Why do flags disappear?

[MaxwellsDemon]

I have occasional issues with flags my Kerbals have planted simply going missing, without explanation.   I have persistent debris set to all/max, and I carefully deselect flags when I'm going through and cleaning up debris manually.  Why does this happen and how can I avoid it?

[Snark]

When you say they "disappear", do you mean that they're completely gone when you go back and physically revisit the site with another ship?  Or do you mean that they're just not displayed in the map view?

The map view has a setting for which categories of icons are displayed, just want to make sure you haven't turned off flag display.

By the way, whatever your problem is:  it's not that they're getting cleaned up as debris.  Flags aren't considered debris, the game considers them the same as a ship.  Only things that explicitly have been given a "debris" icon are considered fair game for auto-removal.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Completely gone, when other flags are still there.

 

Specifically, I put a flag at each end of the KSC runway so I have markers to line up on from a ways out, and one of them vanished.   The other is still where I put it.   I'm sure I put it far enough out from the runway itself, and it was there for a while... and now it isn't.

Edited December 22, 2015 by MaxwellsDemon

[Snark]

3 hours ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

Completely gone, when other flags are still there.

Specifically, I put a flag at each end of the KSC runway so I have markers to line up on from a ways out, and one of them vanished.   The other is still where I put it.   I'm sure I put it far enough out from the runway itself, and it was there for a while... and now it isn't.

Ah, okay, didn't have the KSC context from your original post.  Is this something you've observed only around KSC, or do you have flags disappearing from the Mun or wherever?

I suspect that the real issue here is KSC-related.  It can be a bit flaky about things around KSC, and its auto-cleanup radius around the launch pad and runway is surprisingly big.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Snark

[MaxwellsDemon]

Eh, 'tis possible... I just don't understand why it would have survived for a while, then poof!   I'll see about placing its replacement even farther out... so long as it's on the axis of the runway, it doesn't really matter much how close it is to its end.

It has happened on Minmus in one of my other campaigns.

[cantab]

There is a "clickthrough" bug in the Tracking Station, that means that when you click the X button it can actually select a different craft in the list and delete that one instead.

[swjr-swis]

I have seen this happen too in full stock 1.0.5, several times around KSC but also on the island runway. After the first couple of times, I think I noticed it correlated with me flying closely over the flag at high speed. Maybe jetwash blasts them?

One time a flag sank underground. It was suddenly no longer where it was supposed to be but several km 'away'. Trying to drive to it with a rover... I couldn't get any closer than a few km. It was under me somewhere, underground.

I've not lost another flag in a couple of weeks now. Not sure what changed, it's still pure stock, just a bit further along in the career and more contraptions floating around in space.

[Aethon]

I've seen this as well, many times.  I'm beginning to think it happens when I use my runway flags for a quicksave after a career accomplishment.  Since I've stopped quicksaving while a flag is the active vessel, it hasn't happened to me.

 

Edited December 22, 2015 by Aethon