Kerbal Progression

[rayoyrayo]

Hey everyone 

I am loving the for science update and it is nice to see that everything is going in the right direction 

I was hoping to hear thoughts on kerbal progression going forward.

As a veteran ksp player the one thing I find sad in ksp 2 is that I do not care about any individual kerbal other than Jeb valentina and Bill because they are my soldiers from ksp 1.

There currently is nothing to differentiate any kerbal from another apart from aesthetics (always in space suits anyways)

One of the most satisfying loops in ksp 1 was how your kerbals leveled up with your space program and helped you along the way.  

However ksp 1 wasn't perfect but the main elements that ksp 1s system that really resonated were

1) the way that the classes interacted required you to actually bring more than one kerbal on certain missions which added to the sense of adventure. For example you couldn't reset science experiments without a scientist. Engineers could do Eva construction etc.  

-this is missing in ksp2 and you can do every single mission with a probe core essentially.

2)the kerbals improved with time adding to their value. A 5 star Jeb was actually better at flying than a 1 star Schlub.  This rocked and really helped attach you to individuals. 

I would suggest refocusing kerbal customization along those lines but also improving the system. There are many ways to do this but I would suggest the following 

1) give kerbals xp points that can be put into abilities. There could be abilities similar to ksp 1 (I.e piloting abilities, science abilities, and engineering abilities).

You could for example lock the jetpack behind an ability so perhaps you can walk or tether the kerbal prior to this unlock raising the hazard of evaing with non leveled kerbals. 

By not tying the abilities to a class but to xp your kerbals would all end up unique in their abilities and as such could be chosen based on the mission. Their deaths would be tragic. 

Ideally the abilities would be tied to interaction with ship components as right now there is functionally zero reason to Eva other than rendezvous.

2) give medals to kerbals for accomplishments. 

 

3) unlock new gear at higher upgrade levels (for example a fighter pilot flight suit)

 

Thanks for reading 

 

 

[The Aziz]

What about Bob

[gluckez]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

What about Bob

he's on vacation in the mohole until someone goes and rescues him