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Dead kerbals?


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This may have been suggested before and may sound somewhat morbid, but if survivability is added in the future, I'd like some animation on dead kerbals. Now, if your rocket explode with kerbals inside, you'll see a KIA or black screen. This is fine. But if your ship run out of oxygen or a Kerbal on EVA runs out first on RCS and then oxygen, they should be retrievable.

A ship out on fuel and oxygen with three kerbals... Let's say you sent them towards Duna, missed, started another project, forgets them and then find them again 2y later. I think you should see more than KIA.

But I also think it shouldn't be unpleasant so instead of seeing their faces, the helmet can have the visor down or something. Ex: retrieve corps of Jeb floathing on the Minmus surface.

Either way it shouldn't be smiling/lauging kerbals or a KIA screen. I guess selecting a ship with dead kerbals could have a view of kerbals sitting in their seats sith the visor down.

Thoughts?

to morbid or something the game don't need?

 

 

 

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**IF life support is added**

I'd like it if kerbals froze and became unresponsive, but you could still revive them if you get them back to the KSC. (optional) 

Once LS runs out they could slowly turn pale blue until they freeze solid, with plenty of warnings, alarms and visual indicators along the way.

Maybe freezing rate could be dependant on the size of the living space (number of habitable modules). a Kerbal in an EVA suit should freeze faster than a Kerbal in a hitchhiker.

*edit* - also recovering a frozen kerbal should give you a small science bonus.

*edit edit* - Kerbals should be able to take there helmet off for science. they should just freeze with a concerned look on they're face unless its on Kerbin obviously.

Edited by Capt Snuggler
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One thing to bear in mind is "maturity rating".  KSP is intended for everyone, including young kids.  I know that nobody in this thread has suggested adding gore and blood-spatter or anything like that (please don't; really, please don't)... but even just having a dead body floating around has the potential to be disturbing to young players.

I can't speak for Squad, because I don't work there and have no direct insight into their product decisions... but I find it significant that when they coded "what happens when an EVA kerbal hits the ground too hard", they make the kerbal disappear in a puff of smoke rather than leave a corpse behind.  (And it would have been trivially easy for them to leave a corpse-- they already have temporarily-ragdoll Kerbals in the game, when they bonk their heads or something.)  So my guess is that Squad designed this behavior quite deliberately and would be unlikely to change that.

So as interesting as this possibility is, my own two cents would be "don't go there," at least not in the stock game.  Might be an interesting subject for a mod.

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Hey, I'm developing a mod that does just that. Essentially, there are some limitations in the game if you want to kill Kerbals on EVA (vessel markets remain on screen, etc...) so I designed around those limitations and make Kerbals enter an 'EVA death' mode where they are in an unescapable 'freezed' state (the default ragdoll state was too tricky to work with). So you get the bodies floating around in space, or stay on the surface of planets. The 'blue' look and 'recover dead kerbals' contracts are interesting ideas, didn't through of that. Those things may be in a future update, as the mod is in private beta now and will be released to the public in a few days. Cheers!

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1 hour ago, Capt Snuggler said:

**IF life support is added**

I'd like it if kerbals froze and became unresponsive, but you could still revive them if you get them back to the KSC. (optional) 

Once LS runs out they could slowly turn pale blue until they freeze solid, with plenty of warnings, alarms and visual indicators along the way.

Maybe freezing rate could be dependant on the size of the living space (number of habitable modules). a Kerbal in an EVA suit should freeze faster than a Kerbal in a hitchhiker.

*edit* - also recovering a frozen kerbal should give you a small science bonus.

*edit edit* - Kerbals should be able to take there helmet off for science. they should just freeze with a concerned look on they're face unless its on Kerbin obviously.

Ok, this was a good option to dying. Kerbals never die, they just freeze like Tardograde :-)

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7 minutes ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Hey, I'm developing a mod that does just that. Essentially, there are some limitations in the game if you want to kill Kerbals on EVA (vessel markets remain on screen, etc...) so I designed around those limitations and make Kerbals enter an 'EVA death' mode where they are in an unescapable 'freezed' state (the default ragdoll state was too tricky to work with). So you get the bodies floating around in space, or stay on the surface of planets. The 'blue' look and 'recover dead kerbals' contracts are interesting ideas, didn't through of that. Those things may be in a future update, as the mod is in private beta now and will be released to the public in a few days. Cheers!

Yes! And I was thinking maybe the blue or dead look could be minimized by adding a non-transparant visor like astronauts using today. It hides the face and maked em not look lively

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 17/03/2016 at 3:31 PM, Snark said:

One thing to bear in mind is "maturity rating".  KSP is intended for everyone, including young kids.

 

 

So far I would say it wouldn't cause an issue. If you can retrieve them and revive them they aren't really dead. In fact I would consider it more child friendly than being obliterated in an explosion/crash.

 

If such a thing ever happened I would want them retrievable but not revive-able if you don't allow respawning of Kerbals. I'm guessing a grave yard would be out of the question. Just have to plant flags near by

Edited by Moh1336
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Well, if kerbals run out of stuff they need for survival, their bodies start oozing out kerbonite (which looks a lot like carbonite - the stuff han solo got frozen in), until it completely covers them, hindering all activity, but ensuring survival, until rescued and freed. So: No bluish scary dead people faces, more like gradual petrification. 

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4 hours ago, Mr. Scruffy said:

So: No bluish scary dead people faces, more like gradual petrification. 

As if the expression of horror on their face as they're aware of what's happening, eventually freezing into a look of sheer terror by this petrification wouldn't be more horrifying.

Except Jeb... He'd still be smiling...

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1 hour ago, LorenLuke said:

As if the expression of horror on their face as they're aware of what's happening, eventually freezing into a look of sheer terror by this petrification wouldn't be more horrifying.

Except Jeb... He'd still be smiling...

So morbid... Let's stick with the emotionally inadequate *Poof!* deaths...

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This is a sort of funny challenge if life support with permadeath were ever included. I tend to think they either go poof in the capsule or their windows go static and you can't look IVA. Though that leaves the question of what you'd see with the new cutaway view...

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Characters "freeze" in cartoons and stuff all the time. no one will get PTSD.

They don't have to "die", just become a little frosty green popsicle with a goofy smile. You bring back to the KSC then they are revived by the "warm liquid goo phase" and a week of R&R. maybe get a bonus for retrieving a "popsi-kerbal".

I wouldn't suggest anything traumatic. Blood or gore is def never going to happen in KSP and nor should it.

tj-chuck-10.jpg

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Edited by Capt Snuggler
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Yeah, i agree. It´s a metter of art style. There are definetely ways to depict ´hypothermia´ in a family-friendly way. Why am i thinking of the hamster in ´day of the tentacle´, right now? One of my nephews once found his cat frozen in the outside pool - and still found that hamster funny...

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11 hours ago, Mr. Scruffy said:

Yeah, i agree. It´s a metter of art style. There are definetely ways to depict ´hypothermia´ in a family-friendly way. Why am i thinking of the hamster in ´day of the tentacle´, right now? One of my nephews once found his cat frozen in the outside pool - and still found that hamster funny...

Uuuuhhh... erm... Uhh... Say that again?

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Cat went missing in autumn. Turned out to have drowned in the pool (must have snuck in below the cover). Was found in winter. Had to be chisseled out of the ice. Or something like that. I wasnt there and it´s been a couple of years. Point is, kids are not quite as sensitive than some people seem to think. They can actually be quite cruel, at times - that Tom & Jerry above is the perfect example, because that whole cartoon is about a mouse hurting a cat, basically - and (most) kids think that´s funny, not brutal, cruel or shocking. A kerbal that looks like its trying to hold its breath for longer than he should, certainly isnt something that would freak 99% of youngsters out - most would actually giggle, i assume..

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19 minutes ago, Mr. Scruffy said:

Cat went missing in autumn. Turned out to have drowned in the pool (must have snuck in below the cover). Was found in winter. Had to be chisseled out of the ice. Or something like that. I wasnt there and it´s been a couple of years. Point is, kids are not quite as sensitive than some people seem to think. They can actually be quite cruel, at times - that Tom & Jerry above is the perfect example, because that whole cartoon is about a mouse hurting a cat, basically - and (most) kids think that´s funny, not brutal, cruel or shocking. A kerbal that looks like its trying to hold its breath for longer than he should, certainly isnt something that would freak 99% of youngsters out - most would actually giggle, i assume..

Wow. My kids would probably explode from despair if either of our cats dissapeared, much less drowned and needed to be chiseled out of the ice...

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I recall reading a suggestion for something along these lines with replacing the dead Kerbal image with the KIA static, along with replacing the model with whatever suit they have, and a fully reflective visor

Reference:

maxresdefault.jpg

 

No spooky scary terrifying dead/blue/frozen faces, just a reflective void. That said, Kerbals that die from impact, heat, etc. should still go 'poof'.

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