I lost Jeb!

[MrUberGr]

So recently I've been testing ODST-type vehicles. At some point I must've screwed up somethign and now jeb is MIA. Is there anyway I can resurrect him by manipulating the game files?

[Claw]

Yep, search for the "Roster" section in your persistence.sfs or your quicksave.sfs. You'll need to use a plain text editor like notepad (do NOT use word).

Look for this section, and make it match below. Jeb is usually first in the roster. You'll likely have to change the "state" and "idx" values.

	ROSTER
	{
		KERBAL
		{
			name = Jebediah Kerman
			type = Crew
			brave = 0.5
			dumb = 0.5
			badS = True
			state = Available
			ToD = 0
			idx = -1
		}

Might want to keep a copy of your save file in case you make a mistake.

Cheers,

~Claw

[Endersmens]

Hey, since we are on this subject matter, I have a question. I was editing kerbal CFGs. Making kerbals with the names of the employees of my rocket builder company for our shared save. At one point, I accidentally deleted Bill and Bob completely. I loaded up KSP, and when i clicked resume save, nothing happened. It acted like I hadn't started any saves at all. It let me start a new one, but my existing ones were gone. Are Jeb, Bill, and Bob vital for the game to function?

[MrUberGr]

yay~~! thanks

[Claw]

Hey, since we are on this subject matter, I have a question. ...Are Jeb, Bill, and Bob vital for the game to function?

Hmm, I don't think they are vital for the game to function. It might be that if you are resuming an old save, and Bill + Bob aren't defined, then the saves won't load (because it isn't considered valid). Did it delete your "invalid" saves? (Because it will do that for certain errors.)

[Starwaster]

So recently I've been testing ODST-type vehicles. At some point I must've screwed up somethign and now jeb is MIA. Is there anyway I can resurrect him by manipulating the game files?

If Jeb is only listed as MIA then he will respawn on his own. In fact I think respawning is the default I'm not sure if stock ever actually turns on perma-death yet. (debug menu lets you do so and some mods do so)

And yes, the trio are vital to your space program. If you ever lose them, your program is cursed to catastrophic failures of Whackjobian proportions

(ok, big boy serious answer time: Your saved game wasn't invalid because you deleted Bill or Bob, but because you did so improperly and damaged the file. Possibly by deleting something else you should not have or because you deleted a { or a } and now have mismatching pairs. (Each bracket/brace should be in pairs. The number of one must always equal the number of the other)

Edited August 28, 2014 by Starwaster

[Mesons]

Hey, since we are on this subject matter, I have a question. I was editing kerbal CFGs. Making kerbals with the names of the employees of my rocket builder company for our shared save. At one point, I accidentally deleted Bill and Bob completely. I loaded up KSP, and when i clicked resume save, nothing happened. It acted like I hadn't started any saves at all. It let me start a new one, but my existing ones were gone. Are Jeb, Bill, and Bob vital for the game to function?

I had this happen when I tried to change a value in my persistent.sfs to have one more digit of precision (from 19.9 science points to 19.99, I was testing something). I had opened the file using a hex editor, and replacing a . with a 9 was all it took to cause the same problem you had. It's probably something to do with the program you use; like Claw said, use a plain-text editor. I just make a copy and change the extension to .txt now.

The save file also might be treated as corrupted if something that's expected is missing, like mention of Bill, Jeb, and Bob (since they always appear in the file even if they are currently MIA).

[Jetwave]

Hey, since we are on this subject matter, I have a question. I was editing kerbal CFGs. Making kerbals with the names of the employees of my rocket builder company for our shared save. At one point, I accidentally deleted Bill and Bob completely. I loaded up KSP, and when i clicked resume save, nothing happened. It acted like I hadn't started any saves at all. It let me start a new one, but my existing ones were gone. Are Jeb, Bill, and Bob vital for the game to function?

Did you have them in a ship when you deleted them? If so it could've corrupted something.

[Rhomphaia]

Hmm, I don't think they are vital for the game to function. It might be that if you are resuming an old save, and Bill + Bob aren't defined, then the saves won't load (because it isn't considered valid). Did it delete your "invalid" saves? (Because it will do that for certain errors.)

The game will try to patch old saves. It won't for old scenarios though. If the entire roster segment was removed from a save with a current version it would cause the same issues though. not exactly as Endersmens describes but it will prevent you from opening any saves after you attempt to open the broken one.

Deleted Kerbals who were active at the time of deletion (in a pod or on EVA) will cause other issues. won't prevent you from loading the save but will prevent you from doing anything in it including quitting back to the menu

[CattyNebulart]

I had this happen when I tried to change a value in my persistent.sfs to have one more digit of precision (from 19.9 science points to 19.99, I was testing something). I had opened the file using a hex editor, and replacing a . with a 9 was all it took to cause the same problem you had. It's probably something to do with the program you use; like Claw said, use a plain-text editor. I just make a copy and change the extension to .txt now.

The save file also might be treated as corrupted if something that's expected is missing, like mention of Bill, Jeb, and Bob (since they always appear in the file even if they are currently MIA).

A hex editor is not the same as a text editor. they work very differently, you probably changes the number to something invalid like '19.9Z' instead of the '19.99' you where intending to.

[Endersmens]

Hmm, I don't think they are vital for the game to function. It might be that if you are resuming an old save, and Bill + Bob aren't defined, then the saves won't load (because it isn't considered valid). Did it delete your "invalid" saves? (Because it will do that for certain errors.)

Oh I just copied Bill and Bob from another save and it worked fine. I wasn't asking for a fix. I was just wondering why it behaved like that.

Did you have them in a ship when you deleted them? If so it could've corrupted something.

I'm not sure. that might be it.

The game will try to patch old saves. It won't for old scenarios though. If the entire roster segment was removed from a save with a current version it would cause the same issues though. not exactly as Endersmens describes but it will prevent you from opening any saves after you attempt to open the broken one.

Deleted Kerbals who were active at the time of deletion (in a pod or on EVA) will cause other issues. won't prevent you from loading the save but will prevent you from doing anything in it including quitting back to the menu

hmmm. Good to know.

[Mesons]

A hex editor is not the same as a text editor. they work very differently, you probably changes the number to something invalid like '19.9Z' instead of the '19.99' you where intending to.

The problem was with the white space, not the character I used. At any rate, accepting the default program to open the file probably won't work for most users. Selecting a text editor to open the file is clearly the way to go.