Skill-Tree for Kerbals

[Austronaut Luke Munwalker]

Greetings fellow Kerbals,

Just yesterday I was flying a Apollo-styled mission to the Mun and I encountered a Problem...

Flying with the original three (Jeb, Bill and Bob) I needed to decide on which part I want to have a Pilot. The lander or the orbiter. I choosed the Lander (obviosly). But on my way back to the Orbiter i had to dock with a non-SAS-able craft. It was not a big problem but it still bothered me that I can't stabilize the Orbiter. So an idea came to my mind:

Right now any level beyond level 3 does not have an influnce on the Kerbal. So I thought about what if an Engeneer could learn pilot skills from the Point he mastered all of his own engeneer-skills. Or a Pilot could learn to pack Parachutes or increase the sciencepoints. A Skill-Tree (just as the Techtree) would be a nice solution to this problem and would also encourage you to Level-up your Kerbal to the maximum level.

I tried to visualize my thoughts with this Table. (I hope it does not confuse you)

[TABLE=width: 500, align: center]

[TR]

[TD]LVL1

[/TD]

[TD]LVL2

[/TD]

[TD]LVL3

[/TD]

[TD]LVL4

[/TD]

[TD]LVL5

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Engeneer 2

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Engeneer 1

[/TD]

[TD]Science 1

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Pilot LVL1

[/TD]

[TD]Pilot LVL2

[/TD]

[TD]Pilot LVL3

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Science 1

[/TD]

[TD]Science 2

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Engeneer 1

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

For the example I used the Pilot-Skilltree. up to LVL3 there are no changes but when you reach level 4 you can decide to chose Engineer or Scientist LVL1. Based on what you chose on LVL 4, on LVL 5 you could increase this Skill to lvl2 or achieve LVL1 of the other one

For English is not my native Language, it is possible that you find grammar Errors. If you do please keep them.

[Pthigrivi]

Yeah I do think the experience system needs a bunch of work, but I dont know if you should have to level kerbals all the way to level 4 before science or engineering abilities kick in.

I think a better system might be closer to Elder Scrolls, where in perks may be unlocked in each discipline. This way you could start with a cadet (LVL0), and with each level you could add skill perks from any one discipline, but only in order:

Cadet (LVL0)

/ | \

Pilot I

- SAS

Pilot II

- Prograde, Antigrade

- Normal, Antinormal,

- Radial in, Radial out

Pilot III

- Toward Target, Away from Target

- Toward Maneuver, Away from Maneuver

Pilot IV

- Hold on Horizon

- Maintain Velocity

- Conics factor drag

Pilot V

- Hold Position X, Y, and Z

- Circularize orbit

- Advanced Flight Data

Or:

Engineer I

- Repack chutes

Engineer II

- Repair Wheels, Legs, Solar Panels

- Pump resources around vessel

Engineer III

- Repair damaged or overheated engines

- Remaining Delta-V visible

- Split/equalize fuel flow

Engineer IV

- Place Struts and Fuel lines in flight

- Maintain COM via fuel redistribution

- Operate Drilling Rig (after ISRU)

Engineer V

- Place/Remove small Panels, Sensors,

Engines, RCS etc (KAS)

Or:

Scientist I

- Collect Surface Sample

Scientist II

- Transmission Value 10%

- EVA Report +10%

Scientist III

- Operate Science Lab

- Sensors glow blue when near uncollected science

- Transmission value 20%

Scientist IV

- "Collect Data" button gathers all available science from sensors without EVA

- Place impact sensor

- Transmission Value 50%

Scientist V

- Collect Biological Sample (Possible bacterial life at geysers etc)

- Transmission Value 100%

In this way you could slowly level up any kerbal with everything, but as each skill levels linearly choosing to specialize would unlock higher levels more quickly.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Pthigrivi

[tater]

I'd have

No skill -

Skill 0

Skill 1

Skill 2

etc.

Then each astronaut has all three to start.

Pilot 1

Engineer 0

Science -

or

Pilot 0

Engineer -

Science 1

New recruits would have two skill 0, the other set to -.

- means you can't do it, 0 is minimal (allowed to do it but no perks).

[Pthigrivi]

And in terms of how kerbals would earn levels, I think after the first flight you should get an easy level that could be attributed to any one skill. After traveling to the mun you'd get another, Minmus another, Duna another, Dres another, etc. I also think you shouldn't have to bring them back to kerbin to level. Once earned you can pick your skill and level them in-flight.

[CaptainKipard]

Welcome Austronaut Luke Munwalker

The tree itself is a great idea. More choice! Always more choice, please.

It'd be nice to have each profession have some very basic understanding of other professions. IIRC every Apollo astronaut could pilot the CM, even though only one of each crew had that title.

[Austronaut Luke Munwalker]

Thanks for your input and your welcome

the model of the tree i posted was just a suggestion...

I like the idea of the TES-styled Tree too, because it would be harder to decide whether to have super specialised Kerbals or "just" basic all rounders.

The naked truth is that I don't really care how the skill-tree would look like as long as I can get every Kerbal to the ability to control the craft.

[nikokespprfan]

what about a system where each kerbal learns their dicipline by doing things that actually have something to do with their dicipline. kerbals that have the flag pilot, can learn all the other skills, but piloting a craft is something that he is just better at. All the way up to level five with the skills named by pthigrivi, however, by doing things from another dicipline, like making crew reports, or repacking parachutes and things like that, with a lot of practise, this pilot can learn it to be a scientist, and an engineer. I also think it would be fair if an engineer would gain less experience points from flying mission than a pilot, however, a second try will gain gain him also some exp. (of course his doesn't happen with the pilot, he learned it the first time, so there's nothing new for him).

[rynak]

I think having kerbals that are proficient in multiple classes would be annoying to manage.

However, after level0 being able to choose their profession, certainly is one way to solve having to rename your custom kerbal over and over, until getting the profession you want to give him.

(Or, you know, they could still code this properly by just making profession an attribute - like any sane coder would do)

[Sirrobert]

Having Kerbals that are able to do everything defeats the entire point of the actions being split in 3 classes

[Pthigrivi]

^Not if there were trade-offs when leveling. If you've got 3 Kerbals, each of whom earned a level on a given mission, it might make sense to specialize them to add more abilities to your toolset than to level them equally and have redundant, even-rounded Kerbals.

Id love for skills to level by doing things in that field... I just dont know how you would implement it and have it not be grindy and terrible. I could see for instance a lot of people leveling engineers by putting random parts on the front of a buggie at ksc and ramming them into things to break them and fix them over and over.. not particularly fun. Maintenance contracts could be interesting but would require either randomly plunking things in space you didn't build (not great) or random mechanical failures on your own vessels (worse).

Maybe there's something more elegant I haven't considered though.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Pthigrivi

[SaturnV]

Most astronauts are able to do lot of things. So I prefer this one:

1 level for one skill point to spent on pilot, engineer or scientist. Kerbal spawn with 1 point to spend (or randomly spent, like currently)

Skills are automatically unlocked when the requirement achieved.

Flight control (1 pilot to unlock)

-basic SAS (available on unlock)

-hold prograde, antigrade (need 2 pilot)

-etc.

Engineer and Construction (1 engineer to unlock)

-repack chute (available on unlock)

-repair solar panel ( need 2 engineer)

-Increase fuel transfer speed by 75% ( need 2 engineer)

-etc.

Data Research (1 scientist to unlock)

-data study (5% science bonus for every scientist point)

-etc.

Advanced Power Source Construction Science(3 engineer & 2 scientist to unlock)

-Can attach small battery on vessel during mission

-Can attach single solar panel on vessel during mission (need 4 engineer & 2 science)

-etc.

Advanced Flight Atmosphere Control (3 pilot & 1 scientist to unlock)

-Maintain velocity

-Maintain surface altitude (need 4 pilot & 1 science)

-etc.

Advanced Structure Technology (1 pilot & 2 engineer & 2 scientist to unlock)

-Increase wheel speed tolerance by 50%

-Increase landing leg impact tolerance by 50% (need 1 pilot & 3 engineer & 3 science)

-etc.

[Lindy]

Having Kerbals that are able to do everything defeats the entire point of the actions being split in 3 classes

Not if you limit it... A Kerbal could only have one sub-speciality, and only to level 2 or 3