"Mission Control" mode

[Crimsonwings]

A bit of a bug-bear I have with KSP's kerbals is that there's little difference between them, and a hunk of plastic and circuit boards. Aside from EVAs and crew reports, the kerbals themselves are little more than window dressing. This suggestion is possibly a way to make kerbals first off, worth saving, and second a little more meaningful than "fancy science fetchers"

A "mission control" mode would be an option when making a new sandbox or career mode game, and would, in effect, make the kerbals fly the ship. When selected, any ship that has kerbals in a command pod or lander can, will be flown by the kerbal(s) in it. The only control you would have is in setting maneuver nodes (which would be expanded to include takeoffs and landings). You cannot otherwise direct the ship or turn off the kerbal's command of the ship. Unmanned ships and probes will still be under 100% of your control.

The kerbal's ability to actually fly the ship would be effected by the stupidity and courage stats currently in the game, High stupidity would mean the kerbal is less than accurate in following your maneuver plans, causing him to possibly fly off course. Low courage would have him break under pressure, meaning during a tense landing attempt he may panic and open up that throttle...

Training could then be introduced as a way of improving an individual kerbal's stats and the stats of potential recruits, and using Ol' Jeb as a base line, he would be a poor choice for making orbital maneuvers and burns, but could be rather helpful when trying to land in a tricky spot (which could explain how he lived through all them "hard landings")

the general idea is to make the kerbals something more than crew reporters and rock collectors, to have crew selection have a part in a mission just as big as the engine choice or lander design.

[Sirrobert]

So basicly you want ships with Kerbals to have autopilot, and ships without kerbals to not have autopilot.

I'd never put a Kerbal in my ships ever again if that was the case. There is no substitude for a real pilot. There are plenty of tasks I don't even trust Mechjeb with, so no way in hell I'm going to let a kerbal do that while I get to sit and wait for the explosion. Docking springs to mind as a good example