The klaws are sinking.

[Sharpy]

So, following Geher's advice I seeded the asteroid with a bunch of independent engines. Instead of orienting them all in one direction (which would require lots of tweaking to avoid rotation) I planted them all directed at the center of mass, which results in thrust being off-center of the navball, but no rotation problems (and I can always deal with inaccuracies resulting from the off-center thrust with corrective maneuvers later, better to be a bit inclined or at different altude than to have the asteroid crash into Kerbin or get lobbed out of the system by the Mun.)

Well, here's the problem.

Only one klaw latched to the surface right (you can see it in the upper part, behind the KER HUD display. The rest is "floating" a lot. They sink almost to the nozzle after switching them on, It isn't so much of a problem when they stabilize and just stay at their spots centered, but if they start wobbling sideways as well, they go off-center and spin the asteroid and it takes RCS a good while to catch up with their shenanigans.

The same thing happened to the tug; it was sinking almost to the cupola level, but I "pulled it up" with RCS, undocked, redocked and now it sits firmly on the surface. Unfortunately I can't undock the "seeded" engines as they have no probe cores, no control authority, just bare bones Klaw, LF fuselage, engine, two radiators and a stub of decoupler they were held with to the hub ship. Once detached they will float away as debris, unless I bring yet another klawed thing to move them around.

Saving, restarting the game etc doesn't help.

Did anyone face such an issue? Is there some decent solution to this? Editing the save?

Edited August 4, 2015 by Sharpy

[Geher]

So, following Geher's advice I seeded the asteroid with a bunch of independent engines. Instead of orienting them all in one direction (which would require lots of tweaking to avoid rotation) I planted them all directed at the center of mass, which results in thrust being off-center of the navball, but no rotation problems (and I can always deal with inaccuracies resulting from the off-center thrust with corrective maneuvers later, better to be a bit inclined or at different altude than to have the asteroid crash into Kerbin or get lobbed out of the system by the Mun.)

Well, here's the problem.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3152580/sshots/screenshot180.png

Only one klaw latched to the surface right (you can see it in the upper part, behind the KER HUD display. The rest is "floating" a lot. They sink almost to the nozzle after switching them on, It isn't so much of a problem when they stabilize and just stay at their spots centered, but if they start wobbling sideways as well, they go off-center and spin the asteroid and it takes RCS a good while to catch up with their shenanigans.

The same thing happened to the tug; it was sinking almost to the cupola level, but I "pulled it up" with RCS, undocked, redocked and now it sits firmly on the surface. Unfortunately I can't undock the "seeded" engines as they have no probe cores, no control authority, just bare bones Klaw, LF fuselage, engine, two radiators and a stub of decoupler they were held with to the hub ship. Once detached they will float away as debris, unless I bring yet another klawed thing to move them around.

Saving, restarting the game etc doesn't help.

Did anyone face such an issue? Is there some decent solution to this? Editing the save?

I personally wouldn't trust (or thrust?) this Geher...

I don't think you understood what I meant. You are still pushing the asteroid. What I meant is you should surround the asteroid with a few boosters. Let's say one booster consists of 1 orange tank, the LV-N, a probe core, some rcs and of course the klaw. The klaw should be radially attached to the booster and not on front of it as you (probably) did.

But I'm not so sure anymore if this is still a good idea. It's definitely a bad idea for a class E asteroid. You'll also have to adjust the thrust of some boosters to make the whole thing halfway stable and not rotating to one side while thrusting.

The pulling method is, as many on this forum suggested, probably the best one. Even if it doesn't look kosher, because in real life the exhaust of the engines would hit the asteroid and then it's like trying to power a sailboat with a fan.

See the similarities? But nothing against the Kranefly craft by Kuzzter. It looks really great and probably does its job very well, but I just wouldn't use it.

I think next time I'll try the pulling method, but with a very long craft and the engines at an angle so that the exhaust should theoretically go by the asteroid.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Geher

[Sharpy]

Actually, the pushing method with a crop field of engines works very well; yesterday I got the asteroid from being on a crash course with Mun into an orbit of maybe 5000km apoapsis. But the way they bobble gives me jeebies. At least they bobble, not wobble, keeping thrust going through the center of mass most of the time even if they sink most of the way into the asteroid, and after they run out of fuel they get ejected quite a way above its surface. It's really a problem with the klaw, not with the pushing method.

Refuelling them is quite a bit of a chore, but the 400 units of fuel per tank last quite a while.

Now I'm pondering capturing more asteroids and making a cluster of them in LKO, binding them with dual-claw connectors. But this one should make a fine fuel station for a while yet.

[Padishar]

Refuelling them is quite a bit of a chore, but the 400 units of fuel per tank last quite a while.

Why? Have they changed it so you can't transfer fuel through the asteroid any more? Or do you mean because some of the tanks are under the surface?

[Sharpy]

I have to find a piece of the small MK1 tank sunken 80% or more into the asteroid, not covered by the radiators, and constantly wobbling, rightclick each 2-3 times before it "catches" (the thing has some FPS impact already and the inputs need some tries), and without ability to zoom in neatly as my camera is pointed towards the center of asteroid, moves by good several meters with each "click" of the wheel and as the engines are also aimed at the center of the asteroid, when centrally on screen they burn right at the camera covering the tanks and I must hunt for a piece of visible tank by rotating the screen to have the tank in peripheral vision. I repeat it with remaining five engines, holding alt and hoping I don't rightclick the asteroid, the engine or the radiator or I will need to repeat the process from scratch. Then I pick the central tank (careful not to click the drills, the command pod, the service bays or the asteroid) and click "Out" and can finally relax.

Enough of a chore yet?

edit: and sometimes I must really hunt with the camera for an angle where a piece of the tank sticks from under ground, as some are on slopes and have one side entirely sunken.

And sometimes I need to do this in darkness.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Sharpy

[eddiew]

IThe pulling method is, as many on this forum suggested, probably the best one. Even if it doesn't look kosher, because in real life the exhaust of the engines would hit the asteroid and then it's like trying to power a sailboat with a fan.

Technically that works - with a strong enough fan

Though I'm not sure it's more efficient than just aiming the fan off the back of the boat and taking down the sail...

[Sharpy]

Technically that works - with a strong enough fan

Though I'm not sure it's more efficient than just aiming the fan off the back of the boat and taking down the sail...

[pincushionman]

…[camera control problems]…

There's a way to pan the camera or rotate in some other manner than slewing about the CoM. I believe it's middle-click-drag. You might be able to view the motor stacks from the side if you do this.

[Geher]

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/images/thumb/1/12/Launch_Escape_System.png/51px-Launch_Escape_System.png

What do you wanna say? The engines of the abort system are at an angle, so that they don't hit the bottom of the abort system or the capsule below.

[Sharpy]

What do you wanna say? The engines of the abort system are at an angle, so that they don't hit the bottom of the abort system or the capsule below.

Are they? As I observe the flame when I start the system, it just seems to wash over the cone beneath.

[Geher]

Are they? As I observe the flame when I start the system, it just seems to wash over the cone beneath.

I can't test that right now. But since the cone on the bottom isn't much bigger than the tower and aerodynamically shaped, it would still work i guess. I don't use the Launch Escape System anyway. I've made my own (reuseable) one with sepratrons.

I don't want to tell you how to play the game. It's a singleplayer game. Everybody should play the way they like.

[Sharpy]

Hey, your suggestion with "become the asteroid" was pretty good already. Save for the Klaw problems [that phrase is redundant. The word "klaw" already implies problems] it works nicely and thanks for that!