Please, some friction!!

[Loren Pechtel]

I just had my most unpleasant experience with this yet.  I have a large tourist bus that just came back from orbit, complete with everything but the SRBs.  I haven't unlocked any landing legs that are adequate for something of this size but since it doesn't have to take off again I put all the chutes on one side and let it tip.  It's beyond it's tipping point when it lands so it immediately falls over without the chutes getting cut so it goes nice and gently.  It works perfectly except for the little detail that it likes to come down on land--looks like flat grassland but it's not quite flat.  This time it took me 10 minutes for it to finally come to rest.

Any better answers?

[Daveroski]

As early in the game it is very difficult to be certain of the terrain when landing I recommend that you only go for splash-downs. The sea near your launch area is huge and easy to hit.

This makes all landings much easier and by aiming to get as close to mission control without actually hitting land makes for good (and much safer) practice for getting those pinpoint landings on land.

Besides, I like to think that tourists would find splashdowns much more exiting.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

2 hours ago, Daveroski said:

As early in the game it is very difficult to be certain of the terrain when landing I recommend that you only go for splash-downs. The sea near your launch area is huge and easy to hit.

This makes all landings much easier and by aiming to get as close to mission control without actually hitting land makes for good (and much safer) practice for getting those pinpoint landings on land.

Besides, I like to think that tourists would find splashdowns much more exiting.

 

Yeah, I could do that.  If I simply do my deorbit burn at apoapsis it brings me down in the grasslands every time--I'm using MechJeb so things are extremely reproducable--I recover with 6 m/s in the tanks each time (Kerbin must not have weather )  Looks flat but I keep skidding for some reason.  I've found a simple fix, though--physics warp 2 immediately brings me to a stop for some reason.  (But I start moving again if I go out of warp!)  Since you can recover at physics warp 2 I don't have to wait an eternity anymore.

[Cunjo Carl]

@Loren Pechtel Depending on the size of your craft, the tiny octagonal (and 'cubic octagonal') struts are surprisingly stout, and can prevent things from rolling around 'log style' . Whether they'll survive your reentry is another question! Just coming from LKO shouldn't be an issue, though. Best of luck!

[Loren Pechtel]

On 5/30/2017 at 7:35 PM, Cunjo Carl said:

@Loren Pechtel Depending on the size of your craft, the tiny octagonal (and 'cubic octagonal') struts are surprisingly stout, and can prevent things from rolling around 'log style' . Whether they'll survive your reentry is another question! Just coming from LKO shouldn't be an issue, though. Best of luck!

The craft needs fins to make it to orbit in the first place (it's big enough the reaction wheel has little authority), there's no issue of log-rolling.  It's just sliding.  I think something odd is going on as I've caught it sliding even though ASL isn't changing and physics warp 2 almost instantly stops the slide.  The craft also has grid fins, it slides much worse with them deployed.  I'm wondering of it has something to do with the distance between the points of contact.

[Reactordrone]

Even with wheels and landing gear lack of friction is a problem. I lost a  rover on Eve that just slid down a hill with the brakes on until it had a RUD from excessive speed. Eve is probably particularly bad due the high gravity. Anything more than about a 5° slope and things just keep sliding.

[bewing]

With wheels, manually cranking the friction up to 5 will usually stop any sliding.