Why are my unmanned crafts losing signal soon after launch? 1.2 pre-release

[What Zitt Tooya]

Hey guys,

I'm playing career mode in KSP 1.2 pre-release. Everytime I fly an unmanned craft, from Kerbin to LKO, it, for 15-20 seconds, loses complete signal. As a result, my craft will keep it's same course and throttle (I turned off partial control for a challenge) and it messes up my intentional apoapsis. It's not plasma blackout because I tried both enabled and disabled and doesn't affect this phenomenon.

I have good antennas and electricity on each one but for some reason all of them lose signal from ~35-53 altitude. Speed is usually around 900m/s. What's causing this? Why aren't they getting any signal around that height and velocity?

[maj.solo]

15-20 seconds? I guesstimate with 99.99% certainty it is a bug. Or maybe it is the .... that ... yeah ... maybe .... yeah .... do you loose control while in the atmosphere!!!! ???? yeah .... you loose control while going superfast in the atmosphere .... that rings a bell .....

Sorry I am drunk... but ...

You know ... if it is what I am thinking it is .... then KSP is turning hard core very fast .....

hick !!!

aha so u already tries that....

Sigh ... OK THEN .... IT IS BUG-

[JuanSolo]

vote king pepe

[Aviara1985]

Plasma blackout as it seems. Ignore my post, i should read the whole thing first, but maybe it's a bug in the 'off' function of the option

[What Zitt Tooya]

hmmm very well could be. I'll report it, thanks

[Radioshow]

antenna have to be deployed to work!!!

[Radioshow]

Also if you have CommNet enabled make sure you have "extra ground stations" enabled and check the "need signal for control" option as well. Like I said above the antenna needs to be deployed to work on the commnet. Only for sending science does it work automatically. for the relay or control youwant the antenna deployed as most crew capsules etc have very limited comms built in.

[AlexMBrennan]

Also if you have CommNet enabled make sure you have "extra ground stations" enabled

Rockets are always launched from the KSC, so you will always have direct LOS to the KSC's ground station for the launch. Therefore, this cannot possibly cause the problem described.

Like I said above the antenna needs to be deployed to work on the commnet

Built-in 5k antenna is plenty for getting into LKO; if you lose contact at 15000m then it's not due a lack of antenna power.

Quick testing suggests that plasma blackout causes loss of control as described (with a simple kickback + inline core + nose cone I lost control at about 900m/s and regained control at 45km), which suggests that the plasma blackout option either wasn't set correctly, or isn't effective due to a bug (which I was not able to replicate).

[What Zitt Tooya]

@AlexMBrennan,

Ya I think it must be a bug. I started the career with the option enabled, however I disabled it trying to figure out if that settings was causing the problem. Maybe the game still has it enabled even if you disable it anytime during your career. Ya it must be a bug :/

Granted it makes it more realistic, I didn't know how much of a problem it would be. Loss of signal during launch makes a huge difference in your plan.

[Radioshow]

Therein lies the problem. A probe would be preprogrammed with manuevers so loss of comms is not an issue. This is being discussed on the forums. I suppose it is sort of a trade-off but the mechanics may be changed.

[AlexMBrennan]

Granted it makes it more realistic, I didn't know how much of a problem it would be. Loss of signal during launch makes a huge difference in your plan.

You can get to space if you launch straight up (the worst case scenario), so in practise it will make the launch more expensive (with no real world justification) because you can't follow an ideal trajectory. However, it's hardly an insurmountable problem.

[=)]

On an optimal launch path, your apo will be out of KSCs line of sight and wont pass into another ground stations LoS for long enough to potentially renter the atmosphere.

Initially you might want to use a less optimal path (ie more up less horizontal) until you have some relay sats in orbit. Start with low orbit relays though because geostationary orbit height relays need 4 of the fold out dishes for any signal in my experience.

[=)]

you can sort of get around it also by pre-emtively putting the probe in the direction of the circulization burn before losing comms... you can then still tell it to go full and zero thrust. wont be a clean orbit but also works and can be tidied up later on

[What Zitt Tooya]

Originally posted by =):

On an optimal launch path, your apo will be out of KSCs line of sight and wont pass into another ground stations LoS for long enough to potentially renter the atmosphere.

Initially you might want to use a less optimal path (ie more up less horizontal) until you have some relay sats in orbit. Start with low orbit relays though because geostationary orbit height relays need 4 of the fold out dishes for any signal in my experience.

that's a good point. I'll try putting some relays and see what happens. I figured the ship would always get a groundstation connection, even with a low power antenna.

[AlexMBrennan]

On an optimal launch path, your apo will be out of KSCs line of sight and wont pass into another ground stations LoS for long enough to potentially renter the atmosphere.

That sounds highly dubious - you can disable extra ground stations for extra challenge in the options, but your use of "another ground stations" implies that you are not talking about that case.
With the extra ground stations enabled, you will have satellite coverage everywhere around Kerbin because ground stations are generously spaced (including Kerbin North One to cover the north pole and Mesa South to cover the south pole).

Could you please provide me of a screenshot of this blind spot, in the game? Do you have to change the occlusion settings? Because I highly doubt that it actually exists.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=771883608
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=771883244

[What Zitt Tooya]

@AlexMBrennan - I launch an unmanned probe on an Eastern trajectory. Around 35,000-50,000m and verticle speed of about 800-1000m/s, I lose complete control/no signal. It has a powerful antenna and I have extra ground stations turned on. Let me take two screenshots, hang on a sec.