Give Jebediah a break!

[tntristan12]

Jebediah is a fantastic pilot, but he is a little too eager to do his job. Every time I build a rocket, if I forget to assign somebody else to the crew (on a one man pod), he's always the one to step up. Bless him! But lately the effort has been taking too much of a toll on his work. The union is trying to give him a break but he never takes one. It's gotten to the point where they have to cancel the launch and send him off for a water break so they can sneak someone else into the rocket.

I suggest randomizing the crew out of all available astronauts, rather than always defaulting to Jeb (then Bill, then Bob, then whoever comes after that). Especially during saves where I want to roleplay a bit and give all my astronauts a fair chance at glory!

[MSD]

You could send him yourself on a beach.... What does suck is that if you have more than 3 seats, fill one with Elron Kerman, something happens so I go to the vab to change something, Jeb and his buddies go back in the rocket!

All Im trying to say, it would be nice to remeber whoes turn it is

[tntristan12]

Hey devs. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could track how many hours of flight time each astronaut in your program has logged and weight the selection in favor of those who have less. Could be used in conjunction with crew awards! That'd be fun.

[RocketPilot573]

I agree, the crew should be randomly chosen out of the existing crew list (you can still change this of course).

[LethalDose]

I would prefer to have them in some rotation, instead of randomly selected, but otherwise I agree. I love Jeb and doofy smile, but I'd really like to see other Kerbals rotated thru during missions.

Each kerbal is assigned a number stored in the "pilot" slot, Jeb is always 0, I forget if Bill or Bob is 1, then the other one is 2, then the random ones just start at 3. The game takes all the available pilots, puts them into an array in order of pilot number, and then takes the first X it needs and assigns them to the most core command module part. To do this randomly, you'd need to randomly select X available kerbals. To do this in a rotation, you'd need to create a variable that remembers the last selected kerbal. I tired to write a mod that changes how the next kerbal is selected for a mission. I tried to start the coding, but making sense out of the existing code for it was a major pain due to the obfuscation, and then I ran out of time and had to get back to my dissertation. Blech.

And I really hate seeing the "just park Jeb somewhere else" because that doesn't solve the problem. The next lowest numbered kerbal just steps up and gets sent on every mission instead. This recommendation comes up just about every time someone proposes this change.

[tntristan12]

I would prefer to have them in some rotation, instead of randomly selected, but otherwise I agree. I love Jeb and doofy smile, but I'd really like to see other Kerbals rotated thru during missions.

Each kerbal is assigned a number stored in the "pilot" slot, Jeb is always 0, I forget if Bill or Bob is 1, then the other one is 2, then the random ones just start at 3. The game takes all the available pilots, puts them into an array in order of pilot number, and then takes the first X it needs and assigns them to the most core command module part. To do this randomly, you'd need to randomly select X available kerbals. To do this in a rotation, you'd need to create a variable that remembers the last selected kerbal. I tired to write a mod that changes how the next kerbal is selected for a mission. I tried to start the coding, but making sense out of the existing code for it was a major pain due to the obfuscation, and then I ran out of time and had to get back to my dissertation. Blech.

And I really hate seeing the "just park Jeb somewhere else" because that doesn't solve the problem. The next lowest numbered kerbal just steps up and gets sent on every mission instead. This recommendation comes up just about every time someone proposes this change.

Sounds like this would be similar to selecting randomly with weights placed on number of flight hours (i.e. lower number yields a better chance of getting picked). However, your way I think would be more realistic, but then might be a bit too predictable. Not that I'd mind as it accomplishes the same goal of getting every kerbal in the air as many times as possible.

[MSD]

I'm sorry, just parking him isnt a solution at all. Its annoying enough when going back to the vab the order resets, and jeb is back! I do think they still working on tracking stats, but would like more stats of kerbals and history, and a plan of giving them work-weeks of whatever is my dream.

[ThatOneHuman]

Yes i really like this idea! I have the Final Frontier mod (cool mod btw) and i always forget to replace Jeb! So i would have to go back to the VAB and replace him! Anyways I love this idea and hope the mods see this and love it!

[MKI]

Id rather have the game remember which kerbal was in each seat for each of my crafts.

Set them in their once and they will be the "default" pilot/co pilot for each ship design.

You could say all kerbals are pilots, but i believe each one should have a role in a roleplaying situation. So saving their seats rather than randomizing them is not only confusing (jeb with 2 randoms? not cool) it also makes practical sense. Jeb has been trained as a commander, he should ALWAYS get a the pilot seat etc etc.

[YNM]

I'd rather want to have a interface before launching anything, either KSC view, VAB or SPH, that allow me to choose who should be onboard. The current UI aren't so noticeable - and often, if you abort your launch, edit the craft, then relaunch it, the kerbals position won't be saved ! Really, I'd rather have a more noticeable UI for crew selection...

[Vindelle_Sunveam]

I agree with MSD and MKI.

More on topic, tntristan12's solution looks very élegant, as it would give Kerbals coming from very long missions a very long break (such as is given to aeronautics employees, such as mobile mechanicians).

However, it would also give you more responsibilities as to how many Kerbonauts you have :

send bill on a 6 month mission in your LKO station and have too many kerbonauts, and I assure you that you won't be seeing him for a while *retirement five* (may or may not be something you want, I leave it to you).