Embarrassingly Bad at EVA

[MissKerbin]

I have littered space with the bodies of my poor kerbonauts, because I cannot seem to get the hang of EVA. I start off okay, and get a bit off target, and end up frantically banging on my keyboard as I watch the jet-pack fuel dwindle. Does anybody have any advice or improved keyboard settings?

Edited February 12, 2014 by MissKerbin
Ha ha! Changing to Answered.

[Dave Kerbin]

You can press caps lock to turn on precision mode (this reduces the amount thrust per keypress) however a better tip is just not to panic.

As soon as you think you are losing control stop - don't start thrusting hard with the EVA jets in the direction you wanted go or try to 'fix' your course, you'll just make it worse.

Instead pick a 'fixed' point (usually whatever ship you are near) and start making small thrusts with the goal of zeroing out your relative velocity. Don't try to reach the ship yet, focus only on making your kerbal stop moving in relation to the ship. So if the ship seems to be flying off to the left, thrust a little left until the ship is no longer moving in that direction.

In space relative velocity is everything (since you don't have easy friction to stop everything when you want to) so always try to make your EVA movements using the minimal amount of relative velocity you can. A good way to get used to it is to only move on one axis at a time. So if you want to move to a ship that is ahead and to the left, first thrust a little to the left and coast until you are lined up, then thrust a little to the right to come to a stop. Then thrust a little forward and coast to the ship, thrusting a little back as you approach so you can come to a smooth stop right at the hatch instead of bouncing off.

[Claw]

Yeah, I learned not to try and over correct. Small bursts are way better than holding onto "W" for dear life. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... (or whatever the default keys are).

I also remapped my EVA controls to the number pad arrow keys for forward/backward/left/right. I put the down/up on my Z/X keys. That way I can control everything with two hands, but my right hand is close to the mouse if I need to adjust the view.

[lajoswinkler]

Adjust to chase mode.

Right click drag to rotate camera towards the destination.

Turn on RCS.

Press space to center the Kerbal on the destination.

W for forward, S for backwards, A for left, D for right. Left Ctrl for down, left Shift for up, or whatever you've defined afterwards.

First thing to do is to stop the relative motion, one axis at the time. After the motion has stopped, approach the destination again one axis at the time. Every time you've adjusted things, kill relative velocity.

Every time you adjust camera view with righ click drag, press space to orient the Kerbal towards the center of view.

That's it. The worst thing is to start pressing everything and to lose orientation.

[goldenpeach]

You can see it like a docking but with smaller "ships".

The only way to win is to not panic(if you get the reference ).

Also, remember that pressing the spacebar will make any spinning kerbal a steady kerbal, you will just have to reach your target then.

[TheSandDuna]

If you're really far away from the ship, hover over it (may have to right click) to gauge how quickly it is getting away or coming toward you. If you are close by put your camera directly at the Kerbal's back and try to keep the ship stationary on your screen. Basically if the ship is moving left to right in front of your Kerbal use 'd' to jetpack right as well, matching its speed. Then just cautiously apply the 'w' and 's' keys to arrive back at your ship. Obviously this goes without saying but make sure you press 'r' to turn on the jetpack. Hope that helps...

[Bobnova]

I found a saying in a sci-fi book some time ago that really helped me with EVA and docking: Nothing good happens quickly in space.

You've got (usually, at least) plenty of time. Go slow, don't worry if it takes a few minutes to EVA from one part of the ship to another, just give it little tiny bursts of thrust.

Once you've lost control/contact, do what the people above have said, they're right on with how to recover.

[Taki117]

Tip 1: DON'T PANIC!

Tip 2: Don't forget your towel. (Kudos if you get the reference)

But seriously, if your kerbal is spinning out of control just hit R to turn off the pack (so that you don't waste fuel) this also has the added benifit of resetting your kerbals orientation whenever you press R again. (he will automatically reorient to the camera) then just take it slow. Also, set yourself up a mental buffer. i.e if you have x fuel left stop trying to get back in (assuming you are decently far away). Instead send a rescue mission to get another ship close and bring him home.

[blizzy78]

You can always practice on the surface of Kerbin by hacking gravity from the debug menu (Alt+F12.) This way you have the surface as a reference for your motion.

And as others have already said: Don't panic, and stop mashing the buttons. Remember, there is no air drag in the vacuum of space, so the longer you thrust, the faster you will go. (This is really common sense, but sometimes people just don't think of it.)

[lajoswinkler]

If the Kerbal is tumbling, initially you can't turn on RCS. He's panicking and is in ragdoll mode. Just press WASD keys until he calms down and spreads his hands. Then turn on RCS.

[Aphobius]

I'm quite the opposite

From a 100km circular orbit around Gilly, I land, plant a flag and return to the ship ... with 92% jet pack fuel left (it was done in 0.22).

The "launch" from the surface starts at 20:30.

I don't know if you can learn anything from that video, but maybe it will make you to not set your goal to low for mastering EVA.

[ShadowDragon8685]

I've adapted some advice I read in the comic strip Freefall for EVA.

If you think you're moving, you're moving. If you know you're moving, you're going way the hell too fast, slow down.

I have littered space with the bodies of my poor kerbonauts, because I cannot seem to get the hang of EVA. I start off okay, and get a bit off target, and end up frantically banging on my keyboard as I watch the jet-pack fuel dwindle. Does anybody have any advice or improved keyboard settings?

Don't frantically bang your keyboard. That's what makes a mistake turn into a Kerbonaut permanently becoming a satellite of some far-off world or wherever you've lost them.

Tap the WASD keys to move, don't hammer, don't bang, don't hold. Face the camera towards what you want to go to, tap W to point your Kerbonaut towards it. Is it moving relative to your Kerb? Tap in that direction until it isn't. Get your Kerb facing it and with it not moving, tap W to move towards it. If it's far away, tap it a few more times, but remember to tap S almost as many times to back off the rate you're approaching it as you get close. When you're close, find the bit you want - if it's at an awkward angle (it can be a pain to grab a ladder on "top" or "bottom" of the ship, IME,) don't feel bad about switching to the ship and rotating it, then switching back to your Kerb.

Once you're back to your Kerb, tap W again to close with the ship, slowly, press F to grab a ladder. Congratulations, you're now on a ladder! You can scamper all over the ladder-equipped bits of the hull like an overcaffeinated tree rodent. Note that where ladders intersect at angles, you can tap A and D to reorient your Kerb, but not otherwise. Anyway, you're on a ladder on the hull, and presumably you're going to scamper up to the part of the hull that has the hatch and climb on back in, settling into the cozy, warm seat of a space capsule and vowing never to jump out of a perfectly good space ship ever again.

[Starwhip]

"If you think you're moving, you're moving. If you know you're moving, you're going way the hell too fast, slow down."

Now, that is both funny and true. You shouldn't be moving very fast at all unless you know exactly what you're doing. Left-click and hold, then drag to reorient your Kerbal. Then just *tap* forward to go forward. You don't slow down in space, any thrust goes a *long* way.

[Specialist290]

If you think you're moving, you're moving. If you know you're moving, you're going way the hell too fast, slow down.

I'm going to third this statement, and all the advice that goes with it. EVA is easy to mess up if you try to rush it, so take it slowly and delicately. I'm also going to add that, if at any time you feel like you're losing control of the situation, don't try to "correct" for previous errors, as you'll more than likely end up overcorrecting (until you get an instinctual feel for how EVA works -- your "space legs," if you will); instead, try to stop all motion relative to your target as nearly as you can, then gradually work your way back from wherever you "stop."

[ShadowDragon8685]

I'm glad you like it.

The original quote comes from Freefall, and is "If you think you've pushed off, you pushed the right amount. If you know you've pushed off, you pushed too hard." The context is that of a space-trained, uplifted anthropomorphic red wolf prototype, Florence Ambrose, teaching the completely not-at-all space-trained captain of her ship, Sam Starfall, an alien squid in an anthropomorphic pressure suit, how to maneuver in microgravity in the safe confines of his vessel.

It's a real long-runner, having launched on 3/30/1998, and switched to color sometime. In real time, it's been going damn-near 16 years. Thanks to Comic Strip time, it's been less than a month in-universe, but what a month.

Edited February 3, 2014 by ShadowDragon8685

[StuW]

I get the problem that every time i press F to grab the ladder i spin off wildly. I've tried grabbing the ladder 10 times and never managed it yet.

[Taki117]

I get the problem that every time i press F to grab the ladder i spin off wildly. I've tried grabbing the ladder 10 times and never managed it yet.

you are either coming in too fast, there is something on the ladder, or you are not coming in at the right angle. to fix coming in at the correct angle if you press and drag the Left mouse button it will reorient your kerbal. you could also try slowing down before entering your capsule.

[StuW]

you are either coming in too fast, there is something on the ladder, or you are not coming in at the right angle. to fix coming in at the correct angle if you press and drag the Left mouse button it will reorient your kerbal. you could also try slowing down before entering your capsule.

Thanks! the left mouse button and drag was what I was missing.

[helaeon]

One thing to keep in mind too is everything you do you will have to undo somehow at some point. Friction/air won't do it automatically like we're used to. (I realized this isn't obvious when I was watching my girlfriend EVA Kerbals around Minmus and she was getting very frustrated they were not slowing down when she was jetpacking them around). Like others have said the slower you go, and the more deliberate you are, the easier and more fuel efficient this is.

[MissKerbin]

I'm no Golgafrincham B Ark captain!

All this is good advice and I guess practice makes perfect.

[Geschosskopf]

I'm no Golgafrincham B Ark captain!

All this is good advice and I guess practice makes perfect.

Hope you don't die from a virulent plague contracted from a dirty telephone .

Anyway, as to practice, I recommend doing some next time you go to Mun. Get on the surface then blip yourself about 1 Kerbal height off the ground with light taps. You'll have to keep tapping up every few seconds to maintain altitude from here on. While doing this, pick a nearby boulder and move over to it. Once there, stop and fly in a square pattern around it using a couple of taps to start you moving in the right direction, then a couple more the other way to stop when you've gone far enough.. That should get you down with the left-right/forward-backwards controls. Then get into longer trips. Try to fly about 2km away from your lander, just skimming over the ground. Then slow down while keeping yourself off the ground, and then gently lower yourself down. Now turn around and fly back to your ship. Do this several times, each time pushing your speed higher. I recommend not aiming directly for your ship in case you hit the ground and go skidding along forever. You can easily knock your ship over if you hit it doing this .

Once you've got that down, do the same thing on Minmus. The thing about Minmus, however, is that you don't need very much up-thrust at all. In fact, it's quite easy to achieve escape velocity with a few too many taps on the EVA controls, so don't do EVA there until you've got a handle on it. Still, it's safer to practice on Minmus than it is in space, and it's still a very good approximation of space conditions.

[kBob]

When my 'a' key started sticking I remapped all my movement keys to the arrow keys (full size keyboard with separate arrow keys) the side benefit was I stopped the occasional misspress when my hand would shift on the wasd keys. Since there are only four arrows I map the "extra" movements to the keypad arrows, throttle too (just don't use the keypad '.').