Setting trim by Alt + WASD necessitates loss of control of craft

[THX1138]

Is there a better way to set trim than to press Alt + W/A/S/D/Q/E? Trim is set very slowly and I can't just sit there holding S because then my plane stalls and maybe even goes into a spin (fin has overheated and died). I'm forced to keep pressing S for brief pulses but the oscillations have to be carefully controlled or I end up in a spin again.

 

[MachTurtle]

I wholeheartedly agree, THX.  Squad needs to have two key bindings for up and down pitch trim and allow them to be user assignable to either keystrokes or joystick buttons. I believe almost every flight simulator has this key feature implemented. 

[Wjolcz]

You can trim control surfaces in this game!?

[sardia]

Why don't you change the key pad assignments? People had the same complaints about the rover wheel controls. Same solution. 

[THX1138]

12 minutes ago, sardia said:

Why don't you change the key pad assignments? People had the same complaints about the rover wheel controls. Same solution. 

I don't understand the solution. If I map W to Num8 it will still do the same thing when I press Alt + Num8 and I'll lose control of the craft. If I map Alt to #, the same thing. Changing the key assignments doesn't resolve the problem?

[Kerbin vonKerbal]

You can also use CAPS LOCK + WASD for fine tuning control, which in your case sounds like it would help. Check your authority limiter on whatever control surface you have your pitch assigned to as well.

Edited July 24, 2016 by Kerbin vonKerbal

[Alshain]

2 hours ago, Veeltch said:

You can trim control surfaces in this game!?

Yes, if you fly without SAS.

[Pecan]

3 hours ago, THX1138 said:

Is there a better way to set trim ... because then my plane stalls and maybe even goes into a spin.

 

Have you thought of setting trim - or, *gasp* designing your plane - so that it is flyable before you even take off?  Any changes then required because of altitude/velocity/fuel-loss should be minimal.

[THX1138]

2 hours ago, Pecan said:

Have you thought of setting trim - or, *gasp* designing your plane - so that it is flyable before you even take off?  Any changes then required because of altitude/velocity/fuel-loss should be minimal.

You don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing wrong with the design of the plane - it's perfectly flyable - but traversing long distances takes a long time and I don't want to baby sit the plane. I want to leave it with trim set to pull up and SAS set to hold prograde so I can do something else but the process of setting trim requires long presses on the keys. I didn't take off; I deployed the plane from orbit and how am I supposed to know what to set the trim to before I'm in conditions I want it to work in?

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[Red Iron Crown]

10 minutes ago, THX1138 said:

I want to leave it with trim set to pull up and SAS set to hold prograde so I can do something else...

Trim has no effect when SAS is active.

[bewing]

Your only real solution is a TiltProbeCore, I think.

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by bewing

[Pecan]

10 hours ago, THX1138 said:

You don't know what you're talking about ...

Sorry about that then, I'll leave you alone and go back to my planes that don't stall as soon as I hit 'S' or become unflyable just while I'm setting trim.  Good luck with that self-flying SAS/trim thing.

You might like to try ... no, I don't know what I'm talking about.

[OHara]

There was what seems to be a good design to solve this, in a mod for 0.23.  It gave a way to transfer the SAS-controlled steering to the trim settings, so there is continuity when we release SAS.  I don't see any current mod implementing it.

[Jarin]

What really needs to be done is for the game to recognize mod+<key> as not ALSO pressing <key>. Alt+W should not also give the effect of pressing W by itself. This is interface design 101.

[Pecan]

1 hour ago, Jarin said:

What really needs to be done is for the game to recognize mod+<key> as not ALSO pressing <key>. Alt+W should not also give the effect of pressing W by itself. This is interface design 101.

Lucky they incorporated that then. At least on PC - are you on a different system?

[Alshain]

1 hour ago, Jarin said:

What really needs to be done is for the game to recognize mod+<key> as not ALSO pressing <key>. Alt+W should not also give the effect of pressing W by itself. This is interface design 101.

That fact that it already behaves as you suggest is the OP's problem.  What really needs to be done is to make the Trim keys (or for that matter ALL KEYS) assignable.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Alshain

[Jarin]

7 hours ago, Pecan said:

Lucky they incorporated that then. At least on PC - are you on a different system?

I'm on Windows 10 and it's never worked that way for me. It's a fairly constant problem, really, which I never though to report as a bug. Guess it's time to investigate...

 

Edit: I know for a fact that alt+f12 still registers the f12, so is it just the WASD they exempted? I don't use trim personally.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Jarin