What do you think of the new SAS?

[wooaa]

Personally i do not like it. In the last update they stopped the shaking that SAS caused, now they brought it back.

[Luxmaster-CZ]

Yup, Small ship (like 5 ton total) in orbit, rotating. I engage ASAS and it stops and try to get back a little. Overshoots and go forth a little. And so on and on and on.. They are pretty slow oscillations (like 0.1Hz), but still... :/

[regex]

I'm going to have to try this, sounds like the functionality has returned.

E: MUCH better, but I feel it still needs to be "stiffer". Looks like it's trying to use the required control authority, though. This is a VAST improvement over 0.21.

Edited October 16, 2013 by regex

[wooaa]

I agree with you. It seems to me like the SAS is too "soft". it tolerates a lot more sway than normal, which makes orienting a space craft much harder. I hope they fix it in a patch in the next week or so.

[Psycix]

I would prefer if it would ramp up somewhat more aggressively.

It's great that we can go straight up without wobble, but alternating steering and SAS like I used to do doesn't work properly.

Why don't we get to adjust SAS settings as we please?

[lazarus1024]

I am not doing Sandbox at the moment, so no big ships, but so far it seems to be working pretty well for me. With just a capsule its a little harder to manuever, but not terrible. For actual ships it seems to do hold heading better than it did before...which is a GOOD thing.

So far, so good.

[AceofPengwins]

I've been happy with it.

[SteevyT]

How the SAS does seems to be very heavily dependent on ship design. I have some that it holds rock solid, others it lets wiggle around a bit, and yet others it oscillates, although I haven't encountered any death shakes yet.

[lajoswinkler]

I see there's still "ASAS talk".

SAS is a function.

Parts are called IRW and IAS.

IAS has lost its purpose and exists only for compatibility with older saved crafts.

Here's a thread about the whole issue.

[Furlong]

I would agree the SAS seems a bit more 'loose' for lack of a better phrase then it .21. That said, I have no major issues with the new SAS, it seems to be quite a bit more forgiving with mistakes that I tend to make.

[FellipeC]

Here it's fine! I also like the new indicator lamp.

[Tiberion]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, SAS is 100 times more effective than it was in 0.21 - I have flown ships from single stage mini-rockets up though 500t+ monsters using Novapunch 5m parts and it doesn't oscillate. If yours are, its because your rocket is not strutted enough and has severe joint flex. It flies straight even when using my Tiberdyne shuttles with the severe (30%) center of thrust shift straight up, without any intervention, and since it now holds the other 2 axis when you input a control, it doesn't flip out any time you touch them.

Its not overpowered, you still need to build rockets correctly (control authority placed in the right places in the right amounts) but with properly built rockets its virtually perfect.

If you have a joystick make sure you have a deadzone set or it'll think you are inputting on all axis and not hold any of them.

[UntamedZer0]

I wish there was a toggle for the aggressiveness of the ASAS. I know the guy who coded the ASAS probably wishes to give me a good slap after that comment. I wish you could have it in a passive mode like it is now and set it to a more aggressive mode that allows it to lock your heading dead and expend whatever resources you have to hold it if it can be held. At any rate I feel it is progressing and is still an evolving feature with a long ways to go I am sure.

[Tiberion]

lock your heading dead and expend whatever resources you have to hold it if it can be held.

It does that now. It holds the heading it was activated on and will return to it if your flight is disrupted by something other than CONTROL INPUTS. If you do input something, it stops holding that axis and then sets the new heading as "held" when you release. If your rocket is drifting off of the heading you set, its because you don't have enough control authority.

The one improvement I could see would be to repurpose the "SAS hold" button (defaults to F) which either activates or deactivates SAS while F is held down depending on if SAS is toggled on or off. There isn't much use for the SAS hold button anymore, so it could be re-used as an "SAS release" button where it just stops managing things, but keeps the heading it was set to and will return to it when released.

but I think the instances where that would be useful are very few.

[UntamedZer0]

I have had issues with the ASAS drifting on me in .21 as well as in .22. It will not always hold it's heading dead for me and sometimes will meander off course even if the craft is capable of righting it's heading. I figured this was just an adjustment to ASAS to make you pilot more but the way you talk it's closer to a bug.

[Tiberion]

I have not experienced that after rather a lot of testing - keep an eye on the lower left and see if its reading control inputs - if so it may be deadzone related.

[Dispatcher]

I'll have to look over my designs. Since my experiences with the SAS function have been less than optimal since the update, that might mean that either the old SAS function was more forgiving of my designs, or that the new SAS function may need some tweaking; or both.

Edit: I've done a new saved game in 0.22 and made a reasonably sized craft and flown with SAS enabled. In addition to the command module (cockpit), I have one RGU near the CoM and a reaction control wheel unit between the above units (which is to say that it is not at an extreme distance from the CoM). The RGU is there in case I needed to switch control to it and compare flights, but it wasn't necessary. I also made sure that the ship's mass is within the starting TWR limits of the engine. Results: very nice, smooth control on climbs (its a rocket plane) and near apoapsis controls are quick and stable. Conclusion: SAS runs well so far.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Dispatcher
Followup testing.

[paleorob]

I have not experienced that after rather a lot of testing - keep an eye on the lower left and see if its reading control inputs - if so it may be deadzone related.

I've had more designs drift with .22 than with .21 and I know it isn't accidental control input - I only use the keyboard for controls. I don't own a joystick. So when SAS isn't keeping the heading true and my control inputs are that tells me something.

[dpraptor]

Hmmm - so now I am a bit confused.. What exactly do I need or not need for rockets? SAS or ASAS?? I still attach the ASAS module, do I even need to since I read that it was incorporated in the command modules?? Can someone give me the lowdown on that?

I launched a few rockets with the ASAS module and so far have had no drift at all, although the rockets were not too complicated.

Edited October 17, 2013 by dpraptor

[KatzOhki]

I had a launch vehicle spin out of control that SAS never locked back in to stop the spinning.

[Specialist290]

If yours are, its because your rocket is not strutted enough and has severe joint flex.

Which is a problem in Career Mode, because struts are fairly high up in the tech tree.

[MockKnizzle]

Hmmm - so now I am a bit confused.. What exactly do I need or not need for rockets? SAS or ASAS?? I still attach the ASAS module, do I even need to since I read that it was incorporated in the command modules?? Can someone give me the lowdown on that?

I launched a few rockets with the ASAS module and so far have had no drift at all, although the rockets were not too complicated.

The ASAS module is no longer a thing. There are only reaction wheels (of various kinds) and the avionics suite (which is pointless). All command pods now have the ability to hold a heading using whatever control mechanisms are available, with no extra parts needed.

The old ASAS (1.25 and 2.5m) and SAS models are still in the game, but they have been re-purposed as reaction wheels. Adding any one of those parts will now simply increase your control torque.

[Dispatcher]

The old ASAS (1.25 and 2.5m) and SAS models are still in the game, but they have been re-purposed as reaction wheels. Adding any one of those parts will now simply increase your control torque.

And increasing control torque means reducing response time in acquiring a heading lock, if I understand correctly.

[Hodo]

I am happy with it... took some adjusting but nothing to bad.

[cesarcurado]

Feels better for me now, actually.

After this new update I didn't had to use "F" key to reset ASAS and keep it on track so far.

Also the indicating light adds a nice touch too.