Complete Loss of Control

[CaptainX3]

Hey guys,

I have noticed a bug pop up recently in my game. I will be launching a manned rocket with a command capsule into space, and somewhere around 30 seconds after liftoff, the camera will freeze in position, and the ship keeps going. I can't control anything at that point, and using the bracket keys to try to switch back to the ship results in a "No nearby vessels" message. I'm not sure how to prevent this from happening.

Part of me thinks it might be related to a part I was designing. It's a fuel generator that uses a ton of electricity to generate some extra fuel, mostly for emergencies for when you run out but just need a tiny bit more. It's based off of the fuel generator that's posted on the Spaceport, I just changed it around a bit.

Could this be causing the problem, and if so, do you guys have any suggestions on how to fix it? Is it a simple setting in the cfg file that is causing the crazy behavior, or could it be something totally unrelated to my new part? The only other mod I have installed before the bug appeared was RemoteTech, but I have since removed the plugin part because I didnt care for it, I just wanted the satellite dish parts (which no longer show up anyways).

Any suggestions would be very helpful and appreciated... I'm sure its something simple on my end but I cant figure out what.

[Zombo]

If you have structural failure at a stage link, u lose control of the stage below the failure. So the engiines will just keep going in the last setting they had. Its not a bug, its a design flaw. Use struts to strengthen decoupler joints, it wont prevent decoupling, but will help prevent structural failures.

[Bitcoin Baron]

Completely unrelated i was reading the KSP wiki earlier and came across this article:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Kraken

It sounds typical of the type of behavoir of the deep space kraken, although doesnt fit into any of the known offenders attack patterns. Maybe a new type?

On a less serious note, perhaps post a screenshot of your spaceship design? I'm not much of an expert myself, but for those that are so afflicted, they can possibly tell you whats happening.

[ThatBum]

Hm. The Kraken usually manifests itself at very high speeds and/or distances from Kerbol, as it has to do with floating point rounding errors. I second that it's some sort of structural failure, check your postflight log.

[Nats]

Could it be that you are running out of electricity half way up and therefore experiencing complete loss of control? If so put some flat solar panels on and some batteries.

Can a generator create fuel from electricity in real life? It usually does it the other way around - electricity from fuel.

Surely a backup ion engine would be more realistic although probably useless for anything other than a probe.

Practically speaking rockets dont have backups - they always are designed to do or die in order to save weight.

[ThatBum]

I dunno, if you run out of power you still stay focused on it but you can't control it.

[Nats]

Originally posted by +TNT+ThatBum:

I dunno, if you run out of power you still stay focused on it but you can't control it.

That is true - it must be your ship is breaking up as Zombo said although when it happens to me I dont get a frozen camera view I usually follow the capsule wherever it goes.

[CaptainX3]

Thanks guys for your great responses, I'm sorry it took so long to reply, I'm a truck driver and can't always get online.

I tested the theory about the structural failure and reinforced the craft as best I could. It happened again during launch, and the end flight log just shows "Liftoff!" and that's it. This time it happened right after I activated the generator.

And I know that my generator concept isn't realistic, I added it in purely for fun. I'm 99% sure it has something to do with the generator, I just don't know what could be causing the problem. It could be possible that I have something in the cfg file wrong and it's causing some kind of error in the game.

If there are any modders out there who have seen this before, any help would be appreciated :) I'm sure it's a messup in my mod, just not sure where lol.

In any case, thank you guys for the good responses. I didn't know that struts wouldn't interfere with the decoupling process, so that's good info to know.

One final question: If I want to create a long range craft that has its own engine, and then put the liftoff engine and fuel tank underneath it, how do you guys do that without the craft collapsing? Here's kind of an example of what I mean:

^^^ (Command module)
|
| (Fuel tank/other modules)
|
--- (Main ship engine)
?
?
?
| (Liftoff fuel tank)
|
|
--- (Liftoff engine)

What do I use in place of the question marks, between the engine bell of the ship's engine and the fuel tank for the liftoff engine? I've tried using various fairings from mods, but they always seem to collapse and/or fall apart. Do you guys just use struts?

[Smokey]

Have a look at the stage where you activate the generator and make sure your not decoupling anything above that. The only time my camera stopped moving but the rcket and poor kerbals kept blasting up into space was when i accidently had the stages setup wrong

[CaptainX3]

Well, I have the generator placed below the final decoupler for when the capsule is ready for reentry... but I never engage that. Could just being located below the decoupler cause the problem...? Hmm... I'll try it and let you guys know!

[Sparky47]

What the crap is the "Kraken" is it like the minecraft herobrine? please reply

[ZEnON]

Its a glitch in the game engine :) more info on the wiki
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Deep_Space_Kraken

[sal_vager]

Plugins can cause this, there used to be awful trouble with in old cleverbobcat.dll that made the camera lag behind the rocket.

I would not be surprised if your plugin or another you were using were playing up :)

[Articulate Llama]

my gawd, could this mean that the kraken has reached the atmosphere!

[CaptainX3]

Originally posted by sal_vager:

Plugins can cause this, there used to be awful trouble with in old cleverbobcat.dll that made the camera lag behind the rocket.

I would not be surprised if your plugin or another you were using were playing up :)

Aha, I do have the CleverBobCat.dll in my plugins... now what the hell does that plugin do? LOL

[bpivk]

Originally posted by CaptainX3:

Originally posted by sal_vager:

Plugins can cause this, there used to be awful trouble with in old cleverbobcat.dll that made the camera lag behind the rocket.

I would not be surprised if your plugin or another you were using were playing up :)

Aha, I do have the CleverBobCat.dll in my plugins... now what the hell does that plugin do? LOL

It's used for lots of stuff. You can get it if you use rover mods, DEMV mods, HOME mods,...