Are they going to improve the steering?

[Don_Draper]

I usually just put some sort of visual cue on my craft (winglets) so that I know which way is up. Aside from that, I\'m all for a cockpit view like the one in Eagle Lander.

[samstarman5]

When it comes to making an approach to another craft in orbit, I want:

\'W\' to tilt my craft towards the TOP of my screen

\'S\' to tilt my craft towards the BOTTOM of my screen

\'A\' to tilt my craft towards the LEFT of my screen

\'D\' to tilt my craft towards the RIGHT of my screen.

I don\'t want this for the whole game. The NavBall suits just perfectly for making orbit and orbital transfers as it is now.

I understand how the navball works, and it\'s absolutely lovely when I need to determine my orientation relative to the body I\'m orbiting. But it tells me nothing about my orientation to the other craft I want to cuddle.

The problem becomes that we need visual acknowledgement of speed and 3D positioning to the second craft, which takes our eyes off of the NavBall.

I already use the NavBall to line up my craft with the second craft, but once I start having to make adjustments and movements, all eyes are off the NavBall.

Even if I had time to look at the NavBall, I\'ve twisted and turned so much the information it provides me takes a good 5 seconds to decipher in terms of relativity to Kerbin, and then my relativity to the second craft.

Bear in mind that a fixed camera view like that will potentially cause motion sickness during maneuvers of your craft. Of course this is a real life issue with astronauts as they have to train themselves to overcome that. But when you are dealing with something that is supposed to be just a game, people who are vulnerable to motion sickness due to what they view in a screen shouldn\'t have to deal with that.

We are getting a fixed camera view, regardless, so I am pretty sure your desires are going to be met. Just be prepared for the consequences when you see Kerbin, the Mun, Kerbol, or the stars rotating around your view as you are docking with a module.

[Ydoow]

We are getting a fixed camera view, regardless, so I am pretty sure your desires are going to be met. Just be prepared for the consequences when you see Kerbin, the Mun, Kerbol, or the stars rotating around your view as you are docking with a module.

Hm? No not a fixed camera, just that the controls are translated to the screen/camera orientation

[Kosmo-not]

Hm? No not a fixed camera, just that the controls are translated to the screen/camera orientation

I think a control scheme like that would be very confusing. I vote for a nose cam or some camera part we can mount on our rockets.

[Majiir]

Learn to fly? Docking is challenging because of tidal effects and the lack of stabilization options, but neither of those issues have anything to do with control inputs. It may not be what you expected, but I don\'t think it\'s a shortcoming of the game. Now, options like 'align to target ship' would be neat, but I think that\'s up to plugins.

[vexx32]

Aye... having the WASD keys aligned to a screen view, as opposed to the craft itself, is practically nonsensical and quite arbitrary... not to mention confusing for people accustomed to flight games.

I suggest keeping an eye on the navball, and if you have to do any complex manouevres, just align it to the horizon or another easily identified point, so you can easily adjust. After a while, you get used to using the navball to determine your ship\'s orientation. A tip, though: don\'t mess with the camera angle any more than necessary -- adjust it to point to your heading, or your craft orientation, but try to avoid confusing yourself by altering the camera angle too much or too often.

[Rock-it-man]

Once you have succeeded in what you were trying to do with MechJeb, you can start playing super ace space jockey and do it 'by hand'.

I did it the other way round. Perfected my free hand piloting skills (27 successful mun landings in a row) then installed MechJeb for teh lols. Guess that\'s just the flight sim junkie in me talking.

[SmiteZero]

I did it the other way round. Perfected my free hand piloting skills (27 successful mun landings in a row) then installed MechJeb for teh lols. Guess that\'s just the flight sim junkie in me talking.

Yeah. While it\'s a bit off topic, Don\'t use MechJeb if you can\'t do it all manually with your eyes closed. You\'re not doing yourself any favours. Even now the only features of MechJeb I use are the ascent autopilot and the heading locks in the SmartASS module. (and orbital info pane)

I think using MechJeb and then taking it away is the wrong way around to do it.

[mrdest21]

I had the same problem when trying to make an orbital rendezvous. Any advice that suggests using the navball won\'t work in those situations as your target is moving relative to you. In rendezvous, the window of possibility is usually very short and one piloting mistake because you thought W would send you one way and ends up going the other way usually means a whole lot of correcting and messing around.

My suggestion would be this: on your map view, you could designate one object (ship and debris) and that object would appear on the navball. We currently see KSP launch pad as a purple crosshair (and the opposite direction as a different purple symbol). The object you choose could be marked by similar symbols of a different color. It would make relative positioning between yourself and another orbiting object much simpler.

[Orbit]

It\'s indeed not just a matter of \'trying which button moves you to what direction\', because we have to deal with finite fuel.

You can NOT afford to fool around, waste time and fuel, just because you need to know what the buttons actually do. If your spaceship turns like 1 degree, everything is different again.

[GWBBQ]

Using the NavBall, I still get confused which way the ship is being affected.

e.g. I don\'t remember if \'Q\' will turn me clock wise, or counter-clockwise

I don\'t remember if \'W\' will push the Horizon up or down.

A 3 axis plus throttle joystick will help immensely. When they added joystick support I went from crashing on every Mun landing attempt to nailing it every time.

I always recommend the Thrustmaster HOTAS X for KSP because it has 3axes, throttle, an 8-way hat switch and another axis bound to a rocker switch which I use for RCS, and enough buttons to take care of RCS toggle, SAS hold and toggle, map, warp, precision toggle, and lander leg deployment. you can fly entire missions without havign to touch the keyboard. Looks like it\'s up to almost $50 on Amazon right now, but it should drop back to the usual $40 soon.

[Kosmo-not]

It\'s indeed not just a matter of \'trying which button moves you to what direction\', because we have to deal with finite fuel.

You can NOT afford to fool around, waste time and fuel, just because you need to know what the buttons actually do. If your spaceship turns like 1 degree, everything is different again.

Turn off your RCS.

[sal_vager]

I\'ll never understand why people use RCS when climbing, it\'s only good when you\'re in orbit and there\'s no resistance, otherwise it\'s a waste.

Gimballed engines, gyro\'s and wings while your still in thick enough air are what you need on the ascent, save your RCS for lining up for a burn in orbit.

[Orbit]

Nowhere did I mention that I used RCS thrusters.

Having wings and such doesn\'t solve the problem: not knowing what direction you will go into when pressing a WASD button.

[SteevyT]

Nowhere did I mention that I used RCS thrusters.

Having wings and such doesn\'t solve the problem: not knowing what direction you will go into when pressing a WASD button.

If you somehow mark the top of your craft it should. Once you know how the craft is oriented, it becomes just like flying an RC plane.

[sal_vager]

I doubt there\'s much of anything Squad could do to make things easier as it\'s a pretty basic thing, left is left in relation to the rocket, if it were in relation to the camera you\'d lose your ability to turn at any angle.

It\'d be like those casual top down shooters, you\'d only be able to turn in 8 directions at best, you\'d be forever turning the camera trying to get the rocket to tilt where you needed it.

Like the rest of us you\'ll have to get used to the way KSP works, and pay more attention to the navball as that operates relative to the rocket, and when trying to intercept something in orbit you\'ll have to use dead reckoning until the new tools are introduced, or use some kind of mod.

There are some things you can do to make intercepts easier though, make your rocket so you can see instantly if it\'s turned, use ASAS to hold it straight and when approaching another ship, try to keep the camera in one place so you can watch the target drift.

But as for just flying around, there\'s the navball and that\'s it, though changing the camera with C can sometimes make things easier too.

[TwoHedWlf]

Even now the only features of MechJeb I use are the ascent autopilot and the heading locks in the SmartASS module. (and orbital info pane)

And the ascent autopilot is pretty crap, maybe I\'m doing something wrong. Always ends up in an orbit that\'s not remotely circular with a huge inclination while using far more fuel than doing it manually.

[TheProdigy]

Really? It works perfectly fine for me...

Could just be your rocket design is a little weird/hard to control/or not powerful enough.

I remember i once made this rocket design, but it didn\'t have a powerful enough thrust, so i couldn\'t use it with mechjeb since it would mess it up a little.

But now i make more powerful rockets, and it works PERFECTLY.

[SmiteZero]

Rockets with TOO MUCH power also cause problems.

[vexx32]

That\'s a very un-Kerbal attitude! THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH POWER!

[Jamini]

That\'s a very un-Kerbal attitude! THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH POWER!

Or violent explosions.

[vexx32]

That too