Surface irregularities on Eve

[snepel]

Hi all, I've been trying to do a single launch, stock parts only return mission to Eve (trying for the past month or so, getting closer every day :-) and I noticed something rather unpleasant.

To keep my delta-v needs for ascent from Eve as low as possible, I'm trying to land at Mount Useful (25 S, 158.5 W) giving me about a 7,000 m launch altitude. But almost every time I descend over this mountain range, the chutes won't open properly, resulting in a smash into the surface at about 80 m/s.

I did manage to land it properly on top the mountain once, but the craft sinks deeply (until about half its own height) into a clipping surface and even almost toppled over. EVA-ing my Kerbal lead to an almost instant explosion as he apparently fell off a hidden cliff or something.

I was wondering if these two problems may be connected. Is it possible the chutes (that should open at 2,500 and 500 m above surface) misread the altitude, for the same reason that causes the craft to 'sink' and the Kerbals to fall down?

I've never had chutes not opening before, and if I land a few kms away from the mountain, they open normally. Trying to land on top of the mountain resulted in 3 consecutive crashes because of this, so my guess it's not a fluke, but something related to the environment.

After about 30 successful landings on Eve I've gotten to know that particular craft inside out and I'm sure there is no construction or deployment failure. The chutes are semi-deployed by staging at around 20,000 m with speeds between 100 and 200 m/s, they're properly animated in semi-deployed state, all chute icons are yellow as if awaiting their automated deployment, but as we near the surface they simply remain semi-deployed until the crash into the surface of the mountain. But this happens only on or very near to Mt. Useful.

Has anyone else experienced this? As there have been similar surface problems with the Mün and other bodies, is this something that may be a more general issue with the surfaces of bodies since .21?

Edited October 6, 2013 by snepel
problem solved by helpful comments

[Starwhip]

I've never landed on said mountain, nor attempted a return mission to Eve, but landing a rover on Eve wasn't a problem.

Show me an orbital map view of Mt. Useful and I'll attempt to land my Eve rover on it and see what happens. (A few shots would be nice)

If my rover is anywhere near it I'll try to drive up, but I doubt it as the highest landmark in sight is about ~500 meters.

[RocketPilot573]

Hmm, all I can think of is that your terrain detail settings are too low. If turning them up doesn't work or if its already on normal/high, then I have no idea what could be causing this.

[lajoswinkler]

The worst problem appears when you land with one settings and later open the landed mission with another settings. It will probably cause something to explode.

The best thing is to land on something flat at high settings. If you land on a slope with low settings, returning with high settings will often cause horrible clipping and your landing legs will detach or your engine might just detonate.

[snepel]

Ok, I'm afraid this might well be my problem. I tuned down the terrain settings to the lowest, because of my gigantic spacecraft for this mission. I have a quick save from before entering the atmosphere, so I'll try landing with higher settings. Thanks for the info guys!

[snepel]

Ok, I think it must be the low terrain settings (I did set them to lowest because of the gigantic craft I built), so I'll try again with higher settings (I have a quick save from orbit so I guess that'll be early enough to switch to high detail).

I case you're curious, here are some screenshots from the mountain, and the subsequent failure to deploy the chutes:

[Pbhead]

I am also trying to get a lander down on eve, but the ISA mapsat map for eve on the wiki is obsolete or something... mountains are not where the wiki says they are.

[snepel]

This one helped me a lot, it seems up to date: http://www.kerbalmaps.com/

[Skyrunner27]

Full deployment is supposed to be based on the Air Pressure as you can see on the barometer.

[lajoswinkler]

It's not the settings that's the problem. It's changing the settings while the stuff is on the ground that causes the clipping problems.

[snepel]

Ok, I just checked. With 'good' terrain settings the problem doesn't occur anymore :-) Thanks for the help!

[FITorion]

There's another mountain of that height I think... Scott Manley's recent Eve videos made use of it. And while he wasn't stock with the whole mission his accent module was stock as far as I could tell.

He landed near it and drove the accent module up to the top and then dumped the wheels during liftoff. Perhaps that can help you.