Help with docking on multiple ports simultaneously

[SoWeMeetAgain]

Hello there,

today I wanted to build my first station to be put onto the Mun, and if successful, Minmus later on.

I wanted the full package with all the experiments on a rover to drive around and collect aaaaall the science

And quite handily one contract calls for a station with science bay and room for 11 kerbals.

All in one go of course, because why not.

So this is the station while being assembled in orbit, I had the center piece with the rover and three leg-thingies, two attached already in the picture:

As you can see to keep everything well aligned I used two ports for each connection, should work fine right? During this stage, everything was okay, when docking both ports connected firmly and all was well.

But after some more preparation, namely sending a survey scanner satellite to the mun, coming back to my now-assembled station I found this:

the connections are severed, only one remained intact each. So now the engines aren't aligned any more, everything wobbles.

What do?

Edited July 4, 2015 by SoWeMeetAgain

[Harry Rhodan]

What do?

Your problem is most likely that you eyeballed the distance between the two docking ports on each part by trying to allign the ports with the edges of the small tank. That's probably not precise enough. My solution to that problem was creating a subassembly with two docking ports on an I-Beam to have a standardized connection I could place anywhere.

[SoWeMeetAgain]

well, no, that is not the problem, but thank you for the suggestion. As said when first docking they both connected. And I did copy the whole thing to make sure they were at the same distance, note that each of the legs has two halfsize tanks instead of one fullsize, thats why.

[Grumman]

Kerbal Attachment System lets you add struts in orbit, which give you the same stability you would normally use multi-docking for, but without the finickiness of multi-docking. Installing KAS and KIS and then sending up a repair ship with an engineer, a spanner and a bunch of KAS strut mounts would let you fix it.

[Frank_G]

I use multiple docking ports all the time and have no problems. It is tricky though.

If you have not checked the connection of all four ports with a right click, it can be possible, that, in your shown case, the lower pair of ports only were holding together through docking magnetism, which is deactivated, as soon as you leave the scenery. When i look at the docking ports, they seem to not be exactly physically aligned on the y axis during construction, but that may be distorted by perspective.

Can you confirm, that all docking ports were 100% aligned during construction, all four ports connected firmly (being checked with right click) and that they are still in the same physical position now? If they are not... well, the kraken is back then and you have discovered a bug...

[SoWeMeetAgain]

Kerbal Attachment System lets you add struts in orbit, which give you the same stability you would normally use multi-docking for, but without the finickiness of multi-docking. Installing KAS and KIS and then sending up a repair ship with an engineer, a spanner and a bunch of KAS strut mounts would let you fix it.

That is a good idea, would for sure fix the wobble! Not the misalignment though :/

I use multiple docking ports all the time and have no problems. It is tricky though.

If you have not checked the connection of all four ports with a right click, it can be possible, that, in your shown case, the lower pair of ports only were holding together through docking magnetism, which is deactivated, as soon as you leave the scenery. When i look at the docking ports, they seem to not be exactly physically aligned on the y axis during construction, but that may be distorted by perspective.

Can you confirm, that all docking ports were 100% aligned during construction, all four ports connected firmly (being checked with right click) and that they are still in the same physical position now? If they are not... well, the kraken is back then and you have discovered a bug...

I can confirm that they were 100% aligned during construction - but being honest I cannot confirm that they indeed connected more than with the magnetic forces, I only checked one port per docking maneuver with right click ...

I made a few more pictures:

From these two it seems like they are indeed in the right distance but the whole leg-assembly is slightly tilted towards one side :/

Nevertheless the whole rig made it to the Mun safe and sound:

but during the flight and on the Mun surface everything has basically slowed to a crawl... it seems to be getting progressively worse Too many parts I presume... offtopic but fix ideas? which settings to turn down for that? (doubt its the graphics, it seems to be the physics part slowing things down but idunno)

Edited July 4, 2015 by SoWeMeetAgain

[Frank_G]

You can try decreasing the max-physics-delta-time in the general settings. Try to change it as less as possible, because it will effect the simulation!

[edit] That is an impressive base, you landed on the Mün there! Very cool.

If you want to use a mod that adds no additional parts and wont break your game on removal, you might want to use Docking Port Alignment Indicator. As the name says, it is only an indicator, so all the work and fun is still your part. If you are using RasterPropMonitors, the UI of the DPAI can be accessed from within a capsule, adding even more realism and fun.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/43901-1-0-x-Docking-Port-Alignment-Indicator-%28Version-6-2-Updated-05-04-2015%29

Edited July 4, 2015 by Frank_G

[SoWeMeetAgain]

You can try decreasing the max-physics-delta-time in the general settings. Try to change it as less as possible, because it will effect the simulation!

[edit] That is an impressive base, you landed on the Mün there! Very cool.

If you want to use a mod that adds no additional parts and wont break your game on removal, you might want to use Docking Port Alignment Indicator. As the name says, it is only an indicator, so all the work and fun is still your part. If you are using RasterPropMonitors, the UI of the DPAI can be accessed from within a capsule, adding even more realism and fun.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/43901-1-0-x-Docking-Port-Alignment-Indicator-%28Version-6-2-Updated-05-04-2015%29

Thanks a ton for that tip, I had initally set it to the lowest setting, now it's 0.08 I think and it runs much, MUCH better ♥