/Suggestion] Kerbal Diversity

[Whirligig Girl]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62518-Four-things-for-pro-KGV%2A

That is my Kerbal Gender Diversity thread. It has gone a far way, but then someone posted about Kerbal race, and That gave me an idea. Extend the Kerbal Generator for a more aesthetically/story-telling game. Why would you do this? People really get attached to their kerbals and like to tell stories not just how they piloted something, but how Kerbals piloted something, and how they felt while doing it.

1: Kerbal Personality

More traits, more expressive variety, and more emotions.

Friendliness (Between 0 and 1)

Stupidity (Between 0 and 1)

Courage (Between 0 and 1)

Claustrophobia (0 or 1)

Badass (0 or 1)

Humor (Between 0 and 1)

These values will be touched on later.

2: Emotions

A value on a number line that changes in flight, not hard-coded in .cfg List in Scared to Happy (-1 to 1)

Died of shock (Extremely rare, but we know Kerbals tend to do that, only happens if Courage value is less than 0.05) (-1)

Traumatized

Extremely scared

Scared

Uncomfortable

Unhappy

Neutral (0)

Happy

Enjoying

Exhilarated

Amazed

Elated (1)

3: Talking

While Neutral, Unhappy, happy, Enjoying, Exhilarated, and Amazed, Kerbals will talk to each other. Talking to each other may or may not rise their emotion depending on the Friendliness of the Kerbal they are talking to.

4: Sounds

When you mouse over the portrait of the Kerbal, the voice will play with a slight radio sound.If the kerbal is scared, he will be screaming, if the Kerbal is unhappy, he will be panting, if the Kerbal is neutral, he will say nothing. If he is happy, he will be humming. If he is Enjoying or above, he will not talk, just grin or smile. In EVA, if he is hit or he bounces, he will make a "oh" sound, and if he is frowning A LOT he will make an "AHHHHHHHH!!!!!" sound. If he is doing a Surface Sample, he will make the reverse spanish voice saying something like "Doing the science" "Here's the sample" "Let's see what this ground is like". If he is doing an EVA report, he will say something like "Doing the Science!" "Look at that!" "I am recording the situation" "This is a peculiar Situation"

If a Kerbal is on board a craft that is doing an experiment, a random Kerbal will say "Look at this!" "The Goo is doing something." "The Materials are doing something!"

5: Flight

In addition to emotion, Kerbals have certain stats that effect emotion and survival.

-Life Support

Food is a solid resource that is consumed as 1 unit every 6 hours, and it decreases every 6 hours, not continually, like electricity or air. It can be stored, or on long missions, produced in a hydroponics lab. For every 1 unit of food eaten, 0.25 waste is produced.

Air is a resource that is constantly consumed at 7 units/minute, and up to 8.5 units per minute if scared. For every 3.5 units of Air is used up, 1 unit of waste is produced. Air can be produced in a hydroponics lab, and converted from waste for 0.5 units of air for every 1 unit of waste.

Waste is hardly a resource, but it has it's purposes. It is required by the Hydroponics lab, and it can be converted back into air, and water.

Water is consumed much like food, but every 2 hours, and waste is produced from it. Waste can be turned into water for 0.9999 units of water for every unit of waste. It is required by the Hydroponics lab.

ElectricCharge is a current stock resource. It is required for processing of waste into other resources, and for the Hydroponics Lab.

The Processor can turn Waste back into usable resources, and it will do so at any time a particular resource is running low.

The Hydroponics Lab will continually produce food, at a rate of 10 units every 42 hours. It requires waste (1 unit/42 hours), Water (10 units/12 hours), and Electrcity (Same as the Illuminator lights)

When life support resources run low, Kerbals' mood decreases. If ElectricCharge runs out, the Kerbal will not die, but they might become scared and use up oxygen faster because of it.

Physical Variety

shape

I know unity can manipulate models in different ways, and here's how KSP can use them.

Head: Can be changed by up to 8% in these directions: Height and Radius. It is defined from -1 to 1 in the .cfg for each direction (Eyes stay the same)

Torso: Can be changed by up to 5% in these directions: Height, Radius, Width.

Legs: Can be changed by up to 5% in these directions: Length

Arms: Can Be changed by up to 2% in these directions: Length

It adds more visual variety.

Color

Kerbal skin can vary from slightly blue tinted* to slightly yellow tinted*, and from slightly lighter to slightly darker. An RGB value from a certain limit in hue and lightness is chosen, but you could edit the .cfg for a Red or white kerbal.

Gender

A 0, 1 or 2 value is chosen for gender. 0 is default (Masculine head shape) 1 is a more feminine head shape (Look up Hayoo's drawings) and 2 is a totally neutral head shape, like that of a male child. Value 1 has a 20% chance of happening, Value 2 has a 5% chance of happening. Value 0 is default.

Age

If Age=True, then a value from 0 to 1 will be chosen for a wrinkled face overlay (the 0 to 1 value is opacity of the texture), Else default texture is applied. Age=True has only a 10% chance of happening.

Hair Shape

A set of pre-determined hair textures, all are short, even the slightly more feminine ones.

Hair Color

Brightness value, and a set of red, blonde, black, and brown hair colors

Names

The last names should get a generator, if the Kerbals are ALL called Kerman, then there'd be no point in having last names at all. All prefixes for last names should start with K, except von Ker- or van Kol-. If the gender value is 1, the name generator will use only first name suffixes for females, if it's 2, it will use either name set.

Bill, Jebidiah, and Bob?

They stay exactly the same, for they are the famous remnant of past times!

But... Why?!

Humans who play this game tend to get attached to kerbals, and although it wouldn't add much of a gameplay aspect, their characters would be more alive.

Here's another post I had forgotten about on this topic

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

Mk1 Life Support backpack:

Provides life support. It is by default put on all EVA suits

Life Support w/ SAFER

Current default Kerbal jetpack model with severely reduced Delta-V, and with the joysticks mounted on the Kerbal's chest.

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

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

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) 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 smae 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

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

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!

* SLIGHTLY BLUISH OR ORANGE/YELLOWISH, Poryy! SLIGHTLY.

Edited March 7, 2014 by GregroxMun

[Sirrobert]

Humans with abit of imagination can get attached to their Kerbals just fine without Skyrim like character generation

[Kegereneku]

Humans with abit of imagination can get attached to their Kerbals just fine without Skyrim like character generation

I attached Jebediah to a Booster, does that count ?

[Whirligig Girl]

Humans with abit of imagination can get attached to their Kerbals just fine without Skyrim like character generation

Yes, but KErbals are the main characters (only characters) and they desrve some variety.

[Sirrobert]

I attached Jebediah to a Booster, does that count ?

That's exactly how he looks like in my mind to

[Skyler4856]

This game isn't for the most part about the kerbals. It is about SPAAAAAACE!

I would rather have any time spent coding this spent coding career or multiplayer.

[Ernest3.14]

This seems like one of those "good-to-have" features that will come when the game gets polished up.

[Whirligig Girl]

Yeah, probably will have to wait until after scope completion.

[jcraft]

Humans with abit of imagination can get attached to their Kerbals just fine without Skyrim like character generation

No one asking for a Skyrim-like character generation - for KSP, character generator like in new XCOM (strategic one, not the shooter) would be more that enough.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62518-Four-things-for-pro-KGV%2AThe last names should get a generator, if the Kerbals are ALL called Kerman, then there'd be no point in having last names at all. All prefixes for last names should start with K, except von Ker- or van Kol-. If the gender value is 1, the name generator will use only first name suffixes for females, if it's 2, it will use either name set.

I would say that even starting with "K" is not required - let's just generate some wacky last name. But in general - yeah, giving every kerbal same last name is a bad idea in my opinion and it should be changed.

Edited December 20, 2013 by jcraft

[Holo]

I want this feature to be added right now more than pretty much anything. It's Kerbal Space Program, not Regular Space Program

[Schmonzo]

I would rather have any time spent coding this spent coding career or multiplayer.

I'd rather have proper believable kerbals I care about, than multiplayer. The kerbals described in this thread are a part of career mode and thus needed right after the introduction of the economy.

Have nice day!

[Whirligig Girl]

Well, Multiplayer is probably more important, but I'd still like to see this much more.

[Alex_Leonardo]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42818-Kerbalizer-in-KSP-Game-Custom-Tools-and-utilities-for-each-Kerbal?highlight=Kerbalizer+game

[Sirrobert]

Well, Multiplayer is probably more important, but I'd still like to see this much more.

WOW

That is truely an EXTREMELY important thing to add to this dead conversation. Bravo. So extremely usefull!

Seriously, do people just click on page 50 of the forums and than pick a random post to necro with worthless crap?

[vger]

Are you sure that Kerbals all more or less being 'the same' isn't part of the race's "charm?"

[S4qFBxkFFg]

I think that since this thread started the devs have confirmed that female kerbals are going to appear in the game, at some point; so that's one of the suggestions taken care of. *

Further to what vger said, adding something like "race"/coloration is probably even further down the list of things to be done. (After all, it's not as if having them be green favours any real human "race", and their current skin colour is part of what I regard as the Kerbal identity.)

However, more ways to distinguish our crew members from each other, and to see their personalities come through, are (in general) welcome.

* The actual reactions of the "NO WOMENS IN MY ROCKETS" people should be amusing when it finally does happen...

[coolitic]

There is something like this called the kerbalizer. Find it on the main website.

I dont want the devs wasting time on more of this.

[Poryy]

I don't want a blue or orange Kerbal, I want green Kerbals and only green Kerbals!

[Whirligig Girl]

WOW

That is truely an EXTREMELY important thing to add to this dead conversation. Bravo. So extremely usefull!

Seriously, do people just click on page 50 of the forums and than pick a random post to necro with worthless crap?

Because I felt like I wanted to bump up my own thread instead of just making a new one with the same idea.

[Whirligig Girl]

I don't want a blue or orange Kerbal, I want green Kerbals and only green Kerbals!

Please look at the bottom of the OP, and edited message just for you! Seriously, the values difference between Kerbal colors would be minuscule.

[kiwiak]

Lower science results for stupid kerbal is common idea, but shoudln stupidity have some merits too?

If not, players woudlny just sent stupid kerbals anywhere.

So what stupid kerbal shoudl be usefull for?

[jfull]

This is actually a really neat design for female Kerbals. Simple and unoffensive

[pxi]

I like the idea, it would help to form a much fuller picture of 'who' each of the kerbals are as distinct personalities.

Of course you could go full dwarf fortress:

[S4qFBxkFFg]

Lower science results for stupid kerbal is common idea, but shoudln stupidity have some merits too?

If not, players woudlny just sent stupid kerbals anywhere.

So what stupid kerbal shoudl be usefull for?

When money comes into the game, you'll probably be able to get away with paying them less because they can't get any other job.

[Alex_Leonardo]

http://www.spaceflightonline.net/images/kerbals.jpg

This is actually a really neat design for female Kerbals. Simple and unoffensive

That's so offensive! So you're basically saying that women are less wide and have different chins/jaws/mandibles than men! HOW OFFENSIVE!

I think the women look like Sandra Bullock. They should make "Gravioli" over with the female kerbal. Also as a full-lenght movie.