The Enemy's Gate is DOWN: Docking Orientation help

[Westo454]

A common complaint I hear is that the game presently possesses no vanilla method of ensuring that you are actually lined up with the docking port you are targeting, not just pointing at it and heading towards it. There is simply no way but to eyeball it, and while for many people this is just fine (just look at all the space stations people have built) It is extremely difficult and makes construction in space for anything out of line with the main body immensely difficult.

So, what I'm suggesting is that when within physics range of an object, roughly the correct distance to target a specific piece the pilot would get another option: Orient On.

Hence the Ender's Game quote: in null G, which orbit is pretty much, "Down" is whichever way you want it to be. In this case, by orienting down (or up) on the docking port, the pilot now simply needs to align his target indicator, pro-grade vector, and down or up indicator and know that he is perfectly aligned.

As for constructing ships in space, the ability to align the vectors also allows the pilot to us the ui's orientation indicator to precisely line up with the docking port at a relatively precise angle.

If there are any questions or concerns, I'd love to hear them in order to make this idea work better for as many people as possible.

[leax256]

you just described the par and -par functions of mechjeb.

conserns, anti mechjeb people.

[allmappedout]

It's the only piece of the Smart ASS module which is missing from the vanilla UI - and could potentially be added as a marker to the Nav ball (only within target range, maybe?). Otherwise the only option is to choose a specific bearing (ie: North/South on navball) and orient all pieces in that manner.

[pizzaoverhead]

What the game really needs is the extra display information for orientation and displacement from a docking target, like Orbiter has. The Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod does a good job of this.

It would benefit docking as much as maneuver nodes benefited interplanetary transfers.

[gloowa]

What the game really needs is the extra display information for orientation and displacement from a docking target, like Orbiter has. The Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod does a good job of this.

It would benefit docking as much as maneuver nodes benefited interplanetary transfers.

Finally. Looks like someone ported perfection into KSP.

[allmappedout]

Yup, that'll do it!

That's exactly what the docking mode controls should look like.

[Westo454]

It's the only piece of the Smart ASS module which is missing from the vanilla UI - and could potentially be added as a marker to the Nav ball (only within target range, maybe?). Otherwise the only option is to choose a specific bearing (ie: North/South on navball) and orient all pieces in that manner.

I figured that "Down" or "Up" would make the most sense, since we humans like to orient ourselves on gravity and therefore "down" However, yes, without adding more instrumentation to the UI, it's either a nav ball marker or orientation change. However, KSP is meant to be a "Simulator" and in the real world, astronauts have both the marker on their instrumentation, as well as visual references. I feel it would be the more "realistic" yet still visual, change.

As far as a development standpoint, I feel that the difficulty in changing orientation might be larger than that of adding a marker on the navball.

[itsme86]

The enemy's gate is DOWN

Nice Ender's Game reference

[nhnifong]

Personally, I think it would be cool if you could see alignment guides in fluorescent green on the glass of the kerbals helmet in a first person view. It could have that fighter pilot helmet look that they get when trying to land on a carrier.