Early progress unlock in future career mode

[lajoswinkler]

I've got this idea while discussing the viability of animals in space on another thread.

If KSP starts in early days of rocketry (von Braun, V-2, numerous crashes), it would be good to implement the restriction for a starting player - no Kerbals allowed on the rocket until the player manages to do a successful suborbital flight. That means exiting the atmosphere and landing down or splashing safely into the sea.

"Safely" means if the capsule survives the trip, or it could even be more complicated, taking into account the G-forces.

It would be unrealistic if we put Kerbals onboard as soon as we start connecting engines on tanks.

Any thoughts?

[erkha343]

I think that it should be up to the player if he wants to use Kerbals or not, I'm sure there will be penalties for killing Kerbals.

[innovine]

You should be allowed to use animals in your crew roster, just like kerbals but with reduced mass. And salary. And possibly higher stupidity too.

[allmappedout]

There's literally a thread about using animals one thread up. As far as I know, the Devs said no aliens apart from Kerbals which would preclude pets.

I think that you should be able to use Kerbals from the get-go.

Prior to space flight came high speed jet testing. And that involved pilots. Forcing players down a path is unnecessary.

[lajoswinkler]

This is not a thread about animals, so please enough with them. I merely mentioned animals because that was the thing that gave me an idea.

Human were not used in early rockets, at least that's what we know. First rockets were unmanned. Nobody in their right mind would climb one.

High speed jet planes are a totally different thing. They existed before rockets went to space, and were manned.

[allmappedout]

High speed jet planes are a totally different thing. They existed before rockets went to space, and were manned.

Agreed, but all of the test data was instrumental in things such as pressure suits, maxQ calculations, super and hypersonic speed and high-altitude testing, all of which occurred before manned rocketry. It's no coincidence that almost all astronauts have/had a USAF background.

[boomerdog2000]

Kerbal pilots should be available from the start and up to the player whether he wants to use them or not. Restricting the player from making those choices is a little too much hand holding.

[lajoswinkler]

Kerbal pilots should be available from the start and up to the player whether he wants to use them or not. Restricting the player from making those choices is a little too much hand holding.

Why? First of all, doing a successful suborbital flight is incredibly easy. Unless the player is feeble-minded or a very young child, he should be able to make a small rocket carrying a capsule with a parachute and exceeding 69-70 km in less than an hour.

Second, Kerbals are useless now, and will probably be useless in full version of the game at the early stages of rocketry, just like people were in USA space program.

I see no reason to let players who haven't proven their capabilities to shove Kerbals into "cans of boom". I would be opposed to an idea of the game trying to recognize the player is trying to deliberately crash them and not allowing to proceed to launch, simply because you can't tell what the player really wants.

[Kimberly]

If succesful suborbital flight is "incredibly easy", what is the use of making it a requirement for anything? There is no progression if anyone can do it. It's like a mandatory tutorial, and nobody likes those.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Kimberly

[boomerdog2000]

We are not here to judge and control how those players play the game. If a player wants to try and rack up the biggest death count for his space program, that is his prerogative and his program will most likely suffer kerbal media condemnation for it, but it should not be up to us to tell him how to play the game.

[dazhat]

This makes sense for human space flight but in the spirit of kerbal space program I would suggest strapping a Kerbal to the side of an SRB to see what happens.

[lajoswinkler]

If succesful suborbital flight is "incredibly easy", what is the use of making it a requirement for anything? There is no progression if anyone can do it. It's like a mandatory tutorial, and nobody likes those.

That's why it's early progress unlock. How long did it take before you were able to replicate Mercury-Redstone 3? There's no way you did it on your first try. I remember my first day with KSP, flying all over the space center, except upwards.

We are not here to judge and control how those players play the game. If a player wants to try and rack up the biggest death count for his space program, that is his prerogative and his program will most likely suffer kerbal media condemnation for it, but it should not be up to us to tell him how to play the game.

You obviously don't understand the difference between sandbox and career mode. I don't give a rat's ass about what will anyone do in sandbox mode. All I'm saying is that it would be nice if the career mode would follow gneral principles of the evolution of space program that happened in every country that started one.

First you test the rockets and then you put people inside. If you manage to make a successfull unmanned suborbital flight, you unlock other missions and you get money to buy more equipment.

[boomerdog2000]

I was talking about career mode. There will most likely be consequences for losing kerbals, and said player would have to suffer those, but that is his choice.

This isn't some other nations space program or a copy of some other nations space program. This is my space program, this is your space program. If you choose to model yours after the nations of our world that's fine, but leave us to do it how we want.

[Holo]

I was talking about career mode. There will most likely be consequences for losing kerbals, and said player would have to suffer those, but that is his choice.

This isn't some other nations space program or a copy of some other nations space program. This is my space program, this is your space program. If you choose to model yours after the nations of our world that's fine, but leave us to do it how we want.

I totally agree. Anyway, NASA could have put humans on rockets as soon as the first one big enough was built, they just chose not to because it was too unsafe (and congress wouldn't have let them, but in KSP the congress is made of Kerbals). The player should have the same choice.

[Arretu]

Since kerbals are not humans, and indeed have probably never even HEARD of health and safety much less considered paying it any attention, I do not think there should be random limitations on what I can do with my little green minions, career mode or otherwise. This is one of those things where you should use willpower to impose it on your own save, rather than asking to affect everyone else's gameplay.