Cabadam

Playing with the camera a bit, I can confirm that it does indeed center slightly over to the side where it pulls, so it seems like that is indeed the cause. As for resolution, I had to drop the four engines on that side down to 50% thrust, and then SAS is just BARELY able to hold on the maneuver node (yaw is almost but not quite completely to the left) - but it does do it. I may drop it down to 40% just in case I ever want to turn the other way sometime Thanks for all the suggestions. She ain't perfect, but it looks like she's going to get underway afterall!

Thanks everyone for your responses today. I'll be heading in game in a little bit to try out some things. I'll keep this in mind. I definitely hit Z Fortunately, all of my docking clamps are facing directly forward and directly backwards, nothing to snap off sidewise. I'll give this a shot. I have a large number of reaction wheels on this thing to try to make it vaguely maneuverable, I'll see if I can go at a lower thrust. It rotates to the left - and front left is the docking port where I have the "heavy" fuel lander attached. Right now, most of the fuel tanks are full, but yeah I may be able to burn some off and then shift things around. Just have to remember that moving forward. Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of space to rearrange what I have docked. I mean, the two landers could probably flip flop, but they are on the front left and right, so my guess is that I would just begin turning to the right after that. Might be an interesting test though to verify cause. I am not in game at the moment - I forget, can you cap an engine's max thrust while already in flight? I know you can in the VAB. Unless I am completely mis-remembering, the engines are well spread out. I'm almost considering posting a picture of the craft, but if I'm being honest with myself it is pretty hideous. If Frankenstein built a spaceship Didn't know that - will give this a try. Surprisingly, I feel like I didn't notice the camera noticeably off center last night.

I was all proud, I built this monstrosity of a ship in LKO over several launches, docking together the pieces until I finally had my "Interplanetary Mothership". Powered largely by LF and Nuke engines, it's goal was to be capable of traveling the solar system without need for coming home to refuel or anything. Did some tests in place to see how well the reaction wheels could turn it, not great, not horrible. But then, the combined weight of this thing is... I either 243tons or 540tons, I'm not sure exactly how to read the mass in KER (it lists the vessel mass as 243,143 / 539,472kg). I'm guessing the 540 is correct. But hey, I've got just shy of 5,000 deltaV available. Alright, what should my first act be? Well, my orbit isn't quite circularized anymore, let's do that. A nice easy exercise. Get the maneuver node setup. Full thrust from all 20 nuke engines. And it starts moving... and then it starts turning, and turning, SAS can't keep it pointed to the maneuver node nor can I manually do so. Forced to cut engines before my periapsis decided to drop below the 70K mark. Well that was depressing. The engines are balanced - 5 sets of 4 (each set attached through the quad adapter) organized in a cross: + Left, right, top, bottom, and center on the rear of the vessel. I verified all 20 engines actually lit up too. That leaves me to assume my CoM isn't right. Which is fair and I definitely did not consider that during planning. I had the core of the ship with 6 docking ports and then basically started "plugging in" things I wanted. Lander with a rover, passenger modules, and (my suspicion of the problem) a refueling lander. Idea was to carry up fuel that had been mined on a moon somewhere back to the mothership so I could continue the voyage. That lander is much larger than the rover lander on the opposite docking port. Alright, story time aside, questions. Where do I go from here? Is there a good way to see the center of mass in flight? I know it can be viewed in the VAB, but the entire ship never existed in one piece down on the ground. If not... is the only solution to try to get all the pieces of something like this together in the VAB before launching up the pieces into orbit for assembly? I'm not sure I can even FIT this thing in the VAB... Am I missing another possible cause of the ship spinning when the engines fire up that might be easier to resolve?

Bingo - I think that did it. It bounced around quite a bit when I switched to it, but the cheats kept it intact until it settles. I switched and back several times and it seems fine, but I'll keep that trick in mind if it happens again. My Kerbals thank you!

I'm not sure if this best belongs on technical support or Gameplay, so starting here hoping someone has a suggestion. I have built and landed a surface base for Duna. I messed around with it a bit, EVA, etc and all seemed well. Then I left and did some other things. I came back to the station, only for it to immediately explode as soon as the game/scene loads. I've tried it both with my various mods as well as with none and it explodes either way. Any suggestions on how I can salvage the base (and the poor Kerbals in it)? I uploaded the save game to my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MZKdLX0yMFUGpPqNYc3fzvvgf-3BbGgH?usp=sharing. I had also tried sending this as an email to the kerbalspaceprogram support email, but unlike a previous problem I had, I have gotten no response there. Appreciate any advice you have!

Hah, well, at my skill level I do Apparently I need more practice with early-ish rockets. Playing sandbox probably isn't helping that much. Although, for me, I mean it's more about "wait, do I need to go scan this? What do I scan next?" I know there's kind of an in-game log of what you've done, but I haven't found it that easy to use. That's what I really meant by not knowing how to get more science. But that is probably a whole different post from this one...

Heh, yeah I've been bit by this more than a few times. That's one of the things I like about this mode. Launch an unmanned probe, have everything planned out to a T... and all of a sudden I can't figure out why I lost control the craft. Oops.

Thanks for the write-up. I at some point want to get back to a Career mode, or at least Science mode game to do like you are describing and really have to "build up" to things. I tried those modes at first but I struggled to keep track of what science I had gathered and what I still needed to. The end result was that I kind of got stuck, having essentially done all I can with current technology, but not knowing what I should do in order to get more science. When I get back to those modes, I'll keep your info handy as I advance through things.

Thanks for the welcome, have had the game for a couple months now, having a blast. On topic - oh wow. I'm an idiot. That was exactly it. Thinking about it relative to the sun and everything falls into place like it should. Doh. You know, I was really hoping it wouldn't be something that uh... simple.

I've been experimenting with a sandbox game with the communication requirements all enabled (no probe control, only KSC, etc). When reading up on the topic, I found: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Setting_up_a_CommNet_system#Constellations This suggests that multiple rings of communication satellites are needed. Is this accurate? If 6 relays work at 4,000km, why would I need 24 at 50,000km (also, I'm assuming the article lists incorrect units - it says 50,000,000km)? And couldn't I just put the more powerful RA-100 relays as the 6 innermost ones and JUST have that? I'm wondering if there is a mechanic / need I am missing here. Thanks!