Is EVA Broken?

[martincmartin]

I do an EVA around Mun.  I don't turn on RCS or hit any ASDW controls, just click on EVA Report & Recycle continually.  (I'm trying to hit different biomes, I'm about 20 km above the Mun's surface.)  My Kerbonaut sometimes drifts away from my space ship.  Today, right after starting the EVA I right-clicked and dragged to change the camera orientation, and my kerbonaut was flung up several km, and was going fast enough that even using the EVA propellant, I couldn't get the distance to start shrinking, it kept increasing until it was > 18 km and I gave up.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known bug?  Is there something I can do to avoid it?

I had the MK-1 capsule, so there was only a single Kerbonaut on my space ship.  I also had 2 tourists, a bunch of science stuff, some fuel tanks & terrier, but of course all engines were off when on EVA.

[Geschosskopf]

15 hours ago, martincmartin said:

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known bug?  Is there something I can do to avoid it?

There is a known bug where a Kerbal on a hatch will immediately start sliding upwards as soon as he spawns on EVA.  If left unchecked, the Kerbal will slide off the top end of the ladder and then either drift off in space or fall to the ground, depending on where you are.  1.0.5 attempted to fix this but didn't quite.  Still, it helped a lot.  Now this problem only happens occasionally (instead of nearly all the time), the Kerbal doesn't slide nearly as fast as he used to, and you can stop him sliding with a single tap of the S key whereas before you might not be able to stop it at all.

But anyway, you always have to keep an eye out for your Kerbal sliding on a ladder.  It's usually best practice to not leave them on ladders for long periods.  Pop out just before you fly over the new biome, grab the report, and immediately board.

Now, as to flinging the Kerbal off into space, that's almost certainly the result of the spawning Kerbal clipping part of the rocket.  What happens is that if the volume of space that the Kerbal will occupy when he spawns is partially occupied already by part of the ship, the Kerbal will get flung away quite rapidly.  Normally, you know you have this problem the 1st time you EVA and if you don't get catapulted then, you generally don't have to worry about it in the future.  But sometimes there's a very small amount of clipping that usually doesn't create enough force to break the Kerbal's grip, but which sometimes will when you least expect it.  The warning sign is a slight wiggling of the newly spawned Kerbal on the hatch.  If that's been going on, it's only a matter of time before he gets flung.  And perhaps rotating the view at the critical moment when the Kerbal is spawning and getting situated on the hatch ladder caused more clipping to happen (due to draw order) than is usually the case.  Anyway, a flung Kerbal is usually a clipped Kerbal.

[Jhawk1099]

Did you let go of the craft?

 

[ZooNamedGames]

Hm, odd. Maybe the kerbal clipped the capsule and got shot off? I've seen it happen, and it often does when you spam or have the game on physics warp. Mods?

[Nich]

Happens to me all the time but never bad enough I cant recover with RCS I feel for you

[martincmartin]

10 hours ago, Jhawk1099 said:

Did you let go of the craft?

 

Not intentionally.  I have the MK-1 capsule (the one you get at the start, that only seats 1 kerbal), and it doesn't have much of a ladder.  But I never hit space, f, or did anything else that would cause her to let go.  I suppose I could add more ladders if that would help, but I don't know whether that's the problem.

[Sir_Robert]

I think calling it broken after a single glitch is a little over doing it

[RexKramer]

If you have anything attached to the capsule near the hatch, this can sometimes cause Kerbals to be flung rapidly away from the capsule when exiting.  Sometimes even small items mounted to the attachment point on top of the capsule can cause this effect.

The issue has been mostly mitigated in 1.0.5, but still occasionally occurs.  Seems to be more likely to occur if objects are mounted near the hatch.

[Mahnarch]

Always hit F5 before exiting the vehicle.

Keep your head and arms inside the vehicle at all times.

NO YELLING ON THE BUS!!!

[Jhawk1099]

7 hours ago, martincmartin said:

Not intentionally.  I have the MK-1 capsule (the one you get at the start, that only seats 1 kerbal), and it doesn't have much of a ladder.  But I never hit space, f, or did anything else that would cause her to let go.  I suppose I could add more ladders if that would help, but I don't know whether that's the problem.

well correct me if I'm wrong but im pretty sure you cant timewarp with a kerbal on a ladder

 

[nohelmet]

7 hours ago, Sir_Robert said:

I think calling it broken after a single glitch is a little over doing it

I would disagree: if it's not always working as intended then it's fair to call it broken. It's only a little bit broken, yes, but it is broken. 

[Vanamonde]

Please just offer help to the OP, if you can. Let's not get into an argument over word choices. 

[tutike2000]

Yes, EVA is very risky. I always quicksave before going on EVA, and often need to quickload.
This is due to:
- Kerbals being flung away at 40+ m/s

- Kerbals who get 'knocked out' as soon as they exit the pod and no longer respond

- Kerbals who land a bit roughly on the Mun and then slide 1km away, then either the EVA fuel is not enough to get back, or when landing, the whole slidy thing happens again.

Seriously, I need a mod that resets the 'knocked out' state of a kerbal after 3 seconds.

Edited February 18, 2016 by tutike2000

[Nich]

In instances where kerbals get flung into space by the kraken if I was unable to recover with EVA I would just cheat and turn on infinite eva fuel.

[Vive_moi]

3 hours ago, tutike2000 said:

- Kerbals being flung away at 40+ m/s

Hi,

I have made lots of Kerbin sciences with a kerbal on EVA at 250 m/s and 11000m height. (The sciences "flying low over ...")

But as you said, always with a F5 before exiting the plane.

Vive_moi

[tutike2000]

Well yes, it doesn't always happen, but when it does, the kerbal is thrown away and instantly knocked out, the game seems to think that it impacted the capsule

[martincmartin]

Thanks all!  It turns out, the Kerbal moves slowly up our down the capsule, but pressing s or w does the trick.  I need to keep an eye out for how far they're moving, while also clicking on the eva report button over and over to catch when I'm in a new biome.  But it worked!  I was going pretty fast as I was in an elliptical orbit.  On my second trip I did a circular orbit and had much less of a problem.  Next up: my first rocket with rcs thrusters, to rescue a Kerbal from orbit.  I'm sure I'll have more questions.

[tsotha]

I've had this happen, but not for a year at least (and I play almost every day).  It's true EVA isn't completely bug free, and you should always save before exiting the capsule.  But you did get unlucky.

[GDJ]

13 hours ago, tutike2000 said:

Seriously, I need a mod that resets the 'knocked out' state of a kerbal after 3 seconds.

Usually I hit R (EVA jet pack) and that usually wakes them up.

If you want to have some sick fun with Kerbals, get the Parachute mod, get a Kerbal to hang on to something at a fair speed, then click the parachute on.
 

[Vive_moi]

13 hours ago, martincmartin said:

Thanks all!  It turns out, the Kerbal moves slowly up our down the capsule, but pressing s or w does the trick.

Hello,

I agree. It is very annoying. I have heavily modified my space station in orbit and assembled lots of things on it (using KIS/KAS). The kerbals ladder gliding is really difficult to handle when 4 kerbals have to be in same time very near specific location. But I noticed, ship orientation to orbit is influent on the gliding speed and direction (up/down the ladder). But I did not tried which orientation is the best

Vive_moi

[Warzouz]

A also had the ladder problem which is a pain with my generic lande design when I want to get science from the Lab Jr which is on top a landing can Mk1

I also have a problem I don't know how to handle : After EVA, the Kerbal orients itself Normal ("head up") what ever the ship is. Leaving the ladder is not a problem but somtime grabing it is a pain, especially when the ship is "horizontal" (radial or prograde). The Kerbal grab the ladder and is pushed away quite fast out of it. I sometime had to redo it 5 or 6 times before really grab the ladder.

I never figure how to set the orientation of the kerbal away from "Normal".

[Vive_moi]

You can flip the kerbal by dragging with the left mouse button. But, as soon you make an other input he will return head up.

The kerbal ladder grabbing expulsion annoyed me often when I was working on my station. Things were slightly better when turning him when just next a ladder before grabbing.

I also tried changing the camera mode to change the head up direction but nothing I've found changed the head up reference.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Vive_moi