Hover Aligner

Like Gravity Aligner, keeps a ship aligned within angular tolerance of the gravity vector, keeps it from flipping over, using gyros. This one can also lock the altitude using available thrusters, relative to sea level or the terrain.

To set it up, you'll need:

A programmable block, with this script inside. A remote control or cockpit. some gyros. probably not all of them. some thrusters, mostly aiming down. an optional text panel, for diagnostic information. include all those blocks in a terminal group called Aligner. now Run the programmable block with argument "go" and watch the ship align itself. By default it's in angular gyro aligning mode only.

Run'ning with blank argument just updates the state, ticks the script. There are some command line arguments you can use to control the script, I usually set these into a toolbar shortcut:

go - starts aligning, starts up the script lock - locks present altitude relative to sea level and attempts to maintain it lockh - locks present altitude relative to terrain (NOT bases/ships!) and attempts to maintain it unlock - stops locking altitude and just aligns gyros stop - shuts off the script gracefully

advanced use: load - reloads changes you've made to settings in PB CustomData save - stores settings in PB CustomData, in case you're about to recompile the script reset - old command, same as stop now

There are many settings that may be customized in the CustomData. Use 'load' command to reload settings, or they may be set by command individually. Really the save command is rarely useful since all command line parameter changes are saved back into CustomData immediately automatically.

parameters: (see CustomData string in programmable block) pitchofs=<degrees> - adds some extra rotation to the ship alignment, for VTOL/rockets targetaltitude=<meters> - sets lock height but does not change lock state thrustvellimit=<speed> - sets max speed limit in m/s maxdownwardvelocity=<speed> - limits descent rate in m/s tiltpower=<factor> - how strongly terrain slope affects pitch

Text panels may select one of various charts to view by putting string into Title. Try 'height', 'altlock', 'altitude', 'elev', 'gravity', 'tcap', 'tovr', 'steer', 'turn', 'slope', 'log', 'logo', 'time'; 'angle', 'long', 'lati', 'planet', there are many. I should make a full list!

It can effectively replace the vertical inertial dampeners on a ship, but it's not tuned to lock in smoothly, it's tuned to cut off and let the main ship controls function including standard inertial dampeners, so it will give a bit of a bumpy ride if you turn dampeners off. The thrustposslop zone can be made smaller. If you want to stop, you should line the ship up well with gravity.

If you want to run it on MP servers, I recommend lowering the updatefrequency!! Ask your friendly local server admin if this script is right for you.

See H2Hover for an example ship.

I didn't put a limit on the altitude, and people have managed to do interesting things with it! Thanks guys!

TROUBLESHOOTING

Ownership is a big issue with this script. The easiest way to ensure it will work is set ownership of all blocks to "Nobody".

Try with an LCD in the group first, you can remove when it works.

Old versions of the script used a timer block. The timer block is no longer needed and can cause problems if it was set up improperly. Just turn it off and take it out of the group or delete it.

If it doesn't seem to be doing anything, did you give it the new "go" command? Check the programmable block to see if it threw an exception.. if so the script must be Recompiled before it can work again.

if it won't let you steer, try increasing pitchangleclipdegrees and/or pitchangleslopdegrees slightly.

If it won't follow the terrain, did you give it the "lockh" command? Are there thrusters in the group? Enough thrusters? Is tiltpower set > 0? If slope following causes problems, it can be disabled by TiltPower=0

If you see "CLR Detected Invalid Program" you should update your .NET to 4.6 or higher.