Handling mission issues resulting from game bugs?

[Tyko]

The situation: I recently launched my first Mars mission. En-route to Mars I decoupled the transfer stage but one of my engines on the payload broke off due to (i think) an issue with the part's collider - the design looked fine visually, but when the lower stage decoupled I think the engine's collider ran into the top of the booster stage as it started to drift away.

The question: How would you handle this in your game?

1. Count the bug as a "real" equipment failure - There are plenty of cases of real space programs having missions lost or impaired by parts failures.
2. Delete the craft (or load a quicksave if you have a recent one), pretend it never happened, fix the bug and run the mission again.
3. Edit the save file to fix the broken engine and pretend the failure never happened.
4. Some other answer.

In my case I chose "1". I had 4 engines in an X pattern. I decided to power down the engine opposite the one that failed. I loaded a test version of the craft in the VAB, played with the thrust level of the opposing engine until it created just enough thrust to offset the extra weight of the engine on that side.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Tyko

[netbumbler]

Yeah depending on the severity of the bug I just treat it as a malfunction.  Had the bug where I absolutely could not dock two docking ports back in .90.  Yeah was trying to get a  Mk1-2 to dock to the front of an unmanned transfer ship but it wouldn't dock at all.  The problem was I had to keep that capsule as it was the only living space for my crew but it had to be inline with the transfer ship so my burns would be symmetrical and efficient.  There were extra docking ports on the side of the transfer ship so I tried that but the loss of efficiency in the burns (because of the capsule throwing off the weight distribution) was going to deplete my delta-v requirements too much to get back to Kerbin.  I had a narrow dv budget for that one.

Anyway, I transferred all the fuel in the landing craft/crew quarters ship to the transfer ship and that got the weight distro to an acceptable level so I could burn back home...was still less than the inline ideal, but it got them to Kerbin.

[Tyko]

1 minute ago, netbumbler said:

Yeah depending on the severity of the bug I just treat it as a malfunction.  Had the bug where I absolutely could not dock two docking ports back in .90.  Yeah was trying to get a  Mk1-2 to dock to the front of an unmanned transfer ship but it wouldn't dock at all.  The problem was I had to keep that capsule as it was the only living space for my crew but it had to be inline with the transfer ship so my burns would be symmetrical and efficient.  There were extra docking ports on the side of the transfer ship so I tried that but the loss of efficiency in the burns (because of the capsule throwing off the weight distribution) was going to deplete my delta-v requirements too much to get back to Kerbin.  I had a narrow dv budget for that one.

Anyway, I transferred all the fuel in the landing craft/crew quarters ship to the transfer ship and that got the weight distro to an acceptable level so I could burn back home...was still less than the inline ideal, but it got them to Kerbin.

In one of the early Russian docking attempts they had an issue like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_3

 

[netbumbler]

I guess my larger, philosophical point, is that it's fun as heck to deal with those bugs sometimes.  I mean if it's a full-on Kraken debacle then I'll just reload or do whatever.  I would even hyper-edit a new ship to the location of the incident and not feel bad about it if that fixed the problem. 

 

[FrostedShoe]

I depends on the bug - for example you wouldn't know if a docking bug would effect all docking ports until you tried with a different craft and I'm not waiting that long to find out I can never dock. 

[AngrybobH]

I usually go with 1 and then deal with the problem, send an engineer out with a screwdriver (KAS/KIS, always one on board my manned missions), or send a rescue mission if its important enough. I actually enjoy engineering a repair for failures so, I get enjoyment out of some bugs and mission planning mishaps.

[Corona688]

2 hours ago, Tyko said:

 

1. Count the bug as a "real" equipment failure - There are plenty of cases of real space programs having missions lost or impaired by parts failures.
2. Delete the craft (or load a quicksave if you have a recent one), pretend it never happened, fix the bug and run the mission again.
3. Edit the save file to fix the broken engine and pretend the failure never happened.
4. Some other answer.

If I had a recent quicksave, I'd load it and stage again.  If I didn't - or it just blew up again - I'd have no choice but strategy 4, if it occurred to me.  That's a little too far away to start over and I wouldn't risk that kind of save-surgery.

That's smart thinking on your part by the way.  They do that in real life, for big cluster boosters - if one engine fails there's enough redundancy they can shut down its opposite and boost the rest.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Corona688

[invision]

i had a bug where after a decouple the engine wouldnt fire and i was coming back from duna and now inside kerblins influence. it was an easy enough rescue but a bit odd how the engine wouldnt fire even after reloading and making sure the tank had the correct fuel. 

[Corona688]

34 minutes ago, invision said:

It was an easy enough rescue but a bit odd how the engine wouldnt fire even after reloading and making sure the tank had the correct fuel. 

What mods do you use?  Some of them do that intentionally as a realism things.  Most real-life liquid fuel engines aren't restartable.

[Tyko]

1 hour ago, Corona688 said:

If I had a recent quicksave, I'd load it and stage again.  If I didn't - or it just blew up again - I'd have no choice but strategy 4, if it occurred to me.  That's a little too far away to start over and I wouldn't risk that kind of save-surgery.

That's smart thinking on your part by the way.  They do that in real life, for big cluster boosters - if one engine fails there's enough redundancy they can shut down its opposite and boost the rest.

Yea, the first time I loaded the craft it was already halfway to Mars. I loaded it, big explosion happened and the engines were wrecked. I'm like what? so I reloaded thinking it was just a loading error and it happened again. After a couple more tries I accepted that this was my new reality and started brainstorming on what to do - (actually I quit the game, walked away for a week and THEN decided I had the patience to tackle an annoying bug) 

[Urses]

I use mostly the option 1. But as i play a moded game i have more options.

If as in example staging fails and kill something important. EVA a Engineer and let him tinker something out of the remains....

Some of my landers looks realy unreconisible after coming back to Kerbin

Funny Kabooms 

Urses