"Cannot switch vessel while about to crash"

[Sharpy]

Please, PLEASE kill that restriction!

Yes, a vessel is about to crash. I'm perfectly capable of saving it though. All I need is to switch to it, activate its engine and slow down a little bit. But I'm currently "driving" a random piece of debris with no active systems whatsoever, or any value for that matter, and, which is falling far too slowly to be destroyed by impact, and it's gonna keep falling for a long, long time after the actual vessel has crashed, and I really don't give a crap about it, and I could even "save" this meaningless piece of debris by having a kerbal fly over and pick it up, if you only let me switch away from it!

I honestly have no clue what that restriction is supposed to serve besides driving players crazy.

[TheEpicSquared]

Agreed.  Also the stupid "cannot switch vessels in atmosphere" thing should be removed.

[Stoney3K]

I believe this is caused by a physics restriction in Unity. Switching vessels means the active vessel needs to be "packed" and the next vessel is "unpacked" so its physics can be loaded. That is impossible when physics is acting on the vessel that is being switched from (such as moving over the surface or in atmosphere).

It's the same reason you can't switch from a vessel that is under acceleration due to a burn, which is the biggest nuisance for people flying ion engines.

[Sharpy]

7 hours ago, Stoney3K said:

I believe this is caused by a physics restriction in Unity. Switching vessels means the active vessel needs to be "packed" and the next vessel is "unpacked" so its physics can be loaded. That is impossible when physics is acting on the vessel that is being switched from (such as moving over the surface or in atmosphere).

It's the same reason you can't switch from a vessel that is under acceleration due to a burn, which is the biggest nuisance for people flying ion engines.

Problem: the craft about to crash was no farther than 400 meters away. So its physics was most definitely active, and current one would not be unloaded.

[swjr-swis]

Agreed, I would very much like to be the one to decide when I can switch to another craft, thank you very much. It does seem like Unity could not be the restriction in this particular case.

 

12 hours ago, Sharpy said:

But I'm currently "driving" a random piece of debris with no active systems whatsoever, or any value for that matter

Whatever the technical reason for the 'cannot switch' thing, I think that many cases where this becomes a problem could be prevented by giving us a toggle to select whether we want 'switch to' to work for debris without control points yes/no. Default should be no, in which case the 'switch to next/previous' hot keys should only switch between craft that have kerbals, command pods/seats, and/or probe cores. In those few use cases when one needs/wants to be able to switch to uncontrollable debris, turn the toggle on.

I have found it handy at times to be able to switch my camera to a piece of debris that had no control point whatsoever, but after having experienced a few times how switching to a completely useless piece of debris -and then not being allowed to switch back anymore- made me lose an entire ship, I would really prefer this to be something I only enable in those very few circumstances. Especially since we get absolutely no way of controlling/predicting what exactly the game will select next when we hit the 'switch to next/previous craft' hotkeys.

[katateochi]

I greatly dislike ALL the switching restrictions, when we're talking about craft inside the physics bubble. Outside of that sure, there's a good reason, but within 2.2km you should be able to switch regardless of crashing, being in atmo, while moving along the ground, etc. The thing that really irks me is that it's not consistent and in some cases you can switch and then other times not. That shows that there isn't a technical reason to prevent the switch (and also in early versions of KSP these restrictions didn't exist) but rather a (poorly implemented) rule that doesn't always take effect. Why have the restrictions in the first place? They feel like attempts at safety features, and that is insulting to Kerbalminded folk, we don't like safety features! 

I've often found myself in the situation OP describes of having a craft break apart in flight and while trying to cycle through to that bit that I could still control I get stuck on a bit of debris. So it let me switch objects to switch between various debris, but then suddenly it locks you onto one particular bit on junk the game has inexplicably taken a liking to.

Another similar thing is slamming rover brakes on when switching away from one that's in motion. Again, doesn't always do it, sometimes you can leave a rover rolling and then switch back and it's still moving, but other times it's like it gets bolted to the floor. If I switch away from a rover and it crashes, then so be it, maybe that's what I wanted! 

So yes, please Squad, remove all restrictions around switching between craft/debris that are within the physics bubble. 

[Rath]

This so much.  I was launching a rocket from a Jet and once I finished by direct munar injection burn, I tried to switch back (Via the new 24.5km unload bubble) and viola! Cannot switch vessels while in atmosphere at 50KM!