I just solved a problem that was driving me nuts - and it turns out to be a feature, not a bug!

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

I've a rover on Minimus that I've been happily driving all over the place, running science and etc.  Shut the game down last night, ran another mission this morning, and came back to my rover to discover it would not do anything.

… well, not, 'not anything'.

It would not drive. 

Wheels just, no matter what I did -- would not turn.  I could extend them, deploy them, deploy the gear, extend antenna, switch control points, turn the brakes on and off, and click all the buttons.  Frankly it was driving me mad - and after googling for 1/2 an hour I was about to come onto the forums to seek assistance.

But, instead, on a hunch, I solved it.

 

Turns out, in the intervening years between when I last played and now... Kerbnet access matters.  Solution to the "Rover suddenly won't drive" problem?  Extend the antennae, establish Kerbnet access, and whaddaya know?

The rover drives again!

 

Anyway - I'm posting this here in case anyone else runs into this feature.  Because I did not see the solution, and it might help others.

And kudos to the devs for adding yet another layer of complexity to drive this duffer crazy!

[AHHans]

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Turns out, in the intervening years between when I last played and now... Kerbnet access matters.

Yupp, it does! Although, we usually call it CommNet. KerbNet is the "mapping tool" (if you really can call it that) in stock KSP. Many a probe has found their death unheard and alone on the far side of the Mun or Minmus(*) because they got into the radio-shadow of the moon.

(*) Or Duna, or Ike, or actually any CB in the game. I think the main reason I haven't crashed into Eeloo (yet) is that I only went there once with a probe.