Faulty sensors

[leroidangleterre]

I was thinking about the reliability of the speed and altitude displays; would it be possible to have them stop working properly, so that the data displayed does not match reality ?  That could happen at random times, or at a high enough altitude for aircraft.

I guess that could be interesting during the docking and/or landing phases of a flight.

 

[Bej Kerman]

There's a difference between challenge, and artificial difficulty. Getting to orbit is a challenge, the game gives you all the tools you need to reach orbit but it's challenging to piece together the knowledge you need to do so for the first time. Taking instrumentation away falls under artificial difficulty, I'd say. It's just a random handicap that makes things unfair.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Space is hard enough without the game arbitrarily RNGing you with duff data. Let's just assume that Kerbals' electronics industry is deceptively advanced considering the general appearance of the rest of their technology and that they never break...

[Scarecrow71]

I'll say that if you want that functionality in your game, write a mod for it.  I doubt anyone else would want this, but that shouldn't stop you from trying to do it yourself!

[Fizzlebop Smith]

That's how I felt about BARIS mod.

[GluttonyReaper]

The most obvious problem here (even for mods) is the lack of ability of the player to mitigate the problem - if you're landing or docking, you've got some visual cues to fall on as a backup if you work out something's wrong, but there's no such thing for interplanetary transfers or orbital insertion. You're totally reliant on the displays and orbital info 99% of the time in space, and ultimately it would just lead to things appearing to go strangely wrong with no clear explanation from the player's point of view.