Suddenly, no torque.

[White Rider]

That's my primary space station.

As you can see there is a spaceplane docked to it. This craft used to be able to move but no more.

It flew up no problem, docked no problem, has undocked and flew fine and re-docked so docking it to the station hasn't caused any issues.

As you can see I am using a few mods but as stated, they haven't caused me any problems.

What has happened is; I sent a probe up to the station with intentions to dock it to the plane and use it later. The probe uses entirely stock parts.

I docked it to the station and undocked the plane so I could move it into a good dock position, but it won't turn. It's quite agile normally but for some reason it has suddenly lost all will to turn EVEN using rcs...

All was fine before I docked the probe to the station.

Both the station and the probe have full maneuverability both together and independently. Only the plane is affected.

Anyone ran into this?

(Yes I know this should probably go in the bugs section but I thought is investigate first.)

[toric5]

have you done anything with your settings? you should double check

[White Rider]

Literally nothing touched with settings.

[Ogre]

I built a heavy tug using one of the new probe cores, and it won't turn at all unless I use RCS. Won't budge, even with a dozen SAS modules. If I swap the probe core for the three man pod, it turns fine. And it does work using RCS, so it's different than your problem, but still seems like a bug.

[Anglave]

I've not run into this specifically, but the most common problem is a lack of electrical power.

Verify that your plane has power.

[nhnifong]

Sometimes my vessels will "lock" to one orientation in space. With stock parts only, reloading can sometimes fix it.

[RocketPilot573]

The same thing happened to me to, I undocked my space shuttle and suddenly the Space Kraken froze the ship. There was still torque, but using it just made the ship wobble in place violently.

[hugix]

I've had this a couple of times after undocking. the solution is to switch back to the space center and then back to the ship.

It is unfortunate because you want your ship away from the magnets as soon as possible so after reloading it might be that your two ships dock again.

[tavert]

Another possible cause is if your docking ports are attached to physics-less parts like small struts.

[Shadow86]

I've only just began building my first space station around Kerbin, so I haven't encountered this problem yet.

But have you tried switching between the station's command modules/cores (with right-click and Command from Here) and see if there's any difference?

[White Rider]

To answer several questions at once:

1) The plane is manned so it shouldn't need power. It has a probe part on it but it is being fed by three RTGs. It has more power than it could ever need.

2) Reloading didn't fix.

3) Switching vessels is the first thing I tried. That's how I found out that the station and probe both had torque still. No change.

4) Docking ports are attached to solid objects (fuselages/fuel tanks).

One thing I didn't try was sending another plane of the exact same design up and docking it to the station then dock the probe again. (Basically start from scratch sans station) to see how replicable the issue is.

I'll need to try that when I get the chance.

Sadly I'm not at home tonight so no KSP for me. :'(

[giltirn]

I built a heavy tug using one of the new probe cores, and it won't turn at all unless I use RCS. Won't budge, even with a dozen SAS modules. If I swap the probe core for the three man pod, it turns fine. And it does work using RCS, so it's different than your problem, but still seems like a bug.

This is not broken. SAS modules do not increase 'command torque' (aka rotation power), i.e. the torque applied when you press the WSAD keys. What they do is actually to apply a torque opposite to the direction of rotation of your ship in order to counteract that motion. You cannot control this, it is automatic, and you cannot direct it to make your ship spin faster. If you want to increase your rotation power you have to add more command modules. I find a stack of the small probe cores or an empty lander can usually adds enough for most purposes.

[Levelord]

To answer several questions at once:

1) The plane is manned so it shouldn't need power. It has a probe part on it but it is being fed by three RTGs. It has more power than it could ever need.

2) Reloading didn't fix.

3) Switching vessels is the first thing I tried. That's how I found out that the station and probe both had torque still. No change.

4) Docking ports are attached to solid objects (fuselages/fuel tanks).

One thing I didn't try was sending another plane of the exact same design up and docking it to the station then dock the probe again. (Basically start from scratch sans station) to see how replicable the issue is.

I'll need to try that when I get the chance.

Sadly I'm not at home tonight so no KSP for me. :'(

I've had something similar happen to me when docking and undocking craft from my floating Laythe base. I have a temporary work around for it.

What you do is undock your plane, and it won't move. Then I go to the Tracking Station, and select the ship again, the torque-less problems go away.

[Innuce]

Having this discussion on a couple other threads. Glad (or not so glad) I'm not the only one this is happening to. It's driving me crazy!

I can replicate the craft freezing up thing everytime on a large craft. Seems to happen less the smaller you go. My crafts wobble alot with SAS on, you can see the gimbal of the rocket engines going crazy even though they are not active. Seems worse when SAS is on than with MechJeb's Smart A.S.S.

Support forum is blaming mods. But I have removed every mod except MechJeb2 and have all the latest dev builds. Unless it is MechJeb2, but nobody is admitting anything on either end.

I kind of half wonder if it's SAS and Smart A.S.S. not getting along together. I have both ASAS and MechJeb2 on my crafts.

[Innuce]

Docking/Undocking Freezes Controls Update:

Ok, I think I figured this mess out. It is in fact related to the Octagonal Struts (both kinds).

I was told to put something inbetween Octagonal Struts and docking ports since the struts have some kind of physics problem. Well, that didn't solve the problem. It happened less frequently, but it was still there.

I believe the definitive solution is to not use the Octagonal Struts anywhere between ANY docking ports and your crafts. I had removed the Octagonal Struts from the side ports on my craft, but not the one on the nose, and it still had problems even if I used the side docking ports.

I basically created 2 sets of crafts. One set with a single Octagonal Strut on the nose, one set without. The one with the Octagonal Strut would lock up the controls no matter how I docked, nose to nose or onto the side (without Octagonal Struts). The set without Octagonal Struts never gave me any problems at all.

As for large space stations. I cannot verify at what point Ocatagonal Struts will have an impact on your craft. If they simply cannot be between docking ports and a major piece like a fuel tank? Clear line to the nearest SAS? Command module?

All my testing was with the assistance of MechJeb2 Dev build 65, no other mods installed.

This is the successful test crafts I used...

[Deadweasel]

I had the same problem with a SSTO that was docked with a drive section. Then I updated the game and brought the persistent file over.

After that, I did some upgrading to the SSTO, and sent it up to replace the original. The moment I undocked the original SSTO, it immediately keeled forward, eventually colliding with the drive sled, and falling apart from the fuel tank-forward.

It did this no matter how many times I re-loaded the quicksave and tried to change up the process. I finally noticed that at the moment I undocked, the camera moved to focus on the probe-controlled sled, rather than the manned SSTO. This seemed at odds with what I had read about the undocking behavior, so I re-loaded again, and immediately ended the sled's flight, leaving the original SSTO hanging there. Even coming back to it from the Tracking Station, I had no control over it. It simply tumbled uselessly in space, and I had no control over the RCS, ASAS or throttle. The ship acted as if it were under probe control and completely un-powered.

Eventually I just killed the whole flight and chalked it up to a quirk in carrying over the persistence file after the update. It seems like the game was ignoring the pilot and assuming that the SSTO was a piece of uncontrollable debris, now disconnected from the probe (which could still control the drive sled just fine).

The newly-launched version of the SSTO had no problems afterward.

[Rickenbacker]

I had a ship stop responding to commands, only to realize that I'd left MechJebs SmartASS on... turning it off fixed the problem .

Also, check to make sure it's not out of battery power.

[Innuce]

I had a ship stop responding to commands, only to realize that I'd left MechJebs SmartASS on... turning it off fixed the problem .

Also, check to make sure it's not out of battery power.

Even if MechJeb was stuck on, you can still at least roll the craft. It wasn't that.

As you can see I had plenty of power with the lights on.

[tavert]

I believe if you check the output logs, you may find something to the effect of "resetting inertia tensor," which triggers this bug. It's something to do with the combination of docking/undocking and physics-less parts like the cubic / octagonal struts. I certainly hope the devs are aware of more specifics (there might be a test case somewhere in the bug tracker) and attempting to fix it.

[Innuce]

I believe if you check the output logs, you may find something to the effect of "resetting inertia tensor," which triggers this bug. It's something to do with the combination of docking/undocking and physics-less parts like the cubic / octagonal struts. I certainly hope the devs are aware of more specifics (there might be a test case somewhere in the bug tracker) and attempting to fix it.

Agreed. So far I have only seen this bug using the Cubic/Octagonal Struts. But who knows, it may crop up again with some other parts?

[White Rider]

No octagonal struts of any kind on my ship so I'm not sure what the issue was. I ended up just ending flight and sending a new ssto up.