EVA ejection

[NFunky]

Hey guys, got a general request here. Now I've done my research and I know that EVA 'ejection' at high speed is a bug in the game. I've gone and installed the Stock Bug Fixes mod, and it seems to help, but there are still times when I hit that button and my kerbal goes spinning off into space.

I think I've mentioned that I have low vision. I can see well enough to play the game most of the time, and I have even gotten fairly decent at EVA maneuvering, but ONLY when I have a chance to see my kerbal's position in relation to the ship. With the ejection bug, I have no chance to rotate the camera or get my bearings before I'm god knows how far away, moving god knows how fast. It's been getting me down lately as I'm trying to do a poor man's Apollo style rendezvous. It's 'poor man's' because I haven't unlocked docking tech yet, so I have to EVA between the two modules once I've got them close enough.

So I'm wondering if anyone's come up with some techniques or workarounds to deal with EVA ejection. What's the best way to locate my ship in EVA mode? If I target it in map mode, are there any visual indicators in the regular view that would guide me in? Any other mods I might try in order to fix the bug?

Edited February 10, 2015 by NFunky

[Taki117]

Your best bet is to ensure that there is nothing around the hatch that your kerbal can collide with. Since you already have the Stock Bug Fix modules, try updating them? beyond that I can't help you.

[LordFerret]

I had this problem for a while. The two suggestions given are the answer; The Stock Bug Fix modules, and insuring there are no parts near or touching the hatch.

One of the things you can do however, if the problem persists, is to make note of your ship's hatch orientation before going EVA. In other words, which direction is the hatch pointing? If it's pointing out towards space (away from the planet/moon), then you'll know to pivot around and face that body because your ship will be in that direction. Understand?

[moronwrocket]

One subtlety is that "near" the hatch includes on the top mounting node for the Mk1 command pod. Don't put anything wider than .625m up there as the first part. IE, Mk16 parachute OK, Mk16-XL no. Add a small spacer like a Z-200 battery pack if you absolutely have to have something large up top. On the Mk1-2 the hatch is inconveniently not aligned with any axis, but the top can support larger items without issue in my experience. If you are having trouble seeing where the hatches are located, add a couple of Z-200's and mount any science or radial chutes up there instead of on the sides of the pod.

[tsotha]

One subtlety is that "near" the hatch includes on the top mounting node for the Mk1 command pod. Don't put anything wider than .625m up there as the first part. IE, Mk16 parachute OK, Mk16-XL no. Add a small spacer like a Z-200 battery pack if you absolutely have to have something large up top. On the Mk1-2 the hatch is inconveniently not aligned with any axis, but the top can support larger items without issue in my experience. If you are having trouble seeing where the hatches are located, add a couple of Z-200's and mount any science or radial chutes up there instead of on the sides of the pod.

This is critical. I found I can put parachutes overlapping the side and science instruments all around the bottom, but if I put something too wide on the top node he'll get flung off into space every time. I think when you push the EVA button the game detects a collision of the Kerbal's king-sized mellon and whatever you put up there.

[DDay2021]

Without knowing what "low vision" means exactly, I'm going to assume it's a problem differentiating between the Kebal and the background object. I'm going to suggest a couple of mods:

Aviation Lights: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/16925-0-90-Aviation-Lights-v3-7-%2816DEC14%29

Surface Lights: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57778-0-24-Surface-Mounted-Stock-Alike-Lights-for-Self-Illumination

You should be able to change the light colors so you can orient your Kebal to the ship, i.e., red down, green up, as well as illuminate the ship. Whatever system you come up with use it consistently.

Pressing L will turn on the helmet lights of the EVA'd Kerbal.

Finally you might look at a mod like http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67641-0-23-Raise-Minimum-Ambient-Lighting-v1-0 to change the overall brightness of the scene.

I hope this helps.

[NFunky]

Thank you guys! I bet you it's having a 1.5 meter part on top of the command pod. I'll give it a try later tonight.

I think my main visual problem in this case is the lack of field of view. Once I can spot an object, I'm pretty solid at tracking it and maintaining my special sense. I'll check those mods out. I'm willing to try every little thing that could help.

[Kryxal]

On rescues, I always target the ship ... you get this nice, bright yellow marker to work with, so this is useful for EVA-ejection recovery. Also note that a quick switch to the ship can give you relative direction FROM the ship, though that's mostly useful for "how far above/below the horizon should I be looking?"

[tsotha]

On rescues, I always target the ship ... you get this nice, bright yellow marker to work with, so this is useful for EVA-ejection recovery. Also note that a quick switch to the ship can give you relative direction FROM the ship, though that's mostly useful for "how far above/below the horizon should I be looking?"

The problem is you may not be able to target the ship if you can't see it. You're so close together you only get one option on the map view, and if that isn't the ship AFAIK the only way to target the ship is to click on it from the staging view.

[Kryxal]

You can always click on another point in the orbit, unless there's something else floating in the same orbit. Even if there is, you can always re"name" one of the ship types and hide the other.