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Different classes of Kerbals


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It occured to me, why only have pilots? Cause that's what all Kerbonauts are right now. Since we are getting sciency stuff in the next release, I thought why not have scientist kerbals who can operate al the science equipment in orbit. And engineer kerbals who are good at building things in orbit or on other planets.

I thought science bays, and later planetary science stations could have modules that require one or more scientist to operate, or to operate efficiently. Maybe the first few technologies in the tech tree would require a small amount of science points, so even pilots operating the science equipment could gather that many points, but later on, the techs would get so expensive that you could never collect all the points to unlock them if you are using pilot kerbals to operate the equipment. So you would have to hire scientist Kerbonauts (more expensive than pilots) who could operate the same science equipment with much higher efficiency. Maybe higher level science parts would require scientists on board to function at all.

Also when we get some sort of repair mechanic in the game (or orbital building possibilities) we could hire engineer Kerbonauts who know how to place struts for example. Or who can repair certain damaged parts and do basic chores like repacking parachutes much faster than pilot kerbals can. (Assuming it will take time in the future).

What do you guys think?

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Well in real life, I'm pretty sure all astronauts are trained in every aspect of any mission, so if something goes wrong then, let's say, a science officer could land the shuttle, or a pilot could help with an experiment. I like to think that kerbals are trained in everything.. but.. we all know how much training they get... ;)

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Well in real life, I'm pretty sure all astronauts are trained in every aspect of any mission

Actually most astronauts today are either scientists of different fields or ex military pilots. There are only a few pilots who fly the ship and the rest are the science crew.

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I would assume when we can train kerbals to do different tasks we would choose who is what class.

So you could train Jeb as the Pilot, Bob as the scientist, and Bill as the engineer or any other way around.

Well, I guess it would be equally good if we hire "basic" kerbonauts who have differing base stats and we can later train them in the skills we need the particular kerbal to be.

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well I do believe it is planned for something like this. kerbals will have skills that affect their abilitys/piloting, science, ect/. every kerbal will beable to train in any skill but will usually have a perfrence.

on the note of real life astronghts, they are all trained in everything they would need to be able to pilot in case of a situation that incapasitated the regular pilot but they aren't all masters.

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Instead of a class based system I would rather see an open point system to distribute their abilities. This way Kerbals coming through the training facility could be customized for the mission with a limited number of points into different skills(repairs, geology, piloting, chemistry, ect...). Also if Kerbals are kept alive for multiple missions they could continue to level up their skills based on your activities with them.

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It occured to me, why only have pilots? Cause that's what all Kerbonauts are right now.
Mine aren't: Some are obviously not suited as pilots; Lots of stupidity indicates it's not a scientist.

But more than paying attention to who sits in which seat I don't want it to matter -- I'm sure some would want to create 'nauts with lots of experience points who manage landings others can't, I don't and I don't want random equipment failures either.

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I put stupid kerbals on very very long or no return missions. I keep brave or not stupid kerbals just in case they become useful in career. I`d like to see the kerbals stats change if they do something smart or brave but not so much that you could have loads of fully brave smart kerbals. I think the roles kerbals get like pilot or scientist will be decided by what stats they have. It would be nice to give them different coloured suits to match their roles though. As has been said I am sure the kerbals in the KSP would be the best of the best and able to do many things, it`s just that kerbals might not be so good generally, explaining the explosions n stuff.

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I like the idea of classes, but I don't think they should be game changing. Perhaps a scientist Kerbal could add a percentage modifier to science yield (up to a limit of course, to prevent you from using a spaceship full of Kerbals to unlock the entire tech tree by staring at Kerbin). A pilot Kerbal could increase the strength of your reaction wheels by a tiny percentage too (this wouldn't be stackable thought since most of the time only one person can fly a rocket at a time!). Not quite sure what an engineer could do currently, however if repairing wheels and such were to be changed so it is not instantaneous, the engineer could speed that process up. By keeping the differences between kerbals small, the game doesn't force you to choose particular Kerbals, which would be the case if an important tool could only be inexplicably held by one class.

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