Vehicles slowly drift on surface

[whale_2]

So, I tried to do some things except of flying planes from the runway - board crew, refuel, load cargo. I've built some machinery for this and finally found that whatever I do, often my vehicles start to very slowly slide on the surface. Brakes engaged, engines shut down - does not matter. One time I finally lined up my mechanized ladder and Jeb walked away from his cockpit but when it was Bill's turn to get to the ground, there was no ladder under his feet.

Am I the only one who experience such weird stuff? My search-fu gives some relevant results but seems like it happens not always and not to everybody.

My setup is KSP 1.1.3.1289 on Linux, with following mods (I tried to strip down most of them and the effect is present even on mod-free install,  maybe to some lesser degree):

B9 Aerospace

FAR

MechJeb

Procedural Dynamics

TweakScale

KIS/KAS

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

Atmosphere Autopilot

Some others that, I believe, should not affect games physics (such as TAC Life Support)

This issue is so annoying that I learned some KSP and Unity API and started to make a mod to fix that. However, may be there's some simpler solution for this? And am I only one to have it?

   
(Example of what happens to vehicles: http://imgur.com/a/7SQGL A truck with orange tank is not drifting because of me testing that mod)

[Plusck]

Yes, happens to me too - and I'm all stock.  I only noticed it really after landing on the island base: Jeb engaged brakes, got out to take a few selfies, and the plane kept drifting (at under 1cm/s, I'd guess) away from him and into the hangar.

[touzenesmy]

Common problem, I have it too, you don't have enough contact with the surface (small wheels) and you're on an inclined surface.

[whale_2]

Well, is there some rule of thumb for gear size for certain weight? That craft is ~100 ton with large main gear. Sure, I'll check it for other combination, thanks for the hint. However if the problem is common I might have sort of solution.   

[Corona688]

There's a bug in 1.1 which generates wrong horizontal forces when a craft is on an incline.  It's meant to stop it from moving when friction is sufficient but sometimes does too good a job.  The devs reported it squashed for 1.2.  I first noticed it on Minmus when I realized my rover was spending 3/4 of its time rolling downhill, even on a return trip.  This was probably exaggerated by my rover's unicycle design...

Landing gear is squirrely in 1.1 in general.  The medium gear seem the least glitchy for me, I've (almost) never had those do the runway dance.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Corona688

[Loren Pechtel]

You're not alone.  I once chased my lander 4km, I forget which moon I was on.  For Kerbal rescue missions on Minmus if the Kerbal is in reasonably steep terrain I prep MechJeb for a return to orbit and launch the instant I touch down, or if I'm coming down vertical enough and I'm near the equator I might just burn vertical when the range to target drops below 2km.  Let Mechjeb put the lander back in orbit, switch to the now-active Kerbal and use his jetpack.  MechJeb, when will you work EVA?!?!

[whale_2]

Good to know that it's not my personal absence of luck and not so good to know that there's a bug in KSP

As I said, I find this issue very annoying and have written a mod to fix it. It currently works as 'parking brake' for wheels, but I don't see why it can't be expanded to landing legs and whatever else, IMO it just needs some kind of way to be 'realistically' activated. Would some of you guys be so kind to volunteer to test it?

[Corona688]

Have you tried out the 1.2 pre-release?  Your mod might not be necessary.

[whale_2]

@Corona688, yes, you're right and I hope it will be unnecessary. (Gonna try 1.2 on the weekend) But on the other hand I guess 1.1.3 will be around for quite some time.

[Corona688]

You're right, I forgot about mods.  There's always the one mod you love which doesn't update for 6 months.  You could suggest this as an addition for the 'stock bugfixes' mod.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Corona688

[whale_2]

Frustrating, but in 1.2-pre things are the same. Plane with engines shut down and on brakes drifts toward far end of the runway.

[Jarin]

On 9/15/2016 at 9:54 AM, Corona688 said:

my rover's unicycle design

Would love to see how you made this work. How do you keep it steady and still control it? Seems like the SAS would go weird when you actually tried to drive.

[Corona688]

On 9/17/2016 at 9:19 AM, whale_2 said:

Frustrating, but in 1.2-pre things are the same. Plane with engines shut down and on brakes drifts toward far end of the runway.

What are you doing with your planes?  I can't make that happen on purpose in 1.1.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Corona688

[whale_2]

Opted to pre-release in Steam, wiped out all mods, built a simple craft, launched, put it on brakes, watched how it drifts.

Next step - wipe the whole game, redownload and try again in both 1.2 and 1.1.3

[Corona688]

On 9/17/2016 at 2:02 PM, Jarin said:

Would love to see how you made this work. How do you keep it steady and still control it? Seems like the SAS would go weird when you actually tried to drive.

Well, technically, bi-unicycle.

This was before I figured out how to properly drive it (i.e. clicking 'prograde').  You still had to lean forward while accelerating.  Braking had to be done gently, but that's true with anything on Minmus.

It was an awesome rocket car until Jeb wrecked it.  Now it's just a ordinary, boring, non-rocket car.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Corona688

[Hyenna]

When will this bug get fixed please its 4 years gone and all the vehicles are drifting away even with brakes active and friction 100%. This bug is really annoying.

 

[RandomKerbal]

On 6/2/2020 at 1:51 PM, Hyenna said:

When will this bug get fixed please its 4 years gone and all the vehicles are drifting away even with brakes active and friction 100%. This bug is really annoying.

 

Yup, you know it.