SAS and non-pilots

[oab2]

While playing Career my scientist at level 3 still does not have SAS abilities.  Old versions they did.  When I play Science mode a level 5 scientist has full SAS abilities.  The in-game wiki does not show that a scientist ever gets SAS. What gives?  In Career mode will a scientist ever have SAS abilities?

[Jestersage]

How old was that Old career?

I know that by the time 1.0 hit, each three class have their own specialty, and only Pilots gain SAS. Scientist are the only one that can man the Mobile Lab and reset experiment. Engineers are needed to repack chuts and fix broken components.

[John Cochran]

As far as I know, once Squad assigned the Kerbals the three professions, only pilots got SAS. Now there are some probe cores that have SAS and if I'm sending up a scientist so that I can use Goo and Materials experiments more than once I always have that ship with a Probodobodyne OKTO or better to actually provide the SAS support (if I'm going to actually land, I'll use a Probodobodyne HEXS or better. I really want that retrograde hold capability).  

[oab2]

In 1.0.5 if I got a scientist up to 3 stars he was able to do SAS.  I checked in 1.2 and in science mode game all classes were 5 stars and all had same SAS abilities.  So does Science mode deviate from Career that much?

2 minutes ago, John Cochran said:

 Now there are some probe cores that have SAS and if I'm sending up a scientist so that I can use Goo and Materials experiments more than once I always have that ship with a Probodobodyne OKTO or better to actually provide the SAS support (if I'm going to actually land, I'll use a Probodobodyne HEXS or better. I really want that retrograde hold capability).  

Thanks for the tip. I have also found that 1.2 and the comm network makes it harder to go to minmus first with a scientist and a probe core.

[regex]

In career mode only the pilots have trained to depress the "hold heading" button, other classes lack the manual dexterity for such tasks.

[Superfluous J]

Do you use mods? You can - through Module Manager trickery - grant different classes different abilities. Maybe your old career had that and your current one does not?

But yeah, in the stock game I've never seen a Scientist who could turn on SAS all by himself. Sandbox? Sure. Science mode? Maybe, I don't play it very much. But not career.

27 minutes ago, regex said:

only the pilots have trained to depress the "hold heading" button

It's funny you put it that way, because in my mind when I hit a "hold heading" button I don't imagine Jeb's doing the same thing. I imagine he's (perhaps excitedly) grabbing the stick and saying, "Finally I get to do something."

[regex]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

It's funny you put it that way, because in my mind when I hit a "hold heading" button I don't imagine Jeb's doing the same thing. I imagine he's (perhaps excitedly) grabbing the stick and saying, "Finally I get to do something."

Look at what you're saying: "I imagine he's (perhaps excitedly) grabbing the stick". That is not going to keep the craft steady. And given that probe cores can hold a heading I have no doubt that the pods can as well. The whole situation, IMNSHO, is utterly stupid and poorly designed to create artificial reasons to bring more than one Kerbal, but whatever, it's not like I hire Kerbals other than pilots and scientists, and scientists I shove in a lab and forget about.

Edited October 21, 2016 by regex

[Streetwind]

4 hours ago, oab2 said:

In 1.0.5 if I got a scientist up to 3 stars he was able to do SAS.  I checked in 1.2 and in science mode game all classes were 5 stars and all had same SAS abilities.  So does Science mode deviate from Career that much?

In  1.0.5, no scientist at any level would get SAS abilities in stock KSP. Perhaps a mod added it for you? I don't recall any such mod though.

Also, Science mode is basically "Sandbox with tech tree". No other Career features are active besides that. Hence, all Kerbals are treated as being all professions at the same time, with maximum levels in all of them.

[KerikBalm]

3 hours ago, regex said:

Look at what you're saying: "I imagine he's (perhaps excitedly) grabbing the stick". That is not going to keep the craft steady. And given that probe cores can hold a heading I have no doubt that the pods can as well. The whole situation, IMNSHO, is utterly stupid and poorly designed to create artificial reasons to bring more than one Kerbal, but whatever, it's not like I hire Kerbals other than pilots and scientists, and scientists I shove in a lab and forget about.

Well, I imagine the intent is that the pods have no automatic SAS autopilotfunction, as you can unlock the pods without unlocking the probe cores. Jeb would be the one actively stabilizing the ship by moving the stick as needed... but I agree its an arbitrary gameplay mechanic, and easily remedied by a small probe core (Which can give SAS function even when disconnected from  the com network)

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, regex said:

Look at what you're saying: "I imagine he's (perhaps excitedly) grabbing the stick". That is not going to keep the craft steady. And given that probe cores can hold a heading I have no doubt that the pods can as well. The whole situation, IMNSHO, is utterly stupid and poorly designed to create artificial reasons to bring more than one Kerbal, but whatever, it's not like I hire Kerbals other than pilots and scientists, and scientists I shove in a lab and forget about.

I had an episode with scientist in pod in Mun orbit and out of communication, he could still use sas from probe and do controlled burns, I have turned the limited control then out of communication off and can not do anything with probes if out of communication but the scientist could. I could however not touch nodes. 
 

[oab2]

On Friday, October 21, 2016 at 3:16 AM, magnemoe said:

I had an episode with scientist in pod in Mun orbit and out of communication, he could still use sas from probe and do controlled burns, I have turned the limited control then out of communication off and can not do anything with probes if out of communication but the scientist could. I could however not touch nodes. 
 

There seems to be a few things with the new communications network that you don't know if they will work or fail until you are on a collision course for the back of Minmus and have  little way of correcting the situation.  I guess I could do the math but I just assumed my antenna would work for a scientist minmus trip and I was wrong.

[magnemoe]

6 hours ago, oab2 said:

There seems to be a few things with the new communications network that you don't know if they will work or fail until you are on a collision course for the back of Minmus and have  little way of correcting the situation.  I guess I could do the math but I just assumed my antenna would work for a scientist minmus trip and I was wrong.

No so you play safe, I had planned an landing then I lost com, aborted and waited an orbit, I prefer to use nodes for the deorbit burn but no issues doing it without, but saw the situation as not safe and experimented with that control I had instead 

[oab2]

4 hours ago, magnemoe said:

No so you play safe, I had planned an landing then I lost com, aborted and waited an orbit, I prefer to use nodes for the deorbit burn but no issues doing it without, but saw the situation as not safe and experimented with that control I had instead 

Safe? This is KSP, where we build crazy rockets that will surely kill Kerbals because it's funny as heck to watch things go wrong... sometimes that is.

[Curveball Anders]

On 2016-10-22 at 5:31 PM, oab2 said:

There seems to be a few things with the new communications network that you don't know if they will work or fail until you are on a collision course for the back of Minmus and have  little way of correcting the situation.  I guess I could do the math but I just assumed my antenna would work for a scientist minmus trip and I was wrong.

I almost learned this the hard way, when a lander with a scientist and a gawker was about to dock back at Mun Station One.

Luckily I had a relay antenna on the station and a spare pilot on board so when but lander and station entered radio shadow the spare pilot on the station took over and guided the lander via the new remote control feature.

(The relay antenna was on the station for relay stuff, didn't even realise that it worked as remote control, sometimes you get lucky).

[BananaMan]

On 10/21/2016 at 5:19 AM, Superfluous J said:

Do you use mods? You can - through Module Manager trickery - grant different classes different abilities. Maybe your old career had that and your current one does not?

But yeah, in the stock game I've never seen a Scientist who could turn on SAS all by himself. Sandbox? Sure. Science mode? Maybe, I don't play it very much. But not career.

It's funny you put it that way, because in my mind when I hit a "hold heading" button I don't imagine Jeb's doing the same thing. I imagine he's (perhaps excitedly) grabbing the stick and saying, "Finally I get to do something."

How to do that Module Manager Trickery- i want to give my scientist sas for a minmus landing in career mode

[Superfluous J]

8 hours ago, BananaMan said:

How to do that Module Manager Trickery- i want to give my scientist sas for a minmus landing in career mode

That was 7 years ago I sadly don't recall the details, other than the config I used back then stopped working with an update. So even if I did know where to find it, it probably wouldn't work now.

[Scarecrow71]

16 hours ago, BananaMan said:

How to do that Module Manager Trickery- i want to give my scientist sas for a minmus landing in career mode

Mechjeb.