Torque with no Pilot? What!!?

[Bill Phil]

So on my Mun landing mission, everything went smoothly. Even the actual landing part. But it was on the way home that I noticed something. I had to EVA my kerbal to get some science. All of a sudden Dodon gets flung away ( this NEEDS to be fixed, kerbals aren't complete idiots) AND he imparted rotation to the craft. The craft was rotating and I actually almost raged. That rarely happens, especially for KSP. I chased it and just kept getting batted around. I finally decided to use the time warp button to stop the rotation. But then I saw it start rotating again. That's when I realized that the reaction reals are applying torque WHEN THERE'S NO PILOT. This shouldn't be a feature, especially with the new SAS in kerbals thing. It almost ruined my mission. I did get the guy back in to the pod and I stopped the trim. But, Squad, why would this be here?

So, has this ruined any of your missions? Or would you like to comment on this phenomena? Or anything?

[xub313]

This should probably be moved to bug reports.

Anyway, the torque is most likely from accidentally setting the trim on the spacecraft. Perhaps you accidentally set the trim while activating physical warp. mod + x will reset the trim.

The craft responding to trim without a pilot is probably a bug.

[vexx32]

Torque isn't specific to pilots. What is is the holding a specific heading, or any of the more advanced ASAS features. There are plenty of parts that have their own torque ratings. Crew pods, reaction wheels, probe parts, etc.

[Bill Phil]

I know it's trim. But I'm saying that trim shouldn't be applied unless a pilot is in the craft. Or that it shouldn't be given torque with no pilot. It's almost like if Jeb left something on the joystick holding it down. But why would it do that? Oh, and the reaction wheel should be auto turned off when a kerbal leaves, this almost ruined my mission.

Dont get me wrong, this is a great update, but it's the little things that matter, the Stayputnik can't stay put, the torque is applied when no pilot, the landing gear is too small, etc. Things like that are what really count.

EDIT: if I remember right, there was an announcement saying it had no control... So that means that only a pilot can move the control stick, but if the pod has trim, why does it need a pilot for SAS? Logically, besides gameplay wise, it shouldn't be movable at all except outside forces.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Bill Phil

[ZooNamedGames]

Yeah I've had this happen to me while docking... it makes the mission impossible with larger crafts... I'm not 100% sure as to why it happens but my guess is it's got something to do with the torque and having some reason to follow the same commands as the one given to the opposite craft...

This is not a feature but a bug. Best fix is to not use SAS in those cases or maybe add a probe core and use it... I don't think that fixes it 100% of the time tho... or at least not for me.

[UberFuber]

I know it's trim. But I'm saying that trim shouldn't be applied unless a pilot is in the craft. Or that it shouldn't be given torque with no pilot. It's almost like if Jeb left something on the joystick holding it down. But why would it do that? Oh, and the reaction wheel should be auto turned off when a kerbal leaves, this almost ruined my mission.

Dont get me wrong, this is a great update, but it's the little things that matter, the Stayputnik can't stay put, the torque is applied when no pilot, the landing gear is too small, etc. Things like that are what really count.

EDIT: if I remember right, there was an announcement saying it had no control... So that means that only a pilot can move the control stick, but if the pod has trim, why does it need a pilot for SAS? Logically, besides gameplay wise, it shouldn't be movable at all except outside forces.

I think you mis-understood the meaning of trim. "Trim" doesn't mean you telling the pilot holding a stick at a fixed location. Trim, in real-life aircraft, is a setting that a pilot can set that sets a collection of control surface at a fixed offset.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_flight_control_system#Secondary_controls

[Ziff]

EDIT: if I remember right, there was an announcement saying it had no control... So that means that only a pilot can move the control stick, but if the pod has trim, why does it need a pilot for SAS? Logically, besides gameplay wise, it shouldn't be movable at all except outside forces.

Sounds like the pilot got out, the craft had no ability to stabilize itself anymore and shouldn't have moved, but then the physics glitched and imparted rotation to both the kerbal and the craft, hence why the kerbal was flung off into space.

[Bill Phil]

I think you mis-understood the meaning of trim. "Trim" doesn't mean you telling the pilot holding a stick at a fixed location. Trim, in real-life aircraft, is a setting that a pilot can set that sets a collection of control surface at a fixed offset.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_flight_control_system#Secondary_controls

I know what IRL trim is. But here I'm talking about trim in the context of KSP. Trim in KSP is essentially telling the craft to move this way by default. It was added for aircraft, but it is a feature called "trim". This implementation of trim applies to spacecraft as well. And this applying to spacecraft should be removed. Especially with KXP.