Downward Space Engines

[Wyndle]

I've tried a few builds with a downward oriented space engine.  It took a while to notice due to my flight habits but the down space engines are default tied to throttle when leaving atmo.  Getting out of the seat while in space typically resolves it but having something like that go unnoticed for a long slow boat will put you way off course.

[Haunty]

I haven't tried it recently, but I've used them and by default they would always automatically throttle opposite acceleration of gravity, and holding spacebar would put them at 100% power.

[Deathknight]

If you are going to use downward firing space engines, I would suggest using a gyro oriented 90 degrees. When leaving the atmosphere, hold space until you are over maybe 6k altitude, then toggle the gyro. At that point, you can control your space engines like normal (in either cruise or throttle mode).

 

I have quite a few ships setup with space engines like this, since I find it is more efficient use of space. I just setup a hotkey for the toggle and it works like a charm.

[Wyndle]

I've made a few gyro ships.  I try to incorporate space engines in multiple directions, even more so when hauling a load.  The issue only affects down-facing engines.

[Wyndle]

On 8/26/2022 at 2:49 PM, Haunty said:

I haven't tried it recently, but I've used them and by default they would always automatically throttle opposite acceleration of gravity, and holding spacebar would put them at 100% power.

 

That may be related to what I'm seeing.  It does not matter what direction my ship is oriented in/leaving orbit, the down space engines are 'on' and appear to be matching my current forward throttle.  This behavior can destabilize an otherwise clean orbit.  Even if I fire my upward engines the down engine only cuts off so long as I am actively firing against it.  To reiterate, this behavior does not seem to occur when entering a pilot seat while the ship is outside of atmo.  I need to play with it more to find the edge cases.

 

17 hours ago, Deathknight said:

If you are going to use downward firing space engines, I would suggest using a gyro oriented 90 degrees. When leaving the atmosphere, hold space until you are over maybe 6k altitude, then toggle the gyro. At that point, you can control your space engines like normal (in either cruise or throttle mode).

 

I have quite a few ships setup with space engines like this, since I find it is more efficient use of space. I just setup a hotkey for the toggle and it works like a charm.

I love (some) gyro ships but it will be a hard sale to a new player who can barely pilot a speeder.  I will test to see if placing a gyro disables this effect akin to how placing an adjuster on a dynamic core cuts your chances of having docking prevention shoot it into orbit.

[Wyndle]

It was as @Haunty stated.  Playing with the roll position once in orbit gave me all the info needed and also explains what I was seeing prior.