Docking Port Mods

[steddyj]

I hope this is the right place to post this.  I've been fiddling with a new game after several years away.  I think I last played around 1.1/1.2, but first played long before that.  I've been starting to piece together some of the mods I used to use, some new ones, and trying to come up with a strategy for a long-term career playthrough. I started playing when sandbox was all there was, so I have a habit of setting a goal for what I want an install to be, and trying to mod around to get the ruleset I want to play in, so I tend to be pretty heavily modded.

Anyway

There was a mod I used to use that provided an alternate docking port model that I much preferred.  It was significantly lower-profile than stock, and most important it wasn't nearly as wobbly.  I honestly don't know if the wobble problem is still around as I haven't put a docking port on anything in my fiddling just yet, but I know that the model is still the same.  I can't for the life of me figure out what mod pack included this docking port.  I thought it was KW, but it's not.  I remember it was white with some grey and red details on it.  It was low profile, about the same thickness as the KW stack separators (part of why I thought it was part of the KW set) and if I recall correctly when docked the mating portion of each port clipped into each other.  I think early versions even had a male/female version which was eventually canned for the universal format like the stock adapters.  The face of the port model showed a square hatch with rounded corners when nothing was docked to it. and I think it may have been lit.  

If anyone knows what I'm talking about and can point me towards my long lost mod, or something like it, I would be very grateful. Thanks!

[zer0Kerbal]

all I can say is dockingPorts have come along way.

Many mods have dockingPorts - from PicoPorts to NearFuture to name just two. Heck, even InfernalRobotics-NEXT has one. Hope you find it!

[MOARdV]

10 hours ago, steddyj said:

If anyone knows what I'm talking about and can point me towards my long lost mod, or something like it, I would be very grateful. Thanks!

I can think of two mods from back in the day.  The more recent was sumghai's IACBM from his SDHI Fustek Station Parts Expansion.  That one had a single part that had alignment petals that could be rotated 45 degrees to switch the gendering of the port (I think that was a visual effect - they were non-gendered).  Those CBMs were not compatible with stock.

Prior to that was Fustek's CBM parts, which came in 4 sizes, with two models (active / passive) for each size.  The Fustek parts were compatible with stock, and I remember that they were more stable back in the day.  I suspect that the FusTek CBM's are the ones you're thinking of, from your description.  AFAICT, they haven't been updated since their last release in 2013, and I'm not sure where you'd get them, since they were on ... um, the fan-run site that predated Curse and SpaceDock, whose name I forgot ... and neither the thread nor the download include a license, so it's treated as All Rights Reserved (not redistributable).

Sumghai's FusTek Station Parts thread says "On hold" in the title, but previous releases and dev snapshots are available on GitHub, IIRC.

HabTech2 is much more recent, and it has a visually similar berthing module (although it's not compatible with stock docking ports, not is it even the same size).  CxAerospace station parts has gendered docking ports in several sizes, although that mod's also no longer maintained (although Bluedog Design Bureau has imported one of them under license).  It's also current enough that the docking ports would work without much / any effort.

[steddyj]

@MOARdV I actually looked into the IACBM, as I used to use Sumghai's station parts extensively. I poked around git and found his old repository and downloaded it and put it in a test install.  It did work well enough to load into the VAB in sandbox, although I didn't test enough to see if it would fly without summoning the kraken.  I don't believe it's the one that I'm looking for, though.  The model was significantly thicker than what I'm thinking of. 

You did remind me of the original Fustek CBM.  After a little googling I think you're right, that's the one.  It had gendered models but they were universally compatible.  I think I just used one or the other as they worked and meshed well enough for my needs at the time.  I know Fusty handed off his stuff to Sumghai, I can't recall if he ever released the original CBM or if someone had updated it, or if it just still worked well at the time.  I don't suppose @sumghai is still around these days... 

[sumghai]

8 hours ago, steddyj said:

@MOARdV I actually looked into the IACBM, as I used to use Sumghai's station parts extensively. I poked around git and found his old repository and downloaded it and put it in a test install.  It did work well enough to load into the VAB in sandbox, although I didn't test enough to see if it would fly without summoning the kraken.  I don't believe it's the one that I'm looking for, though.  The model was significantly thicker than what I'm thinking of. 

You did remind me of the original Fustek CBM.  After a little googling I think you're right, that's the one.  It had gendered models but they were universally compatible.  I think I just used one or the other as they worked and meshed well enough for my needs at the time.  I know Fusty handed off his stuff to Sumghai, I can't recall if he ever released the original CBM or if someone had updated it, or if it just still worked well at the time.  I don't suppose @sumghai is still around these days... 

Oh, I've been around, and working on FusTek Station Parts veeery slowly in the background, although I tend to release updates to SDHI SMS faster because the latter mod is less complex and is therefore low-lying fruit. My time is limited these days because I've moved overseas to start a new job, in a country where (due to various nasty political reasons) I need a VPN to access the usual websites and resources I use to help with my modding projects.

As for FusTek CBMs, I did a few pre-release dev builds a loong time ago, and while you can still dig through my old commits and repos for whatever old version of FusTek you want to play with, I'm holding off on my trademark progress reports until I have something more substantial to share (especially because newer updates to the base game meant I've had to rebuild FusTek repeatedly from scratch).