Undocking causes temporal distortions

[Gawdin]

How I built the ship:

I put 3 medium docking ports on the XL engine plate in symmetry so that they weren't touching. I then built 3 segments to a space station on them, one crew segment, one solar panel segment, and one structural segment for expansion. This then had an XL tank (the middle one) and L/XL orbital engine on it for the 2nd stage. The first stage was the XL long tank with a mammoth engine and 4 of the Medium Long SRBs (because this was heavy and I am horrible when it comes to fuel efficiency).

The Problem:

When in LKO (100km circular orbit), I attempted to undock the parts to reconfigure them in their less symmetrical form. All seems to work normally for a varying amount of seconds (3-10 seconds maybe), I have RCS controls and am moving the detached part away and starting to rotate. Then the segment will rubber band back to its original housing on the docking port, I will get a message saying the ship is out of fuel (each segment has a near full monoprop tank), the flight log will appear as if I just ended the flight, and everything still reports operational in the parts manager.

Troubleshooting:

• I can keep trying this process over and over on the same flight to no avail
• Quick loading or restarting the game also didn't help.
• If I have the setting for requiring comms on, then the probes and their antennae will not have an option to connect them to KSC even when directly above it and a Kerbal is onboard the crew section. I turned off this setting and have control of the probe for testing after doing so.
• I've tried each of the sections and they all do the same thing.
• There is no part collision between the segments, I made sure they had sizeable gaps (as much as I could and still fit them in a fairing on the ride up).
• I have also tried setting the strength of the docking ports to 0% on all the docking ports to make sure it wasn't that I was just not moving away fast enough.
• Even when I tried undocking and then having the part speed away as fast as possible in the few seconds (I got a whole length of the ship away which was about 2 of the medium long trusses in length), it still snaps back.
• The snapping back is almost like quick loading, when far enough away it is teleporting back with no applied force. If I was close enough to it, the ship did seem to wobble slightly when it bounced back (though that might just have been my imagination).

[Scarecrow71]

Is it possible that the engine plate is causing the issue?  That is, if you place the ports on another part that isn't so...invisible...does that change things?  I only ask because I'm not familiar with the use of the plates, so I'm grasping at a straw here.

[Gawdin]

Well, now when I tested it again before trying to remove the engine plate, I think I found a way around it, I have to make sure the initial control point is still part of the crewed section, I can then detach a segment and it will float off, which I can then switch to it. I still get the out of fuel message even though I have RCS/monoprop and can fly it kind of when I switch to it.

 

Edit: and I have to undock it from the port that is on the engine plate rather than the detached section otherwise it tries to auto-switch control and causes the issue.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Gawdin