Beginner's question about navball, maneuver and engines

[ivles]

Hi there.

I'm a newcomer to KSP and I a some questions.

In the "To the mun part 1" tutorial, the ship has one big engine at one end, and five smaller engines at the other. I made some tests using maneuver nodes on the orbital map and I found that the navball doesn't take into account which engine(s) is/are running. For example, is this tutorial, you start with the bigger engine running. If you add a maneuver node, align the ship with the maneuver prograde on the navball and then shut down the bigger engine and start the smaller ones, the maneuver prograde doesn't move. Yet, if you start your burn, you will appy a thrust in the opposite direction of your maneuver.

Am I missing something ? Or is there a way to made the navball to take into account which engines are running ?

I hope my explanations aren't to messy

(PS : I'm running KSP under ubuntu 14.04)

Thank you.

Edited October 17, 2014 by ivles

[Oafman]

The navball takes into account what direction your ship is pointing in, not your engines. And you can change this by having a probe core pointing 'backwards' and selecting 'Control from here' on that probe.

If your ship is already in flight and you don't have such a probe core, then you can't really use maneuver nodes. But if you know you need to accelerate prograde, then you can just point retrograde and burn, and you'll go in the right direction.

[Plusk]

^What he said. Turorial 1 is a apollo style mission. You tried burning lander engines. If you really insist on doing that, EVA a kerbal from main capsule to the lander, right click -> "control from here". Navball directions will switch automaticly.

Edited October 17, 2014 by Plusk

[Sirrobert]

Yup, navbal is based out of the command part, not the engines.

It's pritty easy to work around though, if your engines are pointing backwards, simply point the entire ship backwards and the engines are pointing the right way

[Riph]

Kerbal is a fantastic sandbox so don't listen to anyone who tells you that a given way is the wrong way.

That said, if you're a beginner, what you probably want is the most simple way, until you've learned enough to get fancy.

The most simple way is to keep only your main engine turned on for that portion of the tutorial, that way your vectors and the navball agree

[SRV Ron]

As you figure out how the navball works, you will find that it is an essential aid to use for landing on airless worlds. With it, you will be able to see just what your ship is doing as it comes in for landing. You use the WSAD keys to tilt the ship in response to what shows on the retrograde marker in order to cancel drift. That is far easier then trying to cancel drift by observing what the ship is doing in exterior view which will result in you tipping over just about every time. With using the Navball and the radar altimeter in the interior view, you can safely land at night on any fairly level surface.

In the example below, if you can get the drift that low while almost hovering, you will land safely even on a fairly steep slope.

While Mun is harder to land on due to its uneven surface, the same method for landing applies. Get the drift as low as possible and touch down gently.

Edited October 17, 2014 by SRV Ron

[Cannon]

Exactly dude