Space suits

[Drunkrobot]

Currently in the game, there is one space suit to rule them all:

Oxium supply activated.-CO₂ scrubber activated.-Rectal brick receiving unit activated.

No matter where your kerbanaut goes-floating in the void of space, standing on the crushing pressures of Eve, a walk round the backside of Eeloo, or a stroll on the surface of the Sun-as long as the ground doesn't hit you too quickly, they WILL survive. That's good news for the kerbanauts, obviously, but isn't that much fun for us. MUAHAHAHAH!

Who else would side with me to support the replacement of the "jack of all trades" suit we have now with a range of different suits with different abilities?

I know that even if the developers are stupid enough to listen to my worthless opinion, this feature would be a long way off. But come on, a dude can dream, can't he?

This is a list of suits I can of. If you beautiful people are nice enough to leave further suggestions, I'll add them to the list (giving you credit, of course.).

Default/jumpsuit.

Five mortal men, and Chris Hadfield.

The default, restricting karbanauts to IVA and the surface of Kerbin. Dirt-cheap, though.

Escape suit.

Someone doing the impossible-Looking like a bad as a while wasting orange.

This is a suit dedicated to "bailing out" of a space craft if something goes wrong during launch, or re-entry. No RCS, but has a parachute. This might be "early game" if space suits get implemented into research and development.

Manned Maneuvering Unit

"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!"-Captain Bruce McCandless II, mission specialist, STS-41-B

An RCS "back-pack" that a kerbanaut wears during a spacewalk. Doesn't work on the surface of any body, but is the "go-to" for zero-g duties. Has a lot of RCS, and maybe a compartment for tools.

Basic surface suit

I could add a snarky comment, but that is a gosh-darned hero at work, and I would feel bad afterwards.

Something with the protection and mobility for most other planets and moons. Less RCS than the current suit (say 10%), so learn to rely on rovers and other vehicles for transport.

Extreme hazardous environment suit

That's Yvan Grigorev, flight engineer on the BBC mockumentary Space Odyessy: Voyage to the planets. Here he is becoming the first man on Venus, and the first person to go to hell, and come back again. 1000 man-points to you, comrade.

Very expensive, high-tech and bulky, but is the only suit capable of withstanding extreme pressures and temperatures, like on Eve.

These suits would be put into a ships inventory in the VAB. (Not all of them. Each suit would take up space in a limited inventory, so take only the type and amount of suits you will need.) In-flight, when you wish to change a kerbanauts suit, you go into the ships knowledge base, go under crew, you select the kerbanaut and click "change suit". You'll be given a list of all the suits on board, you select the wanted one, and the kerbal changes. Easy as pie!

Your feedback is much coveted. Thank you!

Edited August 22, 2013 by Drunkrobot

[sumghai]

Interesting.

With the introduction of the astronaut complex in 0.21, I began musing about the possibility of future versions adding the ability to customise Kerbal outfits at said facility.

Current Known Implementation (0.20.2 / 0.21)

- Kerbals inside vessels wear Orange/Silver flight suits, presumably based on the Launch Entry Suits / Advanced Crew Escape Suits

- Kerbals on EVA wear white suits with red helmet markings, presumably based on the Apollo Lunar EVA suits (markings are used to differentiate between astronauts)

- In 0.21's Astronaut Complex GUI, Kerbonaut candidates wear the blue jumpsuit DanRosas designed. Once hired, they change into the Silver flight suits (As per HOCgaming video overview of KSP 0.21 at the 0m46s mark).

Observations/Issues/Problems

- Inside vessels, Kerbonauts wear their Orange/Silver suits throughout the entire flight (barring the occasional EVA excursion). This is fine for space capsules or during launch/re-entry/landing, but outside of those events most real astronauts wear jumpsuits in a shirt-sleeve environment (Ref 1, Ref 2).

- The game currently reserves Orange flight suits for the Jeb/Bob/Bill trio, whilst subsequent candidates are forced to wear the silver ones. This is in contrast to real spaceflight, where the entire crew wears flight suits of the same color (Orange for NASA's ACES, White/Blue for the Russian Sokol)

- While on EVA, all Kerbonauts wear the identical excursion suits. I don't mind the white with the red markings, but there are certain players who want to differentiate between pilot/engineer/scientist/generic mission specialist/redshirt specializations or even different factions (MaceyDean's SpiritWolf/Hanland, EnterElysium's Elysium Empire/Styx Corporation)

Suggestions

Flight Suits

- worn during launch/re-entry/landing, like right now

- allow selection of one (primary) base color

- can apply globally (i.e. all Kerbonauts), by class (e.g. pilot, engineer, scientist) or individually (e.g. some player may want one particular Kerbal to always wear a purple flight suit)

- defaults to orange or silver

Shirt-sleeve Jumpsuits

- worn inside vessels when not at launch/re-entry/landing

- allow selection of one (primary) base color and one (secondary) minor cuff band trim color

- can apply globally (i.e. all Kerbonauts), by class (e.g. pilot, engineer, scientist) or individually (e.g. some player may want all scientists to wear blue jumpsuits with light blue bands on their cuffs)

- defaults to blue with no cuff band color

EVA Suits

- worn outside vehicle during spacewalks / planetary excursions

- allow selection of one (primary) base color and one (secondary) helmet marking color

- can apply globally (i.e. all Kerbonauts), by class (e.g. pilot, engineer, scientist) or individually (e.g. EnterElysium may want to differentiate between Elysium Empire and Styx Corporation forces)

- defaults to white with red helmet markings

Suit availability

- By default, any command pod that can hold crew will always show Kerbals wear their default flight suits (customised in whatever colors they chose)

- Part modders like myself can add to our part IVA definitions a variable to force Kerbals to wear jumpsuits instead

INTERNAL
{

  MODULE
  {
    name = InternalSeat
    seatTransformName = FrontSeat
    allowCrewHelmet = false
    forceJumpsuit = true   // true for Kerbals to wear shirt-sleeve jumpsuits, false for pressurized flight suits
  }

...
}

- Kerbals on EVA will always wear their EVA suits; future versions of KSP may differentiate between habitable environments like Laythe by allowing helmet removal / changing into shirt-sleeve jumpsuits whilst still outside the vessel

Distant Future - Modder-made space suits

- Devise a similar system to part / IVA modification to allow modders to insert rigged models of custom spacesuits. This would satisfy a small minority with decidedly unusual requests such as suits specialized to each planet.

Implementation

Customisable Suit Colors

- Requires mapping of existing space suit models / textures to accept user-selected color choices

- Storage of user-selected color choices (all / career / individuals) in persistence file

- Moderate work required

Enabling/Disabling shirt-sleeve jumpsuit in IVA

- Current code is able to assign either flight or EVA suits based on IVA or EVA mode

- Extend this code to check for forceJumpsuit variable; if true, replace flight suit with shirt-sleeve jumpsuit

- Relatively easy

Modder-made space suits

- Possibly restructure assets to add "Suits" subdirectory in GameData folder

- Official publication regarding suit dimensions, rigging, functionality (e.g. helmet lights, EVA thruster packs) and color-substitution regions

- Furthest down the line in terms of priority

[astropapi1]

Awesome idea. I've been thinking about this since we got the images of the kerbal "trainees" on the pre .21 weekly articles. DanRosas, your work hasn't gone unnoticed.

[Beeman]

I actually remember seeing almost exactly this suggested about...well, it seems like a week or two ago but perhaps it was longer than that >_>

Either way, I would LOVE to see little variances in the things your kerbals wear based on where they are. On the ground, if they have kerbals walking around the astronaut complex, for example...maybe have a couple casual outfits that kerbals can be wearing while wanderin' about then kerbonauts in EVA in orbit could have a hefty white suit while surface EVA suits might have whatever slight modifications mirror the real-world equivalents with them all wearing polo shirts or whatever in space stations. Would just be cool to see them in different outfits, really make them feel alive...or something.

That said, I'd also love love love to see the ability to change the colors of suits. Like, right now our EVA suit is mostly white with red stripes on the helmets, right? Well, what if we could change the white to any color on a color wheel? Then change the stripes as well. That would be fantastic and I've seen it suggested a couple times in the last few months...some of those times having been by myself, but still. People like customizing their stuff in games and to those that don't, they simply don't have to! Stick with the defaults, it's all good

I'm always deeply in favor of any features in a game that let me customize my experience...even in tiny ways you wouldn't think matter to anyone...I just love that stuff.

[LeadMagnet]

Isn't this what the Kerbalizer is for?

[Sochin]

Kerbaliser is for avatars and not for ingame at the moment. What I would like to see is the addition of the skullcap under the helmet.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7527/kerbalpumpkinmedium.jpg

[LeadMagnet]

Kerbaliser is for avatars and not for ingame at the moment...

Really!? Customizing a Kerbal, for non-KSP use!? OK, that's weird!

Seems to me if Squad has invested the time and energy on the Kerbalizer, interfacing it into KSP should be easy. I guess it's a good thing I haven't bought it......yet!

[Beeman]

I remember...I think harvester said once that he was considering maybe letting you use the kerbalizer to customize kerbonauts in the game, but if that were to happen, it'd be a ways off yet.

[LeadMagnet]

I think you're right, seems I remember a live stream of "Far Lands Or Bust" (FLOB-a-thon) where a Squad member was a guest and he talked about this. I can see the Kerbalizer getting hammered in the Space Center when getting crews ready!! Oh the fun to be had!!

[deckard009]

This would be a nice must have, I do not see cons, I have made thinks unbelievable saving the three orange guys (Jeb/Bob/Bill) than for any other kerbonaut.

Ideally something in-game where you can set colors to each part of each suit ... even more complex than two colors, main and details, but with multiple areas in the suit where the colors can be updated. But just the chance to update the two main colors would be great.

[Whirligig Girl]

I Just realized that the uniforms in Star Trek: Enterprise are based off of real space-jumpsuits.

[Beeman]

I think that was the point, wasn't that show set close to our time? So I can imagine they were trying to mimic some elements of present-day space programs.

Either way, I like when threads start talking about customizing stuff and all the different ways you could customize your kerbals. Not that it's not been suggested before...probably a LOT, but the more people talk about it, the more likely it is to be implemented, I feel >.>

Imagine if we could paint our rockets and/or kerbals the way you can customize cars and players in APB. That would be amazing. I'd even be happy if it were as simple as the Dawn of War army painter...though I already kinda mentioned that earlier with the color wheel thing.

But if they ever add the kerbalizer into the game, a lot of the props and things would have to be unavailable...otherwise there'd be no point in using Kerbalizer for avatars or what-not. Besides, who's going to lug around a piano or guitar in space? Or wear those huge 2013 glasses that probably wouldn't even fit into a helmet XD

[Bagg]

Maybe for irradiated places like Laythe, Kerbals can wear, on a hot day (approximately 6 degrees celsius), a nice and cosy hazmat suit.

These suits would be lighter, and more radiation resistant than normal EVA suits, but can't be worn in non-atmospheric environments, and have no RCS fuel...

Also, would it be plausible for kerbals to survive in highly insulated hazmat suits on a cold Laythe day? (approximately -70 degrees celsius).

[Patupi]

I'm pretty sure the 'Kerbalizer' will be very different in game if it ever happens. As said above, mostly likely a cut down version. Otherwise anyone who bought it separately will be rather narked that it later comes free to anyone who buys the game!