So, this thing happened, and I can't explain it

MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
Hello again, Commanders

So last night, I decided to stop messing around, and bought an Anaconda. So far, I'm very happy with it, despite the fact that it really isn't fully put together. Right now, it's set up for the current event, so large hauls in the fewest jumps possible, etc. Hopefully soon, it will be tuned more to my preferences.

Anyway, so on my last mission of the night (if you don't know, Obsidian Orbital has some missions paying in the millions during this event, and did on the last one as well), I was about 600m or so above the ground, using lateral thrusters (while still moving forward) to line up the last 30 degrees or so to the landing pad. I did have my nose pointed down (so I could see), and this is a maneuver I have used many, many times in the past without issue. Nose down enough to see, lateral thrust with some forward movement.

I had gone about 25% of the way around the base using this method (so, like 20 seconds or so), and was just about to kill the lateral thrust, when the ship suddenly dropped like a piano.

Straight to the ground. I didn't quite get the nose level before I hit the ground, so I couldn't boost, and vertical thrust did not slow me down, or prevent the collision.

Luckily, I use decent shields, so I *only* took 50% hull damage. Just to be clear - I didn't thrust into the ground. The ship just...dropped, as if it had completely lost the ability to fly at all.

I had looked to see the G's of the planet while still in SC, but it didn't say - and it still doesn't say. Even if it did, that doesn't explain why I was able to do this maneuver as normal for quite a few seconds without issue, then suddenly, a near disaster.

Can anyone please explain to me what might have happened here? I use a Saitek X-56 (which has the wonderful ghosting issues, replacement is arriving tomorrow), so perhaps it could have been a ghosting issue, but I don't completely buy that.

Something happened here, and I wish I had thought to bring up the Nvidia console to capture it, but I didn't.

Any insight would be most appreciated; an Anaconda is an expensive ship to replace, and I would hate for ignorance to be the reason.

Thanks,

Riôt
 

Kuroshio

Kuroshio
Sounds a lot like FA off, yeah. (If it's bound somewhere on the stick, it might have ghosted.) Got a powered USB hub for your X-56?
 
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Major Klutz

Major Klutz
Either, your ship thrusted downward OR your vertical thrust stopped being sufficient to hold you up against gravity.
A few things could cause your vertical thrusters to lose power. Turning flight assist off of course. Other possibilities are only possible in high gravity.

The gravity strength would be helpful to know. If you didn't check before landing, you can certainly check now.
If the gravity was low (<0.68G) I don't have an explanation other than downward thrust or FA turned off.

As to why you were able to circle for 20 seconds. Did you notice your vertical speed? Is it possible you were dropping the whole time and didn't notice? It would be slow at first and pick up speed.
Another possibility could be control mistake or glitch. I use the hat switch on my X52 throttle for lateral and vertical and sometimes I'll accidentally skew the angle to an in-between 8-way position and cut off the thrust.

If the gravity was high, a momentary up thrust could cause you to drop. If you thrust up and then let go, flight assist takes a half second to take over again.
You can lose a lot of altitude while FA tries to compensate
Here's a demo of that happening https://youtu.be/0nErX1tFyC4?t=17m30s

If you're sure you didn't thrust Up and you didn't thrust Down, did you roll on to your side? Even 15 or 20 degrees?
In high gravity your side thrusters can't hold you up and you'll slide downhill at an angle.
It's the same with the bow thruster. Nose down, even 10 degrees in High G will cause you to lose altitude but you would be sliding downhill forward.
 
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Tuub t Tute

T
Major Klutz said:
Either, your ship thrusted downward OR your vertical thrust stopped being sufficient to hold you up against gravity.
A few things could cause your vertical thrusters to lose power. Turning flight assist off of course. Other possibilities are only possible in high gravity.

The gravity strength would be helpful to know. If you didn't check before landing, you can certainly check now.
If the gravity was low (<0.68G) I don't have an explanation other than downward thrust or FA turned off.

As to why you were able to circle for 20 seconds. Did you notice your vertical speed? Is it possible you were dropping the whole time and didn't notice? It would be slow at first and pick up speed.
Another possibility could be control mistake or glitch. I use the hat switch on my X52 throttle and sometimes I'll accidentally skew the angle to an in-between 8-way position and cut off the thrust.

If the gravity was high, a momentary up thrust could cause you to drop. If you thrust up and then let go, flight assist takes a half second to take over again.
You can lose a lot of altitude while FA tries to compensate
Here's a demo of that happening https://youtu.be/0nErX1tFyC4?t=17m30s

If you're sure you didn't thrust Up and you didn't thrust Down, did you roll on to your side? Even 15 or 20 degrees?
In high gravity your side thrusters can't hold you up and you'll slide downhill at an angle.
It's the same with the bow thruster. Nose down, even 10 degrees in High G will cause you to lose altitude but you would be sliding downhill forward.
Click to expand...

A bit off the original topic... If I am not misunderstanding you, do you know that you can go into the profile editor of the X-52 Pro software and configure the throttle hat as 8-way? That way unless you are somehow hitting 1/16th positions you will be able to apply two thrust vectors at once.

xJ6UpR3.png
 
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MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
Kuroshio said:
Sounds a lot like FA off, yeah. (If it's bound somewhere on the stick, it might have ghosted.) Got a powered USB hub for your X-56?
Click to expand...

No powered hub - does this fix the ghosting problem?

Major Klutz said:
Either, your ship thrusted downward OR your vertical thrust stopped being sufficient to hold you up against gravity.
A few things could cause your vertical thrusters to lose power. Turning flight assist off of course. Other possibilities are only possible in high gravity.

The gravity strength would be helpful to know. If you didn't check before landing, you can certainly check now.
If the gravity was low (<0.68G) I don't have an explanation other than downward thrust or FA turned off.

As to why you were able to circle for 20 seconds. Did you notice your vertical speed? Is it possible you were dropping the whole time and didn't notice? It would be slow at first and pick up speed.
Another possibility could be control mistake or glitch. I use the hat switch on my X52 throttle and sometimes I'll accidentally skew the angle to an in-between 8-way position and cut off the thrust.

If the gravity was high, a momentary up thrust could cause you to drop. If you thrust up and then let go, flight assist takes a half second to take over again.
You can lose a lot of altitude while FA tries to compensate
Here's a demo of that happening https://youtu.be/0nErX1tFyC4?t=17m30s

If you're sure you didn't thrust Up and you didn't thrust Down, did you roll on to your side? Even 15 or 20 degrees?
In high gravity your side thrusters can't hold you up and you'll slide downhill at an angle.
It's the same with the bow thruster. Nose down, even 10 degrees in High G will cause you to lose altitude but you would be sliding downhill forward.
Click to expand...

This last part sounds most like what happened. Even though it wasn't in the description, there is a side angle involved with it as well. FA is bound to the stick, but I don't recall seeing or hearing the cues that the mode has changed, and it was on when I had recovered from the...Bounce'N'Skid maneuver.

So, side thrusters aren't enough to keep you up if the gravity is anywhere around 1.0 or higher? I'm going to assume that this effect is magnified then, on heavier ships? Ignorance can be costly in this game, but it's one of the reason I like it so much.

I'm actually still there (Ladon System, Ladon 5, Barreiros Base if anyone was curious), and I might try it again, just to see what happens, since I don't have any cargo or missions atm. Though, gambling with 9M credits is kind of...stupid.

Thanks,

Riôt
 

Non Grata

Non Grata
I've bounced off the ground a few times too - thought it might have been due to lowering my gear, but the side thruster theory makes perfect sense.
 

MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
Traveller_GG said:
A powered hub is recommended for all the x-55/56 sticks. Made a difference with mine (while it still worked...)
Click to expand...

Did it still ghost even with the powered hub, or did that issue disappear?

Also - all the devices plugged into said hub all run though the same USB port on the PC? This doesn't cause conflicts, or other issues?

Thanks,

Riôt
 
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MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
I now have one of these hubs - hopefully, the issue is fixed, and if not, I have the replacement to try with it tomorrow.

Thanks again, everyone.

Riôt
 
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