Flag Plant Direction Logic? (A: There is none)

[kujuman]

Hi,

For the past few versions at least, it seems that all of the flags I place on EVA end up parallel with the rays of the sun, so that the flat side of the flag doesn't get illuminated. My kerbals always seem to rotate about to plant the flag in the only direction I don't want them too. Is there some secret logic for getting the flags to plant in the orientation you want?

P.S. I typically land near the equator. I think this has some impact on the orientation (maybe it's always East-West?), but I'm not going to incline my orbit just to partly illuminate the flag. I may have to end up bringing extra lights with me to illuminate the flag

-kujuman

PPS-Planting a flag in "Orbital" camera mode explodes the flag and spams nullrefs, so you have to restart before your kerbals will respond :/

Edited November 17, 2014 by kujuman

[zxczxczbfg]

Have you tried it on different planets, with different angles to the sun?

[kujuman]

Have you tried it on different planets, with different angles to the sun?

I haven't been but to Mun lately. But there at least my flags point the wrong way. I just tried facing North, then East, then South, then West, and every time the kerbal would turn before planting the flag so that it ended up facing the wrong way.

[Pecan]

There was a thread about flag orientation some time ago but I can't remember when or even if it was here in 'gameplay questions' or in 'tutorials'. *Sigh* the only useful thing I can offer is that it's not just you!

[Claw]

Perhaps Pecan is referring to this thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76069-How-are-flags-oriented-when-planting-them

There is some regularity, but there's also some randomness.

Cheers,

~Claw

[kujuman]

Perhaps Pecan is referring to this thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76069-How-are-flags-oriented-when-planting-them

There is some regularity, but there's also some randomness.

Cheers,

~Claw

Great, thanks!

[Pecan]

Perhaps Pecan is referring to this thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76069-How-are-flags-oriented-when-planting-them

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of. Well done.

[cantab]

This was my previous thought on the matter:

When placing a flag, the game instantly calculates a 12-dimensional matrix of everything within a 2.2 km radius, determines the orientation of the flag that will be most photogenic - and then puts it at 90 degrees to said orientation.

[Pecan]

This was my previous thought on the matter:

:-)

May I formulate the "cantab principle" as: 'Flags orientate themselves to prevent screenshots" ?

[cantab]

Haha. You may. As might be surmised I've had a fair bit of nuisance with them in the past.

[Pecan]

Signature updated accordingly :-)