Career pilot assist wackiness

[Bobe]

First of all, forgive me if this has already been discussed. I know there will be a lot of threads about various things, but I couldn't see any about this.

The new assist abilities given to pilots seem to behave strangely. I expected them to work identical or similar to MechJeb in the sense that it calculates the halfway point between the current orientation and the desired orientation and applies torque in the opposite direction at that halfway point, resulting in smooth and precise movement (depending on ship stability).

However, the pilot assist seems to just apply torque in the direction of the desired node and upon reaching that node applies the opposite direction, making the ship sway back and forth, though usually only once.

Is this intentional? Is the precision of the assist based on the pilot's experience? Or are Squad's methods just not as good as r4m0n's?

As a side note; often the vector holds are very unstable and just shake erratically.

This is all using the Mk1 pod.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Bobe

[NecroBones]

I haven't left the atmosphere yet since the update, so I haven't tried. But based on what you're describing, I'm guessing they just didn't code that as elegantly. It probably just torques over toward that vector most of the way, though they could have a "dead zone" right near the target vector. Now I'm curious and might have to play with it.

[KerbMav]

Does it get better with higher level pilots?

[katateochi]

The pilot assist is bugged. With the exceptions of "stability assist", using the pilot to hold a heading results in a continual power drain and if you have RCS on then mono-prop is constantly pumped out of all ports. It's just like how mechjeb used to be ages ago. It's not a pilot skill thing, same is true in sandbox with 5 start pilots.

(test craft in sandbox)

It's odd that stability assist mode (default) doesn't bleed resources while all the others do.

Anyway, there's a thread in support about this now - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103461-Power-and-RCS-are-drained-very-fast-when-using-Pilot-controls and I'm just about to go write up a bug report here's the bug report.

Edited December 17, 2014 by katateochi

[electronicfox]

I've also noticed this issue, although my main annoyance is how smaller crafts seem to vibrate when I wanna hold a heading. Its like it just keeps swaying slightly around the target heading and tries to correct itself really fast.

[Xaver]

If you want you can call it a bug. But i am sure thats the law of controll system Engineering. Like when you have cruise control in your car. You will need an well-fitting equation to get those things stable.

[Red Iron Crown]

Is this intentional? Is the precision of the assist based on the pilot's experience? Or are Squad's methods just not as good as r4m0n's?

I believe it is intentional. Squad has always put the emphasis on manual control by the player, I think the PID for SAS is deliberately a bit sloppy to encourage the player to do the maneuvers themselves. Stock SAS is good for staying pointed, less so for getting pointed.

[KerbMav]

So, ordering the pilot to point somewhere and than issuing a hold order works as before - without wasting resources I mean?