Docking several ports simultaniously

[Kebra]

I often see people assembling habitat rings or do multiple claw "anchors" to asteroids.

However i have a really hard time getting the game to accept multiple hooks. As soon the crafts are joined the ports stop magnetizing or clawing.

Is there a trick or a mod that can help me?

[mrclucks]

You'll want to undock the port that is docked, and it'll dock again basically right away. Just keep doing that and as long as your ports line up, you should eventually have them all docked

[Sheppard]

With claws, as far as I remember (or if this hasn't changed since the claw was introduced) only 3 claws can hang on simultaneously, from the same ship, to an asteroid.

Docking ports need to be perfectly aligned to be able to dock simultaneously, but it is possible in stock. It's not that hard once you get a hang of it. Even a tiny deviation will result in failure. So you need to build your ship accordingly. Hold down the ALT key to copy objects to make sure you can build an identical copy, align everything in the VAB and then split the ship up using sub-assemblies. If you build one port that is off by only a little, it won't dock.

Also, when the magnetic lock kicks in, disable RCS and SAS, those can also prevent a successful lock.

A easier way is to use those tri-coupler or quad-coupler + docking ports components to align everything and connect 3 or 4 ports together. Depends on your needs.

[Vanamonde]

This question about how to play the game has been moved to Gameplay Questions.