Deleting Kerbals

[AlamoVampire]

Howdy. I am looking to remove kerbals from my space program. I do not mean retire them, I mean make them not exist at all, period. I could make a craft, load the offending kerbals into it and then slam it into the ground or something, but, that seems.... excessive. 

Things to keep in mind here:  I know just enough about the games code to usurp the death of a kerbal and return him or her to life or back to the astronaut complex from a mission w/out landing them, but, to flat out delete them w/out hiring them or even killing them?

op 00:17:30

EDIT: I consider this resolved as all the replies were useful one way or another  

edit time 8-25-2017 00:00:30

Edited August 25, 2017 by AlamoVampire

[bewing]

When you click the little red X in the astronaut complex, they die. That's less excessive, isn't it?

If that doesn't make you happy, then you're probably going to have to edit your savegame file. All the known ways of making kerbals vanish have been removed from the game as of version 1.3.0.

-- Although, I suppose you can still use the aircraft autodeletion method. Make a big plane, with a detachable rocket attached to it (with a probe core). Pile all your unwanted kerbals into the plane. Fly up to a couple km altitude, and launch the rocket. After the rocket travels 25km, the airplane will be autodeleted along with all its kerbals.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2017 by bewing

[AlamoVampire]

@bewing appreciate the response, I must be doing it wrong or something, when I go to click the red x it dumps them back into the pool to be rehired. Will look again tomorrow when I get back on my pc. Very possible I am not seeing the correct red x.  

op 03:46:30

Edit: may need the fire\Forget edit trick. Will update with findings on the evening edit time 03:51:30

Edited August 24, 2017 by AlamoVampire

[Hotaru]

17 hours ago, bewing said:

After the rocket travels 25km, the airplane will be autodeleted along with all its kerbals.

I think, although I haven't checked, that this just marks them as "missing" and they will eventually either switch to K.I.A. or reappear, depending on the position of the "missing crews respawn" toggle. Even killing them properly will leave a record of their existence under the "Lost" tab. I believe to permanently and absolutely remove them from the game, as if they never existed in the first place, you can either A. click the red X to fire them, then warp ahead for a while and eventually they will disappear as part of normal applicant rotation or B. find all references to them in the persistence file and delete them.

(Somehow this all sounded less Orwellian in my head.)

[Kerbal pancake]

Mabye give them a retirement home in space?

like an old folks home on the mun

they can live the rest of thier days on the mun playing rocket bingo

 

 

 

(then you delete the craft from the tracking station)

Edited August 25, 2017 by Kerbal pancake

[bewing]

Hotaru is right -- even the autodeletion method has been fixed in 1.3 so that the kerbals don't completely vanish.

 

[AlamoVampire]

@bewing 

Ok, here is my findings as promised:

First Picture is the Astronaut Complex, and you see the green check showing the ability to hire: (image code gJ4mU81 i am not completing it with the .png from ingur to avoid image spam)

Second Picture is after hiring that Kerbal, and as you see, we see the aforementioned Red X saying Dismiss Kerbal: (image code  YxeRgPM)

Third Picture is AFTER clicking the Red X to Dismiss Kerbal, and you see that Jenvey Kerman is back in the pool to be rehired and I promise this is not a duplicate image from the first,  this is genuinely a second picture of Jenvey Kerman in the astronaut hiring pool: (image code Yu4HcAA)

I am trying to keep my missing/kia kerbal list as valid as possible showing only those unfortunate souls who died on mission.

I am willing to accept that I am blind and missing something here. Also, simple question to you Bewing: Why remove the ability to delete kerbals from with in the game? May I request that it be added back in if at all possible? Thanks again,

Alamovampire

op 23:12:30

edit in response to 5thHorseman: I have barely enough skill in altering the code to bring them back from the dead, I do not trust myself to alter something this significant.

edit time 23:15:30

Edited August 25, 2017 by AlamoVampire

[Superfluous J]

19 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

@bewing appreciate the response, I must be doing it wrong or something, when I go to click the red x it dumps them back into the pool to be rehired.

And if you don't rehire them, don't they cycle out?

You could edit your persistence file and rename them, and randomize their values. That's exactly the same as deleting them.

Back up your persistence file first though. I have some terrible memories of long nights trying to figure out why things went sideways when I renamed people. Most of the trouble was because names are used elsewhere in the file.

[bewing]

Yes, they cycle out.

> Why remove the ability to delete kerbals from with in the game?

Because it was happening by accident to many players, and they often become attached to particular kerbals -- so when a kerbal was suddenly getting deleted without a trace through a glitch, it was making people sad. Plus it can cost a lot of funds to replace an accidentally deleted kerbal specialist.

 

Edited August 25, 2017 by bewing

[AlamoVampire]

@bewing they cycle out? This I did not know, might I inquire as to the speed at which a retired kerbal cycles out? This new information will do wonders for saving those little guys my um... ministrations lol

op 23:26:30

 

edit: I just did a manual delete of Dando Kerman I think it was, and wow that went sideways on me in a HURRY! It dumped all hired kerbals on me. why or how Ive no idea. backup persistent back in place, game just loaded as I typed this. going to make sure I fixed what I broke.

edit time 23:30:30

edit edit: I did fix what I broke. Everyone is back again. I guess, its hire/fire wait for them to wander off i guess. BUT, because I used Jenvey Kerman for this experiment, she has been hired into my space program for good now. Shes a trooper, and earned her place lol.

edit edit time 23:32:30

Edited August 25, 2017 by AlamoVampire

[bewing]

Looks like about one kerbal per Kerbin day to me. That's approximate.

Edited August 25, 2017 by bewing

[AlamoVampire]

@bewing good enough for me sir, thank you! As a side note: dig the picture

op 23:57:30

edit: Just read the why the delete feature was pulled. Makes sense. dismiss + timewarp looks like a solution enough to me

edit time 23:58:30

Edited August 25, 2017 by AlamoVampire

[bewing]

Turns out I'm not sure the timewarp is necessary. The devs are telling me that just entering the Ast. Complex 3 times and leaving again might be enough to clear the roster.

 

[AlamoVampire]

@bewing Sir, I just did a fast experiment about the Astronaut Complex cycling the retired kerbals out, I did it X2 <the in/out of the complex> and it seemed that was sufficient to remove the retired kerbal.

op 00:22:30

edit: Concerning kerbals like Valentina, it would seem once you retire a "veteran" one in/out of the complex is all it takes to remove them from the roster. neat bit of info i think  

edit time 00:35:30

Edited August 30, 2017 by AlamoVampire