Exploding and bending ships while time warping.

[Fengist]

One thing that would also help out when you're posting pictures is to specify which is the root part, and which is the second part that you placed. I'm also thinking there might be some correlation between where the ship comes apart, and where the first two parts are. Seems fairly common that it'll bend at the joint off the second part. And often when it comes apart, the second part gets ripped out completely.

Well in the stock ship the capsule is the root part. There's an RCS can just below it but I actually added that, probably, as one of the last parts (I decided I was lazy and didn't want to spin something that long with reaction wheels) so the second part is the fuel can directly below the capsule. As for the first ship I posted, God only knows what I added when and where. I ripped that thing apart so many times trying to figure out what I did wrong, I'm not even sure what I have on it any more.

And whether it's a stock problem or an addon problem is irrelevant to me. It's the physics of KSP that's misbehaving, even if an addon is causing it.

Dunno if this shot helps much but here's the 'bending but not breaking' during the polar test.

I how have a copy of this ship in Mun orbit. When it starts doing it again, it's ready for testing.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Fengist

[Crimson Sunrise]

There were no mods on that particular ship whatsoever. Everything was completely stock down to the RCS ports. I do have mods installed yes.

I'm hesitant to uninstall them just yet as if it is one particular mod (and yea, I'm getting several that .90 says are incompatible) then it would be real nice to know which one. Unfortunately, since I can't repeat this at will yet I couldn't be certain of the results unless it started doing it again.

One idea I have (because .90 says that Kethane is incompatible with Unity and I have Kethane on an orbiting ship.) I want to get it to do it again, save, delete the ship with Kethane and see if it still does it.

The problem is that mods affect the game indirectly, even when not used in vessels, especially since the introduction of Module Manager some versions ago. This bug might be caused by incompatible mods. For example. On computers with 3 GB of RAM or less, Active Texture Management fills the entire memory of the pc, making KSP cause 'out of memory' warning messages and sometimes crash before it finishes loading. And KSP doesn't even complain about compatibility when it is running.

Also, you said you have Kethane going. As far as I know, Kethane changes A LOT of things in the core game as well (patching by Module Manager).

[Claw]

Dunno if this shot helps much but here's the 'bending but not breaking' during the polar test.

http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/Bend3-5.jpg

I how have a copy of this ship in Mun orbit. When it starts doing it again, it's ready for testing.

Does this stay persistent? I mean, after it's bent can you exit KSP and come back later, and it's still like this?

This was happening on some clawed vessels early on. I was able to load someone else's persistence and warp the claw ship to pieces (in the same way as you describe with your other ships).

Thanks,

~Claw

[Fengist]

Ok, this should get a few chuckles even though it's becoming aggrivating.

Here's an extreme contortionist (sorry I don't have fraps so you'll have to deal with an animated gif.)

It actually bent the aft end of the ship 180 degrees relative to the root part then bent it back straight then started doing it again... and that's with warp turned off. It did this about 5 or 6 times before the explosions and the entire time, rcs and the engines worked. And... for this test, there's a smaller ship docked to the rear top port. There's an Octo on that ship and I did a 'control from here' before warping. As you can see, it made no difference. It's the original root part that stays in place.

As for the Mun test... well... instant detonation.

BTW, those are two small 'boosters' in the background, not part of the original ship.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Fengist

[Fengist]

Does this stay persistent? I mean, after it's bent can you exit KSP and come back later, and it's still like this?

This was happening on some clawed vessels early on. I was able to load someone else's persistence and warp the claw ship to pieces (in the same way as you describe with your other ships).

Thanks,

~Claw

It apparently does not. I bent the large ship in the images in half warping. I quicksaved while it was doubled over and hit f9 while it was still bending. It reloaded and looked perfectly normal.

[Fengist]

I also terminated that large ship with the KAS parts, went to the stock ship orbiting the Mun, warped and it immediately separated into numerous parts.

[Fengist]

The problem is that mods affect the game indirectly, even when not used in vessels, especially since the introduction of Module Manager some versions ago. This bug might be caused by incompatible mods. For example. On computers with 3 GB of RAM or less, Active Texture Management fills the entire memory of the pc, making KSP cause 'out of memory' warning messages and sometimes crash before it finishes loading. And KSP doesn't even complain about compatibility when it is running.

Also, you said you have Kethane going. As far as I know, Kethane changes A LOT of things in the core game as well (patching by Module Manager).

Yep, and I have both. Since this is becoming rather frequent, I'm going to back all of this up, get a fresh full install from steam and start adding in things and see if/when it goes wrong.

Right now though, I'm more interested in finding out why it's doing this rather than stopping it.

[Starwaster]

Wow, three pages and still no logs.

No. posting excerpts from your log files does not count. And the screenshots don't help identify the problem, they only demonstrate that you have a problem. That's been amply demonstrated. Now it's time to present a log file. No ksp.log! Click the spoiler below to locate the log file that you need. If it is too large then use a hosting service. (dropbox, mediafire, google drive, whatever. Did I mention dropbox? Use it. Love it)

Windows: KSP_win\KSP_Data\output_log.txt -OR- KSP_win64\KSP_x64_DATA\output_log.txt (depending on which used)

- In case you installed KSP into a Windows protected directory (C:\Users, C:\Program Files or C:\Windows\ and their subfolders) the output log file may be stored in the folder called C:\Users\[username]\Appdata, this folder is usually hidden so you should enable the view hidden folders option (more information). Note that for the demo you should find the output_log.txt file located in the KSP_Data folder.

- Steam users should right click KSP in Steam, click on Properties, then in the Properties box, click Local Files, then Browse Local Files.

Mac OSX: Open Console, on the left side of the window there is a menu that says 'files'. Scroll down the list and find the Unity drop down, under Unity there will be Player.log Aka Files>~/Library/Logs>Unity>Player.log

Linux: The log is written to /home/user/.config/unity3d/Squad/Kerbal Space Program/Player.log

Also, regarding mods: When it comes to plugins (dll) then it doesn't matter if your ship is stock or modded. If the dll is running then it's possible for it to cause problems. (depends on the mod. YMMV). It's not correct thinking that if your ship had all stock parts that it is guaranteed to be a stock KSP issue. The only way to ensure that is to run KSP without any mods installed at all.

Thirdly, KSP does not report compatibility issues with mods. EVER. It's not KSP / 0.90 that reported the incompatibility. That was the mod itself.

Sorry, I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but three pages, no log files and the whole thing rife with speculation and a few misconceptions. Posting the logs in their entirety will allow those of us accustomed to troubleshooting KSP get a better handle on your problem. The logs tell us everything. What's installed, whether it loaded properly, what errors are being thrown and when and from what functions.

[Claw]

Right now though, I'm more interested in finding out why it's doing this rather than stopping it.

Same, so if you can get it narrowed down to a few mods that enable this to be repeatable that would be awesome.

Wow, three pages and still no logs.

I've been tracking this bug for a very long time. There aren't any smoking guns on this one. It might be that he has something in the logs that can narrow this down, but at the moment I'm excited that he's able to semi-reliably repeat this.

Cheers,

~Claw

[Fengist]

Wow, three pages and still no logs.

Sorry, I'm not trying to give you a hard time

If not, you're doing an excellent facsimile of it. You can ask for specific things regarding this problem without being a smart ass and I'll try to deliver.

Your log file, all 77 megs of it.

Also, regarding mods: When it comes to plugins (dll) then it doesn't matter if your ship is stock or modded. If the dll is running then it's possible for it to cause problems. (depends on the mod. YMMV). It's not correct thinking that if your ship had all stock parts that it is guaranteed to be a stock KSP issue. The only way to ensure that is to run KSP without any mods installed at all.

Yes, I'm well aware of that but I'm willing to test any idea just to make certain. Right now it seems nobody knows if this is parts, dll files or KSP itself.

Thirdly, KSP does not report compatibility issues with mods. EVER. It's not KSP / 0.90 that reported the incompatibility. That was the mod itself.

Wow, so mods are executables now? I thot I ran KSP.exe not Kethane.exe.

[MisterFister]

I notice from the pictures, especially the animated .gif, that your g-indicator seems settled around ~.65g. For the animated tumble-rat display, any properly-modeled acceleration force producing that kind of attitudinal oscillation would produce a corresponding oscillation in the g-meter. This, at the very least, might establish that this is some sub-species of kraken.

I just realized what you're suggesting. Since that first ship I posted has multiple places where it can be controlled, I'll test that theory next time it starts doing it. BUT, I think I've already experimented with that. I do recall with the ship in the first screenshots, I started noticing it that it would bend in different places depending on what part I had where. At times, it would bend in the middle, other times, I'd be left with the root part and a couple of pieces behind it. But the root part always stayed in place while the rest bent.

I'm mostly-sure that you understood what I and others were getting at with root part references, but just for the sake of being thorough, I'll clarify: we're speaking of the actual root part as defined specifically and exclusively within the VAB / SPH scene. This is not the same thing as the control-from-here part active during the flight scene. Hypothesis: redefining a mid-stack root part, perhaps a fuel tank, might change (or relocate, or even multiply) the bend-points.

There were no mods on that particular ship whatsoever. Everything was completely stock down to the RCS ports. I do have mods installed yes.

... (because .90 says that Kethane is incompatible with Unity and I have Kethane on an orbiting ship.) I want to get it to do it again, save, delete the ship with Kethane and see if it still does it.

I concur with previous highlights of this. Deleting mod-part-occurrences within the career save is in no way the same thing as uninstalling the mod. This is all the more true for a mod like Kethane which, save possibly for derivatives of RSS or FAR, is quite frankly one of, if not the single most "meddlesome" mod out there, in terms of how much the behind-the-scenes behavior is concerned. One possible troubleshooting option is to leave the kethane part folders alone, but delete / hide kethane.dll and modulemanager. This would likely generate kethane-related errors. Hypothesis 1: this "half uninstall", while likely to be game-breaking on its own, might not even affect this kraken. Hypothesis 2: Uninstalling the kethane plugin might change kraken emergence parameters (when it occurs, at what SOI locations it occurs, precipitating / trigger events) without necessarily changing the kraken behavior once it finally does become triggered.

No. posting excerpts from your log files does not count. And the screenshots don't help identify the problem, they only demonstrate that you have a problem. That's been amply demonstrated. Now it's time to present a log file. No ksp.log! Click the spoiler below to locate the log file that you need. If it is too large then use a hosting service. (dropbox, mediafire, google drive, whatever. Did I mention dropbox? Use it. Love it)

Windows: KSP_win\KSP_Data\output_log.txt -OR- KSP_win64\KSP_x64_DATA\output_log.txt (depending on which used)

- In case you installed KSP into a Windows protected directory (C:\Users, C:\Program Files or C:\Windows\ and their subfolders) the output log file may be stored in the folder called C:\Users\[username]\Appdata, this folder is usually hidden so you should enable the view hidden folders option (more information). Note that for the demo you should find the output_log.txt file located in the KSP_Data folder.

- Steam users should right click KSP in Steam, click on Properties, then in the Properties box, click Local Files, then Browse Local Files.

Mac OSX: Open Console, on the left side of the window there is a menu that says 'files'. Scroll down the list and find the Unity drop down, under Unity there will be Player.log Aka Files>~/Library/Logs>Unity>Player.log

Linux: The log is written to /home/user/.config/unity3d/Squad/Kerbal Space Program/Player.log

Also, regarding mods: When it comes to plugins (dll) then it doesn't matter if your ship is stock or modded. If the dll is running then it's possible for it to cause problems. (depends on the mod. YMMV). It's not correct thinking that if your ship had all stock parts that it is guaranteed to be a stock KSP issue. The only way to ensure that is to run KSP without any mods installed at all.

Thirdly, KSP does not report compatibility issues with mods. EVER. It's not KSP / 0.90 that reported the incompatibility. That was the mod itself.

Sorry, I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but three pages, no log files and the whole thing rife with speculation and a few misconceptions. Posting the logs in their entirety will allow those of us accustomed to troubleshooting KSP get a better handle on your problem. The logs tell us everything. What's installed, whether it loaded properly, what errors are being thrown and when and from what functions.

This might provide some corroboration to Mr. Starwaster's comments above. Often, especially with deep-seated kraken such as this one, error occurrences at the end can correlate to things WAY elsewhere in the log output. If for no other reason than the extreme difficulty in replicating this bug, I join the above request that troubleshooters experiencing this slinky-kraken provide large, wholesale dumps of entire log files -- FOR SCIENCE! If it's hundreds of megs, no problem, as things like google drive and dropbox have free trials that come with at least a gigabyte of initial space. (Dropbox offers special incentives to people signing up who use a .edu email address.)

Edited December 17, 2014 by MisterFister
Link editing at the bottom

[Claw]

Really, if you're going to start slicing at the mod route, you need to start with a clean install and build up from there. I've seen it too many times that removing a mod still leaves some sort of residual problems. Unfortunately I don't have time to download and install the mods on your list, but I'm highly interested in this. If you can manage to get it narrowed down to a handful of mods, then I will spend time building a module to dig information out of the code and dump it in the log files, so that we might have better info on what's going on inside.

I am highly interested in this project. I attempted to start a thread like this about a month ago (to fill with conjecture and speculation), but alas it died with no support.

Your log file, all 77 megs of it.

Your log file is showing a lot of errors right off the bat while loading the mods. I suppose leaving those out first might be a good place to start when narrowing down. Or maybe the other way around (start loading those first??).

Cheers,

~Claw

Edited December 17, 2014 by Claw

[Fengist]

I'm mostly-sure that you understood what I and others were getting at with root part references, but just for the sake of being thorough, I'll clarify: we're speaking of the actual root part as defined specifically and exclusively within the VAB / SPH scene. This is not the same thing as the control-from-here part active during the flight scene. Hypothesis: redefining a mid-stack root part, perhaps a fuel tank, might change (or relocate, or even multiply) the bend-points.

I do know now what you're asking for Fister and here's your experiment results.

I first tested my large vessel to confirm that this flexing was still active.

For the purpose of your experiment, here's your test vessel. The RCS can in the middle is the root part.

At 76km I warped. It flexed a bit, something I'd consider normal but did not break. It displayed that it was now at warp 5. I pressed warp again, it went back to warp 1 and displayed the message vessel under acceleration. I checked the map, it showed the AP at 108 km. I noticed the vessel speed was remaining constant at 1729.3.

I checked the map again. AP was now 138km, engines were off. Speed was still 1729.3

At 100km exactly, your test vessel snapped in half leaving only the RCS can. (sorry, it happened way too fast for me to capture flex points)

While I was processing the jpg files and writing this response I left the RCS can to continue on it's 'journey'.

As I write this, the speed of the RCS can is still 1730.3 and it's AP is over 11 million km.

Correction. it's now in Kerbol orbit and I expect soon, it'll be headed out of the solar system.

Another correction. It's not heading out, it's heading in. It's pe is now in EVE's orbit.

Sorry, if I can't have some fun with this I probably would have given up already.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Fengist

[Starwaster]

If not, you're doing an excellent facsimile of it. You can ask for specific things regarding this problem without being a smart ass and I'll try to deliver.

It's a shame you let yourself get too upset to see when somebody is trying to help you. Don't you think your reaction is way over the top? Smart ass? really?

Wow, so mods are executables now? I thot I ran KSP.exe not Kethane.exe.

Again, I try to offer you help and you respond with sarcasm. And yes, DLLs contain executable code

The following code excerpt is taken from the Kethane source code. The link will take you directly to the Kethane source containing that code. Note the parts that I boldfaced. Does it look familiar? It should.

https://github.com/Majiir/Kethane/blob/1688b8af26acb1a94d349fd2a838d9ce368924e9/Plugin/Kethane/Utilities/CompatibilityChecker.cs#L157-L179

            if ((incompatible.Length > 0) || (incompatibleUnity.Length > 0))
            {
                message += ((message == String.Empty) ? "Some" : "\n\nAdditionally, some") + " installed mods may be incompatible with this version of Kerbal Space Program. Features may be broken or disabled. Please check for updates to the listed mods.";


                if (incompatible.Length > 0)
                {
                    Debug.LogWarning("[B][CompatibilityChecker] Incompatible mods detected: " [/B]+ String.Join(", ", incompatible));
                    message += String.Format("\n\n[B]These mods are incompatible with KSP[/B] {0}.{1}.{2}:\n\n", Versioning.version_major, Versioning.version_minor, Versioning.Revision);
                    message += String.Join("\n", incompatible);
                }


                if (incompatibleUnity.Length > 0)
                {
                    Debug.LogWarning("[CompatibilityChecker] Incompatible mods (Unity) detected: " + String.Join(", ", incompatibleUnity));
                    message += String.Format("\n\nThese mods are incompatible with Unity {0}:\n\n", Application.unityVersion);
                    message += String.Join("\n", incompatibleUnity);
                }
            }


            if ((incompatible.Length > 0) || (incompatibleUnity.Length > 0) || IsWin64())
            {
[B]                PopupDialog.SpawnPopupDialog("Incompatible Mods Detected", message, "OK", true, HighLogic.Skin);[/B]
            }

I'll leave you to your little slide show. I'm so very sorry that I offered you any help at all. I will never make that mistake again. Bye.

[Fengist]

For now, since I can't reproduce this on demand until it starts doing it on it's own, I'm going to leave things as they are for a day or two to make sure nobody else has any experiment requests. After that, I'll move the entire KSP folder off, reinstall from steam and then start adding in mods from the backup. It may take several days for these results to reproduce and I'd rather anyone who wants any further testing to be able to get it.

[Fengist]

It's a shame you let yourself get too upset to see when somebody is trying to help you. Don't you think your reaction is way over the top? Smart ass? really?

Again, I try to offer you help and you respond with sarcasm. And yes, DLLs contain executable code

The following code excerpt is taken from the Kethane source code. The link will take you directly to the Kethane source containing that code. Note the parts that I boldfaced. Does it look familiar? It should.

https://github.com/Majiir/Kethane/blob/1688b8af26acb1a94d349fd2a838d9ce368924e9/Plugin/Kethane/Utilities/CompatibilityChecker.cs#L157-L179

            if ((incompatible.Length > 0) || (incompatibleUnity.Length > 0))
            {
                message += ((message == String.Empty) ? "Some" : "\n\nAdditionally, some") + " installed mods may be incompatible with this version of Kerbal Space Program. Features may be broken or disabled. Please check for updates to the listed mods.";


                if (incompatible.Length > 0)
                {
                    Debug.LogWarning("[B][CompatibilityChecker] Incompatible mods detected: " [/B]+ String.Join(", ", incompatible));
                    message += String.Format("\n\n[B]These mods are incompatible with KSP[/B] {0}.{1}.{2}:\n\n", Versioning.version_major, Versioning.version_minor, Versioning.Revision);
                    message += String.Join("\n", incompatible);
                }


                if (incompatibleUnity.Length > 0)
                {
                    Debug.LogWarning("[CompatibilityChecker] Incompatible mods (Unity) detected: " + String.Join(", ", incompatibleUnity));
                    message += String.Format("\n\nThese mods are incompatible with Unity {0}:\n\n", Application.unityVersion);
                    message += String.Join("\n", incompatibleUnity);
                }
            }


            if ((incompatible.Length > 0) || (incompatibleUnity.Length > 0) || IsWin64())
            {
[B]                PopupDialog.SpawnPopupDialog("Incompatible Mods Detected", message, "OK", true, HighLogic.Skin);[/B]
            }

I'll leave you to your little slide show. I'm so very sorry that I offered you any help at all. I will never make that mistake again. Bye.

I'm well aware of what .dll files are. Their functions and routines cannot be executed unless called by an executable. Therefore, it's KSP.exe that's calling them.

Furthermore, if your idea of offering help is to lead with insults then I'm probably better off anyway. Ta ta.

Oh, and one last thing... I love sarcasm. When it's thrown at me... I toss it right back. I'm defensively weird that way.

Wow, three pages and still no logs.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Fengist

[Fengist]

And here's another curiosity of this slinky-kraken as Fister calls it.

If... I press f9 while I know the slinky is active and if... I start pressing the '.' (warp key) while it's still loading the quicksave, the ship will load and warp just fine. If I then stop the warp and try warp again... slinky. Whatever it is, it's loading the slinky after the vessel becomes visible on-screen but before the entire hud is displayed.

And, it doesn't slinky during physics warp. It's only time warp.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Fengist

[Fengist]

Apparently, this is well known - from the Wiki

Ghost Kraken

The Ghost Kraken is a bug when entering time warp. The ship being controlled will bend until most of the parts have detached. Phantom forces will pull parts down to the planet until they crash into it. It is possible that when you reselect the ship's command pod the ship will duplicate itself and will be okay. It is impossible to time warp while being affected by this kraken because the parts are under acceleration.

[MisterFister]

The RCS can in the middle is the root part.http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/Bend4-1.jpg

(...snip...) I checked the map again. AP was now 138km, engines were off. Speed was still 1729.3

(...snip...) At 100km exactly, your test vessel snapped in half leaving only the RCS can. (sorry, it happened way too fast for me to capture flex points)

http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/Bend4-7.jpg

While I was processing the jpg files and writing this response I left the RCS can to continue on it's 'journey'.

http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/Bend4-8.jpg

(...snip...) As I write this, the speed of the RCS can is still 1730.3 and it's AP is over 11 million km.

Interesting. This seems to assert several results. First, it apparently confirms my hypothesis that root part placement seems to affect bend-point. Second, the multifaceted overlapping evidence of phantom acceleration most definitely corroborates previous observations that this is indeed a fully fledged kraken. Third, the static orbital velocity readout is peculiarly intriguing. The phantom acceleration seems to be imparting orbital energy, NOT relative velocity. I wonder how the core KSP-code imparts dV changes. I would be willing to believe that the code manipulates raw orbital telemetry data and then conically-projects the resulting trajectory changes. This would explain why persistence and quicksave files look the way they do and respond the way they do to manual editing and the HyperEdit mod. Separately, it sheds alternate light on the KSP facility career tech progression's notion of needing to update the tracking center to allow for patched conics, and by extension, maneuver nodes and vessel targeting. Further testing is indicated. IMPORTANT!: Sign up for a Dropbox account if you have not done so already. Installing the client may make testing more convenient for you, but since you'll be sharing (or should be sharing) test and experiment data with us via hyperlinks to dropbox folders, I imagine it would make no difference to us. I suggest that it might be especially important for Claw to have access to this raw data, given his mod status, tenure and reputation rating with the forum, and his obvious and avowed interest in these experiments. Perhaps segregated subfolders with persistence and quicksave files, raw screenies, and .craft files used. Ideally, I think we'd benefit at least for a few weeks from a hosted copy of your install backups, complete with GameData folder versions as you run through experiment stages. "GameData 1, original config," "GameData 2, stripped of mods back down to stock," "GameData 3, restored X mod from backup," "GameData 4, restored Y mod from backup," "GameData 5, restored mods XY together from backup," "GameData 6, restored X mod from original," etc. Within those GameData folders, provide perhaps something as humble as a .txt file with observations and experiment notes, possibly with filename references to screenies and other data. Be sure to include .craft, quicksave, and persistence files within those GameData folders for easier result tracking. For this ideal version, storage needs can expand quickly, and admittedly, free Dropbox account sizes would likely be insufficient. I, however, have a fully paid subscription to Dropbox with more than 80% of my total 1TB capacity available. I can create a folder and share upload access with you for hosting purposes. This would require you to have an active Dropbox profile. PM me for details if interested. Side question: do you still have your 0.25 install (or any other version's install) backed up from before you re-installed v.90 from Steam? I have 0.25 backed up and 0.24.?? that I can make available for testing purposes.

Follow up hypothesis 1: Since root part seems to define bend-point location, perhaps the presence, or proximity (as defined by .craft file, not defined visually) to the root part, of nearby child-parts (as defined by .craft file vessel assembly-logic tree) that are physicsless (landing gear, ladders, RCS jets, etc. -- possibly fuel lines? maybe, maybe not, since fuel lines were just completely custom redesigned from the ground up for v.90beta) affects kraken behavior or emergence in some way. Public posting of .craft and persistence / quicksave files would be essential for this, and full hosting of detailed KSP installs / GameData evolution, as described above, would be highly beneficial to testing this particular hypothesis.

Follow up hypothesis 2: Since it seems as if one possible explanation MAY be that acceleration (or stabilization, or floating point corrections, etc.) is being applied to SOME orbital properties while IGNORING corresponding changes to orbital velocity -- resulting in increasing eccentricity of the orbits as shown in your data here -- I wonder if those changes can be made visible in before / during / after quicksaves. (You can individually name multi-version quicksaves with Alt+F5 from the flight scene.)

After that, I'll move the entire KSP folder off, reinstall from steam and then start adding in mods from the backup.

Control for possible corruption within the mods. Find and download backups now of the originals to the exact current mod versions (in case the mod evolves or is updated in the meantime, since as you rightly point out, results may take time.) If one mod's restoration yields experimental results, try to see if the same behavior exhibits from both your backup copy as well as a re-download copy.

And here's another curiosity of this slinky-kraken as Fister calls it.

If... I press f9 while I know the slinky is active and if... I start pressing the '.' (warp key) while it's still loading the quicksave, the ship will load and warp just fine. If I then stop the warp and try warp again... slinky. Whatever it is, it's loading the slinky after the vessel becomes visible on-screen but before the entire hud is displayed.

And, it doesn't slinky during physics warp. It's only time warp.

Perhaps I spoke too soon to call it "slinky-kraken." Re-visiting the photos now, it appears to resemble the neck of one of those bendy-straws we all used as a kid. "Bendy-straw kraken"?

At any rate, this behavior above may prove useful.

Apparently, this is well known - from the Wiki

Ghost Kraken

The Ghost Kraken is a bug when entering time warp. The ship being controlled will bend until most of the parts have detached. Phantom forces will pull parts down to the planet until they crash into it. It is possible that when you reselect the ship's command pod the ship will duplicate itself and will be okay. It is impossible to time warp while being affected by this kraken because the parts are under acceleration.

Or not. Hmm. I'm not experiencing this kraken right now. Are the non-root parts pulled downward onto impact trajectories? Could Ghost Kraken have been "fixed" and now it works in reverse (parts pulled off remain in orbit, but to compensate, control pod is boosted up to phenomenal apoapses)? I note how this wiki entry speaks of "command pod." Prior to v.90, the ability to re-map root parts was only available through a mod. Now it's stock. This may mean that root-part experiment was never carried out before, especially since for a long time, command pods were the ONLY parts available as root parts. Non-command-pod parts weren't even available for selection in the VAB / SPH until after a command pod was placed. This was even before probe cores existed within the game to begin with. Then probe cores were introduced. Then with a more recent version, available root-part options were made possible that were not command pods or probe cores. The data you quote from the Ghost Kraken wiki provides no context as to when those observations were recorded. This bendy-straw kraken might be the same Ghost Kraken, or it might be a new species of kraken entirely. (If it's the same, I think Bendy-Straw Kraken or Slinky Kraken are much more useful terms than "Ghost Kraken." At any rate, it would be easier to search for in the forums for new users who might not have heard of the Ghost Kraken.)

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I seem to be getting the same issue. I started a new game to start fresh without all the debris in orbit, and I've only been launching large craft. Using Nyrath's Orion drive and the B9 mod to build big stuff. But, even when I make things absurdly solid, warping time by the smallest bit creates a ship explosion. My root part has been the base engine piece so far, I'll see what happens if I change it. As you might expect, an Orion ship snapping and exploding is a bit of a mess. :-)

[Crusher48]

I experienced this after my first successful asteroid redirect mission. For now, I found a work-around: doing all your time warps from the tracking station avoids having your ships breaking apart.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I experienced this after my first successful asteroid redirect mission. For now, I found a work-around: doing all your time warps from the tracking station avoids having your ships breaking apart.

I never thought of that.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I experienced this after my first successful asteroid redirect mission. For now, I found a work-around: doing all your time warps from the tracking station avoids having your ships breaking apart.

Sometimes when coming back to a ship after a time-warp from the space centre, it spontaneously explodes. Bits and pieces fly off so I don't get a report of which part failed first. :-(

Also, I build an even bigger craft using a scaled up 25m pusher-plate edition of Nyrath's Orion drive, and for some reason, it's stable. Maybe because it ends up being relatively squat. FIIK. I don't really have great expectations on stability for a beta game running old half hacked mods.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

What I think I might try is to see what happens with my explody build, when I remove bits, one at a time. Starting with bits I didn't use on my non-explody craft. It's not anything to do with multiple control points, nor total size. But my updated 25m Orion doesn't have lander legs, nor aerodynamic control items. It makes me wonder if it's aerodynamic control surfaces doing something strange.

[JCSI Space Industries]

I have encountered this same problem in 1.0.2 Is this common and is there anything I can do to help you solve it? My ships bend identically to the ones above. Thank you