Better EVA

[USAGuerrilla]

0. Make EVA 1st person (add option to do so).

1. Add tether. Well it's very irresponsible to go about fixing the station without secure tether.

2. Make controls less sensitive.

3. Make EVA packs less powerful.

4. Even if I fly slow and hit station I bounce back really fast as if collision is elastic. Kerbals have arms and are quite squishy.

5. Add Gyro sensor for space suit as well. Maybe like upgrade. IMUs are quite cheap today and I am sure used in spacesuits.

Edited June 1, 2014 by USAGuerrilla

[r4pt0r]

just tap the keys mate. EVA is easy if you arent holding down the keys.

[USAGuerrilla]

Nope. I did tap. When I was getting close to the stairs I was very slow. When I pressed F my dude bounced from the ship like a rocket.

Anyway for traveling next to the ship tether is a must have if you value life at all.

For now I gave up on my Mun exploration as collecting results from labs is too deadly.

[TMS]

Nope. I did tap. When I was getting close to the stairs I was very slow. When I pressed F my dude bounced from the ship like a rocket.

This is caused by a change made in 0.22 that restricted the degrees of freedom that a player on EVA can rotate. You'll notice that you can't control pitch, nor does the player roll according to camera position. I think this change in default behaviour was made to make EVA movement simpler (as is the general trend of the games development). Unfortunately, when trying to grab a hatch or ladder that is on a perpendicular axis to your EVA'd kerbal, the grab function doesn't work properly and you often get flung out out by the wonky physics.

You can cycle through the camera views with V to try and reorient your axis, but it's nowhere near as smooth as it used to be.

This has been covered in this thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/53168-0-22-EVA-controls-in-orbit

Sadly, the mods reading the thread didn't really understand the complaint, so it was marked as not being a bug.

[USAGuerrilla]

I gave up on EVA as it's unusable. My dude just bounces like crazy from the ship.

[Javster]

I agree with 1.

[Tex_NL]

Yes, EVA could be improved. A tether could be useful and it would be a good idea to have the ability to toggle fine controls. But most people (including myself) are able to preform long duration EVA missions with great accuracy and precision.

If YOU can't handle it you don't need an improved EVA system. What you need is practice!

[USAGuerrilla]

Yes, EVA could be improved. A tether could be useful and it would be a good idea to have the ability to toggle fine controls. But most people (including myself) are able to preform long duration EVA missions with great accuracy and precision.

If YOU can't handle it you don't need an improved EVA system. What you need is practice!

I fly to my ship very slowly. There is practically no movement. Press F and bounce like crazy from the ship. What do I need to practice?

[Tex]

USAGuerrilla, I've actually helped a few people on this myself. It all comes down to the position of the ship relative to the Kerbal, and vice versa. Lemme explain.

Sometimes, it's impossible to prevent your Kerbal from flying from the ship when you first hit the EVA button, but in 100% of the cases it's happened to me, I'm able to regain control of the Kerbal via their reaction backpack. Therefore, it just takes perhaps .2 units of fuel from the pack to cancel your velocity and get to where you need to go. The problem where you bounce away upon trying to grab the ladder can be offset by aligning your ship North/South and the ladder parallel to the Kerbal when you steady him. This way, there isn't any weird angle you need to rotate your Kerbal to, all it takes is a small jet forward. This has completely solved the problem when I encountered it, you just have to remember to orient your ship before you go EVA.

If this doesn't make sense, please PM me and I can explain in greater detail and perhaps with a few screens too.

[USAGuerrilla]

USAGuerrilla, I've actually helped a few people on this myself. It all comes down to the position of the ship relative to the Kerbal, and vice versa. Lemme explain.

Sometimes, it's impossible to prevent your Kerbal from flying from the ship when you first hit the EVA button, but in 100% of the cases it's happened to me, I'm able to regain control of the Kerbal via their reaction backpack. Therefore, it just takes perhaps .2 units of fuel from the pack to cancel your velocity and get to where you need to go. The problem where you bounce away upon trying to grab the ladder can be offset by aligning your ship North/South and the ladder parallel to the Kerbal when you steady him. This way, there isn't any weird angle you need to rotate your Kerbal to, all it takes is a small jet forward. This has completely solved the problem when I encountered it, you just have to remember to orient your ship before you go EVA.

If this doesn't make sense, please PM me and I can explain in greater detail and perhaps with a few screens too.

All I am saying it has to be fixed IMHO. There are way too many issues with it to make it enjoyable, so for now I will skip using it. Happened when I was climbing as well (between 2 ladders at a docking point, after pressing F I flew away).

Please add tether!!!

[KvickFlygarn87]

1. Agree.

2. They are not sensitive enough IMHO.

3. No. They are fine for the newer players, the veterans have to deal with it.

4. That isn't quite a suggestion?

5. Agree.

[USAGuerrilla]

4. That isn't quite a suggestion?

Sorry should have wrote it better. I meant make collision inelastic (or not so elastic). So dude doesn't bounce from the station with such a velocity from the station.

Also chaotic rotations of the dude after collision are a bit unrealistic not sure where torques are coming from. Need to think more though.

[USAGuerrilla]

One more:

0. Make EVA 1st person (add option to do so).

[Helix935]

don't forget...

with Eva first person have a HUD

[DeadMG]

Having the kerbal fly away when he tries to grab the ladder is pretty terrible. The sensitivity of the pack though I have no complaints about.

[USAGuerrilla]

There is 1st person? Hm. Need to check it again

[Jacob01]

You could use the Kerbal attachment system (KAS) mod to make your own teather. I'm not sure if there is a working mod for 1st person EVA, but it would definitely be a cool edition to the game.

[Helix935]

You could use the Kerbal attachment system (KAS) mod to make your own teather. I'm not sure if there is a working mod for 1st person EVA, but it would definitely be a cool edition to the game.

there are about 4

FPK

Lazor

through the eyes of a kerbal

FirstPersonEVA(my personal favorite as it can be used with steam gauges to utilize a HUD

[Capt. Hunt]

Personally, I always try to keep a reserve of at least 1 unit of EVA propellant in the backpack. This is plenty of delta-vee for emergencies like bouncing off a ladder. As soon as the propellant drops to 1.0, I drop what I'm doing and go back inside to refuel.

[sumghai]

0. Make EVA 1st person (add option to do so).

IMHO, this is a nice-to-have but not overly critical feature. The current third-person perspective does an excellent job of depicting a Kerbal's location relative to the spacecraft.

1. Add tether. Well it's very irresponsible to go about fixing the station without secure tether.

The Kerbal Attachment System add-on includes various winches and connectors. If you load a connector onto a winch while in the VAB/SPH, once in flight scene you can plug the connector onto the back of the Kerbal and unreel the winch as required. It's not a proper tether, but it works well enough.

If you're looking for a realistic-looking EVA tether that bends and sags, then I'm afraid you're out of luck - the game would be required to depict any given length of tether as an interconnected chain of infinitesimally-short segments, which would have a negative impact on game performance and physics.

2. Make controls less sensitive.

3. Make EVA packs less powerful.

4. Even if I fly slow and hit station I bounce back really fast as if collision is elastic. Kerbals have arms and are quite squishy.

I myself never really had problems with EVA control sensitivity, even in 0.23.5 - of course, I learned to very gently stroke the keys, as well as always countering each keypress with one in the opposite direction - for instance, if I want to go up, I stroke the up key, followed quickly by the down key to bring myself to a halt, so that I slowly increment towards the desired position and orientation. Try to avoid pushing the keys all the way down.

Also, if you are actually flying slow enough, colliding with the vessel will not be elastic (I've managed to stop my Kerbals from flying off into the void by gently bumping them to a complete stop against the hull of my spacecraft). Most likely you are still travelling far too fast.

If you could post a video of your Kerbal performing an EVA, it would help us see if you're operating your keyboard properly.

5. Add Gyro sensor for space suit as well. Maybe like upgrade. IMUs are quite cheap today and I am sure used in spacesuits.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this - such a sensor simply gives readouts of the current position and velocity vectors.

[Helix935]

one thing that would improve Evas is a config that is connected to EVA'd kerbals so that we may add or remove things like pockets (kas storage) or lasers(weaponry) or stuff(other things)

[USAGuerrilla]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this - such a sensor simply gives readouts of the current position and velocity vectors.

Well it is the same as we have in the rocket. Orientation and speeds.

[sumghai]

Well it is the same as we have in the rocket. Orientation and speeds.

So basically, a navball for EVA.

[USAGuerrilla]

So basically, a navball for EVA.

Exactly!!!

[karolus10]

From EVA related features I most crave for having an option of free control over your attitude (free rotation like with ships), auto-orientation may be useful sometimes, but often it's very limiting as you are forced to be oriented with orbital plane rather than staying in relation to ship.

Anyway, free controls option combined with chase camera could made EVA's much better.

Second thing on my list is ability to bounce off the ground when you landing after jump, this feature could be very useful on low gravity bodies as you could travel pretty fast by "bunny hopping" from the ground.