totm november 2020 What do you do when you fail a mission in KSP

[Neil Kermstrong]

Do you start another mission from the beginning, do you quickload until you complete it, do you simply cheat or what else do you do?

 

Personally I quicksave every minute and always quick load lol

[eatU4myT]

I always start again - with the caveat that I'm usually within Kerbin's SoI, so it doesn't cost to much in time or funds to start over!

[Vanamonde]

I spam F5 during my flight and go back to where it was last not screwed up. 

[Cavscout74]

I used to F5/F9 as needed but after I got more experienced, I suffer the consequences & redo the mission as needed with one exception:  If something fails/breaks due to a game glitch (rather than my error), I will reload a save.   I also make use of a sandbox save to test aircraft & rocket designs to make sure they work before subjecting my career kerbals to needless death & destruction.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Cavscout74

[eatU4myT]

3 minutes ago, Cavscout74 said:

...used to F5/F9...

I used to, as well, but I realised that I was holding myself back - reloading when something went wrong without thinking through all the options for recovering the situation myself, and leaning a new skill along the way.

[Cavscout74]

1 minute ago, eatU4myT said:

I used to, as well, but I realised that I was holding myself back - reloading when something went wrong without thinking through all the options for recovering the situation myself, and leaning a new skill along the way.

Yep, well said.    It also made me start to REALLLLLLYYYYYY love Kerbal Attachment System for repairs in the field.

[Superfluous J]

I F5 a lot, but only F9 if I feel that whatever happened was unfair.

The further I am from Kerbin, the less fair I consider failures to be

[AlamoVampire]

Depends on the failure. If it was something I screwed up in mission I will usually accept the failure, but if it was because I missed something in the build, I may fully revert if it was critical. If the failure was completely inexplicable, like for example, a craft was built fully balanced but flips during entry with 0 explanation or visible cause? Its likely cursed (or haunted by the kraken) and is reverted and deleted. 

153410022020

[pandaman]

I  don't quicksave at all, mainly because I just plain forget, so any mistakes I just have to live with, but I prefer it that way really to be honest, I can't just pretend I didn't screw up.  My 'body count' is higher than I would like as a result, though I do always try my best to save crews, but no longer get too upset when I can't...  space is hard (well, I suppose technically  space is empty, so very soft, but the big rocky bits floating about in it tend to be so somewhat less forgiving.

And besides, cocking up leads to more 'fun adventures' such as 'off roading' for several real life hours doing 20km in a rover at Moho's North Pole.  That terrain is really harsh when you can't see where you are going, lost a wheel and the headlights when it got jammed in a crevice after the first 1.5km so I did the rest on just 3 wheels and helmet lights until it crested a ridge and tumbled straight down a REALLY steep slope, but at least I tried to save them...

I have used the 'set location' cheat a couple of times when glitches caused something  to be destroyed.  Once I was setting an experiment directly under a Mun arch and it placed it on top of the arch so it slid off and went "poof", so I 'teleported' a new one nearby so that the Kerbal could place it properly slightly away from the arch.  And I also replaced a lander that jumped and broke when physics kicked in once under physics warp.

Edited October 2, 2020 by pandaman

[Dat Kerbal Dude]

When something really bad happens to my missions, i'll just ignore it 

Like IRL.

[Miguelsgamingch]

Four Words Words

Rage Quit Or Quicksave

[Grogs]

I quicksave all the time and I'll usually reload if I say hit the wrong button or something. I also revert when I'm launching craft because to be honest I feel like that's a part of the design process of getting the launcher built right. And for sure if there's a game bug, like when one of my ships sitting on Minmus suddenly gets sucked into the ground and explodes - I'll reload that.

 

That said, in career mode I often have 6-10 ships moving around doing things at the same time. So if my probe reaches Duna and I realize I've forgotten something, I would possibly have to replay weeks worth of time if I reloaded a save from before I launched it. In that case, I just try to adapt and work with what I have, or if all else fails send another mission,

[ussoldier2002]

It depends. I do "simulation flights" or "training flights" and work out bugs. If I crash or whatever I will revert. If it is a real mission I will not revert. I plant a flag in memory of him at the flag pole and move on.

[EduardoS]

Usually I complete mission with probes fist, I only send kerbals if required and after I knoew the mission will succeed, so, I don't care about failures, a probe crash costs nothing.

 

Except when I am trying new rocket/spaceplane desing, in this case, I revert launch.

 

[Maj Solo]

Ofcourse I QuickLoad it. But it depends. I drink beer and play at the same time. So sometimes I ama zombie. So after crash I need to analyze.

Was the rocket designed wrong? YES? Then I take my loss and send another improved rocket.

Was I intoxicated? YES? The I slap my face hard and try again.

[N_Danger]

I will revert to launch or the VAB when launching a new design until I get it working satisfactory. I use F5/F9 sometimes. If I remember. If I don't remember I will carry on with the results.

I don't remember to use F5/F9 a LOT of times. I only remember I should have quick saved after the fact, usually after looking at a wreaked lander on the Mun or Duna.

 

[OhioBob]

It depends on why the mission failed.  If it failed because of an improper design or mission plan, then I'd redesign and try again with a new mission.  If it failed because I did something silly like time warp past a maneuver node, I'd quickload and do it again.  (I figure in real life there would be so many safeguards in place that something like that would never happen.)  If it failed due to poor piloting, then it depends on the circumstances.  For instance, if I did something like inadvertently hitting the wrong key, like staging when I didn't mean to, I'd probably quickload and redo it.  (Again I figure real life safeguards would prevent such an accident from happening.)  But if I just flat out crashed the thing because of poor flying, I'd probably accept it as a failure and redo the entire mission.

I also do "simulation" flights to check a design, with the intent that I'm going to revert no matter what the outcome.
 

Edited October 6, 2020 by OhioBob

[kerbiloid]

I don't fail missions. Kerbals do.

[linuxgurugamer]

Similar to @OhioBob, although I use KRASH for my test flights so that there is a real penalty/cost for test flights.

[s_gamer101]

Alt + F5

[The_Arcitect]

I just smash my f9 key.

[TitiKSP]

When there's some crew I quicksave to launchpad

[Sarxis]

Most of the time I keep up with quicksaving so that I can just F9 if there's any silly mistakes.  Every so often I might give up on a mission if I have multiple other missions going on or I forgot to do a timely quicksave, thus making the effort of sorting how far back I will have to 'time travel' to fix things just not worth it. 

[SlinkyMcman]

cancel it before the timer runs out

[razark]

If the game screwed up, I'll revert flight.

If I screwed up, I play it through, try to save the crew, the vehicle, and the mission, as best I can.

 

I also play with the Launch Failure mod, so I expect to have things go badly, and prepare for it.