Shrouds did not jettison. Now what?!

[THX1138]

I have a lander in space and it has shrouds over its engines. I tried jettisoning them but they didn't respond.

I've eliminated unwanted items before by raising their temperature in my save file to the point that they were destroyed. Does anyone know what these might be called in the save file?

The jettison option disappeared after clicking on it so I don't know what the game "thinks" is going on.

Edited January 4, 2015 by THX1138

[Laie]

The black/yellow band usually marks the upper end of an engine. It looks as if you mounted them facing the wrong way. The shrouds are the least of your problems.

[RainDreamer]

Try spinning your craft around a bit, see if you can use the momentum to throw those shrouds away. They might just be sticking on.

Though I am going to be stupid here and wonder: Did you install those engines the wrong way around?

[THX1138]

Ugh! If it's not one thing it's another! I don't suppose anyone knows what value to edit to change the orientation of the engines? They're LV-909 engines but they must be called something else in the save game code.

[RainDreamer]

Well, the config files call them "liquidEngine3"

[Tidus Klein]

Did you forget your chutes too?

[THX1138]

Did you forget your chutes too?

No I did not! Even NASA puts the engines on the wrong way sometimes!

[locustgate]

No I did not! Even NASA puts the engines on the wrong way sometimes!

Please proof.

[worir4]

XD Nice one! You got to Eve! But you put the engines on upside down....

Edited January 4, 2015 by Claw
reaction image

[Norpo]

Don't worry. It happens to the best of us...

...(looks around)

What, don't tell me i'm the only one who's oriented their engines wrong at least once?

...Sadly, I have no idea how to fix that (even with cfg editing)

[Treldon]

Don't worry. It happens to the best of us...

...(looks around)

What, don't tell me i'm the only one who's oriented their engines wrong at least once?

Only the ions. The others are quire evident with the big "Fire be here" bells

To OP: I once had a similar problem with a Duna lander, where I put the decoupler on upside down and the shrouds remained on the main engine, causing 0 thrust. In the end I could remove it - by lithobraking....

[Tidus Klein]

Don't worry. It happens to the best of us...

...(looks around)

What, don't tell me i'm the only one who's oriented their engines wrong at least once?

...Sadly, I have no idea how to fix that (even with cfg editing)

Nope not me, I've never put my engines on wrong, nor have I ever forgotten a chute.

[THX1138]

Only the ions. The others are quire evident with the big "Fire be here" bells

To OP: I once had a similar problem with a Duna lander, where I put the decoupler on upside down and the shrouds remained on the main engine, causing 0 thrust. In the end I could remove it - by lithobraking....

It's not evident though, because the shrouds covered the engines in the VAB. I launched this craft a long time ago, so I don't remember assembling it. That's the madness of multiple simultaneous contracts with their own deadlines - you end up taking on many missions at once and can't remember the details as you go back and forth.

[*Aqua*]

You can try to rebuild the craft in the VAB and save it with correctly attached engines and up side down. Then open up both save files in a text editor, compare them and you know what to change in your save game file. Probably.

[Claw]

Editing the save file to flip the orientation of the engines by hand is tricky business. If you really want to go that far, you'd be better off fixing a second copy of the lander portion you have right there and send it to the launch pad. Then you can get into the save file and either:

- Swap the orbital parameters over from the existing craft, effectively hyper editing it into place and returning the old one to the surface. (Do them both at the same time, or bad things happen.) Orbital parameters are near the top of the "VESSEL" structure. Search for your vessel by name.

or

- Copy over the engine rotational parameters for the newly built craft over to the existing craft's engines, and continue on your way. Rotation parameters are near the top of the PART structure.

(Which I believe is what Aqua is getting at.) Either way, I recommend keeping a copy of your save file somewhere safe before fiddling with it.

Cheers,

~Claw

[Laie]

You can try to rebuild the craft in the VAB and save it with correctly attached engines and up side down. Then open up both save files in a text editor, compare them and you know what to change in your save game file. Probably.

Just turning them around may not work if their attachment coordinates remain the same. They may end up sitting either inside your vessel, or some distance below it.

What works: create new vessel, give it a unique name, put in on the launchpad. Search for both vessels by name, and swap their contents in their entirety, starting from the first PART and ending with the beginning of the next VESSEL. You'll end up with the working vessel at the right position in space, and the broken one on the launchpad. You still need to swap the crew, but that is quite easy and straightforward.

Edit: this is effectively what claw is suggesting. Ninja'd.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Laie

[Claw]

Oh, and I almost forgot (rather important). If you do the engine-orientation route, you will also need to copy the "attn" lines and the "link" lines. These lines tell KSP which node is connected to what other nodes. If you don't copy those lines, the game will be confused and probably push the engines into the lander. Take time to compare that whole beginning block of the PART{} structure between the two ships, but you'll also need to make sure you're looking at the correct numbered engine.

Truthfully, copying the orbit parameters is easier, but it'll also swap out your crew unless you edit the CREW sections also.

Cheers,

~Claw

(Yeah, what ninja Laie just said.)

[Mister Kerman]

I have a question kind of along these lines.

I have a satellite in Kerbin orbit. It's got a thermometer, power, solar panels, and it's controlled by a probe core. I try to log temperature data but it says it can't do it, then the option to log data goes away. What's wrong?

[*Aqua*]

Everything is alright. Not every science instrument works in every environment.

[Mister Kerman]

Hm. Just seemed like a bug the way it took the option to log results away entirely. Thanks!

[Claw]

I try to log temperature data but it says it can't do it, then the option to log data goes away. What's wrong?

Thermometers are slightly glitched. Aqua is right in that not all instruments work everywhere. The thermometer intentionally doesn't collect any science in "high orbit." Unfortunately, once you try to do that, the option disappears until you save/load or switch vessels and come back.

Cheers,

~Claw