what does a kerbals xp do and how do you level them up

[Droid_22]

iv been looking up on this topic for a while now to no avail. im wondering what does the xp affect for the pilot,scientist, and engineer. and is there a really good way to get xp iv noticed i gain xp after a mission but what caues them to gain xp in the mission? any help is apreciated :)

[ghpstage]

Pilots gain additional SAS abilities, the abilities to hold prograde and retrograde vectors, normal anti-normal and the other pair, the highest ability allows them to hold manouvre vectors.
Scientists have bonuses to the amount of science your experiments return, starting ast 0% initially going up every level, by 5% I believe.
Engineers learn how to repair things, at the start they can't do anything but at the first rank they can repack used parachutes, at some level they can repair ro.ver wheels.
The abilities currently impleented appear to be a work in progress however.

Gaining XP requires a kerbal to do something new, namely flybys, orbits, landings and planting a flag at a planet or moon, with the latter offering more. Repeat missions do not yield more experience and planting a flag will give all experience for the previous things, you don't get more for doing them separately.
Kerbin is an exception, you only gain 1 point for flying, and a second one for achieving otbit, which is enough to level a kerbal. I don't think you get any for anything involving the star however.

[Droid_22]

thanks huge help! :)

[tkraftson]

Can anyone add specifics about what a scientist and engineer need to do to level up. All I know is that and engineer in orbit around Kerbal gains level one. I have no idea what are the next steps and what a scientist needs to do. Up till now I've had space for only one and its been a pilot. It got points for orbiting Kerbal, orbiting the Mun and going around Minimus. I assume going other places will add points.

[Brygun]

I believe Sci and Eng score points for the same things. If you have a probe robot brain on the ship you can manage without a pilot, espicially if using Mechjeb

[dunbaratu]

I suspect it's like old-school D&D used to work, where there is no logical connection between what gives you XP and what abilities you are actually learning with them.

Want to get better at fighting? Kill more monsters. Okay that makes sense.
Want to get better at picking locks? Kill more monsters. Uhh... that just doesn't seem related.
Want to get better at healing? Kill more monsters. Now hang on here...

The other classes did offer ways to get some XP outside of combat, but it was never as much as you got for combat, You learned way more about picking a lock by killing an orc than you did by picking a lock.

I think the system KSP is using here is just to track which location each astronaut has visited. Visit more different locations and you get more XP, regardless of your class. Keep revisiting the same location and you eventually stop getting more XP for it.

Each of the science "biomes" I think counts as a different location for this, and the harder ones count more. low kerbin orbit, high kerbin orbit, low mun orbit, high mun orbit, surface of mun, etc.

[tkraftson]

I found a good answer to this question here:
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104239-Leveling-Up-Kerbals-The-Training-Program

[MAD]

Build a two seat trainer to take un-trained kerbals into orbit to get them skilled up.


Orbit Kerbin (2 points)
Orbit Mun (3 points)
Plant flag on Minmus (6 points)
Briefly escape Kerbin's SOI (6 points)
Land back on Kerbin (0 points but all the others take effect)

level 3 requires 16 KXP

Alas it doesn't matter how many Kerbals you rescue in orbit it not going to unlock the ability to rendevou on your navball, go figure

[El Rushbo]

Before the update I was working on setting up a system for training my kerbals. A SSTO would take them to a station in LKO, then a runabout would take them to a station orbiting the Mun. They would all land, plant flags, then go back up to the station and head to Minmus. Land, plant flags, then return. I was trying to develop a SSTO capable of hauling a full orange tank into orbit so I could set up a cheap infrastructure for carrying this out. However with the new mining system, it looks like I'll have a simpler option for refueling.

[Dandyman]

Originally posted by El Rushbo:

Before the update I was working on setting up a system for training my kerbals. A SSTO would take them to a station in LKO, then a runabout would take them to a station orbiting the Mun. They would all land, plant flags, then go back up to the station and head to Minmus. Land, plant flags, then return. I was trying to develop a SSTO capable of hauling a full orange tank into orbit so I could set up a cheap infrastructure for carrying this out. However with the new mining system, it looks like I'll have a simpler option for refueling.

^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^
Even without using a SSTO ( And El Rushbo's are always freaking cool....) this system works very well. A simple rotation like he suggested will give your early Kerbals some easy experience. Using a similar setup I was able to quickly level up three groups of my standard base/station crews. 2 pilots, 1 engineer, and 2 scientists to level three.

Now I'm using this almost exclusively as a scientist upgrade system. I've been throwing labs everywhere and having a ton of level 3+ scientists is handy :)