Navball is wacked. Info is wrong.

[Motokid600]

So I'm landing on the Mun. I kill all velocity so I'm falling straight down. I keep the prograde marker perfectly in the center so I know I'm falling straigh... But I'm not. As the ground gets close I notice I'm moving horizontally. I check engineer and it says I have over 50m/s of horizontal speed... wtf? Navball is wrong.. dead wrong. And it gets worse the closer I get. The prograde/retrograde markers are showing me the wrong information. Ten meters off the ground and I still have a lot of horizontal speed. But again the navball shows that I'm falling straight.

So I have to ignore it. And visually have to kill the speed. Very sloppy. Not fun. What's going on? Because this happens every time. I do not have a target selected and I have no relevent mods that could cause this other then advanced navball which I've since removed. No luck

Edited November 13, 2013 by Motokid600

[pebble_garden]

Are you using the right navball mode? There are three: Surface, Orbit, and Target. You might see strange results if you're not in surface mode while landing.

[Superfluous J]

Yeah it should switch automatically at a certain point, but I've had it not and that makes for some crazy landing attempts

[Johnno]

Uh yeah, switch to surface mode. Alternatively check that you're controlling from the correct 'location'.

[Motokid600]

Oh damn, how can you manually switch it?

[LtHeckard]

Switch from Orbital mode to Surface mode.

[Scrogdog]

Oh damn, how can you manually switch it?

Click where it says what mode you're in.

[Taki117]

In order to switch it manually you click where it says your speed, also keep in mid most bodies rotate so while you may be coming straight down from map view you still have horizontal velocity over the surface. This is also not the most efficient way to land (assuming you are starting your descent from orbit)

[Motokid600]

In order to switch it manually you click where it says your speed, also keep in mid most bodies rotate so while you may be coming straight down from map view you still have horizontal velocity over the surface. This is also not the most efficient way to land (assuming you are starting your descent from orbit)

Im in the habbit of setting my altitude below 10km. As low as possible. Works real nice then.

But thanks everyone I didn't even know I could manually switch it. Learn something new every day with this game.

[Tank Buddy]

You can use either left or right click, but if you double click with Left mouse you will unset your target if you have one selected, so just keep that in mind.

[codepants]

This can happen even in Surface mode, and this phrase is what alludes to it:

And it gets worse the closer I get.

If it's happening in surface mode, the reason is because the prograde marker shows your average prograde in the compass directions, not just in one direction. So if you have small x motion compared to your y motion, the prograde marker will point straight up.

Consider:

- You are moving 500 m/s east.

- You are moving 500 m/s towards the planet.

= Prograde is 45 degrees between top of the Nav ball and straight east.

Then:

- You burn off 475 m/s east.

= Prograde is 25/525*90 degrees between top of the Nav ball and straight east -- basically, it points straight up.

Then:

- As you get closer to the ground, you burn off 495 m/s towards the planet.

= Prograde is now 25/30*90 degrees between top of the Nav ball and straight east -- basically, it looks like you increased your horizontal velocity, when in fact it's just increased *relative* to your vertical velocity.

Make sense?

Solution: As you get close to the ground, burn towards your prograde marker or just below it... not straight up.

[Odo]

Ive had my Navball actively rotate my Prograde marker around the navball, even though I was not firing engines, had RCS, or had SAS on. So basically some outside force was rotating my craft in wide circles as I descended. It was really weird and made it hard to land.

[Sirrobert]

Ive had my Navball actively rotate my Prograde marker around the navball, even though I was not firing engines, had RCS, or had SAS on. So basically some outside force was rotating my craft in wide circles as I descended. It was really weird and made it hard to land.

Is the craft in orbit? If so, that outside force is called 'gravity'

[mux]

Once tested reloading quicksave which brought me back to low altitude sub-orbit over Mun. So I did not check things and soon I found myself at about 10 meters above surface hovering, keeping velocity vector on navball pointing straight up/down and surface still was moving roughly fast to the east. Of cource after using precious real life time units wondering I spotted "Orbit" on navball.

Not sure how quicksave affects but have to test someday will it prevent navball mode change or restore wrong one...

[Dunbaratu]

Click where it says what mode you're in.

One of the weaknesses with the user interface is that it's not typical in any GUI system to just click on a bare text label word to perform an action. The lack of a widget of some sort - a button or toggle or whatever, makes it unclear to new players that the mode even IS manually switchable. Click on the title to change it isn't that intuitive and people generally don't know that exists until someone shows it to them.

[Odo]

Is the craft in orbit? If so, that outside force is called 'gravity'

No, It always when Im descending. If you read my post youd see I said that. Like landing on the Mun Etc.

It wont rotate on the navball like on the equatorial line, no it rotates in shallow circles on the top of the navball.

[Scarecrow88]

This is also not the most efficient way to land (assuming you are starting your descent from orbit)

Unless you are in the habit of flying straight at your target body, I actually find that most of my descents work well when started from orbit. In fact it's kind of difficult not to if you were docked to an orbiting station before landing.

[numerobis]

Ive had my Navball actively rotate my Prograde marker around the navball, even though I was not firing engines, had RCS, or had SAS on. So basically some outside force was rotating my craft in wide circles as I descended. It was really weird and made it hard to land.

Were you landing on the pole?

[MSD]

I didn't understand this at first.. but then again; I got "used" to the automatic switching to orbit/surface, but shouldn't like that at all (I don't hate it as much as the automatic switching of free cam to orbit cam ).

[Odo]

Were you landing on the pole?

No I wasnt.