Can't reliably cycle back to rover because ladders/atmosphere.

[mcbmaestro]

I have these small 3 man, ladder mount rovers landed at my colony on Laythe, and they work great up at the outpost, but when I got to about 50m above sea level, I get the "Can't change targets in atmosphere" when I try to cycle back to the rover to drive it. I had to debug and hack gravity to jetpack my guys back to base. Half way back, I had 2 of them try to ride the rover above 50m or so and sure enough, I could cycle to the rover again and ride it.

It also tells me I can't switch to the rover when crew are on ladders sometimes, but that never stops me from cycling to the rover.

Is this some issue with the game itself changing the rules at certain elevations?

[pebble_garden]

I don't know for sure, but it's a reasonable theory.

One case of elevation-based exception coding I DO know of is that landing chutes now detach automatically when the command pod touches the ground. This exception was added with v0.18, I think, and broke my ongoing experimentation with rocket dragsters. (You generally need rocket dragsters to be in contact with the ground. If they're not, you're in trouble!)

Took me a good long while to figure out I wasn't doing anything wrong, the chutes just wouldn't stay attached. Unfortunately there's really no good alternative to chutes for stopping a mach 1+ dragster. (sad) I tried separatrons, but that had serious weight and explodiness issues.

Edited April 22, 2013 by pebble_garden

[Vanamonde]

I have had this problem, but at least when it happened to me, it was not altitude that was the problem but how far I was from any other ship. It would arise between 200 and 450m of another vessel. If ANY other ship was within that distance I could switch to driver, vehicle, or other vehicle, but if I was farther than that, I was stuck. If I drove back within that distance, it would start working properly again. Are you sure altitude is causing it in your case?

[mcbmaestro]

I have had this problem, but at least when it happened to me, it was not altitude that was the problem but how far I was from any other ship. It would arise between 200 and 450m of another vessel. If ANY other ship was within that distance I could switch to driver, vehicle, or other vehicle, but if I was farther than that, I was stuck. If I drove back within that distance, it would start working properly again. Are you sure altitude is causing it in your case?

No not sure maybe it's distance not altitude, I just happen to be nearing the shoreline when I lost the ability to change to the rover. I'm on a small island on Laythe that rovers can get around easy on so I plan to maybe drive the whole thing once and see if I can maintain control of the rover so long as the kerbals don't lose their grip which happens if I don't brake slow enough. I even had a kerbal glitch and fall through the ground as he dismounted and had to swim, under the ground to the shore to escape back to the surface. Didn't think a little excursion could be such a chore.

Edited April 22, 2013 by mcbmaestro