The free acceleration bug - workaround?

[Mastikator]

So I'm currently trying to dock two stations. Only problem is that if I try to rotate one of them it automatically gains an acceleration. And now I'm starting to get that on the other one as well.

The acceleration occurs when I try to rotate the station, either of the stations.

So far I have tried:

- going back to base and to the station

- restarting the game

- switching between games

- typing the issue into google, only to find out this is a 2 year old bug (wtf)

- switching between stations

 

So what I'm asking is, is there a workaround for this bug, can I still play my career game?

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

I've occasionally gotten "phantom force." But usually quitting and restarting fixes it, or going back to 1 save earlier.

Are you sure they are actually accelerating? (Pe and AP changing?)

AFAIK distance is measured from the Root part. but you rotate around CoM. Stations are large, so root parts may be getting closer, but orbits might not be changing.

 

Are you rotating with RCS on? that changes orbits.

 

Edited May 19, 2016 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[Beastofmideast]

if you are using RCS, that will change your orbit.

[Mastikator]

15 minutes ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

I've occasionally gotten "phantom force." But usually quitting and restarting fixes it, or going back to 1 save earlier.

Are you sure they are actually accelerating? (Pe and AP changing?)

AFAIK distance is measured from the Root part. but you rotate around CoM. Stations are large, so root parts may be getting closer, but orbits might not be changing.

 

Are you rotating with RCS on? that changes orbits.

 

I'm using Kerbal Engineer and can see apo and peri on both stations. They are accelerating, both the apo and peri are changing, as well is the target nav ball changing rapidly in relative velocity.

The fact that they don't change at all (almost) at one point then when I try to rotate they start accelerating at something like 2m/s^2 makes it clear that there's a phantom force working on the station.

Neither use RCS, just reaction wheels

Saving and loading does stop the acceleration, but it does not prevent it from happening again, all I can do is go back to before it all goes haywire, I can't stop it from going haywire.

Edit - I am using 1.1.2 KSP

Edited May 19, 2016 by Mastikator

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

only other thing I can think of is an earlier save.

or let this rendezvous pass, and try again later in time???? 

[Mastikator]

2 minutes ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

only other thing I can think of is an earlier save.

or let this rendezvous pass, and try again later in time???? 

How do I go back to an earlier save? I get by by using F5 and F9 in emergencies and autosave in general. Pressing F9 only gets me back to right where both stations starts experiencing phantom forces. Sure I can do another pass at rendezbvous but eventually I'll have to actually get them docked and that ain't gonna work if torque becomes translation randomly.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

14 minutes ago, Mastikator said:

How do I go back to an earlier save?

always backup your persistent file.

1. KAC does automatically for you. (look in the saves folder)

2 .Use any other procedure you wish (windows backup. making copies manually etc.)

without a backup, I'm out of ideas

sorry

14 minutes ago, Mastikator said:

Sure I can do another pass at rendezbvous but eventually

And I'm thinking if it is a bug. it may have to do with gravity and the placement of the sun and mun, and maybe just maybe it wont happen at another time...  (edit: I'm realizing thats an astrological solution )

Edited May 19, 2016 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[Mastikator]

8 minutes ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

And I'm thinking if it is a bug. it may have to do with gravity and the placement of the sun and mun, and maybe just maybe it wont happen at another time... 

That's an interesting idea, I suppose there's no rush in game. I'll try this and get back to you.

[KerbonautInTraining]

This bug will be fixed in the next update according to Nathan

[Jarin]

I don't know if it's related, but so far I'm seeing this on any station assembled in orbit, post 1.1 (i.e. didn't start as a single craft file). It acts like it's not rotating around the center of gravity properly, so as you turn, the CoG gains or loses velocity. My Minmustationary spacedock has to do a lot of station-keeping to hold position.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Jarin

[RocketBlam]

Just as an off-the-wall idea, maybe try controlling the ship(s) from different places, like docking ports.

[Sereneti]

just an idea:
do you use Win10?
because win10 will shut down USB-devices (yes, Keyboards too...) ...
if the Keyboard shut down, it will caused wirde things...

 

[Mastikator]

1 hour ago, Sereneti said:

just an idea:
do you use Win10?
because win10 will shut down USB-devices (yes, Keyboards too...) ...
if the Keyboard shut down, it will caused wirde things...

 

Windows 8.1, playing in 64bit mode for what it's worth.

[Guest]

I've seen this numerous times with my Mun vessels. So far I've been able to get around it by returning to the space center, then going back and finishing docking maneuvers as quickly as possible. Also, a quick 5x time warp seems to help. 1.1.2 is the first release that I've noticed this, but seeing as how I'm a KSP store user, this is the first version that I've had time to play for any length of time.

[Starwaster]

22 hours ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

And I'm thinking if it is a bug. it may have to do with gravity and the placement of the sun and mun, and maybe just maybe it wont happen at another time...  (edit: I'm realizing thats an astrological solution )

The only source of gravity is the body whose SOI you are in at the time. The sun's gravity is irrelevant unless you are in solar space. The Mun is irrelevant unless you are in Mun space. (orbit, hyperbolic, suborbital, etc)

You have to be in a body's SOI for it to affect you.

Also, @everyone, check throttle even if your only source of thrust is RCS. RCS can respond to the throttle now if an RCS part is configured for it. (you can do so in the VAB)