Mission Failure Rate

[justidutch]

I recently had a spate of missions that went bad. 3 or four in a row, at varying points - on the launchpad, during docking, while landing, etc. So, as a fun Friday question, what would you say your Mission Failure Rate is?

[Overfloater]

Kerbals have the technology to travel back in time.

Right before my mission is about to fail, I click the F9 button as fast as I can.

But that doesn't always save me, sometimes I accidentally click the F5 button. THEN my mission fails! x-P

[Pecan]

Historically total-loss failure was about 2%, usually Kraken, occassionally really bad piloting. This has improved since I found out 'just above highest mountain' was not a viable orbit, even on vacuum bodies ^^. Now my low-orbit probes don't disappear (as often) their missions are more like 0.5%, mainly 'lost in deep space' failing to make Moho insertion burns. For crewed missions objective failures with crew recovery probably run about the same but I can't even remember the last time any crew were lost.

Failure during tests is a whole different matter, although I still don't kill Kerbals ...

[Taki117]

I fail about 1% of the time, usually with a new rocket design that makes it through simulation, but fails spectacularly on launch due to pilot error more than anything. Every now and again I will have a tried and true, proven design fail because something happens and I go just a little too far, or forget to stage correctly, which results in rapid unplanned disassembly.

[GreenWolf]

This depends on what you count as a failure. When building a rocket, I fly (and usually crash) it a few times without any payload (or with a dummy payload). I call these simulations (since KSP doesn't have a mechanism for simulating the performance of a rocket. That would be too meta.). All of them get reverted, even the successful ones.

I also quickload/revert when a mission fails due to a game bug. Other situations where I'll quickload/revert are if I accidentally time warp through a burn/into a planet (pretty rare since I use KAC) or if I accidentally fat-finger the "max throttle" button (Z) instead of "cut throttle" button (X) while performing a delicate burn.

Everything else – piloting errors, engineering mistakes, everything – gets kept. Trying to salvage a mission after a failure caused by my own errors is one of the more entertaining parts of KSP.

[Greenfire32]

I haven't ever done a "no reloads" save yet so...100% success rate

[thadisjones]

If I mean to revert a mission, I do so whether or not it was a failure and think of it was a testing simulation. For actual missions, my failure rate is somewhere between 1/10 and 1/20, with losses highly skewed towards remote vehicles. The kerbals only go up in proven designs.

[Thomas988]

Failing a mission is impossible when you have revert!

But when missions go horribly wrong? That's usually one out of five major missions.

[klgraham1013]

I play an ironman sandbox campaign and do quite a bit of testing. I do have the occasional screw up, but they're usually salvageable.

[Akira_R]

My main game is a hardmode career that is heavily modded, I use KCT and always run simulations of my rockets before actually building and launching them.

I'm a little over two years in and have only had a handful of failed missions, mostly probes loosing contact before the chutes were armed, that was before i had my comms network set up, and a couple of probe "guidance programs"(me piloting them) failed during launch causing the rockets to flip out and crash into the ocean. I had one catastrophic lose of life.

It was the first manned flight to LKO, Jeb was piloting, upon return the chute deployed to early and was torn off, Jebs pod hit the ocean east of the KSC at a little over 800m/s, he was killed instantly. I plan on naming the first kerbin space station Jebediah Memorial Station in his honor.

So all in all probably 1% or less

[Xaver]

1 of ten. Mostly during ascent cause insufficient decopling that causes a fireshow in midair.

[CG_Kerbin]

XD the last one yes!

[keeper]

I am always reverting I am so forgetful.

[Renegrade]

I'd have to guess about 1% as well (usually because I'm paying attention to something else and crash a probe or such. Driving while distracted is actually MORE dangerous than DUI).. but I also like the last option, very Goddard-y.

[LABHOUSE]

Define failure.

[mrclucks]

I never fail, my objectives just change from do xyz, to land safetly, to survive, to make explosions

[merendel]

Discounting bugs that force a revert I'd say about 1 out of 20 missions results in some level of failure. Most of those failures are along the lines of runing out of fuel (or too low to attempt a landing/return) or landing a touch too hard and breaking off something important to the mission. Its fairly rare for me to get into a situation where the failure kills the pilot however and normaly a rescue mission is sucessful.

I dont count unplaned dissasembly right after launch due to editor glitches, my favorate example is using symmetry and finding out the editor copied everything exactly except for the struts on a single copy. having one of the external tanks/boosters rip off because the game skiped the struts that should have been there gets a revert. I've also had plenty of ships explode for no reason on a scene change while in a stable orbit that I don't count either.

I also dont count my sandbox save where I do my prototyping and the occasional imitation of Danny.

Edited March 28, 2015 by merendel

[OhioBob]

Depends on your definition of failure. I consider it a failure anytime a primary mission goal it not achieved. This can be as simple as trying to fulfill an orbit contract but failing to get the funds because I did something stupid like leaving off the antenna. I don't consider it a failure if something goes wrong in a test flight, because identifying potential problems and finding the solutions to them is the purpose of a test. I usually revert my test flights back to the VAB after I've gained the data I need. I count it as a failure only if something goes wrong when I'm flying a mission "for real". I also don't need to crash or blow up to have a failure. If I complete 4 out of 5 mission goals, then not completing the 5th is a failure. I don't count game glitches or bugs as failures because those are out of my control.

To me failures can be in either design or execution. Failures in design rarely happen for me, perhaps 1 in 100 (after testing). Since I got past the initial learning curve, I can think of only a couple instances were I made a design error or miscalculation. For me, most errors occur in execution. For example, I have a hard landing and sustain damage, or I accidental stage when I wasn't supposed to. If I can work around the problem and still complete my goals, then I don't count it as a failure. However, if the problem causes the termination of the mission, or the scrubbing of some part of the mission, then clearly it's a failure. Although I usually use reverts to correct these mistakes, for the purpose of this poll I'm counting those as failures. In that case I'd say that I make some sort of mission critical execution mistake on perhaps 1 in 10 missions.

Edited March 29, 2015 by OhioBob

[Whackjob]

My success rate? Oh, man. The secret comes out. 0.3%. Approximately.

[wolfedg]

Depends on whether you include staging arrangement errors due to craft reconfiguration and deliberate failures (aka fireworks/sucess). If not my failure rate is probably somewhere around 1 in 3. Take out new aircraft testing failures and it probably jumps above 1 in 10.

[Rainbowtrout]

I mostly build odd contraptions. Today I was trying to build a land speeder, and it flew out of control. Lots of fails!

[EladDv]

I found out that 'just above highest mountain' was not a viable orbit

lol made my week

i accept failures they are fun as explosions happen i often build stuff for explosions

[Red Iron Crown]

Highest rate in the poll is 1 out of 2, I'm afraid that isn't high enough for me. I would say that 1 in 4 serious missions I attempt work out exactly as planned. The other three have varying degrees of failure.

[Zyffyr]

If I am doing something that is more or less 'routine', failures are bug-induced only. If I am experimenting, maybe 1 in 3 actually works right, but few are genuine failures since I at least learned what I did wrong.