Failure: Let's get rid of it!

[Maria Sirona]

We all know how annoying that "mission failed" screen is and how it appears way too easily. It makes the craft uncontrollable if one part breaks, no matter how small and insignificant, and calls the mission a "failure". In fact, if the failute thing wasn't there, in many cases the craft is still flyable and the entire mission salvageable!

Of course you all know that. And many of us have argued in the past that failure should be made less agressive.

However, i am here to make the case, that the concept of failure should not exist in KSP2. 

What would that mean in practice? Well for starters, any and all spacecraft would remain controllable as long as there are parts that can control it. Furthermore, the "mission failed" screen would never ever appear, and nowhere would it even be claimed that your mission has failed.

Now for some arguments.

In general, the "mission failed" screen is very annoying, and not only that, it is very frustrating. It is also kinda unrealistic- were Apollo 13, Galileo, or Hayabusa declared total losses because one thing broke? No! Apollo 13 ended up safely returning to Earth, and the probes had succesful missions! And on top of that, it also works against the kerbal spirit of not letting failure slow you down.

Now, why not even mention the mission has failed? Well, because any claims that the mission has failed are atill the claims, no matter how small. Let the players themselves judge whether or not their missions have failed! Finally, there are also impact missions, and it would be silly to say that a mission has failed when it has done exactly what it needs to.

Discuss.

[mcdjfp]

The screen itself (and the very useful log information) should still exist, but what is the point of improving the explosions if they are hidden behind a giant pop up? I would have a small (even the solar panels in shadow notification is too big in my opinion) notification when anything breaks giving you the chance to open the screen if you want it. KSP 1 seemed to handle it fairly well. It only popped up (for me) following complete loss of vessel, and only after I attempted to give further commands to the non-existent craft.  And it should be a "Vessel Status" screen not a "Mission Failure" screen because I might want to check it at other times. (What did that SRB knock off during staging?)

Things would be far better if the game paused when the screen came up. Then we would have a chance to do something after closing the window, or at least the ability to watch the fireworks at not a 1/2 screen, view obscuring, dialog box.

[jastrone]

i think it should be more similar to ksp 1 and maybe the screen appears maybe 3 seconds after all controll points have been destroyed

[Bej Kerman]

On 5/6/2023 at 1:57 PM, Maria Sirona said:

It makes the craft uncontrollable if one part breaks

What, like the thing that lets you control it?

Your entire argument for this rests on a misunderstanding of the game's mechanics. The mission failure screen only shows up if your vessel becomes uncontrollable and permanently irreparable I.E. the probe core is gone. It's not "if one part breaks". Your argument rests on a lie about how the game works whether it was intentional or not.

On 5/6/2023 at 1:57 PM, Maria Sirona said:

Well for starters, any and all spacecraft would remain controllable as long as there are parts that can control it.

And that's literally how the game works. You are complaining about an issue that doesn't exist.

[Sea_Kerman]

2 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

What, like the thing that lets you control it?

Your entire argument for this rests on a misunderstanding of the game's mechanics. The mission failure screen only shows up if your vessel becomes uncontrollable and permanently irreparable I.E. the probe core is gone. It's not "if one part breaks". Your argument rests on a lie about how the game works whether it was intentional or not.

And that's literally how the game works. You are complaining about an issue that doesn't exist.

I’ve had the failure screen pop up from a wing falling off, and seen the plane with its cockpit intact sail off into the distance.

[Lyneira]

I voted "Yes" because I agree the game doesn't need to tell us a flight is a failure. I would however like to keep the flight log information to help me figure out what part broke first. In particular, the flight log should also be accessible with some button before destruction of the last control point. And instead of popping up in front of the explosions on destruction of any part of the craft, perhaps a UI element should light up hinting that the flight log of the finished flight is available. Only when no control points remain. This could also be done when a craft is recovered.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Lyneira