Where to place rockets on a ship so that you can pilot it?

[Jaxry]

Hi everyone. I have a question regarding the symmetry of rocket placement.

I was building a ship in VAB earlier that had 3 rockets arranged horizontally in an equilateral triangle. The rockets were separated apart from each other by fuel tanks in the middle and thus each rocket had to be placed manually as opposed to using the auto-symmetry tool. Upon testing this ship out, I found the ship was entirely unpilotable. The ship didn't respond to pitch, yaw, or roll controls.

My question is, can multiple rockets only work in conjunction with each other (with piloting support) when placed using the auto-symmetry tool? Or can the rockets be placed apart from each other in a special way to still be pilotable? Hopefully my question is clear enough.

Thanks

[sal_vager]

Hi Jaxry, if the three tanks were installed using symmetry, then you will find the rockets will default to the same symmetry as well.

Also, welcome to the KSP community

[Ziff]

Can you post a photo of the craft? I'm having a hard time visualizing what you mean. If you placed the original center tanks with symmetry , then you can use symmetry tool to add to those tanks as well. However if you placed them individually then no, symmetry wont function on it.

[Jaxry]

Thanks for the replies. You guys were right. Upon inspecting the ship again, I realized I placed the three original center tanks without symmetry which threw everything else off. After adding the tanks, this time with the symmetry tool, the ship flew nicely.

I guess the point here to make is that the symmetry tool is vital to building symmetrical ships, not just a tool for convenience.