Funny staging problem

[Tokay Gris]

During my attempts to escape from Eve I stumbled over an interesting problem.

Ascent looked fine, staging worked right until the end....

See here: This is the center payload with the last radial stages attached. All fine up to this point.

And then it happens: Somehow the last staging is flawed. The radial tanks detach from the center just fine, but somehow think that the octobrain, the battery and the seat (including the Kerbal in it) belong to one of the radial tanks and NOT - as intended - to the center one.

It even attaches it through invisible links to that tank. As if they were connected.

Hm....

Any ideas?

Edited October 30, 2013 by Tokay Gris

[Taki117]

Without seeing your stack I really have no idea. There isn't a decoupler that I can see, so I'm not sure what the exact problem is.

[Tokay Gris]

Without seeing your stack I really have no idea. There isn't a decoupler that I can see, so I'm not sure what the exact problem is.

No, there is no decoupler. The battery, octobrain and the seat are - or so I thought - directly attached to the center tank.

My guess is that something went wrong in the VAB and that somehow that battery (and stuff above) is attached to the tank next to it...

Also, I don't exactly know what you mean by "stack". So far I haven't found a good method to link to my .craft-files, if that is what you mean.

[Taki117]

No, there is no decoupler. The battery, octobrain and the seat are - or so I thought - directly attached to the center tank.

My guess is that something went wrong in the VAB and that somehow that battery (and stuff above) is attached to the tank next to it...

Also, I don't exactly know what you mean by "stack". So far I haven't found a good method to link to my .craft-files, if that is what you mean.

I meant your staging that runs along the side, perhaps there is an issue there? What exactly happens when you decouple the two radials engines?

[Tokay Gris]

I meant your staging that runs along the side, perhaps there is an issue there? What exactly happens when you decouple the two radials engines?

No, staging process is fine. The last staging should decouple the two last radial tanks and let the rest (Kerbal, Seat, octobrain, battery, tank and engine) continue on.

What exactly happens is this:

Once decoupled, the center tank and engine are one piece, the one lateral tank and engine another piece and the second lateral tank is invisibly attached to Kerbal, seat, octobrain and battery and form the third piece.

Instead of two lateral tanks and the center with the passenger....

[Taki117]

That is odd, Best I can think is that the seat is somehow attached with struts to the other tank. Best advice I can give is a redesign.

[Tank Buddy]

I would guess the hitbox of one of the parts that detach are colliding with the radial stages when you built it in the VAB. The only solution to this would be to re-build it in a manner that the parts do not conflict.

[Tokay Gris]

Solved the problem... but don't ask me what actually happened.

I also had the thought you did. That somehow the seat (and/or battery and/or octobrain) is attached through struts (although there are none directly linking between them) and that the construction regards the seat/battery/octobrain as attached to a radial tank and not to the center tank.

I removed the seat/battery/octobrain. Then restrutted the lateral tanks to the center one. Then added battery, octobrain and seat. From scratch.

Tested: Worked like planned.

That should teach me to test the WHOLE staging process...

Thanks!

[Tokay Gris]

And THIS means that my Eve mission should be finally ready to launch!

Don't break out the champagne yet... Eve is a bitch.