Docking fun

[Yanksxx21]

Just made my first docking with another spacecraft and it took a little bit of practice! Anyway I was wondering how long it took you guys and what you docked together your first time.

[Generic]

The first time i docked was around my 40 or 50 hours of gameplay. I was playing in sandbox, making my own objectives, then i thought "why not make a space station, it shouldn't be very hard", turns out it was  but i did it.

Oh, and welcome to the forums  i'm new too.

[HoloYolo]

Took me 10 hours. Built the KIR space station. Would you like a screenshot of that?

[wibou7]

My first time was awful!

It tooks me about 2 hours... in which I had used every existing variant of curse words and was working into creating new ones. I got the thing to dock by sheer luck, thanks to the magnet effect (may the developer that thought of that feature be blessed a hundred times).

In retrospect, my craft was poorly balanced with too many RCS placed way off COM. That was causing it to rotate and pitch where it should have been translating. To make matter worst, I didn't know of the "locked view" setting for the camera, so the translation control weren't mapping what I had in front of me...

But docking is a skill and you DO get better with practice! Now docking is a breeze, I do it easily and efficiently. That's one of the few skills were I consider myself being better than MechJeb. Assuming a well made craft, I can dock anything in about 2 minutes, no matter how tight the space is

[Enorats]

The magnet feature actually makes it far far more difficult when you're trying to dock with precision, would be nice if it was a toggle.

 

One thing that can help is Mechjeb's smart a.s.s. The stock pilot heading system might work too. Control both vessels from their respective docking ports, then  set the docking port of the otger vessel as the target an set each to "target +", so they face each other. Cancel out relative velocity, then while facing the target just move forward. Since both vessels are facing each other at all times they dock perfectly. It can help to disable the smart a.s.s. just prior to docking though, as it can go haywire at super close ranges right before docking.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Enorats

[Jul_Le]

My first docking took about 30 minutes. Only after 20 minutes I figured it would help to turn on SAS

I learned the hard way.

[blorgon]

Keep going.

Edited June 12, 2016 by blorgon

[theorigin]

2 hours ago, Yanksxx21 said:

Just made my first docking with another spacecraft and it took a little bit of practice! Anyway I was wondering how long it took you guys and what you docked together your first time.

Was in career mode - took me about 2-3 weeks and alot of tutorials to get it done - by now its almost too easy. (I never used mods to dock btw - simple, plain keyboard controls!) But that was way back in version 0.12 or 0.13 ....

Edited March 30, 2016 by theorigin

[Yanksxx21]

Once you learn its extremely easy, hard getting used to it.

[LordKael]

My first (manual) docking was a module onto the rest of my station, running at around 5 fps. The module had a terribly unbalanced RCS system, and was 50tons or so.

[N_Danger]

 Docking 30 minutes, didn't have to reload the game even(i did use an alignment mod). Rendezvous now, 2 hours including 2 reloads.

Edited March 31, 2016 by N_Danger

[jbterminator]

Don't remember how much time it took but i tell ya, i was literally sweating at docking for the first time knowing that one false move could screw me up a bit. Now I can dock with not much trouble, even without rcs!

Edited March 31, 2016 by jbterminator

[archenemy_6]

I remember the first time I docked two craft. right after I read and watched some tutorials on how to rendezvous. That took some getting used to by itself. I had one port on the side of my ship and it took me a good 20-30 minutes to get it docked because I didn't know about the "control from here" option at the time so I was wildly moving all over the place trying to understand the controls from different viewpoints haha.
Needless to say I've gotten way better at docking things together. 

[Warzouz]

Docking is the only thing I do with a joystick. I find it VERY relaxing. Doing slow approach to a ship which is falling at the same high speed as my still amazes me. I think I would stop playing KSP if it wouldn't.

[maceemiller]

49 minutes ago, Warzouz said:

Docking is the only thing I do with a joystick. I find it VERY relaxing. Doing slow approach to a ship which is falling at the same high speed as my still amazes me. I think I would stop playing KSP if it wouldn't.

Docking is majestic in my opinion. Youve hit the nail on the head Sir.

[alacrity]

My first docking project

The Spindle MK 1 station... five primary docking missions and the 2 probe controlled fuel pods. Funnest week I had after docking ports were added. (Notice the bottom bit with the big RCS tank and antenna docked at an offset. Its the old misalignment bug with the covered docking port)

 

Alacrity

[Branjoman]

I remember the first time I attempted to dock something - I had a small station core and was trying to dock a really big fuel depot to it (the station core was made of 1.25m parts, the fuel depot Mk3!). I had time warped for ages to get a good intercept, and when I got close enough to the thing to begin final docking procedure, my really rubbish RCS pot placement became prevalent. Whenever I tried to align the docking port on the depot with the other one on the core, it had orbited around by 90 degrees, and when I realigned the docking ports, it had gone around again! This went on for another 5 minutes before the fuel depot finally spiraled in and had a rather bumpy docking thanks to those docking magnets.

It was quite a hair raising experience - I don't dock too often, but now it's much less scary/terrifying.

[theorigin]

Oh - i forgot to mention something which helped me alot to get used to docking, especially if you are not using any alignment mods! Rightclick on the dockingport of your current vessel which you want to dock in, and select "control from here" - also select the docking port you are heading to (if in view range) and select "set as target". This allows a much more precice approach because normally you controll your craft from the manned capsule which might result in "false" angles or false distances shown! Also try to avoid asyncron ship shapes, where your center of mass/thrust is off your RCS or main engine - makes docking alot harder.

2cents

Edited March 31, 2016 by theorigin

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

It took me about a whole WEEK to figure out how docking works but once I got my head around it, it became second nature
All credit goes to Scott Manley

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHkY3FusJIQ

 

Edited March 31, 2016 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[wibou7]

16 hours ago, blorgon said:

Are you talking about "Chase"? Do you mean that the controls will switch so that up relative to your camera will translate the craft "up"?

That's the idea, yes.

It was called "Chase" before 1.0. After 1.0, the "Chase" changed slightly, what you are looking for is "Locked".

[Gojira1000]

My first docking attempt probably took an hour and a ridiculous amount of monoprop. I'd watched MechJeb do it and tried to copy its technique. Then I got smart and simply copied its steps, rather than its fairly pedestrian technique, and lo and behold, docking was easy. And extremely satisfying.

[luizopiloto]

Believe me or not, the first time I docked something was an orange tank to a station core... But... I already had some background on other space sims...

[ScarM]

17 hours ago, Yanksxx21 said:

Just made my first docking with another spacecraft and it took a little bit of practice! Anyway I was wondering how long it took you guys and what you docked together your first time.

Grates! on climbing the insane learning curve that is docking. 

I don't remember exactly how long it took for me to learn how to dock, but it was over a week of trial and error.  I do remember numerous videos and tutorial were needed to help.

The target ship was an orange tank with copious amount of lighting.  The docking ship was MK1 command pod and FL-t800 tank.  It was tested to not rotate while translating so as not to shake with SAS on.

 

[Warzouz]

2 hours ago, theorigin said:

Oh - i forgot to mention something which helped me alot to get used to docking, especially if you are not using any alignment mods! Rightclick on the dockingport of your current vessel which you want to dock in, and select "control from here" - also select the docking port you are heading to (if in view range) and select "set as target". This allows a much more precice approach because normally you controll your craft from the manned capsule which might result in "false" angles or false distances shown! Also try to avoid asyncron ship shapes, where your center of mass/thrust is off your RCS or main engine - makes docking alot harder.

2cents

I think you meant asymmetric, not asyncrone 

I would add :

• Orient your target ship to normal to find docking ports more easily
• Don't hesitate to hop to the target ship to move it/rotate it. Orienting a docking port strait at the incoming vessel will help this vessel a LOT. Then hop back and go strait to the target port.
• It's easier to align first, then translate.
• Hit CAPS Lock to switch to "fine control". It seems easier to handle uneven ships that way.
• Don't forget to add a "spot" (round) light near you docking ring to have a better view on the target ship. Add a "large" (square) light on the target ring to be able to see it more easily from a distance. Don't hesitate to use colours.
• Go gentle on RCS on translation and cut it when you want to rotate using reactions wheels instead. You save a lot of RCS that way. I usually dock a 5T ship with 2 or 3 units of RCS.
• Don't add additional RCS tanks if you want to dock once or twice. It's a waste of mass. All RCS tanks are much to big for a regular usage, even the small round one, which you usually have to carry by pairs... Either way, you can always refill your reserve after docking.
• If your ship goes too slow, don't burn RCS to go faster, use time warp instead !

[Mitrae]

The first time I achieved to dock something was a sort of Apollo-style mission if I remember correctly.

The thing is that it took me more than one hour... Of course, no mods. I find that so difficult that when I finally saw the two ships together it was so rewarding that I shouted "YAAAAAA !" ; and my neighbours can confirm.

After that, I tried once or twice more. I docked, but it was too long and too difficult for me to rely on for regular missions.

 

Some months after these first attempts, I discovered RCS thrusters and understood how to use them... Translation controls and so on.

And then I remember how I used to dock with only main engine... #facepalm.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Mitrae