Destroyed another space station by hitting Shift instead of Alt

[Toshogu]

Remember 2+ decades when they had things like keyboard maps? why not make one for ksp and stick it on your keyboard? Or superglue a thumbtack on shift and cnrl?

[-RanZ-]

F5... always quick save

[lazarus1024]

I have on a few occasions accidently ejected a stage when I didn't mean to, but I can't think of anytime I have accidently throttled up/down and destroyed a station. I might have maybe, once or twice, accidently cut thrust, or not throttled up in time landing and crashed when I had a brain fart and forgotten what controlled the throttle.

Accidental stage seperation has killed a mission at least a couple of dozen times before (Improper staging more than that).

[HeadHunter67]

You can also right click on your engines and manually shut them off. That way, throttling up or down does absolutely nothing.

When I first docked an Apollo-style CSM to my new space station (for a Skylab-fashioned rescue/return vehicle) I made the same mistake momentarily. Fortunately I cut thrust immediately and didn't alter my station's orbit too significantly. Since then, I too have gotten into the habit of manually disabling the engines of approaching craft - in fact, I do so when I begin the docking procedure, for safety. The only thing worse than firing a craft's engine while docked with a station, would be firing the engine while on approach and plowing right into the station.

[Sof]

why does your station have rocket engines on it?

[Mercy]

why does your station have rocket engines on it?

This. If you have a shipped dock or something, always shut the engines down and never leave modules engines attached after they've been connected.

"Shipped dock". Oops. Meant ship docked...

Edited August 2, 2013 by Mercy

[HeadHunter67]

It doesn't... the craft that dock with it do. And when they're docked, the game considers them part of the station, so if you accidentally hit shift, any engines that aren't manually disabled will throttle up.

You kind of need engines to get to and from an orbital station, as you probably can imagine.

[IllicitMedic]

Thats why anytime I'm docked or not doing a burn, either on a spacecraft, station, probe, whatever...my engines are not active lol.

[Hrdina]

It doesn't... the craft that dock with it do. And when they're docked, the game considers them part of the station, so if you accidentally hit shift, any engines that aren't manually disabled will throttle up.

You kind of need engines to get to and from an orbital station, as you probably can imagine.

If you're using RCS to dock, you can disable all the main engines once you get close enough and match speeds with the station.

[Rich]

Let's keep the discussion productive and friendly guys and gals .

[Superfluous J]

why does your station have rocket engines on it?

Because I just docked a ship to it.

[Johnno]

For every problem there's a solution. Everybody makes mistakes, learning and moving forward is the important part.

I've done every mistake in the book at least twice;

No power for probecores - got into the habit of having a RTG and battery on everything I launch.

Accidental staging - got into the habit of locking staging on large/complex crafts. (Alt-L for windows)

Unexpected disassembly/bugs - got into the habit of quicksaving after every major step in a mission (burns, dockings, orbit changes, landings etc).

Accidental throttleup - got into the habit of turning off engines manually after docking and using X a lot.

Design flaws - got into the habit of testing everything on the ground several times over until it worked as intended.

That's really all there is to it, learn from your mistakes and move on.