Ship wont take off...

[Diogenes]

Hi Guys,

I'm having some trouble with this.

I tried looking on Google, but there are, apparently, very few items which match what I am looking for.

Anyway, I started playing Space Engineers tonight, and I cannot make a ship which actually works as intended.

I use the following parts;

1 Cockpit, several Light Armor Blocks for a basic chassis, 1 Gyroscope, several Ion Thrusters going in each direction, and a small reactor.

I am only trying to build a small ship to test the basic design principles.

Anyway, once the ship is built, I disable the landing gear, and try to launch. The ship basically drags itself along the ground, it will not climb to altitude, and then it just flips and crashes. I have tried several times, with several ships, and always receive the same result.

Any ideas what is wrong?

I have watched several Youtube tutorials and none of them mention this isseue.

[casualsailor]

On planets or in space? If on planets are you using Atmospheric Thrusters or Hydrogen Thrusters? Ion Thrusters do not provide enough thrust to counteract gravity when on the surface.

Edit: Also you need a lot of thrusters to counteract gravity. Multiply the Mass of your ship (kg) by 10 and that is how many kN kilo-Newtons of thrust you need to hover.

See the wiki for the amount of thrust produced by each type of thruster.

http://www.spaceengineerswiki.com/Thrusters

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by casualsailor:

On planets or in space? If on planets are you using Atmospheric Thrusters or Hydrogen Thrusters? Ion Thrusters do not provide enough thrust to counteract gravity when on the surface.

Ah, I didn't think of that.

I currently play on randomly generated planets, in offline mode, while I am still getting used to the game.

I'll re-check and see how it works out, if I use another type of thruster.

If I recall right, I was usin Ion Thrusters.

Edit;

I have just tried using Small Atmospheric Thrusters, and it has done the exact same thing. So, from what I can see, the issue is not dependant on the type of thrusters used.

[MongognoM]

Landing Gear Locked ?
Press P to toggle it.

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by MongognoM:

Landing Gear Locked ?
Press P to toggle it.

No, it's not that.

I always unlock the landing gear as soon as I try to take off.

I mean, I am a novice, but I'm not that much of a novice :).

[casualsailor]

Originally posted by Cadderley:

Originally posted by casualsailor:

On planets or in space? If on planets are you using Atmospheric Thrusters or Hydrogen Thrusters? Ion Thrusters do not provide enough thrust to counteract gravity when on the surface.

Ah, I didn't think of that.

I currently play on randomly generated planets, in offline mode, while I am still getting used to the game.

I'll re-check and see how it works out, if I use another type of thruster.

If I recall right, I was usin Ion Thrusters.

Edit;

I have just tried using Small Atmospheric Thrusters, and it has done the exact same thing. So, from what I can see, the issue is not dependant on the type of thrusters used.

It sounds as if you simply don't have enough thrust to get airborne. Publish your world and post a link to it here and I'll take a look for you.

[Namdoolb]

The problem you describe is definitely one that you aren't making enough thrust to work against gravity.

If you're only using one small reactor, it's probably being overloaded.
Check your power consumption when you try to take off; (on the HuD on the right hand side) It should tell you if the power supply for the ship is being overloaded or not.

If you're overloading the power supply, the thrusters won't be able to work at their full power, and you probably won't go anywhere.


Also, others have mentioned thrusters (which is also a thing)
Atmospheric thrusters only work on planets, not in space.
Ion thrusters (if I remember rightly the game might refer to them as just "thrusters") Work well in space, but are no good at fighting gravity.
Hydrogen thrusters will work anywhere, but you need to pipe them up to a Hydrogen tank and/or oxygen generator.

[Tom7i]

Originally posted by UESCNamdoolb=FILTH=:

The problem you describe is definitely one that you aren't making enough thrust to work against gravity.

If you're only using one small reactor, it's probably being overloaded.
...

If you're overloading the power supply, the thrusters won't be able to work at their full power, and you probably won't go anywhere.

My bet is on this one too. I've found out (the hard way) that there needs to be at least 2 - 4 small reactors present in basic small ships in order to safely fly around with no worries of crashing due to overload; if you see the red text pop up where your engine output is, then the engines no longer work properly and you either won't be able to move or you will fall from the sky.

So yeah, try adding more reactors.

[Diogenes]

Thanks guys,

I've only just logged back on after being in a 24 hour coma.

I rage quit SE yesterday after spending 5 hours trying to work out where I was going wrong.

I will try to publish some planet settings etc, later, but for now, I will try to resolve the Thrust and Power issue.

It just pissed me off, because I saw youtube videos of people building very basic craft, made up of just the thrusters, cockpit, gyroscope and power core. They had no problem, but most of them were either in space, or on the moon, not on a randomly generated planet.

Another thing that I am going to attempt to do, is study how small craft are designed, which are present on the station when the map is generated, since those craft fly without any issues, but seems to use at least Large Thrusters, so hopefully, if I can reverse engineer one or two of those, I can find out what their secrets are also.

[casualsailor]

Because gravity exerts a force equal to a drag of 9.81 m/s^2 on your ship, your downward facing thrusters must in essence create 9.81 m/s^2 of accelleration just to hover. So multiply your ships mass by 10 then add up the downward thrust and see if it exceeds this amount.

Here are the numbers you need.

http://www.spaceengineerswiki.com/Thruster


If all else fails publish your world to the workshop and post a link to it here, and someone can take a look at your ship and diagnose the issue.

[Diogenes]

Just to add a degree of closure to the original question. I have found out where I have been going wrong. I was not using enough Thrusters to provide upward thrust. I have since changed from using small Ion Thrusters, to using two large Ion Thrusters for upwards thrust on small ships, and it has worked very well.

The only problem that I had last night however, was that after about 4 hours of building a ship, my display screen suddenly died on me, forcing me to manually reset my entire system.

Is this a common issue with Space Engineers?

I attributed it to this game specifically, since I have had no problems running any other game, Early Access, or otherwise, and after conducting a quick search of the forum, I have concluded that I am not the only person who seems to have suffered from this issue, with the graphics settings suddenly dying.

[Pegas519]

Originally posted by Cadderley:

Just to add a degree of closure to the original question. I have found out where I have been going wrong. I was not using enough Thrusters to provide upward thrust. I have since changed from using small Ion Thrusters, to using two large Ion Thrusters for upwards thrust on small ships, and it has worked very well.

The only problem that I had last night however, was that after about 4 hours of building a ship, my display screen suddenly died on me, forcing me to manually reset my entire system.

Is this a common issue with Space Engineers?

I attributed it to this game specifically, since I have had no problems running any other game, Early Access, or otherwise, and after conducting a quick search of the forum, I have concluded that I am not the only person who seems to have suffered from this issue, with the graphics settings suddenly dying.

Sounds like you need to check your windos settings or your monitor is getting tired. I never had that happening to me. 3100+ hours in SE.

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by Pegas519:

Sounds like you need to check your windos settings or your monitor is getting tired. I never had that happening to me. 3100+ hours in SE.

There is no problem with my hardware, I know that for a fact. Its pretty much new, and all of my drivers are up to date.

I have not had the problem with any other game, and like I said, after a quick check on the forums, and on Google, I can say for certain that it does not seem to be an isolated issue. Furthermore, it only happened when I alt + tab from the Windows Desktop, back into the game, and has also only happened once.

[RuskiPotato]

Finally figured it out. I was using too much power and when I added a Large Reactor it fixed the problem.

[Sasha2k1]

Originally posted by Diogenes:

Furthermore, it only happened when I alt + tab from the Windows Desktop, back into the game, and has also only happened once.

Switch to borderless windowed. Windows ♥♥♥♥♥ itself when trying to tab back to a fullscreen program

[𝅴󠀣󠁞󠁘]

just started the campagn. stuck as mission 3. fixed the ship fully and then ready it for take-off (hint are prety straightforward). then enter pilot cabin and the ship kind of just stay here. i can't even exit the pilot mode. this is amazing because its a level designed by the game devlopers and it just does not seem to be WAI. i am not sure this is a design problem . i think its something that is related to the ownership of the actual ship or scripted autopilot. anyway, my verdict is that the campagn seem to have been created by either someone sleepy or someone that could not do the job right. i hope the others mode are not like the solo campagn.