Undock Bug Workaround

[Apollo13]

The Undock Bug continues to plague the game. Until a Squad dev takes about 30 minutes to fix this, you can use this to workaround the problem when delivering parts and equipment to orbiting stations.

Insert a low-explosion decoupler between the docking ports of the piece you are delivering and your vehicle which delivered it. Then, after delivering and docking the piece, manually decouple from station side first, then from the vehicle side. This blue-striped decoupler has a 15 explosive force. Since this is a workaround, I have no guilt about going to the Tracking Station and terminating the decoupler debris.

If you don't need a docking port on the delivery vehicle, then simply insert the decoupler between the vehicle and the port of the part and bring the decoupler back.

[sal_vager]

Won't the docking bug reoccur when a craft docks to that port?

[Whackjob]

There's a docking bug?

[Designer225]

The Undock Bug continues to plague the game. Until a Squad dev takes about 30 minutes to fix this, you can use this to workaround the problem when delivering parts and equipment to orbiting stations.

Insert a low-explosion decoupler between the docking ports of the piece you are delivering and your vehicle which delivered it. Then, after delivering and docking the piece, manually decouple from station side first, then from the vehicle side. This blue-striped decoupler has a 15 explosive force. Since this is a workaround, I have no guilt about going to the Tracking Station and terminating the decoupler debris.

If you don't need a docking port on the delivery vehicle, then simply insert the decoupler between the vehicle and the port of the part and bring the decoupler back.

That is indeed a workaround, but it works at most 100% of the time (<=100%). There is another way to do this, although it would be the most confusion way to do it.

[Whackjob]

What is the symptoms of the manifestation of this bug? Maybe it's happened to me and I had no idea.

[Boris_T_Roach]

I've never seen this bug and a fair amount of my stuff goes uphill mounted on a pair of 1m docking ports, with some launch locks (bits of structs and girders mounted on radial decouplers)

eg like this

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/1100291190069980681/FF421B8B19B6AED6F578C9C586CD09F621A1CF8C/

2 fuel tanks to be attached to any interplanetary craft I'm building in orbit.

And this is mostly on 1 m docking ports too and flown up the same way over 15? 16? flights

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/1118303593847894698/EB4B8FD16710A7EDB242A2981324AA5E594C5989/

How about the specific way you get the bug?

Boris

[DMagic]

Actually, I recommend not doing this. In my experience this tends to cause the other docking port bug, the "state=acquire" bug. This one prevents the docking port from activating, causing the broken port to just bounce off of the other port. It's easier to fix than the can't undock bug (just change "state=acquire" to "state=ready" in the persistence file), but I still wouldn't tempt these kinds of things.

My advice for preventing the can't undock bug is to always have, and keep, at least one control point (probe core or command pod) on every, individually docked component of your station, vessel, or base. Most of my encounters with the can't undock bug have involved a tug moving a component that has no control point on it.

As for Squad fixing this, I still haven't seen anyone report being able to reliably replicate this and I don't think it's on the bug tracker. I've tried many times to force this bug on a stock install, but I've never been able to do it.

Edit: For the can't undock fix check out this thread. It's not at all straightforward, but it works.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/35777-Can-t-Undock-Bug-How-To-Fix

Edited September 8, 2013 by DMagic

[Wjolcz]

When the bug happened to me I just undocked something that was docked to the bugged section of my IPV, docked somewhere else and I was ready to go. I think... All I remember was undocking stuff and docking them back again.

And it worked. The bugged port fixed itself after all that shenanigas.

[Mokmo]

Usually undocking other ports in the "docking chain logic" will fix this, thing is you have to find which one it is...

[KerbMav]

But what if there is no other docked docking port on the craft?

[sojourner]

But what if there is no other docked docking port on the craft?

Go to the linked thread in post 7 above.