Tutorial Docking Problem

[Simmer]

Hi Guys hope this is the correct place to ask this question as i didn't see a newbie question forum. I'm working my way through the tutorial and im currently doing the docking section. I have managed to get right up close to the stranded vessel within about 50m but can't get near it, i seem to keep missing it and go between 100m and 50m i use the sas on target ship as im so close and i seem to get almost upon it then it starts moving away. I am around 5m/s in relation to target and im going around in circles like a ballet lol. Please any tips how i can get myself stable to the stranded vessel, should i not target the ship in sas?

Sorry for such a newb question but i've been trying for a couple of hours and i just cant get that last bit done. Thnx.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Simmer
Answered, perfect!

[Starhawk]

Ensure that your navball is in target mode (click on the velocity readout to change the mode). Then point your ship retrograde. This will point you retrograde to the relative velocity that exists between you and your target. Very gently burn (or use RCS thrusters) until the relative velocity is zero.

At that point, you can line up your approach before moving in to finally dock.

You have already got most of the way there. Keep trying. Docking is hard but worth it.

Happy landings!

[Glaran K'erman]

Welcome to the boards!

Docking and moving in relation to another vessel in general is definitely not the easiest of tasks so don't feel bad. Just a note, it would be super helpful to include of picture(s) of your current ship/situation to let everyone help you a lot better but I have some general advice. First 5m/s at close range is much too fast, you want to be going ~1m/s max. Second, make sure you are in Docking mode by clicking on the middle tab in the lower left by the staging UI and have RCS enabled by hitting R. In docking mode you'll be able to much more finely control your movement using the keys you can find in the settings menu (forget them off-hand precisely enough for ya right now sorry) and should make things a heck of a lot easier when you get closer to other stuff in space!

[Alshain]

To move toward the target burn on the target prograde .

To slow down relative to the target burn on your own retrograde with the navball in Target mode.

It is not necessary to burn on the target's retrograde , attempting to do so will have you flying circles around the target unless it is already aligned with your own retrograde.

[Sharpy]

OTOH the alternative to stopping dead by burning retrograde is "chasing the markers".

Move quite a bit away, ahead of the docking port, then rotate towards the target, burn towards it and see where the prograde marker shows up on the navball.

Using RCS controls (I,J,K,L) you can change your "side" velocity - as result, "pushing" the prograde marker around the navball. Push it squat into the middle of the Target marker, then rotate so that both markers are in the center of the navball, using H and N regulate your forward speed, then just keeping the markers there by rotating and translating (IJKL) as necessary.

Also: Precision Mode. Press CapsLock, the markers on the Pitch Yaw Roll gizmos in bottom right will turn from orange to cyan. From now on RCS is much weaker and much more precise. If the ship was too twitchy, it won't be now.

[KSK]

I haven't gone back to do the docking tutorial so I don't know what kind of ship it gives you - but definitely use RCS if you have it. Remember you can use RCS for prograde and retrograde thrust ('H' and 'N' keys) as well as lateral translation.

Right click on the docking port of your target vehicle and set it as your target. This should be done already but it never hurts to check.

You might be doing this already but ideally you want the prograde markers for your target (that purple target symbol that Alshain posted) and your velocity (empty yellow circle symbol) both lined up with the direction indicator on your navball. That way you're all lined up nicely, pointing towards the target and moving straight towards it. You might need to adjust slightly when you get close, depending on what angle you're coming in at.

Good luck! Docking is one of the hardest things in the game (IMO) to learn but once you get it it never gets old. Plus it opens up all sorts of mission possibilities!

[Lighthawk]

Docking is definitely one of the harder things in the game to learn, right up there with landing on an airless body. Keep at it though, once you get a method down that works, it starts getting easier and easier to pull off.

Aside from the other advise already offered, the biggest thing I'd suggest is patience. It's very easy when docking to constantly over correct because it can be hard to see the relative motion of the two vessels unless you really hit the gas, which you don't want to do. You want to ease your way in. If you're fifty meters or closer, you really should be keeping your relative speed under 1m/s.

Also when first learning to dock, I'd suggest only adding velocity along one axis at a time. Be sure you're in target mode and use your retrograde marker to zero out your relative speed before closing to dock. That way if, for example, you translate right at 0.2 m/s, then you know you can come to a relative stop by translating 0.2 m/s to the left. If you add 0.2 m/s left, then 0.3 m/s up, then 0.1 m/s right, etc etc it gets very easy to lose track of exactly how your moving relative to the target and what you need to do to stop it again.

Of course left and right are relative directions, which brings to mind the camera. Hit V to switch to chase mode so that up, down, left, and right are relative to the camera, which is always helpful.

Final bit I can think of is to make sure your target isn't rotating, which can lead to a lot of running circles around it chasing the docking port. If you know, or think even, that the target vessel is spinning, a brief moment of time acceleration will stop it.

Good luck, you'll get it.

[Simmer]

Did it guys, thnx for all the quick replies. After i got it under control with the target retrograde i did it within about half hour. The hardest thing was trying to do it with a sliver of light from some distant stars lol. One thin about this game is that you really do feel good when you finally accomplish something lol.

[FancyMouse]

If you're able to get 50m~100m, then it's really close! You just need to kill of relative velocity as other people already mentioned. I once saw a rule of thumb that when you're at a distance of x m, go with relative speed x/100 m/s. This isn't optimal, but it's a good starting point for learning docking - I learned docking this way, and now I've performed countless docking.