding who plants it?

For me, i see the pilots as the commanders of the mission and once on the surface they have nothing to do so I get them to plant it usually. (I get the engineers to drive a rover if there is one).

But then it’s kind of a science thing so sometimes i get scientists to do it.

Then I feel sorry for engineers as they are getting left out, so I get them to do it as well.

Sometimes I might have 2 pilots etc so I’ve had them plant 2 flags to make it ‘fair’.

Does anyone else have a system or am I unnecessarily obsessing over the feelings of a set of green pixels?

[Dientus]

For me it's fairly random depending mission and which I happen to choose to go EVA first.

 

I do put the name of the Kerbal planting the flag on it somewhere.

[modus]

23 minutes ago, FruitGoose said:

Does anyone else have a system or am I unnecessarily obsessing over the feelings of a set of green pixels?

For me it's usually the highest ranking kerbal, I'm using the final frontier mod, for which someone has made military ranks, can't remember who.

Ranks are granted through achievements on previous missions, except for the orange suits, they are high ranking officers. 

[pandaman]

I've pretty much stopped planting flags, I got fed up of them falling over and rolling downhill for ages due to a glitch that gets fixed then re-emerges every so often.  Also the 'unlimited supply' of flags seems a bit off somehow.

Instead I deploy the science controller, which serves exactly the same function as a flag, for me in sandbox anyway, and it just feels more purposeful.   I will generally use a scientist to deploy them.

[The Aziz]

Whoever goes on EVA first. Depending on mission, it's usually an engineer or scientist, rarely a pilot. And who goes first, depends on what I plan to do once I am down there.

[pyropelush]

It's always my pilot, what? The ENGINEER is going to plant the flag? He just called shotgun.

In all seriousness yeah, always the pilot.

Edited May 24, 2021 by pyropelush

[kerbiloid]

Strange question.

The Senior Colour Guard Officer, of course. It's a dedicated crew member, deserving this honour.
The Secretary of the Board Party Organization assists and blesses.

***

Just thought...

Don't you have local party organizations of your crews? Elect the presidium? Have the monthly party meetings? Collect the montly party dues?

There are 3 Kerbals in Mk2. Exactly the traditional minimum for a local party organisation.

***

So, any Kerbal profession can plant the flag, if he/she is elected.

That's how the real party democracy works.

Edited May 24, 2021 by kerbiloid

[Guest]

 well actually I used to but the “Kerbal Electoral Ballots” stopped being updated at 1.4 and now clashes with “Better Flag Planting Redux” as well so I’m stuck.

[razark]

Everyone on the mission plants a flag, since that's how experience is given.  The Commander's flag is the only one that stays, though.

Per established policy: Mission Commander must be a pilot with at least one previous flight, or a non-pilot with at least three previous missions.

[adsii1970]

To be honest, I only use mission flags to mark the sites I intend to have Kermen set up a base or mining colony.

[Spaceman.Spiff]

It’s been mostly (all) Val since Jeb’s tragic, suborbital demise. 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Spaceman.Spiff
comma

[JB182]

Random. i don't even care who plant the flag. and after a kerbal step their mini foot into the ground, i plant the flag.

[Cavscout74]

It's usually the pilot for me, as the scientist is busy collecting samples and the engineer is busy fixing the landing gear that **** hotshot pilot broke during the landing

Edited May 25, 2021 by Cavscout74

[Slam_Jones]

Everyone that needs the XP plants a flag on my missions.

[Guest]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:53 PM, Slam_Jones said:

Everyone that needs the XP plants a flag on my missions.

Didn’t they change it so any Kerbal within physics range (maybe in orbit even?) gets the bonus as well to save the need to flag spam?

[Slam_Jones]

12 hours ago, FruitGoose said:

Didn’t they change it so any Kerbal within physics range (maybe in orbit even?) gets the bonus as well to save the need to flag spam?

Is that so?  I haven't kept up with KSP development since... well before the DLCs at least lol.

Currently playing on 1.8.1 since it has the mods I wanted.  Would be great if what you said applies to that version!  Would save me a lot of time lol

[Dr. Kerbal]

Whoever is the closest to my mouse gets to plant it. 

[cubinator]

Usually it's whoever comes out of the hatch first. This varies by who hasn't gotten a chance yet, and generally by the story going on in my head.

[mikegarrison]

14 hours ago, FruitGoose said:

Didn’t they change it so any Kerbal within physics range (maybe in orbit even?) gets the bonus as well to save the need to flag spam?

Yes, this was changed so that everyone on the mission gets credit for the flag-planting. It used to be kind of a tedious grinding exercise for all the kerbals to plan their own flag.

[Superfluous J]

90% of the time it's the one that's there, because that's the only kerbal on the ship.

5% of the time it's the one who happened to get out first, decided maybe 50/50 by who I happened to hover my mouse over or who actually had to get out for whatever specific task I was doing.

The other 5% of the time it's the one that I remember to do it on later, some time between disembarking and leaving.

(I'm not counting the fairly large number of times I either don't bother to plant a flag or forgot to)

[kerbonautkazoo]

Nearly every time I do random. Most of it is Bob since he's first out, but otherwise it's purely based off of first out.

[xub313]

I usually give it to whomever has the least work to do on the surface. I didn't drag your little green butt all the way to the Mun just for you to sit in the cockpit eatin' snacks while Bill and bob set up a bunch of science equipment!

[Jack Mcslay]

Not one in specific, but most often the scientist, that's the one who's often already outside on a command chair or a ladder so he can restart the experiments outside the rover.

[N_Danger]

 Everyone plants a flag. Who cares if only one counts, each kerbal has to get that selfie with a flag they planted.

[KerbMav]

On 5/28/2021 at 2:01 AM, mikegarrison said:

Yes, this was changed so that everyone on the mission gets credit for the flag-planting.

Do you happen to know whether everyone has to leave the vessel for that to work?