Docking port - status indicator

[pandaman]

How about an indication for docking ports for whether the magnets are set and ready to receive?

If you want to undock to tweak the alignment slightly you need to move away a certain distance to reset the magnets. If there was an indicator that showed when they were reset it would help. 

So if every port had a 'green light'  that lit up if ready it would be easy to see what the status was.  Perhaps even a 'reset' option in the right click menu so that you need only move away a small amount 

[Moesly_Armlis]

Having a controllable magnet could be an alternative.  The ability to magnetize would allow for precise alignment and lighter post docking bouncing.  So along with the indicator a toggle should be available in the Part Action menu.

[Snark]

Incidentally, I realize "there's a mod for that" is not really the answer you're looking for, but... there's a mod for that, if you're interested. 

The mod actually adds various indicator lights to lots of parts, not just docking ports, but if all you want is the docking ports, it's easy to strip it down-- just delete a few folders out of the mod's directory and you can trim it down to adjust only the parts you want (e.g. docking ports).

It adds indicator lights to the small, medium, and large docking ports.  The lights are toggleable on/off (in the editor, in flight, via action group).  The lights are green when crossfeed is enabled, red when disabled.

When you're docking, the lights blink rapidly when the field engages.

When you're undocking, the lights blink intermittently while they're in "disengage" state (i.e. undocked, but not yet far enough to "reset" and be dockable again), then come back on once they're ready for docking again.

[Ultimate Steve]

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

A reset button. How many times I have had to dive into the save files to fix docking ports...

[Snark]

28 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

A reset button. How many times I have had to dive into the save files to fix docking ports...

Note that the mod I describe doesn't actually do anything to docking port status-- it just shows you what it is.  If you've got a docking port bug where they're horked somehow, IndicatorLights won't actually help with that.  (The "toggleable" action I mention is just for turning the lights on and off, not actually doing anything to the docking port state.)

On the other hand, if you're referring to the OP's suggestion,

7 hours ago, pandaman said:

Perhaps even a 'reset' option in the right click menu so that you need only move away a small amount

...then yeah, that could be handy.  But I find that simply being able to see that "yeah, that's far enough" generally does the trick for me.

[StrandedonEarth]

If you quicksave (or make a alt-f5 named save) after undocking, then do a quickload, it resets the ports so your ship will snap back together. But I must say, Snark's mod sounds interesting.

But a 'reset port' button in stock would be handy.

Edited June 13, 2016 by StrandedonEarth

[kBob]

Good idea, should be stock (to coin a phrase ).  Just tried Snark's mod and I can see this is going to be my only other can't live without mod (the other being a NavBall texture changer so I can read it).  Thanks to both of you.

[Alshain]

Well we know there is a re-do of the rocket parts coming soon. Not sure if that includes docking ports but it's possible I suppose.

[KerikBalm]

I support this suggestion.