Why do Kerbals in EVA orient themselfs always head north?

[egoego]

Why do Kerbals in EVA orient themselfs always head north?

I'm just curious if that has a technical reason. For me it is kind of frustrating that I can't orient them freely and those run into the trubble that my spacecraft or spacestations have to be oriented in a certain way to make sure my Kerbals can reach all necessary doors or experiments during EVA.

Or did I just not find the right combination of EVA behaivior (follow/not follow camera) and camera setting?

[Dafni]

Play around some more, the Kerbals can turn every way. I dont really get what you mean by always facing north.

When you are floating around in space, orient the camera whatever way you want the Kerbal to face, and hit W, it will orient itself that way. On top of that there are commands for turning too (or yaw/pitch/roll) when you are floating. Check the input settings for each command.

[MircoMars]

egoego is right, they orient themselves to the rotational axis of kerbin, with feet south and head north. at least that's their first impulse when you activate EVA-RCS. you can turn them head over heels with the mouse but the reorient themselves as soon as they get the chance.

[egoego]

33 minutes ago, MircoMars said:

egoego is right, they orient themselves to the rotational axis of kerbin, with feet south and head north. at least that's their first impulse when you activate EVA-RCS. you can turn them head over heels with the mouse but the reorient themselves as soon as they get the chance.

That is exactly what I meant. Flying up to a pod with a south facing door is not easy this way, because if I touch RCS he will turn and bump his head into the door (and often bounce off) instead of belly/arms first and be able to grab onto it.

As there are some ways to work around this to some degree this is just a nuisance and not a game stopper. I just wanted to ask the devs if there is as technical reason to it.

[mattinoz]

Maybe being green makes them slightly magnetic.

[p1t1o]

EVA Kerbals need sas attitude hold.

[Fred Cop]

If it helps, you can turn off "auto-orientation" in the options menu.

Basically, when you disable it, you have to pitch, yaw and roll the Kerbal manually, and it can be hard to wrap your head around.

[eddiew]

1 hour ago, Fred Cop said:

If it helps, you can turn off "auto-orientation" in the options menu.

Basically, when you disable it, you have to pitch, yaw and roll the Kerbal manually, and it can be hard to wrap your head around.

That's an option? I've been battling kerbal EVA orientation since day one... never the right way up 

[egoego]

2 hours ago, Fred Cop said:

If it helps, you can turn off "auto-orientation" in the options menu.

Basically, when you disable it, you have to pitch, yaw and roll the Kerbal manually, and it can be hard to wrap your head around.

And with "manually" you mean with the mouse? It seems I really have to play around with the settings a bit more.

[Fred Cop]

On 27 May 2016 at 0:48 PM, egoego said:

And with "manually" you mean with the mouse?

The 'E' and 'Q' keys, along with the mouse, but really what I mean is that you have to rotate the Kerbal yourself.

 

If you are asking about the controls for rotating Kerbals, here is a brief summery:

- E and Q controls Yaw (Kerbal turns left/right)

- Left click and dragging up/down controls Pitch (Kerbal tilts up/down)

- And left click and dragging left-right controls Roll (Kerbal tilts left/right)

 

If anyone wants to know what "option" I'm talking about, you'll have to give me a while to try and find it.

[FullMetalMachinist]

9 minutes ago, Fred Cop said:

The 'E' and 'Q' keys, along with the mouse, but really what I mean is that you have to rotate the Kerbal yourself.

 

If you are asking about the controls for rotating Kerbals, here is a brief summery:

- E and Q controls Yaw (Kerbal turns left/right)

- Left click and dragging up/down controls Pitch (Kerbal tilts up/down)

- And left click and dragging left-right controls Roll (Kerbal tilts left/right)

 

If anyone wants to know what "option" I'm talking about, you'll have to give me a while to try and find it.

This is correct, and the setting is "Auto rotate EVA Kerbal to camera" and it's in the main menu settings. 

With that option turned on you can still orient the kerbal however you want, but as soon as you press any of "w a s d" they will automatically go back to head-pointing-normal. 

With the option turned off you orient them however, and they keep that orientation. You can still get them to auto rotate to the default by pressing space bar. 

[Fred Cop]

1 hour ago, FullMetalMachinist said:

...and the setting is "Auto rotate EVA Kerbal to camera" and it's in the main menu settings. 

Just found that out, but thanks for posting it up.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Fred Cop

[Superfluous J]

Note also that they don't orient "north", but "up".

If you cycle camera modes, you can get them to aim different ways. Helpful if you're having trouble getting them to grab a ladder.

Edited May 28, 2016 by 5thHorseman

[FullMetalMachinist]

1 minute ago, 5thHorseman said:

Note also that they don't orient "north", but "up".

If you cycle camera modes, you can get them to aim different ways. Helpful if you're having trouble getting them to grab a ladder.

Really? 

I thought they always oriented to your orbit's Normal direction. I guess I've never tried to use alternate camera modes. 

Thanks for the tip. 

[Superfluous J]

34 minutes ago, FullMetalMachinist said:

Really? 

I thought they always oriented to your orbit's Normal direction. I guess I've never tried to use alternate camera modes. 

Thanks for the tip. 

Worse, they default to auto mode. Try some time to land an EVA Kerbal on Minmus and you'll see them reorient automatically when they go subirbital.

Also, it's really fun to land on Minmus while on EVA.

Edited May 28, 2016 by 5thHorseman