Top level (4 or 5 stars) skills idea

[Guest]

Imagine space depot, routinely producing scanning/comms probes ... by hand, like in VAB, but in space... immersion.

Other use - imagine big crew ship (I love big crewed ships) arrives at unknown planet(oid), geomes unknown.

I hope, sometime in future, Kerbol system will be populated with large number of small, but scientifically interesting planetoids, asteroids(real) and comets.

So you need 1-2 scanning sats and unknown amount of automated one way landers before you land a crewed lander for closer looks.

Storing all the probes attached to the ship (or even in cargo bay) is highly inconvenient, with respect of hugely inflated part count, COM issues, and needlessly working RCS thrusters. (I know they can be disabled, but action group numbers are limited) Also ship with large number of attached probes looks ugly.

That's why, after orbital insertion, you asses the situation, and order your chief engineer and mechanic to assemble needed probes and automated landers on the spot. Parts stored in containers do not inflate part count, they just increase mass, and you need to carry that mass anyway - with pre-assembled probes or in containers.

[tater]

Actually, that's a cool idea WRT part counts. Same could apply to rovers. Have a "cargo" capacity for some new module. It's a small mass (probes/rover/etc). Any subassembly can be placed in it, and the module only counts the mass of the subassemblies inside up to the max allowed. There can be a pointer to them, but they don't actually exist on the ship, they are just a Link in the ship cfg.

An engineer is required to extract them.

[Guest]

To assemble rover from ship.cfg and container with parts you need 6 stars engineer ... or player

[Renegrade]

[*]4 star pilots - in addition to orienting a ship to a target or a maneuver node, would be able to initiate and end burns (quite like what RemoteTech Flight Computer does);

All I want for my pilots is for them to be able to stop a burn once the maneuver node countdown turns green. That would be a massive improvement and make them more meaningful than a QUBE.

I'd prefer that came in around 2-stars though, as that's the KXP level where interplanetary starts, and burns start to get a bit tedious.

In my opinion, KAS and KER should be made stock and tied to the engineer level. Maybe KER could also be tied to the other classes.

KAS (or KAS-like functionality) needs to become stock regardless of what happens to KXP~ Tying it to engineers on top of that would just be icing on the cake.

Also part degradation without the random failures of Dang It! Engineers could use spare parts to bring the engines, etc. back up to full speed. Nothing ever fully breaks, just requires maintenance.

Part maintenance would definitely give engineers a good purpose that isn't magic. And give resupply missions additional benefits...If it was implemented properly anyhow..

[arkie87]

How would you rationalise that?

Science is the easiest to rationalize! Having scientists on board results in more science, since they can analyze the data/collect the data better before transmitting.... isnt that obvious?

And the game should automatically tell you there is an experiment you have on board that you can do for science... so i think a better lvl 5 ability is desired

[KerrMü]

I would like if one of the kerbonaut classes would gain a speciality for driving rovers.

The engineers would be my choice. Something simple though. Like 4 star engineers can hold course (steering), and 5 stars could maintain speed (throttle and brakes).

Let's say you're driving over Dunas surface with 47° heading and 8m/s speed. Then just press T ,or click a little Icon, and your little engineer tries to maintain that parameters.

[Heimdall5008]

I like many ideas here in the thread. My ideas (freely combined from all ideas and my own) would be:

Pilot as suggested by jlcarneiro:

• 4 star pilots - in addition to orienting a ship to a target or a maneuver node, would be able to initiate and end burns (quite like what RemoteTech Flight Computer does);
  
• 5 star pilots - in addition to what 4 star pilots do, would be able to execute simple maneuvers, like circulating the current orbit or coming to a relative stop to the current target (quite like what MechJeb does, in a MUCH simpler level, of course!).
  

For the scientists I would like to have the system changed a bit:

• 1 star: reduce transmission penalty by 5%, increase lab bonus by 5%
  
• 2 star: reduce transmission penalty by 10%, increase lab bonus by 10%
  
• 3 star: reduce transmission penalty by 15%, increase lab bonus by 15%, increase part of maximal science gained from one experiment (so that you have to do the same experiment less times to get all the science)
  
• 4 star: reduce transmission penalty by 20%, increase lab bonus by 20%, all experiments give maximum science (only have to do the experiment once)
  
• 5 star: detect biomes (really like this idea, maybe shown on hover in map mode or so)
  

For the engineers I have no real idea, but I like the idea of optimization. So maybe:

• 1 star: repack chutes, (optional) warning on low electric charge
  
• 2 star: repair landing legs, (optional) warning on low intake air
  
• 3 star: repair wheels, (optional) warning on any low ressources
  
• 4 star: repair solar panels, emergency power (solar arrays can be extended, even if no charge is left)
  
• 5 star: (optional) overheat protection (through throtteling of the engine, like the option in MJ)
  

[KrazyKrl]

I like many ideas here in the thread. My ideas (freely combined from all ideas and my own) would be:

I have a few ideas of my own... I don't want a "free" autopilot at any level in KSP.

Pilot

• 4 star pilots - Increased in-atmosphere stall resistance(something like dampening when near stalling). And landing assistance for both winged aircraft and vacuum spacecraft.
  
• 5 star pilots - orienting a ship to a maneuver node, following the node during physics frames, and would be able to initiate and end burns according to maneuver nodes or action groups.
  

Scientists

• 4 star: Science containers activated (and crew reports gathered) by 4 star Scientists have an innate boost to the science gathered by this crew member tied to his rank.
  
• 5 star: Enables ScienceAlert type functionality; and extra science lab options relating to samples taken (or goo containers, etc.)
  

Engineers

• 1 star: Warning on any low resources. Can tether components together. (Something like KAS, to keep something disconnected from the main craft, attached.)
  
• 2 star: Repack Parachutes, Manually Extend powerless Solar Panels via EVA.
  
• 3 star: Repair devices on spacecraft, as long as they are not totally destroyed.
  
• 4 star: Replace completely destroyed components, as long as the parent component is still intact and at 100%. Requires parent component to "save" something like a "mounting location"
  
• 5 star: Ability to remove, and attach, any component. (Something like the VAB, but is limited to parts that currently "exist" on the craft)
  

Edited January 9, 2015 by KrazyKrl

[jlcarneiro]

It's a interesting thing to see your ideas being used to generate new, bigger and better ideas!

At first I thought my ideas were the good enough, now, with suggestions like Heimdall5008's and KrazyKrl's, I think they were pretty crude...

I think Heimdall5008's are simpler to understand, though, specially regarding scientists.

[KrazyKrl]

It's a interesting thing to see your ideas being used to generate new, bigger and better ideas!

At first I thought my ideas were the good enough, now, with suggestions like Heimdall5008's and KrazyKrl's, I think they were pretty crude...

I think Heimdall5008's are simpler to understand, though, specially regarding scientists.

Well, the flat percentile bonuses for each level of profession has no inherent "wow" factor. You'll just go up in rank, and go "Yay 5% bigger numbers". And I'm at a loss to what exactly scientists could offer as perks as they increase in ranking.

More that I think about perks for your crewmembers, I think it should be some sort of "specialization" system...

You get 1,2,3,4, and 5; star abilities. They are reflected each in Science, Engineering, and Mission Control.

If you use a skill for the profession it is intended, there is no penalty.

If you try and use a skill from a profession the Kerbal is not a specialist... They require something like 2/3/4/5 stars instead as a penalty for 1/2/3/4 star abilities of a dissimilar type.

Each Kerbal would have 5 "slots". And you would have a pool of 15, or more, specific abilities you could slot.

Obviously, the mission could be achieved without them being equipped with any specifics, or having the crew have the abilities without customization.

[jlcarneiro]

Ah! So, at each level, a kerbonaut gets more experimented on the three areas (piloting, science and engineering) but the proficiency would be different on each area depending on the kerbonaut "major", correct?

Sweet!

[KrazyKrl]

Ah! So, at each level, a kerbonaut gets more experimented on the three areas (piloting, science and engineering) but the proficiency would be different on each area depending on the kerbonaut "major", correct?

Sweet!

Well, what I was trying to suggest; is a sort of "skill selection" dependent on your kerbal's star rating.

[Big Kerbie]

I like the suggestion that Kerbals have a choice in the selection of their skills. I'm envisioning a new kerbal who has no stars but can choose their career path. A diverse career path taking skills from all three. A hybrid Pilot/Engineer would give you a great test pilot. A hybrid Engineer/Scientist would give you a great rocket scientist. A hybrid Pilot/Scientist would give you a well rounded explorer.

With that in mind, no hybrid should be able to max out any one skill. But one who decides to specialize in one of the three could get all 5 stars.

Just my two cents.

[jlcarneiro]

Last night I had a problem with some satellites (the reaction wheel was too powerful for the satellite size and I could not reduce torque) and had another idea for engineers: what about high level engineers being able to tweak some things on the ships after launch?

Something like a limited Tweakable Everything after launching...

[tater]

Well, the flat percentile bonuses for each level of profession has no inherent "wow" factor. You'll just go up in rank, and go "Yay 5% bigger numbers". And I'm at a loss to what exactly scientists could offer as perks as they increase in ranking.

Massively drop the default science returns, then make the science skill a multiplier.

Instead of a munar soil return being 120, make it 12, and skill 5 makes it 60.