Killing your Kerbals: does it make you feel bad?

[Kyrt Malthorn]

Losing kerbals makes me sad.   I can't help but revert or quickload normally.

 

In my hard games, I host funerals.

Here Jeb and Val host the ceremonies and plant the flags commemorating Bill and Bob.

 

[nosirrbro]

It does, I will never ever let them die if I can revert or quicksave at all, even if it takes for ever or ruins the mission, and for that reason (And because its just easier and more realistic) I do almost everything with probes, especially anything that takes a large amount of time. I dont use TAC, but feel really bad leaving kerbals in a small box for 30 years.

Edited February 22, 2016 by nosirrbro

[Kuansenhama]

Maybe a little. I try to keep them alive (and level them up if I'm playing career) as much as I can. Usually when I play seriously, I'm pretty good about keeping them alive despite having a high rate of disasters. It just means that Jeb is still stranded on Duna and I have a lot of 'only the command pod survived' situations. But when I do have casualties, I never feel too bad. It's just a part of the game and I can learn from my mistake.

But every once in awhile, if I've had a stressful day and I need to see something explode, then I lose all sympathy for the poor green sods.

[Andem]

I've recently began putting Mk1 Command Pods into orbit for every lost kerbal, whatever suit they wear.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Andem
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[G'th]

You seem to be under the mistaken assumption that failure is an option.

[Mjarf]

I hate losing Kerbals, I even design the vessels so that they are somewhat comfortable on long missions. I care about my little green dudes. 

[Kerbin vonKerbal]

Killing and/or abandoning them is something I hate. I just performed a Mun rescue mission for Jeb today in my new career, but the rescue vessel was short on fuel during the rendezvous. Long story short, Jeb EVA'd 33km and made it to the rescue ship and back to Kerbin with oodles and oodles of science.

[Findthepin1]

I don't because if I can get it back basically immediately after I lose it, it is pointless to feel bad for. Kerbals are the ingame manifestation of a couple dozen lines of code, so I can simply create another one by pressing a few buttons. 

 

Of course, when my ship crashes, I do make that expression of humourous disappointment that I have to go back to the last quicksave. The one where you go like "Ugh, not again!" while smiling like you have seen something funny on the Internet when nobody is around to hear you laugh so you don't. Instead, you exhale sharply through your nose. That expression.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Findthepin1

[Hans Dorn]

I mostly do unmanned missions because my landings skill aren't all that great, and I feel bad about killing the little guys.

[Spaceception]

19 hours ago, Andem said:

I've recently began putting Mk1 Command Pods into orbit for every lost kerbal, whatever suit they wear.

How many are up there? 

[The Optimist]

What's a "kerbal"? Is it a new kind of probe core?

[Andem]

2 hours ago, Spaceception said:

How many are up there? 

Sadly, three. Test pilots for an SSTO that didn't appreciate reentry heating.

[Spaceception]

8 hours ago, Andem said:

Sadly, three. Test pilots for an SSTO that didn't appreciate reentry heating.

I tried to build an SSTO once, it was awful, reentry killed them, even though I was just above 2000 m/s, I should probably turn down reentry effects.

[Vermil]

If I did kill Kerbals, then yes, I'd feel horribly bad about it. I'll struggle and make the most nail-scraping efforts to keep my Kerbals alive. I would even <shudders> ...press... <hesitates and shudders again> ...press f9.  I would even do that!  But chiefly, I test, test, test and test again. I make sure my rockets works well, in every detail function, before I send away my Kerbals on a mission in it.

And I have to say that is how I mainly derive enjoyment from this game. The meticulous development effort, and then experiencing how well the rocket works. That is satisfying. And I don't use Hyper Edit. I'm fairly certain that would kill the satisfaction for me. On the other hand, that is probably the reason I haven't done a manned mission to Eve yet. That is a hard thing.

 

Edited June 10, 2016 by Vermil

[CaelumEtAstra]

I don't know, I've never had one of my kerbals die yet. I know I'd probably very devastated if I did lose one.