In orbit but "moving over the surface"?

[davidpsummers]

I've been having an occasional problem with my space planes.  I get to orbit, but I can't quicksave or get back to the space center because I'm "moving over the surface".  Kerbal Engineer actually has me listed as "landed".  At the moment the only solution seems to be to go all the way back to launch and start over (hoping it doesn't recur.) 

Any help?

[maceemiller]

Maybe try ALT F4 to quit game, leaving plane in orbit and reloading to try quicksaving?

Edited December 12, 2015 by maceemiller

[davidpsummers]

17 minutes ago, maceemiller said:

Maybe try ALT F4 to quit game, leaving plane in orbit and reloading to try quicksaving?

 

I won't let me quicksave ("moving over the surface" again).  It hasn't autosaved since I took off, but I'll let it run a bit and see if it does.

[davidpsummers]

48 minutes ago, davidpsummers said:

 

I won't let me quicksave ("moving over the surface" again).  It hasn't autosaved since I took off, but I'll let it run a bit and see if it does.

Yeah.  No autosave either.  

[sal_vager]

Any chance of pics?  Post them to imgur and link them here.

[Geschosskopf]

5 hours ago, davidpsummers said:

I've been having an occasional problem with my space planes.  I get to orbit, but I can't quicksave or get back to the space center because I'm "moving over the surface".  Kerbal Engineer actually has me listed as "landed".  At the moment the only solution seems to be to go all the way back to launch and start over (hoping it doesn't recur.) 

Any help?

Damn, I can't remember what the fix is.  This bug has actually been around for a while now but there's a simple fix for it, something that will make you face-palm because you didn't think of it.  But I haven't had this problem in a few months and I've forgotten how to solve it.  However, there are some old threads on this very subject if you search.

[davidpsummers]

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Damn, I can't remember what the fix is.  This bug has actually been around for a while now but there's a simple fix for it, something that will make you face-palm because you didn't think of it.  But I haven't had this problem in a few months and I've forgotten how to solve it.  However, there are some old threads on this very subject if you search.

I tried searches like "moving over the surface", "moving over terrain", "can't timewarp", "can't switch ship", etc.

6 hours ago, sal_vager said:

Any chance of pics?  Post them to imgur and link them here.

Not sure what you want pictures of.  Here are the messages....

http://i.imgur.com/c3zIxqX.png

And this shows that it doesn't draw in the orbit.

 

 

[sal_vager]

Are there any fairing bits jammed on your craft? (a pic might have shown it), there was a bug (it should be fixed in build 1028) that caused your craft to think they were landed if a fairing bit was stuck to them.

I did see another issue recently that looks like this, but if you can't save you can't exit to the tracking center.

[monophonic]

Did you activate your engines through staging or via action groups? If you have never staged the game could be stuck on invalid defaults about your craft's state.

[swjr-swis]

Have you used the gravity hack (Alt-F12, Cheats tab, Hack Gravity button) at any point while flying this craft?

I've seen those symptoms you mention (no orbit drawn, no ability to save or return to space center, game thinking the craft is still on the surface), and it was when I had used gravity hack to upright a tipped over contraption I was toying around with. Not suspecting it might be a problem, I quicksaved after I uprighted the vessel and disabled the hack.

That vessel was never able to get back 'in flight' again: I could lift off as normal but in the tracking center no orbit trajectory would be drawn, I could not save, I would get the warning you mention, etc. I tried reloading that quicksave several times after that, tried 'hopping' for a few hundred meters and letting it land again hoping to make the game register it as regularly landed so it would reset, nothing fixed it.

I ended up giving up on the vessel and reloaded a different, older save, and since then I have not used 'hack gravity' anymore when I have a vessel in-flight that I want to keep.

[davidpsummers]

I'm pretty sure I staged the engines.  I didn't use any gravity hacks.  I didn't use any fairings.  Here is a picture of the craft....

 

Oh, an interesting thing.  I ejected the stuff I was bringing up to orbit and then tried to land the craft.  Though it was moving independently up in orbit, the game still applied heating to it when I reentered the atmosphere.

[Vanamonde]

I have seen this happen twice, with SSTOs I launched from the runway. I was "on runway" despite the craft being in orbit. I had to revert the flight to get around it. 

[tonimark]

i have the same problem i tried to take off from minus flatlands with an aircraft everytime moving over the terrain , i know that airpark could be something but after toggle it on/off and bouncing on the surface multiple times yielded no results , there were no fairings , no gravity hack used