Lets talk about Kerbal Skills and Experience

[Pthigrivi]

There have been a number of smaller threads addressing this tangentially, but to me this is the most under-developed element in the game at the moment. I've had some scattered ideas about how to fix it and wanted to try to consolidate discussion here.

Some broad strokes:

Cross-Training: This is a big one that I've seen people in one way or another request. Really I think this comes down to being able to drive a kerbal's development as a user, deciding which kerbals take on which roles, and deciding which swath of skills each kerbal will need. The problem with this is how do people feel encouraged to specialize and mount multi-kerbal missions rather than just training up a super-jeb to run all their missions with?

My prefered solution was a simple Elder-scrolls like skill tree. Each new recruit starts as a blank slate Cadet with no skills. Perhaps Jeb, Bill and Bob could arrive with one free level in their respective fields. After that, new exploration will reward kerbals with Experience Badges, 3 of which will earn one level-up. The trick is that though you can level up in any one field, each skill levels linearly, so gaining access to higher level skills will encourage a large degree of specialization.

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%

- Sensors glow blue when near uncollected science

Scientist III

- Operate Science Lab

- Process data to 50% of total recovered value

- Take Core Sample from ground-scatter and Surface Features (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/107825-Surface-features)

Scientist IV

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

- Load samples into Materials Bay from Science Lab (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/108153-Science-it-s-boring-how-can-it-be-made-more-fun)

- Process data to 75% of total recovered value

Scientist V

- Place sensor for impact experiment

- Perform resource richness test on surface samples for ISRU

- Can Process data to 100% of total recovered value

This way there's a strong incentive to get higher in a tree so you have the capability to drill for resources or do cooler science experiments, but you have the ability to give say, a level 5 scientist at least the ability to control SAS or do basic engineering tasks.

Gaining Experience: I think a lot of people have found the current paradigm kind of frustrating and there's been a lot of grind planting flags. Many have been thinking of ways gaining experience could be directly linked to doing things that are in the field of that skill. I like the idea, but I think most people have agreed that there are very few non-grindy ways of doing that. Personally, I think rewarding Kerbals simply for exploration is the way to go.

In my view, making things simple and visually clear in-flight would be a huge help because you could see at a glance what you had and what you are going for. I imagine rewards being distributed this way, with badges being rewarded for the first time a kerbal completes each one of these tasks. Once 3 new badges have been earned, a kerbal may level-up in-flight without having to return to Kerbin. This is pretty critical for sending Kerbals on Jool 5 missions without feeling like you have to experience grind before leaving.

Liftoff! - 1 Badge

Landed on Kerbin - 1 Badge

Escape the Atmosphere - 1 Badge

Kerbin Orbit - 1 Badge

Munar Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on the Mun - 2 Badges

Minmus Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Minmus - 1 Badge

(If a Kerbal has done all of the above, they would have earned 3 levels. I think this seems fair.)

Kerbol Orbit - 1 Badge

Visit an Asteroid - 1 Badge

Claw an Asteroid - 1 Badge

Duna Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Duna - 2 Badges

Landed on Ike - 1 Badges

(Having completed everything in Kerbin SOI and Landing on Duna will earn 4 Levels, but not 5.)

Dres Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Dres - 2 Badges

Moho Orbit - 2 Badges

Landed on Moho - 1 Badge

Eve Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Eve - 4 Badges

Landed on Gilly - 1 Badge

Jool Orbit - 2 Badges

Laythe Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Laythe - 2 Badges

Vall Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Vall - 1 Badge

Tylo Orbit - 1 Badge

Landed on Tylo - 3 Badges

Landed on Pol - 1 Badge

Landed on Bop - 1 Badge

(A Kerbal who's completed a Jool-5 will have earned 5 levels. Given how hard this is I think this is also still fair.)

Eeloo Orbit - 2 Badges

Landed on Eeloo - 2 Badges

This is set up to make getting a Kerbal to level 5 in all 3 disciplines technically possible, but one would need to visit every planet and moon in the game and claw an asteroid to get there. To my thinking if you've done this, you're a boss and have well earned a maxed kerbal. The other nice thing about the badges is they could be a nice and clear kind of experience record of where that kerbal has been and what he/she has accomplished.

Anyhoo this is long but I leave it up for debate. As I said I'd love to see a more nuanced experience system, this is just my best crack at it.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Pthigrivi