Docking Ports having Soft-dock Hard-dock functionality.

[Jakalth]

Something simple, but would be extremely useful for assembling complex craft.  The ability for docking ports to be held together by their "magnetic attraction" without fully linking the two seperate craft(soft dock), by a simple right click menu option.  By default, the docking ports would be set to hard dock(the way they normally act now) and link the two parts together into one craft the moment they touch.  Changing between the two modes using a right click menu would not be overly hard for the player to do and would be worth the extra clicking.  Having a simple flag like "hard dock = 1" to designate the port as being able to link and "hard dock = 0" to designate the port as not being able to link should work.  Then just a check to look at the hard dock flag could be done prior to linking the two ports.  This way, only 1 of the two ports would have to be in soft docking mode to prevent the two from linking.  And when the soft dock mode port is switched, it would be able to see the other port as hard dock mode and link the two.

 

Hard Docking the two ports together makes for a rigid connection that keeps the parts in relatively the same place.  It works nicely in most cases and there is little need to change this.  Most of the time.  The docking ports would simply act the same way they do currently.

 

Soft Docking the ports would allow the ports to move relatively to each other by only having the magnetic effect holding them close to each other.  The two ports would not connect rigidly to each other in this mode until Hard Docking is toggled back on.  This way the ports can be held close to each other while the two separate parts are realigned so that they are strait relative to each other.  This would be most useful for side mounting things like booster engines, where their alignment is critical to the craft flying strait.  It would be even more useful in situations where the parts you are trying to link are large enough that they require multiple docking ports to remain stable.  This way, you can have the linking ports set to soft dock and allow them to hold the parts close to each other while you make final adjustments to their alignment before locking them all together.

 

It would be a few extra menu clicks to use this idea, but I think the benefits of being able to soft dock the ports outweighs the tedium of having to click on ports.

 

The reason I see this as a useful addition is with the issue of linking multiple ports between just two parts.  Once it gets close, unless you have the two parts exactly aligned and completely level to each other, the multiple ports do not connect properly.  If say, your using three ports to connect the two parts together, then only two of the three might link correctly while the third is out of alignment and doesn't link.  This leads to wobble as the two parts are not solidly docked.  This also means having to undock all the ports, moving the parts away from each other and then bringing them back together, while adjusting alignment, only to have them not link properly once again.  By having soft docking, you can bring the two parts together, let the ports hold them in place, while you adjust one of the two parts alignment, until all three ports are lined up.  Then you can toggle to docking mode and let the whole craft link into one.  This way linking can be done in one go instead of the even more tedious job oh having to dock--undock--dock--undock--dock--etc... until it's right.

[Psycho_zs]

Another suggestion is to make docking angle snap actually snap, straighten the angle when docking occurs. It makes sense since docking ports have clamps that can not lock in arbitrary position, but can turn the ship into correct position while locking. You just need to hit reasonably close to correct angle.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Psycho_zs

[Nemeko]

something like this ?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/123402-tutorial-soft-docking-docking-ports/&page=1

[Hcube]

I have a feeling that this would be as good as the claw when it comes to invoking the kraken.