Firing excess crew members?

[Daishi]

Hi, query here. I only want two crews (the 3 orange suits + a team of 3 white suits) active at any one time in my space program (just to give me the discipline to return crew before embarking on something new).

Trouble is, every time I test a rocket during craft development, KSP seems to auto-hire crew if there aren't 3 idle kerbals available to place in the root part (often a large command capsule). I remember during an older version, the game told you to hire more and prompted you to enter the Astronaut Complex to do so.

Now i've got about 11 guys bludgeoning off my payroll and i cant get rid of them (barring 'accidents', but i'm trying to be a considerate CEO).

Is there a way to remove unneeded hired crew from the game, 'fire' them if you will, or stop KSP automatically hiring new ones?

Edited November 19, 2013 by Daishi

[merlinux]

Instead of leaving the game auto hiring, have you tried to manually select who goes in the pod from the VAB. I have no problem selecting only 1 kerbal for a 3 man pod.

[Daishi]

Instead of leaving the game auto hiring, have you tried to manually select who goes in the pod from the VAB. I have no problem selecting only 1 kerbal for a 3 man pod.

Would be a workaround, yep, but it only takes one slipup to wreck my roster and savegame :\ Doesn't help that the VAB and hanger resets the crew allocation every time you move the vessel

[merlinux]

I believe there must be a way to get rid of kerbals from your roster, I think in the persistent file. However I have never bothered to change anything in that file and I cant really help you more.

[Kasuha]

Do not fly your craft directly from VAB. If you do, revert to VAB. Save the ship, go to space center and click on the launchpad. Here you will be able to select both the ship and its crew.

[Daishi]

Do not fly your craft directly from VAB. If you do, revert to VAB. Save the ship, go to space center and click on the launchpad. Here you will be able to select both the ship and its crew.

Cheers, will try remember that for future launches

Been looking around on spaceport, and i reckon this will do what i need, removing Kerbals from the roster without killing them.

[Daishi]

I take that back - the author axed the ability to remove kerbals from the roster :\

Tried editing them out of my persistance file, but all that did was prevent me from resuming my game the next time i played.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[Smidge204]

Well, there's always the time-honored traditional way to "un-hire" excess Kerbals...

As a bonus, you save money on parachutes and landing struts!

=Smidge=

[Daishi]

Well, there's always the time-honored traditional way to "un-hire" excess Kerbals...

As a bonus, you save money on parachutes and landing struts!

=Smidge=

You're out to blight my reputation, good sir!

[celem]

I sent all my spare kerbals onto the launchpad in a wave of rovers which they drove off around kerbin. This doesnt cause the game to replace them in the roster, leaving just the active pilots.

I originally left the rovers parked around KSC to give the place a look of activity, but you need to ensure the rovers are very simple, or their part-counts will lag any big complex launches you make off the pad. Since my rovers were not simple I just drove em further away from KSC. Thankfully my kerbal storage rover design including docking clamps out of habit so i hooked em up into a land train and they are chilling as a pack in the grasslands somewhere nw of ksc.

Like you I have a streamlined roster. 9 pilots, inc jeb/bob/bill, though I may start recalling some of the others as I installed RemoteTech and they would be handy for signalling purposes

Edited November 7, 2013 by celem

[Richy teh space man]

I know it's not an ideal solution but you could send them to somewhere else on Kerbin to do some research or something.

[Daishi]

I know it's not an ideal solution but you could send them to somewhere else on Kerbin to do some research or something.

I just want them gone permanantly

I'm tempted to just throw them all in this and call it a day. Or start a new save. Nobody needs to know

[DrMonte]

Send them to island or KSC2.

[Umlüx]

you can always "fire" kerbals... with a mainsail!

[Smidge204]

You're out to blight my reputation, good sir!

Oh, sure, having them die heroically in the line of duty is a blight on your reputation, but...

Tried editing them out of my persistance file

...Having them "erased" as if they never existed, CIA style, that's perfectly fine!

=Smidge=

[boomerdog2000]

Could always just send them up in a station.

[el_coyoto]

you can always "fire" kerbals... with a mainsail!

LOL you beat me to it...

I think a Munbus and/or some nice resort base at KSC where they can relax before recovering them is the only solution though... (other than save file editing)

[Boosterspice]

Exit the pod, go to space center, and terminate recover the kerbals you don't want

[Daishi]

Oh, sure, having them die heroically in the line of duty is a blight on your reputation, but...

...Having them "erased" as if they never existed, CIA style, that's perfectly fine!

=Smidge=

...

::creates a Smidge Kerman and sends him to my north pole Kulag::

Could always just send them up in a station.

Nah, trying to remove them from the roster completely without resorting to killing anyone. My stupid mistake for launching ships wrong and accidentally hiring them.

LOL you beat me to it...

I think a Munbus and/or some nice resort base at KSC where they can relax before recovering them is the only solution though... (other than save file editing)

Any hints on how to do that? I've tried editing their 'state' to 3 to kill them but even that doesn't work. Removing them from the crew roster section of the persistence file just corrupts it and doesn't let me resume the game at all. There's something else in there i'm bound to be missing.

Exit the pod, go to space center, and terminate recover the kerbals you don't want

Only got "recover", no "termination" option there.

you can always "fire" kerbals... with a mainsail!

Send them to island or KSC2.

Fire them to the island with an array of mainsails? Could be a last resort

[goldenpeach]

I remember having a rocket designed to fire kerbals.

I don't remember the exact numbers but I think I could fire around 40 kerbals per launch.

I have made it after killing Jebediah: I was hiring like hell to make him revive,thus the need of firing a lot kerbals in short amount of time.

If you want, I can send you the craft file(even if it's very simple: a lot of PPD-10 Hitchhiker Storage Container with a fuel tank and a mainsail).

[Daishi]

I remember having a rocket designed to fire kerbals.

I don't remember the exact numbers but I think I could fire around 40 kerbals per launch.

When I say "fire", i mean "instant dismissal without pay", not massive velocity change out of a rocket engine

I'd just like to get them out of the Crew Roster\ Astronaut complex without a mass slaughter. Does anyone know how to edit persistence files without breaking them? I cant find any walkthrough on it.

[DrMonte]

I think this thread should be recreated in "Challenges" - something like "The best way to fire your Kerbal"

[Saberus]

Send them on a solar polar landing mission for science....

[goldenpeach]

When I say "fire", i mean "instant dismissal without pay", not massive velocity change out of a rocket engine

I'd just like to get them out of the Crew Roster\ Astronaut complex without a mass slaughter. Does anyone know how to edit persistence files without breaking them? I cant find any walkthrough on it.

It's not a mass slaughter: they were so coward that they were all quitting the job despite the perfects landing(they were also mean: they weren't saying anything:theyr were just disapearing somewhere without warning).

On a serious note:

It's easy to edit the persistence file:

go at the bottom of the file, you should see a list of the astronauts(just above the list of the applicants).

If you want to fire some, just delete the name and the stats(just under the name) of the astronauts you want to fire!

[Daishi]

It's not a mass slaughter: they were so coward that they were all quitting the job despite the perfects landing(they were also mean: they weren't saying anything:theyr were just disapearing somewhere without warning).

On a serious note:

It's easy to edit the persistence file:

go at the bottom of the file, you should see a list of the astronauts(just above the list of the applicants).

If you want to fire some, just delete the name and the stats(just under the name) of the astronauts you want to fire!

Lol. Tried editing the persistence file to remove them, ended up corrupting it by deleting a parentheses I shouldn't have. Again. :|

Ah well. Cant seem to find any other way, so i'm stopping the issue at the source and just disabling the launch button from the VAB and SPH. That's just a simple true\false switch at the beginning of the persistence file, so i'm pretty sure i cant corrupt anything that way. Will take longer to test rockets but i'll see if its worth it. Turned on permadeath too.

Thanks everyone for your wacky suggestions, you've inspired me to create another savegame just to muck around