Docking mod

[khenness]

Can you seperate docked ships afterwards? Looks really cool.

[Neomatt]

It's good. That's for sure.

However if you look, you will see that after the docking, they are still separate vessels. I would expect when Squad do this, the vessels will be merged into one.

I'm not sure if that would be best.

For physics, sure, it would be better (the wobble after warping must be a consequence of calculating the docked parts' position, and so the Kraken is very present here).

But I like the idea that a station and a docked shuttle are not one vessel; when you want to bring back the shuttle, it's better to "select" the shuttle as the current vessel, undock and go away.

I'm just not sure how you would switch from the whole to the part (maybe automatically?)

[nibula]

what is this i dont even

[fuu]

That's just awesome, but I don't think he will release that mod very soon, if he wanted to release it, he already would have done that in the forums.

EDIT: I saw that he wants to release it on the forums when he fixed all bugs..... This guy needs to know that we don't care about small bugs, the docking system shown in the video was just awesome!!!!

- fuu

Edited September 12, 2012 by fuu

[Spadde]

Oh snap...

You should start thinking about hiring him Nova x)

[RoboRay]

That looks amazing.

[Mazon Del]

Personally, I think he is probably waiting for 0.17 to come out, so he can make that day the most glorious day of KSP ever. Either that or wait a day so he can use the docking mod to get to the various planets before us...evil!

But yeah, this guy is unto a god....you know Nova, if you want to remain most loved person on the KSP forums, you should release a few more pictures to remind us why you are more deserving of our devotion then "The Great Bringer Of Docking"...you know, just a thought...*grins hopefully*

[Neomatt]

Personally, I think he is probably waiting for 0.17 to come out, so he can make that day the most glorious day of KSP ever. Either that or wait a day so he can use the docking mod to get to the various planets before us...evil!

But yeah, this guy is unto a god....you know Nova, if you want to remain most loved person on the KSP forums, you should release a few more pictures to remind us why you are more deserving of our devotion then "The Great Bringer Of Docking"...you know, just a thought...*grins hopefully*

Aw come on, don't be begging like that.

Also, the Great God of Docking is still fixing bugs, so any "he must go on the team!" may have to wait a release at least.

And if he was snatched before releasing it, we would have to wait for 0.18 or more to see it in vanilla KSP. And that's BAD.

[QuantumFlux]

I'm not sure if that would be best.

For physics, sure, it would be better (the wobble after warping must be a consequence of calculating the docked parts' position, and so the Kraken is very present here).

But I like the idea that a station and a docked shuttle are not one vessel; when you want to bring back the shuttle, it's better to "select" the shuttle as the current vessel, undock and go away.

I'm just not sure how you would switch from the whole to the part (maybe automatically?)

Well you could just add a rightclick-option to the docking part to decouple the shuttle, then use the vessel-quickswitch keys to gain control of it. I don't know that much about KSP-modding, but there might even be a rightclick-and-gain-control option possible...

[kevinlacht]

OMG, KSP dreams come true.

And what a huge plugin, look bigger than mechjeb, is rendez-vous also possible with this plugin without having skills to rendez-vous?

[Neomatt]

Well you could just add a rightclick-option to the docking part to decouple the shuttle, then use the vessel-quickswitch keys to gain control of it. I don't know that much about KSP-modding, but there might even be a rightclick-and-gain-control option possible...

The second part would be ideal; "creating" the new ship and controlling it instantly.

But as you said, not sure if it's possible.

[LaydeeDem]

OMG, KSP dreams come true.

And what a huge plugin, look bigger than mechjeb, is rendez-vous also possible with this plugin without having skills to rendez-vous?

Getting within 1km of a craft isn't too hard after your first try. After that it's gentle taps with RCS and sudden frustration from the target vessel rotating.

AGHHH

[royalkingofgames]

dont want to rain on your parade but mabye he just made the gui and when he connected to the other ship he paused it hacked the persistance file than edited it out

[trbinsc]

No, that's not a possibility, the vessels stayed separate entities after docking, even though they were attached. If he had edited the file, then the vessels would have been merged.

[Neomatt]

Getting within 1km of a craft isn't too hard after your first try. After that it's gentle taps with RCS and sudden frustration from the target vessel rotating.

AGHHH

Yep, up to 1 km is relatively easy once you understand the "get at a lower altitude to advance, get at an higher one to slow down".

I'd probably use the autopilot for 2 things:

- stabilize the other ship (we REALLY need to have SAS left on if we leave the vessel)

- maybe do the "finish" after the ships are at less than 10m from each other.

[nivvydaskrl]

I've done landing-leg docking with an unstabilized, unpilotable space station, and enough close rendevous to transfer 5 crew members aboard, then take them off again with a lifeboat; when you have the proper rendezvous equations in a spreadsheet and a on-screen protractor, it's pretty simple to get within 50km. After that it's just fiddly bits.

The main value of this, I think, would be if you could do fuel transfers while docked; gassing up a rocket that barely makes it into orbit, then attaching a landing craft to it, would be really cool and really useful. Of course, space stations would be great, too (though I'd really love to be able to have jettisoned parts of a ship become their own ships; that would make space shuttles much more interesting).

[Luxmaster-CZ]

oh dear.. release it now!

[TeddyDD]

Funny is that it is easier to do Rendevouz and the docking in Orbiter than KSP. Do rendevouz in orbit would be simple if in the KSP was something similar to the Sync Orbit MDF.

[fuu]

Funny is that it is easier to do Rendevouz and the docking in Orbiter than KSP. Do rendevouz in orbit would be simple if in the KSP was something similar to the Sync Orbit MDF.

Orbital rendezvous are easy in KSP too, lol

[SLAMS]

For everyone suggesting that docking should be automatic read and practice the following link.

Don't use the High orbit to slow down, low orbit to speed up method, it's way to slow and difficult and this works much better.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/8915-Orbital-Rendezvous-Made-Easy?highlight=Orbital+Rendezvous+Made+Easy

Docking should never be automated...

[The Destroyer]

O_O

Howd u get the email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think i want this over 0.17 0_o

[nivvydaskrl]

Orbital rendezvous are easy in KSP too, lol

They're really, really intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of orbital operations it's not so bad. I'd say that the natural progression of the game is space -> orbit -> crash on Mun -> land on Mun -> land on Minmus -> orbital rendezvous (within sight) -> orbital rendezvous (matching speeds) -> orbital rendezvous (landing-leg docking).

My first rendezvous was just the other day, but once I did it once, I was able to do it reliably. The main thing is to be sure to bring enough RCS fuel, because you're going to burn through it like nobody's business at first. The other main thing is to, if you're not going to use a mod, do the math to get you within a reasonable distance. I laid out a spreadsheet and put in orbital equations to make it a lot easier to know what altitude to start at if I want to start my burn at a certain angle; it's easier to eyeball 90 degrees and rely on the map to get a circular orbit at xyz altitude than it is to start at a certain pre-transfer altitude and have to eyeball some ridiculous, weird angle in order to make intercept on your transfer.

But, back to topic, a docking mod will definitely help give a purpose to rendezvous maneuvers. Deorbiting debris will be a lot easier if you can slap a docking port on your old stages for future cleanup missions to use.

[Bioman222]

Found this as a reply to the YouTube Video:

i just PMed him. said it's a mod in the works and he plan's on releasing it soon. and yes he did say he was working on this for quite some time . and besides the experimentals just started

trollmylove in reply to Donkamillo96 22 hours ago (as of 9-12 19:33 Forum Time)

[Kasterfin]

How did they possibly get the docking to work when time is accelerated?

[Apotheosist]

This is great.