How hard is docking

[Warzouz]

Oh, I forgot a tip for designing docking ships

Never ever add RCS tanks. They are useless. You can dock a 50T ship with the MK2 command pod reserves. Just go slowly and use RCS only for translations. You need RCS tanks for refilling ships and if you dock really massive stuff (in that case you may prefer vernier).

[Kerbinchaser]

You should put up a poll for people to answer.

[eddiew]

1 hour ago, eloquentJane said:

Turn on caps lock. It enables fine control, which slows down your RCS thrusters but has the benefit of automatically balancing them if you have SAS turned on. Docking has been significantly easier since I learned that trick.

I've always used caps-lock to get finer translation control, but never knew it was applying a balancer until the last couple of weeks   KSP has so many ways to feel like a complete scrub, even when I'm doing it right...

But at least the word is spreading now. Soon it will actually make it to the wiki or KSPedia  

[Kerbart]

There's nothing to say that hasn't been said already.

Well, except for the fact that nowhere in the game “experience” makes such a difference. When starting out it's a white-knuckle, 30 minute experience. Nowadays it’s “How much time do I have until the next KAC alarm? 2 minutes? Good, so I don't have to rush docking this time then.”

No matter how bad you’re at it, keep doing it like crazy. You will get better and it is totally worth it.

[Plusck]

While agreeing with Kerbart - there's nothing more to say - I have an addition.

Docking in the dark, without RCS, to a recessed docking port with other ships within a metre or so on one side, with virtually zero fuel left in the tanks (hence the need to do it and not wait)... that was an 11, and the rush of getting it first try was very very nice : D

[Clipperride]

One of the strange things about docking is that, in an equatorial orbit you spend as much time in sun light as you do darkness, but my final approaches end up being in the dark way more than 50% of the time!  Forward facing lights on your active vechile and a good spread of lights on the target can really help.  You can even colour code the various sizes of docking port (if you use more than one diameter) by adjusting the lights in the VAB during construction.

[Kurld]

I'd rate it about a 2/10 for me. The Docking Port Alignment mod makes it very easy. I don't even bother with lights any more. There was a docking port camera mod that I used a long time ago which was also helpful. Doing it stock has always been a huge PITA for me. Having a reasonably maneuverable ship and little relative rotation/translation between the two ships is also really important.

[smunisto]

First docking took me about 19 mins(have it on clip in Youtube).

Now I find no difficulty at all with docking, in any shape or form.

I'd say 2/10. It's all muscle memory for the RCS controls, gentle touches, knowing the limits of the craft you are using (you can't propel a 10 ton craft towards a docking port at 15 m/s, 300 m away and expect to be able to stop in time with 0.01 TWR).

Actually I struggle to wrap around my mind around what I found so hard about docking the first time.

Edited October 25, 2016 by smunisto

[panzer1b]

Docking a properly RCS balanced craft is relatively trivial if you had at least a bit of practice.  Its all about getting to like 200m away from a ship, killing your relative velocity, and then slowly nudging the craft towards a docking port.  The only somewhat hard thing is knowing what axis you are in, if you know exactly what button pushes you in what direction and what angle you turn when you push another button, it isnt that bad.

Now more complex and or unblanced craft are another story, and to this day i do not consider it easy to dock a 50t fuel can to a station when im pushing it by a service droid style thing from one side (unbalanced RCS).  And then ofc you get into the occasional nightmare mode docking where you end up with 2 200+ ton warships that you either forgot to add RCS to or intentionally didnt launch with it, and then realize you actually need to do a fuel transfer or something halfway to eeloo because one of the ships doesnt quite have the dV while the other has plenty of fuel.  Yeah, docking like that is a complete nightmare when you have nothing but the main engines and something that turns like a pig stuffed with bricks coated in lead (i even occasionally make ships with no reaction wheels but those in the pods, painful since x4 timewarp is barely any movement)...

[BadLeo]

If you are having too much trouble even after many attempts, just use some auto-pilot like MJ or TCA, it'll get the thing done for you. Most of the times, anyway.

But, yeah, docking isn't that difficult after you understand how to move your ship in relation to the other, what are the markers on the navball and what information they tell you, how to do fine-tuned adjustments to your velocity and position and how to keep the vessels aligned. Then, it becomes easy as 1-2-3.

[RX2000]

I agree, the first time you do it its gotta be at least a 9, maybe a 10. Heck just getting a rendezvous the first time is super hard, much less docking. But then as you do them more & more they get easier & easier til pretty soon its not that hard at all.

[DD_bwest]

id say a 4 or a 5 if ine of your ships doesnt have sas at the top level so it can point at target.   6or  7 if both dont have it lol

if both have it, probably a 2 lol  getting each ship to point at eachother and then have one travel in a straight line isnt that hard lol ive done it in map view lol

[Vanamonde]

There isn't just one answer to this, and it depends on the player. I easily succeeded the first time I attempted a dock, but it took me over 3 years to build my first useful SSTO plane. 

[StrandedonEarth]

10 hours ago, Kurld said:

little relative rotation/translation

Ah yes, the ultimate challenge is docking to a dead ship (batteries died, forgot solar panels) that is tumbling through space. It mostly amounts to getting nice and close and lined up with where the docking port is going to be, then jabbing the throttle as the port comes around