Inconsistency in the control orientation of lander cans

[mikeman7918]

KSP1’s lander can cockpits all had the window facing “down” relative to the control orientation.  As strange as this may seem at first, it makes a lot of sense in practice.  When I’m coming in to land my craft is coming in engine-first and upside down, this makes the controls the most intuitive to me, since from this orientation the lander’s engine turns to point in the direction of the key I press, and the direction of the window in that orientation matches that of the real life Apollo lunar lander.  Another benefit of a downward-facing lander can window is that it makes lander cans work as cockpits for rovers in the way you would expect, which those cockpits are fantastic for.

in KSP2, the windows on the lander cans face “up” from their control orientation.  Two of them do at least, the new large sized lander can is oriented the same as the lander cans in KSP1 with a down-facing window.  There is a certain logic to upwards-facing windows on lander cans since they allow the things to be used as airplane cockpits while looking sensible, but that’s not really their purpose.  It would be one thing if KSP2 reversed the direction of lander cans across the board, but it’s inconsistent which leads me to believe that it’s a mistake.

The game does have the ability to change control orientations on command pods, but for lander cans none of them allow you to give lander cans a KSP1 style control orientation.  If you want that you need to control the craft from a probe core or a docking port, which is a little clunky.  In my opinion the lander can control orientations should include the downward-facing window as the default option, an option to make the window face forward for use on rovers, and the current up-facing window as an option for use in planes.

Edited January 30, 2024 by mikeman7918