Killing your Kerbals: does it make you feel bad?

[swiftgates24]

They can jump into a pit of burning rocket fuel for all I care.

[Tiron]

Depends. I keep two groups of staff ready to go: Pilots, and Cannon Fodd...er... "Experimental Test Pilots", yeah, there we go.

[boxman]

Depends on if i am playing a serious mission or not. If not then I have no issues with killing a few kerbals.

Here is one of the kerbal death machines i made today:

[_Aramchek_]

They know the risks when the sign up, if they die, they die.

They're very nihilistic little creatures too, they accept it for what it is, they'll either go to space, or die in huge explosions. And they're ok with that.

[Necandi Brasil]

It makes me feel real bad....

Haven't lost a single one of them yet... Unmaned tests

[Tiron]

DO Keep in mind they respawn after a bit by default.

[regex]

DO Keep in mind they respawn after a bit by default.

Not in my saves, they don't.

[Splode]

I feel terrible, and now that the game remembers my shame, I am even more careful than I used to be. However, revert-to-launch and revert-to-assembly mean that kerbals who die generally don't die permanently.

I really like the perma-death system though, as it encourages me to plan safer missions and include abort systems. Craft without abort systems just feel dangerous and naked now. On top of that, abort systems are so much fun to design!

[Tiron]

Not in my saves, they don't.

There's a reason I said 'by Default', not everyone realizes this.

[lajoswinkler]

I've accidentally killed Jeb, and he won't respawn.

[Nukas]

Horrible. when i see there faces of screaming as the pod hits the ground at the speed of sound. i just sit there with my cup of water and chew on some ice pondering what i have done......

[Dictatorshipper]

I have a policy of always pressing F9 when a Kerbal dies, even if it also destroys a whole space station and undoes a transfer burn.

[zxczxczbfg]

I have backup copies of their brains,DNA is on file, we will rebuild them, stronger, faster.

Jebediah Kerman, astronaut. A man barely alive. "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Jebediah will be that man. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."

[Tw1]

I avoid killing them in situations when I can't just revert.

If I have forgotten to quicksave, there's always the little X in the top corner of the window.

If they are killed by a glitch, save editing is fair game.

EditOoo, round number post count! Lets not post for awhile...

Edited August 17, 2013 by Tw1

[Niccolo]

I do. I had Jeb stuck in a pod on orbit which had, for some weird reason, decided to jettison its engine and I had no way to get him home. I terminated the mission and felt really guilty over killing him for ages!

...

Then he somehow came back to life and I freaked the hell out. Still, zombie Kerbals are pretty cool.

[Wallace]

I love Kerbals too much to let them die, they are just too cute!

I don't count reverts at launch tho, when it's something ridiculous and new, I say, that was just a simulation, doesn't count.

I'd never deliberately kill a lil Kerbal, if I was on a mission, and I had to choose between saving the ship, and saving the Kerbals, I'd pick the lil Kerbals every time, I would rescue them if they got trapped too, I've not stranded a Kerbal yet tho.

[M.Wolfy]

it depends, i know they will never die at launch because i spend too much time on (Working) escape towers, if it is a test flight i usually revert, even if they don't die. though i crashed my Kliper replica with jebediah in it and felt really bad... until i found out jebediah,bill and bob come back from the dead , though i killed jeddon Kerman in a accidental reentry with my orbital tug, THEN i felt really bad

[thescientist]

I rarely lose Kerbals, but I've left a number of them stranded on every body in the Kerbol system, except Tylo and, of course, Kerbol. Interesting thing with Kerbol exploration, my ship exploded at ~1300 m while one kerbonaut was on EVA and approaching periapsis, so I quickly started the jetpack. The ship literally blew up couple hundred metres below while I was frantically pushing the guy upwards. Now he orbits Kerbol at a highly elliptical orbit, with periapsis of ~9 km. Like a sungrazing comet, except he's not subliming.

I seem like a kraken attack but the unusual thing is that he's still alive. I think that recover the Brave kerbonaut is an interesting challenge

[leax256]

only if they are ones I named

and not at all if they are on test missions.

[Stankleberry]

Kerbals love to die.

[TheAndrewTaco]

I try to play the game like a real civilian space exploration corporation, strange as that sounds. For me, kerbals are valuable. All my flights are unmanned. The kerbals themselves are only sent up to a space station or colony or whatever when construction has been completed by unmanned craft and safety is guaranteed. So far this version I have had exactly 0 casualties.

[lajoswinkler]

I've killed a lot of them today. Probably less than 700. On purpose. I want Jebediah to respawn, but I had no luck so far.

I've made a special ship called Killjar which is basically a huge building made of those cans that hold 4 Kerbals, with mainsail engines on the bottom, and I let it climb to 2 km before turning off the engines.

If anyone knows how to clean the "lost" list, I'd appreciate the help. It's a graveyard.

ps: since I killed all these Kerbals, the game started behaving weird. While the Space Center is opened, I can't click anything except Quit. It must be a collective ghost revenge.

Edited August 17, 2013 by lajoswinkler
glitch

[BlueSubstance]

Yes, I try to save them, I even build safety-constructions and test them a few hours. The new 0.21 Function with reverting the Launch removed that feeling. Now I don't care about that anymore, I just revert the Launch if something went wrong.

[Vespasianus]

I feel strongly for my kerbals, but I don't do anything if they're stranded. It's just not worth the time, I think. As long as they are not dead, it's OK by me

[zarakon]

only if they die boring deaths