Another Thread On Flag Stupidity

[The Jedi Master]

EDIT TO BE MORE CALM AND REASONABLE: There seems to be a bug of some sort that causes kerbals to flip around when planting flags. Usually, one can figure out how to make it work, but sometimes, they just want to be jerks and plant it EXACTLY the way you don't want to.

Personally, I would like an explanation as to exactly why this stupidity happens, cause it's REALLY annoying. And, yes, I know this has been mentioned before, but it's old and never got a satisfactory answer.

Edited August 20, 2013 by The Jedi Master
Calm and reasonable version :P

[Beeman]

I've only seen one thread talking about this and I don't even remember if it was the thread's original topic.

Honestly, just calm down a bit. I mean, it can be annoying if you're trying to take a screenshot, but every little thing doesn't have to be perfect. It's not an achievement planting the flag there, it's an achievement to have landed relatively safely.

Yeah, they'll probably get around to fixing the way flags are placed and I agree that it'd be nice even if they just faced the way your kerbal is facing but for now...just try not to get so worked up about it. It's just a flag, man.

[regex]

Flags should be planted in a direction perpendicular to the planting Kerbal's shoulder angle. The Kerbal should not turn once the command has been given to plant a flag.

At least, that's how I think it should work.

[The Jedi Master]

I've only seen one thread talking about this and I don't even remember if it was the thread's original topic.

Honestly, just calm down a bit. I mean, it can be annoying if you're trying to take a screenshot, but every little thing doesn't have to be perfect. It's not an achievement planting the flag there, it's an achievement to have landed relatively safely.

Yeah, they'll probably get around to fixing the way flags are placed and I agree that it'd be nice even if they just faced the way your kerbal is facing but for now...just try not to get so worked up about it. It's just a flag, man.

I'll admit, I was a bit overeactive. (that's totally a word...)

[Tiron]

There's got to be some kind of thing that determines what direction it ends up facing, I'm just not at all sure what it is. It DOES seem to vary, though.

[The Jedi Master]

You may now enjoy the calm and reasonable version.

[boxman]

Someone in one of those other threads speculated that it could have something to do with sun tracking/time of day as it seemed to change when they time warped. No idea if this is true though, as I havent tried it myself.

[Beeman]

I've only planted a handful of flags and they never seem to point quite where I want to, but I'd honestly never given it much thought. Though, there's definitely a sizable portion of the community who's bothered by this at least somewhat...so perhaps they'll reconsider how flags are planted.

Maybe it's something they'll work out when they get more EVA activities. We might even see some change in the system for .22 since we'll probably(hopefully) get new science parts. Since EVA science is going to be how you get the most research data..points...whatever they're gonna call it, we're undoubtedly going to be getting some EVA experiments and things just like the Apollo missions had. So they'll probably have to rework how the kerbal inventory works as well as how they place things. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they change(if anything) and hope for the best.

[Johnno]

Right, since I've seen this topic before in equally aggrevated tones and people seem to be completely incapable of testing things and learning on their own, I thought I'd grab some elbowgrease and test it. Personally it hasn't bothered me the least bit, I just plop the flag down and that's it, but hey, I like testing.

So, feast your eyes on this, then I'll tell you my discovered...

So, without testing it on multiple locations several times over, I conclude that flags are placed facing north or south (future testing should show if it depends on location or a planet's tilt as well). First I tested if distance from your manned module mattered, it doesn't seem to do so. Then I tested locations, if it was by 'grid' or similar, doesn't seem to be either.

But here's my major discovery. I think most of us know you can get a new flag by returning to your craft (hence all my flags, kept going in and out with Jeb). However, what I didn't know, and what I haven't seen mentioned before, is that after you plant the flag you can right click it and 'take down'. If you instantly rightclick your kerbal the 'plant flag' button won't be there, but if you move a step or a couple, you can once again plant the flag. So it's sort of in the kerbal's "inventory" and you can reuse that same flag over and over.

So, anyone complaining about 'randomness' can simply put the flag down, if it's facing the wrong way take it down and move a bit, then retry. Alternatively, if it points in a wrong direction (not just facing) you'll have to move to the appropriate side of what you want the flag to be in view of when taking your screenshot (or similar).

Yes yes I know this is a workaround and it'd be nice to be able to control the exact facing of the flag, but right now we can't. I do however conclude that it isn't "totally random", so test it, learn it, then use it to your advantage.

Edit: PS I did timewarp a couple hours in the middle of the test, enough that the sun passed overhead from one side to the other. No apparent change in flag placing.

Edit 2: After testing it on Moho I'm fairly certain that flags will face (close to) north/south when placed, no matter where.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Johnno
Additional info

[Mercy]

Why does it matter? At all?

If you're trying to take a screenshot, but your flag is the wrong way, just take the screenie from the other side. That's the only way I can see this affecting the game at all, and it's stupidly simple to solve.

[BostLabs]

Is it safe to assume that the issue with the flag has been entered into the bug tracker?

if it has been reported I would not worry any further until Squad has a chance to address it. Until it is corrected at least it isn't game stopping. Just a minor annoyance.

pretty impressive testing there Johnno.

[Brenok]

Why does it matter? At all?

If you're trying to take a screenshot, but your flag is the wrong way, just take the screenie from the other side. That's the only way I can see this affecting the game at all, and it's stupidly simple to solve.

1 - Some people have text on the flag, so turning it doesn't solve it

2 - It also doesn't help if the flag is exactly perpendicular to the direction you wanted to plant.

[MSD]

There is no reason to make it point south or north, so please remove this constraint, make it point whatever direction the kerbal is facing.