Annoying Docking

[DrDress]

When I dock two spacecrafts, it really bugs me that the axis of my craft doesn't align with the control keys (WASD). So for example if I press W the ship doesn't go up, but it goes left or something. I usually have to look at the RCS exhaust when I press a button to see what direction it tries to put my ship.

 

Isn't there a way to make it more "videogame-like"? Like if you were seeing it from the cockpit (first person), or seeing from directly behind (third person) or something?

[bewing]

Hit C or the "View" button on the pilot's portrait to get a cockpit view.

But otherwise, you need to rotate your ship so the top is pointing up before the WASD keys will act like they are pointing in the "standard" direction.

[Clipperride]

When docking, I cycle the camera view (V) until it's on "Locked".  If you then position the camera behind your vessel and try the H/M, J/L and I/K keys you'll see the ship move as expected.

One other option is to place a small rectangular girder section to indicate "up" relative to the pilot.  That's also handy if you are docking fore or aft (ie inline) with another ship and alignment is important.  Again, a small girder, or similar, next to each docking port, gives you a reference point.

If I want to be precise about docking; I get to within about 30m, choose the "Locked" camera view, then come to a stop relative to the target.  Turn off the RCS thrusters (so you remain stationary) and use the WASD keys to rotate the active ship to the correct angle for docking (ie the orientation you would want you active ship to be in a moment before docking).  

Then, turning the RCS back on, I use the IKJL keys to move "up", "down", "left", "right" until I get the targeted docking port symbol on the NAV ball in the centre of the -v- mark.  Finally a touch of H/M to move slowly forward and dock. If, when you start to move forward, the prograde symbol isn't also in the centre of the -v- on the NAV ball, use IKJL to move it until the prograde symbol, targeted docking port symbol and the -v- are neatly lined up. As you move in, you can (with RCS thrusters turned off again) use Q/E to rotate into alignment.

(You'd never guess I got paid by the word would you?? Old habits die hard)

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Clipperride

[ForScience6686]

I'll  use lights on larger craft,  and set the individual colors do I have a quick visual reference.   other than that,  the suggestion for cycling the view to locked is the best method.

[RX2000]

Had the same problem when I first started trying to dock. As mentioned above, your best bet is to change the camera mode to "locked."

[Plusck]

The other (and imho better) option is just to ignore what's going on in the external view (except for one single vital bit of info - distance to target), and concentrate exclusively on the NavBall.

If you've lined up the docking ports once, then they are going to stay perfectly lined up unless you rotate yourself or phantom forces are at work. So instead of rotating to point to target if it drifts off centre, translate to push the approach vector on the other side of target to bring it back to you. Microwarping from time to time just to make sure nothing is rotating on its own is sometimes necessary. With that, you hardly need to look at the screen at all.

[FullMetalMachinist]

48 minutes ago, Plusck said:

The other (and imho better) option is just to ignore what's going on in the external view (except for one single vital bit of info - distance to target), and concentrate exclusively on the NavBall.

This. When I dock, I only look at the 'main' part of the screen for distance to target and roll orientation to the target. The rest of the time my eyes are glued to the navball. 

Just make sure that when you start your 'close approach' you set your own docking port to "control from here" and set the other port as the target. 

[DrDress]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try the the camera lock.

 

The nav ball thing seems like a half-solution to me, since I still need to align the ports with out knowing how my ship will rotate.

[DD_bwest]

doing it with the navball is by far the best method. its even possible to dock in map view if you know how to use the navball.  have them looking at eachother so centered on the rarget marker in the navball.  then have 1 ship move towards the other and center your prograde marker ontop  of the target.  

42 minutes ago, DrDress said:

Thanks for the tips. I'll try the the camera lock.

 

The nav ball thing seems like a half-solution to me, since I still need to align the ports with out knowing how my ship will rotate.

if you go by the navball your ship will always rotate the way you want it.  the wasd keys will always corresond with the same movement on the navball. to allign the ports, select the docking ports as you target and make it point to the pinkish target marker on the navball.  switch vehicles and do the same.  

[Plusck]

1 hour ago, DrDress said:

The nav ball thing seems like a half-solution to me, since I still need to align the ports with out knowing how my ship will rotate.

The main thing is not to rotate your ship at all, after lining them up the first time. This is very important.

If you align the ports on two craft that are vitrually stationary with respect to each other, then warp halfway around the planet, then stop, the two ports will be facing exactly the same way as before. They won't be facing each other, but they will be facing exactly opposite directions. Warp halfway around again and they'll be facing each other again.

So as you move around the orbit, the ports remain perfectly aligned... except that the ships drift to the side.

Therefore, as you approach, you must not rotate: if you do that the other port will not be aligned and will never be aligned properly.
You use translate to push the prograde vector to the other side of the target: that means you are heading to the other side of the target, and the target will drift back until it's perfectly centred again. You translate back to cancel the sideways movement, and you're perfectly aligned again.

 

The only exception to that is if both ships are using "rotate to target": but it is finnicky and can easily fail to work for the ship you're not controlling, is not really an option for massive vessels like space stations, and is really a bad idea unless you have massive amounts of monoprop (you need to activate RCS for translation, but the ship will then use a lot of RCS trying to keep the target centred using rotation... often cancelling out whatever movements you're trying to make in the first place).