[Kraken] Why do you suppose this happened?

[Epthelyn]

I have a feeling the answer to this thread is "Kraken", but I'm genuinely wondering what caused this:

That is all 4 of my current career mode vessels which, in picture order, were on a trajectory for Eeloo, at the altitude around Kerbol of Kerbin, on a highly eccentric Kerbol orbit and (obviously) in geosynchronous orbit around Kerbin.

I also had a third "Nuclear" rocket which I was going to send to Eeloo, but I loaded the game up, ran the save, selected that craft and the altitude display went to 666,666 and the velocity to NaN. The game froze completely and I reloaded it to find this (and Nuclear III had deleted itself)

Thankfully I can recover my science progression because it's only the crafts that screwed up

Edited November 17, 2013 by Epthelyn
Prefix and title

[Vanamonde]

Did you get an F3 report for any of them?

[DisarmingBaton5]

Nice Kraken attack.

Nuclear III may have had its root part destroyed, along with any pods attached. Have you checked the wreckage for any parts belonging to that craft only?

[Epthelyn]

Did you get an F3 report for any of them?

It was a massive list of structural failures with a few destroyed parts which I assume crashed into each other. There wasn't anything which would suggest a kraken attack, aside from the distance traveled in the 7 years of the save.

Nice Kraken attack.

Nuclear III may have had its root part destroyed, along with any pods attached. Have you checked the wreckage for any parts belonging to that craft only?

Never thought of that, checking now.

It either completely obliterated itself and then all the parts exploded (which is unlikely given how much is left of the two other identical rockets) or it disappeared. I found 4 fuel tanks and decouplers in the debris field from the tracking station, but they were almost certainly what was left of the outer LV-Ns (it was a central LV-N for the final stage, with 4 outer ones before that).

Edited November 17, 2013 by Epthelyn

[Daddy Cecil]

Either A. Kraken or B. Nuclear meltdown (not sure if it happens to NERVAs irl tho)

[SRV Ron]

Your voyager mission has gone beyond Kerban space. As soon as you attempt to fly such a mission, POOF! The rest of this probe vanished upon switching to fly mode.

[Designer225]

Yup, Kraken attack. Might be a variation of Warp Kraken, but I have a question: Did the ship warp before it was separated? Or is this the act of General Kraken?

[Epthelyn]

No warping involved.

[Barefoot Friar]

If you go back to a previous save after a Kraken attack, will the Kraken attack again? In other words, is it a random thing, or is it pretty well determined that once you hit a certain set of parameters the Kraken attack is going to happen no matter what?

Because if it's a random thing, I could see doing a file backup as often as possible in case it does show up.

[Designer225]

No warping involved.

So it just suddenly went off?

[phuzz]

... Nuclear meltdown (not sure if it happens to NERVAs irl tho)

They did destructively test a prototype nuclear rocket:

A modified Kiwi nuclear reactor was deliberately destroyed at the Nuclear Rocket Development Station in Jackass Flats, Nevada, as a safety experiment simulating an accident during a launch. Nuclear scientists imposed a sudden increase in power on the generator, there was a rapid release of heat and energy that caused the reactor to burst apart. The safety experiment was designed to obtain basic reactor shutdown information for use in predicting the behavior of nuclear rocket reactors under a wide range of accident conditions.

https://archive.org/details/GPN-2002-000145

[Marlin]

If you go back to a previous save after a Kraken attack, will the Kraken attack again? In other words, is it a random thing, or is it pretty well determined that once you hit a certain set of parameters the Kraken attack is going to happen no matter what?

Because if it's a random thing, I could see doing a file backup as often as possible in case it does show up.

I ran into the Kraken when running two inter-planetary rescues at one time. I had one rescue ship returning to Kerbin and I was sending a 2nd out to another planet. Once the 2nd ship entered orbit around Kerbol on it's way to my stranded science probe, I switched back to the first ship with Bill orbiting Kerbol on an intercept course with Kerbin. When Bill's ship finished loading, I got the NaN velocity and scrolling altitude landing on 666666.

I was able to load a recent quicksave, but every time I tried to load either ship that was currently in orbit of Kerbol, the Kraken attacked. Luckily both ships were on course for an SOI intercept, so I thought I could just accelerate time until one of them was out of Kerbol orbit. I closed the game and called it a night, though.

Then I had an idea- I installed KSP on a slightly older laptop and tried my save file. Amazingly, the Kraken did not show up, so I completed the rescue missions and exited and brought the save file back to the original computer. Kraken has stayed away since then.. so far.

SO- Kraken definitely seems to be a pre-determined thing, but also random in a sense, as it seems to depend on the exact hardware running the game. Perhaps if you run into a particularly damaging Kraken attack, you could send your savefile to another player, have then open the game and load up a few ships, and if the Kraken doesn't attack, they could then send the savefile back to you and you can see if the Kraken has been dodged?

[Designer225]

Certain Krakens probably attack certain types of vessels (Kerbals are vessels... weird...) at random times.

When you finished loading Bill's ship, Hell Kraken and NaN Kraken (or just NaN Kraken, or just Hell Kraken) attack(s), sending KSP into a pile of shenanigans. Then you did a workaround and knocked the Kraken(s) out of your save. Weird...

This is a tough nut to crack.

[little square dot]

You know why the Kraken attacked you, right? Your screenshot tells the story, plain as day.

"Keosynchronous".

Never use this term, as it annoys the Kraken to no end, you know, 'cause he's a pretty logical thinker n' such, and the above "word" makes no sense whatsoever... says the Kraken... not me.

[generalguy26]

[deleted]

Edited March 21, 2023 by generalguy26