I hate manual docking soo much xD

[Pawelk198604]

I hate manual docking soo much

I wish i unlock autodocking soon  

[ElJugador]

Funny enough, I seem to have a weird knack for docking without RCS or serious maneuvering capability

[Casualnaut]

I only docked once, and half of the craft got torn off while I was doing it.

[Kerbart]

36 minutes ago, Casualnaut said:

I only docked once, and half of the craft got torn off while I was doing it.

...and that statement probably explains why.

You should practice docking with the smallest, lightest vehicles possible first, because they are the easiest to maneuver around. Think of a Mk1 capsule, an FLT-100 tank, and an LV909 terrier. Obviously docking port, batteries, RCS thrusters, etc. Take two of those and keep practicing. Any craft that is big enough to have half of it torn off while docking sounds like way too big to be agile and easy to maneuver around.

The first time I docked was a 30 minute white-knuckle experience requiring large RCS tanks. Nowadays, rendez-vous and docking combined takes me just a few minutes and the capsules alone usually carry more than enough RCS for all the docking in their lifetime. It's really something that turns into “trivial” over time after doing it again and again. But you have to practice first.

[Tex_NL]

1 hour ago, Pawelk198604 said:

I hate manual docking soo much

[vidsnip]

I wish i unlock autodocking soon  

MechJeb manual docking made easy:

1. Select 'control from here' on the docking port on your craft.
2. Select 'set as target'on the target docking port.
3. Open MechJeb Smart A.S.S.
4. Let MechJeb handle pitch and yaw by opening the TGT menu and select PAR -. (Roll optional by selecting the roll angle.)
5. Use only the IJKL HN keys to translate.

Doing it this way I regularly dock 25+ton craft on LESS THAN 2 UNITS of monoprop in under a minute.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Tex_NL

[Kerbart]

2 hours ago, Pawelk198604 said:

I hate manual docking soo much

I wish i unlock autodocking soon  

From the few scenes that I caught (I'm not going to watch a 90 minute video as a whole) it seems like you're chasing the target position without ever killing lateral velocity.

Your primary marks should not be the pink position markers, but rather the yellow velocity ones. Aim to the  and reduce velocity to zero. Align your ship with the target docking port and then, slowly, maneuver sideways until you have the marker in the center. Now you're aimed towards the docking port and you're aligned with it, and you can now move forward (keeping it centered).

Mods like the Navyfish docking port alignment indicator, or the navball docking port indicator are highly recommended.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Kerbart
@Tex_NL pointed out that navball markers exist as smileys

[Tex_NL]

@Kerbart Just as an FYI. All Navball markers are available as in the smily list: . Would make explanations a lot clearer.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Tex_NL

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Personally I use and recommend Navball HUD.

Gives you a very clear idea of what your doing, and a better sense of space and positioning. Works fine in 1.3 as well.

[tater]

I love docking, and "manual" implies some other way to do it, lol.

[Frank_G]

I actually love manual docking and orbital assembly... 

For those who care, full mission profile and pics can be found through the forum link in my sig.

[KerikBalm]

2 hours ago, tater said:

I love docking, and "manual" implies some other way to do it, lol.

some people use mech jeb.... I don't.

I used to dock without RCS... just small stuff, but then I started wanting to load cargobays in orbit with cargo that doesn't have propulsion. Initially I used some sort of tug to grab the cargo and guide it in, like so:

but since then, I've just been using the RCS on the cargo vessel to just align with the cargo and envelope it.

Docking this with that drifting module was a bit annoying, but only because that module was right at the width limits of the cargobay.

Anyway, keep working at it, and using RCS translation makes it a lot easier

[Kerbal101]

Manual docking is easy for basic vehicles, if you can lock the ports into parallel but opposing directions.
The key is that docking ports are constantly aligned parallel. The classic navball does not have this feature.

Lock target docking port (click on it, control from here) into Normal/SAS, then
Lock the source docking port (click on it, control from here) into Anti-Normal/SAS.
You have then to align X and Y (vertical and horizontal) planes, and finally approach to port (Z plane), and turn off SAS in very close proximity.
Very easy.
Using this technic, you can perform the tutorial docking of spaceplane near Mun while never leaving in cabin (IVA),- without looking outside.

 

Now, for station docking its much harder, if station is so big that its impossible to orient the port on the station into one of the vectors.
Then you should use DPAI mod or Navball  or Hullcam VDS (it adds docking cams) or any camera mod so long you orient the cameras properly.
Camera mods can add much additional joy to your experience too.

So you can assign me into "loves manual docking" and "doesn't use any autopilot" category.
 

[Ty Tan Tu]

For people who do not want to go the whole MechJeb route there is the Docking Port Alignment Indicator which does make things a bit easier and is updated for 1.3

 

 

 

 

[nascarlaser1]

I love the manual docking part... just I'm horrible at rendezvous so mechjeb does that part and I spend the next 5 minutes docking lol (while also destroying any and all fragile object attached to my stuff, like solar panels).

Edited July 15, 2017 by nascarlaser1

[Johnny Wishbone]

I hate playing my game, so I want it to play for me!

I hate having to aim and shoot in Call of Battlefield, so I got an aimbot to aim for me!

This game, much like actual spaceflight is nothing but following procedure. If you follow the procedure, every task is easy. 

 

 

 

[katateochi]

Two things I never want to automate, (and not because of any "it's cheating" reason, just because I love doing them); landing and docking. But there probably aren't many (any?) of us who could claim that their first ever (powered) landing in KSP wasn't best described as a terrible crash and the same goes for docking. First few times it's really hard but eventually you get some ah-ha moments, and then it becomes an almost zen experience. One of the big ah-ha moments with docking for me was learning to not look at the craft at all and go entirely on what the navball says. 

Edited July 15, 2017 by katateochi

[Vanamonde]

This work of a fan has been moved to Fan Works. 

[KerbMav]

7 hours ago, katateochi said:

But there probably aren't many (any?) of us who could claim that their first ever (powered) landing in KSP wasn't best described as a terrible crash and the same goes for docking.

Yeah ... "But I burned up the whole time! ... Well, maybe me scraping across the surface at 500m/s wasn't too clever ... "

First docking worked very well for me - when I finally worked out how a rendesvouz works ...

[StrandedonEarth]

On 7/15/2017 at 4:30 PM, katateochi said:

One of the big ah-ha moments with docking for me was learning to not look at the craft at all and go entirely on what the navball says. 

I learned a while ago to "fly the navball" and I've said it enough times so that this post finally inspired me to meme-ify it.

E: Version 2

Edited July 17, 2017 by StrandedonEarth

[Pawelk198604]

On 15.07.2017 at 8:01 PM, Kerbal101 said:

Manual docking is easy for basic vehicles, if you can lock the ports into parallel but opposing directions.
The key is that docking ports are constantly aligned parallel. The classic navball does not have this feature.

Lock target docking port (click on it, control from here) into Normal/SAS, then
Lock the source docking port (click on it, control from here) into Anti-Normal/SAS.
You have then to align X and Y (vertical and horizontal) planes, and finally approach to port (Z plane), and turn off SAS in very close proximity.
Very easy.
Using this technic, you can perform the tutorial docking of spaceplane near Mun while never leaving in cabin (IVA),- without looking outside.

 

Now, for station docking its much harder, if station is so big that its impossible to orient the port on the station into one of the vectors.
Then you should use DPAI mod or Navball  or Hullcam VDS (it adds docking cams) or any camera mod so long you orient the cameras properly.
Camera mods can add much additional joy to your experience too.

So you can assign me into "loves manual docking" and "doesn't use any autopilot" category.
 

Thanks but most my manual docking attempt end like beginning of this video    

 

[Kerbal101]

13 minutes ago, Pawelk198604 said:

Thanks but most my manual docking attempt end like beginning of this video    

 

But the other guy was simply patient, was not thinking about going back (reloading, F9).

Look carefully at 1:40, he locked the docking ports in opposite vectors - this time radial-in and radial-out, then side-lined X/Y into parallels and slowly approached. Same as above