Kraken is back - ate my v0.90 beta probe enroute to Eve

[MajorThomas]

Haven't seen mention of the Kraken lately. Classic issue repeated itself yesterday while playing the current version (0.90) on my Windows 7 PC:

1. Launched a probe to Eve many (real) days ago. Timewarped a few days out, to clear Kerbin SOI.

2. Flew many missions since then, completing contracts and going through the usual game progression.

3. Decided to check back in on the Eve probe (flown at the behest of a contract), see how it's doing. Got there via the tracking center, which had been upgraded a couple of times to allow mission planning.

At this point, arriving at the Eve mission, I got a blank sky, a messed up Navball (showing NaN as the speed, etc.) and could not do anything but exit back to the space center.

Arriving at the space center again, I could not get anything to work by clicking it, even the exit button.

Exited using the Windows way (top right window corner red box with X) and restarted game.

4. My Eve probe no longer exists.

Solution: I suppose an occasional backup of the game save file is in order. However with so much more going on...tracking money and prestige now in addition to science, not to mention Kerbonaut stats, one must back up very frequently, which is a real drag.

Any further ideas or comments? Muchas Gracias...

[steve_v]

Sometimes things go horribly wrong, backups are good.

Automating said backups with something like this helps.

I haven't had that particular kraken for a long time... and even then it was a mod issue IIRC.

[MajorThomas]

Sometimes things go horribly wrong, backups are good.

Automating said backups with something like this helps.

I haven't had that particular kraken for a long time... and even then it was a mod issue IIRC.

That's a nice gift Steve, didn't know about it. Many thanks!

Yep, this is an un-modded KSP install. Just bad luck I suppose.

[Whovian]

Sounds like the Hell Kraken, though I've never heard of it being triggered by anything other than hitting the ground weirdly. Strange.

[eratiner]

Yep I've been getting the same exact issue. I noticed this bug initially in v0.23 I think.. or whichever was the first release that had career mode with contracts.

Tried running both x86 and x64 for several different releases (in Win7) and it occurred just as MajorThomas has described above in pretty much all of them.

Also had this bug come up in tandem with the docking port bug when docking ports refused to 'undock' and eventually after poking around long enough, the flight would disappear.

Extremely disappointing because up until release 0.22 the game was bulletproof for me. I suppose it's the downside of adding layers of complexity as you go rather than planning all functionality before development. Especially painful to experience the bug in career mode as it can end up in bankruptcy

Hope they manage to address the issue in later releases, it's a brilliant game.

[Dhabu]

Yep I've been getting the same exact issue. I noticed this bug initially in v0.23 I think.. or whichever was the first release that had career mode with contracts.

Tried running both x86 and x64 for several different releases (in Win7) and it occurred just as MajorThomas has described above in pretty much all of them.

Also had this bug come up in tandem with the docking port bug when docking ports refused to 'undock' and eventually after poking around long enough, the flight would disappear.

Extremely disappointing because up until release 0.22 the game was bulletproof for me. I suppose it's the downside of adding layers of complexity as you go rather than planning all functionality before development. Especially painful to experience the bug in career mode as it can end up in bankruptcy

Hope they manage to address the issue in later releases, it's a brilliant game.

I have also had this exact problem happen, twice now. Probe leaves Kerbal (and its moons) SOI en route to Eve, I do other stuff/missions for awhile (several sessions/days of RL time), and one time (out of many) I go to the Tracking Center and try to fly my probe, screen goes black/weird, I have to quit out, I come back, probe is gone.

I'm using Kerbal Engineer for more VAB construction data, but otherwise KSP is unmodded. As with the original poster, it first happened to me in 0.23 or 0.24.

[tomf]

Kerbal alarm clock creates backup saves whenever you use it to switch crafts. As I almost exclusively use it to switch if I encounter any of the wierder bugs I always have a recent save I can go back to.