Clampotron Sr. Docking Port PSA

[Tiron]

(checking later is hard with every part - so thats not fair. how do you check your engine is on the right way up if you've already got a decoupler below? you detach the bits beneith, and check. why expect anything different with your docking ports.)

I still maintain that its easy to tell as you place it, and checking at the end of construction when you've surrounded it in bits you cant take off for various reasons is a really bad design process

Actually, checking an ENGINE is trivial. For starters, the fairings have writing on them(as do probe cores). For seconds, well, the fairing would appear the second you mounted it if you somehow did it upside down.

The older two types of docking port are both very difficult to put on backwards (due to obvious indications of which end is which), and easy to tell if they are or not (due to extremely obvious shaping differences).

The only other part where it both matters and is hard to tell is...well there aren't any others, because the decouplers all got arrows on the sides.

[Deadweasel]

Actually, checking an ENGINE is trivial. For starters, the fairings have writing on them(as do probe cores). For seconds, well, the fairing would appear the second you mounted it if you somehow did it upside down.

The older two types of docking port are both very difficult to put on backwards (due to obvious indications of which end is which), and easy to tell if they are or not (due to extremely obvious shaping differences).

The only other part where it both matters and is hard to tell is...well there aren't any others, because the decouplers all got arrows on the sides.

Honestly, I only got burned by this once. Afterward, I took a moment to learn the part's behaviors. If I wanted the port side facing outward, I place it, then zoom in real quick to ensure the ring is facing outward. If I want the port facing inward, I know that it will (for some reason) usually jump to mounting on the body, but if I pull it back a tad, it will "click" back to another node (representing the ring).

I've never had issues with badly-placed ports after taking the time to learn how it behaves.

Same thing with the other docking ports. If they aren't in an orientation that's ready to slap on, they will likely not jump in place when I bring them near, so I rotate them accordingly first. If a docking port starts flipping around and rotating madly around a point instead of clicking in place, I change my view so that I'm looking at the mount point almost edge-on, with no ship geometry behind it, and then it will click in when I bring it near.

All that said, I agree that it should be a relatively minor thing to add some kind of visual cue on the Sr port's markings to show "this side up". The textures on the main faces are useful for this, but are just similar enough to cause a bit of confusion. In this aspect, even the other ports have a bit of an issue (at least for me). One thing that drives me batty is having a docking port on the nose of a ship. If I select "Control From Here", the navball flips 180 on a roll. I placed it right-side-out alright, but it's upside down! D'oh! The only cue I have for placing it correctly in that aspect is the little handle that's part of the texture inside the port's docking face. Unfortunately I can never seem to remember whether that handle needs to go up or down, unless I launch and test it first.

So I decided I'd try to modify the textures a bit to make them a bit more helpful, without being blatant enough to break the visual style they already have. Sadly, the format these textures are in makes it rather difficult to do, even with the existence of a wiki post that describes how to convert .mbm textures. Despite multiple attempts, I can't seem to get anything out that looks accurate enough to attempt editing.

[Deadweasel]

UPDATE:

Sheesh... Well, I can (with a ton of trial and error) get the .mbm textures into Photoshop and even get them to show up properly on the model, but holy hell does the quality ever just fall away. It looks like a cheap copy made by an extremely amateur modeler, which -oh hey!- I am.

I'm only guessing at the image parameters necessary to get them to import into Photoshop, but for all I know I could be doing it wrong.

[magmoro]

if your docking, do the docking ports have to be the same, ive tried docking many times, and it never works. i get it perfectly aligned but no magnets engage, no matter comnination of docking ports, or anything. the ship just bounces off. im getting pissed. ive even used different versions of the game and it still wont work!

[annallia]

if your docking, do the docking ports have to be the same, ive tried docking many times, and it never works. i get it perfectly aligned but no magnets engage, no matter comnination of docking ports, or anything. the ship just bounces off. im getting pissed. ive even used different versions of the game and it still wont work!

Same size yes. In other words you cant use the clamp-o-tron and the clamp-o-tron sr.

[tommaster]

Obviously late to the party but it's very true. I made the same mistake and it took me a long while to figure it out. I blamed my poor docking skills although i had no problems before. Then I let MechJeb try to dock... and it dawned to me what happened because it aligned itself quite interestingly before bumping into the station.

[Bryce Ring]

why are the Alignment reticles on the wrong side. Why is the access handle on the out side. shouldn't it be the other way around? (if the two handles on each port meet then they are not accessible from outside or inside once connected to each other, the handles are stuck in the middle of the port connections)

I lined up a docking port with it the other way around using Laz's camera. and it works great, was able to follow it all the way in to the small + sign in the middle, however, it will not dock that way, I think it may be the wrong way around. Any reason it is the way it is now ?

Sorry in advance if already discussed. Could not find any post (didn't look longer than 10min) relating to this question.

Is there a way to reverse the textures ?

Edited December 5, 2014 by Bryce Ring

[TruePikachu]

Pic with the checkmark is correct orientation. Look at the radial attachment node part for a reason for the "+" being there.

[Steambirds]

I have never had a problem with the placement of the Clamp-O-Tron Sr. Docking Port. I think you guys just need to look a bit harder. Although, it could be made more distinctive to be easily determined of its orientation, however.

[Kerbart]

In a game that simulates rocket science: “I demand that xyz is changed so it becomes trivial. I don't like it that I have to check things right now.â€Â

[Claw]

Sorry in advance if already discussed. Could not find any post (didn't look longer than 10min) relating to this question.

Is there a way to reverse the textures ?

Yeah, the Sr docking port is notorious for being put on backward, so I get what you are saying. The hatch thing is a good point, hadn't thought of that before.

Unfortunately there isn't an easy way to flip the textures around. Personally I usually point out the ring on the docking side (that runs around the outer edge) as the thing to look at in order to make sure it's facing the right way.

Cheers,

~Claw

[ArmchairGravy]

Ah, memories of cussing like a wounded pirate when I did this. The good news is you only do this once, then you will forever after check it like you have OCD.

[problemecium]

...

To be honest, I have never had this problem once. To me, even though it looks like a disc from the side, one side looks like a docking port and the other just looks... wrong.

[Slam_Jones]

Did it used to have a different texture? Because I had 0 problem figuring out which side is which...

[Tripzter]

The most annoying thing to the docking ports is reporting a bug and having people question which way the docking ring is facing even after you confirmed that everything is mounted correctly.

[RocketBlam]

The way I remember is, when you first select it, it is pointing up. Or if you hit space bar, it will be pointing up (in the VAB).

[zekes]

Haha. This has happened to me a few times. I've even forgotten the docking port all together. Once I spent like 1 hour trying to get a stupid nuclear stage into orbit, just to discover that there was nothing to dock with my crew module.

I had something like this happen around Laythe - my transfer stage didn't have a docking port on the front, and no probe core, so i had to dock my RCS module to it, then ram it into my base to deorbit it

[NecroBones]

I was mildly confused by it the first time I tried to use it in the VAB, but after looking closely, it seemed pretty clear, and I didn't have any problems after that. But yeah, if you just remember that in the VAB, the docking ports all come off the menu pointing "up", then you'll be fine.

[royying]

squad please retexture it...