.24 Lets give the Kerbals some love.

[Bobe]

I don't know if it's been discussed in this thread or elsewhere, but perhaps missions could result in courage and stupidity scores. A successful mission will increase courage and decrease stupidity of each Kerbal, and an unsuccessful mission the opposite.

I think it'd be nice to be able to send Kerbals to be trained, which would make them unavailable for a predetermined amount of time and would slowly improve their "stats". You would only be able to train up to three or so Kerbals at a time and there would be different types of training with varying times and stat yields.

I'm not sure exactly what, if anything, Squad intends to do with courage and stupidity as I believe they've stated they won't include random faults, but perhaps they could impact the Kerbals directly. For example, Kerbals with low courage could have a proportionate chance to pass out or have a nervous breakdown during critical events like launch, EVA and re-entry, which would put them out of action and would be unable to perform EVAs or control a ship. Likewise, Kerbals with high stupidity could have a chance to have derp moments where their controls are briefly inverted. This should probably only apply to RCS and EVA systems and would provide a "mostly" fun challenge.

These possibilities would make selecting the right Kerbal(s) for the mission somewhat important.

[John FX]

It would be interesting to have a ranking system for kerbals, so you can tell the most experienced ones at a glance. For example, you might have Commander Jebediah, or Rookie Bob, or Co-pilot Bill, and so on.

I like ranks. I want the stupidity of a Kerbal to affect the amount of science they can generate and the bravery to affect... well, something. I`d like to be able to change their stats by doing stuff in missions. I`d like to be able to use a template and design my own suits. I`d like to set up a list of stuff for them to do and they will do that in a loop to make my bases look animated.

[GPoliceMZ]

The Astronaut Complex should really offer something like this other than choosing my next Victim.

[Shna_na]

Referring to past posts and my own opinion, this is an overview in order of what I would most like to see:

• Kerbals should have stats that determine how they complete certain actions or affect other Kerbals. These effects should be brought on depending on the emotion of the Kerbal. The actions, however, should not be too disastrous, game-breaking, or similar to random events. They should be events that happen at certain thresholds and either reward or punish the player for making the decision that they have. For example:
  
  • High courage (general): A Kerbal with high courage can calm down less courageous Kerbals around them depending on how high their courage stat is.
    
  • Low courage (worried): A Kerbal with low courage may fail to complete a science experiment when they are particularly frightened. After some attempts or after calming down, the Kerbal can then eventually complete the task.
    
  • High stupidity (happy): A particularly stupid Kerbal should fail to complete experiments sometimes when happy, as he's probably in his own little bubble. This problem should be rectified on the second or third attempt, however.
    
  • High stupidity + Low courage (worried, EVA): A Kerbal with such stats as these should have a chance of dropping one or more experiments on EVA when scared or in ragdoll mode (after an impact, for example).
    
  • Low stupidity (general): A somewhat bright Kerbal should have a small chance of slightly increasing the science yield of an experiment, with a higher chance of this when in EVA.
    
  • High stupidity (general, EVA): A stupid Kerbal may sometimes fail to plant a flag, leaving it rolling down a hill or simply collapsing onto the ground. In extreme circumstances, the Kerbal could throw the flag when pulling it out of his backpack.
    
  • High stupidity (general, EVA): Unintelligent Kerbals should sometimes fail to grab the ladder when they leave the capsule for EVA, simply dropping from the airlock.
    
  • Low stupidity + High courage: A confident, intelligent Kerbal may decide to process an experiment to increase its yield when transmitting it.
    

If you have more for that list,

please

do share.

• Experience: Kerbals should gain experience from completing activities such as transmitting data, completing experiments, surviving a mission, planting a flag, etc. This experience should then automatically adjust their stupidity or courage accordingly depending on the task completed.
  
• Accolades/Achievements: When a Kerbal does something worth recognising, it should be recognised. First toset foot on a place outside of Kerbin? Get recognised! First to achieve orbit? Recognition's on its way! And other things such as tallies (number of missions survived, number of celestial bodies landed on, total time on missions, number of explosions witnessed, science earned, etc.) and highlights (favorite celestial body depending on how many times they've been on it, furthest distance from KSC, most science collected in one mission, etc.) would be brilliant.
  
• Individuality: Kerbals are just blanks at the moment. They're all exactly the same - with the exception of Bill, Jeb, and Bob in their orange suits - and don't really give me a reason to keep them alive, considering the fact that they are infinite. Giving them small details such as varied skin colour, hair, eye colour, positioning and size of facial features, spacesuits, etc. would create a small emotional attachment to them. Coupled with the bigger things such as experience and achievements/accolades, this makes each Kerbal unique and more important. They will each have their own purpose.
  
• Nationality/City of origin: That's right, cities. Cities should be added to the game that each have a name. This could be done in the same way that the craters on the Mun were - randomly generated once, then implemented as a constant, unchanging, set thing. Nothing overly fancy, just some basic buildings and the likes. But alongside this, airports in major cities would be great. It gives planes a purpose, as I feel that they don't really have one at the moment.
  
• Economy: While it'd be a complicated thing to balance (cost per Xtonnes of fuel for each different type of fuel, cost of parts depending on complexity/advancement etc.), an economy for career mode would add a whole new challenge to the game. There could be a difficulty setting, where the lower it is the more money you start with and the less things cost. It could be used as a wage for each Kerbal (depending on their stats and experience), to buy a Kerbal, to earn through the up-and-coming contracts, train Kerbals, and a whole host of other things. While I don't particularly have much of an idea as to how it could be implemented, Squad have the know-how, experience, genius, and creativity to do this well as they have with past features.
  

So there's my verdict. I'll probably edit this from time to time - adding stuff, tweaking stuff - but this is what I came up with over an hour. Hope you agree, please do expand on this or shed your light on the subject.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Shna_na
Fixed minor error, Added economy

[minerman30]

I think they meant with the in game currency that is coming, not paying actual money to squad for points to use in the game for stuff

I know, that, I'm just saying that that is very not-realistic, and may pave the way for KSP becoming "The Sims: Mün Edition".

[Deta]

Perhaps the first space suit would be a fish bowl and a fire extinguisher

That's pretty much what it was. but yeah some kind of reward/medal/badge like Jeb did this, or Jeb blow this up. the latter is more likely.

[ThesaurusRex]

Jerdos Kerman sat in the cockpit of the latest ship scheduled to launch from the KSC, reading this month's issue of Boosters Illustrated. He was chosen to commandeer a small orbital spacecraft on mission to repair a space telescope. He checked his watch and sat back. "Hmm, adan odniecid átse on arreit ed lortnoc", he thought to himself, noting that there was nobody on the other line of the ship's communicator, very unusual for a mission.

The ship launched. Automated space launches, he thought. That was the future. No hassle of trying to control it yourself. An insult to his superior piloting skills he thought, but on the bright side he had time to relax and watch the view. Jerdos decided to dose off to sleep (or rather, was forced to by the g forces) and wait for further instruction.

The burn of orbital insertion woke him. His head was thrown back against the seat as the sound of the thrusters shook the whole cockpit. Both this burn and the burn before were unusually high for a kerbal-rated spacecraft. He looked to the g-meter on his control panel. It wasn't working. No, hold on a second...nothing is. The entire damn spaceship is switched off. Nobody even bothered to turn it on. And that meant the atmospheric regulators were switched off too. He'd been breathing his own exhaled, un-recycled air for a while now. Who's the idiot that forgot to do that?

The burn ceased, and Jerdos found the master power switch and flipped it on. He picked up the communicator and radioed the KSC. "[Repair craft Ecnava to KSC. Fantastic orbit, boys. Now how come nobody turned the ship on or noticed I wasn't talking? Over.]"

The KSC fell silent in shock for a moment, then hurriedly gave him the shocking truth. There was a scheduling mixup. He's not in the Ecnava. He's sitting in the cockpit of an inter-asteroidal exploration and personnel transport vehicle set to arrive at an asteroid base that will be populated by Kerbals later. It is not rated to sustain him through the trip. Nobody even SAW him enter the spacecraft. Immediately everyone did the best they could to figure out how to remedy the situation. The asteroid exploration vehicle is equipped with an ion engine, but the planetary escape stage still has plenty of delta-v to de-orbit him and then some. One snag -- no parachutes and no shielding. Jerdos would return to Kerbin as powderized kerbal jerky. A rescue ship could be launched to retrieve him, but it would be very costly and the hurried nature could cost lives. "[Jerdos Kerman to KSC. Please send orbital data of the propellant depot, over.]" They were just about to say that. The 7/11 Rocket Propellant & Gift Shop is on the same inclination as the robotic ferry ship, and slightly lower in altitude. Only problem -- it's currently on the other side of the planet. No matter. It'd just be a while, but the asteroid exploration vehicle can support him for that long. Either way, the mission would have to be aborted. There is no mechanism on the ferry ship in which to transfer fuel effectively.

Jerdos looked at the data and scribbled the numbers on the left arm of his EVA suit, standard protocol for all spacefaring Kerbals to wear regardless of whether or not they are actually going on EVA. Safety first, ironically. "[Jerdos Kerman to KSC. Status on the mission? Over.]"

"[KSC to Jerdos Kerman, the ferry mission has been aborted, but no official maneuvers have been made. The ship is scheduled for a docking maneuver in 5 hours. Over.]"

4 hours, 30 minutes later, Jerdos picked up the communicator again. "[Jerdos Kerman to KSC, continue ferry mission as planned. Initiating EVA. Over.]"

"[KSC to Jerdos Kerman, you're not SERIOUSLY suggesting-]"

"[Give my wife my love.]" Then nothing more.

"[Major Jerdos Kerman mission log, stardate Wednesday:

I have just made one of the most important, most reckless and possibly last decision in my whole life. I've left the ferry ship Aduya to continue its primary mission. It hasn't lost a great deal of fuel needed to get to the asteroids from my added mass. Gotta thank BDB engineering for that. But I couldn't stay in. I'd die. And I couldn't let the mission be aborted. We've already spent so much money getting this ready, to abort would be a critical blow to the space program. Not to mention the outcry and controversy over such a simple mistake. We'd never get to fly again. No, it was for the best that I let them continue at the potential expense of my life. Now, this isn't a -total- suicide mission. I do have a plan, after all. The orbit of the propellant depot isn't that different from mine. It would take an astoundingly small amount of delta-V to get there. Our EVA suits all have maneuvering packs with a very surprising amount of juice. Only problem is the wait for the station to get into position. From the data I read, it was on the other side of the planet. It took 5 hours to get me into this position. Almost an entire day. Now I'm going to need to make a series of burns with my EVA pack. I used the Star Schooner carried by the Aduya for air up until this point, so that leaves me with just a few minutes left to make this burn. The next burn will be at the complete opposite end of my orbit. That's around 32 minutes from now. I'm going to need to make 4 burns. Which means I'm staying in this suit for roughly 2 hours. My EVA suit isn't designed for extended, repeated use -- it'll last me about 1 hour and 24 minutes. Logically, that's not good for me. But, like I said, I have a plan: In the time I'm going to spend just floating around, I can induce a low-power state like many people do in times of scarcity to lower metabolism and the need for air. The catch is it will reduce my movement and if I stay like that for too long I'll enter full-blown suspended animation, and I'll need an external stimuli to wake me back up. So I'll use it sparingly. That buys me about 20 more minutes. Still not enough, but I don't need a constant supply of breathable air to keep going. My suit's just going to slowly fill up with non-breathable air until eventually I lose consciousness. But hopefully if I stay calm I can keep that air going for quite a while. As for timekeeping, my wristwatch fits nicely on the wrist of my EVA suit. It's battery powered, so no problems with gravity getting in the way, right? If that somehow breaks, I can use the sun for reference. Every 32 minutes I make a complete revolution, so every 32 minutes, the sun rises. I'll use the sun as a milestone since my wristwatch's alarm won't exactly work out here. You know, in space no one can hear your watch alarm and whatnot.

I've left this log in case future people find my mummified body and wonder just what the hell I was doing out here. As much as I'd love to, if I make a habit out of this it'll just wind up using air.

Maybe I should have checked the memo......

My burn's coming up. Bye."

"Major Jerdos Kerman mission log, stardate Wednesday, again (We need to refine our dating methods...):

My watch BROKE! It just up and BROKE! Luckily for me it wasn't broke in my last burn at night, but as I checked it now it just BROKE! I seriously have no idea what would cause it to break. Maybe it was one of those 'kerona bass injections' scientists have been theorizing...well, I guess they found out now. In an experiment to save air, I turned my suit off while I entered low-power. Probably saved my life. Now I have to rely on the sun more than ever. And pay even more attention to how often I'm in low-power. Which will be difficult. And all that attention might really damper my low-power plan to save oxygen.

Maybe they'll make a movie out of me some day...a comedy perhaps. "The Incredibly Stupid Decision of Jerdos Kerman".

Less talking, more floating."

"Major Jerdos Kerman mission log...stardate...bahh...

I've managed to...hopefully, successfully make all the burns. My closest approach will be a kilometer or somesuch. I ran out of air...a bit quicker than I thought. I feel like m bt to pss..rrrGh Out. It's only a...few minutes for the depot to come into its closest position...I just...HAVE...to stay...awake. And...c...calm.

What a dumb idea this was......going to a space station on the other......other side of Kerbin using nothing but my spacesuit? ...Expccecting that to work?

...And what about my ff..family? Matilda Kerman, if you are listening to this, I am so sorry. I wasn't...wasn't...wasn't...

...

...bwuh! I wasn't thinking. And Bobfred Kerman, my son...you grow up to be a good boy, you hear? Listen to your mother.

...To all my friends listening to this recording, I'll miss you all.

...If this keeps up for too long I don't think I'm going to make it...luckily as per regul...regulation I already had my will written down so no worries on that part. I've watched the propellant depot fly over my head for a while, consistently getting brighter...but I don't think I can make out any...details...wait...I can...I can see it! Oh...oh god, I can see it!"

Jerdos Kerman quickly put his hands on his controls and began to make the according burns. He approached the 7/11 Rocket Propellant & Gift Shop at lightning speed, struggling to slow down and change course. Slowing down to a significant degree, he still whizzed right past the station, reaching as far as 21 meters the opposite direction before being able to completely change direction and fly the opposite way. Struggling to stay awake and his body desperately in need of air, he managed to move at a gentle pace along with the station. It was only a few more meters, and his mind was almost done with this whole 'staying awake' thing. As he reaches for the bars of the station's cupola, his hands slip and he continues to move past slowly. He struggles to grab onto other parts of the station, but is too weak to hold onto anything. He slips past and frantically tries to grab pure space as he floats away. He has a view of part of the station, kerbin and Kerbol's glare in his visor. The last thing he sees before losing consciousness is the sun's glare halted by the silhouette of a figure reaching for him...

Sean Kerman pulled Jerdos into the gift shop and resuscitated him. After a while of treatment, Jerdos finally came to with enough energy to shout for joy and hug Sean, who initially felt rather uncomfortable but seeing that they're the only two people in low Kerbin orbit at the moment he decided to equally embrace. As mission control celebrated with champagne and Sean and Jerdos with some complementary 'kerbalnaut food' from the gift shop, Jerdos couldn't help but wonder how they'll treat him back on Kerbin...

end

^

Now I need to figure out a way to give that man a medal for his sheer bravery.

There could be medals that are assigned to Kerbals automatically, but also medals that you can personally award them, and perhaps medals that you can just make from scratch.

[Duxwing]

The Astronaut Complex should include a "Veterans' Corner," where automatically-done screenshots of achievements with procedurally-generated narrative subtitles can be viewed by clicking their associated Kerbals.

I agree with an awards ceremony animation and add that the details of the award and its recipient should affect it; e.g., a Kerbal with high Stupidity would bungle the ceremony, and an important award would have a long animation.

-Duxwing

[M3tal_Warrior]

@Shna_na

Dossiers. Give each Kerbal a dossier rather than badges pinned on the suit (they can be in the dossier instead). Like:

Jebediah Kerman

Location: Kerbin Orbit (Mission: ISS; Cupola module)

Rank: Legend

Courage: 88%

Stupidity: 3%

Main achievements: First rocket flight, First space EVA, First Mun EVA, First Kerbol Orbit

Badges:

- Pilot (fly space plane, alt. >1000m)

- Touched by infinity (reach 70km)

- Zero-g (EVA in space)

- Space traveler (one completed orbit around Kerbin above 70km)

- Mun observer (reaching Mun SOI)

- Mun explorer (EVA on Mun)

- Hereby declared mine (Flag on other body)

- Minmus observer (reaching Minmus SOI)

- To infinity! (reaching Kerbol SOI)

- Last hope (rescuing a contract kerbal)

- Space engineer (10 docking maneuvers completed)

- Guinea pig (fulfilled a test contract)

- Gotcha! (dock an asteroid)

- (your imagination)

Total mission time: 304d, 4h

Total number of missions: 18

Total number of visited bodies (low orbit): 2

Total visits of other bodies (low orbit): 7

Total landings on other bodies: 3

Favorite body: Mun (3 landings, 5 visits)

Biggest distance from KSC: 156 098 km

Missions:

- First launch

Launch time: Year 1 0d 0h 2m

MET: 5m, 32s

max. altitude: 34.439m

Achievement awarded: First rocket flight!

Badge awarded: Guinea pig

- Kerbollo-1

Launch time: Year 1 0d 0h 8m

MET: 24m, 57s

max. altitude: 89.572m

Achievement awarded: First space EVA!

Badge awarded: Touched by infinity, Zero-g

Rank awarded: Junior Kerbonaut

...

Ranks would blend perfectly in the new reputation system: Kill a rookie, that's a small article on the last page of yesterdays news. Kill a legend with 2 main achievements: Front page on the news, tons of bad press...

And, if maintenance costs will be implemented, higher ranks would mean higher costs. Also ranks could optimize science yields, be required for certain equipment (no rookie is to fly a Mk-3 cockpit without at least one captain) or effect other kerbals. And of course we should be able to fire kerbals that are just not fit for space travel.

Edited July 24, 2014 by M3tal_Warrior

[Javster]

I was really surprised Kerbals didn't cost money to hire in 0.24. It wouldn't take more than a day to implement and vastly increase realism.

[KerbMav]

At least Kerbals now have a reason to exist! They are needed to plant flags for contracts!

Also returned Kerbals give reputation - now we need something more to do with reputation?

The next step should be to add the functionality of command modules that give us "returned a ship from x y" to Kerbals, so we can have "bring a Kerbal to x and return him home safely" contracts.

It wouldn't take more than a day to implement

Oh ...