Regarding decouplers... Yes, I looked

[cantab]

Just checked and indeed the long SRBs were attached directly to the central tank.

In order to fix to the decoupler they need to be considerably higher, or equivalently the decoupler needs to be considerably lower. Basically when placing the booster your mouse cursor needs to be more or less over the decoupler.

[Pecan]

Ok, tried the .craft file. Somehow or other you've got the SRBs clipped INTO the decouplers, that's why they don't work. Detach the SRBs and sit them ON the decouplers, then they work fine (apart from all the 'issues')

ETA: "if it is obvious that I am attempting to attach to a decoupler" - few things are obvious to computers. The colour only shows where you can attach, not that it's a good place to attach.

Note that the editor is changing quite a lot in 0.90. If you are having a lot of trouble with construction it might be worth just waiting to see if you get on with the new version better.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Pecan

[Engineer of Stuff]

The clipping problem was my second guess!

Good job Pecan!

[pander59]

Just checked and indeed the long SRBs were attached directly to the central tank.

In order to fix to the decoupler they need to be considerably higher, or equivalently the decoupler needs to be considerably lower. Basically when placing the booster your mouse cursor needs to be more or less over the decoupler.

So the secret is revealed on the attachment phase. Thank you. It sure looked like I was doing it properly but then again, the mystery is in the details.

I will try this again with this bit of information. and will report the results.

[Superfluous J]

Just remember when placing things on decouplers, that your mouse cursor has to be over the decoupler. Try it with the smaller SRBs so you have a better feel for where the decoupler is compared to your boster and mouse cursor. Then get the mouse cursor (dragging the booster around) over the decoupler and move it up and down. At a certain point (when your mouse cursor gets just off the decopuler) the booster will snap inward a little bit, indicating that it's now attached to the radial stack and not the decoupler anymore.

Same goes for anything you're attaching to a decoupler, just the really tall SRBs are easier to accidentally miss with because they're so tall.

[pander59]

So the secret is revealed on the attachment phase. Thank you. It sure looked like I was doing it properly but then again, the mystery is in the details.

I will try this again with this bit of information. and will report the results.

Which solved the problem. Proper detachment when the SRBs are attached to the decouplers while the mouse is over where the decoupler is actually located. Silly little problem and I might have never found the answer without the assistance of the community. Thank you all very much for your help. I will use this info in the future if other issues come up... Don't always look for the obvious answer. Many times it isn't always the correct path to the solution. Grr. I hate answers like this. They seem to arbitrary. Nonetheless, I am grateful for your assistance.

[Pecan]

...I will use this info in the future if other issues come up... Don't always look for the obvious answer. Many times it isn't always the correct path to the solution. Grr. I hate answers like this. They seem to arbitrary. Nonetheless, I am grateful for your assistance.

It's easy for us all to become "too close to the problem" to see the solution at times. We can't get over how it should be and can't see how it is. In IT when we're SURE our programme's right, and just cannot see why it doesn't work, we "call for a sanity check". Half the time, just in describing the problem to someone else you'll see the solution yourself. The other half of the time it's obvious to them, but we all know the situation :-)

[Technical Ben]

The game also highlights stages in green (IIRC) when you hover the mouse over the decoupler icon in the VAB. This can help see if and where the stage decouples/separates. I use it a lot on big asparagus stages where I forget which part is where and what order to put them in the staging.

If it's a very big and complicated rocket, you may need to alternatively mouse over the decoupler, and see where it highlights in the staging (though this does not help identify what other parts of the rocket are connected).

[The_Rocketeer]

I'm gonna take full credit for solving this one.

Just saying.

[TheFlyingPigs]

And the finest kerbal doctors saved the patient!

[Pecan]

I'm gonna take full credit for solving this one.

Just saying.

worir - post a screenshot

me - post the .craft file

you - solution (before the fact)

;-)

Yep; you were first in the thread to guess right.

worir was the first one to give advice that lead to a definitive solution.

(and I know, because I was there [Max Boyce])

[The_Rocketeer]

Haha, I was only kidding! Tho it's nice to be somewhat validated

This forum is marvellous on community support, I've not seen anything quite like it in another gaming community. Friendly advice yes, pragmatic advice yes, but this community has a degree of tenacity and willingness to adopt other people's problems unlike what I've found elsewhere, not just to try and help but to actually chase down a problem from the first hint of a problem to a detailed and conclusive solution.

In short, well done everybody.

[pincushionman]

I've never had the problem where my decouplers just fire and everything hangs on. They always blow up my main tank.

Of course, this only happens for me when I'm using the super-strong flat decouplers, so that may make a difference. The wider ones are more obvious before you've made a mistake.

[Pecan]

...to actually chase down a problem from the first hint of a problem to a detailed and conclusive solution...

If you're the sort of person who likes building machines, it's the sort of problem you like fixing :-)

KSP appeals to "engineers" as well as sci-fi space-fans so ... we get people who like building spacecraft. It works (or we'll fix it) ^^.

[SpaceLaunchSystem]

To me, it sounds like an error with your KSP install. If you have any mods, try a fresh, stock install. If not, try reinstalling KSP anyway. Because you've been playing since 0.18, I'm sure you understand staging.

[The_Rocketeer]

This problem is solved. Always worth reading the last few posts in a thread.