[Bug] Satellite Becomes Uncontrollable After Decoupling - With Video

[Scarecrow71]

I created a rocket today with 3 stacked probes on top and sent it to Duna; this was done as part of the Duna Mastery Challenge.  The object was to get 3 satellites in orbit around Duna so that you would have communications from there back to Kerbin.  And once you decouple one of the satellites, it becomes uncontrollable; SAS turns off and you can't do anything with it.  You can, however, continue to control the ship it came off of.  I created a video for this.

Now, I wanted to make sure that this wasn't something I did, so I rebuilt the ship in KSP1 and tested it.  You can see from the 2 screenshots below that this works fine in KSP1.

The ship has 6 Communotron 88-88's, 2 on each probe core, and according to the information in the VAB, this antenna has a range of 130 Gm, and if I can still control the originating ship, I should be able to control the decoupled satellite.  What makes this even worse is that there is no visual information in KSP2 to show what kind of connection I have, how strong it is, or even the green lines back to Kerbin (all of which are in KSP1).  There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to control the decoupled satellite.

As a secondary issue to this, if you watch the video, you'll see the warning/information popup for like 3 seconds before it goes away; that is far too short of time to process the information being presented.  I'd rather it didn't go away until I clicked on it.  And that doesn't even take into account the fact that the warnings come up so fast that they lay on top of each other, making all of them unreadable for the 3 seconds they are on the screen.

[CiberX15]

That sounds very similar to what I was seeing around the Mun. Posted here, might be the same issue? 

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by CiberX15

[Scarecrow71]

18 minutes ago, CiberX15 said:

That sounds very similar to what I was seeing around the Mun. Posted here, might be the same issue? 

 

No, it isn't the same.  If you watch the video, I have no control over the satellite.  No SAS, no power, no comms.  I even get a warning message about this.

[CommanderAmaro]

Same thing happens to me as well but I lose control of both crafts when I uncouple them OR it will say both are destroyed even though they are both just sitting there. This bug is so annoying. Almost as annoying as quickload sometimes outright breaking/destroying my ships randomly.

Edited March 2, 2023 by CommanderAmaro

[Scarecrow71]

Tried this again this morning with a new ship on a new campaign.  And it continues to happen.  Whether you decouple from a ship that has multiple probes OR you decouple from a ship that has a pilot, you no longer have control over the decoupled object.  This is game-breaking.

[Jacob Kerman]

I can't believe the devs haven't said anything yet.

1 minute ago, Scarecrow71 said:

Tried this again this morning with a new ship on a new campaign.  And it continues to happen.  Whether you decouple from a ship that has multiple probes OR you decouple from a ship that has a pilot, you no longer have control over the decoupled object.  This is game-breaking.

Does KSP2 still have a way to change the control point like KSP1?

[Scarecrow71]

1 minute ago, Jacob Kerman said:

I can't believe the devs haven't said anything yet.

Does KSP2 still have a way to change the control point like KSP1?

I actually tried that.  3 different ways.

1. While the probes were all still connected, I brought up the parts list and changed control to the part I was decoupling.  Once decoupled, I had control of this part...but no longer control of the ship it came from.  Whatever you have control on at the time of decoupling is what you retain control of.
2. Once the probes were decoupled, I went into Map view and selected the now-uncontrolled probe to be under my control...and I still had no control over it.  This is actually in the video (I believe).
3. After decoupling, I went back to the Tracking Station and selected the probe I wanted to control...and I still had no control over it.

I'm hoping to do a bit more testing today on this.  I want to see what the craft files look like between one I can control and one I cannot; I'm sure there is some setting in there that is causing the game to think that the decoupled probe shouldn't be controlled, and if I can find that and figure out how to edit it, then at least I'll have a work-around until the bug gets fixed.

[Kerbart]

Does the part that decouple have a stabilizer on it? The game seems to render satellites with just a probe pod but no stabilizer as "uncontrolled," regardless of torque capabilities of the probe core.

[Scarecrow71]

50 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

Does the part that decouple have a stabilizer on it? The game seems to render satellites with just a probe pod but no stabilizer as "uncontrolled," regardless of torque capabilities of the probe core.

Yep.  All 3 probes have stabilizers on them.

[Jacob Kerman]

This is BS. How did they not notice this?

[bmyers831]

Me too.

Stage 2 had a Communotron 16-s inside a payload bay (doesn't work there.. another bug?).  Back to the VAB, moved it from the payload bay to the outside of the rocket (ewww) which made it work.  

Satellite on top had a Communotron 88.  I extended the 88, then separated from the second stage at perhaps 200k altitude while in a slightly eccentric polar orbit.  No comms... dead sat.  I checked and it had full electrical charge so it wasn't that.

Edited March 4, 2023 by bmyers831

[tibernut]

I had a similar problem.  I wasn't as far as Duna, I've experienced this in Kerbin orbit and on the Mun.  Both times it happened to me I was able to regain control of the staged craft by toggling the antenna deployment off and on.  In my case I only had 1 antenna.  I wonder if you try to retract both antennas and then deploy them both if that would work for you.  Its been a few days but I seem to remember that staging, then deploying the antennas worked for me also.