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So I created a rover with an EAS-1 control seat and sent it to the Mun. Everything went well, but now the Kerbal is kind of in the seat and kind of not. It looks like he's trying to walk when I drive. There's no "leave seat" option. He can EVA and take a surface sample though. He'll even grab on to a ladder if I drive him to it, but no matter what he's still stuck in the seat.

Has anyone encountered this and know a way around it? If not, since this is a pure bug and not a game feature, is there a way to modify the game files to relocate the kerbal out of the seat manually? Thank you!

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    It sounds like your Kerbal is not actually in the seat, but instead has phased through the rover. My best suggestion is to activate time warp, which will allow vessels to phase through each other.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 22:00
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    Well I tried time warp but no luck there. I did however manage to violently eject him from the seat by a near-wreck. However now that he's out of the ship and standing on the mun surface, he's completely unresponsive. Standing up, smiling, but won't move and I can't even turn his lights on. Any thoughts?
    – PMGoldstein
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 23:20
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    Update: Jeb, after being violently tossed from the rover, is now listed as "rover debris". He looks fine and popped up to his feet, but Kerbal feels otherwise. I can go to the space center and "terminate" him like any other debris, but something about that just feels so wrong. :)
    – PMGoldstein
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 23:58
  • Well that's odd. Jeb appears to be a ghost now. Never heard tell of that happening before.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Sep 24, 2014 at 0:01
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    So I was thinking, Kerbals can be picked up using the Advanced Grabbing Unit. At the very least, you'll be able to bring Jeb back to Kerbin, so theoretically, he won't be listed as MIA.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Sep 25, 2014 at 0:10

1 Answer 1

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There is a bug in KSP which causes the command seat to turn kerbals into debris. This is a very common problem so I am re-posting my explanation and solution here:

It's true that the command seats cause the kerbals to become debris, as you stated. I have driven rovers many hundreds of kilometers on the Mun and Minmus, and have had this happen many times.

In fact, it seems that just touching the command seat the wrong way can cause this! More than once I've had kerbals standing in the rover collecting science, when the rover starts to roll, causing the kerbal to bump the seat and fall out. Not every time, but sometimes the kerbal becomes completely unresponsive. It seems that the harder he bumps the seat, the more likely the chance of him becoming zombified.

Here's how I revived them a couple of times:

(WARNING! If you don't know what you're doing this most likely is not going to work for you. Back up your quicksave and Persistence files before attempting this!)

1.Stand a fully responsive kerbal beside the zombie kerbal.

2.Quicksave with F5

3.Minimize the game and open the quicksave file with Notepad or any text editor. The quicksave and persistence files are in the Saves folder within your KSP folder. Your KSP folder location depends on whether you're running the Steam or non-Steam version. In any case, it will be somewhere inside of your Program Files (x86) folder if you're running Windows 7. Sorry, I don't know about Linux or Mac.

4.Find the zombified kerbal in the file.

5.Open the quicksave file with Notepad a second time.

6.Find the responsive kerbal.

7.Compare the two and you'll see the lines that declare him as debris. Edit them appropriately according to the "good" kerbal.

8.Save the quicksave file that you edited. Be very careful because Notepad will save it with a ".txt" extension if you don't know what you're doing.

9.Go back into the game and hold down F9 to load the quicksave.

If you've done it correctly, zombie kerbal will be cured. It has taken me more than one try sometimes to be successful, but it works.

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