Kerbal Stats

[Whirligig Girl]

First off: THIS HERE IS VERY IMPORTANT TO READ FIRST. ALSO THIS!

So Kerbals have Stats. A random Number between 0 and 1 that marks Courage and another for Stupidity, and a binary number 0 or 1 for BadS. Lets make some more. Also, PLEASE make Kerbal Crews selected in VAB persistent until a Kerbal dies or is reassigned, so that you can keep a Kerbal out of a certain mission.

Static Stats (These stats are always the same on each Kerbal)

Courage: High Courage gives more reputation for each mission. Low Courage give more reputation for staying on space stations or bases.

Stupidity: Low Stupidity gives higher science yeilds, higher stupidity loses less reputation for a Kerbal's death.

Social Skills: High Social Skills get along with other Kerbals, Low Social Skills are better alone.

Basic Weakness: Low Weakness Kerbals are able to run and walk faster faster, high weakness Kerbals are able to work better in zero-gee. Weakness can worsen in space or on another lower-gravity planet without exercise, but can never get higher than Basic Weakness.

BadS: If BadS is true, It is waaay more reputation to lose a Kerbal or do a mission with a Kerbal.

InFlight Stats

Sanity: Sanity affects a Kerbal's willingness to exercise and reputation payout (Insane Kerbals is not good for the press). and can (temporarily) affect their

Social Skills. If a Kerbal is with another Kerbal with bad social skills, he will slowly become insane. Same if a Social Kerbal is alone, and even to a unsocial kerbal if alone long enough. The more social kerbals that are together, the less insane they get, but unsocial kerbals will go insane from being around too many social Kerbals.

Strength: Deteriorates over time without exercise, and even still with exercise. Can be refuted with a Centrifuge, and it deteriorates more and more with less and less gravity. Strength can not get any higher than the Kerbal's basic Weakness. Under a certain amount of strength, a Kerbal can NOT walk on certain planets. Don't send a zero-g mission to Eve with a weak kerbal, he won't be able to walk.

MissionCoolness: Kerbal astronauts will know how awesome or not their mission is (according to the reputation payout), and will affect their sanity and social skills and science results. MissionCoolness immediatley increases when a "first" is done, like first EVA or Mun SOI entry, and it is less of a MissionCoolness burst if it's already been done before and even more if the same Kerbal does the same thing. (Jim Lovell probably thought getting to the Moon again wasn't too big a thing, but landing on it was, even though it wouldn't be as cool as he being the first lunar astronaut.[i mean before he actually flew because we all know what happened to Apollo 13])

[Roastduck]

this could probably be merged with my thread on pretty much the same topic

[Sky_walker]

Please, make it happen!

i'd love to think about my crew composition, actually have it as a decision, not just tickboxes that I need to check (and so often forget :/)

[Javster]

I really like the idea of not having a "perfect" Kerbal with maximum stats: even stupid Kerbals carry a bonus.

[Pthigrivi]

Hmm, I'm confused.. what does reputation do? as a game mechanic? It seems like the only part of this that involves itself with the gameplay is their intelligence producing higher science yields, which I like, but appears to be static, and strength, which just makes them not walk, which doesn't sound super fun. I feel like this needs to be way more simple. Like maybe each Kerbal has 3 stats, Courage, Intelligence, and Happiness. When you recruit them they could have some low, slightly random allotment, and you would have to build each by sending them on missions. Courage could be enhanced by flight-time and completing missions and contracts, and perhaps a Kerbal with higher courage would give more money when the mission was completed. Intelligence likewise could be enhanced by doing experiments, and the higher intelligence the higher the science yield.

Happiness is trickier to me. Id love there to be some advantage to sending more Kerbals on long missions, and maybe its increasing their happiness. For instance a Kerbal could start at the Launchpad with 100% happiness, and if on a solo-mission that happiness would deplete in a few weeks. 2 Kerbals would take a few months to deplete, 3 Kerbals a year, up to say 6 Kerbals who could stay happy for a round trip Jool mission. I don't know what that should get you though. Maybe its the ability to complete crew tasks? It should be really simple--maybe a kerbal with less than 50% happiness could be considered 'depressed' and wont take surface samples, make eva reports or repair things etc. A Kerbal with 0% happiness would become 'despondent' and refuse to leave the crew-capsule?

I don't know. Its a tough game mechanic.. especially in a game that's already really complicated.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Pthigrivi

[Roastduck]

Hmm, I'm confused.. what does reputation do? as a game mechanic? It seems like the only part of this that involves itself with the gameplay is their intelligence producing higher science yields, which I like, but appears to be static, and strength, which just makes them not walk, which doesn't sound super fun. I feel like this needs to be way more simple. Like maybe each Kerbal has 3 stats, Courage, Intelligence, and Happiness. When you recruit them they could have some low, slightly random allotment, and you would have to build each by sending them on missions. Courage could be enhanced by flight-time and completing missions and contracts, and perhaps a Kerbal with higher courage would give more money when the mission was completed. Intelligence likewise could be enhanced by doing experiments, and the higher intelligence the higher the science yield.

Completing missions on time and on budget and getting optimal performance and results would add to reputation. The longer you play with a good reputation, the less you are negatively affected by going over budget or behind schedule, because your backers understand that you're trying to do it right and will get it done

[Pthigrivi]

Yeah but how does that work in the game? How does that affect you? Who are these backers? do they get mad?

[Roastduck]

Yeah but how does that work in the game? How does that affect you? Who are these backers? do they get mad?

kerbal government, private corporations. Same backers that would exist in real life: anyone who needs payload delivered to space.

It would affect you in the same ways as real life, as well. Just starting up? Better prove yourself reliable by keeping on budget and on schedule with no failed launches, THEN you'll start getting more frequent and lucrative contracts. Go over budget? We won't trust you with the "real" payloads anymore. Fail a launch? I think we'll explore other options.

But on the other hand, if after you have established your program to be reliable and pragmatic, companies could start letting you slide on some things. Delaying a launch? We're sure you had a good reason. Don't want to jeopardize the mission! Go over budget? I guess our initial cost estimates were off. You're the experts, after all! Here's more money.

[Pthigrivi]

Yeah but from a gameplay standpoint how does that work. These aren't real people making subjective decisions about how much they trust you, its a game that requires clear understandable rules so players can strategize. If I do x, I will receive Y. Is there a tree of set contracts that must be unlocked in a certain order? Why not just have pre-requisites? You're telling me the game is going to give me a budget and a deadline, and then if my reputation is high enough it will say "Oh just kidding." if I fail? Why give a budget and a deadline at all if its going to move? There has to be a concrete predictable mechanic there or its meaningless.

Do you get what Im saying?

[Roastduck]

Yeah but from a gameplay standpoint how does that work. These aren't real people making subjective decisions about how much they trust you, its a game that requires clear understandable rules so players can strategize. If I do x, I will receive Y. Is there a tree of set contracts that must be unlocked in a certain order? Why not just have pre-requisites? You're telling me the game is going to give me a budget and a deadline, and then if my reputation is high enough it will say "Oh just kidding." if I fail? Why give a budget and a deadline at all if its going to move? There has to be a concrete predictable mechanic there or its meaningless.

Do you get what Im saying?

you're asking for, like, technical stuff? how they would code it? I have no idea. I just play games, I don't make them. I guess maybe it would keep track of missions that were on budget/schedule and missions that weren't, compile them into a percentage or score or something, and certain percentage ranges have certain effects on reputation

[Pthigrivi]

Anyway I suppose the point is moot cause we're gonna find out how they're doing contracts in a few days haha. I mean I like the idea I just don't think I understand how it would actually effect the gameplay.

[Roastduck]

Anyway I suppose the point is moot cause we're gonna find out how they're doing contracts in a few days haha. I mean I like the idea I just don't think I understand how it would actually effect the gameplay.

I trust Squad enough that if they implement a system, they would do it well (because they have a good reputation, in my opinion )

[Whirligig Girl]

We're talking about stock reputation coming in the 0.24 update. I didn't just make it up and not explain it.

[Pthigrivi]

Am I missing something? I'm not seeing an explanation of the reputation mechanic there.

This argument is becoming very angels on the head of a pin right now. My main point is that for Kerbal stats to matter, there needs to be a quid pro quo. If I elevate a kerbal's x, y will become available. If you say "Completing a task with a kerbal with a higher reputation will unlock contracts faster" then great there's a concrete game mechanic there. If you're just moving an arbitrary player gold star meter around with no connection to gameplay that's all fine and dandy but not understandable in terms of how it affects the game itself. That's all I'm wondering.