Of Cowardice and Stupidity.

[Alias72]

Many versions ago kerbals were given the traits of courage and stupidity. Since that time these numbers have been little more than a roleplaying element. I propose that Courage and stupidity have effects on gameplay. Kerbals will require a specific stat in order to do certain things. for example:

-Flying through the atmosphere at mach 4 you ask your kerbal to go on an EVA. being incredibly stupid he happily obliges. If he wasn't as stupid he would have refused your suicidal request shaking his head and grunting angrily.

-while going on EVA your cowardly Kerbal gets camera shy and refuses to plant the flag, instead quivering in fear at the prospect of being remembered for all time! luckily it was a two man mission!

-on route to Jool you decide it is time for Chicken Kerman to get some fresh air. Unfortunately the cold dark vacuum of space scares him and he refuses to let go of the ladder!

-Landed at KSC you decide to go out for a walk. The problem is your rocket is 30m tall and your pilot just isn't stupid enough to let go and fall all that way.

Most actions are assigned a courage and or stupidity level. this is the threshold below which a kerbal will refuse to undertake that action. A kerbal MAY be convinced to expand his boundaries by doing things just below his threshold but never above it. It may be because their shy, or just because they aren't brain dead enough to follow your orders, but they just wont do it.

And like I said, a Kerbal may become stupider and braver if he try's hard. maybe your kerbal is too afraid to plant the flag but surface samples are right up his alley. take enough surface samples and he may one day plant that flag with pride.

courage and stupidity currently have a bar. The closer an action is to the kerbals threshold the more scared or angry he appears. kerbals pushed beyond there threshold are either petrified by fear or blinded by rage at your blatant lunacy!. the idea is to link kerbals physical and emotional responses to actual game actions, hopefully, giving them some much needed character.

[Anquietas314]

This sounds awesome! My only concern though is that stupidity/courage could actually stop you from doing certain things like going on EVA to collect reports / science experiments / etc. I think that would be okay if the task was way beyond a kerbal's threshold, but if it's only a "little" over you should be able to force them to do it by being insistent / suggesting punishment somehow if they don't comply (within reason; I don't think you should be able to threaten your kerbals with torture and such ). Well... depending on how you define torture... strapping them to an SRB should be allowed...

[Alias72]

the idea with the threshold was so that a player can, with a glance say "OK he's not going to be able to do that."

when kerbals are close to the threshold they whine and complain. which is meant to add character.

the circumstances under which a kerbal might be pushed past the threshold usually involve rapid unscheduled disassembly.

It may be possible that a kerbal pushed past their threshold will freeze up and refuse orders as they cower in fear / let out an angry rant towards mission control.

[Anquietas314]

the idea with the threshold was so that a player can, with a glance say "OK he's not going to be able to do that."

when kerbals are close to the threshold they whine and complain. which is meant to add character.

I think it would make more sense if the threshold was the point at which the kerbals would start to be uncooperative, but not quite completely unwilling to perform the task. Having them whine before the threshold would be fine though, as long as they still did what they were told .