External Seat Issue

[irongut]

I've been messing around with some rover / jet car ideas in carreer mode and wanted to use the external seat but when I launch from the VAB I get a warning that I have no crew capacity or probe body so the vehicle will be uncontrolled. I was able to get round this by using a plane cockpit for now but it isn't the look I wanted.

Why doesn't the seat count as crew capacity when it is on the pods tab? Is there a way to build a vehicle I can use on Kerbin using the seat but no capsule / cockpit?

Edited January 2, 2014 by irongut

[Mr.Rocket]

Thats because a kerbal in a command chair is counted as an EVA. What i do is launch the rover unmanned with no control, then go to the spaceplane hanger and make a manned rover there, drive over to the no control rover and board it.

[TheDarkStar]

I usually add a capsule on the craft, move the Kerbal onto the seat, and then decouple the capsule.

[Kasuha]

Thats because a kerbal in a command chair is counted as an EVA. What i do is launch the rover unmanned with no control, then go to the spaceplane hanger and make a manned rover there, drive over to the no control rover and board it.

Kerbal in the seat definitely counts as part of the ship/vehicle. EVA is a separate entity (ship), you can see Kerbal on EVA as a separate entity in tracking station. That doesn't happen with a Kerbal in a seat. Also when you recover a ship with a Kerbal in command seat, you recover the Kerbal too. If you recover a ship with a Kerbal on ladder, the Kerbal will stay there and the ladder will disappear from his hands.

IMO the true reason is that this function was not implemented.

I tried to hack it and gave the seat crew capacity - it was possible to assign a Kerbal to it, but then it was "inside" the seat, not sitting in it. An empty seat possessed with a Kerbal soul ... spooky.

[koshelenkovv]

Kerbal on EVA is a spaceship.

Kerbal on a rover seat is a spaceship docked to a rover.

Thats' why we cannot fill seats - they have no crew capacity - they are just docking ports for kerbal-ships.

[Kasuha]

Kerbal on EVA is a spaceship.

Kerbal on a rover seat is a spaceship docked to a rover.

Two ships docked together = one ship.

That's not the reason why the seat cannot be pre-populated.