How to make Kerbals awesomer.

[Whirligig Girl]

I know that Kerbals make up a huge part of the game. They have barely been touched by a dev since 0.16 (well, there were bugfixes and emotions in 0.19 and previous versions), and yet they add the character of the game.

The Kerbals have photo-sourced textures, which the devs have said don't fit in the game well for any other thing. I think Kerbals need a texture upgrade so they are hand-painted like everything else.

Furthermore, their jetpacks are way too small. They are the size of a SAFER but have 100 times the Delta-V. I think they should be more like the Manned Maneuvering Unit.

Multiple suits:

Mk1 EVA suit

Basic silver-colored EVA spacewalking suit. Kerbals are tethered to the Command Pod hatch and carry a thruster gun with tiny amount of Delta-V, and can crawl up the tether to the hatch and enter it. It walks very slow, and you are limited to 30 feet from the hatch. May be useful for Gilly or Pol. (Gemini EVA suit)

Mk2 EVA suit

This suit can only be worn when on the surface of a planet. It can not walk very fast, running in low-G will be a quick skipping/hopping motion. Designed for the Mun, Minmus, Duna, etc. (Apollo EVA suit)

Atmosphere Suit

This suit can only be worn in 0.6-10 atmospheres of pressure. Designed for Eve, Laythe, and high altitudes on Kerbin. You can run easily with this suit on. (basically souped up SCUBA gear)

Flight Suit

Default suit when spacecraft is launched from runway. The first line of defense is the cockpit/capsule. (Veteran IVA suit)

Jumpsuit

Kerbals can change into this when in orbit, to be more comfortable. (the blue Kerbal Recruit suit)

Backpacks

EDIT: Look HERE

Life Support w/ KMU

Kerbal Maneuvering Unit with the current default amount of Delta-V, but much bulkier. It could also be stored on the outside of the vessel KAS style.

KOOSE

A small inflatable spacecraft with a heatsheild, small RCS jets, and retrothrusters. The Kerbal hangs on (works like a chair, looks like a ladder, and he hangs on to the joystick controls.) and can re-enter the atmosphere safely without burning up.

Parachutes

Just... Just parachutes.

More Uses for EVAs

Look HERE as well.

Welding docking ports

This is done as a sort of "Common Berthing Mechanism" Where a Kerbal goes on EVA to connect a docking port with more structural integrity, by merging it into one part. (I know this has been suggested before)

Placing Struts and Fuel Lines

Ever wanted to build an asparagus staged craft in orbit? Need to make your interplanetary booster stage not wobble so damn much? Let Kerbals go out and place struts/fuel lines.

Repairing

Remember that picture of the toolbox Claira made that was shown in a devstream? basically, if a solar panel (not the big ones, obviously) or a battery gets broken, a Kerbal can fix it with the tool box.

Stripping the Wings

When there are further planets and solar panels get useless (or when the sun gets the inverse square law applied to it and the solar panels become useless) You can strip off the solar panels (yes, large ones) and actually have a weight difference.

Aesthetics/Diversity

Texture Cleanup

As Earlier mentioned, I think Kerbals could use a texture cleanup. Use of hand-painted textures to replace the photo-sourced textures which the Devs have confirmed that they frown upon. In particular, the back of Kerbal heads have a gap in the hair texture, and the space suit has obvious flaws, such as the oval lights and the oddly twisted hose on the front.

Variable looks

I am not a fan of the cloning idea of Kerbals, and even the minions have some diversity. that said, It'd be cool if Kerbals could have some slight height variation, head thickness, eye size, etc. This could be defined by pseudo-random values in the Kerbal Generator, with Bill, Jeb, and Bob's heads being 1 on the scale of all of them. If I recall my slight toying around with unity, models can easily be stretched around, so you won't even need a procedural mesh or anything.

Furthermore, Kerbal women could be added, with a slightly rounded head.

hair

I'm not sure if Kerbalizer hair would be easy, but making texture variations on the head is easy. But the problem with Universe Replacer is that Kerbal hair is totally randomized each time. That means if Jeb gets blond hair and lips one moment, he'll be Chris Hadfield the next (well, after an EVA). EDIT: TextureReplacer has since fixed this probelm completely, even adding special female tags for names and head textures. Just put in

HairType = 1
HairColor = <RGB VALUE HERE>

This would be blond military-cut hair.

There could be as much as 20 styles, and the Kerbal Generator would choose one randomly, and pick a color.

Hair With Kerbalizer

If Kerbalizer hair is implemented (just the same as different hair textures, only it uses extra models instead of textures), then we can seriously talk about letting Kerbalizer Pro users make their own custom Kerbals. Even so, you could just go into the .cfg and make one.

SCIENCE DAMMIT

EDIT: THIS

EDIT2: MADE RELEVANT IN STOCK.

Kerbals with high stupidity have terrible science reports, and science research and crew reports can teach them to be less stupid.

Further, Hitchhiker Cans should have special biology experiments and some computer consoles and look less like a cylindrical can with drawers and not much else. Seriously, the HSC is boring

COURAGEOUS DAMMIT

EDIT: THIS

EDIT2: SORTA MADE RELEVANT IN STOCK.

Kerbals with low courage can increase their courage by doing crazy things, like experiencing high-gee forces, or surviving an exploding rocket launch.

Special Crew Reports

-First Kerbal In Space: Orbiting Kerbin in the spaceship, you see how beautiful your planet is. You think we must preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!

-First Kerbal on the Mun: That's one small step for you, a giant leap for all Kerbals.

-First Kerbal on Minmus: "Woah, That's one big step!"

-First Kerbal on Gilly: "One small step for [First Kerbal on Mun], but it's a moho of a leap for me!

Edited December 26, 2014 by GregroxMun

[Woopert]

That's a pretty cool idea, I like it. Earlier today I was watching YouTube videos from past videos and noticed how the Kerbals were the same (I also noticed while playing later).

[sumghai]

Interesting ideas indeed!

*Mk1 EVA suit: Basic silver-colored EVA spacewalking suit. Kerbals are tethered to the Command Pod hatch and carry a thruster gun with tiny amount of Delta-V, and can crawl up the tether to the hatch and enter it. It walks very slow, and you are limited to 30 feet from the hatch. May be useful for Gilly or Pol. (Gemini EVA suit)

*Mk2 EVA suit: This suit can only be worn when on the surface of a planet. It can not walk very fast, running in low-G will be a quick skipping/hopping motion. Designed for the Mun, Minmus, Duna, etc. (Apollo EVA suit)

These would be nice, yes.

Tethers might need to be implemented as multiple rigid bodies connected sequentially, though, which may impact game performance.

*Atmosphere Suit: This suit can only be worn in 0.6-10 atmospheres of pressure. Designed for Eve, Laythe, and high altitudes on Kerbin. You can run easily with this suit on. (basically souped up SCUBA gear)

Not too sure about this one.

Flight Suit (IVA, Laythe EVA): Default suit when spacecraft is launched from runway. The first line of defense is the cockpit/capsule. (Veteran IVA suit)

Jumpsuit (IVA, Kerbin EVA): Kerbals can change into this when in orbit, to be more comfortable. (Kerbal Recruit Suit)

This reminds me of the tome I wrote a while back on space suit customisation, which I recently reposted today in response to another topic:

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 individual based on various criteria arbitrarily defined by the player (e.g. factions, faux "specialisations")

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) 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) or individually (e.g. some player may want a specific subset of Kerbals 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) 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 (Parts of this functionality currently exist in various add-ons - Universe Replacer allows access/replacement of default SQUAD assets such as spacesuits, while KerbPaint allows users to define custom color "masks" for parts and repaint them using an in-game GUI)

- Storage of user-selected color choices 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

Mk1 Life Support backpack: Provides life support. (Not needed on Laythe or Kerbin)

Possibly included by default on all space suits, and automatically disabled for Laythe or Kerbin.

Life Support w/ SAFER: Current default Kerbal jetpack model with severely reduced Delta-V.

Agreed. I feel the current jetpack is a bit too overpowered.

Life Support w/ KMU: Kerbal Maneuvering Unit with the current default amount of Delta-V, but much bulkier.

Would be neat if these could be stored either within the command pod, or externally using a KAS-like container system.

You know what, I'm actually tempted to start doodling up some (unofficial) GUI mockups for implementing all these ideas.

[ngianoplus]

Keep in mind that the Kerbals are much smaller than a Human, thus the jetpack has to carry around a different amount of mass than the Apollo EVA suit.

Personally I rather see the advancement of the jet pack rather than different types. Simple. No jetpack, possibly added benefits (such as running faster). Or a jetpack than is developed over time to become more powerful/efficient.

[DaveofDefeat]

N7 armor. that is all

[Rage097]

I think the Kerbals look fine as they are. The suits should have, at the very least, varying colors. Not too big a fan for most of the other ideas.

[UbioZur]

Since we currently have two thread talking about more or less the same things:

Other thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51738-Kerbonaut-Suit-colors-automatic-updaing

As asked on the other thread, may be we could try to keep everything in one thread to merge the ideas and not duplicate them.

Also, I know people have use Universe Replacer to change suit color. May be one of you could suggest develop an extension of that mod to get the first part of the suggestion as a mod (the suit color).

[Whirligig Girl]

N7 armor. that is all

No. Go away.

[Whirligig Girl]

Fixed Grammar.

[FellipeC]

I would like that the trio with orange suits still wear orange suits on EVA.

Also, when a normal white suit guy have enough achievements (don't know, maybe number of flight hours, landing on other body, ...) he could be promoted to orange suit.

Blue jumpsuit in IVA on hitchhiker module would be cool.

And if ever implement customizing Kerbals, why not statistics in rooster, like hours flights, landings, science done, and so.

[Whirligig Girl]

I think iot would be a great idea to but statistics in a rooster. It would be a little hard to know when to wake up without it's sound though.

[Ironwatsas]

I'd like to suggest, in addition to different space/flight suits, having 'casual' wear or 'adventure' gear for exploring the forests and mountains on the surface of Kerbin.

Having atleast the ability to mod in differing character models for the Kerbs, or somehow using Kerbalizer to import into KSP would be pretty neat.

[SirJoab]

I think that fear should make a Kerbal loose their hair. The more times they get scared to the point of screaming the balder they get.

[Captain Sierra]

I think that fear should make a Kerbal loose their hair. The more times they get scared to the point of screaming the balder they get.

I certainly would be interested in seeing what possible implementations of this manifest themselves.

[YoshiFan501]

I... Harv!!!!

[Whirligig Girl]

Updated!

tenchar

[softweir]

Please check the What not to Suggest and Already Suggested lists - female Kerbals and Kerbal customisation are among the topics we ask people to refrain from.

[Frostiken]

I like. I imagine the balancing factor would be weight, ie: packing a heavier suit would add extra mass to the capsule?

[Brickyard]

Speaking of this, I had the same idea myself but was unable to locate the model or texture files in game. Any idea how to get at them?

[prioronion]

Is their a way for certain kirbals to have differing coloured stripes?

[Tex]

I am loving these suggestions! The only thing I think might be not so good is the female Kerbals. I believe the Devs have already stated they don't plan on female Kerbals. Keep thinking, these are all really great!

[KvickFlygarn87]

Interesting, very interesting indeed. I would especially like the more science parts.

[Legendary Emu]

I wish there could be a way for people to customize the kerbals directly and not just their textures. That would mean we could have different kinds of helmets and female kerbals and stoof.

[nithelyth]

Hello, it would be nice to see the g-forces taking visible effects on the kerbals during takeoff/new animation:

[coolitic]

I dont agree with multiple suits/backpacks.