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Take for example the overblown name "Valentina" itself. I think it could be quite reasonably argued that name for the first Kerbal female encourages the objectification of women by making a strong associated between them and a holiday themed towards romance. It's subtly saying "the primary purpose of women is love". Put another way, it sounds like a name for an adult dancer.

Except that Valentina is the name of the first woman to be in space.

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Instead of 3 character classes, there is an opportunity for there to be 6.

There's an opportunity for there to be different dialogues in crew reports and EVA reports.

More tools for modmakers, more variety for players.

And, also, ever consider that maybe the artists are capable of working on multiple things at once ? Maybe these female Kerbals were something that someone was working on, in their spare time ? Maybe they're something that an artist created while having mental block on some other project ? These things happen. Trying to do one piece of work, like write a story, get writers block, take a break, doodle something, inspiration strikes. That sort of thing.

Now, I agree with you. But I think that it shouldn't be a "secret feature" that leaves a guessing game open. If they add a feature, tell us! Say - "Our artists have decided that female kerbals are now a thing". And leave it at that.

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Actually, apologies on this one. I did not realize that "Valentina" was a reference to the first woman in space, and had assumed it was a Valentine's day reference since the holiday is upcoming and I figured Squad might be planning on releasing then. Please disregard my previous comments about it being a name better suited to an adult dancer :)

Except that Valentina is the name of the first woman to be in space.

Yup, totally my bad in not knowing the history there.

Edited by FlowerChild
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You know, there is another issue the game forgot about. Fat people. I think the developers are fat-shaming anyone who is obese because they refuse to create slightly larger models for slightly larger people. And height-shaming, and mocking the homeless because of there being no cities. And mocking the hungry/thirsty because of the lack of food, and weather.

There is actually a big thing about fat people in a space game. It's much more expensive to lift heavier people. You do have to be in good physical condition to travel in space, and you don't have to be male to travel in space. There's a huge difference.

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Wait, you're shocked that the forum has a hardcore user base that actually care more about the inner-workings of the game and it actually being playable or not vs. a pop-culture argument that is literally echoed out on every corner of the internet? I'm not against female Kerbals, it's just... like... how do I make you people understand that currently, right now, KSP is unplayable for me. My 8GB of RAM is going to waste because the game can't even use it! And they're just adding yet another asset, which means more RAM! And even if it's only 20MB, that means I have to pick and choose which 20MB mod I have to remove!

But whatever, gender equality is clearly more important than a working, functioning, playable product.

If Squad just focused on optimizing the game first, we could have female Kerbals later, and NO PROBLEMS! WOOO! EVERYONE WINS!

Then you are going to be REALLLY livid that they just announced new landing gear and wings for Stock.

Ram issues have nothing to do with female Kerbals. They have to do with Unity 4 64 bit being crap on Windows. Unity 5 might fix that considering the 64 bit editor.

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Actually, apologies on this one. I did not realize that "Valentina" was a reference to the first woman in space, and had assumed it was a Valentine's day reference since the holiday is upcoming and I figured Squad might be planning on releasing then. Please disregard my previous comments about it being a name better suited to an adult dancer :)

Yup, totally my bad in not knowing the history there.

The funny part is that you're the one making Better than Starting Manned. :P

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There is actually a big thing about fat people in a space game. It's much more expensive to lift heavier people. You do have to be in good physical condition to travel in space, and you don't have to be male to travel in space. There's a huge difference.

I was going to say something akin to this. Fat people can not into space. Period. They cost to much DV. Where as females are actually the optimal size for putting in space craft.

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What about people of color. Why not make that a bigger issue?

I think there should be color diversity, actually. But Kerbals are already colored differently than humans, the analogy of the stick figure doesn't apply to color.

For another thing, I haven't heard people of color complainabout it. Girls and Women have expressed a concern.

Color isn't actually a real trait, unlike gender. Color can be changed by sun exposure, and the genetics of skin color are very blurry.

Edited by GregroxMun
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I've seen a similar argument in a different space-themed game.

Players getting all shouty because of updated models for the ingame ships, saying things like "Why aren't they fixing the game?"and other players that say that "artists aren't coders", and the argument goes round and round and round, because people are so stubborn.

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The funny part is that you're the one making Better than Starting Manned. :P

If that's a suggestion that I should change my mod name to "Better Than Starting Peopled"...no...I won't be doing that :)

FlowerChild: that that reference was not obvious to you is, um, kinda evidence that women's role in space needs more emphasis, right? :)

Yeah, yeah, I have egg on my face :)

I still stand by my point that leaving the Kerbals asexual would be a far less time intensive and potentially damaging way to handle this, but it is obvious that after that gaff my position in this debate has become untenable ;)

EDIT: Although...I think it can also be taken as an argument that the Soviet space program needs better representation in this game as well :)

Edited by FlowerChild
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There is actually a big thing about fat people in a space game. It's much more expensive to lift heavier people. You do have to be in good physical condition to travel in space, and you don't have to be male to travel in space. There's a huge difference.

I'm not quoting this post to single you out in particular, Gregrox, but for the sake of having a convenient example at hand with which to address the community as a whole: Can we all please drop this particular line of discussion in this thread? Whether or not a currently-unrepresented minority group should or should not be represented in-game has no bearing on the developers' recent decision to implement female kerbals, which is the topic at hand.

Edited by Specialist290
Clarifying that I'm addressing everyone, not just one or two particular people.
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I don't think it matters either way... If the devs wanted to add female Kerbals from the start, which is my understanding, then good on them. It's their project they can do what they want with it ultimately. Maybe they can add a makeup room to KSC as well, where they can dress up their Kerbals. :P

If SQUAD is doing it because a bunch of [people] kicked up a stink about the lack of empowered female Kerbals in the game, that's something different. If that were the case and I was the dev, I would have created a back-story where the Kerbals reproduce asexually or grow out of the ground like plants just to thwart [those people].

All jokes aside, I think it will definitely help young girls who are interested in Spacetravel to appreciate KSP, which I would encourage so much more than 99% of everything else that's available for kids these days...

Edited by Master Tao
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I was going to say something akin to this. Fat people can not into space. Period. They cost to much DV. Where as females are actually the optimal size for putting in space craft.

Max just mentioned a Tourism contract. Maybe all tourists could be really fat heavy things, but that might just make fatS people like myself madder. (I'd think it's pretty funny)

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If that's a suggestion that I should change my name to "Better Than Starting Peopled"...no...I won't be doing that :)

I read it as "Arnt you the person making the historical tech progression mod? why dont you know the history better?"

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I feel as if I need to reiterate myself. My original intention of this thread was that Female Kerbals shouldn't of been added yet. They should bugfix, and maybe go the route of Prison Architect, and do a update of bug fixes. And no features. I think that Female Kerbals are a good feature, but stupid in the sense of them being unneeded.

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I read it as "Arnt you the person making the historical tech progression mod? why dont you know the history better?"

It's not though. It's a gameplay progression mod that has a *loose* historical correlation and with stuff like my gaff here, and recently being schooled in how the Atlas rocket had a "stage and a half" system whereby the engines were dropped independent of fuel tanks in-flight in the mod thread, I certainly do not claim to be an expert :)

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