So, I lost Jeb today... As in, wiped him from known existence.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I had a rescue mission coming back into Kerbin, 2 lander cans with a claw on top with the new double flight pod thing attached to the claw with a Kerbal inside. On return all heck broke loose and the claw blew up, speparating the 2 units. The 2 cans had chute, so I waited until they slowed down then deployed the chutes (this contained Jeb and another rescue). Then I swiched to the other unit where I EVA'd the kerbal and got her to do a graceful bounce then face plant on a soft grassy field- I recovered her, but going back to the tracking station Jeb and the other dude are just gone- no MIA, no craft available in the station, no sign at all. Are they gone forever or just not tracked any more? I'm curious if I can track them down and pick them up, or if this is a known bug and they have been eliminated from Kerbin history forever.

 

Edit: well, they were dead. I made them alive again, but they have no experience now, which sucks because both would have been levelled up as the rescue was on Minmus

Edited December 14, 2015 by Waxing_Kibbous

[Speeding Mullet]

8 hours ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

I had a rescue mission coming back into Kerbin, 2 lander cans with a claw on top with the new double flight pod thing attached to the claw with a Kerbal inside. On return all heck broke loose and the claw blew up, speparating the 2 units. The 2 cans had chute, so I waited until they slowed down then deployed the chutes (this contained Jeb and another rescue). Then I swiched to the other unit where I EVA'd the kerbal and got her to do a graceful bounce then face plant on a soft grassy field- I recovered her, but going back to the tracking station Jeb and the other dude are just gone- no MIA, no craft available in the station, no sign at all. Are they gone forever or just not tracked any more? I'm curious if I can track them down and pick them up, or if this is a known bug and they have been eliminated from Kerbin history forever.

 

Edit: well, they were dead. I made them alive again, but they have no experience now, which sucks because both would have been levelled up as the rescue was on Minmus

One possible explanation:  I believe if the craft you switch away from is out of physics range from the ship you switch to, and in the atmosphere below a certain altitude, then it vanishes, possibly to avoid a world ending on rails Kraken attack (citation needed).

SM

[Plusck]

Agreed - going back to the tracking station sealed their fate, since the tracking station doesn't apply physics. If your two craft were coming in together and close enough, it might have been possible to land both by switching between them. Extremely difficult to do but possible, as long as physics are being applied to both. If you have a savegame from just after the Kraken hit, it would be a cool challenge

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I got greedy, even though I brought Jeb and the other guy back by hacking the save file, I went one step further and tried to hack the file to get them their exp. back by changing the end of the list that contains the flight stuff, which nuked my save to the point where I only had Jeb as a crew member (which is sad because I had a really sweet lineup) . So don't ever do that.

[Claw]

It sounds like it's too late for you now, but you can also keep extra save files. Pressing ALT+F5 will allow you to give the same game a name. Pressing ALT+F9 later allows you to restore a save. It's handy at times when a bug strikes, and you only have to back up a little bit in your save.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Thanks Claw, I actually got lucky and had a plain old F5 save still available (I panicked because it doesn't seem to work when at the space center, you need an active vessel to load games apparently). I wouldn’t have checked it but your post kept sticking in my head- I also learned 3 important lessons (beyond save early save often)- docking/clawing messes with the ship's control point, aerobraking is good, and don't hack save files!

 

Mission success:

Edited December 19, 2015 by Waxing_Kibbous

[Plusck]

Cool !

I like coming down in mountains. It always gives that "hey, 15 seconds later into the atmosphere and I'd have hit that at 260m/s" feel.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

24 minutes ago, Plusck said:

Cool !

I like coming down in mountains. It always gives that "hey, 15 seconds later into the atmosphere and I'd have hit that at 260m/s" feel.

Ha yeah, I was thinking "Oh great, after everything I'm going to smash into the mountains," but this junkheap decelerated quite nicely