The Kerbal Factor.

[Geschosskopf]

In that case I'm careful to always remember their sacrifice and honour them with a 21 SRB salute.

Pretty cool idea. I might have to start doing that.

[Brapness]

Pretty cool idea. I might have to start doing that.

They don't always end well

[acealeam]

Y'know, sometimes you just have to make the tough calls, sorry my failed eve mission, but we haven't and most likely never will learn to do a heliocentric rendezvous.

[Kasuha]

Y'know, sometimes you just have to make the tough calls, sorry my failed eve mission, but we haven't and most likely never will learn to do a heliocentric rendezvous.

Don't be a quitter. What's the problem?

Heliocentric rendezvous is not a single-maneuver operation, unless you're lucky. It may take an orbit or three. Burns are long. Close encounter is anything below 2000 km. But it can be done. Nothing that can't be learned.

[NGTOne]

The problem with heliocentric rendezvous is the floating-point accuracy issue - unless you're inside the 200m range, your target will jump around every time you timewarp. The closer you get to your target, the more accurately KSP tries to model its movement, but only within the last 200 does it actually TRY.

[shoveycat]

I deorbited a 3 man tug because i didnt want it clogging up the map screen. 'nuff said

[Bobnova]

I do my best to keep them alive. Some rockets have escape towers, all are built with at least a bit of a mind towards aborts. Sometimes they even work.

I had my first death in 0.21.1 a few days ago when an orbital trike that was built to re-enter had a minor issue on re-entry: The parachutes opening knocked the kerbal out of his chair, to plummet to the ground.

The game seems to have forgotten that I lost him, which is a bit odd as I didn't go back in time.

I'm exploring with probes currently, next after that is sending a Kerbal crew to various Far Away Places and trying to get them home afterwards.

[WafflesToo]

Kerbals are whatever we make of them.

When I'm just screwing around I don't think twice about sending the lot of them to their doom, or hitting 'end mission', or hitting revert a dozen times or more, or any number of other ethical or game breaking moves.

In my RP playthroughs though, I'm far more careful with their lives; to the point that one launch (last night in fact) had me nervous from launch until insertion into LKO because there was no way to design an emergency escape system into the vehicle. I was terrified for the little guys.

[Garek]

I very much care for the fate of my Kerbals, so e.g. all my manned Launchers have a LES and are capable of at least emergency reentry of the pod (I play with DRE). So far, that worked.

The usual abort sequence actually has two stages:

On Abort: cut engines (if possible), jettison fairings, separate pod and trigger LES

On control group 0: deploy chutes and, depending on the design, jettison LES

[Starwhip]

I sent a manned Apollo mission to the Mun, and realized I didn't have a decoupler OR parachutes on the CSM. Rather than restarting, I played it through and made it back to Kerbin. I ran out of fuel in orbit. Then I undocked one of my station ferry vehicles, met with the CSM, and towed it to the station, where they are still sitting for now.

[Mr. Scruffy]

I do everything to keep my Kerbals safe. That said sometimes an accident is unavoidable, like a Kraken attack or just very bad luck. In that case I'm careful to always remember their sacrifice and honour them with a 21 SRB salute.

Hehehe. That´s something for the devs to consider. Allow the player to dedicate any designed contraption as ´honary salute´ and have it fire after a kerbal´s demise. For the ´lulz´, as they say.

[Just_Testing]

I don't believe I've ever killed a Kerbal off-Kerbin. Not in my current save anyway, and I've been way out to Laythe in that one. Except for Duna's terrain, which failed Jeb when he fell through it immediately after planting a flag, none of my astronauts have died. I tend to build my ships big and simple, to make sure nothing goes wrong. I also run the numbers on paper first, making sure my craft can make the burns.

I don't assume that Kerbals need any specific life support, so I'm happy to leave them if things go awry but I will always send a rescue mission. For example, My Titan lander is sitting, crippled, on the surface of Eve. The pilot survived, and is patiently doing science and waiting for the half-built robotic rescue mission Atlas to come and get him. And even that has a contingency plan to get his away from the wreckage and bring him back to the surface if it goes wrong.

The only place I tend to lose Kerbals is on the runway, and then I tend to blame it on KSP's physics.

All in all, rescue missions forever, and careful careful planning.

[Demon_82]

After I enabled perma-death, I have realised that I'm almost a genocide. But most of the poor dead Kerbals didn't die because of me directly. Only the ones in Duna base when the Ioncross life support oxygen ran out. Not enough atmosphere for it xD Most of my dead kerbals have been victoms of the krakens, plugin update caused krakens to explode about 7 different ships and space stations in a row.

[Moar Boosters]

My Kerbals have the same mentality as suicide bombers.

They're sure there's something magical to be found on the other planets, so they don't really mind if they have to martyr themselves for the good of kerb-kind.

This is why they're willing to participate in the 20th launch of a rocket design that's never made it past 10,000m.

[Guest]

I always return my crew. Zero deaths is my goal. Quicksaving and reverting happen a lot, though.

What do I do to go interplanetary with them, though? I'm not very skilled, and haven't returned anything from Duna (the only planet I've been to, and only once). Should I just leave them in orbit, send a fuel tank and send them back home without landing?

Edited October 7, 2013 by spink00
i don't trust myself to land them.

[Denkhak]

My Kerbals are my family. If they die, I die (inside). I try my best to keep them alive and away from dangerous things... most of the time...

[Kryssandra]

I can't honestly say that it's the generic Kerbals themselves I care about, though I do find the derpy little guys cute. It's more the notion that in order for me to consider my manned missions truly successful, the crew must survive and return home. If they don't, then I've failed.

It is a form of RP I suppose, since I obsessively follow a mission plan of probes to a target planet first before sending a manned mission. It's not at all necessary, as you could just build a lander and go straight on... but that's the way it's done in the real world, so that's how I do it. Plus, it adds an additional element of challenge and difficulty to the mission... I do things very differently with manned missions than I would do them with a robotic craft. Fewer risks, more redundant backup systems, LES, etc.

That having been said, I have to admit that certain Kerbals -do- have a special place in my heart... either because they were the ones I grew to know since the alpha days, or because they're named after my favorite YouTubers. So I do tend to care a bit more about the welfare of my crew when Jeb, Bill, Bob, Kurt, Scott, and/or Danny show up on the flight roster. Silly perhaps, but when any of them are on board I will go that extra mile to make sure they come home safe.

[Proxima]

Pre 0.21, or whatever it was when revert flight was added, I would land my Kerbals and would notice that they had very little fuel left, I would realise that my kerbals may be there for a while, so that is why I always send a mission of 2 or more Kerbals (Because I believe it is inkerbalmane to strand a Kerbal for long periods of time on his own). But I know that I will eventually (Hopefully) send a rescue mission to go and get them back. I have so far only sent kerbals to the Mun, because I believe you need to first land a probe, etc. But it is also because that if I send them any further (excluding Minmus) I may never be able to send a rescue mission to them. But this was all before I could revert, so usually if a mission goes wrong I revert now, so they are not dead!

[lewisd]

Kerbals are parts like any other, to be included in the design at the cost of their associated mass only if the mission requires their function. And Kerbals can't do very much. In vanilla, they can fix flats, repack chutes, and plant flags, in order of usefulness.

Oh my god! Kerbals can repack chutes?! I only found out about fixing flats recently, but now this adds a whole new dimension to exploring Duna and Eve and and and OMG!

[tstehler1]

Oh my god! Kerbals can repack chutes?! I only found out about fixing flats recently, but now this adds a whole new dimension to exploring Duna and Eve and and and OMG!

I made this same discovery not very long ago... One of the best moments of kerbalism I've ever had.

[Lojik]

I'm with you on this one, I only have Jeb in space at the moment and he is manning the space station in Kerbin orbit. I hope they add some factors to career mode that incorporate your crew surviving and completing missions alive.

[astropapi1]

Thread dying?

Ohmygodnotagain.jpg

A couple of days ago, Jonfel Kerman died. He was kinda like Jeb to me, he was my experimental aircraft test pilot, and it was his first time in space.

He'd been dead a long time ago if it wasn't because of the abort systems stuck on almost all planes. I might make a tribute thread with a couple of pictures of him.

[Javster]

Hmm... Try doing tests for manned missions, such as fly-by's followed by actual landings. Or send a lander with an empty capsule and a probe for control.

[Smidge204]

I always return my crew. Zero deaths is my goal. Quicksaving and reverting happen a lot, though.

What do I do to go interplanetary with them, though? I'm not very skilled, and haven't returned anything from Duna (the only planet I've been to, and only once). Should I just leave them in orbit, send a fuel tank and send them back home without landing?

I'm of the same mind... My advice is it's better to float in orbit than land. It's MUCH easier to rescue crew from orbits. When in doubt, send an unmanned probe to test fuel and thrust capacity and generally practice the mission. Add dead weight or send an empty capsule so the total mass and handling about the same. Testing on Kerbin is also good; if it can get into orbit from the launch pad it can get into orbit on most other planets and moons too.

I've had to send a "taxi" to pick up Jeb on three occasions so far, and the only landing was on Minmus. Kind of a pain even with the gentle gravity and flatness. Definitely don't land unless you're confident you can get back up...

=Smidge=

[Pigbear]

I always have a sort of attachment to charactors in games like KSP. I try to never lose kerbals. Even if it means Divine Intervention (hyperedit)